Ohio Politics are NUTS - with Ohio House Reps Michele Grim & Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio - Episode 52

Somehow I managed to get these two amazing women as guests this week! I chat with Ohio State House Representatives Michele Grim and Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio about navigating the Republican supermajority as Democrats, the importance of voting, advice for running for office, challenges faced by women in politics and more.

I'm proud of these two, they fight daily for all Ohioans. Absorb their words! Check your voter registration at https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/

Find them on IG:

Beryl: @berylforohio
Michele: @michelegrimforohio

Takeaways

• Ohio is heavily gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, making it difficult for Democratic representatives to pass legislation.
• Passing an independent redistricting reform is crucial to creating fairer districts in Ohio.
• Representatives face constant challenges and frustration in fighting for their legislation.
• Some Republican bills are petty and hinder progress for the people of Ohio.
• Despite the challenges, representatives remain passionate and committed to fighting for the issues they care about. Being in the super minority can be challenging, but it is still valuable and impactful.
• Representing people and working on laws is a huge responsibility.
• Volunteering on campaigns and getting involved in the community is a good way to start in politics.
• Running for office requires sacrifice and can come with personal attacks, but it is worth it to make a difference.
• Diversity in politics is important for honest conversations and better representation.
• Voting in elections, including local races, is crucial for shaping the future of the community and the country.

As of September 2024, Transcending Humanity is now known as Vanesstradiol! Episodes will be much more sparse from here on out, but I hope to continue bringing you quality content!

Transcript

Vanessa: 0:19

Hello and welcome back to transcending humanity. I'm Vanessa, aka Vanessa adeal, and I'm joined by Ohio State House representatives. Burl Brown, Piccolo, Antonio, did I get that right? Piccolo, Antonio, okay, cool. And Michelle Grimm, which is a whole lot easier to say. Reminder the views and opinions of everybody on the show are their own and not any organization that they represent. And in this case, probably a very important disclaimer. And don't forget, our Patreon send us money. Burl was asking about my shirt. You can get that on our merch store. I'll have a link in the comments without further ado, I would love to have you to introduce yourself. So who wants to go first?

Michele Grim: 1:11

You let me go first. Okay, I can go first. So I'm Michelle grim. I'm a state representative in the Toledo area. I'm also the assistant whip in the Democratic caucus. I This is my first term, and I'm running for my second so I'm glad to be here. So thank you. Thank you for having us.

Vanessa: 1:31

Thank you.

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 1:31

Yeah. Hi I'm Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio, I am a state representative in the Northeast suburbs of Columbus. I actually was appointed in January, so I'll be on the ballot in November, running for my first term. But I'm I'm in my I don't even know what I call what I'm in right now, my

Michele Grim: 1:58

first term, your first year, first year, yeah, yeah,

Vanessa: 2:05

that's a really unique position to be in, too. So these two ladies, I was hoping that they would be my co workers, that didn't go through, but that's actually how I met you. Two listeners and watchers of the show probably remember that I tried running for office late last year into this year, and I was disqualified for the crime of changing my name to Vanessa, and due to this antiquated law, and these two lovely ladies put forth a Bill to update that law in a pretty common sense update as well, where essentially the language says that if you have legally changed your name in the state of Ohio, you don't have to disclose it. And of course, Republicans are pushing back against it. And the latest news is there is a Republican nickname Tex, and somewhere in northeast, I believe,

Michele Grim: 3:09

young like the Youngstown area, yeah, Mahoning, Mahoning, county,

Vanessa: 3:13

Mahoning, that's it. So he changed his name to Tex, and texford

Michele Grim: 3:20

Actually, texford, he goes by text,

Vanessa: 3:26

yeah, I, I just keep on saying it in reference to him, sex to suck Tex so he changed his name to texford, aka Tex Yeah, but he didn't put it on his disclosures when he ran. So the Mahoning County Democrats were like, Excuse me, remember this whole fiasco that made international fucking news at the beginning of the year, but why isn't applying this guy? So an inquiry is put on his board of elections. Voted two, two, of course, around down party lines. And now it goes to the wonderful Frank Larose, who, you know is so for the Ohio people, the same guy that when I was disqualified, he said, Well, you know, the candidates really need to know the rules themselves and hire their own legal teams. I'm interested see what he's going to say with this When you know he's going to let the guy stay on the ballot. So remember,

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 4:24

did your challenge go? Was it a tie vote at your board of election? No,

Vanessa: 4:29

it was a sweet, Okay, interesting beer. See theorist to me the stark County, the head of the stark County Democratic Party. I didn't follow the typical rules that you need to follow to run for office, because I ran as kind of an urgent thing, given what's going on. So I didn't have connections in stark County and stuff, and so otherwise, saying I didn't scratch his back ahead of time because I didn't even know I had to, and I believe he was against me entire time, and I believe he's the person at the board of elections that flagged,

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 5:05

okay. And remembering that conversation, and

Michele Grim: 5:08

what did you appeal? You appealed it right? And then that's, that's when it went to the Secretary of State. It didn't

Vanessa: 5:16

even go to, oh.

