democracynow--2020-11-03--Maria Hinojosa on the Latinx Vote, Bipartisan Immigration Abuses & New Memoir, "Once I Was You"

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : Maria Hinojosa , you have just come out with the book Once I Was You : A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America .
It is a heartrending book .
It is a beautiful story of not only your life — and , of course , it is a memoir — but , through you , the issue of , among other things , immigration , starting with your own family story .
You grew up on the South @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about almost having been separated from your mother when your family migrated from Mexico in the 1960s .
Can you talk about what happened and this whole issue of child separation and how it plays out in the election , not only for the Latinx population , because you say that it ’ s not only immigration the Latinx voting population cares about , but actually across this country ?
MARIA HINOJOSA : Yeah .
So , Amy , you know , I didn ’ t fully understand my own story , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You know , you think you know a story .
I knew something had happened at the airport .
What I didn ’ t know was the level to which it escalated .
So , essentially , my dad — may he rest in peace — Dr. Raul Hinojosa , was recruited by the University of Chicago .
He was a brilliant man .
He helped to create the cochlear implant .
That ’ s how we end up in Chicago .
He goes first , and a few months later my mom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by plane .
So we had privilege .
We came by plane , from Mexico City to Dallas , Dallas to Chicago , via airplane .
And we had our green cards .
I was a baby in my mother ’ s arms .
And what we thought was — what I had thought was some kind of a communication , you know , that happened , actually , in the moment when we all lived through the babies and children that we heard screaming , the toddlers in those cages , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s when my mother called me .
My mother , already in her eighties , calls me , crying , as we say in Mexican Spanish , a moco suelto .
Ella dijo — “ Mami , ¿qué pasa ?
” “ No , mijita , es que that was almost me.
” I ’ m like , “ Mom , what are you talking about ?
” ” No , mijita , es que that was almost you .
The babies that have been taken , they almost did that to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ What ?
” So , there was — there are these policies , Amy — that ’ s what I write about in Once I Was You — that , on the books in the state of Texas , allowed immigration agents to search our bodies to see if we were clean enough to come into the United States .
Sound familiar ?
Body cavity searches that were happening , potentially at the airport .
That ’ s why I was almost taken .
The immigration agent says , “ Your daughter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re going to put her into quarantine .
You can go ahead on to Chicago.
” And my mother has a mental breakdown right there and then , freaks out , calls on her privilege , starts screaming at the immigration agent .
And that ’ s why I ’ m in this country , because she lost it .
And in that phone call , my mother said , “ I wasn ’ t just a big mouth.
” She said , “ I went into a state of trauma .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ at him.
” So , imagine my surprise , Amy , that I have a relationship — now I understand why I do the work that I do and the way that I do it , which informs the work Once I Was You .
It is , yes , a memoir .
Thank you for saying it was magnificent , Amy Goodman , once who was my boss .
I love you .
Thank you for saying that .
You know , what I ’ m trying to say here is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is a policy , right ?
It is historical policy .
The narrative is we love immigrants .
The policies are , not so much .
So , how does that apply to this moment ?
As I said , Chuck is exactly right .
There is this entire generation , like , let ’ s say , in Arizona , where I was exactly 10 years ago .
Those were the young people who were activists , who are now running for office and who are inspiring other young Latinos and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m not surprised that the issue of immigration is not number one .
That ’ s my job .
That ’ s my job as a journalist , is to be pushing that policy all the time , because immigrants who are suffering from that actually can not vote , right ?
It ’ s the ones who vote who are thinking about these other issues .
So that ’ s my responsibility .
And on the issue of immigration , we do not have a so-called immigration issue in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Refugees are down to what ?
Ten thousand ?
Fifteen thousand ?
It is basically at a zero .
What this country has — and we shall see whether or not Joe Biden and Kamala Harris respond to this — is an international human rights crisis .
We have women whose uteruses have been taken , and their children have been taken from them .
And this is not a one-time thing .
It ’ s been happening since they took Indigenous children away , since they took the children of enslaved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children of Japanese Americans during the internment .
We have been — this is part of our history .
And only we , and possibly this politician , if he wins , can change that .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Maria , speaking of this whole issue of tearing families apart , the latest report that the numbers of children held in detention , not just by the Trump administration but also by the Obama administration , was much greater than had been officially recognized up until this point .
Could you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decision to get into journalism and the path that you took to get into journalism to report these untold stories ?
MARIA HINOJOSA : You know , Juan , first of all , thank you to you , Juan .
I ’ ve been shouting you out on every single interview .
Everybody needs to read Juan and Joe Torres ’ s book , News for All the People .
Thank you , Juan .
I understand why I do what I do .
You helped me understand that .
I am part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you know , I ’ m lucky enough to be five blocks away from a statue of him right here in Harlem .
He is the man who helped me to understand why I ’ m doing what I ’ m doing .
You helped me to understand that .
So , the issue of immigration , Juan .
You know , why is it that this country , on the one hand , is saying that it appreciates immigrants and , on the other hand , acts in total indifference to us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One of the hardest — not hard , because I ’ m a journalist .
I ’ m not a member of a party .
I don ’ t really care about party politics .
But , you know , to have to actually pull out the research and just be like , “ Whoa , the last president — I mean , yes , Ronald Reagan , but the last president who actually increased numbers was George H.W .
Bush , former head of the CIA.
” He increased immigration numbers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So , Bill Clinton was the one who created the wall .
He started the wall .
He ran on an anti-immigrant platform .
So , both — a pox on both of their houses .
Now , this is where it gets tricky in terms of this moment , in terms of this election , because I think , really , for many Latinos and Latinas , that issue of immigration , they feel it again en la carne propia because it is their parents who can not vote .
And so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them to get to the polls and speak out .
I don ’ t see that generation , of being directly impacted by these human rights violations and these immigration policies , sitting down and sitting on their hands .
And you ’ re right , Juan , I was the one who went into the detention camps in 2011 and pointed the finger at Barack Obama .
And while we all love Barack — you know , he ’ s amazing — the truth is , is that this is his Achilles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Joe Biden forever , until they fully apologize for what they have done , and say , “ And we ’ re going to do better.
” It ’ s not that hard , Juan , when you look at the level of dehumanization that we are all living with .
Babies and children right now are being held in cages in the United States .
They are not being fed .
They are being psychologically tortured .
There is torture occurring today , right now , on the backs of women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simply because , like me , we were not born in this country .
And it needs to stop .
AMY GOODMAN : Maria Hinojosa , we want to thank you so much for being with us , award-winning journalist , author of the new memoir , Once I Was You : A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America .
Maria is founder of Futuro Media , host of Latino USA and co-host of the podcast In the Thick .
And thanks to Chuck Rocha , the president of Solidarity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the largest Latino-focused partisan super PAC in the country , author of Tío Bernie : The Inside Story of How Bernie Sanders Brought Latinos into the Political Revolution .
He was a senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders ’ presidential campaign .
He will be joining us again tonight for our three-hour special election coverage .
We will be broadcasting tonight beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time .
And you can go to democracynow.org , or you can see if your local TV or radio station is broadcasting Democracy Now !
as scores @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Coming up , we ’ ll look at how racial justice , reproductive rights , immigrant rights , ranked-choice voting — just some of the ballot initiatives being voted on across the country , in addition to presidents and vice presidents and senators and congresspeople .
Stay with us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Maria Hinojosa, you have just come out with the book Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. It is a heartrending book. It is a beautiful story of not only your life — and, of course, it is a memoir — but, through you, the issue of, among other things, immigration, starting with your own family story. You grew up on the South Side of Chicago. But you talk about almost having been separated from your mother when your family migrated from Mexico in the 1960s. Can you talk about what happened and this whole issue of child separation and how it plays out in the election, not only for the Latinx population, because you say that it’s not only immigration the Latinx voting population cares about, but actually across this country?
MARIA HINOJOSA: Yeah. So, Amy, you know, I didn’t fully understand my own story, because this is what trauma looks like. You know, you think you know a story. I knew something had happened at the airport. What I didn’t know was the level to which it escalated.
So, essentially, my dad — may he rest in peace — Dr. Raul Hinojosa, was recruited by the University of Chicago. He was a brilliant man. He helped to create the cochlear implant. That’s how we end up in Chicago. He goes first, and a few months later my mom and the four of us kids come by plane. So we had privilege. We came by plane, from Mexico City to Dallas, Dallas to Chicago, via airplane. And we had our green cards. I was a baby in my mother’s arms.
And what we thought was — what I had thought was some kind of a communication, you know, that happened, actually, in the moment when we all lived through the babies and children that we heard screaming, the toddlers in those cages, we heard those voices in 2018. That’s when my mother called me. My mother, already in her eighties, calls me, crying, as we say in Mexican Spanish, a moco suelto. Ella dijo — “Mami, ¿qué pasa?” “No, mijita, es que that was almost me.” I’m like, “Mom, what are you talking about?” ”No, mijita, es que that was almost you. The babies that have been taken, they almost did that to you.” And I was like, “What?”
