Ayesha Rascoe and Vincent Evans Engage in Conversation

Ayesha Rascoe, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, sat down for a fireside chat at the NBC-LEO membership meeting with Vincent Evans, Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus, engaged in conversation at the 2026 Congressional City Conference in Washington, D.C. Together, they discussed Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, leadership and advancing equitable practices and corporate accountability.

For more information, visit us at nlc.org.

Transcript

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 0:07

Welcome back to Citiespeak, where we give listeners an insider's view of what local leadership in America means today, and future conversations with government leaders and policy experts regarding the biggest issues facing America's cities, towns, and villages. At Congressional City Conference 2026 in Washington, D.C., Ayush Roscoe, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, sat down for a fireside chat with Vincent Evans, Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus. Together they discuss leadership, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and corporate accountability. Enjoy this inspiring conversation and come back again next week for another episode of Cities Week.

Mayor Bobby L. Scott, Jr., Center Point, Alabama 0:54

So as we move into the next part of our meeting, I want to take a moment to center this conversation in the context of the moment we're in. Across the country, there's a level of uncertainty in many of our communities. But what we know as local leaders is that local government delivers. Cities, towns, and villages are where policy becomes services and where ideas become actions, and where progress becomes real in people's lives. This is why this conversation matters. As president of NBC Leo, I believe we have a responsibility to ensure the voices of our communities are heard clearly at the national level. Our cities, towns, and villages are on the front lines of addressing housing, economic opportunity, public safety, and education. The question before us is how do we translate what we see and experience locally into national policy, conversations, and advocacy? How do we ensure priorities of black communities are communicated effectively to policymakers? How do we make sure the lived experiences of our residents shape the policies that ultimately impact their lives? This is especially important as many of us prepare to go to Capitol Hill later this week. Those conversations are strongest when they are grounded in realities of our communities and the outcomes our residents need. Before leading the CBC, Vincent served in the White House as the Deputy Director of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. For Vice President Kamala Harris, worked in the Biden Harris presidential campaign, advised U.S. Representative Al Lawson, and previously served in Tallahassee City Government in the office of the mayor and city commission. A proud Floridian and graduate of Florida AM University. He was named the Route 100 list of the most influential black Americans in 2024. Moderating our conversation is Aisha Rasco, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, and the weekend host of Up First. She previously served as an NPR White House correspondent, covering three presidential administrations, and reported on major global events, including President Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi and President Obama's final NTO, NATO summit in Warsaw. Before NPR, she spent a decade at Reuters covering major energy and environmental stories, including the BP oil spill and the Fukushima nuclear crisis. She is a proud graduate of the illustrious Howard University. Please join me in welcoming Vincent Evans and Aisha Rasco as we begin this important conversation on policy and progress.

Speaker 5 3:56

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.

Speaker 4 4:02

Well, thank y'all so much. So glad to be here. And I know we're um before the party, so we won't we don't want to hold you too long. Um and and you know, so glad to be talking to you, uh Vincent. Um I guess to start off with, like, obviously they're gonna be headed to the hill. The CBC. What is the focus for the CBC this year? Kind of give us the 500-foot view. What are those policy priorities?

Speaker 5 4:31

Well, let me thank you, Aisha, and let me thank MBC Leo for the invitation. Thank all of you. Um you know, y'all are coming to Capitol Hill at what I know the leaders in this room already know is a critical moment. Um I appreciate that the leaders in this room um come with a lens understanding that when we solve policy issues in this country, if we solve them on the margins, we solve them for everybody. Y'all know that better than anybody. So I don't need to preach to the choir, although the choir needs some tuning up every now and then, as we say at the CBC. Uh, this is a critical time. The last year and a half in Washington has been difficult. Um, there are major challenges before us. There is not a lot of bipartisanship in Washington right now. You just heard from Mike Wallace of one piece of legislation that does have a lot of bipartisan support. I'm very proud of the fact that a number of members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, Representative Maxine Waters, um, has led on this bill. She is supportive of it. Um, yep. Obviously, we will see over the next weeks what the Senate and House do. I ultimately am optimistic that once and for all we need a major housing bill in this country, we are gonna get it. So even in we are so we're we have a tension right now. The tension is both the things that we can get done like this legislation that we should absolutely support, and then we've gotta be holding the line. And that is what the CBC, many of you um know many members of our caucus. There are 62 uh members of the CBC, four in the United States Senate. The first time we've ever had four, two of them black women, we're very proud of that, um, and the work that they are doing. And so in this moment, um we are battling on two fronts, trying to get things done for our communities while also holding the line, particularly on um programs and things that we have all fought for for a long time.