Michele Grim: 5:17

It didn't go, okay, okay. Yield it. They

Vanessa: 5:19

said no. And then after Ari and Ariana and Barbie, Barbie, sorry, Bobby, everyone, hey, Barbie, we're allowed to stand I'm like, Excuse me. And so I wrote a I wrote a strongly worded nasty ground to them, and they told me where to stick it again. So, and then, so I do you two listen to today in Ohio at all?

Michele Grim: 5:48

I actually don't, and I probably should. It's a pretty good show, is it?

Vanessa: 5:53

And Chris Quinn, he's the editor. I

Michele Grim: 5:55

do love Chris Quinn. He's great. He's the

Vanessa: 5:59

main host on it, and he just flat out, just said, Start counting Sienna, trans County. I'm like, so anyways, enough about me. I was just used to that to introduce who you two are. I am curious. One, Michelle, the yellow. Where did that come from? The yellow is adorable, like intimacy, you're wearing yellow. My Oh,

Michele Grim: 6:26

nowhere really in particular. Um, I just found a really nice yellow blazer, because I'm just, like, everybody wears black blazers, so I'm gonna wear a yellow blazer. And that's, that's where it really came from. It's a statement, right? Yes, statement exactly I love I love bright Blazers because they're statements. So I think that's where it comes from. Actually, my favorite color is purple, yeah, so, yeah, I think that's where it comes from. It's just like, it's a bright, standout color. So that's where it comes from.

Vanessa: 6:59

I love it. Yeah, when I met Michelle was actually at the hearing when I was delivering proponent testimony for the bills, and she was wearing the yellow I'm like, That's fucking badass. So what got you to actually, burl in particular, how did you wind up getting appointed? Like, what's the process to for that to happen.

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 7:22

So, and I'm going to apologize in advance, because I think my dog, it is barking now, but so I was serving on my local school board. I served as School Board President here I lived for about eight years, and had been thinking about running for a seat in the house when my state representative would have been term limited, which was in 2026 I had a wonderful state rep. I was lucky. I live in an area where I was very well represented, and I had a re election campaign in 2023 so I was just coming off of a campaign cycle, and my state representative had some circumstances change in her family, and had to make a really difficult decision that she was actually going to move and Leave Ohio to go be with her grandchildren. And so I had about a week to make a decision about whether I was going to file to run. This was right before the holidays in December, the finally, if you remember Vanessa, the filing deadline was really early because it's a presidential primary year, so her primary is really early. So I had it might have been under a week to make a decision about whether I was going to file to run, because I was already thinking about running in 2026 that made the decision a little bit easier, but it was still not an easy decision, because I worked in a job that I actually had To quit in order. Well, I risked getting fired by running, and I knew that I was going to have to quit if I was successful in running. So at the time that I filed, I didn't know my state representative had decided she wasn't going to run again, but not necessarily that she was going to step down. Made this a very convoluted explanation, but essentially, what she had decided was that if the primary was contested, she was not going to step down because she thought it was important, if we had a contested primary that voters get to pick who they wanted to represent them, and then if It was not contested, she was going, she was she would then step down. So it ended up not being contested. She stepped down, and then I was interviewed by the people who are now my colleagues. Actually, I think there were five people who applied for the vacancy and were interviewed, and then I ended up getting appointed on January 10.

