[upbeat music] My friends, today we're gonna talk about Texas. For a decade, maybe 100 years, we've heard over and over, "This is the year we flip Texas."
Sometimes we get closer, sometimes we get much further away.
But as much as I'm excited about a candidate like James Talarico, I am always more interested in the people standing up to run in their communities at the state and the local level.
So today I'm going to introduce you to Junior Izanu. So listen, you all have asked for more examples of people fighting for progress you can actually see and touch and feel.
And in this batch of conversations, another one in partnership with our best friends at Run For Something, we're giving you exactly what you asked for. And my friends, that's exactly who Junior is.
I can't wait for you to hear more about him. All the guests in this series are sourced from the Run For Something pipeline and graduating classes, the next generation of leaders.
So listen, if these conversations inspire you, please do three things. One, find out what office you or some young person you love can run for something at runforwhat.net.
Two, find and support incredible candidates endorsed by Run For Something and Climate Cabinet and other incredible organizations at whatcanido.earth. And three, share it.
Please share this conversation with someone who needs it because if you and I need it, my friend, someone else does, too. So as always, you can shoot me questions or feedback at questions@importantnotimportant.com.
If you're watching, you see I'm wearing one of our new Actually Pro-Life T-shirts that everyone's super excited about, and you can get those at shop.importantnotimportant.com. Let's do it. Let's go meet Junior.
Junior, tell me briefly who you are, but most importantly, where you are and what you're running for. Thank you again for having me, my brother.
Amanda, big shout out to Amanda for setting up Run For Something and creating a space where young folks and people that are running for the first or maybe the second time just have support, have people that they can call upon, people that can mentor them and just pro- help them get over the finish line.
So I really appreciate the work she's doing. But my name is Junior Izanu. I live in Grand Prairie, Texas, which is right by Dallas, suburb of Dallas, Texas.
I have been serving as a city council member since I was 22 years old.
I challenged a 12-year incumbent to get on the city council at Grand Prairie while I was actually still in college, graduating with a BA in political science.
And then earlier this year I ran for state representative against a 16-year incumbent within the Democratic Party primary, defeated the 16-year incumbent in March.
And I don't have a November general election, so I'm effectively the state representative elect, and I'm just excited to, you know, hit the ground running and try to get some good things done here in Texas.
That's incredible, man. We got the college of William & Mary about 20 yards behind me. We've started to have, you know, folks there who again, like, they, they might not necessarily be...
It sounds like you live at least in, in the area, but they, they might not be permanent tenants, but they go like, "I, I am very much a part of this community."
And, and it sounds like we need to have people under 60 step up and start to represent all of the younger people and all of the people, and, and that can go a long way. I, I love it.
I don't know how you found time to do that while you were still at school. [laughs] But that's pretty incredible stuff, man.
Real quick before we dive into it, how did you get hooked up with our pals at Run For Something? Did they find you? Did you find it? So I was running in North Texas among some progressive folks that I know.
I'm a big progressive Democrat, and they were, you know, recommend asking for an endorsement. "Ask this group for an endorsement."
And Run For Something was one of the first groups they said to reach out to for an endorsement, and Run For Something endorsed me I think like a month or two months into my campaign.
However, they did endorse a few of my opponents in the race, too, because they were all under 40 as well, and they were running- Sure... for the first time. So Run For Something is just fair.
Their biggest thing is not just to support one individual candidate. They wanna support young people that are running for office and uplift them- Right... and give them support.
So that's how I discovered Run For Something and, you know, it's kind of unfortunate because this was my third time running for office. Okay. So I will not be endorsed by them again.
I'm just gonna be a Run For Something alumni. All right. But, you know, I'm so grateful to be able to work with them and continue working with them as I continue to grow in local leadership.
That was a really interesting point, like, and, and one of the things I love about them is they're like, "We're not the, the horse race political version that has kinda got us here of like, you know, trying to pick winners."
Like you said, they endorsed a, a bunch of, a bunch of folks. How, how does that sit with you? How does that feel? How do you handle that, or how did they seem to handle that sorta operationally throughout that campaign?
I think it's just honest. They let you know that our goal is not to pick winners and losers in electoral politics, rather it's to uplift the next generation of leaders. Mm-hmm.
