Shaping the Future: Battleground State Races in the 2024 Election

Transcript

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I mean, did anyone else hear about the boneless chicken wings case they ruled on recently?

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The court made national headlines with their four to three ruling that boneless chicken wings can have bones with them.

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So yeah, the Supreme Court in Ohio is important and this election is a big deal.

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It is, it's actually maybe I don't.

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I can't even pick what is more important the Senate race or the Supreme Court.

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To be honest, they're both so, so important.

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Welcome back to the United she Stands podcast, the show that brings kindness and women into politics.

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I'm Ashley.

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And I'm Sarah, and we're two women from Ohio who are here to become more educated about American politics and build a community so we can all get involved and make an impact together.

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We hope we'll inspire and empower you along the way.

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the United she Stands podcast.

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As promised, we're going to continue to talk about significant state-level elections this November and, more specifically, open government seats.

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As a reminder, it's extremely important to check what and who is on your ballot this election Well, all elections, but this is the one we're talking about.

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We know this is a presidential election year, which is huge, but the stuff and people you're voting for on the state and local level are just as important.

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We love voting.

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We love voting and being informed about our ballot and participating in democracy, so let's talk about it.

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Let's do just that, and let's start by talking about the US Senate.

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So 34 of the 100 seats are up for election and 33 of those seats are up for regular election and one is up for a special election.

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Of the 33 regularly scheduled elections in 2024, 10 seats are held by Republicans, 19 seats are held by Democrats and four seats are held by independents who caucus with Democrats.

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There are two special elections scheduled for November 5th as well, and one of the special elections will be held to fill the last two years of August 2024,.

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There are 45 Democrats, 49 Republicans and four independents in the Senate.

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That means the Republicans have the majority and therefore have more voting power when it comes to bills and legislation.

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Ballotpedia has identified 12 races as general election battlegrounds in 2024.

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These states include Arizona, california, maryland, michigan, montana, nevada, new Jersey, ohio, pennsylvania, texas, virginia and Wisconsin.

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These battleground races were selected using the following criteria First, the results of the 2020 presidential election in each state.

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Also, whether the incumbent was seeking re-election.

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Whether the incumbent was serving his or her first term in the US Senate.

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And how the Cook Political Report, sabato's crystal ball and inside elections with Nathan Gonzalez raided the race.

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It also includes whether they were meaningful to the balance of power in, for example, the Senate or House of Representatives, etc.

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Senate or House of Representatives, etc.

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Psa here.

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This episode was written on September 11th and the data that we are referring to in the following section was last updated on September 3rd.

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So with that out of the way, let's add a little more color to the 12 battleground races.

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All right.

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So, based on that criteria, montana and Ohio are currently considered the biggest toss-ups.

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They both have Democratic incumbents Joan Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio and will have to fight hard to beat their Republican opponents, tim Sheehy of Montana and Bernie Marino of Ohio.

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Then we have both Michigan and Arizona with open seats, as Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow and Arizona Independent Senator Kristen Sinema, who caucuses with Democrats, are not seeking re-election.

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Based on the data, both states tilt towards their Democratic nominees.

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Nevada Democratic Senator Jackie Rosen, pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey and Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin are all trying to defend their seats from Republican opponents in this election which the data shows their state's leading Democrat In Texas, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, is fighting for a seat against Democrat Colin Allred, who has been in the US House of Reps representing the 32nd District of Texas since 2019.

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Maryland Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who was first elected in 2006, is retiring.

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This means his seat is open At the time of this recording.

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It's a close race between Democrat Angela Alsobrooks and Republican Larry Hogan.

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The election in New Jersey will include an open seat that was previously held by Democrat Bob Menendez Sr, who first took office in 2006.

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Menendez resigned on August 20th of this year and withdrew from this race following his indictment on federal corruption charges.

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Governor Phil Murphy appointed Democrat George Homey to the position for the remainder of Menendez's term on September 9th, but the November 5th election will determine the next person to take the six-year Senate term In Virginia.

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Incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Hung so are running against each other in the Senate race.

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Kaine was first elected to the seat in 2012, winning 53 to 47 percent.

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He was re-elected in 2018, winning 57 to 41%.

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University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth said Lastly, we have California Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey are running against each other to try to snag the open Senate seat.

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Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Democratic LaFonza Butler after Senator Dianne Feinstein died on September 9th 2023.

