Jade Simmons on Purpose, Reinvention, Faith, and Independent Politics

Jade Simmons joins Behind the Story for a powerful conversation on purpose, reinvention, faith, leadership, mental health, and politics. Jade shares how a battle with stage fright unexpectedly transformed her career from classical concert pianist into transformational speaker, and why she now defines purpose as what happens in others when you do what you do.

We also discuss youth suicide prevention, the state of the mental health conversation, authenticity, independent political thinking, immigration, tax policy, abortion, and what it means to lead with conviction in a deeply divided culture.

This is a wide-ranging episode about impact, courage, identity, and the cost of becoming who you were really meant to be.

Transcript

speaker-0: I would rather you see me behave towards people in a way that if you know who Christ is, you go, wow, that's, she's living it. She's living it. That's my hope. And so I try to say, remember the old knees bracelets, WWJD, like what would Jesus do? think I try to say if there's a woman in front of me who's had an abortion, no matter how she feels about it, how do, how do I treat her? What does, what does the love of God look like towards her?

speaker-1: living descriptions. Welcome back to Behind the Story. Today on BTS, I'm joined by Jade Simmons, concert pianist, transformational speaker, author, podcast host, and one of the most unconventional voices in leadership today. From the concert stage to the campaign trail, Jade has built a career around purpose, reinvention, impact, and Today we're going to get behind the story and talk about how she's done it. Let's get into it. Jade, welcome to BTS.

speaker-0: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

speaker-1: It's my pleasure. As I mentioned in that brief introduction, you being a concert pianist, in my mind, I'm usually not thinking concert pianist, transformational inspirational leader. How does one, so let's go back to your early days, early stages. Like what was that like? How did you get into piano? Was that something from childhood, parents? Like talk me through how you went from that to being where you are today.

speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, you know, if we were to reverse engineer it, there's a lot of twists and turns in there for sure. But if I think back to childhood itself, my mother also plays the piano. So I did grow up hearing her. My father is an amateur African drummer. He would, you know, always have African drums in the house. So I grew up with a lot of music, but my parents really, they have always said yes to all of my whims. So I played multiple. sports, multiple instruments. I was the typical, stereotypical, over-scheduled American kid. And the fruit of that was I developed this habit of trying new things and expecting to have some sort of success with them. And with piano, out of all the instruments I played, I used to play the clarinet and the viola. I think I played saxophone for a week. I've been on the drum line. That's one of my favorites as well, percussion. But piano was the thing I always came back to. Nobody ever had to make me practice piano. But I tell this from stage often, which is I started playing classical music very late. that world, you begin playing at three, four, five, six years old. I didn't have my first piano lesson until I was eight and a half, almost nine. So I started late, you know, in terms of textbook conditions to become a concert pianist, but I loved it right away. Practice all the time. And I had some...

speaker-1: ⁓

speaker-0: really good teachers who, you know, they saw something different. They saw something special. And so it was really my third teacher. I joke a lot. I mean, it's not really funny, but my first two teachers died within a year of teaching me. I always say, you know, that was a very interesting experience as a little girl because I was always annoyed going to those lessons because they would never let me play the music I wanted to play. And that happened with the first two. So when I got to the third, I said, listen, lady, you might want to consider letting me play some Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin here. Cause those first two guys, they didn't make it through a year. You know? And so she gave me my first real small pieces of classical and the rest, they say, is history. But it was my fourth teacher who prepared me to audition for college. And I did competitions as a young girl. And then I went off to Northwestern to study piano performance outside of Chicago, Illinois. And then I came here to Houston to get my master's in piano performance. And my only dream at the time was to simply be a classical concert pianist. That's what I wanted to be. I love classical music. Beethoven, Rachmaninoff are my main men. And that was the original dream. And I'm very blessed and fortunate to say that I got to spend the first part of my career doing just that. playing with orchestra, playing solo recitals, performing in competitions. I've gotten to be in these hallowed halls, you know, the White House, the Supreme Court, I've played concerts there. So I got to do it. And then as I mentioned earlier, there are always a few detours that sort of take you off track in a good way. those are my early years. Piano always was kind of calling my name and I love to be able to create.

speaker-1: When you reflect back on those early years and some of the lessons that you learn from a principal perspective, what are some of them that applies today?

speaker-0: ⁓ wow. My undergraduate teacher, Dr. Sylvia Wong at Northwestern University, she used to call me her wild card. You know, because I'd started playing late, I had a lot of catching up to do in terms of technique and fundamentals. Where I was overqualified, so to speak, was in the area of musical interpretation and emotional understanding. I instinctively just understood what the composer wanted. Even if I'd not studied years of Beethoven sonatas, I just knew what he wanted with this bass line. I just knew where Rachmaninoff wanted to go with a certain harmony. That was never the stuff I needed to be taught. And even today, that's my strong point. I think maybe as an empath, if I'm in a room, whether I'm speaking or performing or preaching or teaching or coaching, sort of know what the people in the room need. And I know what to give them when, when to lean in, when to pull back, when to inject humor. So I've always had that and I trust that because I remember that was a unique thing that set me apart as a young performer. What my teacher would say though, as a wild card was that she never knew which Jade was gonna show up. You know, the technically proficient Jade was gonna knock it out of the park or this version of me that would. I don't know, not sound anything like what I'd practiced. And so today it sort of makes me, I'm always sort of looking out to make sure I can be as consistent as possible. You know, with the gift, there's so much responsibility that comes with that. And even though there's a lot of what we do that comes naturally, I still want to make sure that I am being a good steward of the gift. So I take that with me. The other thing she used to say was in the music world, you know, we have crescendos and decrescendo. That's when the music. sort of blooms and gets louder or quietly gets softer. And she would say, I like to slam open the window. She was like, I need you to take more time. Open the window as if you can't, if you really want to explore and be surprised by what you're going to see, don't just bust into the room where the music is concerned. So she taught me about pacing, really helping the audience wait with me and come with me for the moment, not just rushing to get to the

speaker-1: Mmm.

speaker-0: climax of the music. I liked everything fast and loud at that time, and so the nuance was often lost on me. And so today I can see that come back to bear, whether I'm coaching someone, whether I'm speaking to an audience. A lot of times you can't just give them everything all at once. You've really got to take them on a journey. And that's come the calling card of who I am as a performer, that I love to create these adventures that audiences go on with me.

speaker-1: What was that transition like? And take me back to the first one. It's like from being a concert pianist and being a performer. Do you remember the very first speaking engagement? What was the transition like? How did it happen?

