Stacey Abrams on Fighting Voter Suppression & Why Your Vote Matters So Much | The People's Brief

Hello everyone and welcome back to The People's Brief. I'm your host, Lanae Vaneem. So, look, when it comes to protecting our democracy, voting remains one of our most powerful tools. And I'm sure many of you know our voting rights are under attack. Why? Because the act of voting is more than just checking a box. It's how we choose who makes decisions about our schools, our housing, our health care, all the things that shape our daily lives. But when we don't vote, those decisions still get made just without us. That's why protecting the right to vote matters. And no one understands that more than Stacey Abrams. Stacey Abrams, from her historic run for governor of Georgia to her fight against voter suppression, she's shown us what's possible when we refuse to be counted out. Abrams is an organizer, a fighter, and a truth teller who has turned millions of voices into a national call for justice and voting rights. Her work reminds us that voting isn't just about politics. It's about power, dignity, and our everyday lives. Hello, Stacey. How are you? I am well. How are you? Good. Best I can. Best I can. I only ask in the corporeal sense. You know, you know, thank you for coming to the show. We've been waiting a minute to have you. But we've been together in parking lots, churches, other cities in Georgia. We go way back. We do. So I'm just grateful for you to have this conversation with me on this platform. Well, I'm just honored to be here. And I'm proud of you. No, very seriously. Having gone from the parking lot to the studio, what you've done is spend your time and your platform bringing others with you. So very proud of you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Of course. Well, we have you here today because you are the expert on voting and retaining democracy and getting people galvanized to or rather empowered to protect their vote as well. But before we get into that, I think a lot of people want to understand the landscape, but also hear from you about what you're thinking about whether we'll have those voting rights for much longer. So what does that look like right now? I mean, we're in the middle of an authoritarian takeover. And I think anyone who says it's coming isn't paying attention. I recently talked about the 10 steps to autocracy. And it starts with winning an election, the executive taking over more and more power that's either permissible or not. But you don't really know because the competing branches of government usually just kowtow and give in or worse, they suborn it and say do even more. Then you see them break government by firing all the good people who know how to make things work and replace them with loyalists who don't know how anything should happen. They then break media so that we don't get the truth. They go after communities of color and marginalized communities. They go after DEI because they want to blame somebody and they need scapegoats. You then watch them go after the people who help us. So they go after civil society. They go after universities. They go after law firms. Then they start making violence part of the narrative. And you see secret police roaming the streets and you see national guards being stationed in our communities. But you also start to see more and more private political violence. And then finally, you get to where we're here today, which is you make sure there's never a new election. And you don't do it simply by declaring no elections. You do it by breaking the infrastructure of democracy. And that's what we're seeing happen in Texas. That's what's happening in Georgia. That's what's happening in states across this country. Because if you can break the will of the people, you can make them afraid to speak, and you can take away their understanding of what government should do for them, that's how autocrats and authoritarians not only seize power, it's how they hold power. And we're watching that happen every single day. Exactly. And that's what I was going to ask you. Could you offer some examples of federal overreach? And I think you have already named a lot of that because people can identify by seeing what's going on or hearing narratives about the National Guard in D.C. when they were in L.A. or now the National Guard is being militarized and there's a threat of them coming into other cities. But can you talk a little bit about or a little bit more about what's going on at the state level because people see what Texas is doing, but these governors? Well, what we've watched happen in Georgia, what we've seen happen across the South and unfortunately in other states, but I'm a Southern expert, it's been practice for this. One of the ways to refer to it is state capture. It's when the state has so much power that only the cronies get the benefits. So if you're in Texas, if you're in Florida, if you're in Georgia, you don't get access to health care because it's not beneficial to the state. But the lack of access to health care means you can't stay at work when you need to. The stealing of our resources through taxes that don't benefit us but benefit the wealthy, that's what states do and that's what we're watching happen on the federal level. But I think what's important for us to understand is everything Trump is trying now, he