Made By Challenge
Hosted by Alberto Sardinas. Made By Challenge is a podcast where high profile guests share how personal hardship shaped them and sparked businesses, lifelong missions and prosperity.
We focus on how they turned pain into purpose — and stories into career and business impact.
Made By Challenge
Christie Fraga Won Her First Election at 23 With Just $16,000
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How do you win an election at just 23 years old with only $16,000?
Before becoming the first woman to lead the City of Doral, Christie Fraga was a young accountant with no political experience, no major donors, and little reason to believe she could beat seasoned opponents. Yet she did.
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In this episode of Made By Challenge, Christie shares how she built a grassroots campaign, balanced entrepreneurship with public service, overcame self-doubt, and stayed true to her values through some of the biggest challenges of her career.
She also opens up about leadership, taking risks, political betrayal, speaking up when it matters, and why being useful is more important than being important.
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SPEAKER_02She was 23. Cuban American. A first-time candidate. She had $16,000. Her opponents raised up to 80,000. She won.
SPEAKER_01It's better to be useful than important.
SPEAKER_02How do I win an election if I'm 22, 23 years old? First woman ever to lead the city of Durral, one of the fastest growing cities in America, won her second term with 80% of the vote. Disagreed publicly with the president on the president's own home turf.
SPEAKER_01I always knew it was the right thing for the people.
SPEAKER_02Because every breakthrough begins with a challenge. Mayor Christy Fraga, made by challenge. We put very serious work into every guest, every question, every episode, and we give it all for free. Now one thing keeps this show alive, and it's you subscribing. It takes two seconds, it costs you nothing, and it's the only reason we get to keep making it. Mayor Christy Frag, you were the first woman to leave the city of Durham. You have been an entrepreneur for a long time with an accounting firm, with a chain of ice cream stores, you walked away from a school board position in Miami Dave without knowing if you would make it to become the mayor or not. Why would someone that is in their mid-20s trying to figure things out and seeing this world being so complicated and so competitive? Why would someone listen to what you have to say today?
SPEAKER_01Because my story may be very surprising to you.
SPEAKER_02And talk about your story. I mean, you have a family of Cuban parents.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You were born here in Miami. And what did your Cuban origin teach you about working hard and going for the type of challenges that you have gone for?
SPEAKER_01My grandmother.
SPEAKER_02Which means?
SPEAKER_01Which means it's better to be useful than important.
SPEAKER_02Better to be useful than important.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you want to be useful. And anything that you decide to do. She's a very vocal inspirational woman, so very active today. And so what they taught me was first, we have so much gratitude for this country and the opportunities it gave my grandparents and my parents. I was lucky enough to be born here because of their sacrifices. But they taught me to work hard to know that the sky is the limit, that we are our own limitations, and if you work hard, you're a good person, and you know, you persevere, that everything and anything is possible. Um and that this was the place that they came to and sacrificed everything to give that to their family and to their their kids and then their grandkids. So that's really the the the origin of I think where the hard work comes from. My parents worked very hard. I saw my grandparents work very hard our whole lives, and so I think that's just ingrained in us.
SPEAKER_02So you're 25 when you decide to run I was actually younger into politics. How old were you then?
SPEAKER_01I was 23.
SPEAKER_0223. Okay, so there's a 23-year-old right now watching who's trying to figure things out, and they're like, I just graduated college or I'm a little behind, I'm about to graduate, nobody can find a job. This is so difficult, AI is taking over the world. In the meantime, you're there at 23.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And how in the world, I mean, just take me through the process of politics coming into you.
SPEAKER_01I was not planned, and I'm not gonna sit here and say it's probably the the the scenario or the path for everyone. I'm not saying you can't do it either. You can absolutely do it. Um, I actually questioned whether I could do it at the time, but I was very always mature, very mentally mature. I got young, I got married very young, I got married at 22. So by 2010, I was married. Um, I had just graduated uh college from FIU with an accounting and finance background or uh degree, and I was working doing property management and um equity asset um management of big properties and stuff, and a lot of it was in Durell at the time, the the person that I was working with, which later became my business partner in many things, um, but was a good friend of my parents, and I had gone there to work through college, and he just saw a lot of potential, and I was a hard worker. So he had certain properties that were affected by some private roads that had very poor maintenance. Um, and we needed to work with the city to create a special taxing district to be able to turn the roads over. So he tasked me to go to the city and figure out how we could get this done.
SPEAKER_02So they needed to create a special taxing district. Taxing district, which means what?
SPEAKER_01Special taxing district is basically uh property owners in a particular road or area that get together and they will advocate at the city to float a bond to be able to redevelop the area or to improve the roads, put lights, things like that.
SPEAKER_00What's those floating street lights?