And in a race like my race when I was running for city council in 2021, I, I forget to mention this, but we actually had six people in our race, six candidates in the race- Wow...
including the incumbent that had been elected for 12 years. They had every right to support multiple candidates, as they should be- 'cause their goal is not just to support a specific candidate for a policy issue.
Mm-hmm. Rather, it's to uplift progressive young candidates.
So what they did made a lot of sense to me, and I'm just grateful that in subsequent elections we've been able to work very closely together and, you know, help not just elect me for re-election in 2024 and then for state representative this year, but also help elect other young progressives in Texas, especially in Texas.
Yeah. Because Texas is on the precipice of change, big change coming in November, God willing. That's what we're working hard to ensure happens. Tell me about that, man. I got a lot of friends down in Texas.
Obviously it's been back and forth. The Democratic Party, whatever shape or form it's in- [laughs]...
in, in, in different states and nationally and, and locally, God knows, has both thrown a ton of money at Texas at times, but the wrong things, or ignored it or places and... What are, what are you feeling now?
What, what the hell, it's June? It's June? How, how are we doing? It's June. How are you feeling about your race? How are you feeling about just general in the state?
So f- for the state, I think we have a very good opportunity to flip the Senate seat, the US Senate seat With James Talarico running against Ken Paxton.
Ken Paxton is someone that has had a lot of legal issues, and a lot of people, even Republicans, independent voters, they look at him as a criminal, as a crook. They don't wanna support a candidate like that.
You know, James Talarico, on the other side, has shown himself to be a good legislator in the Texas House of Representatives and also a good leader, and someone that cares about working class people and focuses on issues that affect the little guy.
I think he has a really good opportunity, and him doing well running for Senate is also gonna help us flip several seats down-ballot when we look at our state legislature.
So I'll be serving in the 90th legislature next year, uh, the 90th session. I think we can pick up eight, 10, maybe even 12 seats, maybe even more, but I think we can pick up eight to 10 seats.
Right now, Republicans have 88 seats. Democrats have 62 seats. For us to take the majority in the State House, you have to pick up 14 seats.
I think that'll be a bit difficult this year, but I think we can make some major inroads and pick up eight to 10 seats, which would change, drastically change the dynamics of legi- of legislation down in Austin.
The conservatives for a long time have just gotten very extreme on a lot of issues just because it's been a one-party state.
No matter how far right they go, they get reelected, and they continue doing what they wanna do, so they feel like there's no repercussions, no consequences.
But we plan on showing them this year that there will be consequences, and you will have to moderate, come to the middle, and then eventually work with us on some progressive legislation.
So those eight to 10 seats, which again, like you said, would be not only a huge accomplishment but, but a real reckoning in a lot of ways, even if it doesn't take the, the House or reverse it, much less like ha- have any sort of majority, which, you know, to those of us outside the state seems impossible.
But, you know, like I'm, I'm in Virginia. I left for a long time, but V- Virginia was not exactly even close to purple for a long time, right?
It, it takes a lot of work on the ground to find people to lose, lose, lose, and then eventually start to pick off some of those seats. Where else are those eight to 10 seats coming from?
Who are those folks that are, that are saying, "I will step up and try to do this," because it seems like this is the moment, and it seems like, again, we've lost enough to get there to learn what we need to do.
Yeah, so some of those seats are gonna be in North Texas, the DFW Dallas-Fort Worth area. Some are neighboring districts to my district.
It touches two, two districts, House District 94 and 96, which we're looking at as major targets.
The PVI for those districts are R plus eight, R plus nine, so they're conservative lean districts, but in a year like 2026 with good candidates, we think we can flip those seats.
Then you have a few races, a few districts out in Collin County that we're looking at, we're targeting. Collin County is one of the most affluent but also diverse counties in Texas.
It's about like 30% Asian, about 15% Black, 10% Hispanic.
Pretty much a mi- minority majority county, and it's very affluent with a lot of high educated voters that live there that have, that are continuing to move there.
So we think we could pick up potentially maybe one seat, maybe two seats in Collin County.
Dallas County, which is the bastion of Democratic politics in North Texas, Dallas County still has two state representative districts that are Republican, and we think we can pro- probably pick up maybe one or two seats there.
If we pick up those seats just in North Texas alone, we would've picked up five or six state representative districts.
