On the Record: Charles County w/ Evan Smith

Join host Carlos Childs in this insightful episode featuring Evan Smith, a candidate running for Maryland's House of Delegates District 28. Evan shares his vision for transportation, environmental policies, labor rights, and opposition to corporate influence. 

Evan Smith:

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello, everybody. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Left Handed Leftist. You all, I'm so happy to have you all here with me today. We have an amazing episode. Yes, this is another candidate conversation, but particularly this is with a delegate candidate. I'm coming out of Charles County's 28th district. We're going to talk about data centers. We're going to talk about the Maryland Israeli Development Center. We're going to be talking about uh nuclear energy. This is a really jam-packed podcast full of a whole lot of different topics, but all relating to the election coming up, you all. And remember, we are not going to vote our way out of this insane world that we that we live in. It's only going to come from organizing. But voting is just one step, one of the smallest steps we can do towards making change. So please keep that in mind when just listening to all the different candidates that I've had on, but you've also come across in their mailers and all the other information and highway signs that you've seen. Especially, this is for not just in Maryland, but around the country as well, as we are here in full swing of election season and coming up on a lot of different primaries. So the guest I the guest I have today is Evan Smith. He is a candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 28, which is almost the entire part of Charles County. You all, I hope you enjoy. And as you know, before we get started here, please don't forget to like, share, subscribe, comment, uh, rate us five stars, share us with your friends and family. And don't forget, don't forget, don't forget to hit that notifications button so that you're alerted every time we drop a new episode. All right, you all, let's get into the podcast. What's up, you all? What is up, you all? Evan Smith. How is it going today?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Going great. Uh it's been a little gloomy, like it's been the last week, really, for all of it, but uh it's pretty good today. Yeah, I have to say.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Shout out to our climate change and going from 80 degrees to 60 degrees back to forth. Yeah. Next week there's about 90 degree weather, so lovely. It's not getting it's not getting great in this in this uh part of the hemisphere when it comes to weather, but we're not treating the weather good or something.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Spring will happen sometime. It seems like maybe it's gonna happen on average because it's gonna be hot and cold instead of the bright temperature.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Right. Insane, insane. But thank you. Thank you so much for joining us here today. I want to just start out because we have a jam-packed conversation, uh, talking about General Assembly, politics in general, what's going on, what you're running for. So if you could please tell the viewers who may not know just who you are, what you're running for, and why.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

All right. Well, my name is Evan Smith. I am running for District 28. Uh, specifically, I'm just running to be your next state delegate and fill the open seat that C.T. Wilson is leaving behind. I am running based on a platform that, well, actually, I'll get into who I am first because we can have the conversation about what I'm doing next. Um, I am, I got my degree in chemical engineering from the California State Universities, and I also minored in materials engineering. So I have a lot of experience with these like sort of systems, like uh how how chemical plants work obviously is a very big part of that, but also just in general, how funding, like supplies and cost of construction and how that changes over time, all that sort of stuff. I came out here immediately after graduating because I I got a job out here. I started working out on the Indian head base as a chemist, not quite a chemical engineer, but pretty close. Uh and yeah, I was working for the Navy in that capacity up until about the end of February, uh, at which point I actually lost that job. But it's all good. I'm I'm still here, still pushing. But uh yeah, now I've I've been fully throwing myself into this campaign. And uh, people have been very positive. They've been very receptive to the policies I put forward, which smooth transition into those. What I really want to do, obviously the flagship thing, the thing that I've made my flagship policy is that I really, really, really think we're overdue on rapid transit. It's been 30 years, been seven studies. It was, I think, the third highest priority transit project right at the beginning of the Hogan administration. But as Hogan decided to, you know, sort of shift resources away from minority areas more towards white majority areas and their rural, rural highways, it sunk to something like third last. So out of like almost 40, I believe, different projects. So that obviously hasn't, under that environment, hasn't gotten any better. It's gotten worse, if anything. I believe under, I think Bloomberg a while ago said that we had the worst flat out eddy city anywhere in the country, worst commute. And people feel it. People feel it when they drive to DC on uh even a weekend. Uh if you're trying to get up to DC to make use of the free parking at the uh at Branch Avenue on a weekend, it's still a nightmare sometimes. The morning rush is real. You gotta either leave at like 5 a.m. or you gotta eat an hour or even an hour and a half of extra traffic over 20 miles. So it's not ideal. It's way it's costing people money, it's costing people time, it's costing people, you know, it's making people's lives worse. They're not spending that's time they're spending on the road that they're not spending with their families, time they're spending on the road that they're not spending in their communities. We really need to do something about that. It's a big thing. That's why I've made it a big part of it, but that's not the only thing. I'm not just a single issue person. I also think that we need to be investing more in a Green New Deal type of policies. Uh, that's actually not a hundred percent alignment with uh C.T. Wilson on everything, but he's been very pro-nuclear, and I'm similarly very pro-nuclear, very pro um uh wind, solar, all these sorts of things are it's to the point now that if you didn't have federal subsidies propping it up, coal, gas, and oil uh power generation would not be cheaper than it would be to generate it with renewable, at least at a considerable at a uh equivalent level. Yeah, that's oh no, no, no, no, no, no. More a little I also am trying to enact greater controls on ice. I think that ICE is obviously uh Maryland is not exactly the friendliest state to ICE. We've been very good at implementing bans and uh specifically we banned the 287G agreement, which prohibits local police departments from collaborating with them. But at the same time, nine, I think as many as nine different sheriffs in uh Republican-leaning counties have said that they will be openly that lobby damn, they're gonna be collaborating with them. So we need to be making sure that we're holding them to account on that in that regard. And also, very visible, we got two different things. We got the Fallon Building in Baltimore, which uh Project's, I think it's Project Icebox, Project Salt Box has done a great uh it's a Baltimore-based uh advocacy group specifically around immigration enforcement. They've done a good job around um curtailing that, tracking that, making sure that no surprises are happening there. Uh but the Fallon Building is an office building, uh, thankfully, in that it can't really be easily converted into an immigration detention facility. So they went and bought out they went and bought a warehouse in Hagerstown. And uh that's been the main focus. I think uh Washington Post released an article today where they were talking about different Texas warehouses, but there was also a brief bit about how the Maryland warehouse ice staffers are trying to see what they can legally circumvent as part of the judicial stay that was placed on construction there. I was actually in the room when the judge made that ruling. I I bothered to drive all the way up there. And so, yeah, bit of a drive, bit of some rough roads, but it was worth it to see it be done. It was interesting that it wasn't done on like the obvious moral grounds because the law doesn't legislate that, but it was more kind of like the catching Al Capone on tax evasion, where they caught them on the fact that they hadn't done any environmental review. They had tried to, I think they tried to on the same day conduct an environmental review, an executive environmental review, an environmental approval, like engineering approval, engineering review, all these sorts of things theoretically happened on the same day so that they could, in the dark of the night, acquire this property and the state of Maryland couldn't intervene. But in so doing, they didn't do their due diligence and now uh they're getting held up for it. And that's for the benefit of all Marylanders. So yeah, I had also big thing affordability crisis. Uh, we can talk about that. But there's so much to entail in that that I feel like I could be rambling for just as long as I already have been, if I go into it. So yeah, I'll turn it back over to you if you have if you wanted to follow up on anything in particular or something.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Yeah, no, no, that was that was great. Thank you. And I'll say you you did a you did a whole lot better than than some candidates have done rambling, like not rambling, but like like listing like like one thing, and then that's kind of all they kind of know about. You did a great job listing a few different ways that we can go through. So yeah, of course. So let's start out with that rapid transit part. I mean, like you said, we we are ranked in Charles County the worst commute ever going to DC. I think now you're at like around 75% of all the residents within Charles having having to go out the county just to go to work every single day, which has a downstream effect of us not having sales tax revenue that's very high because when most of the county is gone, you don't have people going to businesses. And we see a lot of businesses already say, oh, because we all don't have daytime traffic, we're not coming there anyway. So you have a big push that I think at this point the majority of the county wants Southern Maryland rapid transit, which is like light rail, not a not a full service uh metro station. But unfortunately, we have not seen any movement. We have money for the environmental study, but again, that's money that is just that that that study past that. There's no funding for anything at all. And we see that people are already talking about expanding highways as another option. Can you tell us why, one, why do you do you support Southern Maryland rapid rapid trail? Do you think that it should expand past just a light rail system to a full service metro?

