So first, let's talk about the affordability crisis and what is driving the increase in voter attention in this midterms elections and what is the Working Families Party doing?

Absolutely.

Well, it's very simple.

I don't know if you've gassed up recently, but I have.

And those prices are out of control.

And I've actually been gassing up around the country, so I know it's happening everywhere.

And people are truly struggling to just make basic ends meet.

What do you think?

Mm-hmm.

And I think we maybe oversample these folks.

There are, are Trump voters- ... whose, um, MAGA is a identity, um, and, uh, Trump is the avatar that symbolizes- Right ... that identity.

Their identities are so intertwined into MAGA and Trump being their leader that they're not having a ra- rational conversation about- Mm ...

Trump's policies.

Yeah.

That's a particular person.

[laughs]

Right.

We looked at that and we're like, well, we're not billionaires.

We're labor unions.

We're grassroots organizations.

Like if a billionaire couldn't make it be viable with all of that money and all of those resources, then how can we actually make a third party experiment work in the United States? And so we started in 1998.

We're in New York right now.

So we started in New York as a coalition of labor unions and grassroots organizations.

So what's a good way to turn the insights you've shared with us into action?

Yeah.

Um, every single cycle.

Just like, and just like the Demo- be- just like the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, right? And once those endorsed candidates are governing, you have 1,000 governing experim- experiments, right? What we do, and we, we do this a lot, uh, behind closed doors with our folks, is we do have accountability conversations with our people.

Um, we do have serious, like, real deal, like, this is what we established, this is where we are conversations that happen day in and day out, because we really do care about governing.

I can't speak to all of the details here, but the thing that I will say is that, you know, healthy parties are also self-correcting, and-

Hmm

... um, and also are transparent about, about where we're going, where we're trying to go, and, and, uh, where the distance is between those two things.

But what I will say is, what you brought up I don't think fits within...

Yeah

...

I know Cori.

I was an activist on the ground in Ferguson and, um, have a deep connection with, uh, St. Louis, um, that community, um, a lot of the folks that have continued to organize over a decade after that moment, um, and she's one of them.

And we were, we were all really proud of the fact that she went from the protest lines into, into a seat in Congress.

And there's just...

You know, there is s- a conversation that we need to have, um, about how threatening to this country, uh, Black independent voices are, especially Black women.

[laughs]

Right.

Like, full stop.

Like, full stop.

Um, but yet here we are, and we won a complete sweep of all three of them.

Will winning in, in a red-to-blue flip, so w- winning in a purple district, right? Um, you know, Donovan, um, you know, he's a Black son of Detroit.

You can't walk a block in Detroit without bumping into a cousin, a friend, or somebody you organized with, right? Um, he had a uphill battle because, uh, Sri Vandiar had so much outside money, and he himself is a millionaire, and he's an incumbent.

Um, and a lot of people didn't see a path for Donovan.

They use, like, these other names like UDP, United Democracy Project, that are AIPAC, but they don't call themselves AIPAC.

No.

Well, tomorrow we could correct it, you know? And I think this is one of those moments this year where, like, look, they're spending like $70 million, $7 million in APAC money, and what's happening is their money is backfired.

And in some ways, when people see the money against us, that lets them know, who to support, okay? You know what I'm saying? He's

And people are

sophisticated enough to do that.

Like, I flew in from New York.

It's the same thing that happened with Zoran.

They spent all this money trying to make Zoran into this.

What say you, Mo Mitchell?

Well, we at the Working Families Party, we know what's happening.

This is a working class insurgency.

Working people of all races in all regions of the country are saying they are tired of the status quo.

People are looking at their housing bills, the price of gas, the price of basic commodities.

They're looking at a federal government that is snatching people from their homes, killing people on the streets.

They are looking at a corrupt administration.

What say you?

And how do we move away from that? that entrenched two-party system into a multi-party system where people don't feel like they are wasting their vote if they feel that way by not voting for one of the two dominant parties.

We know as a matter of fact that there are millions of people that don't like the Republicans or the Democrats, don't like the establishment, don't like the two-party system, don't like politics in general.

And we live in a world where there's this rigid two-party system.

And so, yeah, in New York, we have fusion voting, which gives us this ballot line so that more people voted for Zohar Mamdani on the Working Families Party line than all of the people together that voted for his Republican opponents.

So, you know, in New York, we're the second party, not really the third party.

Right.

In Philadelphia, there's there's a set aside for the minority party.

What does that political transformation really look like? What are you selling to voters when you're really assigning that brand identity of Working Families Party to a candidate?

... to prepare for whatever happens this fall because I just do not trust that they want to have a [laughs] free and fair election.

I mean, I, I, I have some good news.

It's happening.

People are having those conversations, and it's...

Look, every plank of the struggle is, I think, being animated.

Just yesterday in Philadelphia, we just came away from one of our best election days.

And look, I do think the country no longer is embracing or feels like MAGA is anywhere near America First.

Yeah.

Hold on.

This is so much bigger.

This is and look, I'm going to test your audience because this is bigger than party is bigger than than ideology.

