2026 Eastside Candidate Forum Preview with Jasmine Kaltenbach

In this episode, Donna and Sam sat down with Organizer and Labor Policy Expert, Jasmine Kaltenbach to discuss the upcoming 2026 Eastside Candidate Forum.

The Eastside Candidate Forum , held in partnership with SEIU Michigan, takes place on July 18th, ahead of the 2026 Michigan U.S. House, State House, and State Senate elections.

At the forum, residents will have the chance to learn where candidates stand on community priorities, local policy, and issues shaping Detroit’s Eastside.

To stay up to date on all things Authentically Detroit and register for the forum, click here. 

THIS WEEK IN THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE:

HOW THE OBAMAS ARE MOTIVATING BLACK VOTERS IN MICHIGAN'S U.S. SENATE RACE

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Up next, Authentically Detroit welcomes organizer and labor policy expert Jasmine Kaltenbach to discuss the upcoming East Side Candidate Forum, co-hosted by Authentically Detroit, SEIU Michigan, and the Home Rule Project. And of course, what we're reading from the Michigan Chronicle. Abdul Al Sayyed and Haley Stevens. They're targeting black voters in Michigan's Democratic U.S. Senate primary race. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts right after these messages.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

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SPEAKER_05 1:27

What's up, Detroit? Welcome to another episode of Authentical Detroit. We're broadcasting live from Detroit's East Side at the Staddenmeyer inside of the East Side Community Network. I'm Sam Robinson.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:36

And I'm Donna Givens Davidson.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

We want to thank you all for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people here in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. Today, we have a very special guest, organizer and labor policy expert, Jasmine Kaltenbach, here to discuss the upcoming Eastside Candidate Forum. It's co-hosted by Authentical Detroit, SCIU Michigan, and the Home Rule Project. Jasmine is a labor policy expert organizer. She leads a community labor initiative, the Home Rule Project Michigan, which educates workers and community members on laws that block local organizing. She sits on the alumni board of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She lives on the east side of Detroit, as do all of we. I rode my bike here today. It is hot, but apparently on Tuesday, that's tomorrow. It's going to be even hotter over 100 degrees. Jasmine, are you staying cool?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

I am with my window AC unit.

SPEAKER_05 2:31

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Doors closed every night.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

Yeah, me too. I got my unit pumping. Um a couple weeks ago when it was 90, or was that last week? It was like 90. It was like it was so bad. Um, I was scurrying down to my basement a lot of that. I, you know, kind of wonder, should I just put my mattress in my basement tonight, tomorrow? I I don't know. Uh but we want to talk about uh this US Senate race that I went absolutely viral over the weekend. You saw my Twitter all over on television networks and Twitch streams like Hassan Biker. Um the African World Festival was a great place to talk to Haley Stevens voters. Uh the attendees skew older. And there's a narrative that is becoming sort of, you know, this this reality that older black voters are going to split for Haley Stevens, and younger black voters are gonna split for Abdul Al-Sayed. Sort of similar dynamics to what we saw in New York's Merrill race with uh Andrew Cuomo and Zoran Memdani. Uh, of course, uh the Twitter just it went crazy. I mean, you saw some of the some of the commentary. Um, you had all the biggest names in politics Twitter above that tweet of DW and uh Donna was her name, uh, coincidentally enough. I told her to go listen to our podcast. Uh they told me that they were staunchly against the military operation happening uh by the Israeli government. Uh that said that they were not pro-Netanyahu, said they're not anti-Israel, they're not anti-Jewish. Um, however, they they really had a lot to say about what was happening in Lebanon, Iran, and in Gaza, Palestine. And so you'd think somebody like that would be a shoe-in for Abdul al-Sayed, right? No. They told me that they're voting for Haley Stevens because they've seen ads on TV that suggest that Obama is behind her campaign. Now, Obama did endorse Haley Stevens in 2018 in a in a general election race. Uh, that was when she first got to Congress. Um, Obama has not weighed in to this race. Uh, when you see mailers that say uh, you know, Obama, uh, you know, Haley Stevens was there with Obama during the auto bailout. Now that is true. Obama has said, Barack Obama has said nice things about Haley Stevens, but not in the context of this 2026 Democratic primary race for the opening U.S. Senate seat, which is being vacated by Gary Peters. Today, Monday, Gary Peters actually endorsed um Haley Stevens. And so it does seem like uh, you know, it's a clear uh uh race in terms of the establishment is fully behind Haley and the progressive grassroots is entirely behind Abdul.

Donna Givens Davidson 5:34

Right. I mean, I think that if you look at the history of how um traditional black voters have turned out in democratic elections, they usually go with the establishment name. Um, and sometimes that's not true. I remember when um Barack Obama was running for president and he did not necessarily catch on with black voters for a while. Um, and you know, it's gonna be interesting to really evaluate what that looks like. But in New York, you saw Mandami not really getting black voter support of a certain generation until after um he won the primary. Um I'm not surprised by it. I don't know if you remember when Joe Biden was running for president and there was a real question about whether or not he was going to be the candidate. And in South Carolina, um Jim Kleiburn threw his whole weight behind him and it turned the race for him. And so if you are a Democratic voter and you are part of that mainstream establishment base, black voters, older black voters, tend to be your safe place. Um people like the devil, they know. I know you, I know who you are, you've been into my church, I've seen what you do, and I don't necessarily trust new people. Um, but I also think that there is a targeting of ads to certain populations that disturbs me. I was talking to one person who was going to vote for Donovan McKinney, and then they read that they got a mailer that said that he um voted to strike down the minimum wage law, and they say, Oh, hold up, I need no more information. And so um there's a certain level of counting on senior citizens again to do the safe thing and vote for the person who's there. Um that concerns me. But I think that as I've said many times over, um older voters are getting older and older and making up a smaller share of the electorate, and younger voters are making up a larger share of the electorate. And so you're not gonna be able to continue doing those things and expect to continue having that success in that way. If Haley Stevens wins on that basis, and it's very possible she will, um it's probably not gonna happen for a person like her to be able to run a Barack Obama ad. And the other thing, the final thing I want to say that is running that Barack Obama ad cuts two ways because there are a number of voters who had their hopes raised and don't trust Obama and felt left down by him. And so to a certain extent, that kind of weighs against them. I said one more thing, but I do have one more thing in addition to that, one more thing. And that is um Governor Whitmer's vetoes last Friday, which I almost I almost had a traffic accident. I had my phone up here, and somehow I got a message, and I know I'm not supposed to be reading it, but it popped up and I was like, what? And almost hit something, but I um pulled over so I could actually read it and not kill anybody or myself. Um it was such a shock to see that defeat. And for some people, this was more of the same a mainstream Democrat letting us down. And so I think that you have two narratives. Do we want to go with change or do you want to stay the road? And the question is who wins? And then on top of that, you have Islamophobia layered on top of all of that.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

