Maurice Mitchell talks about abortion rights and battle ground states for Paint The Polls Black.
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00:00Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. My name is Alphonso
00:13David. I am the president and the CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. I'm also a civil
00:19rights lawyer.
00:20And hello, everyone. I am Ebony McMorris, White House correspondent for American Urban
00:25Radio Networks. And we are so pleased to be here tonight. And I'm happy to be helping
00:31co-host this town hall, Paint the Polls Black.
00:35Yes, indeed. So several weeks ago, we launched this initiative, Paint the Polls, which is
00:41a voter awareness, voter registration and voter mobilization initiative, and is being
00:47supported by the Sundial Group of Companies, which includes Essence, the Global Black Economic
00:53Forum, Girls United, Afropunk, Refinery29, Beautycon, and the New Voices Foundation.
01:01And the goal here is to educate, mobilize and register people to take action this November
01:07and into the future.
01:09We hosted our first town hall in the beginning of August, and now we are in October. In August,
01:14we were joined by Congresswomen Jasmine Crockett and Chantel Brown, Bakari Sellers, Van Lathan,
01:21and Lene Vanay. And kicking us off last time, we had the one and only Dee Nice. Tonight,
01:27we are hosting our fourth town hall, where we will be focusing on the battleground states.
01:33So what does battleground states mean anyway, right? You know, well, tonight, we're going
01:38to break it down for you, outline why these states are so important, and explain why you
01:44should even care if you don't live in one. But a few housekeeping rules, okay? This is
01:50a nonpartisan call focused on voter registration and mobilization. Further, this ain't no fundraising
01:57call, y'all. There are other events focused on fundraising, so put your wallet down right
02:03now. Now, we will be answering your questions, so please, please put your questions in the
02:08chat, and we'll try to answer as many as we can before the end of the town hall.
02:15And as we've done for every town hall, we really, really would like for you to see the
02:19link for voter registration and take action. If you have not registered to vote, please
02:25do. Go to paint the polls black, please register to vote. Sit back and relax and enjoy this
02:31town hall. And as Ebony mentioned, we're going to start with a primer on what is a battleground
02:39state. Some of you may know, others may not. Now, the battleground state, the phrase battleground
02:45state is sort of synonymous with what some people call the swing state. Each major political
02:51party in the country, there are many states, and it counts on winning those states in the
02:56November presidential election. But only a handful of states are really considered too
03:02close to call. Now, these battleground states or swing states, as they've been called, have
03:08populations that are really closely divided politically. Some have swung back and forth
03:14between Democratic and Republican candidates in recent years. There are battleground states
03:20where candidates will target with campaign visits or advertising or even staffing. Experts
03:27who are pollsters and reporters around the country don't always agree on which states
03:33are really battleground states. But as we get closer and closer to election day, they
03:38get really refined. And so this year, we have battlegrounds. We have about seven battleground
03:45states. We have Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
03:55Again, those states are Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada,
04:03and Wisconsin. And you should see a slide on the screen right now that highlights some
04:09of these states, just to give you a better sense and a visual of what these battleground
04:14states look like. Some of you have been to some of these states. Some of you live in
04:20some of these states or are from some of these states. These are the states when people talk
04:25about what is a battleground state. That's what they're talking about. And this is where
04:31the electorate, based on polling, are fairly divided. So these states will really govern
04:38the election this year. Maybe we can go to the next slide. And we wanted to give you
04:44some slides today just to give you a sense of how this is transpired over the past few
04:49years. When we look at the states based on the past election in 2020, you can see which
04:59states were blue for Democrats, which states were red for Republicans. And based on this,
05:08you can see where Joe Biden won the election. And where he lost was in North Carolina to
05:14Donald Trump by 1.3 percentage points. He won in Pennsylvania. He won in Wisconsin,
05:22in Michigan, in Georgia, and Arizona. But he lost in North Carolina. If we go to what
05:29it looks like for this coming year, that's the next slide, 2024, you can see we're looking
05:36at a very different picture based on the polling that we know so far. This is based on a recent
05:42New York Times Siena poll where the numbers show that Vice President Harris is certainly
05:49leading in certain states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Michigan, but she is behind
05:57in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. So of these, Pennsylvania, the survey
06:05shows that Vice President Harris is reflecting or polling the best in Pennsylvania. And nowhere
06:13else is she running as far ahead than in Pennsylvania. But of course, you see from this poll or from
06:22this chart that she is behind in four of the seven states. So I'll turn this over now to Ebony.