speaker-0: Yeah, the transition was organic, but it came from a place of necessity. I had an unexpected bout of stage fright about three years into my career. Now I'd been playing at this point since I was a little girl and what came naturally to me was performing for the audience. So to suddenly be stricken by this was, as you can imagine, very startling and nerve wracking because I'm trying to build my name, my reputation. Classical music is a You don't, the music is sweet, but the business is not. It's a cutthroat industry, like, like all of the entertainment industry. And, you know, a music critic can make or break your career on, on any given night. And so that was that fear of, ⁓ my gosh, somebody's going to show up and write about me having a bad night. That's always in the back of my head. So I had this period of spiraling where I would have stage fright before I went on. And that would cause me to have memory slips in the middle of the music. And so I forget parts of the music. Now I'd gone to school for classical. didn't go to school for jazz. I'd never improvised before. Suddenly I was improvising. Suddenly I was developing all sorts of new talents, but this was nerve wracking for me to go on stage. And I started to not know what the output was going to be. And what I did to calm myself down. I started speaking to the audience in between the movements of the music. So that doesn't sound like a big deal, but what you've got to understand is in classical, when you play a Mozart sonata, you play the first movement into the second movement, into the third. There's no applause. That's why it's so awkward. If you're a first timer in the audience, instinctively, it sounds like it's over. You want to clap, and you're the only one clapping, and everyone gives you the death glare, right? And so imagine, here I am ending the first movement and then turning to the audience, right? Scandal. She's speaking in between the movements. But I started to speak about what the music was for me, what I wanted the audience to experience. I would tell stories about Mozart, about Liszt, about Chopin that were often funny or insider stories that even the connoisseurs didn't know about. And the audience loved it. When they would get happy and laugh at these stories and be intrigued, it would calm me down. When they were calm and I was calm, I turned back to the piano and then I would continue. And this became, again, a calling card. So there's a theme here. All these kinds of moments that I thought were me surviving became the thing that I was known for. I started to get bookings because I was the piano girl who talked. Right. And so at that time, and this is 2004 to 2006, let's say, right after I got out of grad school, there weren't many classical musicians speaking from the stage. there were exactly actually two men that were known for it and pretty much especially no emerging artist. So that became something that distinguished me. That's one of the ways that I found out speaking was actually very easy for me and engaging with an audience was very easy for me. in a nutshell, that changed everything. My audiences, it changed the way my audiences looked. It changed how audiences started to behave. And the bravery of that moment Begat more courage to try new things. So over time, I began to implement different genres of music, a little jazz or a little improv on the spot. would bring audience members up on stage to play with me. And this is now a calling card of what I do as a keynote speaker who brings a piano with her wherever she goes. But those first moments didn't feel like a transition. They felt like survival. Out of that came an opportunity to speak. and bring the piano with me, right? Whereas before I was the concert pianist who also spoke and that made me a unicorn in the classical world. It did the same in the opposite way in the keynote speaking world.

speaker-1: I'm sure you know this, but that's brilliant. The way you took something that could have completely devastated your entire career and probably could have stopped you. And you completely flipped it into something so positive, so empowering and made you unique amongst the field.

speaker-0: Yeah, I, ⁓ I'd like to say I had, you know, I planned it all, but to be honest, if, if I hadn't had that bout of stage fright, I think today I would still only be a classical concert pianist, which is exactly what I signed up for. But it was the speaking that changed everything. The speaking, which I will easily admit comes a thousand times more easily than the playing does. I love the playing. Again, I love, you know, classical music. But there's a toiling aspect to it. And I know people who, for them, the playing is way easier than the speaking, which is why I was distinguished as a speaker in that world. But it was the speaking that broke me into rooms that you normally wouldn't invite the classical pianist in, which takes us back to your original comment. You don't put the two things together. Right. And so now the piano distinguishes me in the speaking world. They are listening to what I'm saying, but now I use the music to drive my points home. So if I'm talking about reinvention or change mastery or innovation, right? The music then demonstrates my point and music just has this way of communicating that words can't. So I do best of both worlds in my current career today.

speaker-1: Perfect. In preparing for our conversation, came across something on some of the, I don't remember if it was on the website or LinkedIn, but I came across something that I made a note of it and I want to get you to comment on it. And it says, you purpose is not just what you do, but what happens in others when you do what you do. When did that idea first become real for you? When did that first become conscious and something that you needed to share with others?

speaker-0: Well, it was in retrospect because it's out of the turmoil of the season I just described because you have to understand my only purpose in life was to play the piano. So if I'm suddenly failing at playing the piano, I must be failing at purpose. this has made that moment feel so devastating because the thing that I had worked for since I was eight and a half years old and finally attained was just... in a matter of months felt like it was disappearing. And then this life jacket that was this other super skill of speaking is what then rescued the original purpose I thought was to play the piano. So for me, was my purpose was actually not to play the piano. My purpose was what was happening in the room when I was the one playing the piano or speaking or teaching or coaching. So now I understood this again. Remember the over-scheduled This kid who did all the things and people kept telling me, you've got to choose one thing. You can't be good at everything. You're going to be what is it a jack of all trades and a master one. You got to choose one thing that never sat well with me. Just like today, if anyone says to me, stay in your lane, watch me build a whole highway. Right? So it's like those words always irritated me as a, as a youngster. And I couldn't understand why, because I saw the wisdom and what they were saying, pick one thing, focus on it, streamline, get your 10,000 hours in. And you were going to be good, but that never felt right to me. And there I was combining the passion and the talent of playing the piano with the purpose of actually activating audiences. And when I would look for this cause and effect, the bolder I would be on stage, the more activated that audience was to become bolder or to try new things. And so when I'm going into Google or Zillow or nationwide, they're bringing me in because they're saying, are people need to be something more? than what they've been in the past season because of what we're trying to achieve in the next season. And so I would always tell them, look, it's not the bottom. They're not going to be motivated by me telling them we need to help Google hit a certain bottom line. That's not going to be what it's going to be. But if we can unleash something in them that feels like they too are going into a level next, a new era for themselves, Google is going to benefit. Zillow is going to benefit because now I'm bringing more of myself to the table that I've unleashed. And so. That moment of understanding what my purpose was came from not me being the impressive artist on stage, but me paying attention to the type of impact that was happening in the room. And that came in listening to audience members who would come up and tell me what they'd experienced when I was telling a story or what they remembered about themselves when I was sharing something about myself. And I always joke that in the beginning, Jelani, I was sort of annoyed because I'm like, I wanted you to tell me how incredible my Chopin etude was. Did you not hear the arpeggio at the end of that Beethoven sonata? And they were telling me how moved they were, right? And so the self-centered artist was missing that because I just spent 12 hours in the practice room. I need you to talk about what I did in that practice room here, right? So it changed everything. And I understood from then on, okay, purpose is not what we think. And it began sort of this investigation into what purpose really is.

speaker-1: I completely understand you want the Adagio to tear their hearts up not them tell you about something else. I got you. I completely understand. You Jade, you know, you obviously went through that reinvention and it turned into a positive process for you. And I know there are people listening that probably are going through a reinvention of themselves and they may be, they may have some pre-pre-suppositions about it, that misconceptions about it. Reflecting on your story, what did the old Jade have to reconcile and let go of to step into that new Jade that emerged, that unicorn that I would say the most high hat in store for you. You weren't ready for the image, the most high hat for you, but it was there awaiting for you to step in and adversity was created in your life in order to push you onto the right path. what was, what did the old Jade have to let go of in order to fully step into that new Jade?