SPEAKER_01That means pulling a mortgage. Okay. So instead of each one pulling a mortgage because it's a collective common area issue like roads, infrastructure is usually what you see, drainage, um, lighting, because they're private roads. So they're not city's responsibility. They're each property owner has a certain amount of roadway that's theirs.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you advocate for that within a city. So they ask you to go into the city. So basically, you're the non-politician at that point.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So basically I was running some of these properties as a manager or the property manager. So the owner tells me, which is my boss at the time, and then my partner tells me, go to the city and figure out how we get these roads turned over to the city. So I go to the city, start to investigate how do we do this? This is a private road. You have several property owners, and we find out we need to do a special taxing district. It's really the only way to get the roads to be um up to code to then turn them over to the city. Well, by the city, we still haven't done it today. Today, the roads are still private roads. Um, they're being better maintained by the property owners, but they're still private roads. It's very difficult to do because you have to get 61% of the property owners to want to tax themselves additionally to create the infrastructure.
SPEAKER_02And what hit you when you got to the city?
SPEAKER_01So when I went to the city, I met with the economic developer and the public works person at the time, and they were like, what is this young girl doing here? I knew nothing about engineering or roads or anything. I knew about accounting. That's what I studied. That's and property management, but I was asked to go do this. So I went, I got all the information, found out that there had been a committee formed called uh the Durald Decor, at the time it was actually called Durald Design District Steering Committee. We later got sued by the Miami Design District and had to change to Durald Decor District, which exists today. Um, and we built a merchants association. So we got a bunch of business owners together and we got property owners together to try and develop this association that would help a lot of these private roads, which still exist today in Durral, to be turned over to the city. Um, and that's how I got involved. I started getting involved little by little like that. Uh in 2012, there was an election for the first time of two council members and the mayor were terming out for the first time.
SPEAKER_02And actually it turned out Turning out, meaning that these people couldn't stay in office anymore.
SPEAKER_01They were done in their time in office. It was the and the city was very young. It was the first mayor the city had ever had, and two of the first commissioners the city had ever had. And then one of the sitting commissioners resigned to run for mayor. So there was technically three city commissioners and a mayor up for election for the first time in the city. The city was only like 12 years old. No, not even. The city was at the time about to turn 10 years old. It was very young. So the election was coming up, and a lot of the people who I had gotten involved with to help were like, you should really run for office. You should run for office. You're, you know, you're you're you're young, but you have all this energy and knowledge. And I had lived here for since since 1999. We had lived in Costa de Sosa. Like you live here, it makes sense. And I was like, I'm super young, I just graduated. Who's gonna listen to what I have to say? No, no, no. I I'm not in politics, I'm not gonna do politics. No, no, I don't think this is a good idea. Um, but many of them encouraged me to run, and so I went home to my husband. I'm like, I'm being asked to run for this position. What do you think? And he's like, Look, I think it's always a great opportunity to learn, um, to meet people. And he goes, I left Cuba. Well, my husband left Cuba in the night in 1993 or 92. So he was actually born in Cuba. He's like, Look, we all left Cuba to be able to be a part of something and to be able to effectuate change and be a part of the change. So if if we're not we're not gonna solve the problems, if we're not part of the solutions. So I said, Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I said, but who's gonna listen to me thinking I'm 22, 23 years old? This is crazy. Um, I started to go back and watch several council meetings that had been recorded for years and were for the first years of the city and watch it, and I started started to see a lot of decisions and things that I was like, wow, who who are we electing to make certain decisions? Um, and so I started to get passionate about how we could impact the growth of the city, how we could really imagine a place that because it the city was it was very um, it was in its initial phases. I mean, downtown Durral didn't exist, I mean 97th Avenue was like two lanes, 33rd Street didn't exist. I mean, the city north and yeah, it doesn't didn't have everything that it has today.
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SPEAKER_01Starting to look at all these meetings and be like, who are we leaving this to? The former vice mayor who had been termed out two years later decided to run in the seat. And you ran against him. I ran against him. And I was like, we're just recycling politicians. Um so I gave it a shot. I was like, you know what? It's before utile que importe.
SPEAKER_02I want to be useful instead of being able to be able to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I want to be useful instead of being important. Um, and so that's when I decided to give it a shot and run for office. Everybody who had asked me to run disappeared. Nobody wanted to give me money. I'm not surprised. Because they were like, I guess they were, you know, this young girl, there's no wake. When they saw that the former vice mayor was running, there was another lady running who we became great friends after. Um, but she had been an advocate for developing the first school ones around and had done a hunger strike and like very, very involved.
SPEAKER_02So if I'm in my early 20s right now and I decide to run for office anywhere in the world, can you please take me to the process? How do I win an election if I'm 22, 23 years old? How did you win an election?
SPEAKER_01I mean, it depends on the community that you're that you do. I did it knocking on doors. So I had no money. I had we had like no support. We we picked up money from friends and family that believed in us. You know, the person I was working for, he helped me a little bit. So we had sixteen thousand dollars. That's it. That's how much I collected. My opponents had between 40 and 80,000 to be able to do a campaign. Now it was a very different time in Dural. We only had at the time about 20,000 residents.
SPEAKER_02But you won an election with only $16,000 in your bank account.