06:29Look, Alphonso, let me just say this. It's tight. It's tight this year, no matter where you look
06:35on the map. That's why nights like this, when we talk about paying the polls, black is so
06:40important. So now that you know, my brother just explained to you what the battleground states are,
06:46I am sure you have heard about the Electoral College. Now, what is the relationship between
06:52the battleground states and Electoral College? Voters in the United States do not vote directly
06:59for president in November, but rather choose members of the Electoral College who then meet
07:05in December. They cast their votes based on how the majority of voters in their state voted the
07:11previous month. The numbers of electors each state gets based on the population. So I'll repeat
07:18that. The number of electors each state gets is based on the population. So for example, Florida,
07:24with its large population, will determine 29 electoral votes. That ties with New York for
07:31the most after California and Texas. The presidential candidate who wins states like
07:37Florida has a better chance of winning the election, which requires 270 electoral votes.
07:44This is basically like which candidate has like the path of least resistance.
07:50Yes. And so now that we have the foundation of what is a battleground state and what is the
07:57Electoral College and the relationship between the two, let's really talk about the issues.
08:03So a few weeks ago, we identified all the issues that the Black voters really care about, right,
08:09based on some of the polling from housing affordability to the economy, from health care,
08:15including reproductive justice to public safety. In the battleground states, pundits have identified
08:22key social and political issues that voters have prioritized, like reproductive justice,
08:29access to guns, LGBTQ rights, immigration, and climate change. This is not an exhaustive list,
08:38but it does provide us with a general sense of which issues will drive the decisions in those
08:44states. So let's give you a few examples. There was a, according to PRRI, which is publicly,
08:53they work on elections and polling, nearly four in 10 voters in battleground states say
09:03they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion by 37 percent. So Democrats
09:10in battleground states at 46 percent are more likely than Republicans at 34 percent and
09:16independents at 31 percent to say that abortion is a litmus test for them. So say it in another
09:24way. If you're a Democrat living in a battleground state, you are at 46 percent more likely to say
09:31that I'm not going to vote for this candidate unless they agree on my views on abortion.
09:37Now, over one third of Americans in battleground states, 36 percent, will only vote for a candidate
09:43who shares their views on access to guns. That's a big issue. While there are no differences by
09:49gender or race or generation, Republicans, 44 percent, are more likely than Democrats, 38 percent,
09:57and independents at 30 percent to see access to guns as a litmus test issue. And Alphonso,
10:04we see that and hear that all the time. Exactly. And again, we're talking about some of these key
10:12issues because that's what comes to the fore in the battleground states. Around three in ten
10:18battleground state Americans will only vote for a candidate, for example, who shares their views on
10:23immigration at 29 percent or LGBTQ rights at 29 percent. So if you break this down even further,
10:30Republicans in battleground states at 43 percent, so almost half, or yeah, almost half, are twice
10:37as likely as Democrats at 21 percent to vote for a candidate based on their stance on immigration.
10:45So that is incredibly important for folks who classify themselves as Republicans.
10:52You know, a lot of Americans, you know, as we look at these numbers, Alphonso, are really kind
10:56of one issue voters, right? It's just that one issue that brings them to the polls. Not everyone
11:02is like that, though. Now, one quarter of Americans in battleground states would only vote for a
11:08candidate who shares their views on climate change, twice 26 percent. Republicans, 18 percent, are less
11:16likely to do so than independents, coming in at 25 percent. Democrats, 35 percent. While there are no
11:23differences there by generation, around four in ten white Democrats, that represents 42 percent,
11:30say climate change is a litmus test issue for them, compared with less than three in ten
11:38non-white Democrats coming in at 27 percent. So what's important to you?
