Bee Nguyen, GA Representative for the 89th Congressional District, Vice-Chair of Constituency Groups for the Democratic Party of GA (DPG), and candidate for GA Secretary of State

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. 

Our democratic party podcast also disseminates information and interviews powerful Democrats across the state of GA who are working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact. 

#podcasts #politicalpodcasts #democraticpolitics #democraticparty #stateofga #democraticactivism, #democraticgrassroots #community #gademocraticparty #georgiademocrats #democraticpodcasts #bestdemocraticpodcasts #freedemocraticpodcasts #deepdemocracypodcasts #gademocrats #democracy #republic #democraticpodcastslisten #fightthegop #votersuppression #voterrights #bluestates #redstates #podcastsaboutdemocraticpolitics #grassrootsactivism #climatechange #environment #9thdistrictcongressionalchairs #9thcongressionaldistrictchair #BeeNguyen #atlantapolitics #GAsecretaryofstateoffice #asianamericanwomen #racialequity #POC #politicalactivist  #racialjustice #equity #education #diversity #inclusion #workingtorestoredemocracy #voterrights #democraticoperative #localpolitics #countypolitics #statepolitics #politicalraces #voterturnout #redistricing #gerrymandering #votersuppression #voterrights #politicalhistory #gapol #ruralrevival #ruraloutreach #DemocraticPartyofGA #democraticgoals #democraticcharacter #democraticvalues #democraticintegrity

Transcript

Meral Clarke: 0:18

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County, Georgia Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our guest Bee Nguyen, representative to the Georgia House for district 89 and vice chair for constituency groups for the Georgia Democratic Party. Welcome to the show, Bee. We're so happy to have you with us today.

Bee Nguyen: 0:44

Thank you so much for having me on. I'm excited to be with y'all today.

Meral Clarke: 0:48

Oh, thank you. We're excited to have you. So Bee is one of five daughters, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees born to a resourceful mother and a father working as an orderly at a mental institution. He made a minimum wage $3.35 an hour in 1981. At night, he studied in their basement apartment and used a cardboard box as his desk. He believed that education was the only way to escape poverty. So you grew up in Augusta, Georgia and graduated from a Georgia public high school. Then you moved to Atlanta to attend Georgia State University and you started a local nonprofit to educate and empower young women. That would be a FEMA warehouse, which I want to touch on as well. Your nonprofit work and you learned how to organize with your community and demand change for your students. Bee also made history when she was elected to Georgia House District 89, the seat formerly held by Stacey Abrams. At the Georgia State Capitol, Bee had been a leading advocate for public education, criminal justice reform and voting rights. During her tenure Bee successfully overturned the exact match voter registration law and restored the right to vote for 53,000 Georgians impacted by the policy. Thank you so much for that, by the way. As an entrepreneur and community organizer Bee believes in the power of everyday Georgians in 2020 and 2018, she opened up her personal home and joined hands with neighbors and volunteers to mobilize 10s of 1000s of Georgia voters to cast their ballots for Democratic candidates. So you know firsthand the importance of a free and fair democracy. And that's why you're running to be Georgia's next Secretary of State, which we are very excited about. We could not be more pleased. So tell us a little bit about how your background and being first generation American led to your passion for alleviating economic disparity issues among so many and rights for people of color.