So, there was — there are these policies, Amy — that’s what I write about in Once I Was You — that, on the books in the state of Texas, allowed immigration agents to search our bodies to see if we were clean enough to come into the United States. Sound familiar? Body cavity searches that were happening, potentially at the airport. That’s why I was almost taken. The immigration agent says, “Your daughter has a rash, and so we’re going to put her into quarantine. You can go ahead on to Chicago.” And my mother has a mental breakdown right there and then, freaks out, calls on her privilege, starts screaming at the immigration agent. And that’s why I’m in this country, because she lost it.
And in that phone call, my mother said, “I wasn’t just a big mouth.” She said, “I went into a state of trauma. That’s why I started screaming at him.” So, imagine my surprise, Amy, that I have a relationship — now I understand why I do the work that I do and the way that I do it, which informs the work Once I Was You. It is, yes, a memoir. Thank you for saying it was magnificent, Amy Goodman, once who was my boss. I love you. Thank you for saying that. You know, what I’m trying to say here is that it is not only my story; it is a policy, right? It is historical policy. The narrative is we love immigrants. The policies are, not so much.
So, how does that apply to this moment? As I said, Chuck is exactly right. There is this entire generation, like, let’s say, in Arizona, where I was exactly 10 years ago. Those were the young people who were activists, who are now running for office and who are inspiring other young Latinos and Latinas to go to the polls. I’m not surprised that the issue of immigration is not number one. That’s my job. That’s my job as a journalist, is to be pushing that policy all the time, because immigrants who are suffering from that actually cannot vote, right? It’s the ones who vote who are thinking about these other issues. So that’s my responsibility.
And on the issue of immigration, we do not have a so-called immigration issue in this country. There is zero net immigration. Refugees are down to what? Ten thousand? Fifteen thousand? It is basically at a zero. What this country has — and we shall see whether or not Joe Biden and Kamala Harris respond to this — is an international human rights crisis. We have women whose uteruses have been taken, and their children have been taken from them. And this is not a one-time thing. It’s been happening since they took Indigenous children away, since they took the children of enslaved Africans away, since they took the children of Japanese Americans during the internment. We have been — this is part of our history. And only we, and possibly this politician, if he wins, can change that.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Maria, speaking of this whole issue of tearing families apart, the latest report that the numbers of children held in detention, not just by the Trump administration but also by the Obama administration, was much greater than had been officially recognized up until this point. Could you talk about how your reporting — your decision to get into journalism and the path that you took to get into journalism to report these untold stories?
MARIA HINOJOSA: You know, Juan, first of all, thank you to you, Juan. I’ve been shouting you out on every single interview. Everybody needs to read Juan and Joe Torres’s book, News for All the People. Thank you, Juan. I understand why I do what I do. You helped me understand that. I am part of Frederick Douglass, who is — you know, I’m lucky enough to be five blocks away from a statue of him right here in Harlem. He is the man who helped me to understand why I’m doing what I’m doing. You helped me to understand that.
So, the issue of immigration, Juan. You know, why is it that this country, on the one hand, is saying that it appreciates immigrants and, on the other hand, acts in total indifference to us? And you’re exactly right. One of the hardest — not hard, because I’m a journalist. I’m not a member of a party. I don’t really care about party politics. But, you know, to have to actually pull out the research and just be like, “Whoa, the last president — I mean, yes, Ronald Reagan, but the last president who actually increased numbers was George H.W. Bush, former head of the CIA.” He increased immigration numbers, increased TPS, increased refugees. So, Bill Clinton was the one who created the wall. He started the wall. He ran on an anti-immigrant platform. So, both — a pox on both of their houses.
Now, this is where it gets tricky in terms of this moment, in terms of this election, because I think, really, for many Latinos and Latinas, that issue of immigration, they feel it again en la carne propia because it is their parents who cannot vote. And so, that is something that is motivating them to get to the polls and speak out. I don’t see that generation, of being directly impacted by these human rights violations and these immigration policies, sitting down and sitting on their hands.
And you’re right, Juan, I was the one who went into the detention camps in 2011 and pointed the finger at Barack Obama. And while we all love Barack — you know, he’s amazing — the truth is, is that this is his Achilles’ heel. It will follow him and Joe Biden forever, until they fully apologize for what they have done, and say, “And we’re going to do better.” It’s not that hard, Juan, when you look at the level of dehumanization that we are all living with. Babies and children right now are being held in cages in the United States. They are not being fed. They are being psychologically tortured. There is torture occurring today, right now, on the backs of women, children, men, adolescents, simply because, like me, we were not born in this country. And it needs to stop.
AMY GOODMAN: Maria Hinojosa, we want to thank you so much for being with us, award-winning journalist, author of the new memoir, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. Maria is founder of Futuro Media, host of Latino USA and co-host of the podcast In the Thick.
And thanks to Chuck Rocha, the president of Solidarity Strategies, founder of Nuestro PAC, the largest Latino-focused partisan super PAC in the country, author of Tío Bernie: The Inside Story of How Bernie Sanders Brought Latinos into the Political Revolution. He was a senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
He will be joining us again tonight for our three-hour special election coverage. We will be broadcasting tonight beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time. And you can go to democracynow.org, or you can see if your local TV or radio station is broadcasting Democracy Now! as scores of stations are across the country.
Coming up, we’ll look at how racial justice, reproductive rights, immigrant rights, ranked-choice voting — just some of the ballot initiatives being voted on across the country, in addition to presidents and vice presidents and senators and congresspeople. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-11-03--Ex-Bernie Adviser Chuck Rocha: Latinx Voters Will Be "Single Most Important Factor" in 2020 Election

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : People are voting across the United States for an election which is on pace to have the highest turnout rate in perhaps 150 years , percentage-wise .
Nearly 100 million people have voted early — that ’ s nearly three-quarters of the total 2016 vote count .
But campaigns are still scrambling to get out the vote in key battleground states .
On Monday , President Trump campaigned in North Carolina , Wisconsin , Michigan and Pennsylvania .
Meanwhile , Democratic presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaigned in Pennsylvania and Ohio .
On this final day of the 2020 campaign , we look at how Latinx voters could play a key role in deciding the presidency and who controls the Senate .
Many battlegrounds states , including Florida , Texas and Arizona , have large Latinx communities .
Many polls show Biden is not doing as well among Latinx voters as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 .
One recent poll in Florida showed a majority of Latinx voters supported Trump over Biden .
We ’ re joined now by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign adviser to Bernie Sanders .
He now runs the pro-Biden Nuestro PAC to mobilize the Latino voters .
He is author of Tío Bernie : The Inside Story of How Bernie Sanders Brought Latinos into the Political Revolution .
And we ’ re joined by Maria Hinojosa .
She ’ s an award-winning journalist , author of the new memoir Once I Was You : A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America .
She ’ s founder of Futuro Media , host of Latino USA and co-host of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we begin with you .
You ’ re a numbers guy .
Looking across the country , there was a Bloomberg report that came out this weekend that ’ s saying Black and Latinx voters are not coming out in the numbers that Democratic Party hope for .
Can you talk specifically about the Latinx vote in Pennsylvania , in Florida , in Texas , where you are , in Arizona ?
CHUCK ROCHA : Well , thank you .
And thank you , Amy .
The Latino vote will be the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There ’ s some truth on both sides of everything and all of the noise that you ’ re hearing out there .
There ’ s one thing that ’ s for sure , no matter where you are in America , that more Latinos will vote in this election than anytime in the history of America .
And already with early voting you ’ ve had 2 million Latinos vote in Texas , 350,000 in Arizona , 1.4 .
All these numbers seem to drone together .
But I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Latino community is not going to allow , the party or either party to come step to us and say that we are underperforming .
As I ’ ve been watching this election now for almost two years , working for Bernie , creating Nuestro PAC , talking and listening to amazing journalists like Maria and others who are doing work in our community , I ’ m seeing this unrest .
And what ’ s happening is Donald Trump is becoming the best get-out-the-vote operation that the Democrats have ever run .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Eh , they ’ re doing an OK job .
But there are so many people that are voting that are Latino who have no voting history .
In Texas alone , almost half a million Latinos who have never voted before and have no voting history are showing up .
That ’ s not because of some astronomical program that the Democrats are running .
That ’ s because they ’ re sick and tired of seeing what this president is doing to our community .
Whether what we see in polling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it around healthcare policy ?
Is it around jobs and the economy ?
It ’ s all of those things wrapped together in a cabal of unrest and uneasiness in a community where we feel like nobody ’ s really speaking for us .
And we are yearning for somebody to come have that conversation , debate the issues and show up with their hat in their hand and ask for our vote .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Chuck , I ’ m wondering if you could talk especially about Arizona , because , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more reflective of the enormous change in the Latino vote , especially given the fact that Arizona only a few years ago was the center of so much anti-immigrant reaction , the heyday of Joe Arpaio , the “ show me your papers ” law , and really the Latinx vote there is probably going to be most decisive in moving that state into the Democratic column .
Could you talk about what ’ s happened there ?
CHUCK ROCHA : What you ’ re seeing is an evolution in Arizona .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who may not live this life every day , Arizona is very different than Florida .
It ’ s very different than other states , because it ’ s like 80 % Mexican American .
There ’ s been a second and third generation of Latinos who have come of age in Arizona under a racist Joe Arpaio , under a racist law by the governor that said you have to show me your papers no matter who you are , even if you ’ re a U.S. citizen , just because you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attacks that I ’ m talking about that our community has lived through .