Vanessa: 10:05

That was very, very fast, very, very fast. Congratulations and welcome to the club of insanity that is Ohio government. Michelle, what led you to Bratton, what led you to get into Ohio politics? Because you're not you. From Illinois. No, I'm from Ohio. Yeah, from

Michele Grim: 10:24

I know I lived in, I lived in Chicago for two years, and then before that, I lived in the Bay Area for eight so we, my husband and I left for 10 years. So I'm originally from Ashland, Ohio. I do you know where that's at,

Vanessa: 10:38

yeah, it's like, west of me, I'm in mass. Yes, so, oh, okay, yeah,

Michele Grim: 10:43

yeah, you know where ashlet is, very conservative town. Got to Toledo via the university a long time ago, 2001 and so we left for 10. We left in 2010 we came back in 2020 and in 2021 a good friend of mine recruited me to run for Toledo city council, and so I ran, and I won that seat, and because of the whole thing with the maps and gerrymandering, I decided to get into the the state rep races just to make sure that we had good Democrats running. And I know that didn't make some people very happy, but I decided to go for it, and here I am. You know, I had a lot of people say, Why are you, you know, running when you just ran before, and I'm glad I did it. So I won. I won that my one a primary. I had a primary, and this was in August of 2022 I won that primary. Then I won my general and here I am, and I love my job. I made the right decision, and I'm glad that I'm here, and glad to be able be able to fight for the things that that that I'm passionate about and that other Ohioans care about, rather than the stuff that the gerrymandered legislature does. So yeah, that

Vanessa: 12:32

says My next question for you, too, for those listening that aren't in Ohio or in the country, because we have a lot of international is next. Well, some, I mean, show's not huge, but I'm trying to grow it. But Ohio is what gerrymandering is. It's the how when certain party in both Republicans and Democrats, have been guilty of it in the past, and currently in Ohio, it is gerrymandered in the Republican favor to a level that is almost mind boggling to if you zoom in on the Ohio State House maps, individual houses are cut out. It's it's not so what it does is a party that might that likely doesn't represent the majority draws their districts to select all the people that they know are going to vote for them, and leave out the ones out, essentially, so in Ohio that affects everything all the way up to the US, Senate, US House, Jim Jordan, perfect example. Okay, and so these two ladies are, what's the split right now? Is it like 6931 sick, not

Michele Grim: 13:54

that quite that bad. It's 6732

Vanessa: 13:59

pretty damn close. Pretty

Michele Grim: 14:00

bad. That was really close, though.

Vanessa: 14:02

Well, I people just know I like say 6967

Michele Grim: 14:10

31 and then it's, I can't, I can't do so it's set. It's seven senators. We have 33 so whatever that is, is that it's a number 26 Yeah. And then there's only, yeah, there's only seven Democratic senators. So

Vanessa: 14:31

yeah, 33 Exactly. So I have on both sides a super majority of Republicans, correct, which makes it so anything that burrow and Michelle need to do is next to fucking impossible in anything that they can do is a momentous achievement, that because they have managed to get bipartisan component support on it, which is not easy in this state, Ohio is, if Ohio is not actually blue, I know it's pretty deep pretty well, but if you look at our government, you would not realize that. So my question to follow up to all that is, what is it like to have to constantly fight for every. Single thing that you're trying to do to help the people of Ohio? Do

Michele Grim: 15:26

you want to go first? Okay,

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 15:29

um, I thought she was quiet for a minute.

Michele Grim: 15:32

I thought I had a mom. It's okay.

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 15:34

Somebody is actually right outside of my house, which is making my dog absolutely lose her mind. She thinks that she's protecting me. Wait till I can show you how small she is. She's about seven.

Michele Grim: 15:45

Honestly, what kind of dog do you have?

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 15:47

She's a cabo, too. So Cavalier King Charles, yeah, yeah, poodle. I don't actually, I was going to answer really quickly and then defer to you, Michelle, because okay, but you've been dealing with this for longer than I have. So I've been dealing with it since January. And as somebody coming in, I don't think that there was anything that was actually very surprising. I felt like I knew what I was walking into. The thing, though, is that when you're actually like living it, it is in some ways even more frustrating than watching it, because you experience firsthand just how like stupid some of it is so I mean, just take, for example, the bill that we talked about at the beginning the, I think it's 467, which is the legislation that Michelle and I introduced, which is, I mean, for from my perspective, Like there is really absolutely no reason that anyone should oppose it. There's nothing partisan about the legislation, as you know, Vanessa, like there. There weren't just it wasn't just this most recent situation with text where a Republican was impacted there. There was another Republican who was impacted by the way that the current law reads, yeah, Kitty wire, Katie wire, yeah. So in, like, in scenarios like that where you just want to bang your head against the raw wall, because it's just so, like, baffling why you can't get things to move. That is incredibly frustrating.

Vanessa: 17:45

Yeah, I can't imagine. That's why I asked you two to come here. Really is to hear that, Michelle, you're nodding,

Michele Grim: 17:54

yeah, so I Yes. Certain things are just incredibly frustrating. A lot of common sense bills can't get through. Like, the like, the one that we have that would fix, it would have fixed Texas issue. It would have, you know, he's claiming that it's the Democrats who are out to get get him now. And like, it's just like, look, y'all, y'all did it last year with our candidates and so, fair game, man,

Vanessa: 18:27

that's why I said Sucks to suck text.