SPEAKER_01It was me and my husband, my mom, um, my sister. We would go knock on doors on the weekends. I developed all my own mailers that I would mail to people. I went and found the pricing. I would, I created these like little uh thank you cards. And when I would knock on people's doors, I would take notes about who they were, what conversation I had with them. When I would go home, I would hand write thank you notes to people that would spend the time to talk to me. And I would mail it to them saying, Thank you for taking your time. Don't forget the election day. Here's my cell phone. And if you didn't answer the door, I would send another note saying I came by, I didn't see, I couldn't speak with you, and I would send that. Um, if I felt people were undecided, I was very personal about the conversations and intentional about the conversations I was having because I truly believed in like making a change. So, and and and having a representation of families that were building families here. So there was nobody like me running for office or on the council. There was nobody that looked like me on there, right? Somebody who had just gotten married, was a young entrepreneur, and wanted to have kids here. I didn't see myself reflected in the council or in the people that were running. That's really ultimately what made me decide to run.
SPEAKER_02But I'm thinking this, and again, trying to help the 20-something year old that may decide to run for office anywhere in the in the world. I get a knock on my door and I'm in my 40s, and I have all these issues, and I have all these things that I'm so mad about. Yes, and I see this 22-year-old or 23 or 24 or 25-year-old who's knocking and saying, Hi, my name is Christy Fraga, and I'm running for city council.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02My next question is, kid, what can you do for me? What do you know? Yeah. What's the answer? What was the answer?
SPEAKER_01Oh, my exactly that. My answer was I want to represent our city and the families that are choosing to be in Darao and to um partake in its growth and want to raise their kids here. We want it to be a safe city, we want to be a truly the best place to live, work, learn, and play. Um, I want to bring my experiences growing up here because I had lived in Dural already for so many years. I actually grew up in Durao. And so, seeing its evolution, I wanted to make sure that we were leading the best place and the best quality of life for our children. Um, and I would share with them, I don't see our young families reflected in the city. And so my goal is to represent our youth and their young families and business owners in our community to make a difference. Um, and I had, you know, studied accounting, so I had an accounting background, a finance background. That was really important for the financial stability and future of the city. So I offered that as well. Um, and a lot of times I just listened. I just listened to people's concerns. What did they want for the community? So a lot of times, people I would come to the door and I would ask them, what do you want for our city? What do you why did you move to Dorothy? And what is it that you expect out of the community that you chose to raise your family in? And then I would listen to them and I would tell them, my goal is to implement what our residents want. And then I built authentic, real relationships with the community. So I mean, the process of deciding to run is one of just believing in yourself, right? It's like, I'm gonna do this because I believe that I am the best option to provide the best quality of life for my the place I live. And I want to be useful in how we get there. And we wanna be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. And being part of the solution is getting involved.
SPEAKER_02But you've been in politics for a long time, and at the same time, what a lot of people don't know is that you've been an entrepreneur, like you've been running businesses at the same time, and a lot of people just don't want to get into politics because they just feel that they may not see any money or they may not be able to succeed. And that's true.
SPEAKER_01I tell people all the time, I go, Don't get into politics for money because that's not. I actually matter of fact, many times uh other candidates that come to me saying I want to run for office. The first thing I ask them is what's your financial situation? Um, where do you work? How what's your profession? Are you retired or do you have someone who helps in the house? Like if you're the primary breadwinner and you know, my husband, he runs our companies, and my company is still a function. So I have the luxury and the the the ability, thank goodness, to have somebody that supports what I do and I'm able to do this. Now it doesn't mean I don't get paid. I do get paid, and I get I think our city is probably some of the best paid elected officials, but that is not the case for most cities and most places. Most elected officials do this for very, very little. I mean, cities like Miami Springs, even our county commissioners, they make $6,000 a year. Yes, they get stipends and all these other things. Ultimately, it's a lot more.
SPEAKER_02Stipends means like cover expenses type things.
SPEAKER_01Like covered expenses or car, things like that, uh, benefits. But a lot of elected officials don't necessarily make a lot. And comparable to the private sector, if you're a professional, it's not a lot. Now, yes, you get a lot of relationships, there's a lot of opportunities to meet people. Granted, I'm not discrediting any of that. It's true, I've met people I probably would have never met in another situation. Um, but but elected officials were public servants and people forget that. And even even even our employees, right? We're constantly competing with the private sector as a public sector. I mean, we're constantly competing with the private sector as the public sector because they just they pay a lot better. Our benefits are usually a little bit better, but our pay is not as great as the public as the private sector. So we're always kind of competing with that and getting good professionals because you want quality people working in the public sector.
SPEAKER_02I wanted to ask you about an inflection point that you had because further down the road, you went to the school board, which is also uh a position that requires being elected.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02But there's a point in which the whole political process of you wanting to actually become mayor of the city of Elder Al, which required a big campaign, etc., pressured you to give up your school board position if you wanted to run to be mayor. So a lot of people have inflection points in their careers and points of uncertainty. Somebody is maybe being offered a job at a place they've never been to.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And they don't know if they're gonna be okay with that. So, how did that process play in your head?