And the Working Families Party is the party to ensure that government works for working people at a time when there is one party that is controlled by those neoconservatives, those neoconfederates.

And those neo-Confederates are being fueled and supported by a small group, like literally a handful of oligarchs, of tech oligarchs, who believe in this crazy dark enlightenment idea that is anti-human, right? You can look it up.

This is what they believe.

They don't believe in humanity.

That man is not even in charge.

Right now, that sounds like heaven, but you're not so sure about that.

Well, the path to hell is paved with a lot of good pro-democratic intentions, right? And so, you know, the thing that I'm concerned with is, it's back to this, like Democrats relying on negative partisanship, relying on people's disdain, disgust, you know...

aversion to Trump and Trumpism to his fascism in order to build electoral majorities.

Those electoral majorities are not sustained because once the Trump threat has been eliminated, then the reason for that electoral coalition is moot.

And so what...

What might keep that coalition together? It's the positive agenda.

It's the governing agenda.

Please

So Mo, welcome to Native Land Pod again good brother.

Yes, yes.

Oh, it's good, it's good to be a re- a repeat visitor to the- (laughs) ... to the pod, and it's really good to be with y'all.

You too, brother.

Welcome.

A big week indeed, and not just in uh New York State, uh, but really around the country, man.

I'm curious if we could probably kick off the conversation with you going down the- the list of highs, lows, what people oughta be watching, paying attention to, and we weren't, um, as a result of this week's elections.

Fair enough.

Can you talk a little bit more about the origins of the Working Family Party and how you came to the conclusion that it was your political home?

Absolutely.

OK, so come back with me 26 years ago.

Right.

And at that time, you know, the Democratic Party was led by Bill Clinton and the DLC.

And they had this theory called triangulation.

Right.

They care about their lives.

But do you think a Musk third party effort focused on some House and Senate seats could have some success starting with the midterms next year?

You might be surprised at my skepticism.

And so he's doing what we call the Ross Perot play at the Working Families Party.

It's a top-down, billionaire-backed strategy.

We've seen it fail.

You're right, Ross Perot didn't break 20%.

He got to around 19%.

Is that a winning issue in swing districts in America?

Can you respond to Mamdani's upset victory and the surge of grassroots support, especially young people, as he walked from one end of Manhattan to the other?

Well, Amy, Zoran's campaign is a bellwether.

This is one of the first major primaries of the year.

And Zoran's surge is, to me, clear proof that people want leaders who will stand up for working people.

And the contrast couldn't be more clear.

So you have Zoran who walked from the northernmost part of Manhattan all the way down, right? And you have Cuomo who basically...

He ran a campaign where nobody could find him.

What do you see happening in terms of the Democratic establishment that opposed Mamdani? Where will many of them go now?

Can you respond to Mamdani's upset victory and the surge of grassroots support, especially young people, as he walked from one end of Manhattan to the other?

Well, Amy, Zohran's campaign is a bellwether.

Um, this is one of the first major primaries of the year.

And Zohran's surge is, to me, clear proof that people want leaders who will stand up to work for working people, and the contrast couldn't be more clear.

So, you have Zohran, who walked from one part, one, from the northernmost part of, of, uh, Manhattan all the way down, right? Um, and you have Cuomo who basically, he ran a campaign where nobody could find him.

He was running away from his record.... um, he ran a campaign that was based on fear.

He ran a campaign that was emblematic of the status quo politics of the past.

What do you see happening in terms of the Democratic establishment, uh, that opposed, um, uh, Mandan- Mamdani? Where will he, where will many of them go now?

What do you think specifically, though, was the moment that really got people to come to these rallies?

I think it's a combination of, of many things.

People have been outraged by the negotiation of the tax bill and the transfer of trillions of dollars in SNAP benefits, in Medicare, in Medicaid, all transferred direct to the.01%, right? I think people feel a deep disgust by the idea that some of the most powerful people would use their power in order to pass legislation that is uniquely designed to hurt poor people in the service of the wealthy and corporations.

Now, on top of that, you have this brutal crackdown in LA and around the country of regular people, just interrupting their lives because the Trump administration, Stephen Miller, um, and Trump and MAGA have a vendetta, and they have s- They, they have to prove that they could achieve these artificial numbers and show that they're, they're tough and demonstrate that America's no longer a place that's hospitable to immigrants.

They claimed that they were going to target quote-unquote, "criminal aliens," and people un- understood that to be hardened criminals and gang members, and they're coming for people waiting for them outside of schools.

They're coming for people as they prepare food in restaurants.

These are clearly people that we rely on every single day, people that we love and care about in our communities.

Do you think that there's a disconnect between those who came out of these rallies and the broader public on this particular issue? Or are we seeing that actually this issue is much more complex than the MAGA Right would have us believe?

can like select y'all, but also select another candidate.

Yeah.

So in New York and Connecticut, anybody who votes in New York and Connecticut know this.

You go in the ballot box.

There is a Democratic Party line.

There's a Republican Party line.

There's a Working Families Party line.

And my