speaker-0: In my world as an artist, you go to school, you practice really hard, and then you wish, hope, and pray that somebody's going to pick you. Record label is going to pick you. Agent is going to pick you. Concert hall is going to pick you. And you learn how to pitch and you learn how to compete. And you subconsciously surrender to a state of waiting on selection from random people. It was in that sort of downturn, which I should also say never really was a reality to the audience. Like the way that I was suffering and having these memory slips, it's not even what they would notice. I would go back and listen to the recording and go, I don't even hear the thing that set me on the spiral in that concert. So I want to say that because sometimes so much of what we are allowing to press us down is not even a reality.

speaker-1: in our ⁓

speaker-0: side of our head, right? It's real for us, but we're not being judged in the way that we think. Nobody was writing up the awful review. Nobody canceled my career because I slipped on the A-tube. And so that was something I had to get over later to understand a lot of the stuff that I am building up in my head to be awful and to be doomsday is not real. But what I think was crucial was this concept now of what happens if we don't wait around to be discovered. What happens if we discover ourselves instead? So what I started to do, which was thinking back now, it was so scary back then because I said I didn't study improvisation. didn't study jazz. Survival made me improvise. I then started putting myself on the spot on purpose in real time. So even today I'll have an audience member choose three notes on the piano and I, and they can tell me they can give me the moods. And I do this with little kids and I do it with adult audiences. Give me a mood, a setting. Tell me when you want the peak to be. How does it end? How does it begin? And I have to create a piece of music on the spot. Now 10 years ago, ⁓ my gosh, that would have, I would have been sick to my stomach at the thought of it. But now it's the moment I look forward to because me, neither the audience knows what's going to turn out, but we're trusting each other that it's going to be a moment worth remembering. And so this concept of, know, I spent years waiting on the record deal and I did finally got. I got one and it was awful. Right? I waited on the managers and I got some and I'm thankful for them, but I would always outgrow them. I'd want to do more. And they would say, you can't do that. Jade, you can't blend elite music and street music because my concerts, they go from Rachmaninoff to rap. You can't do that. Right? As a minister, I don't know if you can speak so freely. Well, I do. And it's what appeals to my faith based audiences, or I wrote a book on prayer. I don't know if you can talk about God like that. Well, that's how he talks to me. So that's how I'm going to write the book. And then it was a bestselling book. Right. So my life has almost become, listen for the thing everybody's telling you, you can't do. And that's probably exactly what you should be doing. Because it, especially if nobody has done it yet. So don't wait around to be discovered. Discover yourself instead is the lesson that I take from that era. And then I keep reminding myself and our team of, we now expect that we're going to be ahead of our time. a little bit ahead of the curve, and not everybody's going to be on our bandwagon in the beginning. But when we launch, they will be thanking us for the thing that we dared to do.

speaker-1: Jade, how do you coach that? So for example, because what I'm hearing is you're basically you're not waiting for the applause. You're waiting for the applause or the permission. How do you coach that? Somebody comes to you and they're where you were because it's different doing it to yourself. It's different. Now somebody else is asking you for your help. How do you coach that?

speaker-0: would say it's even, it's become easier. It's easier to coach than it is to always follow it. And so that's why I say it's something we constantly say. It is now our MO, right? My sister, was telling my sister a story once and I said, well, you know, I like to take big leaps of faith. And she said, Jade, you're not, you don't take faith leaps. She says, you free fall. And I'm like, okay, that's it. She's like, you are a free faller in faith. I just trust that if... It doesn't work out how I thought we're going to be able to figure out another way to work it out. But I start by trusting it's going to do what we expect it to do. And so one of the things that I spent a lot of time on in coaching is the concept of surrender. So we always say, we want you to have expectation that it's going to do something. But what if we release the specific expectation of the outcome? Can we allow the outcome to be something other? If we can surrender the outcome now, it doesn't put this pressure on, have to, it has to do this at this time and achieve this thing. But can we go into it with anticipation and expectation and release the outcome? Of course, I attract a lot of the recovering control freaks because I am myself one.

speaker-1: engineer where ⁓

speaker-0: He needs it. But you know, even my clients who are believers as I am, they still want God to paint, give them all the steps before they walk. I always say, listen, every time I've seen it work, it only works after I've put my foot up in the direction. And then once I start in the direction of that, by the time I put my foot down, I know a little more than I did when I started. And so my coaching clients, And I don't, and I don't coach a lot right now because of some of the other things that we'll talk about. But when I was carrying a larger practice, they would say, okay, your brand of inspiration is more like a gut punch because I think we can't do anything if we're not being real, real about what we're really dealing with. So we'll call it some other name, but I want to figure out now what's that, what's really going on there. And my clients will tell you that I. I call them liars often. So they will pour their hearts out and say, this is how I'm feeling. And I just don't know what to do next. don't know. I don't know is the biggest lie in the book. have yet to meet someone who actually didn't know. What I always run into are people who don't like what they know. And so they pretend not to know so they don't have to do what they know. So I think that's the key thing is getting to what we're pretending. We don't know so we can actually go do the thing we knew we were supposed to do a long time.

speaker-1: Yeah, well, sometimes what we know is difficult or hard and we know that, so we're avoiding it. You know, that's why we procrastinate difficult things all the time. In a few minutes, I've been talking to you. I get the sense that you're a very free-spirited, open, ebullient type of personality. When you are scheduled to give a talk or give a concert if you're still doing that, how do you decide

speaker-0: That's right.

speaker-1: which parts of Jade to share? Or do you go back to, here's everything.

speaker-0: Yeah. So this is where I go to everything must come out. So I say this to audiences. My goal is for you to bring all of yourself to every single table, every single time. And that's something I had to work into. So remember I'm coming out of the concert world, going into this corporate world. So my first instinct is, I need to dress more corporate. I need to, and I would try to figure out what, know, how do I kind of tone down? So they take me seriously. And I remember in a hotel where my pack. like a corporate boring suit and then this really cool dress with black fringe on it. And I was going back and forth and I'm like, I don't know if they're ready for their fringe. And this is when I had pretty sensible here. Now I wear Mohawks and extensions. I might have locks one day. They might be purple, depending on the color of the logo of the company that I'm speaking for. And I'm sitting in this hotel room, just looking in the mirror going, which one? And I remember praying about it and What I heard come back was silly. If they needed you to look and behave like them, why would they be bringing you in? It was so simple. And from then on, I understood this is where I get to smack the window wide open. And so when I come on stage, I am all me. So that immediately you understand a couple of things. know the psychology of right, you know, speaking to an audience. I need you to understand before I say a word that this is not going to be like anything you've ever seen. I don't want to have to tell you, this is not your grandma's keynote. I want to come out there and you go, okay, this is not my grandma's keynote. So my mandate is to activate audiences into being bigger and bolder. So that tells me what to wear every time. It's never going to be the corporate suit, at least not when I'm on stage with that activation. And so even now, my career is primarily... as a keynote speaker for mostly corporate settings. The piano comes with me wherever I go. Parts of the year, I'll do straight ahead concert experiences, but they still have speaking involved. And then we just opened a media studio here in Houston. And now I'm trying to be just the studio owner. So other artists, corporations use that studio to create their content. And as you know, I'm also now running for office. So you do modify, but I still bring all of myself, even in the political world. We're about to release a music video with a spoken word artist, right? And I'm on piano because these are the things that differentiate us and they are the things that really show the world who we are. And I feel like we need to be able to see our leaders for who they really are. So I don't need to pretend now that I was never an artist. So you take me seriously as a politician.

