The Hard Truth: Why Democrats Lost Ohio in 2024
00:00:21 round a he yeah round oh ladies and gentlemen rocking with a go hey we going to just get started here today we had a little technical difficulties getting things going but we gonna get jumped right on into our program today I want to thank everybody who came on this morning um or this afternoon to help us out with this program this is a recap of the last election here in kyoga county and um what took place here in our County as it relates to the last election we have a few guests that are going to be on today to help us with that I want to first before we get
00:03:36 started on talking about that I want to introduce our DJ DJ true he is our producer of the podcast he’s having some technical difficulties this morning and trying to get his microphone working but we G we gonna try to work through it and everything else but wanted to start the program off by first saying that I want to give a shout out to a few people who helped us in this last election and getting things going I want to give a big shout out to congresswoman uh Shantel Brown for all the work that she’s done she did over this last election and working hard to try to
00:04:11 get these Democrats elected here not just here but nationally traveling the country doing her thing as well as um secretary Marsha fudge for all the work she did to help us in our efforts and trying to get um um black men involved in the process this year and um all the work that we did with her I want to give a shout out to her and I also want to give thanks to a few of the other people we had the CWA who came on board to help us also in our efforts with um the Thousand man boots on the ground campaign that we put together and um we really want to give a shout out to them and thank
00:04:49 them for all the work and everything else they did I want to give uh one quick pause for one second I got Mr cite calling us trying to get on board give me one quick second p we’ll be right back um I wanted to also give a shout out to him for all the work he did to help us pull all of that together without blame helping us pull that together it was going to be really hard for us but we did great with that uh congresswoman um ailia sites she worked with us also we traveled to state of Ohio doing Barber Shop talks and beauty shop not beauty shop but Barber Shop
00:06:07 talks talking the brothers and barber shops we did it here in Cleveland we did three shows here in Cleveland and we did I went out to akan and did a big um kickoff there in akan for um in honor of um congresswoman ailia sites um we did a kickoff here in kyoga County as well we did a big boots on the ground um picnic we did two of those this year to try to as many guys out to Canvas so I think we did a lot of efforts here in kyoga County to try to get africanamerican men engaged in the process
00:06:39 our goal when we first started on this thing was to initially just get men involved in the process because we felt that if it was going to come down to Joe Biden and um president um Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the election that African-American men would had to would have to make a real decision on where they were going to in as it relates to business and other things as it relates to their interest so we felt that it was a very strong need to get africanamerican men in once it became comma Harris we knew that African-American men was going to be crucial but most of us by all
00:07:14 means always always support the sisters that are in and we support our sisters so we knew we were going to get behind them but we knew it was going to be a challenge because there were some things that the Democratic party was just not addressing and we knew that early on in this thing and we wanted to be able to um have some of those things in place or try to get in front of that and trying to make those things happen we also going to talk a little bit about the shered brown race because shered Brown affected our community as well we know that he him being the biggest race coming in
00:07:47 and um from a Statewide perspective we knew that it was going to be important for Sher to win in order for our Supreme Court candidates to do well as as as well so I want to talk a little bit about that so I got some special guests who’s going to join us to get into some of these discussions with us with us today I have um antoan seite who’s going to come on he has uh been um working with us here a lot of you guys know who he is he’s been working with us from um in Cleveland and he’s also very very tight with congresswoman Shantel Brown as her new uh friend and deed and friend in need
00:08:25 and everything of that nature and that’s her new boo she say so that’s Mr C right we’re going to hear from him he’s going to talk a little bit about the national as well as local I have Congress I mean here I go I have Council woman Stephanie house Jones who’s going to be on as well to talk a little bit about what the women was doing on our program and what the women was doing over this election process and as well as some insight about the city of Cleveland and rounding out our panel is going to be none other than um our CH our party chairman um Dave Brock and we’re
00:08:58 going to talk a little bit about about KY hogga County and some of those things so but I want to introduce everybody we get started want to take a few minutes to bring Mr Antoine C on so everybody Mr Antoine SE white welcome to the program sir well well Ken let me just start from a place of gratitude and say thank you to the work that you and your team done uh throughout this cycle uh to make certain that we were positioned uh to win uh we know that politics can be a game of a 50-50 jump ball and it’s all about infrastructure it’s all about engagement it’s all about positioning
00:09:34 so let me thank you for the work that you did to bring untraditional non-traditional people into the fold and get them interested in this business called politics because we know even if you don’t do politics politics will end up doing you and then on the note of gratitude Ken let me just say thank you to the people who invested their money their time their blood their sweat their tears people who volunteered wouldn’t paid a dime sometimes paid no attention to make certain that we have the right to participate at that Ballot Box the election did not go our way but
00:10:12 so many things could have went totally even more wrong if people did not volunteer their time resource and so forth so I think we should start at that place let me just try to do my best to frame the election for you uh period Point Blank we lost we lost uh and I learned the book of curn has always taught me every day every day after election the boss always calls and says remember this when you win brag gently when you lose weep softly I’ve been hearing that message for 20 plus years now after every election and that’s how I first started to digest this election and so in
00:10:54 doing that Kim what I also learned throughout this process is that it’s easier to be angry than it is informed and if you look at our candidates up and down the ballot on the Democratic side it wasn’t necessarily a vote for the Republicans this was an election that was a vote against the Democrats whether it was the top of the ticket Joe Biden and and or comell Harris in Ohio’s case shared Brown whether it was a vote against that or whether it was a simply protest vote not voting at all in which I hope that we will talk about that part a little more because in kyook County there was a
00:11:35 large share of Voters who did not pro did not vote at all I called that a proest protest vote and so there was a lot of e easier to than informed when it’s all said and done and we’re still counting votes unfortunately there were three pivotal pieces to this election one it was microeconomics I describe it on television as theonomics my personal economy not not the macroeconomics not the fact that we created 16 million jobs lowers unemployment on record Clos the racial wealth Gap not all those things it’s my personal economics things I can feel right away I don’t think we did