And all of these young , woke Brown kids are now coming of age , where they have self-organized , without any help from Democrats or Republicans for the most matter , and organized themselves , mainly around the DREAMer movement , the immigration movement , the Bernie Sanders movement , the social justice movement .
And what you ’ re seeing now , the fruits of those labors .
There ’ s amazing local Latino orgs like LUCHA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ firm , who have been working year in and year out in the state of Arizona .
They don ’ t just pop up three months before the election .
They ’ re there throughout the year , registering voters , helping people get access to healthcare , helping people fill out immigration papers .
They ’ re a part of the fabric of the community .
And I ’ ve been preaching this since I was a little boy .
If you show up there and you show up in the community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like LUCHA and other community-based organizations , you start building the infrastructure of power .
And that ’ s what you ’ re starting to see now because of the demographic growth in Arizona with these kids coming of age .
And that ’ s why you see a transformation of what ’ s happening in Arizona in the electorate .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Chuck , I want to follow that up , ask you about Pennsylvania .
Everyone agrees that Pennsylvania is probably the most critical or decisive state in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very little attention been paid to the Latino vote in Pennsylvania .
I want to read just some figures .
These are the latest figures from the census , the 2019 U.S. census estimates — not talking about Philadelphia , but all of the small cities outside of Philadelphia and in central Pennsylvania : Reading , Pennsylvania , 66 % Hispanic ; Allentown , Pennsylvania , 52 % Hispanic ; Lebanon , 44 % ; Lancaster , 38 % ; Bethlehem , Pennsylvania , 28 % .
There ’ s a whole — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Corridor , all the cities up and down the state that are along Route [ 222 ] that have had enormous growth in their Latino population over the last 15 , 20 years .
I ’ m wondering what your sense of the impact of that vote , which is largely Puerto Rican , Dominican and Mexican , will have on the results in Pennsylvania .
CHUCK ROCHA : Oh , my brother , as we say in Texas , I ’ m picking up what you ’ re putting down .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I was the national political director of the steelworkers ’ union .
My son this morning texted me a picture of him and my twin 4-year-old grandboys in Butler , Pennsylvania , going to vote .
When I was in 1990 and starting with the steelworkers , I ran a steelworker for Congress and moved to Bethlehem and Allentown , Pennsylvania , where I discovered these huge Boricua neighborhoods and all of the radio stations , like La Mega .
So , I have been one of the first people out there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ screaming about this .
What happened in the last four or five years to exacerbate this even more was what you saw on the island of Puerto Rico .
And with people fleeing Puerto Rico , people think that they all moved to Orlando .
Well , over 200,000 of them moved in with their family members in that corridor that you ’ re describing in eastern Pennsylvania .
And because me and Nuestro PAC have seen no real investment in this community early , Nuestro PAC , my PAC , we spent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ July , talking to Latinos .
Now , many times , we were the only ones there , with some great organizations on the ground , like Unidos Action Fund and a handful of others that have been doing the work there .
But we ’ ve been diligently communicating in Spanish and English with this community , because they have one thing in mind — and this is something that y ’ all talk about , Maria talks about , all the time — is the difference between a Cuban voter and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re both Caribbean Latinos .
Puerto Ricans are way more apt not to like Donald Trump in any form or fashion , and vote at 60 , 65 and 70 % for Democrat .
So , you need to go have a conversation , talk to them over a long period of time , like Nuestro PAC did .
We sent them six pieces of mail , radio commercials , digital commercials .
We did the Bernie Sanders paid , multilevel communication .
But we were one of the only ones @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would have spent the amount of money that they spent in Philadelphia talking to white persuadable voters , which , as of my last check , was over $ 50 million , compared to my little $ 1 million talking to Latinos .
This is an overarching thing that we ’ ll talk about after the election , but you need to treat Latinos like white persuadable voters .
Invest the same amount of money , and we will no longer have to accept the bare minimum when it comes to Latino turnout @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : We are talking to Chuck Rocha , founder of Nuestro PAC .
He ’ s going to stay with us , but when we come back , we ’ re also joined by the award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa .
She ’ s founder of Futuro Media and has a new book out , a magnificent memoir that ’ s called Once I Was You .
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : “ I Wan na Be Sedated ” by The Ramones .
This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Goodman , with Juan González .
Let ’ s turn to two Florida voters discussing the Puerto Rican vote .
We ’ ll hear from Maria Revelles , a Puerto Rican community organizer in Central Florida , but first to Bertica Cabrera Morris , a Latinos for Trump board member .
AMY GOODMAN : Two Puerto Rican voices from Florida .
We are joined by Maria Hinojosa , a renowned journalist , award-winning journalist , and author of the new memoir Once I Was You , as well as Chuck Rocha , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Latino community , president of Solidarity Strategies and founder of Nuestro PAC .
Maria , welcome to Democracy Now !
It ’ s great to have you with us .
As you listen to those two voices in Florida , you are spending your life right now , your podcast , your broadcasts , talking about this election .
Let ’ s look at Florida right now .
MARIA HINOJOSA : OK .
Specifically , you want me to talk about what I ’ m thinking about in terms of Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relate it to these two voices we have just heard .
AMY GOODMAN : Two voices , one for Trump , one for Biden .
MARIA HINOJOSA : So , I know Bertica .
I was speaking to Bertica four years ago .
At that time , she was allegedly on the fence about Trump .
Now she ’ s solidly in Trump ’ s land .
The Trump administration — administration , and later the campaign — has been playing what they always play .
So this should not be a surprise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden campaign to not be kind of prepared for it is surprising .
So , this notion about , like , the fear of socialism , more conservative , evangelical , anti-abortion , this thing that nobody really knows about unless you ’ re from that — this conversation about “ religious liberty ” — most people are like , “ Religious liberty ?
We have religious liberty.
” Big issue for Latino evangelicals .
So , Amy and Juan , what ’ s been happening with the Trump folks is that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those communities for a while .
And so , when Bertica makes those statements , it ’ s true .
And they are familiar with the Trump rhetoric .
They respond to it because they respond to bully speak , and they respond to the fear .
On the other hand — and this is where I got it wrong four years ago — I did think that the Puerto Rican vote in Central Florida is what was going to swing the entire state , and I failed to see that the anti-abortion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote , which is just enough to be able to swing it , is more conservative .
This time around , it ’ s not clear .
Even though the Trump administration has been making a lot of inroads in the campaign with Latino evangelicals , you know , they ’ re also — what I was hearing in terms of my reporting is that many Latinos and Latinas are like , ” Estamos este aquí , ” the statement ” Estamos este aquí.
” “ We ’ re up to our — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take this anymore.
” And what I ’ m focusing on in Central Florida , which I think Chuck is probably also geeking out about , is the youth vote .
He talked about it in Arizona .
It ’ s the same kind of thing in Florida .
Their parents may be voting for Trump , but will they ?
So , that ’ s where I ’ m thinking about Florida , in particular .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Yeah .
And , Maria , if I could follow up on that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve tried to make now for several months is that there are more than 2 million Latinos who turned 18 just since the last presidential election .
And your emphasis on — in terms of especially trying to get a sense of where the young vote is going , and clearly all of the polling has shown that especially when it comes to young people of all races and nationalities , there is a marked turn toward Biden and the Democrats versus Trump and the Republicans .
But could you talk about what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve been talking to young people around the country , young Latinos especially ?
MARIA HINOJOSA : Right .
So , it ’ s different than last year — than four years ago , in the sense that , I think you remember , Juan and Amy , at the Democratic National Convention , the anti-Hillary , essentially Bernie wing of the party was so upset , and many Latinos and Latinas , my students , I remember , who were very much involved with Bernie , were very upset , to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re not going to be able to do this.
” I remember hearing them say , “ We ’ re just not going to go.
” And it was like , “ Yes , but you ’ re throwing away a vote.
” And they were just like — I think that ’ s different this time around .
So , that ’ s one element .
I think that we don ’ t have the polling .
I ’ m going to talk , Juan , about my own family , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You are in my home right now .
My daughter , who is 22 , four years ago voted , kind of like , “ Yes , I like Hillary .
She ’ s fine .
But , you know , Donald Trump is not going to win.
” She was wrong , obviously .
I knew that he had a very strong possibility of winning , as did probably you .
This time around , she ’ s been phone banking almost every weekend .
She is the one who organized the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she walked up to me , and she said , “ Mom , Texas is blue.
” And I ’ m like , “ It ’ s 10:00 on a Sunday night in Harlem , New York City , and you ’ re telling me Texas is blue ?
” And I said , “ No , mijita , it ’ s not.
” And she said , “ I ’ m repeating that to myself all the time as my mantra to make it come true.
” And I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York City-raised Dominican Mexican Harlemite daughter who ’ s talking this way .
She ’ s not the only one.
” Latinas , who I know who are working at the polls right now .
So , this is a part of the electorate that I don ’ t think is being polled or tagged .
I think Chuck knew how to connect with them , and he ’ s absolutely right .
If you connect with Latino-Latina voters , they will respond .
And I ’ m also de la banda de @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You know what ?
Is it — you ’ re really going to tell us again , with all due respect to the Bloomberg reporters , that we ’ re not turning out ?
” I don ’ t — you know , I ’ m not buying it this time around .
Now , maybe I ’ m going to have to eat crow .