SPEAKER_01I've never been one to be fearful of risk. I think you can't have fear of failure. I think it's failure if you don't try. So um I always knew I wanted to come back to Draw. I didn't feel like my work here was done. So I served eight years as a council member. I think we did great things. But when I left, we left, I left, you know, Draw Central Park was one of my big big projects that I had participated so much in. The pool, the Olympic Sky Swimming Pool, that's something project I had started in 2014. Um, and none of those had been completed. They had passed a bond in 2018. The work for the Duras Central Park had not started. It was 2020 and I was termed out.
SPEAKER_02A bond again being a mortgage.
SPEAKER_01Again, a bond, think of it as a norm as a mortgage. A bond is like a loan we take out against from a bank or from from from stocks.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01We take it out as a city. We have bond ratings, like a credit rating. We take it out, and then we use that that and they're voter approved. So they are backed by your property taxes.
SPEAKER_02So there were all these things going that you were very attached to and you felt while being at the school board, which had nothing to do for those that yeah, but for those that don't live in Miami, they may not understand that if you're in the city of Durral, that's one thing.
SPEAKER_01No, if you're in the Miami County School Board, I it was actually a higher position.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01School board is actually would be considered a higher position than Durral and even Mayor because it's uh district wide. So I had several cities. I had Miami Springs, uh Virginia Gardens, Durral, Hylia Gardens, Medley, um Sweetwater, City of Miami. I had a huge area.
SPEAKER_02My district is bigger than the district was bigger than County Commission, just like all of those names, for those that are not familiar with it, those names are cities that are within what everybody knows as Miami. Right. And you had a portion of that to oversee.
SPEAKER_01I was one of nine.
SPEAKER_02Right. As part of the school board, whereas a council or mayor of the city of Durrell, you had just one city.
SPEAKER_01Which is, I mean, can be considered the best. I mean, I'm the best. Oh, it is the best city, but it's the probably it's the sixth biggest city in Miami Dade County, but it's probably the most one of the most important cities right now in South Florida. Um I decided to run. So I decided to leave the school board, and I loved what I was doing in the school board. I loved it, I loved the work of the kids. I never intended to run for school board. I was also asked to do that by the moms. It was COVID was going on. I was terming out of this of council, and I I didn't know, I didn't want to I wanted to run for mayor at that time, but the mayor at the time was an incumbent. It was the original mayor, the fourth, the first mayor we. Had had come back and ran again for two terms. And I just didn't want to fight the political, you know, the political powers. I was like, I'm not gonna, you know, I don't So you went to the school board. So I decided to go to school board. I I had my son was just starting in kindergarten, it was middle of COVID, and a lot of the moms were like, no, no, don't leave. We we, you know, I had built such good relationships in the community. People wanted me to continue to serve because they felt that I was a good representation of their voice, which is exactly what we want to be, right? I wanted to be a voice for them. So they encouraged me to run for school board. And I was like, I don't know anything about education, like at least in the city, I knew what I was doing. Like I knew infrastructure, I knew, you know, accounting, and the school district has one of the largest budgets at the time. It was a $7 billion budget. Today it's like 9 billion. So I it's not that I didn't have a lot to offer. I just did it, again, I doubted myself. I doubted my capabilities to be able to truly represent people at the best, I am at the best of my capacity. But I took the challenge and it was a great experience. Not only did I get to go and do meaningful work, right? Because we're talking about our kids and education, I learned a lot, but I also got to see a really large government. And I got to see what too big is. I got to see true wasteful spending and like a failing system. Um, and that's just the truth. It's a failing system. And I got to see how much, how big our learning gaps are. And it was really frustrating. You you rarely get to see the fruit of your actual work like in front of you. Whereas in the city, I feel like you get to see it a lot faster. So it was very frustrating for me being someone who's very results-driven. Um, but the work was meaningful. So I'm in it two years or a year and a half, and the mayor that was in Durral decides he's gonna go move on to higher office. So I'm like, that's really where my heart is. Like, that's what I wanted to do for real, and like I know my city. And there's so many things that I didn't get to finish, and so many things that they had done in the year and a half I was gone that I was so upset about. Like not building Durral Central Park, passing pensions, like there were so many decisions that I felt were so self-serving to a community that I had fought to protect for so long that I was like, oh, I'm coming back. And I came back against all odds. I had everybody against me. Um, but for me, I knew it was the right thing. And I in my heart of hearts, I was okay risking losing the school board seat as much as I enjoyed that to do what I felt was truly my calling.
SPEAKER_02And you actually got elected with about 55% of the vote, but then years later you got re-elected with 70-some percent of the vote.
SPEAKER_01With 80% of the vote, 80% of the vote.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Can a politician in this day and age, where there's so much division via unifier? Because I'll tell you something that I remember. You and I, and I want to bring up a conversation you and I had at your office years ago. We were having coffee, you were kind enough to uh invite me to your office, and I remember telling you that I didn't feel a Republican or a Democrat. I I I felt that I was in the middle. Yeah, and I remembered that although you have, you know, you you're considered a a Republican for a million different reasons, you said that at some point in your life you had felt exactly how I felt when we had that conversation.
SPEAKER_01I wasn't in I was a non-so I when I originally filed to to vote, I filed Republican because my whole family was Republican. I mean, so we're Cuban. We were Republicans, and it's like if I wasn't a Republican, I think my my dad would disown me.
