Part 2

We ready to rock and roll? Alright, here we go. So I want to get to questions, right? So that we can address the things at least as best we can that you guys may have. But look, I want to just closing thought. It is all connected, right? So I mean, public education is the fight we're fighting

in the legislature right now. Immigration is being fought, right? All of these things. The things to remember as we're talking about Christian nationalism and Seven Mountains Dominionism, which is I'm not gonna get into that today, but that's like the But they go hand in hand. That that is the engine that drives Christian nationalism, okay?

But this idea that all of these things that all of you in this room, right? The things that we mobilize and we go fight, right? It may be choice that we all show up and we march and we go and we fight back. And it's hey, we're gonna show up and rally for public education on the Capitol steps, right? Because they're attacking this next, right?

When I I think about what we see happening as we have this beautiful green lawn and we have a weed that pops up, right? And we all mobilize and we run and we go pull the weed, and then the next weed pops up and we go over and pull that one. But the reality is we're gonna continue pulling those weeds until we figure out there's a route to the rot.

And the root to the rot's Christian nationalism. Okay. Once we can get enough people understanding that all of these things we're fighting against come from the same place, that's when we start to turn the tide. And the thing that I've used as my mantra lately, and I Buddy's here, so he likes when I use this mantra.

Is look, what we're striving for is we want you to be able to see what it is that's happening, right? And once you see it, you gotta call it what it is. It's Christian nationalism. That is what is attacking our democracy right now. And once you can see it, once you can name

it, then you're ready to fight it. So see it, name it, fight it. That is what all of this is about, and that's why Mindy and I show up at things like this to talk to people, to help you understand what's going on, to arm you with at least a few talking points that you can go out, see it in your community, call it what it is, and then go fight

it. Because it's gonna take all of us to fight back against the oligarchs who are trying to impose all of this on us. Okay. Questions? Let's go. All right, the bill's in special sessions right now for

about your question. You know, they're real big on accountability and teaching to the test, but all the testing. Who's gonna test these kids that are uh homeschool? Who's gonna test the kids? They're not. Is there any permission in there for that? There's there's not elements in the bills thus far.

I mean, it is one of those, you know, of course, as we go through a legislative process, there's opportunities to put forth amendments, but there's also lots of opportunity for those to be voted down or scripped out or. whatever Look, the the idea is they don't want accountability, right? Because in in when you look at studies broadly in states that have rolled out broadly vouchers and things like

that, the kids don't do better, right? In very small focused groups, right? You may see some some elevation in overall performance. But there's lots of studies out there at this point that show as voucher programs, ESAs, whatever you want to call them, right, as they go broader and more kids start to take it, there is a knowledge gap that starts to show up.

They're not performing better than the public schools. And as soon as you drive that accountability, as soon as you drive, you have to test as a requirement to get the voucher, all of a sudden now that's strings attached. And it's actually in the GOP platform that they want vouchers with no strings attached. That's five cases.

What is the end game? So can you take a microphone? Or is it asking what is the end game in 1954? We know that after the Brown speech board, they wanted to not um desegregate. Is the end game to create a society of people who don't think about like the 1800s, where women don't

have rights? I mean, what is the and because as you mentioned, public education is the cornerstone of democracy. So are they trying to just create workers who don't know what is the end game? Well, I would say, especially if you look at our uh new speaker of the house, no, and you listen to some of the things that you know he has

said, yeah. Um and all of these folks who fall into the same hard-line Christian nationalist ideology he has. Yes, they want they are looking for a conservative Christian-driven nation where they're choosing what we learn and don't learn, they're choosing what we read and don't read, they're choosing what people know, they're choosing what rights we have, they're choosing, you know, who has an elevated

voice and who doesn't have an elevated voice. It is a very, you know, uh narrow-minded, narrow-visioned, um, hierarchical, authoritarian vision. That is what they want, and that is their end game. Um, they don't want LGBTQ people to have rights. Period, end of story.