Maybe I ’ m going to have to eat crow , but I do think that this generation of Latinos and Latinas , who have felt these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ propia , with our skin , they are the ones who are saying , “ I ’ m absolutely voting .
I ’ m voting ” — as you ’ ve heard people say in line , “ I ’ m voting as if my life depended on it.
” JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Chuck , I wanted to ask you — the Latino Decisions , which does a lot of the polling for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials , has been doing a tracking poll now for a couple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shows — of among Latinos around the country — and it shows that the number one issue for Latino voters is the coronavirus and is the country ’ s response to the coronavirus .
Number two is healthcare .
Number three is jobs .
And then comes , in fourth or fifth place , immigration .
Your sense of what these issues reads — how they can be read in terms of how Latino voters will break today and have been breaking in this election ?
CHUCK ROCHA : Well , Juan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve done a ton of polling through the spring with Bernie , and then , in the summer , doing focus groups and polling with Equis , Latino Decisions and other folks , and that polling is spot on .
I would push back a little bit , though , and say that you can have all the polling in the world , and you can be cute plus two , meaning that you can figure out all the matrix and analytics to talk about all these policy nuances , but if you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community and have a conversation , none of the policies or polling really matters .
There ’ s a lot of people showing up right now that are new voters who have never voted before .
And as a practitioner , I ’ m one of the very few senior Brown people who sat in major campaign meetings where decisions are made .
And what I ’ m telling all of you and all of your listeners , if you have no voting history , no matter what the color of your skin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get you out to vote .
There are hundreds of thousands of young Latinos that nobody is talking to , who are showing up because they ’ re mad about their president trying to define this country as an angry , nasty place .
The decisions that you ’ re talking about , in the Latino Decision polling , is what you see older Latinos reacting to when they call and ask them .
And they ’ re absolutely right .
But unless the campaign — in the early part of the summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we were talking to Latino infrequent voters .
And what they were saying is , “ We don ’ t like Donald Trump .
We get that .
Don ’ t tell us nothing else about Donald Trump .
But tell me something about Joe Biden .
We don ’ t know him .
Our issues are corona , healthcare , jobs .
But what ’ s he going to do to fix that ?
What ’ s he going to do to make our lives better ?
” They have not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ August and September , heard from any of the campaigns , to say , “ Tell us your plan .
Tell us why we should vote for you , ” which is the larger problem that we are not going to fix today , but we ’ re looking to fix as we go .
And I ’ ve been chipping away at this with Bernie and other things to fix this as a totality .
Our problem is not specifically around one issue .
It ’ s actually showing up there and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re going to do to fix that issue .
”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: People are voting across the United States for an election which is on pace to have the highest turnout rate in perhaps 150 years, percentage-wise. Nearly 100 million people have voted early — that’s nearly three-quarters of the total 2016 vote count.
But campaigns are still scrambling to get out the vote in key battleground states. On Monday, President Trump campaigned in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
On this final day of the 2020 campaign, we look at how Latinx voters could play a key role in deciding the presidency and who controls the Senate. Many battlegrounds states, including Florida, Texas and Arizona, have large Latinx communities. Many polls show Biden is not doing as well among Latinx voters as Hillary Clinton did in 2016. One recent poll in Florida showed a majority of Latinx voters supported Trump over Biden.
We’re joined now by two guests. Chuck Rocha was a campaign adviser to Bernie Sanders. He now runs the pro-Biden Nuestro PAC to mobilize the Latino voters. He is author of Tío Bernie: The Inside Story of How Bernie Sanders Brought Latinos into the Political Revolution. And we’re joined by Maria Hinojosa. She’s an award-winning journalist, author of the new memoir Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. She’s founder of Futuro Media, host of Latino USA and co-host of the podcast In the Thick.
Chuck Rocha, we begin with you. You’re a numbers guy. Looking across the country, there was a Bloomberg report that came out this weekend that’s saying Black and Latinx voters are not coming out in the numbers that Democratic Party hope for. Can you talk specifically about the Latinx vote in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in Texas, where you are, in Arizona?
CHUCK ROCHA: Well, thank you. And thank you, Amy.
The Latino vote will be the single most important factor in this election. There’s some truth on both sides of everything and all of the noise that you’re hearing out there. There’s one thing that’s for sure, no matter where you are in America, that more Latinos will vote in this election than anytime in the history of America. And already with early voting you’ve had 2 million Latinos vote in Texas, 350,000 in Arizona, 1.4. All these numbers seem to drone together. But I’m not going to allow, and the Latino community is not going to allow, the party or either party to come step to us and say that we are underperforming.
As I’ve been watching this election now for almost two years, working for Bernie, creating Nuestro PAC, talking and listening to amazing journalists like Maria and others who are doing work in our community, I’m seeing this unrest. And what’s happening is Donald Trump is becoming the best get-out-the-vote operation that the Democrats have ever run. Other Democrats doing a great job? Eh, they’re doing an OK job. But there are so many people that are voting that are Latino who have no voting history. In Texas alone, almost half a million Latinos who have never voted before and have no voting history are showing up. That’s not because of some astronomical program that the Democrats are running. That’s because they’re sick and tired of seeing what this president is doing to our community.
Whether what we see in polling — is it around coronavirus? Is it around healthcare policy? Is it around jobs and the economy? It’s all of those things wrapped together in a cabal of unrest and uneasiness in a community where we feel like nobody’s really speaking for us. And we are yearning for somebody to come have that conversation, debate the issues and show up with their hat in their hand and ask for our vote.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Chuck, I’m wondering if you could talk especially about Arizona, because, to me, I think Arizona is more reflective of the enormous change in the Latino vote, especially given the fact that Arizona only a few years ago was the center of so much anti-immigrant reaction, the heyday of Joe Arpaio, the “show me your papers” law, and really the Latinx vote there is probably going to be most decisive in moving that state into the Democratic column. Could you talk about what’s happened there?
CHUCK ROCHA: What you’re seeing is an evolution in Arizona. And for all of you folks at home who may not live this life every day, Arizona is very different than Florida. It’s very different than other states, because it’s like 80% Mexican American. There’s been a second and third generation of Latinos who have come of age in Arizona under a racist Joe Arpaio, under a racist law by the governor that said you have to show me your papers no matter who you are, even if you’re a U.S. citizen, just because you may look Brown. This is the attacks that I’m talking about that our community has lived through.
And all of these young, woke Brown kids are now coming of age, where they have self-organized, without any help from Democrats or Republicans for the most matter, and organized themselves, mainly around the DREAMer movement, the immigration movement, the Bernie Sanders movement, the social justice movement. And what you’re seeing now, the fruits of those labors.
There’s amazing local Latino orgs like LUCHA, who is a client of my firm, who have been working year in and year out in the state of Arizona. They don’t just pop up three months before the election. They’re there throughout the year, registering voters, helping people get access to healthcare, helping people fill out immigration papers. They’re a part of the fabric of the community.
And I’ve been preaching this since I was a little boy. If you show up there and you show up in the community and you show the community respect, like LUCHA and other community-based organizations, you start building the infrastructure of power. And that’s what you’re starting to see now because of the demographic growth in Arizona with these kids coming of age. And that’s why you see a transformation of what’s happening in Arizona in the electorate.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Chuck, I want to follow that up, ask you about Pennsylvania. Everyone agrees that Pennsylvania is probably the most critical or decisive state in this race, but there’s very little attention been paid to the Latino vote in Pennsylvania. I want to read just some figures. These are the latest figures from the census, the 2019 U.S. census estimates — not talking about Philadelphia, but all of the small cities outside of Philadelphia and in central Pennsylvania: Reading, Pennsylvania, 66% Hispanic; Allentown, Pennsylvania, 52% Hispanic; Lebanon, 44%; Lancaster, 38%; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 28%. There’s a whole — it’s called the 222 Latino Corridor, all the cities up and down the state that are along Route [ 222 ] that have had enormous growth in their Latino population over the last 15, 20 years. I’m wondering what your sense of the impact of that vote, which is largely Puerto Rican, Dominican and Mexican, will have on the results in Pennsylvania.
CHUCK ROCHA: Oh, my brother, as we say in Texas, I’m picking up what you’re putting down. I lived in Pennsylvania for 11 years, and I was the national political director of the steelworkers’ union. My son this morning texted me a picture of him and my twin 4-year-old grandboys in Butler, Pennsylvania, going to vote. When I was in 1990 and starting with the steelworkers, I ran a steelworker for Congress and moved to Bethlehem and Allentown, Pennsylvania, where I discovered these huge Boricua neighborhoods and all of the radio stations, like La Mega. So, I have been one of the first people out there jumping up and down on the soapbox screaming about this.
What happened in the last four or five years to exacerbate this even more was what you saw on the island of Puerto Rico. And with people fleeing Puerto Rico, people think that they all moved to Orlando. Well, over 200,000 of them moved in with their family members in that corridor that you’re describing in eastern Pennsylvania. And because me and Nuestro PAC have seen no real investment in this community early, Nuestro PAC, my PAC, we spent over a million dollars, starting in July, talking to Latinos. Now, many times, we were the only ones there, with some great organizations on the ground, like Unidos Action Fund and a handful of others that have been doing the work there. But we’ve been diligently communicating in Spanish and English with this community, because they have one thing in mind — and this is something that y’all talk about, Maria talks about, all the time — is the difference between a Cuban voter and a Puerto Rican voter, even though they’re both Caribbean Latinos. Puerto Ricans are way more apt not to like Donald Trump in any form or fashion, and vote at 60, 65 and 70% for Democrat.