Yeah, I um, you know, Donna, you were at Chandler Park with Abdul Al-Syed. You spoke on his behalf, stumping for uh the progressive former Detroit and Wayne County health director. I made some news after that event. Uh, Abdul has been receiving criticism. He has not released his tax filings. Um he told me on Friday that he plans to release them this week. Uh we made some news with Haley Stevens as well at the Lightup Livernoy event on Saturday over there at the Avenue of Fashion. I talked to the representative of Birmingham, Haley Stevens. She told me inside of the Times Square suit store that uh on El Sayyed and his support of uncommitted, this is becoming a uh a huge point of discourse whether or not the uncommitted February primary protest against Joe Biden led to Connell Harris's loss. Uh I won't get into that conversation right now, but uh Haley Stevens told me on uncommitted. Who did that help? When you sat out 24, that vote is an important thing. People are entitled to use it as they see fit. But we also need courageous leaders right now. Her campaign has uh messaged uh that El Sayyed supported uncommitted. Um you hear it in our communities, right? Because it's it's been you know sort of paid to people have been putting money behind that message that Arab Muslim candidates who who backed uncommitted can't be trusted.

Donna Givens Davidson 10:41

Um and and you know what I've said is I I I voted uncommitted too. So, and then I I campaigned, I was in Romulus. I campaigned for um uh vice president Harris. You can do two things. Um, first of all, Harris was not running at the time the uncommitted uh movement started. I think people may remember that was Joe Biden who was running at that time. And what people were opposing was the genocide taking place in Gaza and the United States spending its money and trying to influence the sitting president at that time to change his foreign policy and stop funding genocide. That was the reason many of us voted uncommitted. I stand by that, I'm unapologetic for that, but I did not cause Kamala Harris to lose. I was out there campaigning with her and standing up for her. I want to be clear about something. I run East Side Community Network, I'm a podcast co-host on Authentically Detroit as a private citizen. I supported Abdul El Sayyid and I support him because I know him as a private citizen, not just as a candidate, but as a human being that I've known for 10 years. And I have been um blessed by our friendship. I think he is somebody I trust simply because I've seen what he does. He is like all candidates, imperfect. And so there's things he may or may not do exactly the way I want them, but the way that people are attacking him on messages around anti-Islamism, and you know, he doesn't like women or he's got these ties. One of my best friends in politics and somebody I grew up with from the time I was my parents, our parents were best friends, is Keith Ellison. And Keith Ellison faced those exact same attacks when he ran for office the first time as a first Muslim member of Congress. I would not sit still, I would not be okay with allowing somebody to say that against a friend of mine. And I'm really, really um loyal to my friends, right? So um he's a friend, he's somebody I support. I'm not saying vote for him because he's my friend. I'm saying vote for him if you believe what he believes in, but don't believe the mess because um we have a whole lot of dust that's being kicked in people's faces right now, and it really makes me mad. And the Obama commercial really made me angry. The first one. Now, I was actually unable to find that one on YouTube, by the way. The first one where it's all Obama speaking, and he's saying vote for her. That commercial has since been replaced with something that's a lot more subtle than that first one. Do you remember the first commercial? It was all Obama speaking, his voiceover, and you didn't hear anything else. Um that bothered me. And I actually Googled it like, is he supporting her? Because this I didn't read that, and he's not. Um, I will say this also, though his silence speaks to. I know you reached out to him, Sam, and used his office and you asked him for clarification. Did you hear anything back?

SPEAKER_05 13:39

Dave Wiegel of the Semaphore uh news organization. He used to work for the Washington Post. Uh he tweeted this afternoon that Obama's office got back to him. They didn't they did not get back to me. But um, no, he has not and he has not weighed into the race.

Donna Givens Davidson 14:00

So Obama's office got back to him and said, we have not endorsing.

SPEAKER_05 14:04

Yes. Okay. All right. Obama's office reiterates to me, and I assume others, not me though, that the former president hasn't endorsed anyone in the race. You know, I have never met Barack Obama. I will one day. But I've never met him. Yeah. We've been in the same room a few times.

Donna Givens Davidson 14:23

All right.

SPEAKER_05 14:24

Um, I want to ask you, Jasmine, what do you make of all this? Are you on Twitter seeing all this? Like, this is overwhelming. Like, my Twitter is getting like blown up, like, you know, like I was on the stream, I was on the Hassan stream. Like it really does seem like this is the nation watching us. This is bigger than Talerico and Jasmine. This is maybe not as the Grand Platinum thing, you know, unfolds. Yeah, maybe not. We're not gonna get that, but this is like capturing our generation in a way that I've never seen an election do that.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yeah, um, it's it's really shocking. Well, I felt a little bit bad for you. Um, you seem to be getting a lot of criticism for reporting words that people were saying from their mouths. Yeah, that happens.

SPEAKER_05 15:09

I mean, both both teams have been like mad at stuff that I've tweeted and said, so I just try to keep doing what I think is factual, and when information is presented to me. Like, for example, like there's a there's an ink that I need to make a public correction. Like, um, I think I had shared something that had implied that Abdul actually publicly endorsed Kamala Harris before Haley Stevens. That's not true. Haley, the day that Biden dropped and Kamala got in, yeah, shared on her social media with a number of uh union folks that she was endorsing her or that she she would insp, you know, support the Democratic ticket. Um, to point out that Obama did not weigh into the race, which you know I have to do in reporting, I'm having to do in a headline, is triggering some of the Haley Stevens supporters who are like, well, if he didn't like it, you know, him and Michelle are so obsessed with their likeness and image. If if he didn't like it, he would he would cease and desist it. And I just I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

But because he does he have a history of sending out seizes, I don't know. I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

I don't know. I don't know how much in the mud.

Donna Givens Davidson 16:26

I've never seen him do that. But what do you think money makes this all of this, Jasmine?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah, I mean, um I don't think it seemed that some people seem up in arms at the suggestion that people are influenced by ads at all.

SPEAKER_05 16:41

Yes, that's a lot and like people are saying, oh, you're you're you're saying that black people can't think for themselves because they're getting influenced by this ad. When it's just like this is how voters are influenced by paid for messages.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

That's that's ridiculous. Um, you know, one of my one of my best friends, okay, who is an attorney, went to Georgetown um and lived in um lived in the uh uh Haley Stevens Levin district and voted in that race, was influenced by Haley Stevens' ads at that time to vote for Haley Stevens, not really understanding that Levin was the more um was the more progressive candidate and was actually more in line with her values and now regrets that vote. And this is a you know highly educated, highly competent, highly intelligent woman. And so to say that, oh, and and who, by the way, is very involved in politics and is uh an activist, um, let alone we were presidents of feminism club together in high school. So um, so regardless to say that people aren't influenced by ads is a ridiculous statement. Every person is influenced by the R.