SPEAKER_01 10:04

It's an interesting question. So the three options that we have before us, right? Well, actually, I'll get into why I support it first. Uh, because that was the first thing you said. I I support it because it's necessary. And it's necessary not just on the level It's necessary, not just because oh, it takes a long time to get to DC, but because that's where all of that's where a huge portion of the population works. These are this is where they need to go at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day. And they're just sitting on the road, sitting there doing nothing. The huge part of the portions of the day it causes, it's not good for your mental health. I've had long commutes to work before. It's not, it, it grates at you. And especially when it's slow. I I think that it's interesting that a slow, like a slow 30-minute commute feels so much worse than a fast 30-minute commute. Uh, it's not, it's not just that the commute is so long, but it's that it's so close. And it shouldn't really be this hard to get to if we were doing, if we were playing our cards right. So, you know, it's necessary in that regard. I also think that there's obvious benefits to the climate, which were one of the most climate-affected areas in the country. The Potomac River is, I believe, the American Rivers Association or something like that. Don't quote me on the exact specifics, but I know it's an official river ways organization. They said that the Potomac is the most endangered waterway in the United States, out of all of them, all of them. Because it has the we have the pollution from DC coming on down. And then we have, well, I mean, that's most of it, but we also have this, the peripheral areas with the suburbs that are outside of DC. And then we also have regular pollution from farms that uh from runoff, agricultural runoff, but also direct pollution, as we saw with the Potomac Interceptor. Uh, that was a huge deal, as it rightly should be, because that that's the water that comes down here that we need to, that a lot of it ends up being used to drink. But this is not just some rural backwater that like 5,000 people live in. This is a significant population that is a could be experiencing a significant health crisis if we don't do something about it. But okay, I'm getting off on the tangent of climate change. Uh the rapid transit, I'm trying to think. There's also, I mean, this is more of like a this is a not an exact science, but this is something more that I see, I think that we'll see as we give it time is the, and it's hard to really put in concrete terms, but the degree of isolation and kind of social stunting that we've seen post-pandemic has only been made worse by the fact that people are so isolated in their homes and isolated in their cars and isolated in their suburbs and isolated all all over the place. There's these little bubbles that people operate within where they're not being forced feels like the wrong word, but like they're just not encountering many people. There's there's not that natural socialization like these might, yeah. There's there's not these connections forming. And I think it bears itself out when you see the county how uh volatile these divides have come become where, and I'm not gonna touch on this because it's not something I have authority on, uh, the charter versus home rule debate, how that was not just like a difference of opinion. It became explosive. It became uh an avenue for a lot of other divisions to manifest themselves. Um and so I think that they we will give in time with uh uh light rail, especially, heavy rail, especially. I think rapid bus transit could also yield benefits in that direction if we had to do it. It wouldn't be as great, but it would still happen. We will see those types of benefits as well. But you also touched on the whether or not we should be doing heavy rail versus light rail. And I will say that the conversations that I've seen have have not really even considered heavy rail as much of an option. It has mostly just been light rail or rapid buses. And I think that there's something to be said for how much funding the state thinks that we're allowed to have, but also just how much, how well of an argument we can make for, well, if you don't need it right now, then there's not evidence that you need it. You can't assume that you'll need it later just because you don't, just because the population growth has been high doesn't mean that you can assume that you'll need it later. And that sounds kind of reasonable on its face, but I feel like the degree of growth we've seen leads me to believe that the kind of growth figures we'd need to hit in order to justify light rail will be reached. And it's it's just a matter of fact of how well we want to plan for it. Do we want to have suburbs stretching out into like 10, 15 miles in every direction around every population center in Charles County? Or and then just an incredible like three hour, four-hour long traffic jams, or do we want to plan for it now and at least have some tools to address it? I have, when the study comes out, the most recent one, because it's supposed to be the way that I've seen it kind of portrayed is that it's going to be a study that will be able to prepare us for that final step of actually breaking ground. Like this is the if we were going to start building it tomorrow, that's the kind of study that we could have as the last study before doing so. So yeah, I I will say that I don't see a heavy rail as being, I think that in the future, heavy rail could be something that we would need in the same way that it's used in like PG County. But at the moment, I personally prefer and lean towards light rail because it's kind of a middle point, you're not compromising too much in either direction. But also, if we end up needing that heavy rail, right, it's much easier to up, you can't upgrade a bus lane into a heavy rail line. You have, but a light rail lane into a heavy rail line, that's a lot more doable. It's the same, you can use the same corridor, you can use a lot of the same tracks. Well, if you're using the CSX corridor, but even then, that area is like wide enough, I think you could accommodate two tracks. But yeah, uh, I hope I did ramble a little bit, but I hope that's a good one. No, no, you did great stand on that.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

The only really follow-up question I have, and this may also also be kind of a two-part question, is that as you said, back during the Hogan admin, this was number three on the project. It is bumped down.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

I don't even know where Well, it was bumped down during the Homebey administration. From three to thirty-seven. That sort of reprioritization happened during his tenure, not after.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Okay. Thank you for that. So, yeah, so definitely Hogan Hogan bumped it down. We're seeing lines um in um Upper Prince George's get get like um they're moving through the purple line and things and things of that nature when when light rail is being talked about less and less. What are some of the reasons you think that it it it has and still is taking this long time? But then also, what do you plan to do as a delegate to to move this forward?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