learned from watching a lot of Southern governors. He learned from watching, and I use the entire Republican Party, an infrastructure that has decided that they want to privilege the wealthy and the powerful instead of the people. And so with all of this happening and it feels like it's happening rapidly, quicker than we can get to a voting booth, can you talk about why our vote still matters? Absolutely. Voting is a way station in democracy. It's often the first place you go because it's when you start to pick the people and it's where you get to come back to if you need to change your mind. And too often we see voting as the act of democracy. It's not. It is the opening because once you've elected someone, you got to start showing up to make sure they remember that they owe you something. We would never start a store and put a teenager in charge and only come back and check the till every four years. You'd be back there every day. And yet the people in charge of structuring how we live, whether our trash gets picked up, if our children get educated, if they are told slavery was good or not, all of those decisions are made based on who voted. Because the people who show up determine what happens. And as someone, as you know, I'm an expert in voting and not always getting what I want. You're not exempt from the participation simply because you don't get the outcome you want. Because the goal is to convince you that your voice doesn't matter. And if it didn't matter, you would not have an entire infrastructure and billions of dollars spent trying to shut you up. Prime example, Georgia canceling near, what is it, 471,000 voter registrations. So with again, and a lot of this is, as we've said, political overreach. How can people actively protect their vote? Absolutely. And again, that's step 10 in this 10 steps to autocracy. They make certain that if they create too many hurdles, you'll just stay home. And so the first job is to make sure that you are still on the rolls. If you go to Fairfight.com, we have a whole page that will walk you through the process. And if you've been taken off the rolls, get yourself back on and then go get your friends. Because we also have this tendency to think that because we've done it once, it's going to hold. They've told us who they're coming after. That doesn't mean they haven't gone after other people. So we need to keep showing up. And then remember that we are the United States. So once you've secured what we have here in Georgia, call your friends at other places, check on them too, because some states are loud about it. A lot of states are sneaky about it. And we have to be ready for every election every year. And maybe demystify that a little bit for people. You said get yourself back on. Is it that simple? Yeah, it's registration. Now, it's not, let me clarify. In a lot of places, it's not simple. They make it hard because they don't want you to use your right. And having the right to vote is the entry point for full citizenship. That's why they made it illegal. And then they made it difficult. And now they're making it administratively complicated. We have to be braver than they are. We have to be smarter than they are. But it can be done. Because if it couldn't be done, we wouldn't have won the elections that have gotten them so terrified of our power. I want to tap back into the conversation. Well, I think it's just going to be with us the entire time, political overreach. Right now, our current president is creating these federal versus local showdowns between what's going on in the White House, specifically in various other states. We see Gavin Newsom going at it with him, playing his game, sending the National Guard to L.A. and D.C. And he's threatened to do the same, as I said, in other cities. What does this reveal about constitutional limits? So we have to understand the Constitution is a framework, but we all kind of agree to follow it. And at the federal level, the problem we have is that the checks and balances that exist in the Constitution are not being used. Congress, under Republican control, is complicit. They are egging him on. They are also celebrating and giving him ideas. So let's not assume that this coward of a president is the architect of these things. He is the avatar, but he is not the architect. And then on the other side, you have a Supreme Court that has basically said he can do what he wants because we can't stop him, but the people can stop him. And which justice was it that said the rule of law is eroding more quickly than ever before? I believe it would be Ketanji Brown Jackson. Well, and these things happen when the other people you go to work with give a certain somebody immunity. So I have to wonder, is there something bigger at play? There is. This is an existential crisis, and that's a phrase that's thrown around too much. But let's understand what it means in this context. If you look at the demography of the United States in 17 years, so basically by the time Gen Alpha is trying to name the next generation, this will be a majority minority country. If you do not like that idea, if you are afraid of that construct, you have to stop it in its tracks. And you cannot do that if democracy is working, because democracy by its nature in the United States is pluralistic. It lets diversity, equity and inclusion be the foundational