Donna Givens Davidson 17:49

Well, I mean, if if you didn't, if they weren't influenced by ads, people wouldn't spend $40 million running them. Okay. So the suggestion you're not influenced, and you know, I think it's gaslighting. I don't even like using that term that often, but I think it's gaslighting when I hear from my friends, and I have many friends, you know, who are supporting Haley Stevens saying things like, oh, this is no big deal, or you know what, he did say those things, great. We know he said those things, and we also know that he did not say those things in the context of supporting her in that race. And we also know that there are people who are watching it. So let's not play, don't, don't, don't play games with our minds. It's okay if you're happy that that she did it. That's your candidate. You're glad she came up with a way to, you know, increase her advantage. Just acknowledge that. But don't pretend like this is not done to get an advantage. And um there's ads that target people, but sometimes things feel manipulative. And I don't like it when I feel manipulated. And as a voter, I suppose I'm not really influenced by ads because every time I see an ad, I do my own homework and look things up, and I just assume they're lying, but I don't watch television either. I don't engage in the kinds of media. I see ads on like Twitter because somebody's posted them. Um but I think that you know it it just feels like there's not a lot of integrity behind it. And I I think it wouldn't it be great if people were running on issues. What is she running on? What is he running on? What are they going to do? That's all I want to know. I don't want to hear gotcha things. Well, he's got money from this person. I'm even a little bit over the APEC conversation. Because the reality is we're making APEC into the boogeyman. APEC is something that is created by the US government. This idea, you know, before APEC, the NRA was the boogeyman, or the Koch brothers were the boogeyman. It's big money. And it's how big money performs and acts in our government. And so now it's APEC, and you know, there's people who are going to blame Israel for every ill in the world and his history. It's like Israel did not exist, then, guys. This is not on Israel. And that is not to minimize the significant, singular role Israel is playing right now. But the United States does not arm Israel to be nice to Jewish people. The United States arms Israel for its own geopolitical purposes to serve as the watchdog and army in the Middle East. It arms a government for that purpose. It's a military outpost for the United States. It's a strong arm in a region where the United States lost power when you had the um the independence of Egypt, the independence of all of these places that were controlled by uh, you know, colonial powers. And then they, you know, decided they were going to control themselves. And so Israel is the one who is the ally, a military ally. APAC serves military objectives, it serves financial objectives. And, you know, even like the way that anti-Semite has been weaponized to stop, you know, any kind of conversation makes it difficult for us to have real conversations about whether it's okay to kill people, drop bombs on children in schools and aid workers and journalists and stop people from eating and all that kind of stuff. We're not talking about that. We're we're we're kind of in this proxy situation. And then I have friends who are in politics who say things like, Well, I care about what's happening in Michigan. I don't care about what's happening there. And I'm like, Well, in Michigan, we have homeless people. And if you spend as much money building beds, building homes as we're spending building and exporting bombs to other countries, maybe we wouldn't have this homeless problem. We're always dealing with austerity in our city, crumbling roads and bridges. And so how our tax dollars are used is a Michigan problem.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

But again,

Donna Givens Davidson 22:00

APEC is a boogyman. It's bigger than APEC. APEC is fronting for a whole lot of other groups right now. APEC is not the only entity that has an interest in keeping progressives out of office. They can all hide behind APEC now because, you know. Anyway.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

Well, it is a highly talked about race, and one that you're going to hear on your cable TVs for the next 25 or so days. How many days we got left? 20 something days.

Donna Givens Davidson 22:30

22, maybe. It's 23 a couple days ago.

SPEAKER_05 22:33

Yes.

Donna Givens Davidson 22:34

Um, well, you count down.

SPEAKER_05 22:36

I'm gonna keep trying to talk to voters. That's like the most valuable. It's so funny. I'm like walking around the African World Fest thinking like, wow, these are the most valuable voters in terms of like journalists across the country would kill to like talk to these people. They don't even know. Like, I talked to so many people that you know they maybe let me take their picture, but they didn't want to be on video. Obviously, the video is what you really that's like the gold, you know, ticket of um having a compelling message or being able to like represent. I talked to a number of people. You guys can go through that thread um that I made over the two days. Um one of the most interesting people, I don't know if you know him, Donna, Dennis Boatwright, he's the director of Center for Pan-African Studies in Detroit, told me that um some of the some of these politicians don't have their own ideas, so they have to use Obama. Um he was a guy that, you know, like you, is not a younger black Detroiter, but um I'm I'm I'm interested to see how many um split from from their demographic, how many young black voters are gonna go for Haley Stevens and how many older black voters are gonna go for Abdul Al-Sayed?

Donna Givens Davidson 23:52

Well, I I have great friends, and I have a wonderful timeline because my timeline is up and down Abdul Al-Sayed. I don't have too many Haley Stevens. I do have friends who are breaking for Haley Stevens, but I'm gonna tell you that there is a lot. Um, we interviewed um the man we interviewed, Dr. William Schuster, who was here last week, said, listen, I listened to my son. Now he's not black, but he said, My son turns me on to Abdul. I think that, you know, it's hard to put us in one box because I think that you're gonna have um different politics from different people. Um, my friends who are the most closely aligned with existing political leaders are breaking for Haley Stevenson. My friends who are like, hey, listen, we're not happy with the way things are breaking for Abdul. And I think it will be interesting by education, by, you know, um geography within the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan. But I do think that you are on to something that there's going to be a number of black folks who vote for Abdul simply because I mean for Haley simply because of Obama's ads.

SPEAKER_05 24:55

Yeah. Yeah, I talked to him, and uh you can watch the videos. They've been watched like millions of times at this point. It's kind of crazy the amount of discourse is happening, and it's squarely focused on the fissure between black and Arab communities.

Donna Givens Davidson 25:09

I was gonna say, there's that fissure. It's historic. There's mistrust, it's historic. I see people saying things about these Arab people want me to vote for them. I think it was another candidate who pointed out, you know, they show up on during you know, election season. Um, they show up to our communities when they want something for us, but they don't show up when they're gonna do anything for us. And that is like really trying to tap into historic long-standing mistrust. Um I think, and you know, I feel this way, in 2026, when we are appealing to bigotry to get people supported, um, is really problematic. Yeah. Um, there are some Arab people who've done things I don't like, but to stereotype an entire There's a lot of black people that do things that I don't like. Exactly. And to stereotype an entire ethnicity and say these people hate us, these people are all bad, is you know, more of what we get in our nation where we get to point fingers at other people. And I I think sometimes we are less forgiving of other ethnicities than we are of white people.

SPEAKER_05 26:22

Because I think so too.

Donna Givens Davidson 26:24

You know, we why would any black person trust Haley Stevens over Abdel El Sayed based on group behavior? There's no reason for it, there's no evidence that white women have been more supportive of black folks in Detroit than Arab men. There's just none. But again, I don't believe in stereotyping. I don't believe that's how we should move forward. And the one thing I will celebrate is that young, younger voters tend to be more into multiracial, multi-ethnic coalitions than a lot of older voters are. And I think that's what's gonna turn our world around, is when people stop being in their own little groups in their little social media. I think so too.