So, you need to go have a conversation, talk to them over a long period of time, like Nuestro PAC did. We sent them six pieces of mail, radio commercials, digital commercials. We did the Bernie Sanders paid, multilevel communication. But we were one of the only ones to do it. Imagine if they would have spent the amount of money that they spent in Philadelphia talking to white persuadable voters, which, as of my last check, was over $50 million, compared to my little $1 million talking to Latinos. This is an overarching thing that we’ll talk about after the election, but you need to treat Latinos like white persuadable voters. Invest the same amount of money, and we will no longer have to accept the bare minimum when it comes to Latino turnout and their persuasion percentages.
AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to Chuck Rocha, founder of Nuestro PAC. He’s going to stay with us, but when we come back, we’re also joined by the award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. She’s founder of Futuro Media and has a new book out, a magnificent memoir that’s called Once I Was You. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Let’s turn to two Florida voters discussing the Puerto Rican vote. We’ll hear from Maria Revelles, a Puerto Rican community organizer in Central Florida, but first to Bertica Cabrera Morris, a Latinos for Trump board member.
BERTICA CABRERA MORRIS: I think that a lot of the Puerto Ricans from New York mostly had signed up as Democratic, because that’s where they came from. You will find that a lot of the Puerto Ricans here, that might have signed up to be Democrats, might vote Republican.
MARIA REVELLES: Puerto Ricans are not — you cannot put them in the same basket than Cuban Americans, right? Puerto Ricans are fairly progressive. They believe in systems of welfare. They believe that the poor should be taken care for. They believe that there should be healthcare for all. You know, the monster of communism and socialism doesn’t scare Puerto Ricans, you know? I think that Puerto Ricans, they are a swing vote, because when they come from the island, they don’t belong to Republican or Democratic Party.
AMY GOODMAN: Two Puerto Rican voices from Florida. We are joined by Maria Hinojosa, a renowned journalist, award-winning journalist, and author of the new memoir Once I Was You, as well as Chuck Rocha, who is a preeminent voting expert, particularly in the Latino community, president of Solidarity Strategies and founder of Nuestro PAC.
Maria, welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. As you listen to those two voices in Florida, you are spending your life right now, your podcast, your broadcasts, talking about this election. Let’s look at Florida right now.
MARIA HINOJOSA: OK. Specifically, you want me to talk about what I’m thinking about in terms of Florida?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, and relate it to these two voices we have just heard.
MARIA HINOJOSA: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: Two voices, one for Trump, one for Biden.
MARIA HINOJOSA: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: Puerto Rican voices in Central Florida.
MARIA HINOJOSA: So, I know Bertica. I was speaking to Bertica four years ago. At that time, she was allegedly on the fence about Trump. Now she’s solidly in Trump’s land.
The Trump administration — administration, and later the campaign — has been playing what they always play. So this should not be a surprise, and, frankly, for the Biden campaign to not be kind of prepared for it is surprising. So, this notion about, like, the fear of socialism, more conservative, evangelical, anti-abortion, this thing that nobody really knows about unless you’re from that — this conversation about “religious liberty” — most people are like, “Religious liberty? We have religious liberty.” Big issue for Latino evangelicals. So, Amy and Juan, what’s been happening with the Trump folks is that they’ve been making those connections in those communities for a while. And so, when Bertica makes those statements, it’s true. And they are familiar with the Trump rhetoric. They respond to it because they respond to bully speak, and they respond to the fear.
On the other hand — and this is where I got it wrong four years ago — I did think that the Puerto Rican vote in Central Florida is what was going to swing the entire state, and I failed to see that the anti-abortion Latino evangelical side of the Puerto Rican vote, which is just enough to be able to swing it, is more conservative. This time around, it’s not clear. Even though the Trump administration has been making a lot of inroads in the campaign with Latino evangelicals, you know, they’re also — what I was hearing in terms of my reporting is that many Latinos and Latinas are like, ”Estamos este aquí,” the statement ”Estamos este aquí.” “We’re up to our — beyond our forehead. We cannot take this anymore.”
And what I’m focusing on in Central Florida, which I think Chuck is probably also geeking out about, is the youth vote. He talked about it in Arizona. It’s the same kind of thing in Florida. Their parents may be voting for Trump, but will they? So, that’s where I’m thinking about Florida, in particular.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah. And, Maria, if I could follow up on that, one of the points I’ve tried to make now for several months is that there are more than 2 million Latinos who turned 18 just since the last presidential election. And your emphasis on — in terms of especially trying to get a sense of where the young vote is going, and clearly all of the polling has shown that especially when it comes to young people of all races and nationalities, there is a marked turn toward Biden and the Democrats versus Trump and the Republicans. But could you talk about what you’ve found as you’ve been talking to young people around the country, young Latinos especially?
MARIA HINOJOSA: Right. So, it’s different than last year — than four years ago, in the sense that, I think you remember, Juan and Amy, at the Democratic National Convention, the anti-Hillary, essentially Bernie wing of the party was so upset, and many Latinos and Latinas, my students, I remember, who were very much involved with Bernie, were very upset, to the point where many said, “We’re not going to be able to do this.” I remember hearing them say, “We’re just not going to go.” And it was like, “Yes, but you’re throwing away a vote.” And they were just like — I think that’s different this time around. So, that’s one element.
I think that we don’t have the polling. I’m going to talk, Juan, about my own family, right here, in my home. You are in my home right now. My daughter, who is 22, four years ago voted, kind of like, “Yes, I like Hillary. She’s fine. But, you know, Donald Trump is not going to win.” She was wrong, obviously. I knew that he had a very strong possibility of winning, as did probably you. This time around, she’s been phone banking almost every weekend. She is the one who organized the family vote plan. On Sunday night, she walked up to me, and she said, “Mom, Texas is blue.” And I’m like, “It’s 10:00 on a Sunday night in Harlem, New York City, and you’re telling me Texas is blue?” And I said, “No, mijita, it’s not.” And she said, “I’m repeating that to myself all the time as my mantra to make it come true.” And I’m like, “This is my New York City-raised Dominican Mexican Harlemite daughter who’s talking this way. She’s not the only one.” Latinas, who I know who are working at the polls right now. So, this is a part of the electorate that I don’t think is being polled or tagged.
I think Chuck knew how to connect with them, and he’s absolutely right. If you connect with Latino-Latina voters, they will respond. And I’m also de la banda de Chuck Rocha, which says, “You know what? Is it — you’re really going to tell us again, with all due respect to the Bloomberg reporters, that we’re not turning out?” I don’t — you know, I’m not buying it this time around. Now, maybe I’m going to have to eat crow. Maybe I’m going to have to eat crow, but I do think that this generation of Latinos and Latinas, who have felt these policies, mira, en la carne propia, with our skin, they are the ones who are saying, “I’m absolutely voting. I’m voting” — as you’ve heard people say in line, “I’m voting as if my life depended on it.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Chuck, I wanted to ask you — the Latino Decisions, which does a lot of the polling for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, has been doing a tracking poll now for a couple of months. And their tracking poll shows — of among Latinos around the country — and it shows that the number one issue for Latino voters is the coronavirus and is the country’s response to the coronavirus. Number two is healthcare. Number three is jobs. And then comes, in fourth or fifth place, immigration. Your sense of what these issues reads — how they can be read in terms of how Latino voters will break today and have been breaking in this election?
CHUCK ROCHA: Well, Juan, the polling is correct. I’ve done a ton of polling through the spring with Bernie, and then, in the summer, doing focus groups and polling with Equis, Latino Decisions and other folks, and that polling is spot on.
I would push back a little bit, though, and say that you can have all the polling in the world, and you can be cute plus two, meaning that you can figure out all the matrix and analytics to talk about all these policy nuances, but if you don’t actually step to the community and have a conversation, none of the policies or polling really matters. There’s a lot of people showing up right now that are new voters who have never voted before. And as a practitioner, I’m one of the very few senior Brown people who sat in major campaign meetings where decisions are made. And what I’m telling all of you and all of your listeners, if you have no voting history, no matter what the color of your skin, no campaign is targeting you to get you out to vote. There are hundreds of thousands of young Latinos that nobody is talking to, who are showing up because they’re mad about their president trying to define this country as an angry, nasty place.
The decisions that you’re talking about, in the Latino Decision polling, is what you see older Latinos reacting to when they call and ask them. And they’re absolutely right. But unless the campaign — in the early part of the summer, when we were doing focus groups, we were talking to Latino infrequent voters. And what they were saying is, “We don’t like Donald Trump. We get that. Don’t tell us nothing else about Donald Trump. But tell me something about Joe Biden. We don’t know him. Our issues are corona, healthcare, jobs. But what’s he going to do to fix that? What’s he going to do to make our lives better?” They have not, as of June, July and August and September, heard from any of the campaigns, to say, “Tell us your plan. Tell us why we should vote for you,” which is the larger problem that we are not going to fix today, but we’re looking to fix as we go. And I’ve been chipping away at this with Bernie and other things to fix this as a totality. Our problem is not specifically around one issue. It’s actually showing up there and saying, “Here’s what we’re going to do to fix that issue.”