Then you go down near Austin, just north of Austin, going towards Killeen and Temple, there's two districts that we're looking at over there.
Houston area, we're looking at picking up one or two districts, and then in San Antonio, there's about two districts out there that we're looking at in the San Antonio suburban metro area.
So all across the state, man, there's opportunities, even if you wanna go further just down south towards the Valley, the Rio Grande Valley, which was a major...
It's, it's a major battleground in Texas politics now because we've seen Hispanic voters that live down south slowly revert to the Republican Party, and we're trying to bring them back over to the Democratic Party by running on issues that they care about and delivering on issues that they care about.
But even down there, we're looking at three to four seats that potentially could be flipped.
So all across the state, man, on a really good night, in a, on a really good November, what is it, November 3rd [laughs] 2026- Yeah, yeah...
we might be able to get it done because the opportunity is ample and it's everywhere.
And, you know, when gas is $4 a gallon in Texas, where the refineries are in, in the Harris, in the Houston area and in West Texas that pump some of the most gas out in the whole country, if not the whole world, people are feeling it, man, and they're, they're feeling pain at the pump, and they want change.
Yeah. Not to mention with the data center, the data center crisis that we're facing across the state too. People are pissed off about the data centers.
So we, we have some momentum on our, at our backs, and I think we're gonna have a good November. I love it, man. Is there...
I guess working inside out, you, you, you talked about gas, which obviously everyone is fucking furious about. It's just purely, you know, been a policy choice that got us to this place. It is totally unnecessary.
Is that the primary issue for your district? Are there one to two issues that are transferable among a lot of these districts? I mean, obviously everyone has 72 things to deal with right now. Affordability- Yeah...
is the biggest part. Gas is part of that. Housing is part of that. Even though Texas is building housing like crazy and compared to other places, it's still not super affordable.
I know you've talked about the cost of starter homes is still just like a shit show. What has really been most effective for you and for all these other folks? Oh, definitely housing.
We'll start with housing to begin with. Homeownership is something that a lot of people, especially in suburban Texas, like strive for.
Concept of the American dream, it's just out of reach for an average North Texan, the average person that lives in Arlington, Grand Prairie, or Mansfield in my district.
Back in 2022, we saw that in Tarrant County, which is where I live, my district is entirely in Tarrant County, 52% of all the single-family homes that were sold went to private equity firms and large corporations,
meaning that regular working families, regular middle-class families were priced out of those homes because what the private equity firms do, they flip those homes, or they turn them into rental properties.
My next-door neighbor on my street, the home that's next, right next to me, is owned by BlackRock.
I couldn't believe it 'cause I, like so many people had moved in and out of that house since I bought my house three years ago. Right. And I'm like, "What's going on here?"
So I just went on the, you know, the county's appraisal district to find out who owned that house. BlackRock owns it. Couldn't believe it.
You hear about that a lot, and there's a lot of headlines about it, and in a lot of places it is not necessarily the most meaningful headline measure quantitatively in the sense that it might be 20% or something like that, which is still far too much.
But 52% is fucking crazy. Like, that's, that's crazy. You don't have a chance. You'll see a lot of neighborhoods, literally they'll be built out within a day.
Pe- when it goes on the market, it's already saying for lease. Like, half of the neighborhood will say for lease, for lease, for lease, for lease, for lease.
Instead of for sale, for lease, for lease, for lease, for lease. So people are being priced out of home ownership.
And I was talking about this on the campaign trail, and it really connected with a lot of my voters, that the average age for a first-time home buyer in 2025 in Texas was 40 years old,
compared to 20 years ago when the average age was 31 years of age. That's so brutal. We're moving in the wrong direction, my brother. Wrong direction.
And people are being priced out, so home ownership is something that's very important. Public education funding is- Mm-hmm... something that is crucial. 'Cause in Texas
we have an unfortunate state government that just passed a private school voucher bill which was set up to defund public education.
And I have a lot of voters in my district and around my district, Democrat, Republican, Independent, that say, "Junior, what are we gonna do to support our public schools? What are we gonna do to pay our teachers more?
What are we gonna do to make sure that our schools don't get consolidated and closed down?" 'Cause we're seeing in a lot of our school districts, they're having campus closings.
They're closing now to consolidate these campuses because of the, they don't have the money. Yeah. They don't have the money. Yeah.