speaker-1: think being different sells. Not being different just for different sake but if you're actually authentically different which you are, I think that sells. Switching to a more somber note for just a bit and I know from reading about you early on one of the platforms you supported and working was in youth suicide prevention. Where did that come from? Was there a personal experience that occurred that led you there or how did you get involved with that topic?

speaker-0: was competing in the Miss America pageant back in high school, getting ready to compete, coming out of high school, going into college. And you have to choose a platform issue. And so I chose the issue of youth suicide prevention because we had recently had a suicide at our high school and it was beautiful young woman, know, textbook popular girl, cheerleader, gorgeous. And she and her boyfriend who was as they would say, from the other side of the tracks, know, kind of goth guy, older. And they had, they honestly had what was like a Bonnie and Clyde episode. It was on America's Most Wanted, just wildness. Imagine in high school seeing a classmate go through this and it resulted in a double, a murder-suicide. And what I remember the most is not just the tragedy, but that we came back to school and nobody talked to us about it. They didn't, they didn't help us understand it. And I remember thinking, I think we need to be talking about this issue. And so I chose youth suicide prevention and youth violence prevention, mental health awareness as my platform issue for Miss America, which I was warned against. You shouldn't do that. It's Miss America. Pick something like character education. You're an artist. Let's do arts in the schools. Keep it light and bright. And I thought, no. This is what's going on at the time. And sure enough, I was now in college getting ready for Miss America and I was Miss Illinois. And right before we went to Miss America, Columbine happened. The Columbine tragedy happened. Jonesboro, Arkansas was a middle school shooting happened. And suddenly this was a hot button issue. So when you talk about things being chosen for you, now suddenly this issue that people had warned me not to speak about. was the issue. I went to Miss America and I came in second place, which I still re-answer my top five question to this day. So I didn't win Miss America and I was devastated because she gets to travel all over the nation and speak on her

speaker-1: Talk about the issue. ⁓

speaker-0: But because this issue was suddenly the issue, I traveled just as much as Miss America. I testified in front of Congress on behalf of mental health funding. There was a national strategy from the Surgeon General to roll out a strategy for suicide prevention. I was a part of that. And that was as a 21-year-old I was doing this work. That's the other place where I found out that speaking was a gift of mine. But maybe more importantly than just the art of speaking, I could speak to kindergartners about difficult topics. So with them, it was the passion for life. And how do we talk about our feelings? And I could play the piano and say, give me an emotion and let me find a piece of classical music that sounds like that emotion. So we were talking about our feelings and what might make us feel sad. And who do we tell when we're feeling this way? And I could speak to a room full of suicidologist and suicide prevention experts. I could also speak to families affected by suicide. And so that's when I realized I had what I call the communications chameleon gift. could empathize with different rooms. I could also up-level my speaking in a way that academic professors would relate to. And I can also talk to third graders and have fun. And again, these were these skills that even, that my art had sort of implanted in that now today as a speaker and as an aspiring public servant, it comes in handy to be able to see people and meet them where they are and speak to them from a place of. So when you talk about differences, those things that I was warned I needed to pick one, had I picked just one, I would not be able to relate in the way that I'm able to relate today.

speaker-1: Right now, there's lots of talk about mental health, especially in the black community, which used to be taboo that I think that's really a good thing now that it's being talked about so openly at the moment. But I'm curious from your perspective with your experience in it, is there anything about how the conversation is being had that concerns you as in regards to younger people?

speaker-0: It's a really interesting era. Yes, there's been progress, but when I was speaking on it over 20 years ago, we were still talking about the same stigma, the same inability to really talk about it. And it is much better now, mostly, largely due to our openness for better and for worse on social media. People are used to now just, they don't even have to go to a therapist. They've just made social media. So, you know, like I said, for better and for worse, right? Because There's a lot of kind of trauma vomiting that's happening and it's not always healthy. What I remember in our own family, my family gives me permission to tell these stories, but I have an aunt who has bipolar disorder. And so I grew up with her and because I was studying this at the time that she was having some of her worst episodes, I was like the only one in the family that recognized it was a thing. I remember in the beginning, people just thought she's acting out. She just wants attention. And I know this happens like at the same time every year, or I would notice certain things would happen. And then two weeks later, she would have a manic episode. Today she's written a book about her experience. She speaks on it and her son, my cousin, talks about the difficulty of being a child of a bipolar parent, having to be the defender of that parent. So I'm proud today of the openness now of the discussion. What worries me is what I alluded to earlier. we are maybe mistaking vulnerability for the same thing as getting help. So just telling all of your problems doesn't necessarily help you deal with them. And I think this replacing of true relationship with our social media relationships creates a false sense of safety that I worry about. And we see this now with AI and the way that people are trusting AI with their most intimate. details and AI is just doing what it knows to do. And that use and not having the guardrails in place that I think we need is a very dangerous combination as we see the numbers of children with anxiety and social disorders, especially rise.

speaker-1: Yeah. Let's switch to politics. Because you mentioned earlier, and I did read that you are a senatorial candidate ⁓ in Texas and Houston. So how does that happen? How does the concert, the classically trained concert pianist, beauty queen, go from that to wanting to get into politics?

speaker-0: Yes. When you think about it, why not? Right? I mean, at this point, I could try astronaut next maybe, or, you know, we'll see where we go from here. But it actually for me is a very organic through thread. So the reason we asked that question you asked is because we're still, our minds are still trying to put each other. Wait a minute. I thought you were this. I thought you were that. Right. Well, if my purpose was to play the piano, then I'd be way off. able, I'd be way off, right? But if I can pick that purpose up, which is to do what? Activate audiences, individuals, humans into becoming the biggest, boldest version of themselves. That means purpose gets to come out of the 88 keys and go into a book that I'm writing, right? Because now you're going to read that book and be activated to be big and bold. gets to come with me on the pulpit. And now in your faith, you're going to be bigger and bolder. And so why not activate Texas into being the kind of state that serves more people than ever before? If Texas has been pigeonholing its service, if it's been hijacked by one major party for 30 years when 49 % of the state is actually independent and extraordinarily diverse, but it's only being represented by one voice in both of the Senate seats, that's not activation. And so for me, the activator in me says something here is not being as big, bold. ⁓ and fully impactful as it can be. Could I play a role in unlocking and unleashing what I believe needs to be created? And so what we've been saying in this campaign, and I should mention, I'm running in Texas for US Senate as an independent candidate.

speaker-1: That's my other question, why? Why are you an independent? Were you always an independent? Okay.

speaker-0: I've always been independent. Voting record would show that I study like it's a SAT exam before I go into the polls.

speaker-1: Sorry to interrupt. So when you first were going to register to vote, you registered immediately as an independent or did it come later? What was that journey?