00:12:13 a good enough job of framing those conversations to people to tell them yes on paper it may be perceived that your life was better four years ago but we had a once in the centy pandemic and there was so many things that changed the Dynamics of our everyday quality life we did not do that and we did not talk enough Ken about our successes you know because you and I were together on a number of vacations I spent so much time till it got to be redundant talking about the accomplishments of this administration because if you look at the exits workingclass white rule voters had had two
00:12:51 things to say one they did not feel like Democrats were relatable to them but two they could not artic our policies and how their life was better off when 70% of the voters say that their life was better off four years ago that’s because we did not message properly and message to the right people and so that was part of the other part was just change this the change works for us sometimes Democrats but in this case it worked against us and there are a million and one ways we can frame of why that happened why it did happen what I do know is that when you see a surge in
00:13:27 Latino voters men and women when you see a surge in white women when you see a surge in white men that we’ve probably never seen before in a Moder day presidential election and then when you see the lack of participation among young voters that ought to tell you that this was a change election that we were not in theory prepared for and then the third element Ken was immigration now there’s a historical argument to be made that the two Democratic topof the ticket presid presidents who leaned in on immigration front Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in fact they called Barack
00:14:05 Obama the deporter and chief had success in his re-election because he leaned hard on immigration how we addressed that issue arguably played a role in the election and then the fourth piece that we’ve been hearing a lot more about is the whole transgender issue I know every single ad in Ohio I feel like every time I turn the TV on or listen to a radio ad was shared Brown supports taxpayers dollars going towards transgender or it was little boys playing girl Sports these are the things that
00:14:38 in the exit polling that ultimately decided that this is how this election was going to play out it doesn’t mean that misogyny did not exist it does not mean that racism did not exist but people voted first with their wallet two on the issue of changing and three on the issue of immigration and then there was certain other things that come into the conversation uh and so we so so why didn’t you think they pushed back on any of that why didn’t you why you think that you know the Sher Brown as well as some of these uh uh National the thing on the transgender and other
00:15:13 things that was coming out it was it was never no push back no fight no one did anything to try to what what you was up in the in the think tank of this why wasn’t there any push back well part of it is we pride ourselves in being a diverse party uh and an inclusive party with that we welcome diversity in all forms that means transgender that means lgbtq that means short that means tall that means wide that means slim every version of diversity you can think of we welcome that and so I I think that’s how we frame that conversation or even how we respond to that I think is going to
00:15:51 determine not whether that’s used as a weapon of political mass destruction or distraction against us in the future uh and I think that’s going to be important that’s one of the lessons we have to learn and have some serious evaluation about when it comes to selection how do we talk about these issues in such a way that it does not NE it does not push away one side but it also does not give these people a reason give the the these Americans these individuals a reason to not feel included at our table because we pride ourselves on being a big tent party now shered brown did respond to the
00:16:28 ad was that enough and was that the only reason he was defeated no but broadly speaking did that play a role according to the exit polling yes and according to some of the research we’ve seen yes uh and I think we cannot ignore that that that was part of the issue that gave people a reason to vote again against the Democratic brand know many people seem to feel as if the Democratic party is not supporting or or listening to its base voter the black men the black women of that party in order to be successful how do you see the party moving in that
00:17:04 direction moving forward and still be a party of everybody well let me be very clear usually after these elections when it don’t doesn’t go our way folks will easily yell it’s because black voters did not show up or black voters did not part let me be very clear black folks did our black jobs when you get 78% of black men voting for The Democratic candidates and you get 92% of black women voting for The Democratic cause we didn’t have we did not have an African-American problem doesn’t mean we did not we could not have done a better job of getting more votes but by and large
00:17:44 I’m not speaking directly to Ohio I’m saying largely speaking black voters showed up do we have work to do absolutely can Democrats afford to take black voters for granted no but we did not have per se a CBC problem as I heard someone say we arguably had a CHC problem Hispanic voters we also had a white workingclass voters and let me also be clear about one thing when you hear these narratives Being Framed about this election black people are Working Class People too but we voted that’s correct we did not see the numbers we needed was with white workingclass voters in
00:18:18 Rural America and so we’ve got to take these lessons and learn from them two things happen in elections K and I say this all the time you either win or you learn you do not lose mhm and so often when we win we don’t take the time to learn and so we seen slippage over time with some of these constituencies but it all came to a head in this election because people had a real reason in their minds to vote against us now from a republican standpoint let me tell you where they where their intentions were they wanted to increase the electric by a 3% masculinity
00:18:55 increased they wanted to make this about men so they went across the country on college campuses registering young white fraternities men and also being very intentional and targeting white men voters all across the country Ohio and others the seven Battleground States and making with a hope to increase the electorate by 3% when it comes to masculinity they were successful in many ways because if you see how people voted they increase the share of white male voters the the other piece they were successful doing is convincing white women in this country that they presented them a
00:19:35 better opportunity from an economic bill of health from a social bill of health and every other bill of health you can imagine and so you saw a surge in white women and then with the immigration issue what they were able to do was have this cultural conversation with a lean on macroeconomics and made Latino voters men and women young and not so young feel like presented a bigger case it did not matter that we wanted a bipartisan piece of legislation on the border none of that [ __ ] none of that stuff Matter What mattered is this was an emotional election that they were able to
00:20:10 tap into anger frustration confusion and fear and use that as a driving divisive tool to turn out certain targeted constituencies to get across the fin line now let me just say this our candidates have a responsibility to take blame for not running the type of campaign that was required of them in this moment I cannot tell you Ken and I’m being transparent the number of African-Americans in Ohio they came to me privately and publicly said what about us it doesn’t mean that shant Brown con for congress did not do its job but when you have a top of the ticket that’s driving the