SPEAKER_05 27:07

I think that's why, you know, talk about all these people in their little groups. All you people in your groups need to come out and join us um on Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:15

Uh, we're gonna talk about what's going on on Saturday. We got an East Side Forum, candidate forum, legislative candidates. Uh, we're gonna take a short break. We're gonna be right back. Keep it locked, authentically Detroit.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Listen up, everyone. The 2026 Eastside Community Candidate Forum takes place at the Staudemeyer on July 18th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Join us on the 18th at this forum held in partnership with SEIU Michigan and hear directly from candidates in the U.S. House, State House, and State Senate elections about the issues shaping Detroit's East Side. This forum is the perfect opportunity for residents to ask questions about health care, development, preemption, governance, affordability, and other issues that impact our city's East Side. For more details and to register, visit authentically-detroit.com.

SPEAKER_05 28:21

Welcome back. You're listening to Authentically Detroit. We are going to talk about the East Side Candidate Forum that takes place this Saturday, July 18th, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ahead of the 2026 Michigan U.S. House State Senate primary elections, um, state house as well. At this forum uh is being held in partnership with SEIU Michigan residents, we'll hear directly from candidates about the issues shaping Detroit's East Side. We hope to unify resident voices on issues that reflect their priorities and give East Siders the opportunity to learn where candidates stand on community priorities. Jasmine, I want to ask you, uh, as somebody that just watched the most recent legislative, well, maybe not most recent, but I I understand there has been some forums for uh the district nine candidates. Uh there was a forum for the state senate district one candidates with Justin and Abe. Um we're hoping to uh not have any arguments in the parking lot. However, if candidates want to do that, they are more than welcome to uh just wait until I have a camera in front of your face.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Wait, wait till Sam is rolling and then Yeah, no. Um I mean I I didn't just I didn't just watch that debate either. I uh you know contributed to the to the planning and other things. Um yeah that And talk about that.

SPEAKER_05 29:47

I mean bring us in an inside because I know afterward there was some people that were upset and everything.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Yeah, yeah. Well, um, you know, it felt like uh like a less than collegial, you know, environment a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 30:01

This is at the love building in Core City last month building uh between Justin and Unmanu and Abraham Ayash.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Yeah, um I funny enough, due to the you know organizing responsibilities I I had at that event, I didn't watch every single moment of it. Yes. Um but um yeah, you know, it seems like uh it's it's it becomes tough when one candidate attacks another candidate, then that candidate has to respond, and it kind of just opens the can of worms to the back and forth attacks. Yeah, so that was um that was you know unfortunate to see, which is why, you know, we love to set ground rules and do candidate agreements, which we did do, but um, I guess it wasn't very effective.

Donna Givens Davidson 30:45

Well, I think it's moderators too.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Yes.

Donna Givens Davidson 30:48

Um because you know, we've done it, and we we had the mayor, mayoral form here. We had one um when all of the nine people were running for 13th congressional district a few years ago, they were here.

SPEAKER_05 31:01

Yeah, I remember that one. That was a good one.

Donna Givens Davidson 31:03

Yeah, we try to keep it focused on issues, right?

SPEAKER_05 31:07

Shout out to Camau and Dana, though. They did a good job of moderating the debate, I thought.

Donna Givens Davidson 31:11

Yeah, but you have to you have to step in. Well, you have to like cut people off.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

Like you have to say, nope, nope, nope, we're not gonna do that.

Donna Givens Davidson 31:18

Yeah, we have to cut off the mics. Let's just be really honest, okay? The mic goes off. You're not going to be allowed to continue doing that. And there's ways to do it, but um, and I'm not meaning to attack anybody. We've asked one of the things that we don't do is we don't ask different questions of different candidates because that opens the door for some of that.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Yeah.

Donna Givens Davidson 31:39

Um, same questions for everybody, and we don't even mention APAC, right? We're asking about specific policy proposals. Where do you stand on this issue? Because we're really trying to get the conversation redirected to what people will do in office and how they think and how they plan on leading. And so I'm hopeful that our forum will, you know, be the kind of forum where, regardless of whatever individual feelings we may have towards candidates, people should not know that. Right. When we are facilitating that conversation. Everybody gets equal time to speak. And, you know, if there's rules, violations, we may have to think about what happens if somebody repeatedly, you know, uh, we may just say that we're you're you're we'll skip over you.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Right. But you know, authentically Detroit listeners don't get it twisted with what you're hearing here. It will still be an interesting and fun event.

Donna Givens Davidson 32:35

Oh, oh no, no, no. Let me say this the events are really fun and they're interesting because people can really hear what people are going to do. I don't think it's fun to be in a room where people are not answering questions and just attacking each other with sound bites. Right. Um, for me, it's fun, and maybe it's just because I'm a policy wonk. I want to know what you're gonna do. I want to know what your thoughts are about these things. When I hear people trading barbs, I get frustrated because you're not getting at the answers. And I feel like a lot of candidates are trained to you ask them a question, and I'm gonna pivot to this answer, even though that's not the question you ask me. I've seen it on um Sam's um Instagram or on Twitter, I've seen it in different places where people have just decided this is what I'm gonna say. Right. But when you set it up where you're asking questions, and hopefully they're interesting questions, right? Hopefully we're saying things like, Does government have a duty to protect people from environmental harm? And if so, do you support these policies? That's the kind of stuff I want. So I think if you're coming, please come with the expectation that you're gonna learn something about where people stand and possibly even learn something about some of the issues that we go into a little bit of detail explaining so that you know, yeah. I mean, it's it's the intent is to keep it positive. We've gotten really good feedback in the past. People say this is really good. I learned a lot with the mayoral forum. I don't know if you remember when Charlie Leduff had that forum last year. Oh my goodness, it was crazy. It was um people were screaming at each other, saying terrible things. The question was, are any of these candidates even capable of being mayor? And that becomes a really bad look for Detroit because people start thinking that our leaders don't have the capacity to, you know, respond. But I feel as though, especially in that interest instance that Leduff created some of that.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Well, you know, that's the kind of personality he is, a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 34:39

But yeah, I yeah, that was manufactured, that didn't have to be that messy. Also, like he was just so biased for and against certain candidates in that whole thing. And like, first of all, fat James Dixon, like, why would he ever be anywhere? So that's my take on that.

Donna Givens Davidson 34:57

I mean, you know, so let's be positive. It's gonna be fun, it's gonna be interesting, it's gonna be a long day for us, but not everybody else. And we'll put the schedule up earlier this week so people can know when to come to see which races, because some people are not going to commit to six hours on a Saturday, right? But if you want to know when we're going to have each race, then you'll be able to pick and choose when to show up, when to leave. We will be serving lunch, we will have refreshments, and what's the lunch? It's a surprise. It's going to be soul food.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

Oh, come on down then.