speaker-0: my voting experience as an 18 year old, my parents are Democrats or were Democrats, right? My dad's a civil rights activist. So for him, that was, you could only be blue. And he wouldn't even describe it that way because he's anti-establishment as a civil rights activist. He were going to vote. was going to be for the party that he felt was going to fight racism, period, point blank. So if he smelled racism on the other side, that was never going to be his party. Right. My mother and both my parents are believers, but my mother is who really ingrained my faith in me. She played in the church. I was always at church with her. My dad's always protesting on the streets. I grew up with a very faith-filled mother and a civil rights activist father. I had a mom who worked at the Citadel Military College in Charleston, South Carolina, which has been controversial over the years for flying the Confederate flag and playing Dixie. My father would protest outside of the Citadel Military College.

speaker-1: You work. Bye.

speaker-0: The Confederate, so this was my life, right? And so where my father would challenge me is if I saw wrong, I must speak out against it. He would also grill me on things like, you know what's going on in the Middle East right now? That was important to him that we were aware of what was happening in the world. My mom was like, are you hearing from God? Are you following your path? Are you following your purpose? So the two things are going to make sure that you are following a path somewhere. That path is probably going to lead to a place that should be about more than you. So that's where we get to this world of public service independent right now. And I have been approached by both sides in the past, right? As a black female Christian, it's very tantalizing to Republicans here in Texas. As a black female daughter of a civil rights activist, very tantalizing to Democrats. I do not feel fully represented by either side right now. And also it bothers me.

speaker-1: Of course. of course.

speaker-0: that the camps have become so enclosed that let's say you feel more strongly to the right or to the left, but you agree with the other side on one thing. ⁓ you're kicked out. It's, there's no room for.

speaker-1: Independence.

speaker-0: But we've been saying it's time for a new sound. And that's what I'm looking to bring to Texas politics. And we're excited because more people than ever before are saying, this is actually how I feel, but I've never had an independent option on the ballot to vote for. And that's the heavy lift here is getting on the ballot as an independent.

speaker-1: talk about that in a second because I want to talk in details about your platform too. But before I say that, I'll just say, I'm an independent too.

speaker-0: Okay, okay, you get it then, you get it.

speaker-1: Of course, I was always asking from that perspective, but I remember when I became independent, I was never a Democrat. I never registered as a Democrat, not because of anything other than, so I'm originally born and raised in the Caribbean, in the islands from St. Thomas to Virgin Islands. And ⁓ I was taught a different, I was taught history and schooling a different way than how it's actually taught in the mainland in the United States. went to private school. So I saw the Democratic party in a very negative way because historically they were. They were the ones responsible for Jim Crow and separate but equal and all this sort of thing. I learned, so I learned about it in books and theories. So when I came to the United States, I didn't come till it was time to go to university. Okay. I was looking around like the time, okay, now I can register to vote. How should I register to vote with somebody I looked up to was General Powell, the late General Powell, who was a black man from the Caribbean come to the U S. went to school, made something of his life. So I thought, okay, that's me. I don't know anything about politics, but I'm black. I'm from the Caribbean. I'm going to school. I'm trying to make something of my life. So I guess I'll register as a Republican because that's what General Powell did. I never voted. I didn't vote when I first in the nineties. I didn't vote for Bush, the first Bush. I didn't vote for Clinton either. didn't vote. I'm fully transparent. I didn't vote till 2000. That was the first time. And I did vote for George Bush because Al Gore rubbed me the wrong way in one of the debates. just remember him seeming very elitist and condescending and entitled, not knowing anything about politics. just thought, I'm not for that guy. So I voted for George. And then George lost me when we went into Iraq. My little brother was in the military. didn't support that. I just didn't support the theory. And I felt bad that General Powell was put in the position he was put in. that's when I became an independent. So that's when I became an independent. So I was never a Democrat per se. I only voted once when I was registered as a Republican. And then immediately once we went into Iraq, I became independent because I wanted to be able to support whomever, regardless of where, it's a good idea, I want to be able to put my support behind it or whatnot. So I say all that to say, We had an interesting time in the 90s with an independent, Ross Perot, that ran for president. And he made it such a dent, and I look this up because I'm a big reader of history and whatnot, they made it even more difficult after he made that dent in the system for independents. And that long windup is to the question I want to ask you, how difficult is it for you as an independent to even get on the ballot? in Texas. What are some of the challenges that you're facing and how can people in Texas in the Houston area obviously or wherever if it's on all of Texas? it's statewide. Okay, how can they if they if what you're saying resonates with them and they want to support an independent, how can they help to get you on the ballot?

speaker-0: It is a- Yes. So it is designed to be impossible. It's literally designed to be impossible. And Ross Perot is both the role model and the culprit. So when he made it on that debate stage, this was the problem. His poll numbers skyrocketed after that debate. That's when both parties realized we have a problem here. And so they actually signed an agreement. that keeps third party or independent presidential candidates out of the debate. Right? who have signed this, they worked. So I always say it's really one party guys. It's not really two parties, but they agree on that. What is it? enemy? We want the devil that you can see, right? The devil. No. And so what's wild is both parties understand that the independent will usually be the most attractive because they won't look like what everyone has seen before. Ross had the advantage of being a billionaire so he could pay for the coverage he needed. So Texas sets a very high bar, one of the highest bars in the nation in terms of getting on the ballot. We have to gather 81,000 signatures by June 25th. Now you say, you could have started in September and you'd be fine. They don't allow you to start.

speaker-1: you till March. Read that. ⁓

speaker-0: window until March, which is the day after the primaries. Now here's the thing. The people who can sign your signatures, not everybody. You must be a registered voter. Okay. And get this. You can't have voted in the primary. See what they did there. They make you wait until. Well, because they, I mean, they want to make sure that they at least take 3 million options from you that would have voted. Right. And so the people who vote in the primary.

speaker-1: You will be independent.

speaker-0: Many of them are strongly connected with party, but many of them aren't. They're just doing their civic duty and voting and they would surely sign for an independent because they love to have another option and they now can't do that. So we have to get our signatures now from the rest of Texas. Good news is about 15 million voters come out for the November election. So only 3 million of them were at the primaries. We've still got a lot of people to pull from. The 81,000 signatures is already a big deal if it had been March to June 20th. What they didn't say is if there's a runoff, we have to wait until after the runoff. And sure enough, Republicans are going to run off, which is when? May 26th. So we have one month, 30 days to gather 81,000 valid signatures, which really we will gather about 130,000 to be on the safe side because they will look for any way to throw out about 20 % of those signatures. And so what we're doing right now where people can really help. There's two ways you can go to my website, jadesimmonsforsenate.com, and you'll see something called Road to the Ballot. And there is where you can pledge to sign for me in advance. So that way we can find you come May 27th. The other way we really need the support is in being the people who go out and help us gather the signatures. So we right now have a team that's scaling volunteers all across the state. And on May 27th, it's like they'll be deployed. to go out and grab these signatures in all the major metro areas will also be in rural areas. I can't give you all my tricks of the trade right now because we literally have to move in this way that's almost like an Ocean's Eleven operation.

speaker-1: incognito. Get out there, not shine too bright a light so they don't come after you. I get it completely.