11:44So what we're going to do now is break down these issues. Reproductive justice, access to guns,
11:50immigration, climate change. And we're going to do that with someone who's been doing this work
11:57and continues to do this work. And I'll turn it over to Ebony to introduce him.
12:02Yes, to help us through this discussion, we are pleased to have Maurice Mitchell, who is the head
12:08of the Working Family Party. Hey, Maurice.
12:11Hi, it's so good to be with you all, Alphonso and Ebony.
12:14Absolutely. Thanks for coming on. I hope all is well with you. Tell us a little bit about
12:20yourself and about your work.
12:22Sure. So I've been organizing since I was a young person. I grew up in the suburbs of New York
12:29on Long Island. Both my parents are Caribbean immigrants. I was a student organizer at Howard
12:35University. We worked on a ton of issues, including criminal justice. One of our classmates was-
12:40Did you?
12:41What's that? You know.
12:43You know, we have to, we have to. One of our classmates was unfortunately killed by the
12:50police, and we organized mobilizations for justice then. I went on to do a lot of work
12:56on the local level in communities like Wine Dance in Long Island, where 100% of the students were
13:00Black, and they were graduating at under 40%, and we helped to organize students and parents
13:05in the early 2000s. And I went on to, in 2014, organize on the ground in Ferguson,
13:10in Missouri, when Michael Brown Jr. was killed. And for the past six years, I've been leading the
13:14Working Families Party so that we could create a home for so many people, especially the people,
13:20that are feeling different pressures and are unsure, and are skeptical about the two-party
13:26system, are skeptical about some of the information that they get, and are trying to figure out
13:30how to make meaning of some of these issues.
13:34So you talked a little bit about what you do, but give us a little bit more context,
13:38because you told me before we got on tonight what your travel schedule looks like.
13:44Give us a sense of where you have been and where you're going.
13:48So I woke up in L.A., I touched down in Philadelphia, where I was with a council
13:58member and minority leader of the Philadelphia City Council, Kendra Brooks and Nicholas O'Rourke,
14:04and close to 400 students who were really hungry around how to get involved and how to be civically
14:11engaged and how to vote. And then I ended my day in New York, where I'm speaking to you right now.
14:16So I had an opportunity to get a little sample of where our people are at from different states,
14:22including a swing state.
14:24So, and we try to outline some of these issues. We've thrown to the audience a lot of numbers
14:30here about where Republicans are, where Independents are, where Democrats are,
14:36and what they care most about, and what they will vote for based on where the candidates are.
14:43Let's just talk about, from your perspective, how voters in these battleground states may or
14:49may not be different than voters in the rest of the country as they're ranking these issues.
14:53Sure, sure. So we're hearing, we definitely hear that the issues that you shared,
14:59they're coming up. So abortion, and you know, sometimes people frame abortion as a women's
15:04rights issue, and it certainly is, but it's so much more, right? I try to remind people of
15:10middle school, basic sex ed class, right? It takes a sperm and an egg, right? So this is an
15:18issue that affects everybody across gender. It's also an economic issue, right? It's a fundamental
15:23issue of economic rights, because we all know, to expand your family, you know, raising a family is
15:29very expensive, expanding your family is very expensive. And being in control of those decisions
15:35is very important for a lot of people. And this is especially important for young people,
15:39especially young women, but so many people are concerned around abortion, definitely hearing that.