They don't want men or women to have reproductive rights. End of story. Um, you know, and and public schools are a place where people learn to think critically. They don't want people to think critically. They want to tell you what it is you should think and how to interpret it, and the kind of information that that you're going to. to be allowed to

be exposed And the kind of history that you're going to learn, their version of history, right? So that that's really their their end game. It's scary stuff. So I guess my question is fatigue, so I can do my one after the other and have the time.

I don't know if that would be a good idea. So my question is they're looking at passing a school voucher law amendment, whatever you want to call it, right now. I'm sure that almost everyone in this room has at least written every one of their representatives telling them that they are 100% against it. And I know that we probably all know 10 or

15 people who feel that way. So we know that there is, I guess, a silent majority who do not want this to happen, but yet because the money is where the money is, it's going to happen. I guess is is my question. And it's a small majority of the Christian nationality, these Christian nationals.

I mean, it's such a small majority, but that's all we hear about. I mean, it's it's so almost overwhelming to a point where like you're frozen into not acting because you feel like there's nothing that you can do to stop it from happening. Yeah, I mean, the the challenge is when people start to pay attention too late the horse is

out of the barn, right? We've got the elected people in Austin who are representing us, right? Well, they're not, but as a society, we have allowed those people to receive a majority of those who voted in the in the last election set. Now, look, there is a coalition of basically every Democrat and like 20 some odd Republicans who um are

against the vouchers. I won't say they're pro-public education because they'll vote against the LGBTQ community and those kids are in the schools, they'll vote against the transgender kids, they'll you know they'll do all of these, they'll ban books, they'll do all of that. So they're not pro-public yet, but they're at least anti-voucher, right?

Now, the amount of pressure that is being leveraged on those lawmakers is ridiculous, right? I mean, we're in the fourth special session because the governor won't take no for an answer, right? And the lieutenant governor won't take no for an answer. But the thing is, he just got re-elected. And the people who gave him the money said this is where we want to go.

That's what's so frustrating. Right. And that's look, I will say continue to call and try and reinforce the message. But the thing we have to do is make sure we aren't getting lost in where we gotta go. And we have got to get different people in Austin. That is the only way

We may lose the fight today, right? But if we get the right people in place, we can make sure we win tomorrow. So one of the things you have to realize is they want us to think we have no chance. And they've been playing the long game for a long time, and we're in catch-up mode. And so you cannot get discouraged.

You have to keep getting, you have to push, but you have to get involved. The last election was the first time I got involved. Because the previous time when Trump was going up against Hillary, I thought there's no way in heck America would elect Trump. I was wrong, and so I got involved. We have some wonderful people.

They need resources, they need money. I didn't even know what a phone diver was, but that allows a politician to reach so many more people, but it costs money. And so we need to get involved, we need to donate, and we need to not ever lose our hope. The Iliad that's up there put together a heck of a team.

They did a lot of good work. We also need candidates that will work their butts off, not candidates that just want to put their name out there and maybe knock on a few doors. We need folks that will knock on every footing door. There are more of us with sanity than the insane folks. But we have to show up.

Well, and I want to follow up on what he just says because everything he just said is absolutely right. There are more of us. Period. End of story. And I know a lot of people go back and forth on this. Is Texas purple or is it whatever?

There aren't a lot of us. And we absolutely, once we all get going in the same direction and get enough of us going, uh, can turn the state. We can't. the And hopeful thing that I will say to all of you, and Chris will concur. When we first started talking about all this a few

years ago, people did look at us like we were crazy. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it's cost us some relationships, it cost us, you know, the way people thought of us in our town, um, but we kept saying it, and there wasn't anybody in the media at the time, other than the experts that we were going and hunting out, you know, at universities that have been writing

about this, some journalists and whatnot. There wasn't anybody talking about Christian nationalism. It is something a lot of people know about now. Like the word is out, and not people don't look at us like we're crazy anymore. People get it. So the hopeful thing is the media talks about it. You can walk up to somebody and carry on a

conversation, and more than likely they have some kind of idea as to what you're talking about, and so we just have to keep talking about it, and we have to encourage people not just register to vote, go to the polls and actually vote because that is really where we have our problem. We're low voter turnout, and we have to get people to show up to the voting booth and cast their

vote against Christian nationalism and against authoritarianism. I will concur with pushing people for our next selection. We have several candidates here or representatives from candidates. Pasele support them. They're going to be huge repercussions from And we also still have several seats that we do not have a candidate on our side running for.