democracynow--2020-11-03--Headlines for November  3, 2020

Headlines for November  3, 2020

Today is Election Day .
Over 100 million people have already voted — a record-shattering number that is more than two-thirds of the total votes cast in 2016 — with tens of millions casting their ballots today .
Election officials have warned full results could take days , or possibly weeks , to be verified due to the much higher number of mail-in ballots this year .
But President Trump has decried post-Election Day ballot counting and threatened to “ go in with our lawyers.
” On Monday , Trump claimed on Twitter that a Supreme Court ruling allowing Pennsylvania @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Day , and received up to three days later , will “ induce violence in the streets ” and “ rampant and unchecked cheating.
” Twitter labeled the tweet with a warning that its content “ might be misleading.
” Reports emerged Sunday that Trump is preparing to claim victory tonight if he appears to be ahead of Joe Biden .
Biden told reporters in response , “ The president is not going to steal this election ” .
Trump and Biden made their final pitches over the last 24 hours , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Both candidates spoke at rallies in Pennsylvania , where Trump has already vowed to challenge results if they are not in his favor .
This is Joe Biden addressing supporters in Pittsburgh .
Joe Biden : “ Tomorrow we can end a presidency that has divided this nation .
Folks at home would know .
Tomorrow we could put an end to a presidency that ’ s failed to protect the nation .
Tomorrow we can put an end to a presidency that has fanned the flames of hate across this nation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country.
” Biden also appeared in Ohio Monday .
Trump campaigned in North Carolina , Pennsylvania , Wisconsin and Michigan , where he attacked Democrats and reiterated many of his racist attacks against immigrants .
President Donald Trump : “ The open border lobbyists that killed our fellow citizens with illegal drugs and gangs and crime , they support Biden .
The far-left Democrats that ruined our public schools , depleted our inner cities , defunded our police and demeaned your sacred faith and values , they support Biden .
The anti-American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and heroes , they support sleepy Joe Biden.
” Meanwhile , “ non-scalable ” fencing was installed around the White House Monday in anticipation of possible protests .
Many businesses in New York City , Washington , D.C. , and other cities have boarded up their windows , while the government center in Minneapolis was also boarded up .

Today is Election Day. Over 100 million people have already voted — a record-shattering number that is more than two-thirds of the total votes cast in 2016 — with tens of millions casting their ballots today. Election officials have warned full results could take days, or possibly weeks, to be verified due to the much higher number of mail-in ballots this year. But President Trump has decried post-Election Day ballot counting and threatened to “go in with our lawyers.” On Monday, Trump claimed on Twitter that a Supreme Court ruling allowing Pennsylvania to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, and received up to three days later, will “induce violence in the streets” and “rampant and unchecked cheating.” Twitter labeled the tweet with a warning that its content “might be misleading.” Reports emerged Sunday that Trump is preparing to claim victory tonight if he appears to be ahead of Joe Biden. Biden told reporters in response, “The president is not going to steal this election”.
Trump and Biden made their final pitches over the last 24 hours, with Trump traveling to four pivotal states. Both candidates spoke at rallies in Pennsylvania, where Trump has already vowed to challenge results if they are not in his favor. This is Joe Biden addressing supporters in Pittsburgh.
Joe Biden: “Tomorrow we can end a presidency that has divided this nation. Folks at home would know. Tomorrow we could put an end to a presidency that’s failed to protect the nation. Tomorrow we can put an end to a presidency that has fanned the flames of hate across this nation, pouring gasoline on every racial incident in the country.”
Biden also appeared in Ohio Monday. Trump campaigned in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where he attacked Democrats and reiterated many of his racist attacks against immigrants.
President Donald Trump: “The open border lobbyists that killed our fellow citizens with illegal drugs and gangs and crime, they support Biden. The far-left Democrats that ruined our public schools, depleted our inner cities, defunded our police and demeaned your sacred faith and values, they support Biden. The anti-American radicals defaming our noble history, heritage and heroes, they support sleepy Joe Biden.”
Meanwhile, “non-scalable” fencing was installed around the White House Monday in anticipation of possible protests. Many businesses in New York City, Washington, D.C., and other cities have boarded up their windows, while the government center in Minneapolis was also boarded up.


democracynow--2020-11-06--Puerto Ricans Vote to Narrowly Approve Controversial Statehood Referendum & Elect 4 LGBTQ Candidates

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : We end today ’ s show looking at Tuesday ’ s election in Puerto Rico , where voters narrowly approved a nonbinding statehood referendum and elected four out candidates — among them , Afro-Puerto Rican human rights , feminist and LGBTQI activist Ana Irma Rivera Lassén .
She was just elected to the Puerto Rican Senate .
Her victory came months after she was mocked by the host of a Puerto Rican gossip show .
She spoke with Democracy Now !
about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ received messages of joy from many people , women , Afro-descendants , LGBTQI people , people from many communities in Puerto Rico , who are conscious of making a Puerto Rico that is more inclusive , a Puerto Rico that represents all of us , and in the building of a more inclusive country , push for sustainable economic development , search for solution on our status as a U.S. colony , be a country that is not just divided on what our status should be , but a country that focuses on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human rights and the basic necessities for our people that the Puerto Rican government must respect and guarantee .
We have to approach this through a lens of inclusion .
… AMY GOODMAN : That ’ s Ana Irma Rivera Lassén , interviewed by Democracy Now !
's María Taracena .
Juan , you 've been closely following what ’ s happening in Puerto Rico , your own birthplace .
Can you talk about that latest news ?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , Amy , while in the U.S. millions of us were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the island of Puerto Rico had its own election on Tuesday that also produced a close race and historic results , but in a very different way .
Puerto Ricans , after all , can not cast ballots for president and do not have voting representatives in Congress , even though they are U.S. citizens , because the island remains a colonial territory of the United States .
But they do vote every four years for their own governor , their own Senate and House of Representatives .
And this year they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the island ’ s future .
But unlike the U.S. voter turnout , the island saw an all-time low in turnout , just 51 % of eligible voters , compared to levels that used to be , just a decade ago , around 80 % or so .
The plummeting turnout is no doubt due to disgust by many voters with the continued corruption of the two dominant parties , the pro-statehood New Progressive Party and pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party .
But it ’ s also likely due to the fact that elected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little real power , since Congress imposed an outside financial control board to run the island ’ s affairs four years ago .
So , what happened with this election ?
Well , first , the referendum was controversial because , unlike other status votes in the past , it only gave a choice of one status .
It asked a yes-or-no vote on statehood for Puerto Rico .
So voters had to choose either the current status of the control board or annexation to the United States .
It was , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no choice of independence or the current commonwealth or free association .
But because it was scheduled during a regular election , many voters were going to the polls anyway , and statehood ended up with 52 % of the vote , a bare majority .
No one expects Congress to grant statehood , however , even though an increasing number of Democrats and billionaire hedge fund types are pressing for statehood as a way to increase potential Democratic votes in the House and the Senate .
But the truly historic change came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of voters deserted the dinosaur duopoly of the pro-statehood and pro-commonwealth parties , that has alternated in power for more than 60 years .
Several minor parties ended up grabbing a third of all the votes cast .
The pro-statehood progressive party ’ s Pedro Pierluisi is right now barely in the lead for the governor ’ s race with just 32 % of the vote , over the Popular Democratic Party ’ s Carlos Delgado ’ s 31 % .
But the pro-independence candidate , Carlos Dalmau , amassed nearly 14 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote total for an independence candidate since the 1950s .
Meanwhile , Alexandra Lúgaro , candidate of the left-oriented Citizens ’ Victory party , also received 14 % of the vote .
And a new right-wing evangelical party , the party of Dignity , got 7 % .
More importantly , three candidates from the two left-wing parties got elected to the Puerto Rican Senate , thus creating their own version of the radical “ Squad ” that has become so famous here in the U.S. Congress .
They include Ana Irma Rivera @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ Victory party and the first lesbian woman of African descent elected to the Puerto Rican Senate .
They include Rafael Bernabe of the Workers ’ Party , who ran with Citizens ’ Victory for the Senate .
And it includes María de Lourdes Santiago of the Independence Party .
And finally , Manuel Natal of the Citizens ’ Victory has a small lead in the race for mayor of San Juan .
So , in short , Puerto Rican voters took a giant step Tuesday toward rejecting the legitimacy of the island @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refusing to vote altogether or by voting for new radical political candidates .
So there was significant progress in the political maturity of the Puerto Rican electorate as a result of Tuesday ’ s vote .
AMY GOODMAN : And , of course , we ’ ll continue to follow this .
Thanks so much , Juan .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
This is Democracy Now !

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We end today’s show looking at Tuesday’s election in Puerto Rico, where voters narrowly approved a nonbinding statehood referendum and elected four out candidates — among them, Afro-Puerto Rican human rights, feminist and LGBTQI activist Ana Irma Rivera Lassén. She was just elected to the Puerto Rican Senate. Her victory came months after she was mocked by the host of a Puerto Rican gossip show. She spoke with Democracy Now! about her historic win.