15:44The other thing is, and it's so topical, that we're talking about climate change. And it's
15:50interesting that we're seeing some of the differences across race. You know, I could
15:56speak personally about this. So my family had to deal with Superstorm Sandy. And I saw how,
16:03when climate calamities hit, they often hit working class and poor people harder, they often
16:09hit people of color and Black people harder, because we tend to be redlined into communities
16:15that are more vulnerable, right? So these are issues that are affecting us. And as we can see
16:20right now, there's folks in Florida, in North Carolina, in Georgia that are facing climate
16:25calamity. And right now on the ballot are issues of climate. There are manifestos and agendas like
16:32Project 2025 that talk about basically repealing the National Oceanic Agency, which basically gives
16:40us all of the data so that we could track these storms and that we could be able to have the
16:45climate science in order to mitigate it. So again, it's really important that we, I think, as Black
16:52folks, begin to reframe some of these conversations. The climate catastrophe is happening to us every
17:00day. It's not something that's happening in the future, it's happening right now. And when I hear
17:04people on the ground, like in Philly, I could tell you in Philly last year, there was flooding and
17:09young people, young Black people, working class people in Philly were talking about climate change.
17:14So these things are coming up, certainly. People are talking about the issues, and they're also
17:19talking about the different agendas. Like, you know, I mentioned Project 2025 that has been
17:24proffered by the nonprofit organization, the Heritage Foundation. And, you know, elections are
17:30about agendas. So we're happy that people are talking about these issues. And, you know, we
17:36think it's important that we get to the true information so people can make a decision around
17:42voting that is based on the facts, because we know there's a lot of misinformation and
17:46disinformation. I'm so glad, Maurice, you talk about, you know, brought up Storm Sandy, the
17:51shoe experience. When this storm came through, I thought about Hurricane Katrina. And so many
17:56times our communities are really, are densely populated in a lot, especially these southern
18:02areas. But there's always this disenfranchisement when it comes to that. So I want to, before I even
18:07go back to that, I want to talk about, you initially started talking about reproductive
18:10rights, right? Where do you believe that the pundits are getting it wrong when we talk about
18:16this issue of reproductive rights, based on a lot of your engagement? Where are they getting it wrong
18:21either on that and on climate change? How does the conversation need to begin to shift? Is it
18:26our language? What is it? Yeah, I mean, I mentioned before that I think sometimes they don't understand,
18:32pundits don't understand how deep this issue is felt. It's an issue of fundamental rights.
18:38So people have different opinions, different sort of opinions around religious doctrine.
18:46Reproductive rights, I think, gets at the core of something deep for everybody, which is
18:51the right to control your body, the right to make decisions on your own, and the need to do that
18:56without the government or government bureaucrats or politicians being able to, in some ways,
19:02creepily enter into those conversations that many people believe should be between them or
19:07between them and a doctor, right? And so I remember last election cycle in Milwaukee,
19:16speaking to a young Black woman, I asked her, why are you coming out to vote? She was doing early
19:21vote. She immediately said, abortion. I believe I should have that right. I believe it's important
19:27for me to have the rights to control my own body. And I think the pundits don't understand maybe how
19:32visceral it's been. And if you look at the past elections, ever since Roe v. Wade was overturned,
19:38election after election after election, whenever voters get an opportunity to vote on this issue,
19:44and it could be in states that most people think of as being, quote unquote, red states,
19:48or it could be purple states or blue states, they overwhelmingly vote so that they could
19:54control their bodies. We just saw that. Yeah, absolutely. Just saw that. Just saw that. So
20:01abortion, I think, is going to be a driving issue in this election. And I think it's going to
20:08continue to come up again and again and again. We saw it yesterday in the vice presidential debate.