values of this country. And so everything we are watching, whether people are participating, not realizing they're not going to get to benefit at the end. But the whole point is to take us not back to 1950s, it's to take us back to the 1850s. The attempt is to erode the role and responsibility that this pluralistic, diverse society has built. And so they're trying to slash all of our benefits. They're also trying to slash our beliefs. And that's the part we have to be afraid of. It's one thing to not think you should vote. It's another to think that someone should speak for you and that you don't have the power to fight back. And they're trying to get us there. So I've recently seen some reworking of the census to reflect less populations of racial demographics here and there. And along with what you just said, I think we often have to prove this concept because people just think we're complaining. Is it as simple as, yes, this is about race? It is. It's about race. It's about region. It's about economics. What they want us to do, though, is focus so myopically on one piece that we don't recognize how they're intertwined. That's why I talk about the 10 steps. You can't just do step seven. Step seven is the attack on DEI. And they try to make DEI about whether black people can fly planes and go to college. But what they're actually talking about is can women have the right to control their bodies? Can black women have the right to control their futures? Are there too many Latinas who are attending graduate school instead of cleaning hospitals like they think they should? But are there disabled veterans who we promised to take care of that have now lost their jobs because when they slashed DEI, they slashed disabled veteran jobs? When they say they're going to eliminate opportunities, they don't mean for themselves. They mean for everybody else. And so, yes, race is at the core because race is one of the strongest predictors of political leanings in America. And so it is disingenuous and worse naive to think that it's not about race. But race is their point of entry because they know when they fight about race, we will square up against each other. When they tell the truth that they're using race as a proxy for taking our power, that's when we have to be smarter and say that I won't let you convince me that who I am has to be increased by diminishing someone else. So that's why I've got to be just as loud about Hispanic immigration and people being kidnapped off the streets and sent to Honduras as I am about those being kidnapped off the streets and sent back to Jamaica or Haiti because we're in this together. And if they can separate us and divide us and pit us against each other, and this comes back to Texas, what they're doing in Texas is trying to pick communities of color against each other. So we're so busy fighting against one another, we forget to fight for ourselves. And I also want to, since we're going there, talk about what they did with those gerrymandering maps. There are more questions around like what this war on gerrymandering is going to do for the rest of us, but how these different groups of people quite literally collated by race are being represented differently. Unfortunately, I was watching someone on the Senate floor, wherever have you, they all, it all looks like the same room. And it all looks like the same room. Whenever someone's standing behind a podium, it looks like the same room. Same interior designer. The way he explained it was essentially that Latinos counted as one third of white representation and black voters counted as one-fifth of what white people get as far as representation. I'm trying to choose my words carefully because the words are different, but it's very akin to the three-fifths compromise. Absolutely. And black people counting as three-fifths of a white person. And so we are seeing history once again repeat itself in this way. And it is very much that serious. Yeah, it's the 1850s. So what you're describing, when they draw the lines, so let's go back to the census, you referenced it. They are trying to game the census because in 2020, the last census we had, more people of color actually showed up on the rolls, including in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and all of those states had to redraw their lines to give more people of color, mainly black people, more political power. And they're mad about that. In Texas, it was even more complicated for them because they had to add more Latino and black voters. And they didn't like it when they had to. And they're still actually in court about the maps they drew in 2021. These new maps are being done in the middle, which we don't do by and large. So they broke the rules because they didn't like the outcome and because they are trying to obey their master who said, give me more seats. But what they did to do it is they use gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is when you draw political lines to benefit the politicians instead of to benefit the people. And so what we have to believe are two things. One is that politicians do not get to cherry pick their voters, especially when they pick their voters, as I said, using race as the predicate, because race is the strongest predictor of political leanings. And so our first job is to make certain we fight back. Their second