speaker-0: As people are saying, well, why aren't you out in the media? And part of that is because the media will refuse to cover an independent for quite a while until they have to. But the other reason is we want to just have the infrastructure so that when the time comes and you can't be denied, they won't be able to kind of shoot us down out of existence. So here's the thing. I've already alluded to it before. I love a good challenge. We absolutely believe we're going to be able to do this. The apparatus we're building. is designed to do it. And so here's what drives me. People ask, what are you, how are you going to do this? Why are you doing this? This is impossible. We love hearing someone say it's impossible. AI even tried to convince me. This is a heavy lift and it speaks. Remember AI can only speak from the content that currently exists. So I realized, wait a minute, AI is pulling from all the previous statements of why this is impossible. So I had to tell AI off. And I said, listen, chat. You're not remembering who I am. You're not remembering my profile. I'm not a career politician. I've got all these different parts of my profile that we can benefit from artist, minister, speaker. You've got all these things to play with chat. You're forgetting just because it hasn't been done doesn't mean it can't be done. So I need you now to think only in terms of what's possible. Use the Mac that you have, use the timeline and use my profile. Suddenly AI was inspired. And so what I've been telling people is you even have to inspire AI to see what's possible because it can only tell you what's been done. And so my team and I, it's a heavy lift. It's daunting, but it is doable. And we love even the math of the win. You know, the hardest thing for the independent is not just getting on the ballot. It's people saying, look, we actually love you, but can you win? When you think about the winning in Texas, you go, well, you've got to win 51 % of the vote. No, you don't. not in a three-way race. So three-way race, the percentage is much lower than we need. And the truth is, the electorate that is uncommitted is much larger than red and blue put together.

speaker-1: Speaking of that, you know, the current president, he said something that's actually true. The system is rigged. And it really is rigged. Because you've got the Democrats and the Republicans, they've got the system rigged to prevent someone like you from even participating in the system. you know, if there's somebody that's out there with unlimited money like Ross Perot did, I think this should be legally challenged constitutionally. Because, for example, in the last election, the president got 77 million votes. The VP got 75 million votes, but I'm in the group that we said none of the above and it's 89 million. So almost 90 million people are being disenfranchised. That can't be constitutionally right. So the majority is actually saying, we don't want either one of you. The majority. when people...

speaker-0: And you think about the poor fathers, right, who didn't want factions. In a way, we could argue that red and blue are the factions.

speaker-1: And they're factions. Yeah, it should be open. in a sense, we're being disenfranchised. When people talk about, there's a mandate and it was the majority of the people, I'm like, no, it wasn't. The majority of us said we didn't want either one of them. And we didn't have another option. So we just wrote in people or we just voted in the local election, which is what I did. I just voted in my local elections for my senator and congressman because I was looking at both going, know, both are going to be bad in different ways. That was my-

speaker-0: He's my husband. My husband was the same.

speaker-1: Yeah, but let's talk specifics for a bit, your platform. You're an independent, so I'm curious. let's talk about some of the hot button things so people know where you stand. So let's talk about immigration. So obviously one of the hot button things and depending on where you are on that, where are you when it comes to immigration? You're the senator for Texas now. What's your solution to the current problem? What's your view on it?

speaker-0: think what's important is admitting that there's a problem. There's definitely a problem in terms of how we handle immigration, but that's been since we've been having immigration. And for whatever reason, we've never gotten around to quite fixing those problems. And the reason I believe that is because it is a hot button issue and it drives elections and it drives voters to the polls. And so you'll hear me talk a lot about one, two things can be true. So you can be in need of immigration reform. And also say the way this current administration is using ICE is absolutely wrong, absolutely despicable. So I like to say, and I know my campaign handlers aren't a big fan of it, but I believe that ICE should be frozen long enough to fix what's broken. You can't have 47 days of training. Listen, if you are pro law enforcement, if you are pro ICE, you should be more concerned about the way that we are deploying ICE right now than the people who are anti-ICE. Because where we're headed. You're going to have heads of cartels. These guys are going to be looking out for ICE guys at this point. You're going to have people who are feeling some type of way in terms of Vendetta, and it's going to become dangerous for ICE ⁓ workers to be out in the field as it is now. But I think also we have to say, where are the criminals and the drug cartel heads we were promised? We're not seeing that. And I believe that is because if I had 47 days of training, I'm not facing down the head of a cartel either. I think I'm...

speaker-1: I don't even know how to recognize them. you did see-

speaker-0: I mean, if you did, you'd walk the other way. Those guys are no joke. Those guys are no joke. And I think we're lying to ourselves if we think that this current ICE force is capable of actually hunting down the bad guys we need to hunt down. That being said, we need to hunt the bad guys down. I would love to see more drug lords and drug cartel heads being taken into custody. But I don't believe that's where the focus is. in, as a result, we are watching innocent people being caught in the crossfire. That can't be what immigration looks like in the United

speaker-1: But what's the other side of it? All of a sudden, you're part of the president's cabinet and you're able to advise him. What would be one of the solutions you would make on fixing the immigration policy? Not on the ICE thing. That's a separate issue. It's part of it, but it's a separate issue. That's enforcement. But we can all agree that our current immigration system in America does not work. What would be three suggestions that you would give to president on how to fix it?

speaker-0: It doesn't. Well, I am pro dreamer. So I don't believe that we stopped that program where it is. I don't believe that we suddenly revoke the status of children and young adults who were born here. think that that's cool. I think what we have to do moving forward is fix the problems where when I've been in the system now and it's been seven years for me to get my citizenship. But if I'm Rupert Murdoch, it takes me 24 hours. We got a problem there. So what you just told me is. This is actually fixable, but we're only using it for the people who can pay. And we're not using that system that is more efficient for the people who can't. I have a real problem with the educational flight, intellectual flight that we're seeing right now because of the immigration issues. So you have people who are not coming here and working in our companies. We are losing serious intellectual capital. So I want to make sure we're still incentivizing people to come to this nation. to provide the intellectual capital we need, or we're going to be further behind where technology is concerned, further aligned where artificial intelligence is concerned, and further behind in national security, which is increasingly digitally, you know, innovated. So if we're losing people on that front, we're damaging the country in the long run, just to look like we're getting rid of the bad people. So I would really want to focus on the system that people are already going through. that's the legal process, why is it taking so long? Where are the inefficiencies? That right there, I think would be a huge boom to the economy and to the system itself to see people who have been waiting. At my church, have people who have been trying to become legal for almost 10 years, have spent thousands of dollars either being scammed or just in lawyers fees. Those are the things we need to look at because that woman that I'm thinking of, If I swear to encounter her, her and her five kids, they could take her and ship her back to El Salvador today. And that's not who needs to be getting shipped back.

speaker-1: Would you agree that immigration under the Biden administration just took a turn for the worse?

speaker-0: I think immigration has been about the same for the last four presidencies, and that's been Republican and Democrats. I don't think we are incentivized to pick, to really fix the problem until it's an election year and then it's a talking point.

speaker-1: And then it's a fix, it's just a talking point of that.