20:13We're going to see it over and over again. And I think the pundits maybe failed to understand
20:19how visceral it is for so many people, and people of all types of faiths, people of all types of
20:24beliefs. It's a fundamental question of, do you feel that government bureaucrats, that politicians,
20:30that the state should have control over these very intimate decisions, or do you feel it's better left
20:35for you? Before you continue on that, and Eboni, I just want to tease this out just a little bit
20:41more, because I'm fascinated by this conversation on abortion versus reproductive justice,
20:48versus reproductive rights, versus IVF, versus contraception. And you're traveling all over
20:57the country, you're talking to voters on the ground, and you're talking to people specifically
21:02in the battleground states. And I'm curious, when you have this conversation about reproductive
21:08rights, to Eboni's point, what are the pundits getting wrong in terms of the framing? And then
21:14what are you hearing from people on the ground? Is it being framed through the lens of abortion,
21:19or is it being framed through the lens of reproductive justice, or reproductive rights,
21:22or something else? You know, people have different entries into the conversation,
21:28and we do a lot of listening on the doors. So sometimes people, like that young woman,
21:33it was specifically around abortion, and the fact that she felt that she should be able to
21:38have that right. I think there's other people, based on where they are on their journey, and
21:42based on what lens they're looking at. So sometimes I have conversations with people that are very
21:49disturbed by the idea that from contraception, to questions around abortion, to IVF, that the
22:00government should have anything to say about that. That that should essentially be a conversation
22:05that's had personally in your family, or perhaps with a doctor. And your ability to be able to
22:11expand your family or not, your ability to be able to have children or not, should essentially,
22:18as an American, be something that is only a conversation that you have with the people you
22:23want, excuse me, that you want to have it with. And the idea that we would set up a legal regime
22:28that would place the federal government inside of these conversations, I think is very alarming
22:32to people. And we've seen with our own polls, it's very alarming to people across ideology and across
22:40party, right? And I think it speaks to a fundamental question that is at the core of what
22:46many people believe is the core of being an American, freedom. And people tend to want their
22:51freedoms, and tend to feel very skeptical, or really want to push back on the idea that
22:57that government should assume certain freedoms, and assume the responsibilities that they
23:04almost innately believe are theirs. And so I feel like this conversation around reproductive
23:11justice gets at the core of ideas that are so sacred, and so intimate to so many people,
23:18it really is disturbing that government might be in some way encroaching on some of these very,
23:26very sacred and intimate conversations and ideas. And this is again, across religion, across race,
23:34and across ideology. And I think it's going to continue to be a driving conversation and issue
23:40as we approach Election Day. I think that's interesting. And I want to ask you about
23:45access to guns. But even on the point that you said, I think that if we begin to switch up the
23:51language, this is forcing America to also talk about its history in ownership of Black bodies.
23:58And when we talk about that, it forces America to also have to deal with America's history of that.
24:06And how throughout time, America, whether it's through scripture, religion, has used many tools
24:13to try to control that. And we're even seeing that creep up into the conversation when people
24:19use the term abortion, or whether we're talking about reproductive freedom. But I do want to ask
24:26you about, what are you hearing when it comes to access to guns? Another big topic, a hot topic
24:34that's been throughout the election season, most of the election seasons in the past. In fact,
24:39it was quite covered pretty heavily last night. Not last night, but during the vice presidential
24:46debate. What are your thoughts from that, when we're talking about what people are saying
24:52in battleground states? Sure, I could speak to that. So we're in,
24:58we have a significant presence in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, in Arizona, in Georgia. And I just
25:07left Pennsylvania. We were with, like I said, hundreds of students who are either juniors or
25:13seniors. And they raised a range of issues. One of them was violence, right? And I think sometimes,
25:22oftentimes the reporting focuses on school shootings, which are real and problematic. But
25:28I think for many of our young people, their concern is the sort of inter-community violence
25:35that takes place day to day, especially in Black communities that are often not as reported as the
25:42school shootings, which are of course serious. And again, and again, and again, when I talk to
25:47young people, when I talk to other folks in our community, they want to see an approach that
25:53actually deals with public safety, that includes some common sense ways to deal with the proliferation
26:00of guns in our communities, and also investments in things that make us safe, like youth jobs,
26:07for example, or mental health programs in our cities, right? I remember I was campaigning,
26:14and I have a friend who's the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson. And one of the things that he
26:20campaigned on when talking about public safety was public health and mental health, right,
26:26as well as gun violence. Because I think for many folks in our community, we see it as a
26:32holistic thing, right? And we don't just think about public safety from the standpoint of
26:38policing. We think about it as really a broad thing that includes investments in our communities. I
26:43think most people understand that when you invest in your community, you have a safe community.