Michele Grim: 18:31

It's fair game because, you know, you changed your name four years ago. It's, it's, it's the law, so, but we that would, that would fix it. And instead of our common sense bill, there was another bill, a counter Bill around anybody could challenge someone's place on the ballot regardless of party. Because right now it's like, it's, it's party to party for the primary ballot, correct? So, like, so a Republican could challenge my primary party ballot, and it could be like, just normal, like, any, any everyday citizen that could do it. So, like it could, it would be like complete and utter chaos. So, so that bill, I've heard a rumor that they're advancing that one and ours not more common sense, because all it would do is let folks who have legally changed their name, like yourself, to not have to disclose it. If you, if you legally change your name in Ohio, and if you did need to disclose your name, there would be a space on the petitions that would allow you to do so, so very simple, very simple fix. But they decided to, you know, go with the counter bill that would just cause complete chaos for our board. It's boards of elections. Who are, you know, strapped anyways, who are they? Under? Staffed, underfunded, so that kind of thing. There's also bills around requiring an ID to register to vote instead of just going to vote. So again, that would just cause a lot of chaos for our boards of elections. And just some of the things that the Republicans bring forward are just really ridiculous and just make param a lot harder for Ohioans. And so that's, I think that's the the most frustrating piece is that it's a lot harder for your constituent, you know, their constituents, as well as, like, ours and theirs and so that's the really frustrating thing, especially with gerrymandering, is that, like, they don't have to worry about their constituency because they're so gerrymandered. Can I put in a plug for the Gerry? Okay? So as Vanessa explained, what gerrymandering is we now on, and that on the November ballot have a independent redistricting reform into our state constitution, because in Ohio, we can change our Constitution by citizen led ballot initiatives, and it would be a 15 person independent commission, instead of the five two imbalance of five Republicans who are politicians versus the two who are Democrats that decides what our map looks like, which is legislative, state legis maps and our congressional maps. So that is going to be on the ballot. It's worked in other states where the maps are much fairer and the districts are more representative of how people vote in the state, because 6732 is not representative of how people vote in the state. And I think we're going to see that and this next election, in November, especially with the with the presidential I think we're going to see a lot more people coming out because they're excited, and I think we're going to see what's truly possible here in Ohio. I think you're right. I think we are still a purple state. We're just gerrymander to be a red state. Yeah,

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 22:55

just add one thing to that. So in addition to the fact that it's out of balance the number of Republican districts to the number of democratic districts. I also like the the way that they're the districts are drawn, because they're so heavily concentrated in many of the districts, what it ends up doing is you get Republicans who are not mainstream or moderate Republicans, but they are Republicans who represent, like a minority, subset of their own party. So I can think of one in particular. Yeah, right. So to Michelle's point, like they they don't actually have to care about their own constituents or a majority of the people that live in this state. They are representing the minority of the minority extremist members of this state. And I guess back to this point about that, one of the things that is most frustrating. There are so many things that we could be and frankly need to be working on to make people's lives better, to make this state a better place, even from the perspective of like compo just economics of the state, like the way that individual people are able to afford to live, the way that businesses are able to be successful in this state. Instead of working on those things where I think a majority of people need us to be working, we're focusing on these fringe component, like things that actually hurt people and hurt a my people who are some of the most marginalized people in the state, and it is, in my opinion, it is nowhere near reflective of what a majority of people that live in this state want us to be doing. So that constitutional amendment passing that is critical for the long term health of the state.