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Butler did not run for a full term.

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This one is a big deal, because this is the first time in over three decades that Feinstein won't be on the ballot for the Senate seat.

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A moment of silence for a real one, please.

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So that was kind of a lot of critical Senate races, huh?

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It really was Okay, so we're going to touch on the US House of Representatives real quick.

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When it comes to the US House, ballotpedia identified, using the same criteria used to determine the battleground US Senate races that we outlined earlier, 57 out of the 435 races as battleground races.

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That's about 13% of the US House races this election.

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That's also a pretty large number for us to break down for you in a shortish, digestible episode.

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So we encourage you to do your research, look up the US House race for your district and, whether it's a battleground race or not, look into the candidates on the ballot and determine who you want to vote for prior to walking into the ballot box.

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Okay, that's our PSA on US House of Representatives, but there are several battlegrounds that people need to be paying attention to.

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Absolutely.

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Let's now talk about two battleground gubernatorial races this election New Hampshire and North Carolina and, by the way, gubernatorial means relating to a state governor or the office of state governor, and we know like what the fuck with that weird word.

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But yeah, that's just how the cookie crumbled in terms of governor verbiage.

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So, anyway, there are 11 total gubernatorial races this election, and the New Hampshire and North Carolina races are considered the battleground races by Ballotpedia, using the same criteria that was used to determine the battleground races by Ballotpedia, using the same criteria that was used to determine the battleground Senate and House races.

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Of the two, north Carolina has a Democratic incumbent and New Hampshire has a Republican incumbent.

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Both are in states with an incumbent governor from a different party than the party that won the state.

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In the 2020 presidential election, joe Biden carried New Hampshire by a margin of 7.3% and Donald Trump carried North Carolina by a margin of 1.3%.

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So, as Sarah said, this episode was written like September 11th.

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We're going to talk about North Carolina, but then we're going to have some updated commentary on Mark Robinson here, so let's get into it.

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The governor of North Carolina, roy Cooper, is finishing his second term and is not able to run again due to term limits.

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Democrat Josh Stein and Republican Mark K Robinson are trying to fill his open seat.

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Politico called the race the most important and likely the most expensive governor's race of 2024.

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The election will help determine North Carolina's trifecta status.

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Trifecta meaning one political party holds the governorship, a majority in the state senate and a majority in the state house in a state's government.

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Heading into this election, republicans have majorities in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly.

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Republicans are looking to win a trifecta, while Democrats are looking to preserve the state's divided government.

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So, sarah, do you want to talk about Mark Robinson?

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Marky Mark, the most recent victim of the terrible Republican limelight.

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Yeah, yeah.

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I mean, what did?

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Okay, first of all, did you know, like kind of, who this guy was before the most recent?

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No, I really didn't know any, and once some of this stuff started coming out, people were saying like, yeah, some other nasty shit has been uncovered about him previously too.

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Yeah, I had no idea.

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So maybe for listeners if they don't know.

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I mean, this is the guy you probably saw the news about where he was on porn sites saying very, all kinds of very racist things, like things about trans people, who he's very adamantly anti-trans, but he made comments on trans porn that he likes it like, just like wild stuff on porn sites.

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But yeah, I kind of knew who this guy was before because I saw a video.

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It was probably like around six months or a year ago, I don't know exact time frame, but like I saw the video that went viral when he was like it looked like he was preaching in a church.

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I don't know exactly where the speech was, but he was like talking about how some people just need killing um.

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So though, he made like viral remarks like that and he's's just been like you know, he calls himself like a black Nazi, like he like I mean just he is the worst of worse when it comes to humanity, like would be how I say it.

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And when the story broke, this was happening Matt Gaetz, prominent Republican story, was breaking that he was like you know relations with like a 17 year old and I'm just like all I can think about is, just like you picked your leader who is a corrupt, awful human being.

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What did you think that was going to let the rest of the party do?

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Like that was all I could think.

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I was just like of course this is happening.

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Of course there are all of these horrible Republican politicians.

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Because when you accept shit for leadership like that's the standard, you set the standard.

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Everyone can commit crimes, everyone can be a rapist, everyone can be a nazi, a racist, a whatever they want to be, because donald trump does it all and so why couldn't everybody else do it?

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Like if the president can do it, why can't they do it?

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Like that was the only.