job is to make sure we participate in the census. And I encourage folks to go to faircount.org because that's an organization that is focused on making sure we have a fair census. Too often, people of color don't participate in the census because it seems like an intrusion of privacy. It's actually how they plan their power. And so if we show up, if we get counted, then we count. So with all that being said, there's still people out here who believe their vote does not matter, particularly now. So what do you have to say to them? It counts. So as you and I both know, I was involved in this little election in 2018. For sure. In a state of 11 million people, where almost five, sorry, about four and a half million people showed up. I lost by fewer than 55,000 votes. That changed the future of Georgia. My plan had been to expand Medicaid. My plan had been to invest in communities. Those things did not happen because of who showed up to vote. And it wasn't that they couldn't. It was that barriers were put in their place. And those barriers are real. I don't want anyone to hear me saying those barriers aren't real, but our will to have power has to be more than their will to take it from us. Because it also decides whether or not we have labor unions. It decides whether or not our kids go to schools where they can actually see themselves reflected in the textbooks that they read, and if they can afford the textbooks. All of those decisions are made by voting. And in a state like Georgia, but this is true across the country, the people they count out are the ones who need voting the most. I take exception when people say folks are apathetic. They're not. They're in despair. When you've never seen democracy work for you, why would you work that hard for it? But I do it because I'm the granddaughter of someone who was born 25 years after the end of slavery. Within a generation, his daughter became the first and only one of his seven children to finish high school, let alone go to college and grad school. The next generation, I became the first black woman in American history to be the nominee for governor in this country. Those leaps happened because people decided they were going to vote even though voting didn't always work. That's why we do it. Not because we are guaranteed outcome, but we are guaranteed engagement. And if we are willing to stay engaged, we get what we want. And if you don't believe that, look at Florida. Senior citizens in Florida get almost everything they want because they have never stopped voting. If we used our own power and we bound our power with others, we get the things we need and we've seen it happen. And I want to give you the opportunity to toot your own horn for a little bit because this conversation might be the first time some people see you. And so you talk about when you did not win that election. I refuse to say she lost, but when you did not win that election, it was only by 55,000 votes. What did that charge you to do after that? Well, I did. I initially I created a fair fight to fight for the infrastructure of democracy, fair count to make sure we had enough people who got to participate in that democracy. I created Southern Economic Advancement Project. So we had good policies in that democracy. But more than that, it reminded me that while I'm not guaranteed victory, I am guaranteed access. You're not going to shut me up and kick me out because I didn't get what I wanted. I'm not entitled to win, but I am entitled as an American to be heard. And if nothing else galvanizes us, if you think that on call scheduling in Georgia is a bad idea, you should vote. If you think that in Texas not having rules about heat when you have to work outside and they have no responsibility, then you should vote. If you live in a state that does not see you or serve you, they don't care if you stay silent. They care if you show up. Voting is the best retort. There are other phrases you could use. Yes. But it is the best retort to someone saying that you don't matter. Yeah. It also applies to who gets how how are how do we make decisions about child support? Who gets judgeships and decides how much time a child spends in jail for making a mistake? All of those are determined by voting. And when we do not vote, they assume we're OK with what we get. We may not get what we want, but we have no ability to change anything if we don't show up. And you named quite a few things voting effects, but generally for people anywhere, voting affects your everyday life. Can you speak to us a little bit more specifically about how it connects to jobs and housing and health care? Absolutely. So right now, the housing crisis that we're having, it's not a crisis. It's intentional. There are laws that were passed. There are rules that were passed to decide the kind of housing that can be built. So if you live in a place where there's a housing shortage, there's probably a zoning law that says that they can't build on a smaller footprint or they can't build multifamily housing. That's decided by your local government. If we don't vote in local elections, then the people who get elected are often funded by the people who want things to stay exactly the they are. If you're looking at what happened in New York at Zoran Mondami, he wants to tackle issues. People who showed up finally saw that, yes, if we lift