So do your research, ask the questions. Is somebody running in my district and get some help on how to go about that process? The deadline to file for the ballot is December 11th, papering up on us very soon. But I did want to ask a question if you'll talk ever so briefly about Dominionism. Sure.

Um Seven Mountains Dominionism, right? I said it's the it's the engine that drives Christian nationalism. Um it is what people like David Barton, who runs an organization called Wall Builders, False Historian, has the ear of the new speaker of the House, right? Told him he looked up to him and learned so

much from him. People like Lance Walnow, Rafael Cruz, who we've talked about earlier, all subscribe to this idea of seven mountains dominionism. And the idea is it's an end times theology. Okay. It's this idea that there are seven mountains or seven pillars, is what you'll hear it called sometimes of society. And until you can gain control of those mountains,

Christ will not receive. But once you can gain dominion, and that's why it's called Dominionism over each of those mountains, that will allow end times to come. Now, the seven mountains, it's the church, and they'll tell you, oh, yeah, we've always played there, but the church should be outside the four walls, it should be out in the community, right?

So that's what their church is is one family, is the second mountain, and that's this one man, one woman, it's where all the anti-LGBTQ stuff comes from. The third mountain is education, and that's where taking over the public school systems, and if you can't take it over, you break it. We had a chaplain bill here in Texas. Oh, yeah, yeah, the chaplain bill, right?

Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can replace school counselors with chaplains that got 48 hours worth of training from a focus on the family program. Seriously. Um, so education is three, government is four, because they know they have to seize control of levers of power

at all levels, right? National, state, and local. Because they can cast the laws that now impose the ideology. It's arts and entertainment. They're not very good at that one yet, but they're sure trying. Um with I mean, look, they had the the the

child trafficking movie, right? Which was run and funded by Christian nationalist people, right? Um, arts and entertainment, uh, there's the media, and if you've seen the Daily Wire with like Ben Shapiro and some of those. other horrible folks that are on it, it's owned by Ferris Wilkes When you heard um groups like um Prager University, which is the it's a YouTube thing, right?

All the videos, not really a university that uh apparently Texas was at Florida has adopted some of their curriculum, Oklahoma has Texas was rumored to have, but not quite. Julie Picker jumped the gun a little bit there. Um but that was seed funded by Ferris Wilkes too, right? So all of these people, these these billionaires, plenty and lots of these spaces, but so media is one, they

want their own ecosystem where they can control what's there, and then the last one's business, because they know they need money to make it go. Those are the seven mountains, and this idea that once you gain control of all of them, that's when you take the nation. That's that's Dominionism, and that's scary stuff. Victor Orban has done this in Hungary.

Yeah, yes, I mean Orban is held up as like this model that they should be following. If you Google CNN, Wilkes Dunn, they did an episode on this called Deep in the Pockets of Texas. Very good. Terrifying, very much. I'll say, CNN called me and said, we want to talk about money in

Texas. What can we do? So they went and found all the good people, there are a bunch of good people to talk to, but I gave them that story. story What was the name of the again? Deep in the pockets of Texas. Deep in the pockets of Texas

And you can Google it, and it'll go to Chris's YouTube page and you can watch the whole thing. Or you can go to see it, name it, fightit.com. And there's a link to the video there too. And just one more quick thing on the Seven Mountains Dominionism and the taking nations and whatnot, they're not just working on the US folks. I mean, Ferris Wilkes brother in law travels, he's got

a church out in West Texas too. And he travels to other countries and visits with other uh national leaders. I mean, there this isn't just a United States thing, and and you're right, Hungary has already gone down this road. This is this is just and it's it's it's kind of ick like you don't really want to think about

that, but you do kind of need to have a general idea of that there's a bigger there's a bigger goal for these people. And that's why they didn't go away in 2018, right? That's why they came back because it wasn't just money and power, it's ideology. That's what's driving it. Um, I'm from New Jersey, and most people in New