Vanessa: 25:07

I'll say two things to show the pettiness of what's going on with the Republicans. One on the bill that you two were talking about, where they want to make it so you can contest during a primary. The other party, Canada, the other party. That bill is sponsored by the two Republican representatives that just happen to be running against the two transgender representatives. And it came up because one of them, their boards of election, tried to not Board election, the the Republican, the Republican nationals in that particular county, tried to dispute her candidacy, and it didn't go through, because they're a theater party. That's where that came from, and now with the citizens against citizens against gerrymandering. That is I from what I understand, largely spearheaded by Republican former supreme Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O'Connor, who is an Ohio hero. You just heard me say something nice about a Republican. She really is. She's of the Republican Old Guard, like the George voinoviches, the Maureen O'Connor stuff like that. She's spearheading that, and it got over 700,000 signatures. You only need, I think this year, you need about 440,000 signatures of from 44 of the 88 counties, and they had 700 over 700 from all of the counties, which shows that, on the bipartisan level, people care about this. Frank Larose, our Secretary of State, stepped in when it comes to the language that's going to be on the ballot, and pretty much hold a Donald Trump on it, and it's the language that has now been approved to go on the ballot is something like 850 words, when it used to be, I think, like 115 and it's just all bullshit, like they're they're calling this anti gerrymandering initiative. They're calling it a way for Ohioans to gerrymander. It just makes no sense. But they are desperate. They pulled this last year as well Ohio as Michelle said, we have, we can do says and let out initiatives and any more, certainly way to get anything done in this state. I'm actually working on part of one myself, but they tried to make it so it'd be harder for those to pass last year, where right now it just has to be majority plus one, if I if I'm not mistaken, a simple majority plus one. And they wanted to make it 6040 and that would stop any citizen led ballot initiative pretty much anywhere from being passed so and that failed. Gloriously Frank. Larose is notoriously unpopular now. He tried running for office. He lost horribly, and I just think he's just vindictive at this point. So I just wanted to follow those up on that. What thoughts do you to have just on day to day? What's it what's it like to be to be writing laws and to be just creating Ohio. Honestly, it has to be pretty wild.

Michele Grim: 28:46

I, like I said before, I love what I do. I'm I consider myself really lucky to be able to work on things that I am passionate about and also things that I've never thought that I would be working on. There are lots of examples about that. I've gotten really well versed in rail issues and passenger rail, but yeah, and I'm ranking member of transportation, so that kind of thing. But I so my background is in public health and also in kind of like the rape crisis domestic violence space. I was a rape crisis counselor. When I was when I turned 18, I became a rape crisis counselor in my my hometown. I did that for about a decade, and so I've been working on legislation around domestic violence and sexual assaults. So that's something that has stuck with me for the last couple of decades. I have bills around universal health care child influencers. Again, that's another thing that I was I would never have thought in a million years that I would get into child influencers the. Bill that burl and I have that we have to, like, you know, fix a law that's just absurd and nobody knows about So, yeah, it's a really fascinating even the even though sometimes it can be really hard to get the right things passed and the right things through it's still a very valuable experience, because we do see the good that we can do, even though we are in the Super minority, and that's what I feel like every day.

Vanessa: 30:54

That's why I wanted to run, yeah. Difference

Michele Grim: 30:57

you do? You do make a difference, even though, you know, being the super minority can be really hard, people do see that we're working hard and we are making a difference in our communities.

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 31:12

So I feel like it is an incredible privilege to be able to do the jobs that that we do. Just the responsibility, I think, of representing people and the responsibility of working on laws that impact every single person that live in this state, and sometimes even impact people who live outside of this state. Sometimes our laws can be models for other states, or they impact people in other states and other ways. I think it's a huge responsibility. I feel incredibly lucky to be doing the job that I'm doing. I didn't really talk a lot about my background before coming into this role, but I I grew up in a house where my parents were always extremely involved in the community and extremely involved in I know politics is like a bad word. Now I don't think it's a bad word, but it shouldn't be. I don't think it's a bad word, like the way that I grew up. I have never spent an election cycle where I wasn't pulling on doors in my entire life. I don't think I've never watched a parade, but having said all that, I didn't really think of myself as someone who would be the person who was the elected person, until much later in my life and I component, ran for school board because of something very specific that was happening in My community. We had a school board where I live that was divided, that was not functioning, that was not focused on putting students first, and was not not focused on creating an environment that was good for staff. And so I ran for that very specific reason. That was back in 2013 actually, I ran and lost my first race, and then I ran and won in 2015 and it wasn't really until, honestly, was the pandemic, and then some of the things that followed the pandemic, the culture wars that followed after that, that's when I started thinking about serving in the legislature. In addition to serving on school board, I'm also an attorney. I worked for the state for about 23 years in different kind of leadership roles, but to be able to be coming at state government from this lens, and to be able to take the experiences that I had serving in local government and kind of blend that with what I knew about how, how the state works, how state agencies work. It's fascinating to me, and it really is a privilege. And it is true that we are in the extreme minority, but there are times that we get to do things that really impact people. I'll give you an example that I had yesterday. So I a lot of my colleagues right now are in Chicago. A lot of our colleagues are in Chicago having a lot of fun. I got to substitute in on a committee called the controlling board yesterday, which was it just a whole new learning experience for me. I mean, it's the the thing is, like, Lucky. It was fascinating. No, I

