Ashland Swann, North GA Regional Director for Stacey Abrams' One Georgia Campaign

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

Our guests highlight democratic activities and actions to work toward a Blue Georgia. The 9th Congressional District spans 20 counties across the region and covers a good deal of northern GA including Blue Ridge, Morganton, Fannin, Union, Banks, Athens/Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties. 

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Transcript

Meral Clarke: 0:17

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our guest Ashland Swann, North Georgia political director for Stacey Abrams' One Georgia Campaign. Welcome to the show, Ashland. We're so happy you're here.

Ashland Swann: 0:41

Thank you. It's great to be on with you guys.

Meral Clarke: 0:42

Terrific. Well, let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Ashland Swann is a seasoned political operative lobbyist, a media spokesperson. She has worked on and manage several successful campaigns from city council to congressional races, but she most enjoys work that centers promoting democratic values in rural areas. For the last three years, she served as the Georgia legislative and business engagement director for your CBD store where she sought to make hemp products safe and accessible for all. She has also been a business consultant for CBD entrepreneurs across the southeast and in Europe. Ashland is a graduate of Oglethorpe University, where she studied rhetoric and sociology. She currently serves as the North Georgia political director for Stacey Abrams' One Georgia Campaign where she focuses on building strategic relationships, planning community events and advocating for regionally specific issues. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, hiking and making everything from wreaths to jewelry. Wow, you're so creative. She lives in Gainesville with her husband, their son and cat. So Ashland, the most important question, what's your cat's name?

Ashland Swann: 2:00

Oh,no, she has many names. And you're right. That is the most important question. Thank you for knowing that.

Meral Clarke: 2:05

Of course, for all the cat lovers.

Ashland Swann: 2:08

So we mostly call her Miss Frankie, but her name is Francesca. She is also Frank or Frank sometimes. She's very versatile.

Meral Clarke: 2:18

Oh, yes, definitely. Well, let's dive right in to what you do as the regional political coordinator for the Abrams campaign. Tell us the areas that you cover and what you're doing to get Leader Abrams elected and most essentially get the vote out in North Georgia. And can you also explain what her One Georgia Campaign is and what the goals are?

Ashland Swann: 2:40

Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, I know North Georgia is a little bit abstract of a term. It is specifically for our purposes is 28 counties, which includes where I live here in Hall County. So if you can kind of imagine you know, traditional North Georgia territory, the mountains, maybe even the northern exurbs, but we also have Douglas County, Cobb County, Paulding County, Gwinnett and, of course, Hall but we do not have the Athens area. So it is a very diverse area and encompasses a good portion of Metro Atlanta, the northern parts of the exurbs all the way up to Yes, our wine country, our agricultural country, our agri tourism country, our cabin country. So it's a beautiful place. And I grew up here in Gainesville. So I'm very proud to represent the area. And then as far as One Georgia, first of all, I just want to say I love that we get to say the phrase One Georgia so often, because I think that One Georgia is such a beautiful idea. That means something very different to each of us. So it's something we can all really identify with. Obviously, there's a lot of really great specific policy plans that go along with it that I'm sure we'll get into more. But if you're talking about the campaign itself, One Georgia is really all about the idea that wherever you live in the State of Georgia, whoever you are, whatever race you are, whatever your gender is, whoever you're married to, or not married to however old you are, whether you're disabled or not, whatever education level you have that you can live and thrive in any community in our state. And if you think about it that really shouldn't be some kind of radical different idea but it is especially as you guys very well know it often feels like there is Atlanta and then there is the rest of Georgia and I love that leader Abrams has been so direct and tackling that problem head on and saying no, we can be One Georgia but it's going to take not just talking about the you know all the good feeling stuff about what when Georgia can mean to us but it's gonna take practical application of all kinds of different things to get us to the point of truly being One Georgia. So for me, I will say as a mom specifically, but in general, I really look at you know, having communities where my child can thrive. I've talked to some of you about this before, but when I moved back up here to Gainesville, that was kind of a surprise for me. Honestly, I grew up here and I love it. There's so many great things about it. But I often wondered what kind of life would I be able to provide for my son? Would he have good enough quality of schools? What he'd be exposed to diversity and racial tolerance, because that was often an issue where I was growing up. Would we have a clean environment? Or would we be subjected to pollution from factory farms or things of that nature, there's a lot of different concerns that you could potentially have. But the point of One Georgia is making Georgia where we can all feels safe and thrive no matter where we are. And I think that ultimately, especially as parents, that's the goal we really need to be striving for.