Speaker 4 6:33

Well, I guess talk to me a little bit about that. I don't know if when you say holding the line, you're talking about, say, attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I know that, you know, NBC Leo, they're focused on equitable um policies for their communities, but we are in a time when even the word equitable is a bad word in some places, and it's looked at as these are the places where we need to pull the grants because they're talking about equitable, right? So when when they are going to the hill to talk to their congresspeople, to talk to their senators, should they avoid words like equitable? Should they avoid some of those words? Or what does it mean to hold the line?

Speaker 5 7:16

Well, when you come and talk to a CBC member, you ought to say equitable. Because if not, we're gonna look at you and be like, Well, what's going on? Uh, look, the CBC has been clear-eyed, and we will not move off of this, and I know y'all are not moving off of this. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential. It is important. And might I remind you that which you already know? It is a business imperative for corporate America. Two years ago, the CBC saw this coming, released a report. I'll get you a copy of it on corporate accountability because we knew then what you know now. It is a moral and it is a business imperative. Um, and the tools of economic opportunity that so many of the leaders in our caucus in this room have fought for are under attack. We will not relent. We will find common ground where we can and where we cannot, we will hold our ground. And that's what we've been doing. Y'all know about and local leaders are dealing with this. I think about the 8-A program, DBA, minority business enterprises. I used to work in city government. They are under attack right now. What we've been saying to black local elected officials is regardless of what Washington says they will not do, what will you do? You still have the power in your own local government to dictate for yourself and your community that you are going to make certain that everybody has an opportunity, an equitable opportunity to take advantage of the tools of economic opportunity that all of us have fought for. And I keep saying we for a reason, y'all. I think sometimes I come to these places and I speak and they say, oh, the CBC, and they say Washington, they say Congress. Let's be very clear. So many of my members are from NBC Leo or the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. We are in this together. You all are actually one year older than the CBC. I heard you when the gentleman said 50 years. The truth is NBC Leo is 55 years old. The CBC is 54 years old. So our work and our intersection of work has been always one that is connected. We got to do a better job of keeping it connected. But the things that we do together, they are interchangeable. So when y'all showing up tomorrow, it's a family reunion because the family understands I'm here in Washington, you in this city, you in this city, you in this local government unit, but we already know that we're singing from the same sheet of music.

unknown 9:40

Come on.

Speaker 4 9:44

Well, talk to me about how do how can the local officials move in alignment with the CBC and the CBC move in alignment with the local officials. What does that look like practically?

Speaker 5 9:57

Yeah, now, y'all, this is where we've got to do better. And I was so glad to hear the presentation about how you all will be essentially auditing your own work to position it um in the future. Uh the sister talked about the outcomes and what will come of that. That's important. We, y'all, we got a lot of plans. We got a lot of plans. I was on the phone this morning for a significant portion of my day talking with brothers and sisters about um the target boycott. Where are we? How do we need to reset? What do we need to do? How do we all enter the conversation? What happens is often is everybody's well-intentioned. There's some mixed messaging, and we've got to get coordinated. Um, as I've been traveling around the country, what I've been saying to answer your question, we can ill-afford blurry vision. The left and the right have to know, have to know what is going on. And we say that often in these settings, but the truth is in this environment, particularly when you think about the media ecosystem, which you know all too well, um, people are getting their news from a thousand places all day. So there is not one medium that we can do this through. So we all have got to at least be trying to say the same um thing. I've been saying and I will continue to say, black people in America need to sleep in shifts. When I'm sleep, y'all need to be up. And when y'all are asleep, I need to be up because the people of ill will, the people who are undermining us, they ain't never asleep. So that's what we got to do. We got to get on one page, and the CBC is trying to play our role. But this is not just on us alone. It's on y'all too. We don't own any more of the space and responsibility than the leaders in this room.

Speaker 4 11:42

Well, yeah, I mean, well, let me say though, on that, what does that look like specifically? What do you getting on page? What does getting on one page?