00:20:50 conversation that requires a top down and bottom up strategy we did not in such a way that people felt connected enough it doesn’t mean that shared Brown did not run a campaign good campaign it just means people did not feel the campaign through and through and I think we have to do some very honest evaluating about that same thing in other parts of the country I’m using that as an example because I know you’re based in Ohio I knew there was a collective effort to engage on this race because it became one of the most expensive races in American history from a senatorial standpoint
00:21:28 no there was serious a disconnect in Ohio with what was going on with that and it obviously it came from the top down because of the numbers show that um with the rise of support for Trump y among young black um suggesting a dis it it suggest a real disconnect in the messaging for the Democrats what’s what specific policies and um areas do you think the Democrats are failing to address that is going to attract these young black men back to the party well I push back on that Kim because I don’t think that uh Trump had this big surge of young black men uh 78% of black
00:22:06 men voted for k Harris the second most loyal second largest voting Block in this election cycle next to black women Trump got the same percentage he got four years ago when it come to black men that says a lot because considering as I said many times across the country we had a 7% increase in eligible black participation so with more black Americans able to participate 37 30 some odd plus million voters he got the same percentage I think that says to us that we held our line and so do we have work to do with black men yes but is the expectation for us to win 100%
00:22:42 of black men or black women no because black men or black people are not monly we don’t just go with the flow I I contend that we’re more provalue and anti- institution than any other constituents in the country but also this notion that somehow another Trump’s policy policies connected to black men more than KLA Harris I think that’s [ __ ] and I and I’ll tell you why because Trump didn’t put forth the policy agenda that’s right no person can tell me Donald Trump had a policy agenda for them
00:23:13 other than the wealthy and the well-connected because he declared he was going to get tax breaks white women can’t say that Latino voters cannot say that the only thing he said was we’re g to drill baby drill we’re gonna give we’re gonna Implement Reiner the Trump tax credits and we’re gonna cut down the border on the other side K Harris talked about building a hom she had put out a black men’s agenda she talk about extend extending the child tax credit she talked about signing the bipartisan uh border and security legislation she talked about taking medical
00:23:45 debt off your credit report she talked about capping the price of insulin for everybody I mean she put together a literally policy plan and that didn’t matter because politics have become more emotional then they have more page and I say page meaning a script manual about a policy agenda and I think we have to be honest with ourselves and get into the business of f inomics get into the business of connecting with folks meeting when meeting them where they are and not just waiting two three weeks before the election and say let’s insert Beyonce let’s insert you know
00:24:21 whomever whatever star into the conversation and say that’s going to drive the narrative I’m not saying we got it all right I don’t want anybody hear me and say we got it all right or I’m not saying that there was anything magical other than we did not get it together we did not have it together we did not communicate properly we did not meet folks where they are and we have to continue learning the lessons from this election I had a question from um Anthony Simmons from Facebook he writes how Republicans are able to get away with the language the transgender language
00:24:55 and having two high ranking transgender elected well in the words of Kendrick Lamar they not like us and our H workor is not great at the same and they can get away with calling Mexicans rapist and thugs they G they can get away with saying we’re gonna Deport you they can get away with saying that Puerto Rico is a a a garbing Alish float all the stuff that Trump said and did they can get away with being a convicted F like none of that matter right and we spent a lot of time talking about and trying to analyze those things when every day people just wanted
00:25:34 to know that I in the words of Bill Clinton 1994 I think it was in Iowa I feel your pain right we did not show up with empathy enough we did not meet folks where they are I think strategically we could have responded in some places while we were introducing the vice president the other the other thing is I think people forget Donald Trump spent the career being on television being a star a marketing he spent another 10 years Ken running for a political office yeah Harris although she was elected to all these roles and I’m not making excuses people are still getting to know her what
00:26:13 showing up at The Ballot Box is all about is a demonstration of trust and so if I don’t know you I can’t trust you you know what you’re gonna get from Donald Trump whether you agree or not you know what you’re going to get and he’s proven that with these appointees people who would not get an interview for some of the jobs they’ve been already nominated for people knew that and they rather say I’m willing to take a chance on that again versus taking a chance on someone where I’m not clear about where they stand on whatever issue it may be hey we’re going to add
00:26:46 now our other guest to the program I’m going to bring in for us now we’re going to add to the discussion um councilwoman Stephanie house and we’re also adding now our our County party chairman David Brock we’re going to continue the conversation a little bit more councilwoman thanks for coming on the program uh we gotta want to see if you want to respond to any of the things that um Mr cight had just said no I don’t really have too much to say from him I will still say that America is being America like I I think all like I I hear what people are saying
00:27:22 about messaging and strategy and things of that nature when you are embarking on something that has never been done America America you know we still have a a system fundamentally that is based on a white supremacy model right um we have a society that teaches us that women cannot aspire to hire you know the the top echelons of of of leadership um especially politically you know um and that’s what and the fact that you had 107 days to do it you know I there were just a lot of things that were um in front of us I will say that that’s a part that’s a part
00:28:02 of it that’s the foundation of it right and then separately um just when you have collectively as Democrats the need to communicate um is just it is sorely lacking and it’s not communicating only during the election year like communicating in your service right when you as like everyday residents they have absolutely no idea what any of us do absolutely no idea what we do and I’m saying that you know as a fully elected person and if you say you’re doing all these things and know many of us are logging many many hours 14 hour days 15 hour days you doing all
00:28:50 this work but if the people that you are serving don’t know what you’re doing you’re not doing anything and that is one of fundamental problems that I I I find for just here in Cleveland and in kyoga County and in Ohio is that those of us who are elected Democrats are not doing a good job to communicate how we are showing up each and every day for people right that is the fundamental problem well that’s in addition to the foundation of America and in the system but the communication is Sly likely which makes it much more easier for people to depress the vote when people are just
00:29:28 putting out all this negative energy a lot of people just throw up their hands and say no one they’re all the same right when you hear they’re all the same baby if we were communicating and we show up and we can communicate with people in the policies that we’re doing how we are actually serving people you know I mean again the biggest things when people talk about the re um refundable uhh uh child child tax credit like most people had no idea again the reason those checks that family were getting to ensure that babies can eat over the summertime most people had no they don’t know