So that is a two-part question. I think that part of the reason it's taken so long, obviously we can blame the Hogan administration for the years that Hogan was in office. But also that at earlier points before Hogan, when we weren't as big, I would say that there was the argument deployed of like, well, it's and this perception still persists in Annapolis today. Like if I when I go up there and I say, Oh, I'm from Charles County, they're like, they're kind of surprised that I bothered to make the drive because I see it as like I drove from Narnia or something. Like it's not, there's not any real perception that Waldorf is a city. It's it's more that it's just like an area, an outpost somehow. Uh in La Plata, even less, even more so. But uh I know so I think that there has just been a lack of recognition, I think, from uh state legislators that this is a real and serious issue. Whereas somehow they state uh leadership, especially Westmore, who we can talk about, uh has somehow got it into his head that Charles County residents were very big on data centers. I don't know how that happened because it hasn't people haven't really mobilized for pro data centers. I know that uh some of the commissioners have, but uh the uh but the people haven't. The people have been very loud, especially now. But now we're turning up letters like I think it was the oh gosh, I don't remember the whole spiel that Miss Wilson went into. But um the the something like the an environmental chief or something published a letter that, or Terra Wolf published a letter that the environmental uh staffer had sent to them, and in it it said verbatim that uh Westmore's all four data centers. So and also in the last legislative session, not 2026, 2025, Bill 116, I believe it was, was exploring a study and like how is this energy going, how is this energy use going to impact the area? And Westmore actually vetoed that bill. It had to be passed over his veto. And so I feel like he's made his position position very clear. Uh, even if he hasn't, even if as of now he's become less willing to say so, he's just been like, he's neither thumbs up nor thumbs down. He's trying to present like a nonpartisan, but I feel like he's been, he's already made his side. But in any case, there's an inaccuracy in how much Charles County knows it needs something, Southern Maryland as a whole knows it needs something, and how much Annapolis recognizes that. I don't there's any number of reasons that you could assign for that happening. I think that it is like it is one of the outer areas of the state. Not that it's hard to reach at all, but it it just is kind of. But also I I think it's worth mentioning that Charles County is a mina minority-majority area. And it's just simple as that these areas don't get as much funding. These areas don't get as much attention. They don't, uh their squeaky wheels aren't seen as important. So yeah, there's that. And shoot, I think there was a second part to that question for you.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Is that is how do you plan to actually move this project forward given all that you just just said about how the the DAC is stuck against Charles County? People don't really really see us as a as a county, just a just an outpost. And also, and it's it's crazy that you mention how because we are we are the wealthiest black county or majority black county within the country, but we are treated as like we are a population of like 50 people and that we're really, really rural. When it's yeah, it's not. We are also what's even crazier, as you mentioned, Wes uh more, is that Charles County votes almost always democratic. So like we are a democratic stronghold, but but we're not even given the respect of like I know I need to get votes from their state statewide, so we're gonna do something for them anyway.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

We're taking for granted.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Exactly, exactly. So yes, please go ahead. I'm sorry, I went on my own little tank.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Totally, totally. We're uh we're I think we're something like a D plus 20, D plus 40 area. To the point that like I feel like this primary is kind of seen as like a mini general election. Like it's yeah, uh certainly people are campaigning like it. But uh yeah, I got I got more Quincy Baribi mailers. But yeah, the um I think the way that I could do it, first off, uh when I win my election, well, assuming I win my election, we'll see. But I think I have a good shot. I there's gonna be a lot of eyes on me as a very young lawmaker. I think, and I got this wrong actually. Apologies to Clifton Crosby. He and I are both 24, so we would both be the first legislators elected from the from the 21st century, being born in the 21st century. Yeah. So that was a pretty cool milestone. But yeah, uh between him and I, I don't remember who's exactly younger. Uh I think he might be like a month or two, but I don't, I don't remember. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's younger than I am. Um but yeah, that's there's gonna be a lot of eyes on me as well. And I also amassed a pretty, a pretty substantial campaign. I know that the Amalgamated Transit Union has been very behind me. And they've kind of seen me as their I appreciate that. They've kind of seen me as their candidate, especially given that C.T. Wilson, obviously it's one of things I don't agree with him on, has been a lot more lukewarm towards supporting unions. I've I'm very union support is like almost at this point, it's almost the backbone of my campaign. And they're they are I I trust them the most because they are they're the people that brought us weekends, they're the people. That brought us the eight-hour workday. They're the people that brought us no child labor. So uh, and it took many, many, many years for that sort of thing to happen. So, as a rule, I support unions. And unions have been very much in favor of this. They've amalgamated transit union wants to bring transit to the area both for their workers and also for kind of the health of the community. AFL CIO, which is the biggest uh conglomeration of unions in the United States, their Maryland chapter also endorsed me under much the same reasoning. The congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Those are those are huge endorsements.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Yes. I'm very much the labor candidate, and it's been to the point that I actually have to redo my mailer design to make sure I can fit all the badges on it. Uh so it's getting a little bit late in the game. But I should, fingers crossed, I'm hoping I can just buckle down and get that finalized tonight. And so yeah, you should be seeing that in like should be seeing my mailers in like a week or so. Apologies if that's annoying. But uh I gotta get my name out there. I gotta get my name out there.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

It's campaign season. I'm door knocking besides, obviously. But um, yeah. The um, so yeah, the oh yeah, I'm I'm door knocking with uh Michaela Wilkes uh this weekend. So we're gonna be up in starting in the Somerset neighborhood. By the time this this makes it onto YouTube, it's probably already happened. But if we're doing another round, it'll still it'll probably be there again. So yeah. Awesome. Yeah, no. I so I think that by making I didn't fully answer your question. Uh by by making it essentially a being a squeaky wheel and like saying, making the use of my visibility to advocate for, hey, this is a big deal. This is not something that we can ignore any longer. This is a waste of money to ignore, making sure I'm loud and proud about it and putting those bills into legislative committees such that now I'm doing my due diligence. The question now passes to them, like, hey, why didn't you pass that to the floor? What's going on here? And so making sure that I'm doing everything I can to be responsible in that way. That's much the same strategy I'm gonna use to try and pass some of the other things that I intend to do. Like uh Gabriel Acevero, I don't know if you're familiar with delegate Acevero.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Oh, of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yes. He is uh year over year has been very consistent, and this is just an example. This is not fully what we're talking about. He's been very consistent in trying to pass legislation that divests, at least the bills that I've seen that he keeps doing, divest uh Maryland nonprofits from supporting the state of Israel. Uh, I would list myself as a co-sponsor on those immediately. Like I d I I don't feel like it's bad to say that war is bad, that genocide is bad. It seems like the a lot of Democrats have had a crisis of confidence on that, but I've I've no such qualms there. And I would be happy to support another leftist in office.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

That's awesome. That's awesome. You I love this because you gave me multiple points to go from from here. But actually, let's go into environment because that was your second kind of big thing. You already mentioned it kind of with uh uh nuclear power, but but also we can kind of intersect data centers in it too. One of the uh big pieces of legislation that is kind of being being touted as like, oh, data centers aren't that bad, is that legislation recently passed that would allow that mandates that data centers bring their their own electricity sources, which most most people are saying, okay, cool. So like we don't have to have to worry about speckle bills going going going up. I look at it the opposite way of saying the public does not want a data center. So why would I now want a natural gas plant next to the data center attached to it? But also as someone who is, I'm on the fence when it comes to nuclear personally, because I see it as like, yes, it is a clean source of energy to a point once you have to bury the nuclear rods in in the ground after they've been used up. But I also look at it and say, I don't want a Chernobyl here in Charles County either.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah. So I can uh which of those would you rather me speak to? Because you have the uh you have the renewable power on one side, focusing a little bit on nuclear and also the data centers.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