speaker-0: And this is how I feel the parties also court different demographics during election year. And if Republicans were honest about the things they said they elected Donald Trump for, they would realize those things are happening. If the people who are voting Democrat would also be honest, they would say, wow, these things are, they're really in the news right around midterms. But then I don't see any progress afterwards.

speaker-1: No No debates. No bills.

speaker-0: It's our fault though, because when we align so tightly behind party lines, what we've done is we've created a sense of entitlement to these politicians. I don't actually have to serve you because where are you going to go? You're not going to go blue. You're not going to go red. So I get you riled up on the hot button issues and then I go do whatever else I want to do. And I become a career politician and now I'm more interested in preserving the power and I've caught beltway fever. And I kind of like it here in DC and I don't even go back to my constituency anymore. These are the things that independence, if you think independently, even if you are Democrat or Republican, just can we think freely enough to, like you said, vote based on the issue at hand, the good ideas, and really look at people's track records and see if they're prioritizing people over political fighting.

speaker-1: Let's switch to tax policy. What's your position on tax policy?

speaker-0: Well, I would love to have whoever's doing Donald Trump's taxes because whatever policy he's working off of is the one that I need. I do not believe that we should randomly tax billionaires 10 % of their income. Why is that? I one day plan to be a billionaire. That's my dream. And I know that you can trust me as a billionaire. Why? Because you can trust me as I've been a millionaire and you could trust me when I was a thousandaire. I was always going to give part of my income, according to my tax accountant, a lot of my income back to people who need it, who need help. Instead of demonizing billionaires, I wonder what it would look like to focus on incentivizing and energizing the ones who do have a heart for people and a heart for service. Maybe that sounds naive, but I know that they exist.

speaker-1: about a flat tax like the flat percentage for everybody. So regardless of whether you're a billionaire or a thousand like we are, it's 10%. No tax deductions, no loopholes. Bye bye. Everybody pays.

speaker-0: It sounds, but if I am making below the poverty line, that 10 % is a lot different than my 10%.

speaker-1: But then it would be fair. Because if I'm making a thousand dollars and I give up a hundred and you're making a million and give up a hundred thousand, it's a fair ratio.

speaker-0: But you could argue that it wouldn't be just I'm not I'm not immediately against the flat text because at least on paper You can't argue with it, but on paper

speaker-1: I get what you're saying. In real life, if I'm making $1,000, that $100 more to me than somebody making $100,000 giving up $10,000 or a million giving up

speaker-0: $200 means a lot. Here, when my business is up year, you know, we had a banner year in 2022 and we had a million dollar surplus in the business. We were spending money like crazy because it was end of the year and tax time was coming. That was a great problem to have. To go from that to 2025 having one of our toughest years, we were getting rid of platforms that only cost $300 a month.

speaker-1: But it makes a difference.

speaker-0: When we were up, when we were up, wasn't a big deal. We probably had things we were paying for that we weren't using. so the way that I tell voters, I vote. I tend to vote for people who can't do the things that I can do, even if the government doesn't do it. Right? So right now gas prices are awful. I'm used to putting $75 in my tank. The other day it was 95. And I thought, well, this is... outrageous and I continued to fill my tank. There are people that I know who go, okay, well.

speaker-1: $20.00. $20.06. That's it.

speaker-0: And I'm going to get me down the street. So I try to not take a boot, even if I take a bootstraps mentality, my own life, pull myself up. We're going to figure this out. Me and my husband got this. We're going to pay for our kids college. We're going to figure it out. I know that there are certain things I'm able to do that others can't. Now that others strive. Yes. I believe in work. I believe in the power of purpose. I want to see welfare reform because I believe it's done more harm, especially to African-Americans than it has done good. ⁓ in terms of mindset, in terms of possibility, the idea that you have to stay under a certain income to have certain benefits. There's no way to upwardly be mobile with that. Stifles, and I've seen families teach down to the next generation, here's how you use the system. And I would rather it be that the system allows you to grow.

speaker-1: It fools aspiration.

speaker-0: and rewards that growth, doesn't punish the growth. So that's the kind of reform I would want to see. I don't believe you just take snap out of the mouths of schoolchildren. You don't do that. But that doesn't mean you don't make reform and you don't plan.

speaker-1: Because there are abuses in the system and I've seen some, it pisses me off when I see it because they're making it bad for the people who legitimately need help. ⁓

speaker-0: I always want to say the numbers are not anywhere near. The grift is not as big as the need is.

speaker-1: It's just loud. It's just the loudest because it's sensational. Now let's switch for the last thing before we talk about what you've got going on. The most controversial for most people, a woman's right to choose. Where are you there?

speaker-0: I believe so powerfully in the importance and the sanctity of life. I do believe that abortion in and of itself is a stain on our world, 60 million unbirthed purposes. That being said, I'm in Texas, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation. And I think it's an equal travesty to put a woman in jail for an abortion, to put a doctor in jail for an abortion. But I do believe as a proponent of life, call myself pro-human and we need to be concerned about life from the womb to the tomb is how I put it. So don't tell me about wanting a woman to have a child and then taking away SNAP benefits. There's no congruency there. So you will see me not out here stumping for abortion, although I do believe that a woman in the most gut-wrenching situation of rape incest or having to decide whether she will live or not through her birth needs to be able to have the right to make that decision. I would like to believe that if those things happen to me, I would still choose life. But that's on me. I'm going to pull from my faith. I'm going to pull from my family. And I'm going to maybe be able to muscle through the unthinkable. I can't assume everyone else is going to be able to do that. So I've got to leave that choice on the table for them. What you will hear me talking about on the trail though, is being a proponent of life in terms of, I would love to see the numbers of abortions decreased, but I believe that this is a heart and mind's issue. I believe it's a resources issue. I don't believe you can legislate a woman to decide for life. I believe they have to be inspired, motivated and supported through it. You'll also hear me talking a lot about maternal health, especially black maternal health. Black women died at disproportionate rate. on the birthing table. So you'll see a lot of my energy going towards advocating for women who do want to have children and have been unable to have them. You'll see me advocating for improvements and reform in the foster care system and in the adoption industry, because people are waiting to take care of children that are being kept in the system far too long and families are being put on hold too long. And I think women who do go through with unwanted pregnancies need to be supported in uncommon ways. And so I would be against abortion in the late term. And like I said, I'm not going to be the best advocate for the practice of abortion, but I do believe that we shouldn't criminalize it. I also believe that if I'm a doctor who, for religious reasons, doesn't want to perform one, I shouldn't be forced to perform one. So I believe we have to have... And then we can talk about things like a life-threatening emergency situation, someone comes in. And I would hope that hospitals are staffed enough to have someone who's okay with performing an abortion to perform it.

speaker-1: If I may, it sounds like you would have a hard time voting on an abortion bill.

speaker-0: I would not have a hard time if it was about, let's say if it were a late term abortion bill and they were wanting to make sure that we kept late term, I could vote against that very easily. If it were a bill saying, let's put women in jail if they have an abortion after a certain amount of time or let's put a doctor in jail performs an abortion, I'd vote against that.

speaker-1: So it'd be hard to vote because those things are all sometimes intertwined with all these different bills. ⁓ That's what I meant when I said hard time voting because those things are in those bills. They're not separating them. Like in Texas, it's not separated.