Bee Nguyen: 2:55

You know, I think that like many children of immigrants, the migration journeys from our parents' country of origin to the United States has a really rich history. And that was certainly true with my parents. My parents are refugees from Vietnam that came to our country in the late 70s. And before they got here, and my dad was actually a lieutenant in the medical army, and when Saigon fell in 1975, he was among the hundreds of 1000s of people who were swept up and imprisoned in what they called reeducation camp. And so he was held there for three years. And when he was released, my family made that decision to flee Vietnam in the middle of the night on a boat. And so growing up, my family did not talk about it a lot. We just heard bits and pieces of their story and their escape story, occasionally through my parents, and then other members of our family as well. And we knew that they thought that they were not going to make it to safety. We knew that they got stranded in the middle of the ocean, and it was a Thai fisherman that found them and saved their lives and brought them to refugee camp in Thailand. And then they were eventually resettled in the United States. And what was unique about that time period was there was a Republican governor in Iowa who worked with President Jimmy Carter to resettle a significant number of Vietnamese refugees in the state of Iowa. And that's how my entire family ended up in Iowa. And that first job my dad had was an Iowa as an orderly. And we ended up moving to Georgia when I was about seven years old. And so there was always this sense of responsibility in terms of how do you uphold this great legacy that was given to you by your two parents who risked everything, including their own lives to just have the possibility of a better life in America, and they certainly were able to have that better life here in our country. And so how do you repay that and how do you honor the sacrifices that they made and that's exactly what led me to the work of public schools because I think saw that education did get my family out of poverty. When I was born, I was a welfare baby, my family relied on public assistance. And that enabled them to, you know, climb out of poverty, the combination of that safety net along with my dad going back to school. And so I saw the value of education, certainly, but what was missing in my family specifically, was this idea that you could build community power that you could build political power, that you should use that sacredness, fundamental right to vote to make change for the people in your lives. And that absence of empowerment led me to that work, where I wanted to work with young people to ensure that not only were they being equipped with the resources to graduate from high school, but they understood the importance of their voice. And they understood that they could effectuate change in their community through organizing and advocating. And also through using that tool of voting.

Meral Clarke: 6:03

Correct. You have an extraordinary backstory, which obviously led you to nonprofits, and all you've done to educate and empower these young women, including all women of color. So with your Asian background, you are the first Asian American to hold office correct? In Georgia?

Bee Nguyen: 6:21

I'm the first Asian American democratic woman to be elected in the General Assembly. In 2016, Sam Park was our first Asian American Democrat elected, and I was the first Vietnamese elected to our general assembly.

Meral Clarke: 6:36

That is extraordinary. And congratulations. You certainly deserve all of this. So what led you to run for office? Why did you leave the nonprofit public education world? And what was the action or event that led you to run for office and say, I need to serve my people? Was there something seminal that happened a sea change? Was it Trump, which it is for so many?

Bee Nguyen: 7:03

Actually it was not Trump at all. In fact, it was the so I've been working in public schools in DeKalb in Atlanta and the kids that I worked with, attended public schools that were underfunded, and underperforming. And it wasn't just the lack of investment in their education, it was their parents were not making livable wages, they didn't have access to health care, dental care, public transit, healthy foods, and there was a high level of victimization in the community. And all of these, you know, problems and issues compounding against one another. And I got to the point where I understood that there were so many more students in the exact same position across the state of Georgia. And there was no conceivable way to be able to reach all of these students. And that part of why my students were in this position was because of structural decisions and policy decisions that lead to these circumstances for kids who quite frankly, deserve so much more. Yeah. And so I started to make that connection between the policy and the circumstances under which my students lived and understood that I had to advocate for changes at the state level. And in the advocacy work, I, you know, I decided to go back to school. So I went to Andrew Young school policy and got an MBA and I started working in a part time capacity at Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which really helped me understand how all of these state level decisions were impacting the kids I worked with. And that was what drove me it was understanding the importance of having representation on our state legislature, it was witnessing how these decisions that we made like not expanding Medicaid not fully funding our public education, witnessing how those decisions impacted real humans. And it was that reason that I decided to run. But even so because I had never thought of that as something that I wanted to do. I hadn't seen anybody who looked like me do it before. And certainly it was not something that my family ever thought was possible. I still had to overcome those hesitations as it pertains to our ideas of who should be elected in government.

Meral Clarke: 9:22

Right. Right. And you did successfully and your parents must be so proud of you. So you know, having served your district, Stacey Abrams, former District 89. And having served those folks for many years, what led you to run for Secretary of State, which is such a crucial position in keeping our democracy alive, especially in Georgia. So what happened where you said, Okay, I need to run for this office, this office matters, and I need to run for it. Was there an event that happened or was it just a thought process you'd had for a while?