So it, it's a humongous issue right there, and I think that one is seen across the state, but especially in my district where we've had several school closures in different school districts that serve my community.
So let's just, let's imagine those are the only two issues for now, which would be so nice. They're not, but it, it, a lot of it comes back to, to greed and on the other side affordability and, and all of that. Exactly.
You are running to be in a legislature that meets every two years. Again, every state is super weird. Like, Virginia, it's once a year. [laughs] It's like 60 days. It's a shit show. What are your first steps, knowing
how this works procedurally, to take on PE in housing at 52%, to take on this private school voucher? What are you measurably going to do to say, "Hey, I campaigned on these things.
These are the first things I'm able to actually do," besides yell about it?
So looking at the issue with the private equity firms and these corporations buying up single family homes, Donald Trump has actually helped us out a little bit with this, 'cause he put out a statement back in January saying that he was against it, whether he is or he isn't.
But he's saying that we need to ban private equity. Right. You know, he's, he's playing politics. But we can use that when we talk to our Republican colleagues and say, "Hey, this is your boy right here." Yeah.
"The boy right here is saying that he wants us to ban it. What you doing? Are, are, are you not, are you not pro-MAGA now?" [laughs] Right, right. "Are you gonna pick and choose what, what, what being MAGA is?"
[laughs] Whatever it takes, man. What- whatever... Hey, that's, hey, that's the game.
So I think right there we're gonna find some bipartisan support because Democrat or Republican, people's children aren't able to buy homes anymore. Yeah.
Like, folks want their kids to live at least 20, 30 minutes near them and not have to move an hour or two hours away into some for- far rural community or, or exurban community just 'cause they can't afford to get a house in the city or in the suburbs.
That, that'll be a big piece of legislation.
Another idea that I have when it comes to making home ownership more affordable is creating a subsidized interest rate buydown for first-time home buyers similar to how, you know, if you go get a student loan to go to school, the federal government is gonna cover the interest while you're in school.
Right. On this one, the state government will cover 1% to 2% of the interest rate for you to own that house for the first 15 years.
This will help first-time home buyers actually get their foot in the door and be able to afford that monthly mortgage. 'Cause a lot of people may qualify for that house and for that mortgage- Mm...
but they can't actually afford it. When 40% of your income, of your take-home income, is going to your house, if not 50% for some people- Yeah...
and then 30% is going to transportation and, and, you know, the rest is to food, people are living paycheck to paycheck.
So that's an idea that I have that I think we can possibly get some support on, creating a program just to help our Texans that are working really hard, you know, be able to live that American dream that everyone aspires to.
Now, looking at public education, it's gonna be a battle. It's gonna be a battle 'cause the Republicans want to expand the voucher program- Mm... to spend even more money.
They're spending a couple billion dollars a year now on vouchers. They wanna go even higher and expand vouchers everywhere, which is, you know, it, it's a big problem. So we gotta stop them from the expansion.
We have to work to repeal it. Me, my goal is to repeal vouchers. Mm-hmm. But right now, let me tell you what I wanna do.
Since vouchers exist right now, they're giving each family that qualifies for the vouchers right now $10,000. Keep in mind, 80% of the people that have gotten the vouchers already had their kids in private schools.
Let's keep that in mind. 80% of the people. So it's not helping working families have school choice, as they'll tell you.
But anyways, I'm gonna propose some legislation when we are doing our budget for public education funding that we raise the per pupil allotment from 6,400 to $6,500 per student to $10,000, which is the national average.
Mm-hmm. That's the national average is $10,000 per student across the country. But also, the voucher program is giving families 10,000 per student to put them in private schools.
Give those same public schools that same $10,000 and make it fair across the board, and let's see who thrives and who succeeds. Let's be fair. Are there other states that have successfully... Well, at least,
you know, again, it's all relative, but, like, measures to ban PE in housing, other places that have successfully passed that or are trying to? I haven't seen any in particular do it.
But it was just a crazy one day, you know, before I launched my campaign, I was just sitting around and it was a crazy idea that came to me. I was like, "Why can't we do this?"
We're doing this for student loans and we do it for other things, and you have large home builders that do mark... You know, interest rate buydowns for like- Sure...
three to four years for, for someone that's buying a brand-new house. The state can do the same thing too, and we can work with local banks and credit unions to provide this for our first-time homebuyers.