Speaker 5 11:51

Let me give you an example. Because I and she's doing what a good journalist would do. She's gonna nail me down. So I'm gonna give you a good example. Two Tuesdays ago, two, two, three Tuesdays ago, we saw an election in the state of Texas. Now, I do not go in a room anywhere in the country today. I don't go in a room anywhere in the country today where I do not talk about voting rights. Why? Because when I walked in the White House, I used she was covering the White House then and I worked for Kamala Hare, she used to always say the right to vote is the right from which all other rights flow. So you can't come and talk to the Congress tomorrow about housing if you don't talk about voting, because the right to vote is the right from which all of your other issues that you got flow. Why do I say this? Right now, two Tuesdays ago, I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican, surely we can all agree in Dallas County we saw voting that was a problem. And regardless of where you come down on the issue, who you were voting for, we can all agree that voters should not show up to a voting precinct and be confused. So, what can you specifically do right now? Every black leader in this room ought to be auditing, auditing, auditing their voting precincts and their voting systems and their local jurisdiction. Write it up and send a report back to me so that I can get it to the committee of jurisdiction in the Congress that oversees it. That's just a that's one example. But that is something you could do right now, and we could do in partnership. And we've called publicly, we're gonna make this call to you more um clear over the next couple of weeks. We're asking black leaders in this country to do an audit of your voting system so that you can tell us where there are problems, so that we can ring the bell now instead of waiting um eight months from now. There's an example.

Speaker 4 13:32

Yes, that you thank you so much. Um, you know, I mean, we've talked about, I mean, the the housing bill has come up. That is one thing that is moving, but so much is not moving, right? This is a this is a Congress where it's very hard to get legislation passed. So I guess I I also want to hear from you about how do local leaders work with the CBC and and the federal government when so many things seem to be stalled.

Speaker 5 14:00

Yeah. Now I'm gonna be honest with you all, and I look, it is difficult in this environment, and I'm being careful of what I say only because I think in settings like this, um partisan, I look, we are we are I'm clear about my partisan politics, but I do think it is important to try to pull back the curtain sometimes, see where there's an opportunity to work with folks if we can. Um we have said that consistently at the CBC. If you've got a good proposal on the other side, we will find an opportunity to work. This environment has proved to be difficult. When we write federal agencies these days, I can't get an answer. You know, I worked in the White House. It was unfathomable that you would receive inquiries from the Congressional Black Caucus or members of Congress and not respond. By and large, that is how it goes today. So we are all trying to figure out in this moment how we approach an administration. Um, you don't know from day to day what the agenda is. It changes every hour in Washington. We we will go to bed thinking one thing tonight. By the time y'all get to Capitol here tomorrow, it will be different. Um, and so it I will not lie to you and tell you that it has not been challenging. We've tried to use our oversight responsibilities. Um, we are asking local elected officials to make certain that they are continuing to pound this pavement on telling stories. The reality is when you're sitting in a room and someone asks you, rural hospitals are closing. Safety net hospitals are closing. That wasn't because we voted for a bill last spring that changed the way in which Medicaid and reimbursements are happening to look. That wasn't us. So I think um what I always say is this you have to speak truth to power. And so we can walk in a room tomorrow and say, I agree with you on this piece of legislation as it relates to housing, which we all agree, but I do not agree with you when it comes to this particular um um bill that has in turn meant that my local rural hospital is now closing, and you, congressperson, do not have a solution for me. So I don't know that this is a harder one. I don't have a list right now that I can tell you because I can't get an answer. I reach out to a federal uh secretary of a committee. Y'all are watching TV, you go on the oversight committee, you get these agency heads to come into committee, they don't answer questions. So we're just gonna keep lighting them up. That's all we can do. And holding line, and then we'll take care of business when it's time, and y'all know what that means.

Speaker 4 16:34

Well, I and I have to say, I don't know the time, making sure we're good on time, just checking on that. But I mean, you talked about uh leadership as well, and how many of you know the people that you work with came from the local level?

Speaker 3 16:45

That's right.

Speaker 4 16:46

Um, for the people in this room, there may be someone considering maybe making a shift or making a change or going to the federal level. What advice do you have for them about leadership or making that sort of transition?