00:30:04 the connection they don’t know who did they didn’t know Senator Sher Brown representative congresswoman Chantel Brown we delivering on those things right for your every day life right um and until we are able to effectively communicate with our people right you always got to start at home we got to communicate to our people how we are delivering from them and then we can go and build and and and and grow from there um but just even in this year we didn’t even communicate with our own with our own people and that’s why you had you know less you know less people really um turning
00:30:39 out to vote in some of the communities that we needed compared to even in the during the global pandemic we gonna come back to that statement I’m gonna give our chairman a chance to open up also but I’m gonna come right back to that because uh the question I want to know is why did we fail to deliver in that uh uh chairman Brock you have anything you want to add to uh what Mr cite said yeah I thought he hit the nail on the head with um all that he said um the microeconomics versus macroeconomics is 100% true we we Democrats talked often about um more people working than
00:31:16 ever in American history but it doesn’t resonate when costs go up um and even if those costs are uh small at one time they add up over time and I think the notion of a protest vote as Antoine said said makes perfect sense because it is a sense of agency that voters themselves are taking to make a conscious decision not to show up because of what the councilwoman is saying or what you’re saying Ken that they’re all the same um and they’re not looking out for me and I think that so I think that’s 100% right um in where we’re going and and what happened so yeah but we’re all in
00:31:53 this together I mean Democrats have to realize that above and beyond everything else we are all in this together as Democrats and that needs to be emphasized I think Ken one of the things that I chair I hope that you do and Council woman and others is you know so so often the easiest thing to do is just say we lost and moved on but I hope that we with Precision take the county divide it up elected official however you do it Precinct by Precinct and make the comparison to 2024 2020 2022 and the special election because there was something different and it’s not sometimes it’s
00:32:40 just the basics and look I know folks did as much as they could I don’t know if it was no they didn’t no I let me interject no they did not and I think that’s and not everybody not everybody not did what they right not everybody but I think we have to be honest and actually look at the numbers versus making the emotional assumptions and say look this is where the drop off happened this is where we got to spend our time like if we don’t if if there was no real plan on paper to look at previous elections and say okay this is where we have to overperform this is where we
00:33:14 have the under this is where we may underperform here are new voters here are voters who may have voted in midterms not presidentials may not have voted since Barack Obama may not have voted since Hillary Clinton you know all the magical things that you would do in having a campaign strategy if we don’t have that then we lost from the start and I don’t know if that existed before the election what I can tell you is we now have an opportunity before 2025 and going into 2026 I don’t think it existed and I I have to be the one that says that I I think there was a
00:33:51 plan for the and I can’t speak on the county um for what the county did or the state did but I I and I believe that they always have a plan to do something but for whatever reason um I agree with um the council woman and the fact that um I believe that um there was a um I believe with I’m with the councilwoman I don’t think that there was a lack of something that was really missing in our um this election I don’t want to say it was leadership because we had leaders in position asking people to do what they needed to do trying to put stuff out there there was a issue where um
00:34:35 but then we had some leaders who wasn’t pushing it out there and it and wasn’t allowing that to happen and and and I think that was a serious problem for us I think campaigns only work from the top down like you say and the bottom up I think the bottom up wanted to work I really do but I think the top down was really shutting it down and when the bottom up is a a fragile piece of people they and if they don’t feel that they’re getting what they get they’re going to move away because they’re fragile in the first place and it didn’t it it I I it came down to like yard signs
00:35:11 you know we you had to pay for yard signs um for the election this round um which made people feel like there was no election and people didn’t care you know there they the um I don’t even think KLA Harris mailed to Ohio this round so we never got anything that ask us to vote for her or anyone along those lines so I I think that that right there was a issue and then coming from the shered brown side I’ll be the first to say he just didn’t do a good job of reaching out to African-Americans he didn’t do a good job of reaching out to our community and and other communities in order to
00:35:48 help us put together the energy that it takes in order to Galvanize our community we didn’t do any real serious canvasing in our community Community any PID canvasing that would have got into the community to drive people to vote so I think all of that had it in spite of all of that you know the county did still have a 71% turnout um it was a little lower than previous years in 2024 um and other years since then but the county did have that on the east side with the lower turnout that we talked about African-Americans still voted at a higher percentage per precinct for KLA Harris and
00:36:28 Democratic candidates than any other area in kyoga County so we can say that African-Americans did do that um but on the Statewide end and I I throw this question to you um um c um David is that um we lost everything in the state and we lost all our Supreme Court races we and shered brown lost as well um what do you see and what is the stuff that you’re getting back from the people and and the district now because they can’t be happy with what just took place I mean we as they say we got our ass kicked all across the board this this is just you know how it is so how do you see
00:37:10 us moving on and what is the Democratic party locally um next steps you think that they want to do to sort of start to b or fix some of this yeah I think some of it gets into the notion of national headwinds uh that impacted everything essentially this country uh mooves six points to the right or towards Trump um if you consider that Biden won the popular vote by four and a half points and uh Trump will have won it by a point and a half this time um there was slight rightward movement in this County and more so in the state um but nonetheless those are significant when you
00:37:47 add them up um the party and this gets touches a little bit about pom councilwoman house Jones is saying is um we need to do a better job in this County I think promoting um Democratic especially local Democratic successes um a lot of people don’t know what council members do no one seems to know what County Council does in this County um but we need to talk so when um the Cleveland City Council passes medical debt relief that’s something that we need to do and also Cleveland next year for the first time in decades and decades we’ll see a population increase um
00:38:21 the party has never um to my understanding done large scale voter registration there’s several great groups who do do that in this County uh but I think this County uh party can undertake this especially because we will see Cleveland grow um but a lot of what everyone has already said is true um at the state level sharid Brown was anticipating uh Trump winning by eight and he won by 11 and that um impacted and I think the criticisms you’ve made uh Ken are quite fair and accurate Ken if I can just say look at the end of the day kayoga Summit and I forget the other one