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That was my main like reflection on the whole situation.

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like I already knew my brother was a piece of shit, like I didn't need that to come out for me to know that, but like I'm just like zero percent surprised by any of it that's such a good point, like when we have a leader of the Republican Party who is Donald Trump, then, yeah, like if that's what's modeling the leadership, like to your point, yeah, why are we shocked that this is happening?

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And, honestly, like I will say, when I first heard about this, I was like I was shocked, but like that feeling lasted like five minutes and then I was like, oh, like I don't know, this isn't as crazy as some of the like.

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I don't know, it's definitely crazy, it absolutely is.

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But my point is that, like the fact that I'm now getting desensitized to this crazy behavior of people in elected official seats you know what I mean.

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Yeah, especially from the republican party.

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Yeah, it's insane, but not not surprising.

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So oh, and also like trump loves him.

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What did he?

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He called him like oh yeah, a modern day modern day martin luther king jr so there's that.

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Yeah, of course he endorses him.

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Okay, getting off our soapboxes here, even though we could stay here forever, as you all know.

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But um, governor of new hampshire, chris sununu, announced last summer that he wouldn't run for re-election.

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This makes his seat as governor open.

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For the first time since 2016, the state has super late state level primaries, and by super late, I mean it happened on September 10th this year and that was literally the day I began writing this episode.

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So I had to stop and finish writing this episode until the following day, when the primaries were complete.

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Yes, and I did get a text from Sarah that said what the fuck, new Hampshire just had their primary.

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I was so random I was like, okay, she's like I'm trying to write the episode.

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I was like, oh, but it was really funny it was because I was doing some googling and I could not get a clear answer on who were the um republican and democrat nominees for new ham governor of new hampshire, and I was like, why is this so difficult to find?

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Like it's 2024, the internet and everything is at our fingertips.

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And then I then I found out that it was.

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It was actually their primary like watching live.

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Results come in from the primary exactly like I had then gone to live results and I'm like, oh okay, cool, so anyways.

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This is also funny that they have such late primaries because they are first in the nation status.

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Anyway, republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig are the two candidates that were elected in the primary and they only have eight weeks between the primary and the general election to woo the voters.

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Super duper.

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Fun fact, they're both women.

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This will be the third time in history that New Hampshire will have a female governor.

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Oh, new Hampshire loves women.

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I love that for them All.

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Right On to our next category of critical races.

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This election, we're going to talk about state Supreme Courts.

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Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, state Supreme Courts have been attracting more and more attention.

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Judicial elections are increasingly shattering spending records and giving the appearance of any other battleground election in terms of campaign rhetoric sputtering spending records and giving the appearance of any other battleground election in terms of campaign rhetoric.

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This year, 33 states will hold elections for 82 seats on their highest courts.

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The judicial races include a mix of partisan and nonpartisan contested elections, as well as retention elections, in which judges do not have an opponent but face an up or down vote where voters choose whether or not to give them an additional term.

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But some of these races have the potential to reshape court majorities and, with them, the rights of people who live in that state, while others will go basically uncontested or uncompetitive.

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Let's start with Michigan this time.

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The terms of two Michigan Supreme Court justices are up for election this November and in Michigan Supreme Court candidates run in nonpartisan general elections but are nominated by political parties at their conventions.

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With a total of seven justices on the Michigan Supreme Court, two seats will be chosen by the Michigan method.

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Justice Kyra Harris Bolden is running for re-election and Justice David Viviano is retiring, opening another seat as of April 2024,.

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Three judges on the court were appointed by a Republican governor.

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A Democrat governor appointed one judge and three judges on the court were appointed by a Republican governor.

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A Democrat governor appointed one judge and three judges were initially selected in a nonpartisan election after being nominated as candidates by the Democratic Party, meaning Democrats have a four to three majority.

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The November election could either expand the court to a Democratic five to two majority or flip the court to a 4-3 Republican majority.

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Moving on to Montana, two justices on the Supreme Court are retiring at the end of their terms, including the chief justice, leaving two seats out of seven open this year with no incumbents running as of April 2024,.

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Four judges were elected in nonpartisan elections two judges were appointed by a Democratic governor and one judge was appointed by a Republican governor.

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Judicial elections in Montana are nonpartisan, but races for state Supreme Court seats have had a decidedly political feel in the past several cycles.

