So I'm

going to let them tell a little bit about themselves.

So my name is Jolanda Jones, spelled with a J, made up black name, J-O-L-A-N-D-A.

Thank you.

I actually was on city council.

The interesting thing is when I was on city council, I hadn't accepted that I was lesbian yet.

So I consider myself the best damn ally there was.

[laughs]

... is his mini-me.

But, uh, let me say this.

I sat in the House impeachment trials.

I listened to every ounce of testimony.

I voted to impeach Ken Paxton, as did most, most Democrats and most Republicans in Texas.

It's just when it got to the Senate, they acquitted him.

Your thoughts?

Are they?

...

the National Democratic Party needs to heavily invest to, for GOTV for the Black vote.

Because if you don't get us out, you can't win.

And the que- and you say, "Are they?" The Democratic Party thus far hasn't chosen to invest in GOTV and the Black vote.

The Democratic Party in Texas and across the US, because I've talked to other Democratic state reps, um, at, at conferences, and they've all said the Democratic Party just takes Black vote for granted.

And let me be clear.

Are they willing to do that? Are they willing to do that or they have their grudge because of Crockett?

[laughs] What is, what, [laughs] what's your take on what's happening now? B- they move with a quickness on this.

So I need to remind you that John Roberts is from Texas, so newsflash, go figure that out.

My take on this is that this is a direct attack on Black people.

It is anti-Blackism, to the extent I just made that word up, and people don't want to say it.

And we even have that problem with white progressives and white Democrats.

Nobody wants to call a thing a thing.

And it is terrifying to me because I know when we get back in the legislature, they're going to redraw the state rep lines.

Mm-hmm

Could this backfire on Republican?

Oh, for sure.

I was absolutely agreeing with him because that's what we're seeing here in Texas in local and, and countywide elections, and even in some of the state elections.

Democrats who were not supposed to win, at least prior to stupid Trump, uh, and evil Trump, were, were...

We just put Democrats in every state rep race, even though we have state rep races where Democrats haven't won in over 30 years.

And guess what? Democrats are now winning.

A, a, a Black guy just won for mayor, um, down the road in Manville.

Mm-hmm.

[laughs]

... to try to persuade us to vote for them.

Right? Um, I didn't receive one piece of mail.

Um, again, we normally get mail.

Don't know why that didn't happen.

Um, the only time I saw, uh, Congresswoman Crockett was when I watched Beyond the Gates, uh, which is a Black soap opera [laughs], and she would have one commercial.

Um, so that's one thing I was just trying to figure out.

Mm-hmm

Yep.

So, of course I'm happy, right? But this was...

It's, it's temporarily enjoying it, and I do not believe the courts, the Supremes are gonna rule on this case, which is LULAC and Al Green versus Abbott in Texas before they rule on the Louisiana versus Calle case, which has the same issues.

And I'm cautiously optimistic.

I think for anyone to believe that Trump's Supreme Court will defend voting rights is wishful thinking.

And then you wonder, the only way the Supreme Court will accept the cases if they believe it's on a federal question, which clearly voting rights is.

I think that they are waiting on this case, uh, uh, the Calle case is gonna determine where they go in this case.

Well, he wants to be senator now.

Mm.

That's what's so, that is what is so crazy.

And I think Van Jones was wrong with what he did.

He took something very serious and he made it the butt of a joke.

Uh, peace in the Middle East is, should be, uh, very, very, very important to people.

We need to figure it out.

And going back to what you asked me before about whether Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, winning the Nobel Peace Prize is more than just about peace.

But-

Yes.

The seat that Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, Craig Washington, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Sylvester Turner were in.

And we need somebody who's unafraid.

I was the first Black openly LGBTQ+ person in the Texas Legislature House or Senate.

And when I win, uh, on November 4th, I will be the first Black LGBTQ+ woman-...

in the US House of Representatives.

She's so pretty.

Fall 1987.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsontario.ca, TNC Supply.

State funerals, lowering flags that have masks, accompanying caskets are for like military heroes and dignitaries.

He's neither.

He's a racist white kid who figured out if he said enough racist, anti-everything stuff, that he could make a bunch of money in the...

The more hateful his speech was, the more money he made and the more important he was.

And so I don't feel sorry for him.

I wish, again, I'm not going to say again, I wish it didn't happen.

where the only

Mm-hmm.

That's why we've got to stand up to this, because my constituents don't have a chance if they can do this to me, which is why I'm not letting this du- y- why I'm not letting them do this to me.

But it is...

Like I have to laugh about this.

I have to laugh about this because if it weren't so serious, it would be funny.

I mean, we laughing about it, and, and, and we liked I A- what is it? I Am Legally Hype.

She wasn't lying.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I, for me, I'm a self-employed lawyer.