00:39:03 but those are three big must not plus counties in our in in Ohio and Dave I don’t know if you had a plan on paper or what but if we did not have in retrospect if we did not have a serious engagement strategy with the most resources that a state party will have in any other time having a Senatorial race at the top of the ticket and a presidential year if we didn’t not have a serious plan to meet folks where they are to get them involved you can cancel Christmas on 2026 because you will not have a presidential race driving energy and attention in the same
00:39:52 way in 2020 it’s all going to be down the ballot I don’t know if people are going to be serious about uh you know coming out to vote considering what they see now and so I think we all have to do some serious evaluating about this election and what it actually means candidates that are running need to run for go get your votes like that is every candidate’s responsibility it is not you know I don’t I do not expect anybody to run my race for me and I truly believe that there has to be real expectations
00:40:35 for candidates who are on the ballot if you ask candidates what’s your win number can they tell you do they know how many how many votes they need to get out of each Precinct you know what I’m saying that’s every candidate’s responsibility and there is a level of disconnect act um I just know that we have the opportunity um for candidates that are seeking to go through you know our Democratic party you know that is a strategy but there’s also like just in community um I think I know communities are showing especially when we know there
00:41:20 is synergy like a community inm right there was 1600 people less that voted this time then in 2020 the last presidential election and I know it is absolutely connected because candidates did not even Court them you can be assured you will not get a get a vote that you don’t ask for we had candidates that never asked you know and I just so so so what you’re saying is you believe the candidates didn’t work hard enough that’s exactly what I’m saying I can tell you I can tell you hands down in my neighborhood they
00:42:03 didn’t come here share it a little share BR a little right but virtually none of the other candidates from judges State you know other I hope the I hope the congresswoman came to your neighborhood again again I’m not I’m just being but I know it’s because you are in of the the communities that has a low voter turnout people just brush it off to the side right that’s correct and like we don’t need to you know we don’t need to go there but I’m just saying it’s just like there was a little bit done but was every were all the targets um identified are
00:42:44 people connecting to no and you can ask people you know and I tell people do the Everyday People test ask the people who were on you know um who even voted in the special elections were they courted you know what I’m saying like I said it was not like somebody may have done a Precinct right but again when you have 22 precincts and you only focus on one Precinct and again that’s one of the things of even if you are a candidate talk to the people that’s in the community it’s like hey I can you know this is what I need to get done for my community can you help me out right I just
00:43:16 did you know a little bit with a little bit of resources you know I had like about $7,000 that I fund Raise Myself to do you know to do Outreach which I did that um but again when you don’t have you don’t have literature from candidates you don’t have like messaging points to tell you know even to share with people how will people deliver for them you know it’s really hard or even for some like and again there so many judges of even knowing how they gonna serve for them right it’s it would be nice in your own home Community to be able to share that with people when they
00:43:48 ask you right K Ken if I can just because I want I don’t want because look I know what happened when we have elections like this I’ve been doing this a while and peopleour and they feel like their vote don’t matter and their vote don’t let me just be very declarative and say your vote does matter and it does count and just because the election did not go our way doesn’t mean that the vote did not count or the government will not work for you or that you should just give up because if you look around the country look there were seven states with reproductive
00:44:23 freedom on the ballot we won those States we flipped the Kentucky Supreme Court kept the Supreme Court in Michigan and Montana broke the super majority in North Carolina no excuse absentee voting in Connecticut Proposition 8 in California was repealed the minimum wage and sick Le increase in Missouri Alaska and Arkansas I’m sorry there were some wins and even down the ballot we won Senate race in Michigan held on to a senate seat in Nevada Ruben galgo and Arizona uh helped North Carolina outperform the whole narrative I mean there were some big wins
00:45:04 that we should celebrate Three congressional seats in New York two new African-American three new members to the CBC one in Oregon first time ever in African-American One in New Orleans one in Alabama there were a lot of things that did go right although in totality we lost I think we can learn from the places that went right and the things that did not go so right and councilwoman look I I hear you and I hope that you will say to the leaders that you feel like did not visit your community enough or did not give the proper attention to those folks and let them know like
00:45:39 this happened or the vote did not shake out in my neighborhood because you did not do enough and that’s how we grow and that’s how we learn because look I think have elections in 2025 incl I know well we all I you know a lot of us that’s when our Municipal elections are I think the reality is in the upcoming elections we know when people say oh there was not any money in Ohio we can be guaranteed for certain there a’t there will not be a lot of money in in these future election Cycles I I will I think we need to be very clear on that right and so even setting our set very realistic
00:46:22 expectations on what it looks like to engage when you don’t have all of the money that you think we have people power how can you utilize people that that do care that are engaging to then be your voice when you need it to be right well well well to that point congresswoman now this the there was money raised here in Ohio to help kamla I think women by themselves raised like $2 million that they gave to the kamla Harris campaign and so if they’re to your point of us being um taking care of what we need to take care of here ourselves especially knowing the fact that um resources
00:47:02 will probably be even more scarce coming into the future for us that’s something that I think we have to kind of keep in mind on how we kind of take care of our our needs to make sure we’re um taking care of what we need to do you know instead of raising the money and we gave it to the campaign they had a billion dollars but we still had to pay for yard signs here I want to make one quick correction um in um 20 24 we was at 63% countywide turnout and in 2020 I believe our turnout was um at 71% so the our turnout was uh 66% this year 66% this year and we was at 71
00:47:44 so we did take a little bit of a drop on there and in that um David what do you how do you feel the local party is going to be able to um get to the needs of the people like what the councilwoman is saying she’s saying that a lot of the problem that they’re having is in the fact that they believe that the um Democratic party locally now we talk nationally isn’t filling um the woes of us but right here locally those people who didn’t vote who took the chance to say I’m going to use my right to not vote they did that for a reason also and we also didn’t win all our races uh you know I