Meral Clarke: 5:24

Well, that's a tremendous goal. And we appreciate all the work that you've put in. So I'm particularly interested in hearing from you about how you're getting the word out, and how you're working to make this happen in more red areas, more heavily Republican areas of the

Ashland Swann: 5:42

I think, first of all, as you all probably know, I state. spend a lot of my time on the road. As of right now, I've actually visited 26 out of the 28 counties, I'm very, very proud of that. And I plan to visit all of them before this thing is over. So for me, obviously, yes, you have to get out in the community and have very intentional conversations about democratic values, but especially in red areas, there's a certain way to do that, right. And I think that we can stand on our democratic values and not sway from them and not compromise on them while still having very practical issues based conversations with folks that we might, yeah, disagree with on some things. But we also might agree with on some things as well. And for me, finding those strategic commonalities, finding places where our interests intersect, and where we can move beyond the sort of Red Team Blue Team mentality is really huge. And I think that Leader Abrams is wonderful, because she's given us a lot to work with. She's got very strong plans for small businesses, or farmers for a lot of things that Democrats are not usually seen as being so great on. And she shows that Democrats can absolutely make a case in red areas to Chambers of Commerce is to Farm Bureau to whoever

Meral Clarke: 6:49

Give us an example of how that works. Can you pull from some of your experience to tell us exactly how that works?

Ashland Swann: 6:57

That you mean more in terms of like a time I've seen her have those difficult conversations? Yes. Oh, okay. Sure. Well, one, I think in particular, I can really point to is all of the conversations that I have seen her have, particularly around the issue of reproductive health care and choice. As you all know, this is an issue that is mobilizing particularly women of all political persuasions. And the idea of a complete abortion ban is extremely unpopular with Georgia voters extremely even Republicans. So this sort of extremist tact that Brian Kemp has taken has actually opened up a lot of wonderful opportunities for conversations. We were at an event with an OBGYN and it was a face to face conversation between her and the OBGYN. And they talked about a lot of things in their experience. They had questions from the audience. But one of the most interesting things that I saw was with the OB GYN dug into how these kinds of draconian laws are basically anti privacy. And you know, Republicans are always about, you know, personal autonomy, privacy, all this kind of thing. But this law strikes the very heart of it to the point where Leader Abrams was talking to this woman, and she was describing how there was a medication that is often used in abortion procedures, but that can also be used for other reproductive health procedures that do not involve abortions whatsoever. And so the doctor went to request this from the pharmacist and the pharmacist flat out denied her and said, Well, you know, that we have this ban now. And that's what the medication is clearly for. So you can't have it. And unfortunately, there was no real workaround other than to go try and find another pharmacist. So this is not only an invasion of the patient's privacy, but I mean, this is the government getting directly in the way of her doing her job.

Meral Clarke: 8:36

It does seem counterintuitive, doesn't it with Republicans that they're willing to take away a woman's right to privacy, but all other privacy issues are important to them? It makes no sense.

Ashland Swann: 8:47

Absolutely. And I mean, you see that sort of hypocrisy out of them on a variety of issues as well. So I think yeah, having those practical conversations, especially with seasoned experts, doctors, Chamber of Commerce, presidents, people who are experts in their field, who know about business, you know about medicine, who know about these very practical concerns that people can relate to, and basically show the Democrats are not, as the Republicans have tried to paint us some extremists. In fact, they are very much the extremists.

Meral Clarke: 9:12

Correct. I agree with you completely on that, because it's true. So what are some of the other regionally based issues that you and leader Abrams are dealing with as you traverse the North Georgia area?

Ashland Swann: 9:24

Obviously be agriculture, which is something that is very near and dear to my heart. We have had several very productive conversations with farmers all throughout the state, but I can really highlight particularly we had a wonderful event in Rome about a month ago, and we brought together farmers, organic and conventional professors from Barry who are also in agricultural sciences to all kind of come together and have a really deep policy focused discussion about what are the needs of the community or the needs of small farmers and also what are the needs of the agricultural educational institutions going forward? And so seeing her being so intentionally focused on agricultural policy has been, I mean, it's been beautiful. Honestly, it's moving truly because agriculture is Georgia number one industry. And yet a lot of times Democrats very much leave it behind. But Leader Abrams has taken a very serious charge in getting to know farmers listening to them building policy around their needs. And I think that that's one of the ways that we show we really understand areas like North Georgia, and especially when you consider the agritourism factor as well.