26:48And when your community is invested in, when youth aren't invested in, when schools aren't
26:53invested in, if you don't have programs like Head Start to make sure that young people from the very
26:58beginning are getting a head start into education, when you don't have those programs and you don't
27:04have a vital economy, then you're creating the conditions for inter-community violence and crime.
27:11And so most of the folks that we talk to tend to understand that and believe that protections and
27:18common safe gun regulations is a piece of that puzzle. I want to just add to that a little bit.
27:24I've done a lot of work in D.C., not a battleground state, but very important. And I remember going to
27:30many youth meetings because when we have this conversation about access to guns and keeping
27:34our communities safe, we tend to not talk about the issue of housing. And sometimes when we're
27:40redistricting and when we're rezoning different areas, you're taking groups sometimes where there
27:44is some type of issues within those different groups. And so you're forcing young people to
27:49go into areas that they wouldn't normally go into. And it's hard.
27:53That's right. That's absolutely right. You know, I was recently just talking to,
27:59I mentioned Kendra Brooks, who's an At-Large City Council member.
28:02They've done an actually like a really great groundbreaking job in Philadelphia, this
28:07eviction diversion program where landlords now need to negotiate with tenants before tenants
28:13are basically summarily evicted. And that's kept a lot of people in their homes. That's one of the
28:19policies, right, that when you're able to govern, when you elect elected officials that are
28:24responsive, you can begin to push back on some of these things that we're seeing. In most of the
28:29communities we're in, gentrification came up. When one of the young people raised their hand,
28:34they said gentrification. Basically the displacement of some of our folks who have
28:38historically lived in communities due to all different types of changes. And gentrification
28:44is a byproduct of a number of things. You named it like zoning and development. And who's responsible
28:54for that? Oftentimes municipal elected officials who may be more responsive to certain lobbies,
28:59maybe developers or the real estate lobby and less responsive to the working class communities
29:04that have historically lived in a particular community, right? And so it's really critical
29:09that we're being curious about who are the elected officials that might be most responsive
29:16to our needs and be willing to form the gap between some of these interests that are
29:22leading to some communities being pushed out or gentrified and the communities that have lived
29:29in particular neighborhoods for generations. So I want to shift the conversation to immigration.
29:40Fair amount of attention on that yesterday as well. We're seeing at least one of the
29:44vice presidential candidates focused quite heavily on using immigration as a response
29:50to almost all of the questions. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing on the
29:56ground? Again, when we talk about the battleground states for folks who are joining us just now,
30:02we're talking about Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada,
30:09and Wisconsin. And when we think about the issue as people of color and black people specifically,
30:16and we talk about immigration, it's often framed through a specific lens.
30:22Maurice, I would like for you to talk a little bit about how you're seeing it framed,
30:26not necessarily on television, but on the ground when you're in these swing states.
30:31What are you seeing and how is this conversation being discussed
30:35relative to how people will potentially vote in the swing states?
30:39Absolutely. Immigration is a real concern to people. And one of the things that we've done,
30:44we've done original research because we're curious about how working class people who
30:49tend to be our voter base, how they're thinking across race. And I do think there's some myths
30:55about where working class people are around immigration. I think people are concerned,
30:59but there's this idea that working class people are more anti-immigrant than maybe other folks.
31:04And actually working class people tend to believe that there should be a path to naturalization and
31:14a path to a regular status for immigration. People do want to see that path. And what I'm
31:21hearing on the ground is really complicated. I think people are concerned, people are anxious,
31:27and they want solutions. And I think some of the fear tactics have not provided the solutions that
31:34people want. People want thoughtful solutions for a system that most people agree across the board
31:42is not working for anybody. It's not working for migrants. It's not working for U.S. born folks.