00:48:21 was pushing hard for African-American men and the only Democrat who seemed to lost on the bench this round was the only africanamerican man running for office so um what’ you say about all of that day well darl Denny I thought did a great thing he stepped up volunteered to run in that seat he was out spent somewhere around seven to1 in this County against uh heck of a name um other people refused to run in that seat Daryl uh volunteered to do that he worked hard I think he finished 5149 5248 um so I thought that he ran a good campaign but we did also increase one of the things I hear
00:48:59 as I go throughout the county is um about black representation on our Common Pleas bench and uh so two new uh seats are being filled by black women in this instance um and that increases the number of black people on the court by 25% um because 42% of our county is not white uh but only 12 or 15% of our bench is um so we’ve increased that um I think that councilwoman house is right it’s hard the county party is not necessarily a campaign manager uh but the county party can indicate where to go uh we got to 70,000 doors uh along with 65,000 postcards the vast majority of those
00:49:39 were in Cleveland um we targeted Cleveland War I Cleveland ward nine which ward nine I believe was the only ward in Cleveland that saw turnout go up and the vote for Harris exceed the vote for uh Joe Biden um and as you pointed out can uh the Democratic brand um in a lot of those Wards is still strong that’s where shered Got His Highest uh percentages and where KLA got her highest percentages so um but the party needs to again Reach people at their doors Reach people at their homes Reach people one-on-one in any way they can and we did uh send 200,000 text
00:50:15 messages again many of those in Cleveland um even before the campaign started in late summer um so we’re trying to continue to do that Ken if I can just chump in there look I think what we should all come to grips with is that less more and more people want to be identified with a party label so that means the party itself has work to do of meeting individuals where they are taking off their party labels that’s at the local level Mr chair the state level Madam Liz at the federal level the same with our elected officials I’m from South Carolina where
00:51:01 straight party ticket is the reality and so we get clobbered every cycle but you all don’t have that liability because you can’t vote straight party ticket in your in y’ state and so you have to be intentional about going in there picking out candidates what this election should have said to all of us in places like Ohio where that’s true is people are intentional either about not voting at all for folks or voting against them I don’t necessarily to buy to the idea it was a vote for Bernie Mareno whatever the guy’s name is or some of these other people I think it was
00:51:32 a vote against folks and so we’ve got to be intentional about branding ourselves as the individuals who are delivering direct results for these people taking the party labor off and if our Outreach and effort only happens in election years we we’re pushing water up a hill for the start and that’s not always on the yes the party plays a big responsibility but that’s not all on the party that’s up to L to D and everybody Yours Truly Ken you elected official whomever whoever cares about the future of our community that’s on all of us it shouldn’t
00:52:07 take an election year for us to be talking to black men we should be doing that all the time Ken and I’m G to make that on my end same thing for black women we can’t leave out our Latino brothers and sisters we can’t leave out our young people because young people had a piss poor performance by and large all across the country I mean we’ve got to do better and look in a place like Ohio what Shar has been known around the world as the working class man or the union candidate and if you see that support drop off for him across the state that should be a wakeup call to everybody
00:52:39 like we’ve got a different kind of work it’s not enough to have the support of the top Echelon of the union and think that’s going to be it where the votes happen was Downstream so that means we’ve got to get with the local top eson top tier leadership of these labor unions and say okay guys let’s go in with precision and talk to your members because something did not go right so David on that note and we gonna be rounding third on this how do you see the Democrats getting back the working class um I I know for a fact that uh and we all know that from Ohio shered Brown is the
00:53:20 working class man he was on labor radio for years and years people listen to him all the time he is the working guys so from that standpoint from everybody to turn their back on him what what is it that you believe and maybe you don’t have the answer but what is what is the Democrats going to do in order or you feel is the stepping stone in trying to get back the working class man and to that point also keep reminding that like we said that working class men is more than just white men that’s everybody so what do you see how do you see the Democrats working on that yeah no that’s a
00:53:56 question I think it gets back to messaging because uh prior to this I was a college history professor and one of the of recent American history and for four decades Republicans beat us at messaging because their message was simple easily digestible um and something that could be related that was lower taxes um smaller government uh Stronger military of course those aren’t compatible and this notion that God is somehow on the Republican side um and that was all false uh but nonetheless their messaging resonated so I think that that and if I as you pointed out Ken do I have the
00:54:29 answers no otherwise we would have uh done that for sure but I think that messaging needs to be tighter um it needs to be broader the Republicans message is the same in Nebraska as it is in New York City and the same in Mexico um New Mexico as it is in Maine so I think that we need to uh build that message around things uh Notions of Justice equality economic fairness I mean if you make less than $150,000 in America um every year the the deck is stacked against you um but at the same time we need to continue to stand up for equality and equality of opportunity and meeting as Antoine
00:55:05 said with some of the labor leaders and um getting a better explanation for what went wrong or hearing from workers themselves including um union members I think is obvious obviously a great start yeah we we’re um we’re going to start bringing I’m going to bring up um coun councilwoman Stephanie house and I’m going to let you get ready to give your closing if there’s something you want to just leave on everybody heart as we we winding down Dave will let you go that and uh c will let you close us out but um councilwoman you can go ahead and let’s hear um what you got to say and
00:55:59 yeah I would just say for for those first of all thank you so much for extending an invitation for me to join you all this evening um a couple of things for those who care about the state of our community our state in our country um a I would strongly encourage you to uh connect with other people um and really begin to you know there are new elected people that are going to be represented you uh in 2025 and I think people need to be very clear of what are we asking them to deliver for the US on um just because you me didn’t vote for someone that does not mean they
00:56:38 are going to be there to represent you so you need to ask for something um secondarily uh for those that are uh Democrats I think uh we need to uh have some a a a a reflective meeting uh to talk about what is our strategy and what where are we going going specifically looking at um voter turnout in 2025 in 2026 in 2027 and in 2028 and what does that look like what is the plan and what what is the work that is necessary for us to do um each every month um to let people know how we are delivering despite the odds and up up against a lot of things when we know it’s it’s going
00:57:20 to be a Time coming 2025 and 2026 these next four years and and being clear with people this is what people voted for or what they protested vote for so hopefully it’s everything that they they they wanted you know I hope it’s everything that they wanted and if not they we can have a different result by part be careful what you wish for right that’s your message be careful what you wish for hey councilwoman I really appreciate you coming on the program thanks again would love for you to come on anytime as a commentator or just to listen or get in and give your thoughts on any of our