Bee Nguyen: 9:56

Yeah, and you know what, I think it was very similar to the decision that I made to run for state house, it was not part of any kind of plan, but it ended up being an extension of the work that I was doing. And the way in which I thought about it was how can I best effectuate change. And so I was always doing work in public schools. My next logical step of being able to effectuate the change was through advocacy. And then my next logical step was to actually run for office and be able to make policy right. And so with the Secretary of State's office, it was not an office that I envisioned running for at any point in the last four years that I served until I was in the middle of these Rudy Giuliani hearings last year. And, you know, I've been immersed in election laws since I've been elected because I'm on Governmental Affairs Committee. So every single year, I've seen some attempts to rollback the right to vote. And in those years, we were successful in beating some of those things back. One year, it was an attempt to eliminate Souls to the Poll and Sunday voting. One year, it was trying to roll back our voting hours in the City of Atlanta for municipal elections from 8pm to 7pm. And those years, we were able to combat those voter restriction bills through organizing and ensuring that the public would help us fight back against them. But it all changed in 2020. And at the very beginning of the year, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle started planting this notion that somehow voting by mail was less secure than voting in person, even though no excuse absentee ballot was passed by Republicans, because they wanted to see increase voter turnout for rural voters and make it easier and more accessible and that no excuse absentee ballot law that was passed into place by Republicans did not have an ID requirement. I mean, these are Republican made laws that worked for our state up until they realized during a pandemic year that it was very likely that Democrats would use it in great numbers in the same way that they had Republicans have been using it in the past. And so I kind of watched and saw these efforts to coordinate talking points around that early on, it was before the results of the primary before the results of the general election. And I understood that this really concerted effort to sow the seeds of doubt was to set Republicans up to challenge the election if Georgia went blue in November. You know, we have organized a long time in our state and, we knew that building this broad based coalition would certainly help us get to a win. And I think that Republicans also recognize that they have lost people from their party because of the former president. And so we were battling in the same ways that we battled at the General Assembly over voting rights. But this time, it was much more aggressive. It was much more nefarious, it was much more coordinated, and all of this happening in the midst of a pandemic. And so I remember after the November election, when they allow Giuliani and Trump's legal team to come into our General Assembly, I'd watched everything that went down on the Senate side. And I saw that when Senator Elena Parent and Senator Jim Jordan pushed back against the lies and misinformation that were being presented to them in our body, that they were met with death threats and harassed and it put a target on their back. And so when we had our hearings scheduled on the House side, there were many folks who suggested that we should maybe not push back so hard, and they were specifically worried for the women of color on that committee. I'm one of the two women of color on that committee. And they knew that if we were to push back that we would put a target on our backs. But I also knew that I didn't get elected to stay silent. I knew that the responsibility was mine, to tell the truth and use facts. And I also understood that it was about more than me, it was about more than Georgia. It was about our country as a whole. And so I did the legwork to ensure that I was prepared to go into that committee meeting. And when I was able to put holes into Trump's expert witness, I immediately my address was dots on a right wing gun site and I started receiving the general xenaphobic and gender based harassment, but also some death threats. And I have to sit down after that committee hearing and put together a safety plan. And I thought, How in the world are we in this position, and also recognizing that this was happening to other elected officials across the country and to election workers who are there to do their jobs, and I thought we are in such a dangerous position. And our democracy is in peril. And, you know, I hoped after January 6, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would have some deep internal reflections on how all of this unfolded into that horrific event that we saw on the sixth. And I hoped that they were going to change their rhetoric, and that they would focus on things like expanding Medicaid to give Georgians access to health care, or equipping our Department of Labor with more resources to deal with unemployment claims, or think about how we were going to increase our vaccination rates. And none of that happened. We spent the entire session battling Senate Bill 202. And so I felt that it was my responsibility and an extension of my work, as it pertains to protecting the right to vote and protecting our democracy. And it was shortly after session that I decided to run for Secretary of State.

Meral Clarke: 15:43

Fantastic, because we all know that it's crucial and critical, it has to be protected at all costs. So that leads to my next question, how do we fight? You know, and you're also the Vice Chair for constituency groups for the Democratic Party of Georgia as well. How do we fight the mis and disinformation tactics that the GOP has embraced at this point?