Michele Grim: 34:46

was like, Oh no. I was like, Oh, I'm a little jealous. But really, really, I don't

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 34:58

I mean, if you look up the controlling board, maybe it wouldn't sound all that interesting, but what the controlling board does is that they meet. So we passed the state budget every two years, right? And with state budgets, things, things change. So the controlling boards, board exists. They meet every other week, and what they're what the purpose of the control. Board is, is basically to approve anything that changes in the budget in the in between periods. But all that to say, I got to vote yesterday. We had this amazing surprise happen. There was $1 amount that was requested to go to the State Board of Education. It was a low dollar amount. Like the we actually the legislature owes the State Board of Education ten million right now. The dollar amount that was requested was under 2 million. And what they said is that it was the amount that was needed just to get them through the fiscal year so that they wouldn't have to raise teacher licensure fees. But it wasn't an amount that the state board actually came up with, the people that came up with the dollar amount. Was it? I mean, essentially, it was the component of the governor's office who was trying to help come up with $1 amount that they thought would actually pass. It was less than what they needed, and definitely less than what the legislature actually owes them. There was a Republican, though the Chair of the Finance Committee, who ended up making a surprise amendment to raise that dollar amount from just under 2 million up to almost $5 million which is still not the 10 that we owe them, but it was closer, like it was just and so I got to vote on this surprise amendment and give this money back to the State Board of Education. It ended up being a unanimous vote. And I know I sound like I'm totally, I'm going way into weeds, and I'm I felt like a total nerd, but it was so fun and exciting to actually be able to be part of doing something good. Yeah, and make sure that our teachers and our staff who work in building serving students every day don't have to worry about their licensure fees increasing, or what could have happened if licensure fees didn't increase. What they were going to do is stop doing background checks on district staff, which is also not a thing that should be acceptable for anybody. So

Michele Grim: 37:29

it was going to go up like, like, $400 or something, like, really high, right? Yeah, I can't even remember why we borrowed. No, we weren't. We weren't yet, but when that the legislature borrowed ten million I can't even remember

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 37:46

why was that. So in 2017 I guess there was okay, there was a, I don't know, there was a shortage somewhere. And so the the way that the state budget works, sometimes there are these accounts like this account, which was an account that was sup it's supposed to only be comprised of money where licensure fees go. So anyone who's a teacher in the state of Ohio, they have to get a license, they have to update their license, and there's fees associated with that. And those fees get put into this this account. They had been good stewards of that money, and the account had a positive balance. And so when they were doing the state budget, and there was money needed for somewhere else, the legislature, again, like Michelle said, not us. We weren't there, completed that fund from they greeted ten million with a promise that it was going to be restored and it still hasn't been put back.

Vanessa: 38:50

I mean, you don't need to apologize about nerding out about that as a voter and a sub claim. I only recently started voting honestly, but I would much rather see my representative nerding out about loving what they do than what we're seeing right now on the other side. So like you don't need to apologize for that. This is That's the energy that that people need and want to see, because you're actually passionate about the government and passionate about our quote, unquote, democracy and making difference. So that's why my next question for you, too. When I ran, I had no idea what to do. I just, I just did it. I decided to run when I was at the trans Ohio symposium, it was like in October or September, October of last year. And so I just did it. And But what advice do you have for other people that want to run? Like in my case, I decided to run because I saw a need, and typically people you start at school board and kind of get your experience and work your way. That way, I started right. I jumped up a couple levels by going for. For the house, but I saw it's where someone like me would have been needed. So for people like me, not like me, whatever that want, to get out there and run themselves. What advice do you have for them to do that? Hey, you too,

Michele Grim: 40:39

because I guess, go first. What advice do I have? I would say my biggest piece of advice is really to like, if you're interested in running, just do it. You know, if you don't know where to start, you don't know exactly where, like, maybe you're not well known in your community or anything like, start volunteering on campaigns. That's how you really get get noticed, and get people to be like, hey, maybe you could run for the for whatever you city council or state house or whatever. And, you know, I think it is really brave to start at the State House. So, yeah, it's scary, but it's brave. But yeah, I mean, if especially so I was just actually talking about women running for office yesterday, with Anna Staver, who is on all sides on WSU, and I was just talking about This, about like, the myth of women's unelectability, and how it's harder for women, because there is this myth that we're unelectable, which is not true, but it is harder for us to run because of so many other barriers, whether it be child care or you can't quit your job. I mean, like so many of us, like, I, you know, I had, I was another in another elected office, so I didn't have to, like, technically, quit my job. It just moved over. But, you know, some people like, Hey, I had to take, I had to take a pay cut to run for office. There's a lot of that that