00:57:57 panels in the future and thanks again for coming on thanks for having me and have a bless thank you thank you thank you thank you coun uh David Brock chairman what you got yeah thanks thanks also Ken for having us and for um staying in contact with me for for the past many months um I do one of the things that’s difficult is it’s it’s heartbreaking the Cleveland’s turnout went down obviously because in 2023 we saw an increase in Cleveland’s turnout uh we did go back and contact all of those people I think it was the highest uh midterm turnout last year um that Cleveland had
00:58:35 seen in a decade and a half or something like that um so we anticipated good things one of the things that we really haven’t discussed is misinformation and how to combat that and how when you hear it over and over even if you’re a Democrat and there were many who said things to me like I’m not going to vote by mail our vote by mail numbers uh were down below obviously 2020 the pandemic but we anticipated higher numbers there we were booed by the record turnout at the Board of Elections early vote but people said over and over I don’t trust the mail um even though it worked in 2020
00:59:08 and because we heard that for four years and because the media sort of Echoes this and one of the mistakes I think that we’ve had and someone questioned on here there was Mike Nelson should we be firmer I think at times we should be we uh the media will tell you Trump lied and then they’ll tell you what Trump’s lie was and they’ll continue to tell you that um but I think as I said at the we all are in this together um and that if you don’t vote um people pay attention they pay attention this is why so many of our policy outcomes benefit older richer better educated
00:59:40 white people quite frankly because those are the people who buy and large vote in larger numbers and uh voting is really one of the best ways uh to build power and to build policy outcomes that we all want so thanks again Ken oh thank you again for coming on the program man we appreciate you coming on I’ll be reaching more more opportunities for you to come on and be a panelist on our program as well thank you thank you Mr crite we’re gonna bring you up I’m gonna let you get an opportunity to close us I’m gonna bring this one question up that he thought Mike Nelson did um
01:00:15 bring this question up and I’ll let you close us out with that as well and I got one more question for you as we go out but Mike asked the question judge Nelson said he don’t believe that we were um a aggressive enough he don’t think that when they go low we should go high uh that kind of thing politics work what’s your thoughts on that I I agree uh one of the things that you hear in the post elction analysis emotionally and on paper uh when you hear the researchers they say that Democrats don’t present strong in some cases that that is categorized in different ways but they
01:00:53 don’t they say we don’t show fight we don’t show grit we don’t show that we’re fighting for the little man or whatever the case may be so I think there’s some effort to that and when you see Trump cussing cussing and you see him calling people son of a [ __ ] and doing all that sometimes that’s presented as strong that’s presented fighting and all that so I think not everybody’s going to cuss on live TV or at a rally and do all some of the theatrical things but there’s a way to present strong present fight and punch back and punch up I was quoted in political reporter asked me what’s
01:01:26 the new model for Democrats I said it should be clearly when they go low we go with the flow and so when they go low we shouldn’t be trying to retreat and say we got to vote High we should punch back because voters are expecting that from us because they want to see us fight for them and not be seen as K Street folks and not Main Street and my street folks so I agree with the uh the input from the caller if you or from the uh person who who chimed in and I you say you had question Kim as as it relates to um it was something you know um I I I was with a a good friend of mine
01:02:06 after the um Hillary Clinton race and and Hillary lost and she was leaving out and she was pissed she was pissed and everybody know who I’m talking about who knows she was really pissed and when she finally ended up talking to me weeks and weeks later one of the comments she said she said you know white women voted the way their husbands told them to vote then I looked at this thing that went down this round and I looked at those commercials that KLA Harris was running the ones where they were whispering in the voting booth and all these other ones trying to do these signs to say hey you
01:02:43 don’t have to vote for what your husband tell you to vote and this kind of thing then I was listening to uh congresswoman Shantel Brown and she was saying one day was we was having lunch or just talking one day and she was talking about how aggressive that the Republicans are uh and the Trump supporters and when she say aggressive she meant like they really into it when they put a yard sign in their yard the yard sign takes up the whole front porch they put up banners you know that this is a trump supporter and I say that to say that I believe me personally I believe there’s
01:03:19 some coalation correlation rather let me get my language right some correlation right between the family the white family and them voting and versus the minority and I think that same thing is what the Latinos and everyone else kind of got into that I think African-Americans I’m not saying we’re not part of that it’s just something different about us in that and I’m not quite sure how to kind of frame it but they vote in a blocking as a family and and that was it the wife the husband the son the daughter even if they didn’t like it they went ahead and went with you
01:04:00 know they did that one commercial where the guy said well she ain’t going to like it and they said well but she’s G to do it but they actually did that and they may not have liked it and and I just don’t know if it’s I don’t want to say because we know that most of the households in the African-American Community is held off by single African-American women I don’t know if that’s a coalition of making it happen that way and I don’t want to take that route but it’s something I think it has to do with family that we’re missing I think and and I just don’t know
01:04:31 what it is so I want to just throw that at you and I’m going to let you close us out with some your final thoughts on stuff from there Mr C right and and I’ll do my last ending and we’ll be done with our show today well let uh I think it’s about unit and I think it’s about intentionality uh the one thing Republicans white black or brown have been intentional about is they’ve been Relentless in their Pursuit to defeat us and whether it’s when I say defeat us defeat us at the court level Supreme
01:05:06 Court they now have the majority Trump will likely get more appointments if things go as advertised before the election defeat us at the state level uh this is the 20th anniversary new Ginger’s contract with America from 1994 and in that I’m a student of this business CU I’ve doing it for so long they said at that time Ginger said at that time you all focus on the presidency that’s going to swing back and forth we’re going to focus on State Legislative seats because those are the people that redraw the lines and have the power to determine what the Congress would
01:05:41 look like but also these are the people where if we push these fights to be state level fights and make it about State’s rights we’ll control these narratives and so they were successful there was a 20year pursuit of that K and now now look at the majority of state legislators across the country look at the Congress to where is Jerry Mander look at some of the fights we’re having at state courts level and the federal courts level they own that so they’ve been Relentless in their Pursuit they were able to roll back Ro v Wade deal with diversity Equity inclusion at the federal level