If we really care about making sure that Texans accumulate and build wealth and create gene- generational wealth for their kids and their grandkids, then you gotta do it.
Which benefits all of those community banks, like you said, who are already getting the short end of the stick with all this, you know, nationalized financing of, of everything.
This is not your first entrance into local and state politics. You know, like you said, this is your, your third campaign.
What are, like, really measurable allies on the ground for you so far for, for these issues or any others? Like, whether it's groups or people who are already in the leg- state legislature, like, "Hey. Listen, it...
this is the most effective way for us to try to operate on these things." Well, I wanna start off with how I got into politics. Like- Please. Yeah... to orient you on how my brain was shaped.
So I'm a big Bernie Sanders guy. Bernie was the guy that inspired me during that 2016 presidential election. Mm. I was very fascinated by him.
Don't agree with him on every single issue, but I love his authenticity- Mm... how much he cared about working people, working families, and just fight for them, even if he knew he couldn't get everything he wanted.
And that's why you see in 2026 radical ideas like a $15 minimum wage is now mainstream nationally. Mm-hmm. I was actually able to pass a $15 minimum wage as a city council member in my city three years ago.
But issues like Medicare for all, universal healthcare are no longer things that people laugh at. They're like, "Yeah, we need it." I know Republican business owners in my city that would tell me, "Junior,
I am not a Democrat." They will say, "I don't like y'all's policies," but they'll say, "But I support, I support a universal healthcare program." And I'll say, "Why?"
They was like, "We don't wanna pay for people's healthcare. The government should be the one paying for their healthcare. They're paying all this money in taxes.
The government should pay for their healthcare, and it's cheaper and it's more efficient, it's more effective, and we can save money." So it's an issue where we're seeing bipartisan support.
So Bernie's where, you know, I got my, some of my political socialization around that time- Sure... when I was watching that 2016 election.
But for me on the ground, some groups that I, you know, I work closely with would definitely be groups like Sunrise Movement, who are very big on environmental issues in Texas.
I actually work in my professional career for Climate Cabinet, which is a pro-climate- Oh, yeah... group. Yeah, yeah. Climate Ca- I'm, I'm Climate Cabinet's political program manager.
I work with folks like Sierra Club- Sure... League of Conservation Voters. A lot of people in that, that ecosystem, but then a lot of different progressive organizations.
At one point in North Texas, we had a really strong Our Revolution North Texas branch that did some good work trying to help elect progressive p- people to local government.
I'm just big in the progressive space, but I look at myself as a very pragmatic progressive leader that understands that, you know, we can't get everything that we want up front, but we can work to- towards it every day, just building and building and building to get our goals accomplished.
Play the rules of the game, the structure that's out there. You know, you try to change people's lives as you can- Exactly... but you go, "Well, we're... Look, we're gonna meet when we meet.
This is what we're up against," you know, on a demographic level of, of who has been represented so far and who hasn't.
Like you said, from, from the ground up, folks that are running for these eight to 10 seats coming from the local level- Mm-hmm... in a lot of ways can push further on the federal side, right, for, for Talarico.
Wait, isn't he a Run For Something guy? I believe he is. He got elected to the state leg when he was, like, 29. Oh. Yeah. I, I'm pretty sure. But- Yeah...
but I hope also that, you know, a- and I think what really gets Amanda and that crew going is when, when local and state candidates are able to push the top of the ticket, right? And, and drive- Yeah... turnout there.
Make the co- reverse coattails, as, as you will. Um- Reverse coattails. That's right. That's right. Yeah. That's what we have. To your point, that's what we have to do in Texas.
If we want to see Talarico win and for us to flip some of these statewide races, it will be the people on the down ballot working it upwards, helping the top of the ticket get over the finish line.
What are your sort of main obstacles from day one, besides, again, you guys won't have a majority? I'll tell you a little story to answer the question. Please.
So when I first got elected to the city council, I was 22 years old, fresh out of college.
I literally graduated from UT Arlington three weeks before I won my runoff election, so I was campaigning during my last semester.
I met with the mayor, city manager, the outgoing city manager right after I got elected, and they asked me, "What's the first thing you wanna do once you get, once you, you know, get sworn in and you're serving?"
I said, "I wanna listen." Mm. I said, "I wanna listen so I can learn."