Jersey actually get out and vote. And when I moved here, I couldn't believe the lack of information. Um when votes are, how do you vote, where do you go? It's just not available. You have to search for it yourself. You have to get on the internet, you have to

find it. Uh, when I lived in New Jersey, the League of Women Voters sends you a sample ballot, and it also explains the questions. You know how they're all like worded so they can vote for it. Uh, they actually explain what it means, and everybody who votes gets that.

Each person, so like my husband got one, and I got one, so you can take it with you when you go vote, and we voted in our neighborhood. We can actually walk to where we voted, so we didn't have to get in a car to go vote, we could just walk to it, and uh there was never a line. So voting was easy.

Voting was in your face. You got a whole sheet, big huge sheet of the ballot, and it explained it, so that it was a no-brainer. You didn't have to get on the internet and re research. A lot of people don't have time to do that. Or don't understand the number of polling places and making

it hard to vote. Yeah, that's all by design. The people in power, I mean, I'll go back to Paul Wayrick in 1980, speaking in Dellis, Texas to a group of conservative um evangelical leaders. He said our leverage in elections goes up when fewer people vote. So we want to make sure our people vote and

it's hard for other people, right? So the way you see now, let's not say that we don't have the League of Women Voters, and they're doing a lot of good work, and we're doing lots of things to try and educate, but you don't have the broader mechanisms of the state working to make voting and a culture of voting something that is desired.

College people say and say that. But so we are working against the system inside that space. I mean, that's why we don't have campaign finance reform, and people can write million dollar checks because the people in power like the million dollar checks. We actually had representatives, um Aaron Zvener tried to get a couple of different amendments onto a Charlie Guerin bill

that would cap contributions that would force all local elections to actually file with the Texas Ethics Commission. So we could see all the money. How do we keep that from happening? Well, we have to acknowledge that there's the books that are in our public schools may not be somebody's cup of tea, right? It may touch on subjects that people are uncomfortable with.

But when I look and I talk to kids that are in high school, the things they are seeing everywhere else in the world, I would much rather them be seeing it and learning it in a book rather than seeing somewhere else. Because when they talk about the books and porn being in books or the things they're trying to ban, right? It's this idea that they're taking passages out of books.

Out of context out of context or out of the full realm of the story, right? The idea that look, what is happening now, and the reason why groups like the ACLU and others haven't been able to effectively challenge these bans, and they are bans no matter what these people you can still buy it in the store. It's being banned from the school.

Come on. But the reason they're not challenging those things is our court system has been infected because we didn't show up and vote enough, and the people who got in power, but people on the bench who will now side with those who want to ban books, right? And so challenging book banning as it goes up through the system, the people who in the ACLU and

Pan America and all those who are doing everything they can to fight back, they know if it goes to court and gets to the Supreme Court, they lose. And those books get banned permanently everywhere, rather than just a couple of districts. So it takes our voices showing up at school board meetings, supporting our school board members who are saying those books stay, supporting our librarians, trusting the

expertise that they're actually curating a collection appropriately, and you show up and you make noise because we talked about they're the minority, right? And they're so loud. When we don't talk, we cede ground to them. We let them control a narrative. And we can't do that. It's not easy.