SEN.-ELECT ANA IRMA RIVERA LASSÉN: [translated] What it means is that I am an openly LGBTQI person and obviously Black woman. This is evidence of the need to recognize the intersections and the complexity of the discrimination that some of us may face. …
I’ve received messages of joy from many people, women, Afro-descendants, LGBTQI people, people from many communities in Puerto Rico, who are conscious of making a Puerto Rico that is more inclusive, a Puerto Rico that represents all of us, and in the building of a more inclusive country, push for sustainable economic development, search for a solution on our status as a U.S. colony, be a country that is not just divided on what our status should be, but a country that focuses on the inclusion to defend people’s human rights and the basic necessities for our people that the Puerto Rican government must respect and guarantee. We have to approach this through a lens of inclusion. …
What the Puerto Rican people said in the summer of 2019 is that they want transparency. They don’t want the two political parties that have been alternating power in Puerto Rico. I think this bipartisan dictatorship is over. And the people have selected candidates from diverse political parties to make up the legislative body. …
The Puerto Rican people are still in power, in the sense that they haven’t let go of it since the moment they took to the streets. They continue to be alert, and they still have the power.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, interviewed by Democracy Now!'s María Taracena. Juan, you've been closely following what’s happening in Puerto Rico, your own birthplace. Can you talk about that latest news?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Amy, while in the U.S. millions of us were mesmerized with the vote counting for president, the island of Puerto Rico had its own election on Tuesday that also produced a close race and historic results, but in a very different way. Puerto Ricans, after all, cannot cast ballots for president and do not have voting representatives in Congress, even though they are U.S. citizens, because the island remains a colonial territory of the United States. But they do vote every four years for their own governor, their own Senate and House of Representatives. And this year they also voted on a controversial referendum for the island’s future.
But unlike the U.S. voter turnout, the island saw an all-time low in turnout, just 51% of eligible voters, compared to levels that used to be, just a decade ago, around 80% or so. The plummeting turnout is no doubt due to disgust by many voters with the continued corruption of the two dominant parties, the pro-statehood New Progressive Party and pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party. But it’s also likely due to the fact that elected officials in Puerto Rico these days have little real power, since Congress imposed an outside financial control board to run the island’s affairs four years ago.
So, what happened with this election? Well, first, the referendum was controversial because, unlike other status votes in the past, it only gave a choice of one status. It asked a yes-or-no vote on statehood for Puerto Rico. So voters had to choose either the current status of the control board or annexation to the United States. It was, in short, a rigged referendum, with no choice of independence or the current commonwealth or free association. But because it was scheduled during a regular election, many voters were going to the polls anyway, and statehood ended up with 52% of the vote, a bare majority. No one expects Congress to grant statehood, however, even though an increasing number of Democrats and billionaire hedge fund types are pressing for statehood as a way to increase potential Democratic votes in the House and the Senate.
But the truly historic change came in the regular election. An unprecedented number of voters deserted the dinosaur duopoly of the pro-statehood and pro-commonwealth parties, that has alternated in power for more than 60 years. Several minor parties ended up grabbing a third of all the votes cast. The pro-statehood progressive party’s Pedro Pierluisi is right now barely in the lead for the governor’s race with just 32% of the vote, over the Popular Democratic Party’s Carlos Delgado’s 31%. But the pro-independence candidate, Carlos Dalmau, amassed nearly 14% of the vote, the highest vote total for an independence candidate since the 1950s. Meanwhile, Alexandra Lúgaro, candidate of the left-oriented Citizens’ Victory party, also received 14% of the vote. And a new right-wing evangelical party, the party of Dignity, got 7%.
More importantly, three candidates from the two left-wing parties got elected to the Puerto Rican Senate, thus creating their own version of the radical “Squad” that has become so famous here in the U.S. Congress. They include Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, a member of the Citizens’ Victory party and the first lesbian woman of African descent elected to the Puerto Rican Senate. They include Rafael Bernabe of the Workers’ Party, who ran with Citizens’ Victory for the Senate. And it includes María de Lourdes Santiago of the Independence Party. And finally, Manuel Natal of the Citizens’ Victory has a small lead in the race for mayor of San Juan.
So, in short, Puerto Rican voters took a giant step Tuesday toward rejecting the legitimacy of the island’s two-party system, either by refusing to vote altogether or by voting for new radical political candidates. So there was significant progress in the political maturity of the Puerto Rican electorate as a result of Tuesday’s vote.
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, we’ll continue to follow this. Thanks so much, Juan. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. This is Democracy Now!


democracynow--2020-11-06--Biden Pulls Ahead in Georgia: Blue Shift Follows Years of Community Organizing to Expand Electorate

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González , as we go to Georgia , where Joe Biden has pulled ahead of Donald Trump for the first time in an extraordinarily tight race for Georgia ’ s 16 electoral votes .
With more than 98 % reporting , Biden leads by more than 900 votes .
Election officials estimate between 5,000 to 10,000 votes remain to be counted .
On Thursday , Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gabriel Sterling , said a presidential recount is , quote , “ more than likely.
” He responded to a reporter ’ s question about election fairness and allegations of a , quote , “ rigged system.
” GABRIEL STERLING : Well , I think if anybody ’ s going to try to rig a system , they might have seen something a little bit less close than this .
That ’ s one .
Two , we have , in this process , 159 dedicated elections directors and their staff who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are working diligently every single day .
We have the — we know how many requests came in for absentee ballots .
We know how many ballots were received .
So , that is an outward bound , so nobody could suddenly show up with 100,000 extra ballots somewhere .
In this state , in particular , we take security very seriously .
… We ’ re going to have a recount for president , more than likely .
And people will see those outcomes stay essentially the same .
AMY GOODMAN : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shift to community organizers on the ground , including Stacey Abrams , who lost a hotly contested race for governor of Georgia in 2018 and claims of widespread voter suppression .
She has since been getting out the vote in Georgia with her organization , Fair Fight .
Well , for more , we go to Atlanta , where we ’ re joined by Anoa Changa .
She ’ s a freelance journalist based in Atlanta covering electoral justice and voting rights .
Georgia is turning everything on its head , Anoa .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ where he was ahead and now behind is all Democrat-run states .
Georgia is run by a Republican governor , Republican secretary of state .
There ’ s a whole Republican infrastructure there .
And it ’ s now flipped blue .
You also have the two Senate races that could well go to a runoff , and they could determine the balance of the Senate .
Talk about the significance of what ’ s happening in Georgia right now , Anoa .
ANOA CHANGA : Amy , thank you so much for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about what ’ s happening in Georgia and the ridiculous claims coming from the current president of the United States about fraud , which have been debunked time and time again .
And as you just astutely pointed out , Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger are actually Republicans and have been in control of the state of Georgia for the last 10 years , with Brian Kemp previously serving also as secretary of state , and notably in 2018 being — overseeing his own election to the governorship , right ?
So , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the continuation of work , as you pointed out , with Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight post-2018 , but also also organizations like the New Georgia Project , founded in 2013 and 2014 by Stacey Abrams and Nse Ufot , who serves as the current CEO .
You also have Black Voters Matter , the Georgia People ’ s Agenda .
You have so many amazing organizations — Asian Americans Advancing Justice .
There has been a wide investment that has been deeply driven by community to expand the electorate and also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , AAPI and other voters , progressive voters , young voters , is what was going to shift Georgia to a state that actually respected all people , regardless of their citizenship status , regardless of their income , etc.
, and actually bring about opportunity to change .
We are still a state that has not had Medicaid expansion , among other things .
And so , what we ’ re seeing right now is a culmination of several years , if not more , of the work of many Georgians to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been under the control of centrist , moderate , white Dem leadership that lost the state back in 2010 .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Anoa , while the focus has been on the presidential race and also those Senate races , the U.S. Senate races , there have been quite a few changes in down-ballot races .
Could you talk about what ’ s happening in some of the sheriff races , as well ?
ANOA CHANGA : Yeah .
I mean , right here in the metro Atlanta area , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Cobb County and Gwinnett County , again , a part of the long-term work that ’ s being pushed , that flipped two sheriffs that do not support participation in 287 ( g ) .
So , you have new sheriffs coming in who are willing to withdraw support from the 287 ( g ) program .
If folks are not familiar with that , that is a cooperation agreement between law enforcement and ICE .
And that has been a major victory , among some other issues around detention and racial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black organizers , like folks , have been working on around the state .
We also saw Deborah Gonzalez , who is a candidate for DA , go into a runoff .
Deborah had to sue the state multiple times for her race to even happen , as it was canceled previously to allow the appointed position to — the appointed person to remain in that position .
So , Deborah Gonzalez is now moving forward in Athens County .
That ’ s the Western District DA race .
We also saw Jackie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery out of jail — we saw Jackie Johnson lose her race , as well .
So we ’ re seeing a lot happening .
We ’ ve seen several shifts in folks flipping House district races , as well .
I mean , there ’ s just been a lot happening across state .
A couple of county commissioner seats have been picked up .
It ’ s just been a lot .
And again , that ’ s a testament to the grassroots organizing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in line with the Democratic Party , and some of it has been — most of it has been outside of traditional party politics , the traditional candidates .
AMY GOODMAN : And these two Senate races , the significance ?