And I'd like to tackle both, but I want to see where you Yeah, let's let's start with the renewable power, and then we can talk about the uh data center part of it.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Perfect. All right. So nuclear power is actually something that I've uh I will admit I've been a big fan of for a very long time, ever since I think I was a sophomore in high school, and I wrote an essay about it. And so yeah, we're we're a few years on from that. But yeah, so some of the things that I would I think would be important to tell you, just so you get an idea of where this is coming from. Nuclear is obviously like super efficient. There are valid critiques of nuclear. I will, I'm the first to admit that. I think that some of the most substantive critiques come from the nature of uranium as a fuel source, not only in its uh persistent radioactivity after it exits the power plant, but also how we find it, how it's mined. Uranium is oh gosh, I don't remember exactly which countries. But uh one of the biggest, actually, I think one of the biggest countries that mines uranium. Well, I don't know if you can correct me, but take it on faith, uh, but don't take it as gospel, look it up, is uh the South Africa. And uh there's other a lot of other African countries that are involved in mining uranium. And as you might imagine, most uh mines in Africa are not exactly run ethically, and also it can it can be a huge source of pollution in those local communities. These are these are valid concerns, and I I don't think that it would be just to ignore them. But at the same time, the irrational concerns that people have had are to do with like Fukushima, Three Mile Island, Windscale, Chernobyl being the biggest one, and kind of how spectacular those failures were. Reminder, Fukushima, there were zero radiation-related deaths as a result of that. Windscale, there were no deaths. Uh, Three Mile Island, there were no deaths. Obviously, there were deaths as a result of Chernobyl. But at the same time, I think we're more than 50 years on from that point. The technology has advanced a lot. The the number of deaths is something on the order of I want to say uh three, three to four hundred times less lethal than natural gas. Natural gas itself is uh 10 times less lethal than coal. Uh yeah. So and it's it's a very safe thing now. It didn't used to be. And also it wasn't run properly at Chernobyl, but that's a whole technical discussion. But it really wasn't. You can see that if you've ever watched that um that mini-series, that I don't know if it was HBO that did that, but it's a very popular one. It's just called Chernobyl. It does a pretty good job of the facts. So yeah, people fear it because they kind of fear that, well, this is technology entering our communities. These are big smokestacks, these are I've it feels scary. And that's it is an emotional concern, but it's not worth ignoring because it is true. The fact of the matter is that once it's in place, it is incredibly cheap to operate, is incredibly efficient. And to speak about nuclear waste, the amount of high-level waste, and this is this I know for sure because I've had I've quoted it multiple times. The amount of high-level waste that has been generated since the dawn of nuclear across the country, not across the country, across the world, if you were to put it all in one place, wouldn't it? Sorry, all of that would fit on one football field. Wow. That's it. The entire history, all the high-level nuclear waste, that's how little, that's how little of a footprint it takes up. Now, obviously that material has to be managed, and it is managed because it is shipped in, and I've seen videos of it, it's very cool. It's shipped in train, special train cars, at least in the United States, that are designed to be so resilient that they can withstand an impact of a essentially being T-boned by a speeding, another speeding train head on and not crack. Wow. Yeah. So it is, these are there are technical concerns that have been put in place. Obviously, it has to be a transparent process, otherwise, people would be right to not trust it. But I feel like the facts are out there. It has just been, it has not really been green advocates that have themselves come independently to a conclusion that they have that nuclear is this horrible thing. It has been more so that those fears in the wake of actual nuclear disasters like Chernobyl were then stoked by the fossil fuel industry and perpetuated. And that's why, as part of like a larger tactic of like the fossil fuel industry invented the carbon footprint, the fossil fuel industry invented uh carbon tax credits, I think. There's a lot of these things that they have done in order to avoid changing their business model. And so I'm more than willing to talk about it with anybody. I'm talking about it with you right now. If anyone else wants to hit up my email or something, I answer answer my email. But yeah, that's that's where I come at that from. Obviously, wind and solar, also big uh things, but I feel like they're a lot less controversial. The only thing is that wind and solar, I feel like they are good to incorporate into the system as part of the system, but not the entirety of the system, because both are variable. The wind blows differently day to day, solar, the sun shines differently day to day. That power is worth collecting, but if you need, you need a reliable source in the background that's able to prov to level those power sources out, and nuclear has done that. Uh Calvert Cliffs, which is the only nuclear power plant we have in Maryland, accounts. I don't even know how long it's been there, but but for the entirety of its tenure has been the source of about 40% of Maryland's uh power generation in just one nuclear power plant, 40%. Two-fifths. So yeah. It's uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

I just looked it up and it says Calvert. Um the the Calvert Cliffs Energy Center has been operating since 1875. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Yeah. And we've I've I've got to hear about an uh an accident there.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

No, you're right. And then to your earlier point about uh uranium mining, this is from the World Nuclear Association. They say that about three-quarters of the world's production of uranium from mines is from Kazakhstan, Canada, and Namibia? Namibia.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Namibia. Okay. Namibia. I must I must have got Namibia mixed up with South Africa, they're adjacent countries.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Oh yeah, and South Africa is on the list. I think they're in the top like 12. But no, no, you're right. It is okay. That is that is interesting. I didn't know too much about the nuclear side of it. I hear more about what you, you know, people talk about of the fears of it and all that. So that was definitely wow, that's interesting. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Yeah, uh, totally. I I think that also we'll see, and I'll I'll make this part quick. Uh we're also probably gonna see some, well, probably out of China, not in the United States, because we defunded uh this research actually. Uh we're gonna see, hopefully, we're gonna see some progress made on thorium power generation. Thorium is another radioactive cousin to uranium, but the way that it generates power is much, much, much safer, much easier to shut down, whole lot of things. It's more efficient too. I think it's uh it's hard to explain what a breeder reactor is very concisely, but essentially it regenerates its own fuel, almost like a hybrid car. So yeah, it's very efficient, very good at what it does. So it's a it's a tough problem to solve. That's why it hasn't been solved yet. But China has poured research into it while we've essentially abandoned it.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

So Okay. So I'll kind of phrase up the next question, which deals what deals with data centers. As someone who does not support data centers, and you as well. Yes. Like you mentioned, you don't support them either. Do you see if they attached nuclear energy to data centers, would that be something that you would you would support them being being a cleaner source of of electricity?