You know, there are people on this council that have been serving longer than I have and have wisdom that they can provide to me and help me grow as a leader, and I can't be the leader that my community needs if I come in headstrong thinking I know everything, 'cause I don't.
But if I come and take my time and grow in this position, I can be the best leader I can be. So I, I say this because that's how I'm taking this next step as well. I don't know everything.
I have to learn the institution that is the House of Representatives. I have to learn how it, how it works, you know?
Where, you know, I, I can go and get my, my bills filed and the, who's, who's on the legislative council that can help me write legislation.
You know, still working out staffing for, for my district and my s- Austin office, and, you know, just growing into that leadership role. So that's the first step is just learning, right?
But the next obstacle is building trust and rapport with people within your party, and then people that you can work with outside of your party. I came in as a...
I'm coming in as a younger person on the younger side of the totem pole who defeated a long time incumbent that was well liked by a lot of people that are elected.
So it's gonna take some time to build rapport, but I believe just the way I look at these issues and my authenticity when I talk to people about the problems, and just being genuine about What we gotta do to improve our state will help me bridge the gap with many people within my party and outside of my party so we can, so we can pass good legislation.
'Cause I think a lot of this stuff is relationship based. Mm. Oh, yeah. You learn in politics so much of it is relationship based.
People sometimes will work with you because you're a kind person, and sometimes they won't work with you because you're an asshole. Yeah. So pardon my French- Yeah, no... but it's the truth.
So, you know, that- that's how I'm taking it, that's how I'm looking at serving, and I'm just excited to, to grow in this role. I love it.
It is amazing, not necessarily how far you can get objectively, but how much farther you can get when you're not an asshole. It is- Mm-hmm...
it really does [laughs] go a long way, and I don't know if that's because there seems to have been... You know, everyone has a microphone.
There, there seems to be many more assholes than, than ever before, so we don't, we almost expect them, and so a kind person feels like an oasis of sorts, much less a kind person who has said, "I'm, I wanna make it my life's work to, to represent you.
I'm here to listen, and I will do what I can to try to improve it incrementally where I can." I don't know. I d- you know, it's, it's a, it's a tough one, but it does go a really long way.
And now it seems to be in any industry, right? Someone who's just like, "No, I'm, my job is to improve your life." Well, I think part of it is this, this thing, this cellphone that we have, right?
It's allowed us to live a life where we're just big on instant gratification and me, me, me, wanna do it right now, right now, right now, that a lot of us have just become transactional.
We don't care about people as sh- full humans. We look at 'em as just numbers or just as individuals that we need to get something out of to get to where we're trying to go.
So we don't treat them with the respect and kindness that human beings deserve. Humans deserve just respect and kindness.
And for me, I always try to just take a step back and remember, regardless of who this person is, regardless of what they've said and done, they're a human being just like how I am.
If they get cut, they gonna bleed just like how I bleed. And I try to treat them how I wanna be treated. Mutual respect always, but I will emphasize mutual respect always. [laughs] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
So the respect that I'm giving, I expect to receive it. Yeah. So if I'm not receiving, then we'll have another different- Yeah, yeah, yeah... we'll have a different conversation then. No, no, no. There, there...
Bad guys are real and, and, you know- Yeah... you can try to give them a little trust and again, if they're gonna tarnish it, then that's game. Yeah.
Just for a minute, because I'm 1,000 years old, tell me about, like, that spirit of, like you said, the, the phones, the transactional instant nature of everything. H- how does that feel at this point in your generation?
'Cause it feels like there's starting incrementally be some backlash again. You know, so we talk a lot here about parenting young kids right now, which is fucking chaos, but it always is. Mm-hmm.
But you're kinda in that middle ground, right? What, what is, what's the vibe right now for, for people who are, like, your age who are like, "Oh, Junior, thank you for running.
Like, this is the stuff besides affordability that we really care about"? It's like two fish are swimming and one of the fish is like, "Hey, how's the water today?" And the other one's like, "What's the water?"
It's what you're surrounded by every day. It's the air. There's a much better version of that. [laughs] But it's like your generation came up much more in, like, this is the, this is just the water.
This is what we live in. How is that going? This is the worst question anyone's ever asked, sorry. It... No, no, but I, I understand what you're getting at.