Bee Nguyen: 16:04

Well, you know, this is a question that I get a lot and it is very challenging, because part of it is not within our control. But what is within our control is one, never repeating the lies and conspiracy theories, there are studies that show that if a person hears something enough, then they believe it as true. It's just the way our brains operate. So never repeating the misinformation and lies never using their same rhetoric when we talk about access to voting and protecting our democracy. But I do think we have to use other tools at hand, which is we've got to litigate in court, which we're doing, we have to continue to organize and educate and inform voters of the changes that were made, so that we can ensure that when they go vote, their votes will be counted. And I think that requires the same type of investments that we saw in 2020 and 2021, in terms of making sure that we're investing in our voter protection hotline that we are investing in people who are doing poll monitoring, who can make sure that we are there to mitigate any nefarious attempts to disenfranchise voters. But it also involves mobilizing voters in the same way that we did in 2020, and in 2021. And so I think that it's important to do all of those things. But even still with that, we still need federal Voting Rights Act to be protective to be passed absolute to protect our state legislatures. Yes, we need to change the makeup of our state legislatures. I think that when we look at politics, we often are attracted to the biggest, flashiest sexiest thing. But I did not even recognize the power that state legislators had until I started serving. And we passed the six week abortion ban. And then we passed Senate Bill 202. And here we are watching all of these state legislators do the same thing. So we've got to make sure that we focus on down ballot races. And now those county commission seats are critically, even more important because those are the ones who appoint local election boards if there's a concerted effort to turn these local election boards into partisan entities. So I think it's a lot of different things that we need to do. And some of them are going to be more challenging than others. But it's not a solution that only encompasses one thing. It's not when you take the Secretary of State's office and things are fixed. It's a combination of all of those things. And each of those things has an important role in protecting and safeguarding our democracy.

Meral Clarke: 18:44

Absolutely. And you know, what's wrong with Brad Raffensperger? And I asked that question sincerely, because he was all about voter integrity and election integrity and upholding the results just a year ago. And now he seems to be caving in to the Q Anon Trump crazy part of the party that's taken over the GOP, essentially. So how do we protect the Office of Secretary of State from these partisan interests? How do we do that?

Bee Nguyen: 19:15

I'm glad you're asking about Brad because Brad and I actually served one year at the same time as state lawmakers before he ran for Secretary of State and obviously, in his capacity of Secretary of State, he's been before my committee many times. And one thing that I have known about him is he has never been a friend when we are dealing with legislation to expand voting. And he has been in support of voter restriction bills that have come before us in the past independently before 2020. And so I knew his history, but I was like many Georgians and many Americans who breathed a sigh of relief when he chose not to find those 11,000 extra votes, but it doesn't surprise me that he is behind and supporting Senate Bill 202. Because, quite frankly, he has always deflected his responsibilities and lay blame on local election boards when he was before our committee last year. And we knew that the Postal Service was being dismantled. And people were very concerned about their ballots coming in on time because nothing else was arriving, medication wasn't coming, bills weren't coming. I asked him, I said, Would you consider an emergency ruling that would allow ballots to be counted within three or five days after they're received as long as they're postmarked by Election Day? Because other states were doing that? And he said, No, and I wasn't surprised that he said, No, but this is an indicator of the type of Secretary of State he is. We actually litigated that and won that litigation. And a judge ruled and said, if an absentee ballot is postmarked by Election Day, and receive within 72 hours, just like we do military overseas ballots then it should be counted. His office appealed that ruling and won. And so the signs were there, that he was not a friend of democracy. It just so happened in this instant that he did the right thing. And then he went right back to being who he has been as Secretary of State. And I'm very disappointed because I think there has been a moment for many people choosing what side they're going to be on when January 6th happened, and understanding that the attack on democracy is not a partisan issue, and that it will end up hurting all Americans. And he could have chosen to be on that side. But what we have seen instead is he's supporting Senate Bill 202. He's attacking Stacey Abrams, every opportunity he has. And he has not held the people accountable, who have rejected him. He's trying to appeal to a base that he helped create. And he's trying to appeal to a base that rejects him. He still voted for Purdue and Loeffler. And he still continuously would say things like, you know, I'm disappointed that Trump didn't win. And so we can do so much better than Brad. And we're in a position now where we can do better than Brad. But we're also in a position where we recognize it may not even be Brad, it might be Jody Hice.

Meral Clarke: 22:21

Right, which would be even scarier. To me, yeah. Because as extreme as Brad is Jody is even further to the right of that. So Oh, yes, it's really, really frightening. So tell us what you believe are the most egregious actions taken by the state GOP and by the Office of the Secretary of State specifically, I mean, obviously, voter suppression is at the top of the list. But what else have republicans done in the state of Georgia to make it more difficult for everyone to exercise their right to vote and live and obtain the funding that we need?