SPEAKER_02So um for context, I should probably say no, I know, but I should probably say for context that obviously in in Miami, where there's such a huge Cuban population, and with everything that happened with the extreme left in Cuba, there's just this big tendency of most people, not that every Cuban is Republican, but you're much much more conservative because of what people experienced in Cuba.
SPEAKER_01So I filed as a Republican and then I changed and I went NPA. I did not identify with no political affiliation. I became, I was, I felt very independent in the sense that I did not fully agree with everything the Republican Party and their policies, and I fully did not agree with the Democrat Party. I can still say that today. I can still very well say that today.
SPEAKER_02While considering yourself a Republican.
SPEAKER_01I am a registered Republican, yes. I just think that what so what happened in 2020 was that I felt that we had pushed the boundaries so far. Like the line in the sand had been so erased about what was like where your rights stopped and my began and where mine stopped and yours began, that I I did align myself a lot more Republican on that. Like there were certain principles that I was just not willing to negotiate on. They were just non-negotiables for me. And that's when I I said, okay, I have to make a decision. Like I have to be on, I have to make a decision. And the political environment changed a lot after Trump, right? After Trump, and even in 2016, I was not affiliated. Um, but after Trump, there was a huge wave of any, I would knock on doors and people would ask you right out, are you Republican or Democrat? You were judged by what party you were in. It was, I didn't have an opportunity to explain to people what my certain views were on certain issues, social issues, or what my position was. It was like, are you Republican or Democrat? And if I didn't have a position, it was like you're non, you're non-committal, non, you you can't decide.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01So I also had to take a position, and I could understand why some people would felt that way. I was hard for me, but um, and I just I realized at that point that I was definitely much more conservative leaning on certain principles that I aligned with that were non-negotiable. And that's when I decided to affiliate completely to the Republican Party. How old were you when you made the decision of that was in 2020, so I was 32, 33 years old.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so it was not uh 20 or at 18, it was later in your life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now that's that's interesting. Now, I understand that you also, in the middle of this whole political game, you supported someone and you you sort of took somebody through the finish line.
SPEAKER_01I was actually a Democrat.
SPEAKER_02And you supported that person from uh, you know, the the opposite political party, and you were betrayed.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02How did that come about? How do you how did you start trusting someone that then became someone who I never again and we go back to the party thing?
SPEAKER_01I never judged people by the party that they were aligned with, right? I I saw someone for who they were. Um I I believed in um her capabilities. I thought uh I was enganal a bit about uh the person that they were. And um, and so when I ran for mayor, it was important that I came in with a with a a team of council members that that believed in my position, in my platform and in my ability to lead and in a lot of what we were fighting for. And so there were fractions at the city. So I was running against a full slate, so I had to kind of build my own slate because if not, I was gonna come in and not be a effect effectively not effectuate my.
SPEAKER_02Because the city the the city council at the end of the day is voting on every decision.
SPEAKER_01And I'm one of the members, so you need to have a majority to get things done.
SPEAKER_02Otherwise, so you need to find your candidates while you're also running, yeah, so you can have some functionality.
SPEAKER_01I mean, the idea is to be able to work with everybody, right? I it's not about creating fractions. I'm very much against that. I believe that it you should be able to work with everybody, and we can agree to disagree on things, but um, it was important to come in with a team that at least believed in your leadership. I if I would have gone in without anyone, and I let's say so it was very, it was obvious, very obvious very early on that I was gonna be mayor and that I was gonna win. But if I didn't have a team coming in with me, then and the other team candidates for council one, they were gonna basically block me from doing anything and and kind of tie my hands um from effectuating my platform, right? And that's not the purpose. If you get elected, you wanna be able to actually work and do the things you promised the people to do. So it was important that I came in with people that believed in what I believed in to be able to get that done. Um, and so it was important for me to share with the community if you want me to be your mayor, I need to come in with a team that works with me.
SPEAKER_02Otherwise, you supported this person.
SPEAKER_01So I supported this person and they they came in with me. And um, like seven, eight months down the line, truly a year down the line almost, they completely turned on me for their own personal benefit and ego. And it was a learning lesson, and many people had warned me of it ahead of time. And I don't think it had anything to do with parties. I really don't. I just think it had to do with personalities. Um, and there's like a constant competition between women that I don't understand. I'm all about raising women up and watching them lead. We should always lead from the front, we should encourage women to get involved, but there was like this competitiveness that um I just didn't understand.
SPEAKER_02What did you learn from this that could possibly be your biggest political betrayal that you've been a victim of? What did you learn? What did I teach you?
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, unfortunately, it made me more jaded than I already was because politics makes you very jaded. It's already hard enough to trust. Um and so when you when you're betrayed or in anything you do, not just politics, but when you're betrayed by someone that you trust and that you believed in, it's very hurtful. So, you know, I guess the learning experience of it is that you can't allow you can't allow people to take away your joy in what you do and in your voice and your ability to pursue your goals and the things that you know are right and you know and to do good. Um and so it was very difficult and and the hardest part was that good people got hurt that they shouldn't have. Um and I think that's what hurt me the most. It wasn't even like what you do to me, it's hot what you what it did to other people that were part of the team, that you know, got fired, that were were were also betrayed. Um, so that was really hard to watch. And it it it it I would say actually one of the biggest lessons it taught me is that it taught me that this is why good people don't get into politics.