It's uncomfortable showing up and raising your voice. But we've all got to get better at it. You went right into what I wanted to say. I'm Michelle Chandler. I'm the vice chair of recruiting for the club for Silent Area Democrats. And this is a call to action, guys. What we have to do is do what I'm doing

all the time, which is messaging everybody saying, hey, we've got a club here. We get together on a regular basis, we spend time with each other, we've got happy hour, we have two book clubs, we have all kinds of things going on, service projects. We get together and have wine with our neighbors. We have lunch before we go vote so everyone can

ask questions. So what I'm saying is you guys um reach out to me on Facebook or in my email, get my phone number, I'll send you whatever information you need to do to help me recruit our friends family and neighbors because this is a call to action what we have to do is leave this meeting and say it's those of us in this room already know what's going on

it's the people that don't know what's going on that we have to reach you have to reach out to your neighbors family members people that you think um we can cross the aisle to we cannot isolate ourselves anymore we've got to work together in the community so um I'm Michelle Chamber I'm the vice chair of recruiting please connect with me or any of our other leadership members so we can get the ball moving forward my

name's wooden I'm running for HD63 and my question to you all is messaging so Michelle you led right into what I want to talk about which is can you please give us some input about everyone in this room is politically involved these are our block walkers these are our volunteers I'm gonna be producing literature what have you found to be the most effective messaging what are the words what are the media modalities that you suggest could

you give us as candidates and as politically involved volunteers some input on that thank you of course we got a question um look there's a huge education component right that you have to be able to get across to voters to understand what they're dealing with, right? As Democrats, I think in large part it's been a message of look, we can't focus on the the scary

things. L'ets let's focus in the message of where we're trying to go. It's not about attacking the other candidate, but I I think it is walking a line between what your strategy is for where we can go and understand what could happen if we're not paying attention and electing the right folks, right?

It is finding that sweet spot in between because they're we if we keep doing the thing we've always done, we're gonna continue to get this the same overall result, which is not winning in too many races, right? So it is and and I'll say look, I I saw well, I was listening to Pod Save America the other morning and listening to um a representative from Louisiana, and she was like, Look, our

party's been telling us this whole time, we gotta go find the the moderate white people so they can vote for us, right? And she's like, Look, there are no more moderates, those people who were moderates, they're voting for Trump. And she was like, we have to connect with the people who aren't voting. Embrace the progressive message and see, you should have the

microphone, and embrace the progressive message because that is the thing that helps connect when we talk about being a non-voting state, finding those people who have checked out of the system, it's going it, and it may look. We have we have two kids, 23 and 19, and they vote every time because we're like, you're gonna vote. Right?

But we know they're friends, and even our kids sometimes go, but what is it? What is it gonna matter? And it's like if we don't show up, if your generation doesn't show up. You agree with all the things we're advocating for. We just need enough of you and your voices to help us get there.

Look, if you look at the 2022 election, and you focus on 11 counties that were blue and getting bluer, the 11 biggest counties or some of the biggest counties in the state, and we bump turnout in those spaces. Greg Abbott's not the governor, right? When we talk about the next 11 counties that are red but getting more blue, if we invest in, and

again, there's some of the biggest in the state. Terrant counties is like right there on the edge, right? But we invest in those spaces. There were so many people who didn't vote in those counties. You run this state, and it's not gonna be flipping R's to D's. that's not a phrase or a slogan, so But that's

at least a theme. All right. Um, right here. Sorry. Uh so Gail Frey running for DHT106, but. I also want to do my own homework too So let me ask you how is it that Wilkes and Dunn primarily um funds their targets?

Is it directly or is it more so to a packs? I think I'm aware of the uh Defend Texas Liberty Pack. But what other packs should we be looking for and following? Well I want to say Wilkes and Dunn are important, right?

And defend Texas Liberty is absolutely where they went. And over the last two years, you know, we talk about well, we talk about Empower Texans and how big and a big bad wolf they were. The money that's gone in to defend Texas Liberty in the last two years versus what went in the entire time Empower Texans Pack existed. It's equal, right?