Bee Nguyen: 22:56

You know, I think that there are so many dangerous provisions under Senate Bill 202. And I know that some of them are talking about not all of them, because, quite frankly, it's a 98 page bill. So it is very challenging to be able to present all that information. But certainly the ability for the state to take over a local election boards, which actually goes against this idea that we should support local control and local governance and self governance. It is a partisan power grab. And it was designed exactly to give Republicans more control of places that have local democratic leadership. And so this effort to take over Fulton County elections board the county with one of the most populous counties with one of the most diverse populations. I mean, that is an outright attack on the ability for us to help make sure that voting is more accessible and to the partisan takeover the state board takeover, in you mentioned funds. So Senate Bill 202 will actually make it more expensive for counties to run their election. Right. One thing that was helpful in 2020, and 2021 was the ability for local election boards to apply for private grant funding, which both Republican and Democratic election boards are counties receive that funding, it was not exclusive to one party. Cherokee County actually received funding. That funding was important because it allowed local election boards to hire more poll workers to pay hazard pay because we were in a pandemic that is actually not over yet, and also have more equipment and resources. Right. So Senate Bill 202 prohibits local election boards from seeking out additional funding, which will cripple their ability to run elections with everything that they need. There's also a provision around provisional ballots that I think is not talked about enough prior to 202. If you showed up in the wrong precinct, but in the right County, you could vote provisionally and your ballot would be counted at the end of the night. Yes, what ended up happening is in Senate Bill 202 it now says if you show up in the wrong precinct, but you're in the right County, you can't vote provisionally, you have to go to the right precinct. And there are people who cannot take that time off to be able to get to their correct precinct. And that is going to discourage people from being able to cast their ballot. And it was a very smart provision, because when we look at the number of provisional ballots that were cast out of precinct, but in the correct County, the majority of them are Democratic voters. And it makes sense because when we're looking at Metro Atlanta counties, like Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Clayton, they're much larger counties with many more voting precincts. And when we're consolidating or changing locations, people get confused and show up at the wrong voting location. Right. I was a poll monitor in Fulton County during November election at CT Martin, which was an early voting location, but it was also open on the day of election. I believe, around 600 people voted in person that day, and half of them were people who showed up at the wrong precinct, because they thought that because it was an early voting location for three weeks that it was also going to be a location you could go to on election day and cast their ballot. right Under Senate Bill 202, those 300 people if you arrived before 5pm, you would not be able to vote provisionally. And so it was just a very nefarious tactic that they use understanding exactly who it would impact and that those are large margins that could potentially swing an election.

Meral Clarke: 26:37

Right Well, it seems they can't win unless they cheat somehow. So that's what I see going on. And how do you think that this new voter law is going to impact turnout next year in 2022, especially with the ID requirements? Not everyone has a driver's license or state ID? How do we go about making sure that all the voters that voted in 2020 show up next year?

Bee Nguyen: 27:03

I think we have to organize in the same way that we have, but even more so. And it is about making sure that voters understand the law so that when they go and cast their ballot, that it will be counted. And it is also about ensuring that voters understand that they have a choice between a party who believes that voting is a fundamental right for all Americans, no matter what side of the aisle you are on. Y,ou have a party who believes that we should have expanded Medicaid many, many years ago to give half a million Georgians health insurance, especially during a pandemic. We have a party who believes in investing in our public education and ensuring that when we are looking at our state budget, that that is a priority versus massive tax cuts for corporations. It is a party that believes that women should have the bodily autonomy to decide what is best for her body and for herself and for her family. And it is a party who believe that our diversity is a strength and that when we build these broad based coalitions we have shared values that are important and will help build a stronger Georgia. But instead, on the other side, they don't have any policy positions that are going to improve the lives of Georgians. They don't want Georgians to have health care. They are attacking Georgians who are taking the pandemic seriously through a campaign that is deadly for people who live in this state through the messaging of not getting vaccinated or not wearing masks. I mean, when I look at what's going on, it is very clear to me that there is one party who is just simply not interested in improving the lives of the people who live in our state.