Donna Givens Davidson 35:31

We will have a soul food lunch. It'll be good. Okay, it'll be tasty. I'm excited about the food. Um, so I think we're gonna have ribs and oh my gosh, chicken and sweet potatoes and greens. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 35:46

I'm gonna get before then, I'm gonna get a Chick-fil-A breakfast. Oh my goodness. And some the whole day, I'm just gonna be loaded with food and calories.

Donna Givens Davidson 35:54

So we we want people to enjoy themselves, and we'll put more about that out as well. Um, I want to thank you, Jasmine.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

No, of course. I want to thank you for um having me on the podcast, but also um for wanting to partner on this forum. I've been doing quite a few forums in Detroit, did one in Lansing, and I've found it's something that the community is really interested in. But um there's not always a lot of organizations that are willing and mostly able to devote the time and the energy, the money for the live stream, the money for the food and the thoughtfulness into um getting all these questions and all the candidates together to actually make it happen. And it's sad to see so many of these races where forums aren't happening and where the community isn't really getting to compare candidates side by side, or there's forums that aren't really publicized and people don't know about. So I've been really happy to be able to do forums in Detroit and and elsewhere to I mean, especially for these races that are gonna be, we know, decided in the primary. Yeah, you know.

Donna Givens Davidson 36:57

So, you know what we were planning on doing a forum. Yeah, didn't have um plans for how we were gonna pay for it, and then you reached out and you brought a little money, and I want to set the record straight because I'm not sure people understand that our forums are self-funded. So the funding you bring, the funding we bring, we put them together. Candidates do not pay. Oh, of course. This is not financed by anybody outside of our organization and yours. Can you talk about your organization?

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Yeah, I'd love to. So I work for the Home Rule Project. We are a nonprofit that focuses on educating and empowering community members to make decisions in their own lives and also um to influence and have democratic say over, especially their own local governments. So um, not as many people know about this, but uh the Michigan State Legislature throughout the years has taken a lot of power away from local governments, emergency management obviously being the number one blaring red example of that. But there's also a lot of other things, you know, whether it's local housing laws, plastic ban, ban, um, plastic bat, plastic ban bans, um, local tobacco laws, um taxation. Taxation. Um, and then important to a lot of the SCIU members that I work with, local control and any union member, um, anyone working um and and struggling to make it local control over labor laws and labor standards, and particularly particularly in a city like Detroit, where so much economic development happens. Um it's uh because of state law that the city has all this power to give money away and less power because it was taken away by the state to actually hold these developers accountable as compared to other cities in America. So um, you know, it's a good campaign question.

Donna Givens Davidson 38:48

Spread the awareness. Well, that's a good campaign question. I I I I'm in asking it, adding it in my mind because it's so important for us to really think. Even when you look at the tax foreclosure law, the tax forclosure, property tax for closure law, the terms are dictated by the state. Right. And then local municipalities carry it out. But you know, that's problematic in so many ways. I think it's important for us to look at the way the state sometimes handcuffs the cities to sort of neoliberal policies. So in those instances, I say that's bad. However, I wish states had rules around environmental protections that had teeth. I wish there were federal rules around environmental protections that had teeth. And so while I'm not in favor of you know, the one thing, and that is taking about taking away power for local governments to make decisions, I do know that local rule has also been used to justify uh school discrimination, right? Um, you know, separate but equal, all of that. And sometimes the federal and or state governments have to step in to enforce civil rights. And so how do you balance the whole need for protecting people and civil rights and sometimes even protecting our natural resources?

SPEAKER_02 40:08

Yeah.

Donna Givens Davidson 40:08

How do you balance that against the need for people to have a say over day-to-day?

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Yeah, that's that's a question that really goes to the heart of the issue. Um and there's a conversation that's being had about this nationally. I mean, data centers are one example of that, right? If a township wants to approve data centers, um, you know, who are we to say that they can or can't do that? I think um where where this is happening national happening nationally, where people are coming down on it, and where to draw that line is um it they call it um abusive preemption. So preemption, think prevention when the state is preventing local governments from doing what they um would like to do. Um we're not in favor, and I don't think I don't think many people are in favor of complete um local control over every single solitary issue. You shouldn't have local control to hurt your neighbor, to hurt your community, to hurt your state. Um, to but um if you want to set standards at the local level that are higher than the state, if you want to set standards at the state level that are higher than the federal government, um there should be a level of uh leeway given to people, especially if there's strong local organizing and strong local movements to do things like that.

Donna Givens Davidson 41:27

Completely agree. Yeah. I just think that it's an interesting conundrum that we find ourselves in because some of us are like pressing for more federal oversight over some things. Right. But it feels as though what we want is our government to be more impactful in fighting for rights and protections.

SPEAKER_05 41:45

Jasmine.

Donna Givens Davidson 41:46

And what are a lot of what's happening at the state level is our government protecting corporate interest and not individual rights. Do you see that?

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Yes. Um, and in fact, um the way that we frame um, the way that we frame a lot of the work that we talk about, we talk about home rule and corporate rule. Michigan cities and villages have home rule powers. Those are powers in the state constitution that when they incorporate as cities and villages that they have. Um, but too often the legislature and Lansing is taking those home rule powers away and instituting what we call corporate rule instead of home rule. And um, you know, that's that's not acceptable. Michigan is one of the states um where there's been a fair bit of it, but um it's actually far worse in states like Texas and states like Tennessee, um, where they have those, you know, trifecta governments that can pass a lot of legislation.

SPEAKER_05 42:40

I was gonna ask, what uh were your conversations like when Democrats didn't have a trifecta when they controlled all branches of government? Um I understand that these issues um were central to a lot of advocates and and folks that spent time with you know leaders like Joe Tate.

unknown 42:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:58

What was their response?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

Yeah, that's a great question. Um I mean, I certainly wasn't the one having conversations with uh Joe Tate or people in leadership. Um that being said, some of the concerns that um advocates heard in the legislature last time around were, you know, we don't want to create a patchwork of laws, and that's what local control means is um regulations are different in different, you know, parts of the state. I struggle with that as a valid reason, to be honest with you. Um, I think that we see a lot more instability at the state level. We see a lot more instability at the federal level, and uh at the local level is where we actually have a chance for some more continuity of governance and of laws if people are able to, you know, get those, get that power, get the money they need, um, and um, you know, get the the rules that they need to um in order to act legislation. So that I struggle with that. Um, I also struggle with it because, you know. Know in Minnesota, for example, this is a state with uh a lot less preemption than Michigan, and um they seem to have cities too. So um, you know, I I struggle with this this patchwork argument, but that was what it was. But I mean, I really think um it's not the it's not the small businesses that are um you know pushing back um in favor of preemption laws. It's the larger corporate actors who um should be less concerned with the patchwork anyway. So they have the staff to handle it.