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The court has faced accusations of liberal bias from Montana.

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Republicans and national conservative groups have spent large sums to try to elect justices sympathetic to a more conservative agenda.

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In Kentucky.

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The outcome of the state Supreme Court race could affect a future challenge to the state's abortion restrictions In Carmen V EMW Women's Surgical Center.

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The Kentucky Supreme Court splintered, issuing five separate opinions across seven justices.

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A major, including the chief justice, determined that the plaintiff physicians lacked standing to challenge the state's near total abortion ban on the grounds that it violated their patients' rights to privacy and self-determination, leaving the law in effect.

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Several sitting justices indicated their willingness to consider the challenge, however, suggesting that a new justice might impact the court's approach to abortion cases.

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Kentucky's chief justice declined to run for re-election this year, setting up an open race for his seat covering Franklin County, home to the state's capital, frankfurt, and surrounding counties.

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Kentucky Supreme Court candidates run from districts rather than statewide, so state appellate judge Pamela Goodwine and attorney Aaron Ezo will compete for the seat in November.

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The court will then decide who, among all the justices, will serve a four-year term as chief justice.

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And then there's Ohio.

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It's always been Ohio.

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Do you know that?

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No, okay, yeah, it's a meme.

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There's the Earth, there's two astronauts in outer space.

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There's one astronaut kind of closer to Earth and he's looking back at the other astronaut behind him and is like, oh, it's only Ohio or it's all Ohio.

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And then the astronaut that's further back has like a gun pointing to him and it's like it's always been Ohio and it's just like this meme has gone.

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It's hilarious, like you can make as many.

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I believe you.

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Yeah, I know it's fine.

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I think maybe some people, like two or three listeners, will understand, and you know I'm taking that as a win, so anyway.

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So we're going to spend a little more time on this one because we know we have a good amount of ohio listeners.

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Three ohio supreme court seats will be up for grabs this election.

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The outcome will decide the balance of the court and have major impacts on a wide variety of issues that affect the lives of Ohioans, from education and environmental issues to gerrymandering and elections, to civil and reproductive rights and, just an FYI here, partisan labels were added to the previously nonpartisan races by the state legislature in 2021.

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I'm just asking this for more for me.

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So like before 2021, when you saw justices on the ballot, you didn't know if it was a democrat or republican.

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And now it says like drr correct, that's fucked up.

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They did that because more people vote down the ballot republican of course, yep, okay, anyway.

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I hate the republican majority in ohio, but here we are.

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So this year incumbent democrat justice michael p donnelly is being challenged by republican hamilton county of Common Pleas Judge Megan Shanahan.

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Incumbent Democrat Justice Melody Stewart is being challenged by incumbent Republican Justice Joseph Dieters, who opted not to run for his current seat and decided to go up against Stewart.

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Democrat candidate Lisa Forbes of the 8th District Court of Appeals and Republican candidate Dan Hawkins of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas are going for Dieter's open seat.

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Dieter's decided to run for a full-term seat by challenging Stewart, rather than a partial term for the seat Ohio Governor Mike DeWine appointed him to on January 7, 2023.

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Because of this, whichever candidate wins, dieter's current seat will have to run again in 2026 for the full six-year term.

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Ohio's highest court currently has a four to three Republican majority.

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If all three Republicans are elected, the Republicans would hold all but one seat on the bench for a six to one majority.

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On the flip side, if all three Democrats win their elections, the Democrats would hold a four to three majority.

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The Ohio Supreme Court has been under Republican control since 1986.

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The Ohio Supreme Court could make decisions on a plethora of critical issues like reproductive rights, gerrymandering, school vouchers, home rule and environmental issues, among others.

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Even though 57% of Ohio voters approved an amendment last year to enshrine reproductive rights in the state's constitution, the court will inevitably rule on abortion access.

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Ohio's anti-abortion laws were not automatically nullified when last year's amendment passed, so abortion advocates are working to undo those laws Franklin.

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County Court of Common Pleas recently issued a temporary pause on Ohio's 24-hour waiting period and the minimum two in-person visits required before an abortion.

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Another lawsuit is currently pending in Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas over whether Ohio's six-week abortion ban is unconstitutional after voters passed last year's amendment.

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Those lawsuits will likely make their way to the Ohio Supreme Court, meaning the seven justices will end up deciding to what extent reproductive rights are actually protected here in Ohio.