Speaker 5 17:00

Yeah, I think running for federal office is a part a personal choice. What I will tell you, and what y'all are seeing every day, the level of authenticity, and rightly so, that voters are demanding of you as elected officials right now has never been greater. It has never been greater. We are seeing that in coast to coast, in election after election, folks want authentic authentic people. And one of the things that I am seeing in the shift is even the way we talk about issues and we show up, people are tired of the fluff. And I know we say it, y'all, but we gotta be really, really intentional about the way in which we are meeting voters where they are. And I, you know, I am careful that I know that on my side of the aisle, we have different chasms. Some people moderates, some people almost moderates, some people far left. Whatever you say about people like Mr. Mamdami, he has tapped into something. And I think we would do well to focus less on the criticisms, even of folks that I don't always agree with in my own party on certain ends, and try to figure out a way that we harness the energy and the conversation. So for those of you who are thinking about it, uh if you're running for the CBC, don't talk to me till you get elected. Um but, but, but, but I will say this it has to be authentic in this moment. Those are the new generation, and every candidate that I know that is currently running for the Congress that would be a CBC member, that is what we've been very clear with them about. Um, because otherwise you you will face a challenge in the current environment that we are in.

Speaker 4 18:44

I I have a question, and I guess I'll use this as a point of privilege. This is something that you know often comes up in reporting, um, and it's this idea of generations and generational shifts. Ooh, I usually since I'm I'm sitting here, I'm I might ask a tough question. Um there is a question of whether, and uh I I would say there's a question of whether there needs to be more um younger leaders in Congress, locally, et cetera, and that there are older people who have been in there a long time, and there's a question of whether they whether they should make room for the younger generation.

Speaker 5 19:33

Yeah.

Speaker 4 19:33

What do you think of that generational divide that and that conversation?

Speaker 5 19:39

I'm watching this conversation play out every day in Washington. I'm watching it play out on my side of the aisle. What I will say is this you do not see this conversation necessarily, by and large, playing out amongst black federal lawmakers in public. Now, let me be clear. We have clear meetings. We have very um thoughtful meetings about this in a number of subjects. As we often say at the CBC, um unity does not require unanimity. You won't see federal lawmakers that are black, by and large, bashing each other on this issue because we have unity even when we do not have unanimity. Let me also say this: I think healthy parties talk about leadership and talk about succession, and we should absolutely be talking about that. But let me also make something clear. If age is the only, only issue or the only metric on the table, we are going to have a problem because I serve in the Congress every day, and y'all, there are no shortage of young fools in the United States Congress.

Speaker 4 20:51

Well, I I won't I won't ask you to name names on that, but can you talk about speaking of legislation um and speaking of voting? Yeah, um, the president, uh President Trump has said he would not sign any bills until the SAVE Act was signed. I'm thankful. Um and and that, I mean, obviously it seems like there's not enough support in the Senate for that, but talk to us about the SAVE bill and I mean the requirements of that and how that would expect affect voting and affect especially black populations.

Speaker 5 21:25

Yeah, I'm thankful for this question because as I told y'all, I have visited probably six or seven cities. I just spoke to black legislators in Kentucky a week or two ago. I do not go into a room where I do not talk about voting. I believe it is the existential threat that every leader in this room is facing right now. Um, there's a report out by um Black Votes Matter um in Stacy Abrams several months ago that said if the United States Supreme Court does what we think it will do in between now and June and gut the final provision of the Voting Rights Act of 65, section two is the only thing we have left. Remember, and I don't know who's in here from Allen. Alabama and across the South. If you're from the South like me, you know this. John Roberts told us 14 years ago, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, don't worry. We gutted section five of the VRA, but don't worry, black people. Y'all have section two. You'll always be able to find relief under section two. Well, now, section two is on the table, and in between today and June, he and the court, we expect, will gut the um VRA. It is already on life support. And the reason this relates to the Save Act is because the report came out and said that 19 members of my caucus will probably lose their seat. Can you imagine? It took us 54 years to get to 62, and 19 will be wiped out in a year and a half. But it's not just us, because after they come for us, they will go for the black mayor, they will go for the black city council person. So there is a ripple effect. The Save Act is a modern-day poll test. The CBC has been clear, we will not support it. Everything else dies in the U.S. Senate. This should die as well. Um and we will fight vigorously because we are very clear that if the Save Act, and you all know, and we're happy to get you a one pager if you don't have an of all the challenges, the idea that we would take a bill like this, overhaul elections that you all run months before election day, it is ripe for chaos, confusion to say nothing of the fact that the bill is bad. So on this point and on the issue of voting rights, it has always been our North Star. And between now and this November, you will not hear us let up. If they come back with a bad ruling at the Supreme Court, we will be clear. And if this bill um continues to move, um, although it looks like the president has a challenge, um, they tell us one thing one day, y'all, and then the next. Mr. Cornyn said a week ago uh or said previously when I was in the White House, we tried to get the filibuster reform to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. We, Kamala Harrison, Joe Biden were told no. And so now the idea that there are senators who would be willing to carve out um for this bill um would be detrimental, and we will simply not stand for it. It is the red line for us.