our voices, we might get some change. That's not just true in New York. It's true anywhere. But my point is, we can't only vote when we're guaranteed victory. The mess we're in right now is because people 60 years ago didn't win an election they wanted to win, and they've spent the rest of their time trying to make things hard for the rest of us. And they finally got their guy and they finally got their power and they are hoping that they never have to give it up. I believe that our voices are so powerful and so loud that if we start showing up in these local elections, we change the future. Now, you say you don't think that voters are apathetic. Would you say, particularly when it comes to black voters, that maybe they might feel disconnected or I saw you shake your head, yes. But I'm also getting the vibe that a lot of black voters, particularly young ones, may show up or be more motivated to vote when they think there's a win or what is a perceivable win available to them. I was recently reading an article and the gentleman who wrote it said that we've turned politics into entertainment. And in entertainment, you have a winner and a loser. You have these cinematic moments. Government's boring. It's really boring. Voting is boring. The problem we have is that one, young people traditionally do not vote. They vote at a lower rate than anyone else because up until the moment they are old enough to vote, someone else is usually taking care of the mechanics. So we're asking people to suddenly go from off to on. But the older you get, the more you see how voting can affect who you are. The reason I don't like apathy, apathy says you don't care. It's not that people don't care. It's that they don't believe that caring will change anything. And that's why I believe I'm a Democrat. Our party has to do a better job of showing that democracy can deliver. That means we can't just talk a good game and we can't write a treatise about what the world should look like. Let's solve the problems in front of us. Even if we can't solve them all, let's at least show that we understand them. And I think that's what young people want to see. If you can't fix everything, don't just tell them why not. Tell them, if I can't do all of this, here's the thing I can do. And if you work with me on this, here's the next thing we can have. If we treat it like entertainment, we can change the channel. If we treat it like survival, we don't get to escape unless we get it done. Sisters in the 92% have said online they're tired, that they're resting. And after trying to save democracy, what would you say to these women right now? I appreciate the need for rest and reflection, but we are in the middle of an authoritarian takeover. This is not a drill. And the problem is that 92%, we will feel it harder, faster, and more perniciously than anyone else. Dr. Lisa Cook, who is the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve Board, has been accused by this president of nefarious things because he wants her gone so he can change the way banking works. They're not changing banking so they can do better by us, but they went after her for that reason. We are watching across this country the attacks on Black women because they know that we are the most vital and persistent fighters. So yes, we get to take breaks and we get to restore, but we never get to retreat. Agreed. And I think particularly the 90%, they understand that voting is a way to do that without putting too much onus of the responsibility of the problem on themselves or even expending too much energy. But I feel like in 2024, it was a true statement to say voting is the most powerful tool that we have. I don't know if I agree with that right now because there's so much going on, but there are folks who want to build and change power structures and maybe don't want to enter the space of politics. So what are some other ways you think people can get engaged? So I never relinquish the urgency of voting because we vote all the time. Correct. We treat it like it only happens when it's the presidency, but the more pernicious votes are the ones we don't pay attention to. There are state and local votes. They're about to elect a new governor in New Jersey and a new governor in Virginia. Those are two states that can determine a great deal about the jobs, the quality of jobs that you have, also the quality of democracy that we have. Nationwide. Nationwide, absolutely. And so let's remember that the anti-CRT, anti-critical race theory, which led to let's eliminate all DEI and let's rescind billions of dollars in investment, let's make sure that black and brown children can't go to college because they've eliminated Pell grants through rescissions, all of those decisions came from voting. But before we get to voting, we got to show people that it works. So show up at your food bank and volunteer because if people are hungry, they can't think about the future. Volunteer at a homeless shelter, but also if you live in a community where there's a school and all of us do, go to a school board meeting. You don't have to have a child in the school to have a voice in the school board. Show up wherever people are making choices, but also show up wherever people are hurt. I like to remind people that before we had money, before we had power, before we had the right to vote, we had each other. And