Meral Clarke: 10:23

That's tremendous, especially up here. So it seems that Republicans are always supporting the big agri farms, the huge operations that are backed by a lot of money and big business. So what is Stacey's plan for the small rural farmers?

Ashland Swann: 10:39

Thank you so much for asking. So first of all, let's start with the farmers themselves. So she actually through her and million dollar Small Business Development Fund that she's going to establish, also plans to have some of that accessible to farmers as well, because one of the things you'll hear from farmers all the time is that getting access to startup capital, or even capital to expand your operation is pretty much darn near impossible, unless you're one of the really, really big guys. And so that's a huge problem, because as you know, it's small local farmers who usually feed their local communities. And so if they're not able to get established, or if they're not able to scale their operations, it's very hard for there to be local food in the communities. So that's the first start. The other thing is also to make sure that when those farmers do expand, that they have access to expanding into more sustainable practices, because that also can be something that's cost intensive, time intensive to transition your practices. And so she wants to make that easier through her green Development Bank. The other thing is, when you also think of sustainability, you know, there's a lot of farmland in Georgia that can be used for renewable energy too. And so finding ways to incentivize farmers to augment their food production with that, and especially considering that the majority of farmers in the State of Georgia make less than$70,000 a year for their entire farm income. That's actually pretty important, because a lot of farmers are really not making the income that we expect that they should. And then finally, you also got to consider the issues of the farm workers themselves. A lot of farm workers are either on HTA visas, or they're undocumented. And so they are pretty much exclusively at the mercy of their employers and small farmers, a lot of them have really great relationships with their HTA visa holders, but some of the bigger ones do not. And so she wants to really focus to make sure that we're ending wage theft in this classification, and also providing a hotline where they can report abuse without any threat of being reported to ICE.

Meral Clarke: 12:26

Right, that would be tremendously important. We spoke with Nikita Hemingway, who's the Democratic nominee for Agriculture Commissioner, and we spoke about that rather extensively. So it is so important that farmers in small farming communities are taking care of the issue that I know is near and dear to your heart, obviously, is hemp and marijuana legalization. What are your thoughts on that? And what is Stacey doing to ensure that these applications are going to be utilized moving forward?

Ashland Swann: 13:00

Now you mean the applications for the medical marijuana permits, you mean those?

Meral Clarke: 13:04

For the medical marijuana permits and not just medical marijuana, but also the 25,000 plus uses that hemp has, and moving toward hemp in production within the state. What are her thoughts on that?

Ashland Swann: 13:18

So first of all, just to kind of clarify our medical marijuana production, and those permits are very much separate from our hemp licensing. And all of that is primarily through the Department of Agriculture, all of the creation of that, and the licensing and the inspection and all that sort of thing. And so basically, when you apply for any hemp growers permit or a hemp licensee to process basically, it's not really applying provided that you meet the strictures that are given out, then you may acquire such a thing provided you could of course pay for it. The problem is, is that those fees are often extremely, extremely high. Right now we've got exorbitant fees$25,000 a year in fees, just to be able to process and then the fees for growing are a little bit more moderate up to I believe $5,000 for up to 5000 acres, I believe is the deal. But that is still an extremely high barrier to entry. And so that's one of the reasons that she is so focused on things like the small business fund is so that way farmers can actually be able to support the enterprises that they're building out because right now hemp in the state really is being driven out, let's be very frank with you. And so investing in small farmers, allowing them to diversify their crops, ensuring that they have proper access to capital that's going to be helpful for everything hemp included. So obviously we're having some issues with our medical marijuana licensure. But that is all very much within the Department of Agriculture. But that's one of the reasons that having a sympathetic governor to these causes will be so much more important because the reason we're having issues with the licenses is really because of the way the laws were written. And those laws were very much desired by Kemp and driven by a lot of his cronies and including it within the Department of Agriculture. So it's a very complicated and multi layered process. But if we have a governor at the top of the ticket, who is really going to press to benefit small farmers to bring new forms of agriculture into the state she may have a minute before we can fully flip the legislature to make it as amenable to her as possible, but it's going to do a huge, huge benefit. And also, of course, once we have the governor's mansion, it'll be even easier for us to flip this seat. It's not a one person job. It's many moving parts at once.

Meral Clarke: 15:17

And of course, she'll have to work with all the statewide officers in different positions, which is why it's so important to vote on the ballot from the top all the way down, so we can make sure that she has a strong team around her and I know your time is short, Ashland. And we so appreciate your being here. Is there anything else that you wanted to convey to our listeners about Stacey Abrams and her campaign to unify our state?