Vanessa: 42:45

I've doesn't pay a lot of money. No, we're a little

Michele Grim: 42:49

bit better than most states legislatures because we're full time. But there's a lot of there's a lot of offices that don't pay school board pays nothing. You don't make any money in school board, but, but it's just a lot harder for women. It's a lot harder for us to raise money. You know, we're all constant. I mean, I'm probably going like, the opposite of like, advice to run, but like, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Like, you know, we're like, I, you know, I get constantly attacked by about my appearance on social media and that kind of thing. All that to say is, be like, if you if, especially if you're a woman, but it doesn't matter if you want to run for office, do it. I mean, like, Gather your friends, gather your folks, and be like, I want to run for office. You can do it. There's a lot of resources to help you do that. And, you know, get involved in your local Democratic Party, or, you know, if you're a third party person, that kind of thing. But just really start getting involved. Start volunteering. And when you know, if take that opportunity, if that opportunity prevents itself, presents itself, not prevents presents itself, go ahead. Maybe prevents presents itself. Go ahead and do it.

Vanessa: 44:32

It's good advice. Yeah. So first.

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 44:36

Thank you, Vanessa, for for being willing to do it. I am sorry that you didn't, that you weren't able to move forward. What's it doing? Well,

Vanessa: 44:48

what I what I say is I if I was able to do it, because I am a newcomer, to start County. I spent 40 years of my life in Summit County, and I only recently came to start County. I didn't know anybody, and I got my I got a total of 69 signatures. 50 of them were valid. I just got it, just from social, from networking and Facebook. So it's that to get the signatures that you need. It's still not easy to get the signatures, but there's ways you can do it. If you're a relative on. Own an area, so that's

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 45:20

okay, no, I mean, I think that that's true, like the so there's the logistics of it, right, which are knowable. You can read about them, at least most of those logistics. Unfortunately, the the logistics related to disclosure of prior names is actually not in the candidate handbook, but most of the logistics you can you can figure those out. I would echo Michelle's comments about volunteering on other campaigns. I think I the way that I grew up. I think it's pretty unusual work having worked on, volunteered on campaigns for so long. I do think not only is it useful for getting to know other people, but it's also also useful to know what actually you're getting yourself and your friends and family into. The truth is you're never actually running yourself, even if there's not family that's impacted your friends, your close circle of people, is going to be impacted by a run for public office. I think that, and again, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole too far, because I think that some of what I could share might be things that would talk someone out of running, but I say all of those things that somebody who still comes 100% positive that I made the right decision to run. But it is something when you run for public office, you really are kind of giving up any sense of real privacy that you or your family and your close friends might have. And I definitely think that it is an additional layer of that that happens for women. I know that. I don't know. I just feel like there's something that is still not completely the same for male candidates as I don't know, the expectations I think are different, the kinds of things that people focus on,

Vanessa: 47:40

intrinsic misogyny. It's just, yeah, yeah. I mean, we're, I mean, look at Kamala and Trump, you know, a guy that was on Jeffrey Epstein's plane, versus Kamala who laughs, right,

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 47:53

right, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's fascinating, the kinds of things that I feel like people focus on when they are coming at female candidates, but so volunteering on other campaigns, I think is something that is really useful. I also think that anything that you can learn about the office that you're running for, about what, what the, what your role is, what the authority is, what the, what the impact may be like. I think that those are things that are really useful. I general, I think that in general, most people are pretty open to talking if, if you're interested in running for an office. I always suggest to people to reach out to others who are serving in that role.

Michele Grim: 48:46

That's a good idea. Yeah.

Vanessa: 48:49

I mean, I did that with Casey Weinstein, a little bit. Why you just pick his brain here there? Yeah? So, yeah, I went to high school together. So yeah,