Donna Givens Davidson 44:29

All right. Well, that's that's good information. When you talk about small businesses, I feel like in Michigan and probably elsewhere, small businesses get swept up into, you know, large corporate interest, you know, through chambers of commerce and the way things are framed. Um, I was um part of an effort that 42 Fort was part of to invest in my kids.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Oh, yeah.

Donna Givens Davidson 44:52

And the way that it was framed, it was like small business owners are at risk of losing everything. And we know that they were not being targeted. How do you um begin to educate small businesses to help them understand their interests are not always aligned with some of these large businesses?

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, um, you know, one of the great many ironies of working in politics is that so often um in the state level, and I saw this time and time and time and time again, you have actually large businesses, large business groups passing laws and regulations in Lansing to basically create monopolies for themselves. Uh, and this is at the expense of small businesses. And um that is stuff that happens every day in the legislature. That's how they make their own markets through their lobbying and their capital and their influence. Um, and many times small businesses are used as a um facade for, oh, you know, it's going to hurt small businesses, and that's why, you know, we have to do this thing or that thing. Um when that's that's just not really the case. I mean, I think, I mean, how do you how do you overcome that? Um, that's I feel like that could be, you know, one of the questions of the, one of the questions of the day. I've I um really do feel for, you know, small business owners. I have some in my family and friend group, um, it's really hard to do that work. There's a lot of burdens. I mean, healthcare um alone is um, you know, really difficult thing to get taken care of. But um I think uh, you know, hopefully, hopefully with time, I I have to believe in the cycles of it all and that there will be a point where um, you know, things will be, you know, so monopolistic that more and more people will actually um, you know, see how some of these things are playing out. But yeah, I really don't know.

Donna Givens Davidson 46:51

Yeah. So what is your hope for this um forum that we're hosting and the other forums you're investing in? What are you hoping people walk away with?

SPEAKER_00 46:59

Yeah. I'm hoping people will walk away with more than what's written on attack mailers or, you know, nasty Facebook or Twitter comments or whatever. I hope, you know, for those who are able to come in person, they'll see these candidates in the flesh and hear their voices and look into their eyes and see who they can trust. Um, they'll see what candidates are responding to the question, which candidates are navigating around the question, which candidates are okay with saying if they don't understand something. Um, which candidates, if you're listening, it's okay if you are confused about something. Probably there's people in the audience who are too, you know, so it's it doesn't hurt to sometimes admit that. Um so I think I hope that um people walk away with a better grasp on um, you know, who's honest and who's um fighting for them and um who's prepared to tackle these issues, hopefully.

Donna Givens Davidson 47:50

How important is this election? I've heard people say, they say it every time, you know, this is the most important election of your lifetime. Um I actually heard somebody say that this might be the last election for a few years because of what's happening at the federal level. How do you evaluate that?

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Well, I certainly hope that person is wrong. I hope to have many, many more opportunities to vote and and to vote in a real way in an in a in a way that has an impact. Um yeah, I mean, I don't know that this is the most important election, you know, of uh of the next, you know, in the next two years, but um I think this is a really important time. Michigan had a democratic trifecta and lost it. Um we have um, and so this is and and there were some steps made towards the end of that trifecta um, you know, in governance and among the Democratic caucus that really disappointed a lot of people. And so I think this is a chance for Michiganders to elect people who aren't going to do that, um, and to uh potentially elect some people who can really govern. And that isn't just that isn't just who's the governor, that's who are all of the individual members of this caucus. And many of those races are decided in the primaries. Many of the leadership, especially elections, are decided in the primaries. Who's gonna be on the leadership team? So um I think this is a really important election for that.

Donna Givens Davidson 49:21

Yeah. Now, what you see though is that I remember when um we had the governor and the secretary of state and attorney general are all standing up, girl power, whatever it is we were doing, right? And now there is not that same kind of alliance. The girl power is crumbling. You know, listen, the the the buffs are off of, you know, in the leather jackets, and we are now like fighting each other. How is that a good thing or is it bad to see that much infighting?

SPEAKER_00 49:50

Well, the infighting is interesting. I really think it's mostly happening because Whitmer is a lame duck, and um, I think this infighting has probably been happening behind closed doors for much longer than it's been happening out in po in in front of everything. I I would I would think that voters are would be suspicious of people who got along 100% of the time on every single issue. I think that's one of the things they're frustrated by. So I don't know. I at the very least, it's keeping them on Twitter and keeping them in Sam's replies, some of this infighting. But um It is crazy.

SPEAKER_05 50:24

Like, do you see how like Denzel got his stuff blown up after my like I like started a discourse? It's not the first time, but like that might have been the funniest. Not the first time, different kinds of but like the national discourse, because you start local, like infighting all the time just by tweeting anything, uh like about parking lots downtown or whatever. Um me and Donna like to argue about the parking lot situation. But I know, but um the national discourse, you get like the worst people ever, like in the just different people that I think are the same people, like Chris Evans or Trey Eason. I know those are two like people with 500,000 followers each. We're like, what's the difference? One's conservative, one's uh you know, a leftist. Um it is really funny. It's overwhelming to like people, yeah.

Donna Givens Davidson 51:13

It's overwhelming to be in the center of it on the outside, it's not. I'll be honest with you. Um, you know, and I because I rarely, you know, I really tweet. I mean, sometimes I retweet. It's usually I'm just looking for information about what people think. But I think Michigan's a bellweather state. People are trying to see if Michigan goes progressive, the rest of the nation is in trouble because Michigan is such a solidly, you know, middle of the road state. A purple state, a state that doesn't seem to take a lot of risk. I mean, sure you have Rashida um and Shree. But um, but you don't seem, you know, you don't have the same kind of progressive um uh power building that you have in other states. It feels like, you know, New York is sort of in the lead, the coast are leading it, and now we're s is gonna, does it come to middle America? Um and again, I think sometimes you put too much on one election. Um what we do know is this Abdel El Sayyid ran for governor um a few years ago, and he, regardless of how this race turns out, whether he becomes the senatorial candidate and then senator, he's a lot more electable, he's a lot more well received now than he was the last time when he ran for governor. We know that for a fact, right? Um so it's it's interesting. I think it's interesting to see Denzel McCampbell now sitting on city council and he and Gabby, you know, sort of having this coalition with Letitia, and they all consider themselves DSA City Council members. Um it's gonna be an interesting race. Some disappointments I think are always going to be, you know, disappointment is inevitable. You want people to think like you and agree with you, and there are people who legitimately don't want to see that kind of change. There are people who legitimately don't want to see um our politics blown up. I think that's what they said in the free press. Our politics will be blown up, or do you just want to keep things as they are?