31:47It's not working. And I think a lot of the fear tactics, many of the people I talk to,
31:54I'm talking to people who see it for what it is. I grew up in New York where
32:01it's a very diverse community. There are Black folks from all across the world that settle in
32:06New York, including Haitian Americans. And so for a lot of folks I talked to in New York who grew up
32:13around a diverse group of folks that are both immigrant and U.S. born, a lot of that stuff is
32:19falling on dead ears. I think a lot of the people, a lot of people across the country are able to
32:26clearly hear when politicians are sort of baiting using racism. And what people are looking for is
32:33results. And people are looking for an actual plan. And I think people are still very hungry
32:39for plans and a direction and some actual policies in order to resolve, excuse me,
32:45in order to resolve an issue that I think most people agree must be resolved. And unfortunately,
32:51due to politics, has yet to be fully resolved. I want to give you the last word, Maurice,
32:58to talk a little bit about what we, I'm currently in New York. Ebony is currently in Washington,
33:06D.C. Those two locations are not considered battleground states. We have other issues
33:12with respect to Washington, D.C. and lack of representation that we'll put aside just for a
33:17minute. But can you talk to the folks who are not in the battleground states and talk a little bit
33:24about what you think would be most useful for them to do or what they should engage in over the next
33:31less than 30 days before we get to election day or close to 30 days? Absolutely. So one of the
33:38things I mentioned is that there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation, especially
33:42online. A lot of that is targeted specifically at our community. And I think it's designed less to
33:48persuade people to vote in one direction or another and more to simply confuse people,
33:52frustrate people and suppress our vote. And the best way to challenge misinformation and
33:58disinformation is not simply better information, it's relationships. And that's where everybody
34:04who's listening, that's where you have the gold. You have trusted relationships with your friends,
34:11with your family, with your co-workers. You likely know people in swing states.
34:16Organizations like mine have tools and I'll share with you a tool in order to get the word out. So
34:22we developed a tool that works really well. You know, regular political mail, which is like glossy
34:30mail, people get it and they throw it in the garbage. We've developed this postcard, which
34:34is a selfie postcard. People take it and they put it on their refrigerator, right? It's a beautiful
34:39picture of your smiling face that you send to the people that you know the most and you implore
34:44them to get out to vote and you implore them based on your relationship to them about why it's so
34:49important. And so I just want to invite people in your audience to take your phone out right now
34:55and you could text, so my nickname is Mo, you could text Mo to 70303. So if you text Mo to 70303,
35:08that will send you to our postcard program. And then you'll be able to fill out that postcard,
35:14put your selfie up, and then in the mail, your friends and neighbors will get a postcard,
35:19especially your friends and neighbors in the swing states. And then once you're connected to us,
35:23we could give you other opportunities. You could text and you could phone bank people in swing
35:28states to get involved. And I would just add that, you know, there are swing house districts like,
35:33you know, in the state of New York in California that are really important because the House of
35:38Representatives are important too. But I know the topic here at hand is about swing states and
35:43there's so much that could be done. And for people who live near swing states, there's opportunities
35:48to volunteer. We just had, our folks just had 50 Howard University bison come out from a number of
35:55states and knock on doors in Philadelphia. So folks who are in states that are close to swing
36:02states, there's a number of organizations, including working families that are supporting
36:06people so that they can make little day trips in order to get the word out.
36:13Okay, you got it.
36:13Ebony, you're on mute, but I think Ebony has already signed up.
36:16All right, Ebony, you're locked in.
36:18I was doing it. I wasn't being rude. I did it. I love that because we always talk about making a
36:23plan for voting. You know, Alphonso, you always drill down on that. That's a beautiful thing.
36:29Yeah.
36:30Thanks, Maurice.
36:31Absolutely.
36:32Maurice Mitchell, thank you.
36:33Try to use the tools so that they can empower themselves.
36:36Maurice Mitchell, thank you for all of the work that you're doing across the country.
36:40Maurice Mitchell is the head of the Working Families Party. Thank you for joining us tonight.
36:45It was good to be with both of you.