SPEAKER_01 33:14

It'd be a step in the right direction. It doesn't solve the issue for me. The what the energy generation is obviously the most visible concern. It's been the biggest thing that we've seen pushing our power bill sky high. But it hasn't been just addressing that alone doesn't address water usage, doesn't address noise pollution, doesn't address light pollution, doesn't address um environmental uh knock-on effects of how that just that pollution in that one area can cause things to be affected over a much wider radius. Further, I feel like the AI bubble is going to pop. It's like we already have data centers. Data centers are already a thing that have existed. It's the reason we see a push for them now is not because somehow we manifested twice the amount of people in the world to use the internet. It's we had it at saturation. The reason why is totally and fully AI. And I don't believe that AI is everything it says to be, or even half of that, is a there's a lot of things that I could get into on that, but effectively I don't support AI and I also don't see it as a long-term part of the economy, really. It is something that has repeatedly had to be propped up by hype and investment and by forcing it everywhere, even when it may not be the best option available. It's all the AI companies are in bed with each other, just kind of cycling money around to make sure that their returns look pretty good. It is not a and so I think that even the need for data centers as a whole will probably decay, will probably decay like drastically as soon as AI kind of falls out of favor. Plus, the the one the one ideological conflict I've had as a part of this is that the electrical unions are very pro-data center, not necessarily pro-AI, but pro-data center, because it gives their guys jobs. These are theoretically, these are good union jobs that are made in the course of building these things. But to them, I've had to say, okay, but once they're built, right, then what? Is you're not going to need nearly the same amount of guys to build to maintain the data centers as it took to build them. So you need to provide projects that are more long-term planning. The maintenance of a power plant is a lot more immediate and a lot more hands-on than a data center. It's uh more obvious, it's not as depending on market forces to need to exist. And I would prefer to meet that need, that unmet need for employment, unionized employment, with constructing those renewable power sources. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

So as a as a future delegate, what would be your plan in the General Assembly to to address data s data centers? Would you do, would you support or or put up legislation to do an all right ban on new data centers? Would you look to put in explicit safeguards around them? What is the what is the the delegate Evan Smith play?

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Uh a little bit of all of the above. I feel like the the reality is that you're fighting an uphill battle sometimes with a lot of these delegates that have been elected on the back of corporate money. And so I don't know that just me making my own little crusade crusade, as as right as I might be, uh, is going to win over everybody to my side. So I think that the most viable strategy that I could put forward that I've thought about is trying to implement a temporary more moratorium until we can reasonably say that these things have been properly studied. Not just the uh energy study, which is supposed to conclude, I think, this September, but also this study on water usage, the study on noise pollution, the study on light pollution, all of these things, these also need to be taken into account. Air pollution as well, depending on how it's generating its power. But um, yeah, I would want to make sure that those studies are also uh made space for in the budget. Probably Governor Moore's gonna veto them again, but probably if I can get them passed, I can get them passed again. Oh, yeah. It's been interesting to see that actually a couple of Republicans have broken from the Republican ranks in supporting this. Not that I'm suddenly now Republican, it's just been interesting to see. Like I think it was, oh gosh, what's his name? Todd Morgan, who represents the tip, southern tip of Calvert County and a little bit of St. Mary's. He actually is against data centers, which has been interesting to see.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

But it's been a weird, it's been a weird coalition of people who are against it. And the people, and you're right, what you said at the beginning, you don't really see many people say I'm for data centers. You have uh some people who are like, oh, the economic money that's gonna come, yada yada.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

I'll say it always outweighs the negatives. It's never like it's a good thing in its own right.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

It's like, hey, I'll take some, I'll take some long-term suffering for like a short-term term. Yeah, nah, it's been horrible. But that's that's I know, but as we go, as as you mentioned before, you mentioned how your support from um ATU, AFL CIO, other different um unions that kind of fall heavy within their uh group. I want to ask you about public unionized workers because currently you have throughout the state public unionized workers such as teachers, library workers.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

They don't have the right to strike.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

They do not have that right, which a lot of them are saying that that it kind of stops them from being able to fight for themselves. Because as a unionized worker, you can go through negotiations back and forth and back and forth. If there's no remedy, you cutting off your labor is the only really power that you have. I want to ask you, is that some is that legislation that you support?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

It's not only legislation that I support, it's legislation I have supported. Uh, House Bill 1471 was the bill that I went up to Annapolis to campaign for librarians for to receive the right to strike. And I think that it's it's owed to them. I went up there with uh the DSA of Southern Maryland and I believe DSA of Baltimore. It was I yes, Baltimore. Uh as and a bunch of other teachers. I was a little disappointed to see that the teachers union did not endorse me and they said endorsed one of my opponents, but it's what it is. Um, I think that I don't need to make any enemies talking about the EACC, but there's there's been some commentary there. Regardless, I would say that I, yeah, I it's not only something I support, it's something I've been supporting. And it was something I was I was disappointed to see in the um in the recent Charles County uh bill, not this week, but I think it was last week, they passed something authorizing unions to be created as part of public employees, but one of the stipulations was that they are not allowed to strike. Say what you will about the Charles County government, that wasn't their decision. It is actually enshrined in law that they may not strike. It's not even that they're, it's not even like it's ambiguous and they're not given the right to or the right not to. They are expressly forbidden from it. And counties can't override that either with local legislation. So that's why they had to have that clause in there. So yeah, it's a it's a big issue. Labor is, at the end of the day, labor is the one and only source of leverage that they cannot take away from you. And I would definitely support them giving the being empowered with the right to strike and possibly more reforms after that. But that's probably the biggest one that we don't have yet. So it's gonna be where I direct my efforts from right now.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you for that. And again, as you mentioned before, which is great, because you kind of you kind of lined it all up perfectly perfectly for me. Uh, right now, Maryland has a partnership with the state of Israel through the Maryland Israeli Development Center, is something that that it's a public-private partnership that that Maryland taxpayer money is going is going into a fund to have certain development projects with the state of Israel, regardless of the ongoing genocide that they're doing, taking land from people within uh West West Bank, the war in Iran, all the different things. Um, I want to ask you, what is your position on the the uh Merlin Israeli Development Center? And would you support it outright or and then also actually let's just do that first and then I of a follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

For sure. I would so two things. One, if I could ask you, I don't know if you have any interviews lined up with uh the other people in this race. I would I don't know if it'll make you many friends, but if you find it within yourself, I could help you that. Hope that you ask them that too. But yeah, I'm down to yeah, I uh it does that collaboration needs to stop. That's the end of end of story. It needs to stop. This is not a small amount of money either that's going to it. It's like hundreds of thousands of dollars year on year, amounting to millions of dollars in the long term, and it has been long term, that has gone towards supporting this apartheid state of Israel. And it's not, it's it is just not something that we need to be involving ourselves with. It doesn't it one of the things that offended me the most uh when I was looking at the MIDC and I was looking at their documents is they have this thing that purports to be a reference on Israeli community resources. And what they put in there was they expressly only defined it as Jewish community resources. A quarter of a quarter, a full quarter of the Israeli population is not Jewish. Most of them are Muslim. There were there was not a single bit of information on like where can you find a mosque. There was not a single bit of information on where I don't know if we have a Druze mosque specifically in the state of Maryland, but like there wasn't anything about that. There wasn't anything about any of that. It was just complete and total uh equib uh equation of Israeli equals Jewish. And this is the kind of institution that the Maryland that the state of Maryland has chosen to partner with. And I think it's high time we got out of battle.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Thank you for that. Thank you for that. And then um a follow-up to that is in I'm forgetting what what exact year, but but under the Hogan administration, he actually signed signed a executive order to make uh BDS the boycott divest and sanction movement, kind of banning it from um uh agencies and also I believe not that want to have business with Merlin from from being able to boycott the state of uh Israel and that uh it has been people, countless number of protesters, activists who've gone to Westmore to get him to repeal this, and that he he has refused to. I want to ask you, do you support the uh repeal of the BDS executive?

