I am going to sound like a broken record here, because it’s all I’ve talked about for weeks, and it’s all I’m going to talk about between now and Election Day, but I want to encourage all of our listeners to take a deep breath, stay calm stay focused, and VOTE.
Listen to me – I am not saying that all of these bombs and packages that were sent to President Obama and Hillary Clinton and Maxine Waters and CNN – and others – I’m not saying that these bombs are no big deal – or that we should ignore them – I’m not saying that – but what I am saying is that whoever sent them meant to interrupt and distract us.
They meant to change the narrative. They meant to destabilize and confuse and frighten us. And whoever did this, chose to do it two weeks before Election Day, right in the middle of early voting, on purpose.
Listen, we cannot afford to take a single day off between now and Election Day. Hell, we honestly cannot afford to take a single hour off between now and Election Day. It’s that important.
And I want to remind us, that to be Black in America has always meant voting in the face of violence, voting in the face of bombs, voting in the face of threats and terrorism. We’re not new to this.
I want to talk for a few minutes about 4 very important races going on across the country. Three of them we’ve talked about before, but I have some new updates to give you, and one is just as important but has flown under the radar.
First, let me start off with some good news. Our main man Andrew Gillum is leading in the polls in Florida. The difference between him and his opponent, Trump’s lackey Ron DeSantis, is stark. Gillum crushed his opponent in the debate, and is simply outworking and out-organizing him all over the state of Florida.
And frankly, Gillum’s just a better person, and when you put them head to head – it shows.
But even though Andrew is up in Florida, he’s not up by much, and that can change. We need all of our Florida listeners to not only vote, but to organize their friends and family and churches to vote early for Andrew Gillum all over the state.
Stacey Abrams is neck and neck with her opponent Brian Kemp. It’s hard for me to say that any of these elections are the most important, but no state in the country right now is dealing with more voter suppression than Georgia – and her opponent, as Secretary of State, has overseen all of this voter suppression – which many experts says rivals the worst voter suppression we’ve seen since the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. It’s just that bad.
So listen, we can win in Georgia. We have the people. We have the voters. But instead of 50-60% of voters turning out, we’re going to need 60-70% or more of them to turn out. This is not impossible. It happens all over the world. It actually happens in a few states. Georgia – we need you to do more to vote early these next few days, because some polls I’ve studied say Brian Kemp is winning early voting. We need to win this. I think I’m going to go down there and campaign soon to help get Atlanta out in record numbers.
Real quick, let me tell you about two final races that we really need to win.
First – there’s my friend Beto O’Rourke – who is running to unseat Senator Ted Cruz in Texas. Beto is an amazing candidate and has electrified people all over the state. Every poll I’ve studied has Beto down by 3% or as much as 10%, but I’m not buying it. Many of those polls are old-school landline only polls, and I just don’t think they measure the momentum that Beto has.
Beto can win, but it’s going to take record-setting turnout to make that happen.
Lastly, I want to introduce you to a great man named Mark Haase – who is running to be the next District Attorney of Minneapolis. Mark is a great man, with a huge heart, and wants to reform the justice system there from the inside out.
My organization, Real Justice, has endorsed Mark Haase and we are campaigning hard for him there. If you check my Twitter timeline I have ways you can support his campaign, but let me use this as an opportunity to ask you to check on your local DA’s race.
These big Senate and Governor’s races are huge, but in some ways, no position impacts our people more than the District Attorney. And I want you to check to see if you can vote for a reform candidate in your own city or county, so that we can continue changing the justice system from the inside out.
I’ve gotta run and catch my flight, but VOTE, VOTE, VOTE! And take everybody you know with you! Let’s go!
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