speaker-0: Rich leads each team. is the problem. So one of the things you hear me actually advocating in terms of the legal process is this gotcha. It feels that these things should be unbundled. They should be unstacked so that we can vote issue by issue. The reason they don't is so that you can force the other side's hand. Which means what you're doing is you again are prioritizing political gamesmanship over people.

speaker-1: one or the other. real issue.

speaker-0: People really do feel people have more in common than we're allowed to look like we do because of these big mega bills. There are parts of these bills that many of us would go, of course I agree to that, like the SAVE Act, right? We should definitely have ID, right?

speaker-1: Of course. Yeah, but we'll get to that in a minute, but ⁓ take off the political hat for a moment and put on a minister hat. Minister me. I'm a man, obviously.

speaker-0: That's.

speaker-1: In regards to abortion, don't, I'm not for it, but I don't think I, as a male, have the right to tell a woman what she should, should, over her physical being, especially in regards to whatever her personal religious beliefs or non-religious beliefs are. I believe in personal sovereignty and what can be more personal than my physical being. And the way I flip it is I would be like aghast if Jade as a woman tells me something that has to do with being male that I can't and can't do. So in thinking like that, how dare I tell Jade as a woman, you're not allowed to do this, whether I agree with it or not. I don't agree with it. I'm pro-life. But I don't agree that that gives me the power to say I'm pro-life and you don't get to do this. Minister to me.

speaker-0: I that. And I think when you talk about personal sovereignty, I look at the fact that we have been given free will for better and for worse. often wonder, God, why don't you just come down here and just stop the war or just stop? And I sit back and see, he is letting us do this thing, letting us figure this thing out. And so I agree with you in terms of if God gives us the right... to make choices, then we do the same for each other. That being said, I don't actually see it from the male and female perspective. Because through the things that I do take issue with, whenever we begin, whenever one demographic begins to get more rights, I do not believe that it should automatically mean another demographic gets less. And so I would love to see more conversation between the man and the woman. made the child in the first place. Something a little bit off about me being a father who might want a child and you being my mate who doesn't have no say. know that there's a very strong movement that says you darn right, he gets no say, it's my body. But I guess maybe, maybe this is as a married woman. I take issue with suddenly.

speaker-1: Agreed.

speaker-0: He has no say. Now does that mean when it comes time to child support and you decide to have the baby and he didn't want the baby, does he get to say, didn't have a say?

speaker-1: He didn't just brought that up. Dave Chappelle talked about it. He said, if you could kill him, I can abandon him. He makes it a joke, but it's the truth.

speaker-0: All the time is be careful of the precedent you set. Whatever group is in office, they are setting precedents and they think they're getting their way. But when the next power that becomes in, they get to do the same thing, probably in the exact opposite direction. And so I'm mindful. That's why I say about the doctors where abortion is concerned. It pains me when I see signs and there are young doctors. coming out of med school and they're like, I'm a proud abortion provider. I know what they mean, right? I know what they mean by that. But I'd rather it just be, I proudly support my, because I don't know how we can't all say, whether we got to say it quietly or not, abortion is not the outcome we should want.

speaker-1: Women's Health. Yeah, it should be birth control.

speaker-0: Well, but I'm just saying like, even if you're Planned Parenthood, the name should mean you want to see the numbers of abortions reduced because now you're helping people plan for Parenthood. And the fact that we can know, this is what I mean. I could never be a Democrat because I'm not allowed to say the things that

speaker-1: Exactly, you have to tell the line.

speaker-0: and because I didn't want to throw the doctor in jail. And as a person of faith, if we're talking about mercy and forgiveness, and at the end of the day, if we actually care about salvation and people coming to know the Lord, if this is what you're preaching, I shouldn't wish anyone death. I shouldn't wish anyone hell. I shouldn't wish them to be thrown away. I should now want to embrace you even more.

speaker-1: or ill will or

speaker-0: And so I'm a minister. You, don't think I've quoted any scripture or in time. And I love scripture. It's my guiding light, but you also won't see me quoting a lot of it on the trail, not because I'm ashamed of it, but because I believe that it's been used performatively. I would rather you see me behave towards people in a way that if you know who Christ is, you go, wow, that's. She's living it. She's living it. That's my hope.

speaker-1: He's living the scriptures.

speaker-0: And so I try to say, remember the old knees bracelets, WWJD, like what would Jesus do? think I try to say if there's a woman in front of me who's had an abortion, no matter how she feels about it, how do, how do I treat her? What does, what does the love of God look like towards her? Yes, that might be speaking a truth that he or she doesn't like in a conversation where political issues are concerned, but can I speak it from a place of love, from a place of truth, from a place of honesty? And then as I make decisions, I don't want you to fear me because I read the Bible. I want you to say, you know what? I don't agree with everything she says, but I trust that her character is going to cause her to make a decision that at she believes in her heart is going to be best for as many people possible. So I want to see redemption and restoration. know women who have, they will say suffered an abortion and are still recovering from it. know women who chose it willingly now regret it. And I know women who say that's the only choice I knew to make, you know, but I might choose differently now. And I think we have room under the umbrella.

speaker-1: Those different choices, yeah. Jay, before we wrap up, I want to talk about what you've got coming up this weekend. I read online that you've got a speech coming up at one of the churches or your church. Yeah, let's talk about that. Tell me about that.

speaker-0: You know, as a part of the campaign, we've been doing this kind of initiative called Serve All the Way to the Senate. So I'm in places that you might not always expect a politician to be. We've been doing food banks and listening parties. This Sunday, I've been invited to speak at a prayer luncheon, but the day before I'm going to prison. Actually going to Dallas to be a part of the prison entrepreneurship program. Founder Mike Etchison has created what he described as like a shark tank.

speaker-1: Okay.

speaker-0: for incarcerated men and when they get out, they are able to build this business into fruition and have support and have funding. And a lot of what we're doing is an initiative around what we call the least of these. So all the people that don't even get lip service during campaign time, they're not even worth election talk.

speaker-1: because they can't even vote, right?

speaker-0: So we believe leadership should not be transactional. What would it look like to serve people even before we won and to serve those who can't serve us back with a vote or a donation? political strategists think I'm out of my mind, but I believe this is the other way to win on the way to winning. So I'll be in prison on Friday, but on Saturday I'll be at a prayer luncheon.

speaker-1: Friday. Where's the prayer luncheon? Where is it?

speaker-0: It's actually a private event, it's already, it's spoke out. And then I also speak fairly regularly at my home church, Inspire Church of Houston. And I'll be doing that come May right before it's time to petition. Because we want to make sure everybody knows that we're here and that we're here to give Texas a fresh new option like never before. So we're excited.

speaker-1: Perfect. I'd love to have you back on right after the election time so we can talk about what happened, good or bad, and get your impressions on that. But for today, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much, Jade. It was a pleasure talking to you this afternoon. All right. Take care. You too.

speaker-0: Thank you for the time.

speaker-1: the story

speaker-0: you

speaker-1: I'm stoned

speaker-0: you