if you want people to believe that voting matters, they have to know that you believe they matter. And that's the place where we have to start because now it's hard and it hurts. Your journey from organizing on the ground to making historic run for governor was inspiring many people, including myself. What lit that fire in you to fight for voting rights? My parents, my mom and dad were both involved in as teenagers. My dad got arrested at the age of 14 for registering black people to vote in Mississippi. We teased him. My mom was doing the same work on the other side of town. I'm from Gulfport, but they were in Hattiesburg. Oh, okay. Yeah. Jackson, Madison. Yes, absolutely. You're from the north. Yeah. But yeah, my parents, they were involved as teenagers and this was before you could vote at 18. This was when you could only vote at 21, but they were black and their families could not participate in democracy. They raised us to believe that you didn't just talk about voting. You showed up to vote, but you also showed up to volunteer. You showed up to visit. You did all of the pieces because people may not be into politics, but politics is into you and it is a stalker. I got today. And so I understand it. I've never been able to live by the notion that it's not my job because if I want things to be better for me and my family, I've got to make sure it's better for you and yours. I'd like to get more into you because as you've done so much for us in the realm of politics and getting us galvanized now to vote, you're also a very accomplished writer and not as people might think. You don't just write books about policy and things like that, like they're fun. So can you talk to us about your new book, Coded Justice? Absolutely. So Coded Justice is the third outing for my heroine law clerk, Avery Keene. She is now out of the law clerk business and working for a tech firm or working for a law firm. They take on a tech client that's building AI and the AI is supposed to help with DEI in veterans health care, but people are dying and her job is to figure out who or what might be killing them. So you've got some AI technology that's a little smarter than it should be and you've got some people who are a little less good than they could be. Sounds very timely. Almost in an Octavia Butler, like this is too real for me. Well, I will say I tried to write, I started writing it because I wanted to better understand AI. I wanted to use veterans because I want people to feel sympathetic about DEI. But I also want people to be a little scared, a little excited and very thrilled when they're reading it. And by the end, you know. All these things make for the best story. Thank you. I love black women in STEM and books. There you go. One of my favorite genres. I'll have you know, I'm working on writing some things as well, but this is about, we'll talk later. Yes, please. Look, I write across genres, so I'm open. You let me know how I can help. Okay. Well, in the realm of fun, I'd like to ask you a few rapid fire questions. Yes, ma'am. If that's okay. Bring it on. All right. So if you had a superpower, what would it be? Time travel. Okay. If you were hosting a celebrity cookout, who would you invite? Tracy Chapman. Okay. Selena Gomez. Really? Colson Whitehead. Okay. Oh, Daniel Dae Kim, who I recently saw give an interview and I think he's quite fascinating. I'd like to talk to him more. Okay. And N.K. Jemisin because she's just really kind of cool. Your cookout sounds like a lot of like really intriguing conversation over hot dogs. Exactly. Oh, but I have to bring one other person. Okay. Sarah Michelle Gellar. Oh, I thought you were going to say me. Next question. Look, you were there with me. Oh, okay. Got you. I'm already invited. Look, who was bringing the drinks? Okay. Next question. What song title or song lyric best sums up what you think the country is facing now? I think there are two of them. Okay. Bumping Me Against the Wall. Okay. And Till I Collapse. Oh, got you. Last question. Will you run for governor again? I do not know, but right now I'm trying to save democracy so that we can have that conversation next year. Okay. All right. Fine. All right. Well, thank you so much, Stacey, for being here. You have been such a pleasure. Has she not? When we come back, we are hitting the streets and talking to voters about their concerns. Stay tuned. I do think my vote matters because as an Afro-Latina woman who lives in the South, where we live in a very conservative area, I feel like my vote really matters to speak up for those who can't. Voting is essential not only because I, as an African-American woman, came here without rights, reasons, or explanation and had to come up with my own bootstraps without boots and develop myself to higher education, to be motivated, to be able to stand with the dignity that I deserve. So voting is not only an essential part of the process for liberation, it is an essential part of the process for freedom. And we are never going to be free as a nation or people in a nation unless we have people in government who are clearly aware that we have rights as human beings, not just civil rights, but the right of a human being to be qualified, quantified, and a part of the entire process of the country we live in. This United States is becoming more divisive because the leadership that we