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Yeah, of course. BDS is a First Amendment right. How could there are any number of times that the I feel like boycotting especially is a sacred right that should be respected, especially with respect to history. The um the civil rights movement, a lot of that was built on black community, not the whole of it. It wasn't like we we used black capitalism to get to the Civil Rights Act, but that was a part of it. That was a big part of it, is like exerting economic pressure on the system. Bus boycotts is what is probably the biggest and most well known thing I could point to there. And so a boycott is a boycott. It should be there, should not be a special privilege we're affording to one country. out of a out of 200 some in the entire world where you have to respect this one country. Otherwise you can't do business in the state. And I feel like Westmore is it is not something that he could say, oh well, I just didn't know. This is not something it it has been brought to his attention, let's say, again and again. And it's something he could easily do with a stroke of a pen. And I think that there has been an explicit choice not to. And it would be something that I would not only support him doing, but would call out uh when he doesn't, if and when he doesn't do it. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

Thank you. Thank you for that. I want to move over to housing. Okay. We have a lot of, or actually the General Assembly is kind of going, going, going through the stages with in their different sessions, talking about how do we solve the housing crisis. From from the Westmores office, it's been more more of a conversation of we just need to build more housing. We need to start having the abundance method of kind of deregulating certain things, building more, and then prices will just all level out. We see that at the same time when legislation to just cause evictions are actually not not uh passing, which would make us so that uh property owners cannot just just deny people at least renewals without reason. We have uh statewide rent rentabilization that does not move forward either. And we have different legislations around housing that are not moving forward. I want to ask you what is your solution to solving the uh housing affordability crisis through the means through the General Assembly if elected it's a complicated issue.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

I think that part of it stems first off, I think there's some there are some common sense fixes that you could immediately put on is like to stem the bleeding. For example, uh just cause evictions that should be passed through the General Assembly. Also I would be open to seeing how rent freezes would be worth exploring. And honestly I think that you also need to be considering what we're gonna do with vacant units because a lot of these units this in a in a very real sense obviously not every single vacant unit is fit to live in and that's what a lot of people who oppose the sort of thing will tell you that like well you can find a couple houses here and there like that look like they've been bombed out and this is not what but this is not the target. This is not what I'm talking about. It's obviously it's bad faith to assume that that's what I'm talking about. There's a lot of vacant units that could be used to support people who are unhoused. I've I've actually spoken with I it's funny enough I have actually gone out of my way to try and speak with actual homeless people and try it like on the street talk like hey you seem like you seem like a a decent enough guy like maybe you're not super a couple of them have not been like all there, but a lot of them are what would you want to see from the state of Maryland? And the feedback I've gotten hasn't been like oh we want handouts, we want you to pay our bills or some sort of fear mongering there. It has been and largely this has been a black population too, which I think is worth considering and just the like the outsized impact on minority communities. The what they've asked for is they want assistance in getting jobs. They want assistance in having housing because there is a real psychological effect there that you suffer when you're not when you don't feel safe 24-7, when you are not within walls that you can to some degree call your own where you can't feel like if you sleep at night that means you're totally safe that wears on you. That leads to the sorts of I feel like there's an association between having mental having mental health struggles and ending up homeless. But being homeless makes mental health struggles worse too. And so it's not it's part of it's all part of the same pot. You gotta it's hard to I will say it's difficult to give you specifics. I would really like to it is just that there are so many aspects to it that require a lot of granular information that I'm as not a delegate not yet privy to. But also there is just a balanced approach you need to have on this thing. It is not just enough to put to flood the market with houses because then you risk driving the costs of existing houses up. It is not enough to say just that we're gonna do one thing or the other it's that you need to first off you need to be listening to groups that are concerned with this sort of thing to know what they see as important. So I'm gonna once in office one of the biggest things that I've said is that I'm going to go out of my way to try and contact these people make sure that because I can't be an expert in everything. I'm just one person. I I can't be a foremost expert on everything. I'm not really the foremost expert on everything because I have to anything because I have to dedicate my time to a lot of different things. So going out of my way and listening to these people going out of my way and saying hey what do you want to see put forward in the General Assembly? What how do we help people not be pushed out because seniors are being pushed out gentrification is a huge thing. I don't think that it's hit Waldorf as hard as it might later on but Waldorf, Charles County really yeah I I would say that I cannot give you specifics because I want to know what they want to see from me first. But what I would start with is trying to explore immediate fixes like how do we just immediately how do we bring the wreck down? Can we implement rent freezes? Can we essentially punish unnecessary vacancies? We implement uh one of the things that uh Mamdani did up in New York is that he implemented a Pia de terre tax, which helps make up some of the shortfall that they experienced in their budget and the Maryland state has definitely a shortfall in its budget as well. But the pia de terre tax is essentially adding taxes onto luxury houses and other dwellings that are not primary residences. So essentially making sure making it a bit harder to have all these different homes so yeah um I like that I I apologize for the lack of specifics but that no you're good.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

I hope that gives you some insight into where I'm coming at that problem from no no no definitely especially the extra tax the the rent freeze definitely those are definitely ways that like a lot of people have been have been asking for I actually I heard about the uh luxury tax to like different different states. I I remember it was something I think in Rhode Island where they were talking about like like they are decreating a tax for like Taylor's Taylor Swift's home that she has that's just like a multi-million dollar place. So I think I think that's a wonderful idea. One is to deal with our funding gap but also a way to stop this stop making home ownership and just housing seen as this like for profit capitalist mindset when everyone needs a home everyone housing should be a commodity shouldn't be an investment. Yes yes awesome I love that I want to ask you like like just some as we uh close out here or before we get to the kind of closeout questions I do want to ask you because you didn't mention it about ICE what is your what's your plan because as some people hey would see is that we passed community trust we we stopped the um 287G agreement a lot of people would say who who don't really follow the problem they would say we've we've done our part in Maryland we're done what do you well what else do you want from us what do you say to to those people and then what do you want to see done or or what would you like to do as adults?