Michele Grim: 48:57

I love, I love talking to people about what I do and, yeah,

Vanessa: 49:04

what you two are doing is you were also showing that. I mean, we have three women of different backgrounds, you know, with different life experiences, different professional experiences. Yeah, we're all three people that had a passion for running for office. I never thought that I'd do that in the past. I mean, if you would have told me five years ago that one, I'd have tips, and two, I was running for office. I what? But like people like us are the people that need to run for office. And because look at Tim waltz, perfect example. You know, family man, middle class teacher, perfect. Perfect representative country, because he represents people. So we need, ideally, what I would like to see. I mean, call me crazy on this. Jon Stewart did an episode of his weekly show recently where he was talking to people about what the country would look like if we had more political parties, like not too many, but like four or five and like expanding seats and everything. I would like to see a few things in this country. One, the removal of. Money from the electoral process, because it's all about who has the most money. Two, something I heard today that interests me shortening the electoral process because it's really dark out. And three, I have no idea what I was going to say for the third one, so those three important things, but so that's why I asked you to about like, what made you want to run? In advice for people to run, because any of us can do it, you know, and if you have the notion to do it, remember that there are going to be risks with it. And I get pictures of my vulva shown on the internet after I ran. So there are things like that that you do have to be prepared for, but it's all worth it. And when people ask me if I run again, my response to them now is it depends on what happens this next election cycle, because I'll either have the opportunity to do it or I'll be in a concentration camp and I won't be able to do it from there. So I always tell people, maybe, but if you have passion, just do it. Because we need we need diversity. We need some youth in there. There are way too many crusty old white guys and the crusty old white women that back up those crusty old white guys. They do not represent this country. They do not represent Ohio. They do not represent anything. They represent themselves. So that's my TED Talk. Final thoughts from you there. You do everything you want to get out there.

Michele Grim: 52:00

Um, I think, hey, thank you for having us and again, you know, thank you for, thank you for attempting to run for office. And hopefully, I do hope you get the other get another chance to do so. Because, you know, I think that it's really unfair to prevent anyone who's eligible to run to run for office, especially if they that you want to represent your community and do good for your community. So thank you for having us on and thank you for what you're doing.

Vanessa: 52:34

Thank you. I'm so honored to have you two here. Brill Yeti,

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 52:40

I will also say Thank you, Vanessa, for for having us on, for doing the podcast, for running for office, for continuing to speak, to speak up. I think that this is like, this is a purple state. It's pretty diverse, and our legislature should reflect that diversity. I don't know if that was where you were headed. I thought that might be where you were headed with your third point. Vanessa about what we need, that would have

Vanessa: 53:12

been fourth point, but, yeah, third was something specific, but I don't know what it was.

Beryl Brown-Piccolantonio: 53:18

I mean, I think that we make the best law when we have that diversity of representation, we can have honest conversations about things that impact people, and we can have those disagreements, but in an honest way where it's not directed toward trying to get a reaction from social media or whatever, but we can actually have honest conversations. I think that's how we get to the best place when we're making laws. So I guess if I were to make any last points, please remember to vote. Please remember to vote yes the constitutional amendment issue one. Please don't be confused and vote yes on that constitutional amendment. Yes, the top of the ticket this year the presidential election is incredibly important, kind of like you just said, Vanessa, it literally impacts people's lives. Yeah, there are also some other really important races. Are in Ohio, our Supreme Court races are incredibly important. Yes, I live in a county where our countywide races are not super contested, but we have some legislative races that in in my area, that are really contested, we can't afford to be losing any seats, and we need to actually pick up some seats, right? Yeah. So pay attention to all of that, and please vote on those things. Yeah. One

Vanessa: 54:55

thing I want to Oh, the third thing was actually, because I had actually just talked about it, but having more political parties just to spread things out, because right now, we are really I ran as a Democrat. I don't really feel the Democratic Party represents me that well, and it's the whole trans community is all about. Like we don't really follow the binary. I. Um, so I would like to see more parties in order to just kind of create a different like some more perspectives. But you hear me rag on Republicans a lot, and I want to make something very clear, I'm not ragging on Republican voters. I'm ragging on Republican politicians right now. There's a very, very big difference. This is not your father's Republican Party. This is not George voronovich. This is not worry O'Connor, right? This is not John McCain. These are extremists. There's people like Gary click, who actively is working to essentially cause a genocide on my community, terrifying. They don't represent Republican voters. And I asked Republican voters for this time around, write the bullet vote on the other side of the ticket this time, because what we need to do is we need to get the extremists out of the Republican Party and reboot it so it's it's good to have some balance and actual discourse between parties, because we're all right and we're all wrong on a number of things. But right now, we're between fascism and democracy, and it's terrifying. So I just asked the one Republican that listens to the show, think about that and vote for democracy better than the accuracy. So thank you so much for joining me. I will put information on where you can follow them in the description of this show. Sorry for skipping the Cards Against Humanity this week, I figured it these two running for office might not be the best idea, so I already have enough, but so yeah, follow them on socials, and I will be sharing this as much as I can to try to get it out there. And once again, we'll see you next week. THB doodles. You.