00:20:21.278 --> 00:20:29.545
The Ohio Supreme Court will also likely make rulings on redistricting, as it has in the past, especially with the Citizens, Not Polit ballot measure we talked about last episode.

00:20:29.545 --> 00:20:32.156
Vote yes on issue one if you haven't listened to that episode.

00:20:32.156 --> 00:20:38.875
Also, a lawsuit against school vouchers is currently making its way through the court system as we speak and will likely end up in front of the state Supreme Court as well.

00:20:39.436 --> 00:20:44.067
I mean, did anyone else hear about the boneless chicken wings case they ruled on recently?

00:20:44.067 --> 00:20:50.401
The court made national headlines with their four to three ruling that boneless chicken wings can have bones with them.

00:20:50.401 --> 00:20:56.059
So yeah, the Supreme Court in Ohio is important and this election is a big deal.

00:20:56.381 --> 00:20:58.486
It is, it's actually, maybe I don't.

00:20:58.486 --> 00:21:02.262
I can't even pick what is more important the Senate race or the Supreme Court.

00:21:02.262 --> 00:21:08.403
To be honest, they're both so, so important, Agreed, and, of course, your House of Representatives reps, which we didn't even get into all the details on.

00:21:08.403 --> 00:21:11.650
So, okay, On that note, let's wrap things up here.

00:21:11.650 --> 00:21:16.935
Today, we focused on critical battleground state races that folks around the entire country will be watching.

00:21:16.935 --> 00:21:27.705
Those include US Senate races in Arizona, California, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

00:21:27.705 --> 00:21:34.421
Most of these races are Democrats trying to keep their seat or have another Democrat replace them in an attempt to gain a majority in the Senate.

00:21:34.421 --> 00:21:44.388
We also talk about the gubernatorial races in New Hampshire and North Carolina and how both states have an incumbent governor from a different party than the party that won the state in the 2020 presidential election.

00:21:44.388 --> 00:21:55.165
Lastly, we talked about the state Supreme Court races in Michigan, Montana, Kentucky and Ohio, and how these races can reshape majorities within the courts that rule on important issues like abortion and, of course, chicken wings.

00:21:55.815 --> 00:22:07.769
So we could spend hours and hours going through all the important races this election season, but honestly that'd mean we have to cover all of them yes, all of the races on all of the ballots across our country on November 5th.

00:22:07.769 --> 00:22:09.558
They are all important.

00:22:09.558 --> 00:22:14.938
So please we're literally begging you please look up what's going to be on your ballot before going to vote.

00:22:14.938 --> 00:22:17.984
Research the candidates, the ballot measures, etc.

00:22:17.984 --> 00:22:22.384
Educate yourself on what's on your ballot so you feel confident with your choices at the polls.

00:22:22.384 --> 00:22:26.443
All you have to do is Google something along the lines of what's on my ballot.

00:22:26.443 --> 00:22:32.036
Insert state here, and I'm positive there will be at least three websites that can show you what will be on your ballot.

00:22:32.036 --> 00:22:33.338
You got this.

00:22:33.819 --> 00:22:34.160
You do.

00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:38.217
And one more thing on that note you're allowed to take paper to the ballot box with you.

00:22:38.217 --> 00:22:41.707
You can write down all the people you want to vote for and take it with you.

00:22:41.707 --> 00:22:43.400
It's totally legal, You're allowed.

00:22:43.881 --> 00:22:46.007
You can even take notes on your phone and pull your phone out.

00:22:50.835 --> 00:22:51.858
Yes, because you're allowed to do all those things.

00:22:51.858 --> 00:22:52.883
You can walk into the ballot box prepared.

00:22:52.883 --> 00:22:53.926
You don't have to walk in empty handed.

00:22:53.926 --> 00:22:56.455
So, with that said, take the next five minutes to make a voting plan.

00:22:56.455 --> 00:23:00.683
And we don't mean a concept of a plan, we mean a real, flat out plan.

00:23:00.683 --> 00:23:03.893
So, are you in town on Tuesday November 5th?

00:23:03.893 --> 00:23:05.102
Will you have to vote early?

00:23:05.102 --> 00:23:07.067
Do you want to request an absentee ballot?

00:23:07.067 --> 00:23:07.827
In town on Tuesday November 5th?