So they've pushed so much more money in in the last two years to defend Texas Liberty. So that's scary. But the thing is, it's not just Wilkes and Dunn. That's the thing you gotta be careful with. It's easy to fall into this trap of there's two big bad guys behind the curtain. Now, what they've done is they've created a model that

others are following, right? I I liken it to somebody doing a cannonball into the deep end of a swimming pool, right? They made a big splash with Empower Texans. And what we're dealing with now, even more not just at the state level, at the local level, right? Or or more local races. Others who may not have the same billions but carry

the same ideology, they're investing heavily. So the thing you've got to watch for is just significant donations going in anywhere to an opponent, right? It's looking at those campaign finance reports, understanding what's actually coming from in the district versus outside the district, and where are the big checks coming from? Because as soon as you start to see a big check, and you can go to my website and look

because I'm I'm ripping all the reports every time. Is start to say where else are they giving? And when you start to see it connected to multiple candidates, and you start to understand what those candidates are about, it becomes very easy to see where the Christian nationalism or the ideology broadly is pushing. See it, name it, fight it.com. That's the easiest one.

You can get all of the stuff from there. Oh, it's it fight it or save. Fight it. See it, name it, fight it. Because I don't want you to just say it. I want you to go fight it wherever you can. Sorry. We take the good next tool questions.

Last year, yeah. I'm going to change the direction that we're going a little bit. Um, when you talk about dominionism, you're talking about government. So I come from a really small town up here in North Texas, 3200 people. And we've got this going on in a municipal level. We've got Monty Bennett, a major benefactor of

uh our town council right now, and people are sitting on it. We have Matt Krauss coming in. He has a new tool, folks. It's called the Texas Government Accountability Association, and he is trying to take over control of our municipal governments with this. He wants to take the place of TML, which all

of our municipalities rely on for governance. Try to make municipality. Yes, ma'am We just went through this. We had to deal with Aaron Harris. We had to deal with Matt Armstrong, Tree Texas Project, and Jill Glover, Grassroots Project, We the People. Bringing this into our town, creating a political action committee

with 32 people hundred in our town, a political action committee. And Chris is right. It opened a door that can't be closed. The question is, how can we stop it? Wow. Yeah, I mean, I think it really just comes back to those of you.

You have to do the very best you can to coordinate and organize as many of the 3200 in your community as possible to say we're not going to elect people that they're backing, right? They're kind of trying to do the same thing with TASB, right? They want to statewide, they want to get rid of TASB and install their own Christian nationalist-driven school

board association to advise and inform school boards. So we're going to see this at local community level, state level. Again, it just comes back to educate and mobilize as many people within your community as you can to ensure that the people they're backing, who would make policy once elected to move these things, right? Don't get elected in the first place.

Or if they're there now, it's their last. term Um it really comes down to whether it's at a local level or it's a state level, or we're going to see again in a national level the fight, who's in office because the people that hold those offices are going to be the people who are making the rules and the decisions that the rest of us are having to live with.

So last question. This when I think back to what we managed to do with the Affordable Care Act and knock that just flat off of the platform, when I'm gonna talk to people, and if I use the term Obamacare, this is what I got. I got a wall. But when I said the Affordable Care Act, that's like

I mean, what if when I walk up to somebody and I say, Well, I want to talk to you about Christian nationalism. I'm gonna get a wall because you know we're Christian, I'm gonna be against that. Last time be from the police, I thought just broke us because it was and it's just the message. But here's here's what you can do with that, and

we totally understand because when we started talking about Christian nationalism, we got a lot of talk to my hand. I don't want to talk to you, right? You're you're attacking my religion personally. But here's the thing we have asked the experts that we have become acquainted with and we have relationship with, we've asked them multiple times is there some other word that we could use that's more palatable?

There isn't. You gotta call it what it is, and it is Christian nationalism. Now, understanding a workinging definition so you can hold a conversation and not be attack somebody but just inform them. What does that term really mean? Right? That's really important.

So everybody in this room, like go and here's a couple of groups here in Texas, and I mentioned one of them before that that are faith-based groups that you can say, let me tell you about my friends at the first one is the BJC, the Baptist Joint Committee, and they have an entire initiative called Christians Against Christian Nationalism. Amanda Tyler is uh is the person that heads up

that organization. She used to be at DC, she's just recently moved back down here to Texas. They have fabulous messaging, lots of resources. Go online, Google them. Say the name again. Uh BJC is the acronym, I guess, and it's Christians against Christian nationalism.