Meral Clarke: 28:57

Okay. All right. And you've stated, and I quote, that Georgia must be a leader on voting rights, not voter suppression as your next Secretary of State. All Fingers crossed. I'm sorry, I have to interject my own feelings about this because I'm angry about what the Republicans are doing. I'm angry. And I think a lot of us, you know, progressive, Democrats are very angry. So you said you would prioritize the stability, efficiency and equity across all divisions? What does that mean? Exactly? And how will you do it?

Bee Nguyen: 29:30

So thank you for asking me that. Because I do think that is very important. When we think about the Secretary of State's office, I think most people know that the Secretary of State's office will be the person who chooses to decide to certify election results. And if we put somebody in there who is not going to respect the outcome of an election, then we're in big trouble. Right, right. And so that's one of the most important things but also, I want to talk about it in terms of what can the Secretary of State's office do to improve the current functions, but I also want to talk about it very realistically. So when I do talk about it, I talk about it in terms of what can the Secretary of State's office do with Senate Bill 202 still in place, and with the possibility of a Republican controlled legislature. So I have introduced and signed bills to have same day voter registration to vote at any precinct to in felony disenfranchisement, but I want to be very real about what the Secretary of State's office can do under Senate Bill 202. And with a potential Republican controlled legislature. So I think about the things that don't require legislative approval. So one, which I think is among the most important is ensuring that we have a secretary of state that is going to work collaboratively with all 159 counties and to implement mandatory training to ensure that all the counties are equipped to run efficient elections and understand the laws, especially with the laws changing so rapidly, we want to ensure that all 159 counties know exactly how to run their elections, and that they understand the changes that were made with Senate Bill 202. But even prior to Senate bill 202 not having a standard for training and to invest in increased training, we see the difference it makes when you have an election worker who understands the law, and who has the training to make sure that they don't accidentally disenfranchise voters. So I think there's tremendous opportunity there as it pertains to the allocation of resources, because Senate Bill 202 eliminates that ability for legal action boards to apply for private funding, the Secretary of State's office can take on that task of making sure that they are pulling in additional funds so they can disperse to election boards in an equitable way, meaning that you have to recognize districts with a greater voting population will need additional resources and also making sure that the Secretary of State comes to the table in good faith to help local election boards work through the challenges that they face. One of the things that I saw on Governmental Affairs where there were local action boards who were hesitant to testify before committee because they were afraid the secretary of state would act punitive in nature, and that is not a good leader. A good leader is collaborative and works in tandem with local election boards to make sure that they can overcome those challenges that they are facing. So I think that provides tremendous opportunity in terms of how we can improve the way that elections are run and all 159 counties is empowering these local election boards and working collaboratively with them and providing them the resources. Another thing that I think the Secretary of State's office ought to do and can do but is not doing, is change the way that they communicate with voters as it pertains to the cleanup of voter rolls. It is federal law that we have to remove voters who have passed away. It's federal law that you renew voters to have moved, right. Unfortunately, in Georgia, we have use it or lose it. So we're removing voters that sat out on election cycles. But when these lists are crafted, and these voters are identified, they are given notice through the mail through a letter and they have 40 days to respond or they're taken off the voter rolls. And in the past, we have seen voters who are erroneously removed. As recent as 2019, there were 20,000 voters who are erroneously removed from roles, and the Secretary of State had to reinstate them, we have the technology and resources available to increase this communication so that we are in good faith keeping valid voters on the roll. That means more than a letter in the mail, because often times, these letter in the mails can look like junk mail or be sent to the wrong address all these other things. Yes. And so using voter phone numbers using voter email, using tax, we can do so much better to in good faith notify voters so that we aren't wrongly taking people off the roll. The problem here is there is not a good faith effort to keep voters on the roll. And the Secretary of State can certainly change that. And the last thing that I want to talk about is something that is important to me is language access. So being the daughter of immigrants, my parents, spoke Vietnamese primarily in our household, and they do speak English, but their preferred and their most comfortable language is Vietnamese. So when we think about the strength of Georgia, we know that we are a multicultural, multilingual state. And part of our success is that diversity. And so when we think about access and equity, we have to make sure that we are being thoughtful about language access. So if you go onto the portal to request your application to vote by mail, it's only in one language. The Department of Driver Services actually offers the written tests in multiple languages because they understand that we have to meet people where they are at right so being able to translate and major languages the portal to apply to vote by mail will be tremendously helpful. But not just for elections, thinking about how we do that on the corporation side, knowing that there are many immigrant owned businesses, and that would help with our workforce. And so those are some of the things that I think about in terms of priorities.