So within my generation, you're seeing people that are literally observing the adverse effects of social media and just our lives, our phones being our lives. You're seeing a lot of people that are noticing that.
So I'll see friends that will just completely detach and detox from Instagram, from Facebook, from TikTok. They say, "I'm not touching it because, like, it's, it's warping my brain."
And there are people that get depressed by social media. I had a friend of mine a few years ago tell me something that just blew my mind, and I, I could never understand that.
She told me that she had just stepped away from Instagram for a few days, and when she came back, she didn't wanna look at her notifications because it gave her anxiety. I said, "What, what's giving you anxiety?"
She said, "The notifications." I was like, "What about it? Just click check to see w- what happened." She's like, "No, I'm, I'm too nervous." I said, "Oh my goodness." We are dealing with...
Like, they call us the anxious generation. Mm-hmm. Y- I mean, it, it's real because people's lives are their phones, are social media, are these fake... Social media's all fake, right?
Some of it is real, but a lot of it is fake. We're all presenting our best selves. It's all presentation to make you look better than what you are.
Promise you guys, I'm not a guy that wears a suit and tie every single day. Right. I'm not always speaking like I'm speaking right now. I'm a regular person.
But, you know, on social media, people, they think that's who I am 100%.
It's definitely harming especially the younger generation because people's brains are still being molded and shaped and still growing, and people, people are using this religiously at 12- Yeah... at 13, 14.
So it, it's definitely affecting us, it's hurting us, and we're seeing for the first time, like, young people recognizing that and trying to take action themselves, but it's so hard because we're all addicted to our phones.
We're all addicted to our phones. And, you know, older folks, it's, it's hilarious 'cause my, my dad and my mom will be at home sometimes.
I'll go visit my parents, and they'll just be on their phone just watching TikTok or, or [laughs] whatever. Facebook Reels or... Yeah. It... And, and, and now, you know, the next step is AI.
AI is now gonna make the situation worse because all this AI slop that you don't know what's real, what's fake, it's gonna continue to warp our brains.
So we're heading in a bad direction, and young people are noticing that. But I'll tell you the one positive thing that I'm seeing more than anything else. Young folks are now striving to create a community. Mm-hmm.
Community outside of their phones, outside of Instagram, outside of Facebook- Mm... and Twitter. Going out and just having fun, whether it's h- Like, I know people that will play volleyball together every week.
Like, hundreds of people that would gather and go play volleyball or go to the local, you know, pub or whatever, a bar, just hang out with friends, have a good time, and engage or have a little event at a clubhouse to meet, mix and mingle and meet people.
So that's been very good, and I think this summer's gonna be a good opportunity for people to just get out and build community and create community with the World Cup coming. Mm-hmm.
The- we're gonna have several games in Dallas at the stadium in Arlington where the Cowboys play, and all across the country there's gonna be a lot of games.
People'll be- will have the opportunity to actually get out there and meet people- Yeah... and grow and not just be glued to the phone 24/7. What else am I missing, Junior? Anything else?
I don't wanna keep you forever here. I'm already such a big fan. I'm in. Oh, thank you so much. Keep doing the great work you're doing.
This is amazing, and just giving, you know, candidates like myself and elected officials the opportunity to engage in good conversation and good, good discourse about the issues affecting our communities, our states.
I just appreciate this, and I'll say keep your eyes on Texas. We're gonna shock you this November. I know we've been talking about it for 30 years [laughs]- But that's the way it goes.
Again, I'm in Virginia, man, you know? Yeah, exactly. And by the way, then we took a step backwards a little bit four years ago. Yeah. It's like, this is not easy. Yeah.
Nothing is a given in any of these places, and obviously Texas is unique, but, like, Georgia didn't flip w- four years ago because something happened overnight.
That was 20, 30 years of Black women, like, working and working and working and working to make that happen. Exactly. And again, it's still, like, touch and go.
Where can we follow your campaign if you want people to contribute, pay attention? Yeah, definitely. My website is votejuniorezeonu.com. Junior Ezeonu spelled J-U-N-I-O-R, Ezeonu is E-Z-E-O-N-U, so votejuniorezeonu.com.
You can find information about me there. My, my ActBlue link to donate is there. Social media, you just, just type in Junior Ezeonu on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube. Find me anywhere. That's it.
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