have now is affecting the mental well-health, the mental health and well-being of individuals, as well as corrupting communities that have long stood for freedom, justice, and equality. DEI came under attack because it allows people who've been marginalized to enter institutions, to have hospital rights, to have food for their children. These are the things that you vote against when you vote for the individuals whom are justifiably right-handed in their actions. So we have a lot of work to do to get people to understand that you matter, every individual, and voting means that if I matter, I get to make the choice on who cares about me. Voting matters because we have an opportunity to place the right person in the right position for not just what the country needs, but what the community needs and the world needs. So it matters how we live and how we try to make peace and live our lives to the best of our abilities and find a great way to live. The hardest part of overcoming the issues that face our community, especially in 2025, stands from a legacy need to overcome our value of five-fifths of a human being versus three. Out of the gate, we were given a disadvantage and a lot of what's been going on in our community, flamboyance, the need to show, the need to prove, desire for respect, and a lot of the things that have us fighting one another stem from legacy issues of us believing we are not enough because of our right to be birthed in this world. God gave us a mandate and the way we voice this in this world today is through our vote at the ballot box. We speak with our vote. I will say the hardest thing to overcome could be sometimes having politicians who don't really speak for everyone, especially in lower class communities. Not taking up minimum wage, it's a whole lot of things that have affected me personally, looking for better jobs. So I think that's just one of them. I would like to see candidates who speak for everyone, not just for minorities, but like everyone in this country. Immigrants, people of color, white, black, no matter what race you are. I'm looking for more younger politicians. I feel like it's time that we get all the old people out, kind of get some more open minds, newer minds with more ideas. Confident candidates, bold candidates, and candidates that live the life that they say that they do. Because a lot of what we're seeing today kind of ends in this term called hypocrisy, and we have to stay away from that. Again, first as a personal character and spiritual belief, because there's nothing in politics we can accomplish if we don't have our hearts and minds right. Definitely a change of this minimum wage. Because there's a lot of people who come straight out of college, or people who have degrees that have literally fought and grinded hard during their time in school, and can't even find a job as soon as they're done with school. So it's hard, hard a lot. And the fact that people got to work at least two or three jobs just to get by is absolutely very mind-blowing and it's sad. So just a better way to have better pay rates for the jobs that we work hard for, and not get paid low just because of what that should be. No, we have to be fair because everybody needs help and resources. Personally, I don't really have political allegiance to any party. I vote for whoever I feel will do better for me and the people of this country. I think everyone should take that same route currently, since both parties are in shaky grounds. I believe political allegiance is secondary to a belief and commitment to a spiritual allegiance. It helps us drive our values, our character, and whatever political affiliation that we hold shines the character that we first bring to our political affiliation through us. So whatever side of the independent, Republican, or Democratic coin you land on, or we land on, we're first going to be us. We are not our political affiliation. Our political affiliation is built from who we are as human beings. You got to do your research on the people who are running. So before you vote, always do your research on the people who you are voting for and find out are they going to really help you. It's more important to vote in local elections than it is in presidential ones, because those really determine how the country is run to a certain point. I would say, especially with politicians raising just plain electrical bills, those affect everyone, no matter how much you try to save. I would say that's really been affecting a lot of people in my community as well. The one thing I would like to see change in politics is the accountability, for sure. I'd like to see parties disappear. If parties disappeared and we got to the agenda of what do we need to do for the people we are endowed with inalienable rights as citizens. And I think the party influence is the problem. From a higher standard, I'd like to get rid of the electoral college, period. The electoral college should not be the final word on who's elected into government. Welcome back. I want to thank Stacey Abrams for coming through and talking about the importance of the vote and the fight to save our democracy. My biggest takeaway is that while, yes, it is ferociously under attack, voting remains one of our biggest tools. But guess what? So is community. So never miss a beat on The People's Brief. Until next time.