Meral Clarke: 35:14

Right, right. And I also want to ask you, metro Atlanta is a blue oasis compared to rural Georgia areas, and how are you planning to appeal to rural Georgians who may not be familiar with you? Or, you know, people outside of the metro area? What's your plan there?

Bee Nguyen: 35:33

So I do like to share with people that I actually grew up in Augusta, Georgia, which is not rural Georgia, but it is not metro Atlanta, and my parents still live there. Then, you know, that was like my foundation and my most formative years living in Augusta. So I certainly think that that is a strength that I have as a candidate. But I also think that one of the things is no matter what part of the state that you live in, your access to voting is going to be important to you and fighting for that right to vote and protecting our democracy, because we're also talking about not just voter suppression, but we're talking about the subversion of democracy. That is a unifying message for Georgia democrats across our state. I think that in this particular race, we are going to be a united front on protecting the right to vote no matter where you live in the state of Georgia. So it's continuing to uplift that message. It is doing things like connecting with folks who do not live in the metro Atlanta like I'm doing now. Yes, and I'm in traveling throughout the state to ensure that people do have the chance to meet me. But also, this is something that is not a very fun part of campaigns, it is putting my head down and working hard to raise the money that we need to ensure that I have resources to reach every part of Georgia.

Meral Clarke: 36:54

Fantastic. And we so appreciate you. So if someone wants to join the beehive, sorry, I couldn't resist. If someone wants to be part of your hive, which I certainly do, how would they go about getting in touch with your campaign, if they wish to volunteer or donate?

Bee Nguyen: 37:11

They would visit my website, www.beeforgeorgia.com. And it spelled all of it spelled out BEEFORGEORGIA.com. And then my favorite form of social media is Twitter. You can find me on there at BEEFORGEORGIA spelled out all the same. And my Facebook is also BEEFORGEORGIA.

Meral Clarke: 37:35

Fantastic so we can get in touch with your campaign and volunteer and donate Yes, which I urge all of our listeners to do. And finally, this has been a wonderful interview, by the way, and time has flown but finally, and I asked all my guests this question, Tell us a fun fact about yourself something not related to politics or your campaign that people would be interested in knowing that we may not know.

Bee Nguyen: 38:00

This is the question that I needed to prep for.

Meral Clarke: 38:03

Oh, no, I'm so sorry. Do you I mean, I certainly hope you have fun.

Bee Nguyen: 38:10

Yeah, from time to time what I do. So one thing that I started running, like, I don't know, maybe 12 or 15 years ago, and before I got into politics, I ran two half marathons a year. Wow. And did it for almost 10 years. And I did these really fun races called Ragnar relay races, which essentially you run from one city to another with a team of 12 people and you take turns until you finish. So you're traveling like in the middle of the night. So we once ran from Chattanooga to Nashville, and then once ran from, I think, Maryland to Washington, DC

Meral Clarke: 38:50

That is incredible.

Bee Nguyen: 38:51

So I still try to incorporate running because it is the one time of the day that I am solely focused on myself that I don't have my cell phone with me and it's a really good stress reliever. And so I hope that I can continue to do that. Because the first year I was elected, I did not go on one single run through the entire legislative session. But I have made a commitment to myself that I'm going to continue to go on my runs because I think it's important to carve out that space.

Meral Clarke: 39:23

Good for you. Well, I am not one for whom to run is a verb. But I believe in exercise and good health and we need to keep you healthy because you're going to be serving Georgians for a long, long time to come. So thank you, Bee for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to maintain our democracy. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. We hope you'll listen in next time when our special guest will be Justin Holsomback secretary of the Georgia Democratic Party. To learn more about the Fannin County Democrats and the work we're doing, please visit us online at FanninCountyGeorgiaDemocrats.com and consider sharing the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family. Join us again as we get into some more good trouble.