SPEAKER_00 53:24

Blown up is a little, is a little bit, come on. I think there's a lot of people whose lives are blown up every day by the consequences of this government. And so, you know, I I don't have so much uh sympathy for, you know, um, you know, whether it's politicos or, you know, opinion columnists or anybody who um thinks that electing a different kind of candidate is going to blow everything up. I mean, um, you know, it's not like any of these candidates are uh that we're talking about in Michigan anyway are nearly as controversial or crazy as, you know, the current president in office. So it's just uh it's just a different type of narrative. But I mean, let's remember though that um if um not voting Harris or Trump were running together, um, you know, the three of them not voting would have beat Harris and would have beaten Trump, there's a lot of apathetic people out there. Um, and that was part of Trump's success. And they're not apathetic because they don't care about anything. Um they're apathetic because they've they've given up um because of you know how they see things and what's what's happened to them. And so um, you know, someone talking about things in a different way has the potential to move some of those people.

Donna Givens Davidson 54:37

Yeah, I hate to use the term apathetic. I get what you're saying. Of course, but I think really there's people who are just disconnected and who don't really disengage, they don't trust that anything they do is gonna change things, and it's not like they're crazy. No, it's like I voted for these people and nothing changed. I voted for this person and nothing changed, and then people are told to wait. Well, be reasonable, you can't expect things to change. But the one thing we know, and I think we're kind of in this level of denial to some part uh in some parts of the culture, but the world has shifted, the United States has shifted so significantly since doge and Donald Trump that we're not just gonna be able to go back to normal. If and when Trump ever leaves office, I'm supposed I'm guessing he's not gonna live forever. If and when his uh revolution or whatever he's trying to do goes away, you're still gonna have to, you know, um uh clean up all that gold paint all over the White House, and you're still gonna have to, you know, remove that cement and grow some grass again and maybe plant some new cherry trees. I mean, certain things have to happen. The EPA has been gutted. You're gonna have to have rebuild the EPA. The CDC has been gutted. You're gonna have to rebuild that. Our agency, you know, the the knowledge base or the institutional memory that we have has been uh, you know, shred shredded. And on the one hand, that's terrible. And on the other hand, uh none of these institutions worked particularly well for everybody. Like, okay, our housing HUD is not what it used to be, but HUD still left a lot of people homeless. The EPA is not what it used to be, the EPA still allowed a lot of people to be poisoned and allowed wanted to take place. So my question is do we want to go back to the way things were or do we want to imagine something better in the future? And can we come together with our imaginations? And better is not gonna happen with the same old people. We're gonna need to have different thinkers there now or the next cycle.

SPEAKER_05 56:47

Well, you are going to get some different thinkers in there. Um, Donna, let's go over and Jasmine. Who what races are we gonna hear from over the weekend on Saturday, July 18th? We are going to, of course, hear from Donovan McKinney. He is running for the 13th District uh congressional house seat, which currently is represented by Sri Tanadar. Sri has not committed himself to coming here, is that correct?

Donna Givens Davidson 57:19

Sri has not um responded to anything. Sri refuses to debate um Donovan. Um I think that Donovan's starting to call him out, but I think what Sri has decided instead is to um tell a bunch of lies. And um you know, the thing is when you base root your campaign in untruths, the last thing you want to do is have to defend it with a debate.

SPEAKER_05 57:43

So we're gonna hear from Donovan McKinney. Um that's the 13th U.S. House District. The 11th State House District has a very compelling race between uh Mary Sheffield-backed Kimberly Fisher. That is the daughter of Renata Miller. Um Michael Howard is the McComb County Commissioner who is um self-described a bit more conservative than your typical 30 young, 30-year-old um up-and-coming, newly elected black politician, I guess. Um, Christana Anderson is a um um serial candidate. She ran in um the third city council district against Scott Benson, was Scott Benson's only opponent last time around. Um you remember Russ Ballant has is actually the guy that's come closest to defeating Scott Benson. Um we are kicking it to the ninth House District that is currently represented by Joe Tate. The 11th is currently represented by Donovan McKinney. McKinney, of course, is running for U.S. House, and so his seat will be vacated. Kimberly Fisher or Michael Howard are expected um to compete in that race. The ninth um House District is a um three-way, I believe, um four-way, I believe it could be five candidates. It's Rick Silva, it's Tony Mua, Arthur Harrington, Anthony Eed, the third state Senate district. Oh my god, there are a ton of candidates. Why are there so many candidates running for the third state senate district? We got Corey Hall, Kimberly Hill Knott, Adam Ollier, Tony Reeves, Ebony Taylor, John Conyers the third, uh Latanya Garrett, uh Gary Hunter question mark.

Donna Givens Davidson 59:42

Gary Hunter's for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:44

Um I learned that me and Gary Hunter are our Somerset neighbors.

Donna Givens Davidson 59:47

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 59:47

Yeah. Um who else? Who where is Eddie and Matthew Stafford running? Is that also the ninth? Um Eddie Kabinsky and Matthew Stafford, not to be confused with the uh former Detroit Lions quarterback. Um of course, Abraham Ayash and Justin Unwenyu are running in the first A Center district that we were just talking about. Um there is a sort of candidate forum slash debate slash parking lot video that I manufactured that already happened, and so we are not expecting to see Justin Unwenu, but I will continue to text and call him every day and say, Justin, come to our candidate forum. Justin, come to our candidate forum, Justin, come to our candidate forum.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:00:30

Did you mention Willie Burton?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:31

Oh my god. Did I did I forget to mention that Willie Burton's also a candidate in the ninth? And he will be here.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:00:37

Willie, oh man, is he gonna be here? Yes, he is. How do you know that? Because he emailed me. And he said he's gonna be here. Um did not think I invited him, uh but it was an email, his registered email is not the one he uses. Right. So we were able to clear that up.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:51

So Willie Burton um is such an interesting candidate. You know, there are people running as a progressive, there are people running as a pragmatic progressive. That's Arthur the progressive isric Silva. You know, Willie Burton, how would you describe his his political in the liquor stores? Like he's just on the ground, on the streets, on the bus. He is like one of the most interesting figures to me. Because he has he never campaigns, he never raises money, but he gets votes, and how he does it is literally gorilla marketing. It's literally going into liquor stores or just standing around at the bus stop and being like, vote for me, I'm one of you.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:01:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:31

Very compelling.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:01:31

I do want to point out, um, and I know we've talked, I don't know if we've talked about this, it's very controversial. We are supporting five races. Many, many candidates. We're basing our communications on email addresses that are registered with the state of Michigan. If we have the wrong email address, it doesn't mean we don't want you there. It means that you um somehow did not um we we somehow got the wrong email address. I want to make sure that we don't leave anybody off because people, it's a really, really emotional time right now when people get upset. And so um I want to make sure that we once again go through the list of candidates that have confirmed to me, and I talked to quite a few of them and have had lots of very interesting conversations. Um, Donovan McKinney, U.S. House 13, Abraham Ayish, Senate, State Senate 1, State Senate 3, John Conyers, the third, Latanya Garrett, Corey Hall, Kimberly Hill Knott, Adam Ollier, Gary Hunter, Toina Reeves, and Ebony Taylor. State Senate House State House 9.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:35