I have a lease that I'm in.

I've, I've got people who are on my payroll.

I hope when I go back that I still have a law practice.

I do.

Um, I have a car note that I have to pay every month.

Let her answer.

I, I, I'd love if you all could kick it off, uh, beginning with you, uh, uh, Re- Representative, uh, Jones, um, uh, with telling us what does the ground game look like if this actually does become a ratcheted up situation of D versus R states redistricting mid, uh, decennial, uh, uh, to basically confront and counteract what Republicans are doing to change the rules of the game so that they can cheat their way, uh, to re-election?

re-election?So the ground game in this instance looks like each state that's a Democratic state going in and, quite frankly, redistricting out Republicans, because that's what they're doing with us.

And it's surgically precise.

They are literally finding where there are concentrations of Black and Brown people, which are organically majority/minority, and they are somehow trying to say that it is a coalition district.

And, and so the, the districts currently weren't drawn because they're a coalition district.

The districts were drawn 'cause Black people and Brown people are just living by each other and they've somehow said that that's illegal.

And so now they are dividing us, they're cracking us, and then they're packing us into other districts that are majoritarily Anglo.

Sign it, date it.

But if you wouldn't mind responding to what, uh, Congresswoman Crockett said in that clip.

So, so, so absolutely.

Here's a beautiful thing about being a lawyer, is that we know the law, and I know that those subpoenas don't have any full force and effect.

I understand that.

But, you know, we are, like Don said before, or DL said, too comfortable.

And here's the deal.

Dr.

What is that?

Yeah, you correct me.

So here's the deal.

In order for Trump to get the five seats that he wants, he literally...

They have to target Black and Brown communities where we live, which is exactly what they've done.

This is a racist redistricting.

It's not just a power grab.

The only way for them to give Trump the seats that he wants is they have to go in in districts where there are organically majority minority seats, right? Where Black people and Brown people have just sort of moved by each other and they live by each other.

Are you just gonna stay out of Texas forever now? What- what- what's the fu- what does this look like?

Uh, is this gonna have an impact on you and your fellow Democrats?

Uh, no, it's not.

First of all, neither the governor nor Ken Paxton have the power or authority under Texas law to remove us from our seats.

Let's be clear.

There are two ways to remove us.

There's removing you, where it has to- there- first of all, there has to be a quorum to do that, first of all, which they don't have a quorum, which is why they're whining right now.

And it has to go through the House and the Senate with quorums on both, and then they would literally need, assuming there was a quorum, which there's not gonna be, they would need 12 Democrats to go with them, and we'd have to be voted out by 100 members, so you need 100 for a quorum, and then you need 100 votes, and then it'd have to go to the Senate, and they need two-thirds of the Senate's, and then it would go to the governor.

(laughs).

Here is Representative Jolanda Jones.

Yes.

I will stay gone as long as I need to stay gone, and I hope that my colleagues feel as convicted as I do, that right now, you know, I always wondered what I would have done, would I have been walking on the William Pettus Bridge, I mean the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Would I have been willing to walk for over a year, uh, with the Montgomery Bus Boycott? And you know what? Now is our civil rights moment, people.

You want, you hear about Dr.

King, you hear about John Lewis and you- and Malcolm X.

You wonder what you would do, now is the time, man.

Here's Representative Jones again.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, the, the chair of the committee kept saying, "The chair is not advised, the chair is not advised." That means, "I don't know no answers for you, you can ask me questions." Which, if you knew our chair, he's a lawyer.

He knows everything during regular session.

So for him to be willfully blind or ignorant didn't pass muster to me.

And there are 88 Democrat...

I'm sorry, 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats in the House.

And 62 doesn't beat 88, it only takes 76 votes.... to pass a bill, but it takes 100 votes to do business.

This isn't how we normally operate." But for folks at home who are saying, "Well, how long can you be on the run?" And when you all are no longer on the run and have to face whatever is coming, what can we do at home to support you all in, in this agenda, to ensure that this particular thing doesn't just not pass in Texas, but not in these other states that are at risk as well?

Go on.

I mean, you know, it has just been...

It was, it was interesting because I wasn't supposed to really speak, um, you know, we had this plan and, and I just thought that, um, they have targeted Black and Brown people, and actually LGBT people in Texas, and I happen to be the first Black openly LGBT person in the Texas Legislature.

And we're invisibled all the time.

And when they were just talking generally, I think that people want to know specifically how what we're doing in Texas is hurting us.

And they have literally pitted Black congresspeople, Congresswoman Crockett and Congressman Veasey, both Black, out of the Dallas area, they pitted them against each other to only have one Black congressperson in that area.

Then they targeted Texas where they have Congressman Al Green and what used to be Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, they targeted them.

And?