SPEAKER_02Because good people end up getting hurt in this entire conversation so far. This topic is the first one that I noticed that still makes you emotional. That that still hurts you a little bit. Why does it hurt so much? And what what have you done with that pain moving forward?
SPEAKER_01Um, I I don't I've I've totally forgiven at this point, honestly. Like, yeah, it's it makes me emotional just because I like it it it broke up a team that we we went through so much together. Um, and again, good people got hurt that ended up, you know, we're all kind of uh they had to get other jobs and stuff, and so the team that we had built and and had, you know, a vision of coming in and doing all these great things with got broken up and people had to move on. It was like a year of trying to rebuild that ultimately in the next year we won the election again with I've won with another team, and we did everything that we promised to do, and I think the city is in great condition. I mean, we're doing great things, everybody's talking about Dural, the park got built. I mean, we did so many wonderful, so many wonderful things that we've done, and the community's great. So everything worked out. God always has a plan, and it all worked out in the end. So um we have amazing people, but and again, I forgave because it's there's no purpose in holding and holding grudge in in your heart and and all that. Um, but yes, I mean I I guess it's just a little bit it always that person is still there. They're actually up for election this year. Um, and so it's always a constant reminder of like the people that got hurt, and and that's hard because they're friends and they're good people and they're true public servants that cared about this community, that have dedicated their life to public service, and and it's hard to watch politics do that to people. And again, it's I I repeat, it's why good people don't want to get into politics. It's why many times I come home and I tell my husband, I'm done. I don't want to keep doing this, I can't. I told you this at the beginning, you know, I am naturally a very loving person, very people person. I open my heart quick. I've I've had to I've had to become jaded, or I've become jaded, I should say I have had to become jaded, but I've become jaded. I am not as easy to trust anymore, and I put up walls around my heart because I don't want to get hurt. So people look at me sometimes they may think I'm a little bit cold or I'm a little intimidating. It's just that I face so much sometimes that I feel like I have to guard and shield my heart because otherwise I'd always be, I'd always be hurt.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So um, those are the things that I've learned throughout this process that everybody can experience in a different way in their own industries. Um, but in in in what I do on a daily basis in politics, it's like it's always a competition. And that's the hardest part because I just want to do good things in the community and I love what I do.
SPEAKER_02You know, you were talking about how divisive politics are and how you totally become worse. Yeah, but but you've also talked about how you have really reached out across party lines and try to always have a conversation and try to find a middle ground.
SPEAKER_01Politics That's always what intrigued me about about politics and debate, right? Is that you and I could be from different have different perspectives and views on something and ultimately think that the outcome is the best thing for our community and we may have different journeys and paths on how to get there, but we can agree to disagree and respect each other's positions on it. And I think that where where problems start and where we it becomes dangerous is when we can't have respectful debate and conversation about it's like if you think something, you're a bad person. And if I think something, I'm a bad person. And it's I don't necessarily think that people you know think certain things because they're bad people, but um we just may have different opinions and perspectives about policy and about a year ago, I remember seeing something that really shocked me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh and I remember even reaching out to you and commending you for that. A year ago, when you know, when President Trump's government became very strong in terms of immigration from the beginning, there was a big hit towards, you know, my fellow Venezuelans temporary protection status. And I have always known, I mean, number one, I mean you're a Republican. Yes. Number two, you are in touch with the president. You you're the mayor of the city where the president has a huge property. Yes. Uh you have to coexist uh with with the president's reality as a businessman and as a politician. Yeah. But a year ago, I see this letter, and it's an open letter from you to the president.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Saying that you're not in agreement and that you want the Venezuelans to hopefully be protected somehow.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Take me to the moment in which you decided to be vocal about something that could be so difficult because it didn't match the party line. It didn't match what everybody would expect from a Republican, but it matched your community.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you know, and that I've shared this with the president personally in the sense that I'm on the ground here with people, right? And I think we were all in favor of securing the border, stopping the illegal crossings, and like allowing people to come in here that we didn't know who they're who they are. I mean, we talk about like 11 million immigrants that came in. I think it's so much more than that. And it's it is dangerous for our national security. And I was totally in favor of that. And we all agreed with criminals being deported and taken out. What started to affect and what we were seeing, you know, is productive members of society, people who had paid taxes, who had basically been here for years, who have been worked, who are sending their kids to school here, who their kids know nothing else, falling victim to a lot of these policies and um consequences of four years of lawlessness. And I didn't necessarily think that that was just either. Um and I had to speak up about it. And I and and what I what I told the the president, and I've said it many times publicly, is the people that are sitting across from me at my desk crying are not illegals. They are US citizens that depend on somebody who is here on TPS, whether it's an abuelita, a family friend, a sister, a brother, um, you know, a nanny that's here on some type of status, TPS, asilo, visa, that are here seeking refuge. It's not because they don't want to be in their country. Okay. And I I told them this recently too when when Maduro was captured, which we're all super grateful for because he deserved to pay the, you know, face the consequences. So as the Castros do, right? Um, obviously a much older regime and and and and older people, but but still no less uh criminal than than than Maduro.