I forgot about Daryl Irvin in the 9th House district. He's also campaigning actively, but he's not showing up.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:02:40

No, he did not respond, but that doesn't mean he won't be here.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:42

Willie Burton a message.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:02:44

Willie Burton, Anthony Eat, Arthur Harrington, Tony Moore, those are the ones who and Rick Silva. And then State House 11, we have almost a full house. Cranstana, Gina, Brown Anderson, Kimberly Fisher, Michael Howard, Ebony, Eddie Kabushinski, and Matthew Stafford. Um, so um we have a lot of candidates.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:03

Matthew Stafford's gonna be here, everybody. Get your calm, please. I mean, meet and greet.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:03:08

He is he is not a football player. Not this one. Um, but yeah, this is it's gonna be fun. And once again, I want to be clear. We want every candidate from every race to show up. We are not screening out candidates. We have no interest in doing that. This is going to be set up for the exchange of ideas for people in our community to learn what candidates stand for, and we want you all here. So even though each human being is going to vote, who has the opportunity to vote in this, you know, in this room, and many other people will, that's not going to show up in our um conversation on Saturday. Our conversation on Saturday is gonna be all about the candidates for the people who are there. Um, we're going to record this and it's going to be live streamed and also replayed in our podcast station. So I hope people join us. I'm looking forward to this. And I also want to say one more thing. We're not asking the same old questions everybody's been asking. So be prepared for some different questions from different perspectives based on our work in this community and also the work of the SCIU because SEIU members have had an opportunity to contribute their questions to this dialogue.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:24

And I want to invite everybody that has been, you know, blown up my Twitter, come on down and watch some candidates talk. Uh, people that tell me I want to get more into politics. That's like the one thing that our peers will tell us. Like, they'll know that we work in a political space and they'll be like, I want to get more into politics, but like they'll never do anything to put themselves closer to it. So, like, here's your opportunity. Like, I'm gonna be here. You're not gonna be the only person, like you don't, you know, it's like, oh, I don't know anyone. Like, you know me. They know Jasmine. They definitely know Donna.

unknown 1:04:54

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:54

And if you don't, let's get to know them. Right. Uh, if you guys have topics that you want to discuss in Authentically Detroit, please hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or visit our website, authentically-detroit.com. Okay. Uh, time for shout-outs. Donna, we always start with you with shout-outs. Jasmine, you're gonna give us a shout-out too. Just anything or anyone that you feel is worth shouting out on our program here.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:05:24

I want to shout out candidates for office. Whether I support you or I don't support you, it takes a lot to run for office. It takes a lot to put your name out there. Um, you're making yourself vulnerable to attacks, to all kinds of things. And um, we can't have a democracy without people willing to put their names forward. And so many people stepped up to the plate and said, I want to do it, right? And in November, one of the candidates who's running for the race this year will be chosen. Shout out to you for taking the risk, opening. Yourselves up and I hope whoever gets elected, those who are running for office will come together around the next person in office to make sure that our government improves.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:12

Yes. Shout out to candidates. Shout out to the people that work for the candidates that I talk to every day. Um, I feel like I might have shout out to you guys all already, but you know, I know that you guys don't always like me because I may I get people in trouble a lot. There was one time where I talked to a Duggan, I'll just share this story. I talked to a Duggan uh canvaser, like a petition signature gatherer, and he was like, Yeah, I mean it's not as easy anymore. Now he's an independent. And I learned after the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner, I learned that um Duggan had actually called that staffer to be like, do not talk to media about how hard it is. Because of course, as he dropped his campaign for governor, a part of the undercurrent narrative was was he even able to raise to gather enough signatures? And in Detroit, where he was supposed to have his you know huge base of people friendly to him because of his his uh mayoral tenure. You know, I had a canvaser tell me that it was a compelling message that many people shared on Twitter, but of course, it got the individual who told me that in trouble.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:07:24

I try to What was the compelling message? I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:26

It was that he he he it was harder to gather signatures for he said he's gathered signatures for Duggan in years past, but it's this was the most difficult time that he's had because he had left the Democratic Party. Um I know a lot of the staffers that I work with don't like me when I tweet them out in video or photo. I did that over the weekend with a Haley Stevens and an Abdul Al-Sayed staffer that were friendly bantering argument in the parking lot, not parking lot, but on the street outside of a store on Livernoy during the light up Livernoy event. Um really interesting stuff. And the they both agreed, they're you know, hashing it out over their their bosses. They both agreed, you know, we we can disagree and you know still be cordial or something. Two black women, um one from Detroit, one not. Um but yeah, guys, I just it's so fascinating. And like on the other side, you have you know, people trying to make some of these staffers, comms, people, spokespeople for these candidates into like their own celebrity, like the celebrityfication of the person that works for the political candidate. The celebritification of a political candidate at all is just kind of like weird to me. But it is how we are moving into this sort of soap opera online, you know, Twitch stream culture that we view our politics.

Donna Givens Davidson 1:08:53

It's always been like this. Yeah. You know, it's so interesting. When you read in the 19th century, some of the races where people are calling each other out. You know, there's this tendency to think that everything's new. We have Twitter now, but people had newspapers then, and other ways that they um perpetuated. You know, there's always been high drama. These are people who get to represent you. There's high drama in that. What do you think, Jasmine? Who are you calling shouting out?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

Yeah, um, I want to shout out my um actually my favorite moderator from the last debate and my favorite moderator at every debate that I or not every not debate, excuse me, last candidate forum and every candidate forum, which are the SCIU members um who get to ask their questions directly of the candidates, even if they're not necessarily, you know, politicos, podcast hosts.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:42

I thought you were gonna say Rick Elbin of Wood TV. Like literally, I was like, yeah, he did a good job.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:48

Yeah. So um, no, but at the at the last debate, um, you know, um uh a buddy of mine, Deontay, got to ask the candidates directly, you know, what they thought about the state giving away tax incentives to, you know, companies that go and create poverty jobs that are hard to survive, um, survive within. I think it takes a lot of courage. Not it takes it's one step, um, Sam, like you said, to actually go to one of these forums, to actually go to one of these events. It's an entire thing directly to build up the courage to ask candidates, look them in the eye um about something that's impactful to you. So shout out to uh Deontay.

unknown 1:10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:25

Well, that's a pretty good shout out. Deontay, shout out to you, shout out to everybody that shows up to these events and wants to involve themselves in the political arena. Um, we want to thank you guys every single week for joining our little Authentically Detroit arena and supporting all that is the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network. We are trying to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. Please like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. I will see you guys Saturday. My birthday is Sunday, and so I'm celebrating my birthday Saturday almost at this candidate forum. See you there. I turn old.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:12

See ya.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:13

Thank you guys.