Ashland Swann: 15:43

Yeah, I would say that one of my biggest takeaways from working on this campaign is just how thorough and far reaching the vision of One Georgia is, obviously, we've got our big ticket issues. We've got education, the economy, the environment, health care, voting rights, all of these big things. But I think the thing that is really amazing is that Democrats historically have been great with policy. But admittedly, Republicans have been better with their big unifying messaging simple, concise, easy to understand, and broadly applicable, they have honestly won that game. But I think that the message of One Georgia is so amazing, because it is a time where we have finally fully transcended that moment, I believe that One Georgia is something you can say, and people already have an inkling of what you're talking about. And yet their mind also expands to a million more possibilities. And that's what's so beautiful about it. Because we've got to empower people with ideas. We've also got to empower people with possibilities. And I think there's no one better to do that than Leader Stacey Abrams.

Meral Clarke: 16:44

Terrific. And I agree, and we can't wait to vote for her. So finally, if people want to learn more about the One Georgia Campaign, if they want to get in touch with you, or with Leader Abrams, where would you send them?

Ashland Swann: 16:57

First of all, I would highly encourage you to go to Stacey abrams.com. And especially now that we are going into early voting, definitely Stacey abrams.com/vote. And can find lots of good information about early voting there and how to get plugged in, I would also really, really encourage people to keep up with us on social media, we've got a lot of cool and fun and engaging social media, everything from Facebook, to Instagram. And then also follow us on Twitter. And we also even have a team Abrams, Twitter, that is tweets from the folks on the campaign itself, which is pretty cool. And then also, we're gonna be doing a bus tour soon. So keep your eyes peeled for that. And definitely come join us

Meral Clarke: 17:33

Plenty of access, which is terrific, because we definitely want to do that. And you know, this is coming. If you've listened to any of our podcasts, and my guests tell me this is the most difficult question to answer. Tell us a fun fact about yourself and something not necessarily related to your political background, which is impressive, or the work that you're doing for Stacey, which we thank you for but tell us something really interesting just about you.

Ashland Swann: 18:00

Okay, yes, I know what I will tell you. And it does looping a little bit to the work. But I think it also gives us a nice note to end on. So some of you may know that I am actually an Iranian American dual citizen. They don't let you be a dual citizen very often, but because my dad is from Iran, and I've been going back there every year since I was seventh, getting our citizenship for a number of reasons, just made a lot more sense. And so right now, in Iran, there are actually women who are protesting a variety of things, but mostly the compulsory use of the hijab, which is a wonderful, sacred garment, but should absolutely be a woman's choice to either wear or not wear. And so they are literally in the midst of protests and women just like me getting killed in the streets of Iran fighting for their rights. And honestly, that's maybe not a happy fact. But it's one that I carry with me every day. And I say this all to say that something I was literally just saying to my husband right before this, we are so blessed that this is the way that we get to fight for our freedoms. We are so blessed, I am so blessed to sit on this call and have to do this podcast with you. I am so blessed to be sitting in my home which is safe, I am so blessed to go to fun events to march in the Pride Parade, while other people in other countries and possibly one day even here fight for their rights in a way that is very hard for us to imagine, but can also happen here. And that's why I think it is so important to fight extremism, both abroad and at home. And that's why it's so important. Like I said, bring it back around to elect Stacey Abrams as the next Governor of Georgia because we are lucky to be able to fight for her and she is going to take us in a direction where we don't have to worry about this extremist agenda of Brian Kemp affecting us any longer.

Meral Clarke: 19:38

Beautifully stated and I'm so glad that you brought that up because I am in awe of these women in the streets of Iran who are fighting so hard to maintain some semblance of their privacy, dignity and their rights. So kudos we hold them all in our hearts and we wish them all the best. I wish there was more we could do for them but they are incredibly courageous and I have no words to describe how proud I am of these women and how proud I am of women fighting here for our rights as well. Well thank you Ashland, for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to advance democratic goals and policy. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. Join us next time when we chat with the leaders of the Georgia chapter of Braver Angels. To learn more about us and the work that we're doing, visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia democrats.com. Share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family. Be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcast you founding patron and friend of the show at North Georgia blue podcast.com/patron with three different giving levels to choose from offering cool swag recognition on the show and website and valuable gift cards to help us continue getting into more good trouble.