I mean , if you have both Senate races go to a runoff in January , the whole country — and possibly a call for a recount , if it ’ s really razor thin between Joe Biden and President Trump — the entire country will be turning to Georgia , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yeah .
I mean , what we have known here in Georgia , what we have seen , because trusting in the work of local organizers and then also just looking at the numbers on the map , in terms of , like , who the new voters are , who were the existing voters that have not been touched — people have been doing organizing work in Southwest Georgia , down in Dodge County , despite hurricanes and other incidents .
So folks know that these Senate seats are not just important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to flip them , but also in terms of the balance of power , in terms of the whole nation and the Senate .
But with that is coming a mandate from Georgians , in terms of making sure that the South , as a whole — because it ’ s not just about Georgia .
It ’ s about the whole South .
We ’ ve seen amazing victories across the South .
And that is attributed to deep organizing that has happened across the region , that tends to be Black- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And so , we know that we need a fundamental reimagining of how we engage in politics in this country , as well as how we examine and talk about different states , whether we ’ re talking about rural voters and the work that rural organizers are doing , or we ’ re talking about , quote-unquote , “ red versus blue ” state .
It ’ s amazing to wake up this morning to the work and to see proof of concept for everyone else to understand what we know to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we look at Mississippi and Mississippi voters overturning a remnant of Jim Crow that had its own version of basically an Electoral College , that basically prevented Black — anyone Black or of color to ever win statewide .
We see , in Alamance County , North Carolina , which recently made news for the attack on voters , just elected its first Latino to the state House .
We have seen , like , amazing efforts across the board .
Florida flipped to — or , Florida supported a $ 15 minimum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there .
The investment just needs to happen .
And it can ’ t just be aligned with whether or not people are going to build up or be the backbone of the Democratic Party .
It has to be grounded in the people ’ s interests and what is for the greater good , and really putting democracy back in the center of all of our focus , and not worrying about paying attention to bothsidesism and so-called objectivity .
AMY GOODMAN : Anoa Changa , I want to thank you very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalist based in Atlanta , Georgia , covering electoral justice and voting rights .
And this just in : We have these reports that are coming in from Pennsylvania .
Joe Biden has just taken a narrow lead in Pennsylvania by more than 5,000 votes — again , has flipped Pennsylvania by more than 5,000 votes .
There are still tens of thousands of votes to be counted .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we go to Georgia, where Joe Biden has pulled ahead of Donald Trump for the first time in an extraordinarily tight race for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. With more than 98% reporting, Biden leads by more than 900 votes. Election officials estimate between 5,000 to 10,000 votes remain to be counted. On Thursday, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, Gabriel Sterling, said a presidential recount is, quote, “more than likely.” He responded to a reporter’s question about election fairness and allegations of a, quote, “rigged system.”
GABRIEL STERLING: Well, I think if anybody’s going to try to rig a system, they might have seen something a little bit less close than this. That’s one. Two, we have, in this process, 159 dedicated elections directors and their staff who are working to get this right. They are working diligently every single day. We have the — we know how many requests came in for absentee ballots. We know how many ballots were received. So, that is an outward bound, so nobody could suddenly show up with 100,000 extra ballots somewhere. In this state, in particular, we take security very seriously. … We’re going to have a recount for president, more than likely. And people will see those outcomes stay essentially the same.
AMY GOODMAN: Many are crediting Georgia’s blue shift to community organizers on the ground, including Stacey Abrams, who lost a hotly contested race for governor of Georgia in 2018 and claims of widespread voter suppression. She has since been getting out the vote in Georgia with her organization, Fair Fight.
Well, for more, we go to Atlanta, where we’re joined by Anoa Changa. She’s a freelance journalist based in Atlanta covering electoral justice and voting rights.
Georgia is turning everything on its head, Anoa. You have Trump alleging fraud, saying where he was ahead and now behind is all Democrat-run states. Georgia is run by a Republican governor, Republican secretary of state. There’s a whole Republican infrastructure there. And it’s now flipped blue. You also have the two Senate races that could well go to a runoff, and they could determine the balance of the Senate. Talk about the significance of what’s happening in Georgia right now, Anoa.
ANOA CHANGA: Amy, thank you so much for making some time for us to talk about what’s happening in Georgia and the ridiculous claims coming from the current president of the United States about fraud, which have been debunked time and time again. And as you just astutely pointed out, Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger are actually Republicans and have been in control of the state of Georgia for the last 10 years, with Brian Kemp previously serving also as secretary of state, and notably in 2018 being — overseeing his own election to the governorship, right?
So, what we’re seeing right now is the continuation of work, as you pointed out, with Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight post-2018, but also also organizations like the New Georgia Project, founded in 2013 and 2014 by Stacey Abrams and Nse Ufot, who serves as the current CEO. You also have Black Voters Matter, the Georgia People’s Agenda. You have so many amazing organizations — Asian Americans Advancing Justice. There has been a wide investment that has been deeply driven by community to expand the electorate and also recognizes the coalition of Black, Latinx, AAPI and other voters, progressive voters, young voters, is what was going to shift Georgia to a state that actually respected all people, regardless of their citizenship status, regardless of their income, etc., and actually bring about opportunity to change. We are still a state that has not had Medicaid expansion, among other things. And so, what we’re seeing right now is a culmination of several years, if not more, of the work of many Georgians to reset the state back from where it has been under the control of centrist, moderate, white Dem leadership that lost the state back in 2010.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Anoa, while the focus has been on the presidential race and also those Senate races, the U.S. Senate races, there have been quite a few changes in down-ballot races. Could you talk about what’s happening in some of the sheriff races, as well?
ANOA CHANGA: Yeah. I mean, right here in the metro Atlanta area, we just saw two candidates for sheriff in Cobb County and Gwinnett County, again, a part of the long-term work that’s being pushed, that flipped two sheriffs that do not support participation in 287(g). So, you have new sheriffs coming in who are willing to withdraw support from the 287(g) program. If folks are not familiar with that, that is a cooperation agreement between law enforcement and ICE. And that has been a major victory, among some other issues around detention and racial profiling that Latinx organizers, AAPI, Black organizers, like folks, have been working on around the state.
We also saw Deborah Gonzalez, who is a candidate for DA, go into a runoff. Deborah had to sue the state multiple times for her race to even happen, as it was canceled previously to allow the appointed position to — the appointed person to remain in that position. So, Deborah Gonzalez is now moving forward in Athens County. That’s the Western District DA race.
We also saw Jackie Johnson, the corrupt DA who conspired to keep the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery out of jail — we saw Jackie Johnson lose her race, as well.
So we’re seeing a lot happening. We’ve seen several shifts in folks flipping House district races, as well. I mean, there’s just been a lot happening across state. A couple of county commissioner seats have been picked up. It’s just been a lot. And again, that’s a testament to the grassroots organizing that has been happening, some of it in line with the Democratic Party, and some of it has been — most of it has been outside of traditional party politics, the traditional candidates.
AMY GOODMAN: And these two Senate races, the significance? I mean, if you have both Senate races go to a runoff in January, the whole country — and possibly a call for a recount, if it’s really razor thin between Joe Biden and President Trump — the entire country will be turning to Georgia, to say the least.
ANOA CHANGA: Yeah. I mean, what we have known here in Georgia, what we have seen, because trusting in the work of local organizers and then also just looking at the numbers on the map, in terms of, like, who the new voters are, who were the existing voters that have not been touched — people have been doing organizing work in Southwest Georgia, down in Dodge County, despite hurricanes and other incidents. So folks know that these Senate seats are not just important to Georgia in terms of being able to flip them, but also in terms of the balance of power, in terms of the whole nation and the Senate.
But with that is coming a mandate from Georgians, in terms of making sure that the South, as a whole — because it’s not just about Georgia. It’s about the whole South. We’ve seen amazing victories across the South. And that is attributed to deep organizing that has happened across the region, that tends to be Black-, Indigenous-, POC-led, right? And so, we know that we need a fundamental reimagining of how we engage in politics in this country, as well as how we examine and talk about different states, whether we’re talking about rural voters and the work that rural organizers are doing, or we’re talking about, quote-unquote, “red versus blue” state.
It’s amazing to wake up this morning to the work and to see proof of concept for everyone else to understand what we know to be true here in Georgia. when we look at Mississippi and Mississippi voters overturning a remnant of Jim Crow that had its own version of basically an Electoral College, that basically prevented Black — anyone Black or of color to ever win statewide. We see, in Alamance County, North Carolina, which recently made news for the attack on voters, just elected its first Latino to the state House. We have seen, like, amazing efforts across the board. Florida flipped to — or, Florida supported a $15 minimum wage.
So, the work is there. The investment just needs to happen. And it can’t just be aligned with whether or not people are going to build up or be the backbone of the Democratic Party. It has to be grounded in the people’s interests and what is for the greater good, and really putting democracy back in the center of all of our focus, and not worrying about paying attention to bothsidesism and so-called objectivity.
AMY GOODMAN: Anoa Changa, I want to thank you very much for being with us, freelance journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia, covering electoral justice and voting rights.
And this just in: We have these reports that are coming in from Pennsylvania. Joe Biden has just taken a narrow lead in Pennsylvania by more than 5,000 votes — again, has flipped Pennsylvania by more than 5,000 votes. There are still tens of thousands of votes to be counted.