SPEAKER_01 51:03

So there are to be to be certain we've made up most of the ground that there is to be made up there's it is not nearly as bad as it is in like a red state or a purple state where they're trying to stay out of it or something like that. It is not nearly as bad as that. But I think we have an additional obligation to address it more thoroughly because we've seen that ICE will go out of its way to attack visible minorities. It's not like they're going out of their way to attack all love to Polish people, but it's not like they're going out of their way to attack Polish immigrants. They're going out of their way to attack visibly black and brown people. And as in what in a black majority area, especially a wealthy black majority area, uh this that's so close to DC, there is a certain level of punishment that they might try to exert, not just on this area but in the whole of Maryland for fostering this sort of community. They did that to the Somali community in Minnesota despite them being I think they had like one of the one of the highest citizenship rates in the United States something it was like upwards of 90%. So and obviously it's not based on facts it's just based on racism. So one of the things that I think that one of the gaps that is left to be filled is for example, state employees are not bound by the law to do whatever they they technically can do whatever they want. So if you have some teacher that is vindictive and either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the full significance of what it means to report someone to ICE, they can they can report a kid or the kid's parents for being a suspected illegal immigrant. And as a state employee, I believe that we have the ability to restrict them from doing uh not only in a school but in in a hospital, in a local government, in the judicial system. But these are things that everybody in Maryland has to interface with at some point or another. And we shouldn't be making these things unnecessarily fraught with danger and trying to predict which of these people is fine with my existence. So that is one thing that I think we should do. I think also that we should crack down on the sheriffs that have chosen to or that have said that they will disobey the law and that they in some cer in some semblance of public service and safety how that looks will depend ultimately on the each individual situation. What's the most effective way we can get to force them back into line. But yeah and just continuing the fight against Hagerstown again and against really the this federal administration. But yeah thank you thank you that's how I think I would uh continue it.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

No definitely thank you and you kind of you said some things that one I didn't know but I think majority of viewers just like didn't didn't think about is that to me if we ban 287 and say that sheriffs can no longer or law enforcement can no longer work work with ICE, it seems crazy for us not to go the full way and saying all right no public worker can work with ICE to get people it it seemed that's a weird technicality that that the General Assembly has left alone. So thank you for raising that. As we get ready to close out here one thing you listed a lot of different legislation that you want to do a lot of different things that you plan to um advocate for take the lead on or even co-sponsor and uh support. Given that the Maryland General Assembly is only 90 days per year it is only so much that that that anyone can really do do with that short um a compressed time period I want to ask you do you support making the General Assembly a full-time position?

SPEAKER_01 54:29

I think it is uh is a question I'm willing to explore. I don't know if I'm willing to commit to saying that it should be full time just yet. Uh I think the argument is there for it for sure. There is a lot of legislation that needs to be passed year-round and it is a it is a duty uh that we need to be there's a lot of people that are like for example it was it was uh Adrian Boafo who's leaving the General Assembly right now who made his money not as a delegate but as a lobbyist and now and that's sort of he was able to split his time in part because it was part-time and I also not that that would completely fix the issue obviously you still have the issue of donations coming from different sources but that's a that's a citizens united thing and I don't think we have uh jurisdiction over the Supreme Court. But the yeah I I would tentatively be in support of it. I just I think the main question I have is like how does this impact our budget really like if it if it causes uh the sort of administrative cost to balloon out of control and it's uh then obviously it's something that I would oppose. But if it if we go through and look at the numbers and it makes sense, then I see no reason why we couldn't do that. I I certainly think that there is a reason there is reason to enact laws all throughout the year. It's not as though uh important things are happening. They just they all decide to happen in the first few months. But yeah that my main concern just being making sure that it doesn't cause the government to be spending a lot like it's way more money than it needs to just that it like essentially that it would be commensurate to the amount of months it's increasing by. So I think it's it's is four and a half months at the moment because it's the January roughly it's like January 1st to April halfway through April. And so it would be something like uh between two and three times the cost that it is now closer to two than three. Uh and I don't think that's a huge amount but in a budgetary deficit that those sorts of things matter. So yeah. Thank you for that is there anything uh else like I don't know fun question yeah oh no oh oh yeah yeah or not done yet I can field I can field anything though because if we're not there yet we're not there yet.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

No no yeah um even past that definitely want to ask I want to ask you so let's say it is January you've been voted in what what is the committee you want to serve on and why?

SPEAKER_01 56:48

Oh gosh I got I just looked at the Senate once so I got confused now on how it's to be done. Uh one of the biggest ones would be Ways and Means okay but for for obvious reasons because I think that that sort of financial oversight needs is key to instituting a lot of the forms and reforms that we need but also and this is what I'm trying to remember is is the environmental and transportation rolled up into one committee? Because I think it is. Yep EMT Okay, okay okay yes that would be my main one because that's that's closest to my priorities. I and I also have interests outside of well interests outside of Charles County I also have things that I would be interested in improving outside of Charles County bringing the red line to Baltimore seeing the purple line over the line and making sure that there's no unnecessary delays there. Project labor agreements that's a big one making sure that you can't if you're building stuff on the state's dime that you can't be mistreating your workers and yeah also the environment obvious obvious is obvious like regulating data centers regulating power generation that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 57:47

Yeah awesome thank you thank you and then one of my final questions here is given that you listed off all these different issues problems that we're currently facing future things that you want to fix how how would you rate the current delegates that we have uh delegate Edith Patterson delegate Deborah Davis and delegate CT Wilson who is now running to be a uh a state state senator what are your thoughts on the on what are your thoughts on differ from them as well so I think that of the three the one I like the most is and I you asked me the questions I have to say the one I like the most is probably Edith Patterson just because she she's pretty old and I think that there's it's not a secret.

SPEAKER_01 58:26

I she knows she's old but she despite that she's still pretty active she's she's she's listed on a ton of different legislation she's she has her ears open to the community I think the most of all of our delegates and of all of them I feel like she is currently doing the best job. After that I would put uh Deborah Davis who has uh not been as present I think uh there was a legislative session a couple years ago where she was she had an absence rate of 25% which is not very good. I think that was something of an an anomaly but I never found a reason out for why that took place. Not the best but pending further information like whether it was a medical thing or something, I don't know. But pending further information that doesn't look great. And she has just been also a lot less clear on what she has done. I feel like every time I go to a forum right with Edith Patterson, Deborah Davis and C.T. Wilson, Edith and CT, for whatever disagreements I have with them, they have their manila folders. They have a whole list of all these different laws that they worked on and all these sort of things and they were doing things. They were doing their job. Deborah she has that list but I often feel like it's smaller. It's sorry to say. And I think close to Deborah but and I'm I'm not sure whether I would put him above or below Deborah would be C.T. Wilson I disagree with him on a lot but I think that he also he feels genuine in his disagreements. I think he's wrong but he's thinking about it and he has his value system. It's not that he's compromised in some way or another. He is with the value system he has he has thought these things out and that's why he is able to reach conclusions that I agree with and conclusions that I disagree with because he's not just committed to pushing a corporatist or whatever agenda. So he's very big on renewable energy despite how much he frames himself as a moderate yeah I could I would even say a conservative at some point yeah yeah for sure for sure I'm and any any conservative Democrat is going to call themselves a moderate but um but uh yeah one of the biggest things in the that the unions have been interested in is that the fact that I'm replacing somebody who is so who has been so anti-union with someone who is far and away very pro-union. That's why that's why they've especially been interested. So yeah that uh I don't know if I could give them like letter grades but I think that's unnecessary getting an idea of what I think about.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:45

Yeah. How would you how would you differ from them?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

Uh I think that they have been reluctant. They have adopted an idea that they need to be conciliatory in order to get things done. And I think that that has its place but it's not the only strategy we have there are some issues we need to be loud on. There are some issues we need to be bold even a little bit rude on and not let them just kind of fall by the wayside I think that some of the harder issues that are that that they would see as more ideological like like divesting from MDIC. Is that the right order? Okay. Um I was trying to think do I have those letters in the right order uh divesting from MDIC divesting from Israeli support nonprofits that support the Israeli government tenant unions these sorts of things that make landlords very angry but which regular people would stand to benefit a lot from are issues where I think that we have not only a job description but a moral obligation to serve the people as best we can not necessarily who got us elected not necessarily the slow uh easy path it is something that I would yeah that that that would be my main critique.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:58