And then the other group that I'm gonna tell you, and Chris will tell you to uh get to know about and and they they have messaging as well, especially for public education. That's their focus, is pastors for Texas children. Charlie Johnson, some of y'all may know Charlie, he's fabulous, he's worked for years on fighting vouchers, that is their focus.

But they have faith leaders of all denominations and all faith uh uh faith traditions that organize across the state of Texas and uh speak and fight vouchers. They'll come to your organization, your church, they'll come to your group and speak. Um, you can just go on their website or their, you know, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, whatnot, get information. But I think having sometimes when you can um de-arm

somebody, you know, with but let me tell you about my faith-based friends that are also trying to fight Christian nationalism because as faith people Christian nationalism doesn't just attack our democracy, it it attacks Christianity, right? It breaks the integrity of Christianity. So anybody who is an already an activist within that space will tell you if we want to protect the integrity of American Christianity or Christianity anywhere, but

we're dealing with America, we have to fight Christian Christian nationalism. And you know, I'll tell you that the folks at the BJC have fabulous messaging about that, um, and you can get a lot of you know, bumper sticker type things that you can you can share, you know, with friends or family or whomever you're trying to have this kind of conversation with.

And I Chris and I understand it's a hard conversation to have, and we definitely lost some relationships, and when you're talking about it and you're going to friends and family, you kind of have to go into it knowing it might cost me something, but what we all gain from having those conversations is well worth it in the end, we feel like. So thank you all for having us.

Very much for coming. We really appreciate it. This was great. Um, if you enjoyed this, we have programs like this every month. Last month we covered the um uh propositions and learned what they were about and what to vote for uh in January.

We're skipping the meeting in December in favor of a Christmas party. Uh so in January we are having Christy Wood. She's going to talk about how Denton County runs elections. And in February, surprise candidates were having a primary candidate forum, and as well as uh a part of a presenter to come talk to us about how to run for office because we can't win if we don't run.

So really important things coming up. Fun things coming up. We have a breakfast this Saturday. Uh we have one every third Saturday or the Saturday after the meeting, and this time it's going to be at first watch over on Justin. Go about 9 a.m. And we're just hanging out with people that have the

same values that you have. We have First Fridays uh at Taco Ocho. It starts at about 5, 5:30. Uh, so please come on out for that and join us. It's a lot of fun, lots of times. Colleen's uh boyfriend will be playing, and her daughter will be singing.

That's fun. And um finally we have our Christmas party coming up on um the 10th of December. 10th of December at Gabrielle and Sophia's. Yes, at Gabrielle and Sophia's four to seven, yes. Um, so in closing, first of all, I want to say um thank you to Gina Daly who sponsored this with us.

Thank you, Cecilia, for all of your support and and running this. I want to, I'd be remiss if I we don't do this all by ourselves it's a lot of people so I want to just recognize our leadership team Mariah Martinez uh well we met Michelle but she left anyway and Laura Haynes and then Canada Rongo and people that couldn't be here

David Stanaway unfortunately couldn't make it Vaughn Munro and Anthony Sanders had other but they're also part of this team and helped out with this effort so uh thank you please look us up on Facebook please follow us and I just want to close with what everybody else is saying there's only one way we're taking we're taking this date back there's only one way we're getting out of what we're what's happening with the schools and habit and

that's to vote and not just vote but you've met several candidates here go talk to them join one of their campaigns uh we and and join us because we will be supporting these candidates after the primaries we'll be out every weekend Michelle be organizing block walks and uh and meet and greets and whatever we can do to get people elected but you need to come out and support them too with us and you need to uh

and you need to make sure you vote and tell everyone around you to vote and be sure and talk to your neighbors because even if you think they're um uh Republican they aren't they don't understand democratic values if they did they'd be Democrats all right thank you oh by the way you can be talking if you want to help us put away the chairs we've got to give them away