00:23:07.827 --> 00:23:08.390
Will you have to vote early?

00:23:08.390 --> 00:23:09.310
Do you want to request an absentee ballot?

00:23:09.310 --> 00:23:12.258
Figure out the answers to these questions now so it's less stressful when the time to actually vote comes.

00:23:12.258 --> 00:23:14.564
Like Sarah said, walk through what is on your ballot.

00:23:14.564 --> 00:23:16.057
Don't wait till the day before.

00:23:16.057 --> 00:23:18.221
Just take some time, do the research.

00:23:18.221 --> 00:23:22.557
It makes you feel so much more prepared and so much more empowered when you walk in and place those votes.

00:23:22.898 --> 00:23:24.160
Okay, do it with a beer.

00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:25.823
Do it with a glass of wine, make it fun.

00:23:25.823 --> 00:23:28.246
We're not trying to be boring.

00:23:28.246 --> 00:23:29.448
Yeah, do it with friends.

00:23:29.448 --> 00:23:38.357
You guys can talk about it together, maybe talk through things that you don't fully know what you're going to vote in that moment, but you can talk through strategies and what it means.

00:23:38.499 --> 00:23:43.958
And, yeah, make it fun Always text us, message us on social, whatever, if you have questions.

00:23:43.958 --> 00:23:46.404
We love to talk politics, you know that, so message us.

00:23:46.404 --> 00:23:48.227
Yes, okay, we are done.

00:23:48.227 --> 00:23:48.426
Now.

00:23:48.426 --> 00:23:50.469
There are important things on your ballots.

00:23:50.469 --> 00:23:53.531
Make sure you're researched and prepared for them, and we will catch you next week.

00:23:53.974 --> 00:23:56.383
Thank you for participating in Democracy.

00:23:56.383 --> 00:23:57.465
Goodbye.

00:23:57.465 --> 00:24:05.861
Thanks for joining us for today's episode.

00:24:05.861 --> 00:24:07.425
We really appreciate the support.

00:24:08.096 --> 00:24:12.881
We would also really appreciate it if you hit the follow button and share this episode with anyone you think would enjoy it.

00:24:13.355 --> 00:24:16.144
And we'd like to thank Kevin Tanner, who edited this episode.

00:24:16.144 --> 00:24:23.096
If you're interested in learning more about him and his services, his website and Instagram are in the show notes With that we'll see you next week.

00:24:23.096 --> 00:24:42.752
Ballotpedia has identified 12 races as general election battlegrounds and battlegrounds.

00:24:42.752 --> 00:24:49.203
Honestly, a lot of this episode is brought to you by Ballotpedia, which was an amazing source throughout this.

00:24:49.375 --> 00:24:50.421
Yeah, it is a really good source.

00:24:50.421 --> 00:24:54.994
I use it honestly, especially when I'm looking for, like, when I'm trying to vote, like.

00:24:54.994 --> 00:24:56.141
I use Ballotpedia all the time.

00:24:56.674 --> 00:24:59.064
Yeah, and it's updated regularly.

00:24:59.915 --> 00:25:03.544
Like yeah, I'm a big fan Okay.

00:25:03.544 --> 00:25:09.683
As of Such an easy sentence.

00:25:10.377 --> 00:25:27.057
I can't read it it's not even a name there's not even big words in it, like I don't even know and New Hampshire and North Carolina are the two races that are considered battleground races by battle battlepedia.

00:25:27.057 --> 00:25:39.980
So let's wait, I want to say my thing yeah, yeah, okay, no, no, you know you say that and then okay okay, do you want me to say it?

00:25:41.542 --> 00:25:42.424
how are they both in comments?

00:25:42.424 --> 00:25:46.339
Oh, never mind, I read, if I would finish reading the sentence got it, got, got it, got it, okay.

00:25:46.339 --> 00:25:48.986
I was like what the fuck?

00:25:48.986 --> 00:25:53.101
Okay, open for office.

00:25:53.101 --> 00:25:57.409
Oh, my gosh, important state things on your ballots Open for office.

00:25:57.409 --> 00:26:02.144
This is what I was trying to say that was so hard to watch.

00:26:02.345 --> 00:26:02.566
I know.

00:26:04.994 --> 00:26:08.877
It was hard to say honestly Okay, I'm going to start that part over.

00:26:08.877 --> 00:26:10.136
Okay.