SPEAKER_02But there's gotta be a moment before that letter came out. You wrote it, you prepared it, your staff was about to publish it, you had a whole, you know, communication ready to be rolled out. And and you're maybe about to go to sleep, and you're talking about it with your husband, and you're like, listen, I'm about to do this. You don't have to think about it that much, to be honest. What I'm saying is that there's gotta be something inside of you that for a moment makes you question, am I doing the right thing? Because I always know it was that actually.
SPEAKER_01I always knew it was the right thing for the people. Okay. I always know it was the right. So you never questioned the people. No, I know, I know it was the right thing. I knew what I because I was living it. I was seeing it from people, good people here that were being affected and concerned. I mean, I I have a special needs young adult in my community who their whole the whole family is on residency already, permanent residency, but because of his age, he didn't qualify to go into the residency. He's now 30 years old, he has Down syndrome. The only people that take care of him are his parents, and all he had was TPS, and now he's he doesn't have anything. How do we not protect someone like that? He's a a person that's disabled, who the whole family is Venezuelan here on TPS, they've been here for years. Is he gonna get deported? Is he gonna get deported and go to Venezuela and fend for himself? Or now we're gonna take res permanent residency away from this whole family because they're gonna have to go back. And what I told the president is with Maduro gana and the whole thing, yes, people will go back, but the government that is there today still is the same government that made them suffer. And therefore, and that they they had to seek refuge away from. So it is very hard to tell them, Oh, yeah, I go back, everything's gonna be fine. I get that the situation on the ground may be very difficult when I've had this conversation with many people in the government, um, but it's still yet to be seen. So it's very hard if we think that all these people who have established a life here who their kids know nothing else are just gonna pick up and go. So, what I was asking for was a little more um, you know, flexibility options, empathy, a little more empathy on let's review these cases. I don't, I didn't say call it TPS, call it whatever you want, call it the drump savior, the Trump savior um protection. I don't, it doesn't matter. Give people the opportunity to reapply, vet them. If they have a parking ticket, send them back. But if you have people that are clean, that have been working here, have been paying taxes, what's that to say about us as a country that we've been taking your taxes, we've been taking all these things, right? To sustain our country too, to sustain a workforce, and then we're just telling you, oh, you mean nothing to us, leave. I understand there's a lot of illegals, there's there is we as a as a as a as a country could also not sustain any more of that burden. I get it, and I'm on board with a lot of those policies. But I just think that the particularly for the Venezuelan people, the Cuban people, we haven't seen enough change to say it's better, go back.
SPEAKER_02Right, but you know the what really strikes me out of what you did, and it's the lesson that I think we can pick up, and the 25-year-old can pick up, is the fact of how hard it can be when you see that someone that it's at a higher level than you, whether it's a leader, the business owner, the boss, the president, is doing something that you may not agree with, how powerful it can be that so that you're vocal about it, and that you share your truth and your position, and that that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be fired from the job, uh, put on the side, not talk to any more people. See, that's the a lot of people are very afraid of that, and you have continued your career, uh, and you continue to be somebody that that that supports the president's policies and that interacts with the president. You're still okay.
SPEAKER_01And I very much and I think we have mutual respect for each other, and I've been very vocal. And I've sat at dinner with him and told him what I truly believe about.
SPEAKER_02You understand a lot of people don't dare to contradict someone in a position of power.
SPEAKER_01It's not the first time I uh disagree with him. I don't know if you remember when he first bought the the property here in in Darao, he asked uh he asked the city for $2.5 million for his Miss Universe pageant. I said no. I was like, no, I'm sorry, I'm not giving a billionaire 2.5 million. Dollars to promote their so I we can't be afraid to speak up and say what we need to say. And I truly believe I was elected to be a representation of people. And the only people, the only ones that I have a responsibility and accountability to is them. So I have to believe that the decisions I make are in their best in interest. And we're not gonna always agree. Like I may have made certain policy decisions. I was recently criticized for one, a policy decision that I made that I believed was the right thing. I think it's it's a good policy, but Republicans have a difference of opinion with me on it. And I'm like, okay, you have your opinion, I have mine, but it's I think it's a good policy.
SPEAKER_02But that resilience, do you are you born with it? Were you born with that resilience and that strength? Or is that something that you had to develop over time? I think what can the person listen to?