01:06:13 all the things they’ve been Relentless in their Pursuit whereas we do not treat voting as an ongoing activity we treat it as a once and every now and again opportunity and I think that’s the difference between them and us the other thing is going back to the unit they understand the collective well-being of their communities overall bill of health they understand regardless of how I personally may feel I’ve got to do what’s in the best interest of my community’s long-term best interest so they have Mom versus Liberties uh coming up with project 20125 which I believe
01:06:51 is Gingrich 2.0 in terms of contract with America what’s happening now six of Trump’s nominations have direct contact or direct correlation to project 2025 they were intentional about that they didn’t make about they didn’t make voting about the history of the community and all they just said look you got to vote or else with a sense of urgency that matters and so no we’re not them because I know that’s going to be the feedback you get here no we’re not them but there are lessons to be learned from them and going into the comment you made about I would call it presentation it is
01:07:30 an aggressive presentation when you see yard signs on every corner to say Trump for America it is presentation when you see them wearing these Maga hats everywhere in the airport it is presentation when they’re walking around with flags whether it’s white supremacist flag or Confederate flag or the Trump flag it’s presentation so it’s almost like the paper tiger effect we know it doesn’t mean a damn thing but it shows that they have Collective community and they’re not ashamed of that we don’t have that these are lessons for us to learn in that regard and so my little wrap
01:08:07 up a button up is let me end how it started by from a place of gratitude thank you to the people who volunteered are po workers people who knocked doors made phone calls sent text messages put out signs did whatever you had to do thank you to the venues that let us show up and so forth thank you we have work to do this is a moment for us to grow not necessarily go and that when I say go me go away and we got work to do uh one of the things that we have to be intentional about and going forward and Ken this is a lesson for us with black men is we’ve got to go to where folks are instead
01:08:41 of asking them to come to us it’s not enough to have a county party meeting or a black men function and say y’all come meet us here that’s what people get pissed off about we need something from them they don’t need something from us and so we’ve got to make some adjustments on our in to go to where these folks are and I’m not talking about to the people who normally show up to our stuff we’ve got to get non-traditional actors and players involved in the play we’ve got to run plays that will allow them a chance to shoot the ball allow them the chance to run the ball down
01:09:13 the field whatever analogy you want to use we’ve got to do that and we’ve got to meet them where they are that’s not always on the news and I’m speaking to myself because I’m a team commentator for a living so people ain’t getting knew some MSNBC and CNN all that no more we know that based on Trump winning it’s podcast it’s digital it’s YouTube it’s all these different things that’s where voters are and not all voters because while some voters on social media some of them on Social Security but for the ones who are on social media we’ve got to meet them where they are for the ones
01:09:48 who are on Social Security we’ve got to meet them where they are so it’s not a either or it’s a we got to do both that’s the second closing third closing is this we have lost before but we have won after the loss we can win again we can win in Ohio we can win in Pennsylvania we can win in Michigan we can win in everywhere you in South Carolina North Carolina we can win again but we’re not going to win again if we’re not intentional in learning how we lost and this is not like some blame game I’m not interested in these people bojangling around out here James Carville the the
01:10:35 campaign staffers for commone pod save America and all these other people just bullshitting I’m not interested in that what I want to know is the raw numbers and we need to talk to the people who did not come my way so to heck with sitting around bojangling around with people who we know are either not going to vote or going to vote our way so good to talk to the union leaders but no we need to talk Downstream to the people in that Union to find out why they voted against us when shared Brown helped save their penion when Shantel Brown brought more jobs to this County than ever
01:11:09 before we need to get beyond the surface and get Downstream that’s where our work has to be going forward not just in Ohio but across the country and when it comes to black men we can’t give up on our brothers and we can’t think that our sisters are always going to be there when we need them we’ve got to stay focused on that and we’ve got to be intentional about continuing to reach those folks but expanding outside of our norm and that’s that’s that’s the simple way of putting it a as always you did a great job we really appreciate it man thanks again for me personally I want to thank
01:11:45 you for rolling with me all summer every time I called to ask you to do anything you jumped right in there for me got on everything for us I want to thank everybody again for coming on our program today oh qu Ken if I can just say this because it’s the holiday season um for people who are being with your fam this this weekend and for the days and weeks to come as we close out this year take time to listen more than you talk if people all around us who have difference of opinion from us about some of the stuff take time to listen more we talk and then the second piece of that is
01:12:21 the holidays are a tough time for a lot of people and so don’t be afraid to reach out for help this em this election was emotionally draining for people people dealing with death so many things that life just bring on the holiday season 988 is a place to get help Suicide Prevention line the therapist on the other end of the phone don’t be afraid to take care of your mental health and if you’re having issues or troubles don’t be afraid to ask for help because this all can be draining life can be draining but there are people who are willing to stand in the Gap and help you get
01:12:55 get to where you need to be and for you for all all of us to continue to be strong and so I want to say that as we enter into the holiday Marathon I appreciate that words of wisdom I’m G to take you up on trying to listen a little more this weekend than speak that’s a hard thing for me in my household but I’m going to take you up on that anyway again I want to thank all of you guys for being on our program I also want to say you know when I first started out I had all kinds of people who said the same thing you know let’s get on here and let’s talk about about this
01:13:26 let’s start pointing fingers why this didn’t work that didn’t work and the more and more I got into it and I took my time on when I was going to do this program because I didn’t want to get into that role so I listen and hear what everybody had to say and listen to all the national people and I just wanted to have a conversation from our perspective of what we thought I I think there’s plenty of blame to go around for what went wrong and who we want to blame it on but I just wanted to see how we start to move forward and changing those things so we’re going to use this
01:13:58 platform to continue to do that we’ll have more conversations with different people along those lines and hopefully out of those conversations we’ll get something that will be able to help us in trying to move this party forward or move things forward because sometimes it’s just not about the party it’s just about getting things done right so again I want to thank you guys happy holiday to everybody for coming on to the program and I will see you guys soon thanks again hey stay on everybody I’m gonna just log off I want y’all to stay there one second in the broadcast