[laughs]

[laughs] You know, what does that mean? Like, we...

So first of all, what it means is 'cause w- we, we were chosen, um, just because we have this, um, high number of Black voters.

Our party, our Democratic Party, um, ha- has a high number of Black voters.

So what that also...

What that means too is that for the first time in, in history, uh, Black voters get the first choice.

We get a chance to say first who we want, um, to lead this country.

How are you guys working together? What, what, what's, what are your phone calls and Zoom meetings and, and so forth looking like right now when it comes to unification of the party and bringing us all together?

Talk about what that means to anybody and everybody that that's going to impact.

You know, what does that mean? Like we, so first of all, what it means is cause we, we, we were chosen, um, just because we have this, um, high number of black voters, our party, our democratic party, um, has a high number of black voters.

So what that also, what that means too, is that for the first time in history, uh, black voters get the first choice.

We get a chance to say first who we want, um, to lead this country.

And also, with the campaign side of it, it means that you can't, candidates have to listen to black voters.

They're going to have to listen to Southern voters and rural voters and talk about policies that, and I'll say be unafraid to talk about policies that uniquely affect the black community or uniquely affect rural communities.

So I think that's a huge deal and it is going to be what I believe a game changer for our candidates.

How are you guys working together? What are your phone calls and Zoom meetings and so forth looking like right now when it comes to unification of the party and bringing us all together?

Give us an update.

You know, I became chair in 2023, and I just made a point not to try to go backwards.

You know, I think that it's been a passing of the torch, you know, successfully or not or unsuccessfully.

The chairs before me had worked really hard to try to build something that, you know, is sustainable.

But what I did was just make sure that we were including everybody, number one.

And number two, like, try to get rid of the division and put a plan in place so that we can try to build the infrastructure that we need to win, to start winning.

And that's what we did, right? And so the goal was to map out where we made mistakes or where we made decisions that, you know, we could have made better decisions.

And then let's talk about it from the upside of the positive of what we can do to make some change there.

What do you say to those critics?

I said that Democratic primaries are not about the general election.

So to say that because South Carolina isn't as competitive in November, the Democrats here don't matter, that's crazy.

If we're trying to set our candidates up for success and battle test them for November, they need to start in a state like South Carolina, where we, number one, have an open primary, where they can come in and test their message.

What do Democrats gain from hanging out in a blue state, talking to people that agree with them all the time? They need to come to the Deep South.

They need to come to South Carolina and do these retail politics, because you cannot phone it in in the South, in the Deep South.

When you come to South Carolina, you've got to do the same type of retail politicking that you do in, Iowa and New Hampshire.

Do you feel like especially coming off of the 2024 election where Kamala didn't win, that if South Carolina is chosen to not be the primary state, that this will be another slap in the face towards black people that will make more of us feel alienated from the Democratic Party?