But I do appreciate the work they have done. I think that there are there are some law there are many laudable things that they have managed to get done while in office.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

I just I don't think that they all got done because they were nice and Okay no definitely I mean we need this county needs fighters who are are gonna go in especially as you noted before we are ignored we are pushed aside we need someone who's gonna go up there and make some noise and let and let people know that we're just not the we are not just the Southern county attached to Prince George's that we are our own county in itself. We're not some we're not some rural uh wealthy outgrowth because that doesn't even reflect the majority of uh uh people in Charles County a lot of data shows that we have a high uh high uh per capita income but there's a lot of people there are just as many people who I know that are struggling no yeah it doesn't tell the whole truth yeah you're definitely right and then even even crazier because as you mentioned the unhoused population Charles Charles County does even does a good job at hiding them by putting them in the woods putting them behind places and kind of making it so people they don't exist. Yeah exactly so that all these all these people with all this wealth feel feel as if oh we're good because I I don't see the people who are who are directly impacted by the by the uh negative things within the county so I'm thankful that you raised that.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:25

Evan this has been an amazing amazing conversation. I want to turn it over to you to please tell people how they can get engaged with your campaign, how they can follow you, anything events you want to say and also anything you want to leave with people here as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:38

Okay, yeah. I mean so I'll I'll start by shilling for myself. So my my main uh way that I've been announcing everything has been through my Facebook account. Uh it's Charles County you gotta do that. You gotta use Facebook. And um yeah that's where you can find the most up to date stuff. Currently uh well I don't know how soon this is going to get out but I am doing coordinated canvassing on the weekends and on weekdays whenever I can fit in the time I'm also in the community trying to talk to people even if they get a little bit annoyed with me but it's okay. I gotta talk to them. Gotta get my message out there. And if you want to support me that looks like uh following me, uh signal boosting uh making sure that my thing is being seen by as many eyes as possible online. But also uh talking to your people you know asking them to vote for me. And lastly, and this is the least this is the highest form of effort that I would not say I am expecting from anybody. This is just I'm very appreciative if you do so. If you feel like you're able to donate that means a lot. Every dollar that you donate means something. I think it's every every three dollars is the equivalent of five people I can send a letter to so even something as small as $3 is is important. It it makes a material difference. And yeah as much or as little as you're able to contribute keep it comfortable don't over overexert your finances just for me just because you like me and I have a pretty face. But yeah also my email uh my email is linked on my website my email is linked on my Facebook my email is evansmithformaryland at gmail.com all of those are words no spaces no dashes no nothing uh no numbers if you send me an email I will respond I have I'm very active there are a lot of people who have sent me emails and I've responded to them so I would happily respond. And anything else I think I'm gonna be doing a fundraiser soon. I'm still hashing out the details you'll see any news about that or you won't but I think it'll happen. That should be that'll be announced on my Facebook I'm shooting for something in the first week of June before early voting officially starts and yeah that that does it as far as that I think that what I would leave people on is that people are obviously life has not it is we're not going through the easiest period of time in Charles County right now. Uh it is more unaffordable than ever due to a variety of factors, some of which are within the General Assembly's purview and some of which are not I can't I wish I could I can't get us out of Iran I can't get us out of Israel. I can't make sure that those dollars are being spent on Marylanders instead of on a foreign country and foreign influences and that sort of thing. But what I do, I think that there is an important aspect to my background and what I represent and how I can represent people. Many, uh obviously, uh, this is gonna sound kind of strange coming from a white guy in Charles County, but there is, there are a lot of ways in which I represent a very underrepresented voice. Pretty young for this compared to the current elected politicians. I think I would be the youngest person ever elected to the body in 50 years. And that's important. That's important when it comes to figuring out not just uh I and I'm not saying I'm insensitive to seniors' issues, but I think that there are enough seniors in the General Assembly that do that have that expertise, that can carry that expertise through, and that will be educating me. The time has come for somebody on the other side of the room to come and educate them on what young people need, what young people are feeling, how they feel that they've been failed, the uh crisis that they're going through, what they somebody who is not going to minimize those struggles and sort of count them as sort of like just something you need to pull your bootstraps up from because it's something that they're living. A percent of the marital legislative assembly is under the age of 35. One in 25. That is not representative. I think something like the average age in Maryland is close to 40. So that's close to half of the population that doesn't have somebody that represents their age group, or at least they have maybe two or three people that do. And so, yeah, also my back, my technical background. That's not exactly typical for a politician. I'm coming from an engineering background. I understand a lot of these technical problems, the technical solutions that they need. I can read a blueprint, I can read a technical diagram, like I know how to convert between Imperial and Metric. I there's a lot of things that I have a solid background in that will mean a lot when it comes to the rubber hitting the road and not wasting money on like needless uh confusion, needless uh just taking contractors' word for it that they're delivering us the best deal that they can give us and just making sure that these, the technical aspects, the numbers, they all match. I maybe I would have made a little bit more money as I was coming from a lawyer aspect that I could be using to bankroll my own campaign, but I'm not doing that. And I'm not, I'm not taking corporate money either. So that's I think that integrity is important. The biggest thing is that I feel that people deserve to have somebody who's honest, not just somebody who's gonna listen to them and answer the question as they asked it, not answer the question they thought they would have liked to have heard. And somebody also who is, you know where I'm coming from. I am not lying to you. My my viewpoint is malleable, uh, not very malleable. And I it's always based on the principles I stand upon. And so I don't want to over uh over overri overring this. Yeah, I feel that I'm very trustworthy. If you don't think so, you can talk to me about it. And I'm in the community. Uh, but if if you don't see me in person, you can and if you do see me in person, come talk. But if you don't see me in person, uh come and hit me up on Facebook, on my website, there's a contact form on there, anywhere you like. If you're able to contribute financially, that means a lot, no matter how little it is. But you don't have to. I it's it's an affordability crisis. I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if in the middle of affordability crisis I'm saying I deserve. So yeah, hopefully that that gives you an idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:15

Evan, that was that was incredible. And even before I do my little outward spiel about supporting my my channel, I'm gonna say this is this has honestly been been one of my favorite conversations I've had on this podcast yet with a candidate. So you all now, now time for my little, it's time to get out of here spiel. Yes, is that please, please, please you all. If you heard anything today that you liked, please remember to give this podcast a like, comment, a share, rate us five stars, do all those little things that keep us rolling and keep this podcast growing as you all have been doing. And remember to please hit that notifications bell so that you can get alerted every time there's a new episode that comes out every Wednesday. And we're looking at even doing some new episodes coming out on Fridays, just because we have so, so, so many conversations that we've been having, and it's because you all keep supporting this podcast. So, with that, you all, I'll see you next time here on The Left Handed Leftist. Good night. Thank you for having me.