Speaker 4 24:10

Is there anything that so is there what can local officials do to press um to press this issue?

Speaker 5 24:20

Well, again, I think this audit is important. I we thought of this idea about a week ago. Y'all gotta get right there right now and let us know where the hotbeds are. We have a sense of particularly states in the south where this is gonna be a problem, and we are working with our friends in the civil rights community. I don't want to read that out all in public, but I think what we don't know is what we don't know about the the county out there that we never would have thought about, right? Or the city that it all comes down to them and no one would have thought about them. So we need to hear from you. Remember, the United States House of Representatives right now is divided by what a two or three seat mark, two-seat margin. Every day we gotta make, you know, members of Congress didn't fly in tonight because of the weather. They'll be here tomorrow. We are always worried about did somebody make the plane? Is somebody sick? I say that because if it comes down to your jurisdiction, you want to know that you know, that you know that you did everything you could to ring the bell loud, that there was a problem in my jurisdiction, that there was voter suppression, that there was going to be an issue. We cannot wait until it's too late to do so.

Speaker 4 25:27

And I guess uh finally, you know, just as a last question, I guess in in this day and age when you do have so much apathy, a lot of what people, the the policies that actually connect to them, it won't be at the federal level, it will be at the local level. So I guess when you're thinking about reaching out or having how we connect to those people that are disaffected, when you think about that at the local level, what do you think the CBC and local officials can do to try to reach out to those people who feel like, you know, no one is really worried about me, they're not really worried, you know. I, you know, I've been voting this way for however many long, it doesn't make a difference.

Speaker 5 26:07

Yeah. The the largest political party in this country today is the unregistered voter. And for us, particularly black people, we have to have what I like to call a family conversation. The family has got to rethink the way in which we are showing up in this moment. It is not enough to come here and sit in the Marriott Marquee. We have to do it, but we got some work outside the Marriott Marquee that we've got to be doing. Evident by the last election. Again, regardless of where you fight, where you fall on it, who you're voting for, we know that we have a challenge. Um, there are a lot of folks that are talking about this right now. There are not enough of us. I think local leaders play an important part. Um, you are on the ground every day. I remember when I used to work for a city councilman, I remember vividly um uh being in grocery store publics. That's what we have in North Florida, um, and people would run up to you with issues. Y'all hear the issues before the people in Washington. People in Washington come here Monday through Friday, they go home on the weekend, they got to be back up here Monday. It's hard to uh it's hard. They're doing their best to try to listen. So you all hear it first. So, what I would say is um on the issue of how we are going to motivate, I think one of the things we believe at the CBC that will help us is we have got to spend more time talking about our economic um roadway, our road, our pathway. We have to. We have spent a lot of time and we have to fight on the voting rights. I want to be clear, and all the civil rights and and the uh and the environmental justice and everything. Um, but we released a plan on closing the um Black Wealth gap. And I what I can say to this, if in fact we are in the majority come this November, you will hear probably not for the first time for the CBC, but for the first time in a real coherent um on message sermon about black people's economic well-being. We just had a poll come back the other day, and I told the posters, don't give me the numbers, show me the video of the people you polled because they did a focus poll. I want to see the raw video of what those people told you. And we invited all the members of the CBC in, and black voter after black voter after black voter told us, and we had to, you know, take it on the chin. Y'all are fighting and talking about issues which we know are important, but I do not care because I cannot figure out how to pay the bills. I'm barely holding on. And so the responsibility is really on us. It ain't everybody else's fault on this one. This one is on us, and we've got to continue. So for us, we think we are heading in the right direction, but certainly would welcome these leaders to be a part of that um engagement.

NLC 29:13

Thanks for listening to CitiesSpeak with Clarence Anthony. If you like this show, let us know. Share this episode with your friends, and make sure to subscribe. We're curious to hear what you think, what you want more of, and how we can improve. If you have feedback or an idea for a guest you'd like Clarence to sit down with, send us your thoughts at Cityspeak Podcast at nlc.org. Join us next month for a new episode. Like and subscribe here or wherever you get your podcast. See you next time.