SPEAKER_01I think it's a little bit of both, right? Like you have to have certain personality traits, and I think you could develop a lot of them too, right? Like you could develop. I have built a lot of support in my community for who I am. My authenticity. I say it as it is, you may not always like it. Again, I'm open to conversation. I can listen. I've learned to listen and take things in, and I I admit when I'm wrong. I have no shame in admitting you can be wrong. You just can't be righteous about it, right? Like it's okay to be wrong. We're all learning and growing from our experiences. So I think that's really important. Um, I I'll I'll tell you, I think also I don't need this. I think that's the difference between a lot of politicians and not to knock my colleagues and my friends because I have a lot of friends in politics, and I think there's great leaders in politics who have made it their careers. And I don't think that's a bad thing either. I've made it a career too. But if I'm not here tomorrow, my life won't change. Like if I'm not elected tomorrow, my life is not gonna change. I do it because I love it, I'm passionate about it, but I don't necessarily need to be here. I in the sense that I have my own businesses, um, my husband works very hard, I work very hard, I still run my businesses. This for me, I always say my business feeds my family, public service feeds my soul. I love it. I truly love it. And I didn't ever know, I never studied this, like this was not in my plans at all. I I think God truly had a plan for me, and I've I found that path and I've done well in it, and but I've always stayed true to who I am, I've always stayed true to my faith. I've never compromised on my values. Um, I've made mistakes, as we all have, but and I've learned throughout the past because I've grown as a as an adult, as a person, as a mother, as a woman. Um, but no, I've never been afraid to speak up about what I truly believe, even if, yeah, some feelings may be hurt. And I think that that's probably why the president has respect for me. Because sometimes it's, you know, when you surround yourself with people who tell you what you what you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear, it's a very powerful thing. Um, I've always surrounded myself with people like that, even though I know it may be hard for them sometimes to say something because they think I'm gonna be like defensive. And I'm I'm a human, I'm human, I may be at first. As a matter of fact, I've learned to do is a lot of times I just stop and I just think and I'll just be looking and they're like, Oh, are you okay? And I'm like, I'm I'm processing because I know they're right. I just don't want to say it.
SPEAKER_02So you're giving me the processing look.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I I'm I'm like I'm processing because I know they're right, and and we're gonna, you know, and sometimes you have to realize that you're not always right. Um, so I think those are all really good learning lessons and things that we learn throughout the process. It's not, I don't think you're necessarily born with them. There's certain personality traits I think you need to be born with, but I think, or certain character traits, right? But I think there's a lot that are developed too with who you surround yourself with. So again, I've never been afraid to stand up and say, This is what I believe. And if if you think I'm wrong, convince me otherwise. I will listen. Um, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure there's somebody right now watching or listening who is going probably through their darkest moment. They are it's hard to get out of bed. They've been defeated many times. They can't find a job, they can't find a you know, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, uh, a path in life. What would you tell somebody going through that type of moment that could help them start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?
SPEAKER_01Nothing lasts forever. Not the bad moments, not the good moments. It's you've got to get up and keep going and you know fight another day. Fight another day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's fight another day.
SPEAKER_01It's it nothing, nothing lasts forever. And and it again, not the heartaches. Um, you know, we we're very strong individuals and human beings. Surround yourself with good people.
SPEAKER_02So we always wrap up the podcast with this question. We're going to visualize that we are at 100 years from now, we're going to pretend like Google still exists.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02That it's survive ChatGPT, open AI, and Andropics. And that we're going to imagine that somebody Googles 100 years from now, Christy Fraga. What would you like those top search results to say about you?
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow, that's a great question. Um she truly cared. Um she impacted my life somehow. Um she made me feel hurt. I we say this all the time. Um, it's sometimes people people won't necessarily remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel.
SPEAKER_02Christy Fraga, Mayor Fraga, uh, today you have taught us a lesson about just going for it. Even when you're not prepared, is what I'm picking up from this conversation. Uh I'm I'm picking up a lesson regarding the fact that that it's okay to be yourself, and it's okay if you're not like the person that you have in front of you, and it's okay to voice your opinion.
SPEAKER_01That's your biggest, I mean, those are your biggest um uh traits, right? Like you know that that's your biggest superpower.
SPEAKER_02And and I want to thank you for that, for bringing those lessons in, for encouraging people to get into politics at any age with no preparation, with sixteen thousand dollars and maybe even less in their bank accounts.
SPEAKER_01I'm not gonna say it was easy.
SPEAKER_02I don't know that I would recommend it, but and and and thank you for reminding us that even during the darkest moments, we just have to be ready to fight one more day and one more time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So you said something very quick. You said um, even when you're not prepared, it's you may think you're not prepared.
SPEAKER_02I think that you are uh preparing for a lot more in life, whether God is telling you or not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and I commend you for what you do. Thank you. And I also commend you because I know that anybody right now that doesn't agree with you, that may absolutely disagree with your positions, yeah, is someone that can feel free to send you a DM.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And to tell you, I don't know. And I'll answer.
SPEAKER_02You will answer, you will agree or disagree, but you can still get along.
SPEAKER_01I'll state my case.
SPEAKER_02That's it, that's it. And that's a society that we need to have. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. That's great.
SPEAKER_02Most people watch this, get the value, and disappear. The ones who subscribe, they're the ones building something. So hit subscribe, turn on notifications, because you never know, you never know which guest drops the next exact framework, the one that you need, the one that rewires how you think about your career and your life.