You're listening to comedy Central Governor elect Westmore, Are you using that yet? I mean, it's only even gonna be a firs short amount of time and then they'll be governor. Westernmar hasn't sunk in because you ran a campaign in a place where nobody expected a Democrat to be able to win the seats of governor and yet here you are and you've done it. What does it feel like? Let's start with them, you know, Um, it feels great because you're right. I mean, when we first started this race, we started a one percent uh you know, I say that I'm not voting was pulling higher than where I was pulling at it like people first, and um, but I think what we did was we continue to show people we're gonna meet people where they were, We're gonna go to every part of the state, talked to every part of the state. And that also meant even places where there weren't a lot of Democrats, and people would literally say to me, They're like, you're coming to a lot of places, not a lot of Democrats, And I'm like, yeah, but there's a lot of Marylanders and I plan on being their governor too. And I think the people show that that mattered. When you're able, when you're willing to put in the work and earn it, then the people respond. That is something that many people spoke about in your campaign. They it was very apparent, very early on that that you ran a different race to what many establishment politicians run. You you didn't pander to a base. You know, you spoke to the people of Maryland. You didn't make the race national unnecessarily. You spoke to the issues that were actually happening in your states. And I'd love to talk a little bit, a little bit about that. You know, I think i'll paraphrase you, and that you you said at one point you don't understand why patriotism is somehow like owned now by Republicans, when everyone can be a patriot and everyone can love their country and still want to fix it. Talk me through how you came to this understanding and whether or not serving in the military and your life that lit up to this contributor to thinking that way. Well, you know, it's it's it's will because I would hear people talk about this term of patriotism and I became so bothered by because I'm like, you haven't earned that right where where I I think about this, this constant where where my definition of patriotism was when I left my family and I put on the uniform this country and I served with the eighty second Airborne Division overseas in Afghanistan, and I was literally hearing people talk about patriots whose definition of patriotism was putting on a baseball cap and and storming the capital and trying to take down democracy. And so I think about it in my own life. I come from a family of patriots, because I come from a family of educators. I come from a family of people who have served as engineers and made this country with their hands I've served from. I come from a family of ministers. Right, these are patriots, and so and so I refused to be lectured, nor should anybody allow anybody to try to bastardize that term of patriotism, because we come from a place where I understand what it means to love your country, even when your country doesn't love it back, but you still love it. Wow. So for many people, they love the country. Many people love what they want the country to be. They have that ideas of what they want to do to fix it. You will actually now going to be in that position at a really interesting time in a Mary, Okay, at an interesting time, you know, for your state. Because you have a two billion dollar circlus you're in a position where you're going to be able to spend money to make ideas a reality, which is not often the case. Talk me through some of your plans, you know, for instance, reading through your life, there are many people who have read your book and they know the story. But for those who don't, you know, your your grandmother left Cuba, you know, and moved to Jamaica, Your mom left Jamaica and came to the United States, and so you you have a family that is from many different places in the world, you know, and so and so. You know, it's informed how you see healthcare because of you know, how young you were when your father died. It's informed how you think about education, how you think about basic services. So let's let's start with you know, one of the more basic ideas, losing your father at such a young age because he couldn't get the health care he needed, means you are now in a position to change that. What are you planning to change for the people in your states who may be in that same position. You know, I think about where everything that I am and everything we ran on has been influenced by my life right where my life has been consistently the consequences of broken policies and how it leaves people, how it leaves people behind. So when we talk about leave no one behind, which I learned in the military when I was seventeen years old, leave no one behind is not just a mantra, that is a value statement. And so my earliest memories were watching my father die in front of me when I was three years old because he didn't get the healthcare that he needed. That one of my earliest memories was when I was eleven years old when I felt handcuffs my wrists because I came up in a community that was over policed and we knew it that my mother was for I was fourteen years old when my mother got her first job that gave her benefits. And by the way, however, this is a woman who went on to earn a master's degree. So when we're having conversations, so when we're having conversations about about inequitable pay between men and women, or in equable pay between people of color and non this is not an economic exercise. To me, I don't need a white paper to explain this. I've seen this. And so when we say that our my entire platform, that what we're gonna do is build pathways for work, wages, and wealth for all Marylanders, we mean that when we talk about work, it means having an education system that's teaching our students how not just to be employees, but how to be employers. When you're talking about when you're talking about wages, it means making sure that people getting are getting paid a fair wage, because gone should be the days when we have people who are working jobs and in some cases multiple jobs, and still living at or below a poverty line. And then making sure we're focusing on wealth and that's simply the idea that you should own more than you owe, and that means doing things like being able to address unfair appraisal values and historically red line neighborhoods because housing is one of the greatest ways to generate wealth, and unfair appraisal vius has been one of the greatest wealth thefts that we have seen in our society, and it means getting a chance for people to have a sense of ownership, increasing liquidity to our small businesses, our minority owned businesses, women owned businesses, really creating a platform and a pathway for people to passing onto your children besides debt. So this is about work, wages, and wealth. It's it's a it's a toll task. You know, you seem like you're up for the job. You you're really motivated and you know what you want to do about it. Let's talk a little bit about you know, being handcuffed when you are eleven years old. It means that you have a view of the quote unquote justice system that is particularly unjust. You can see how it can go wrong so fast. However, in America, I've noticed a really interesting trend whereby it is almost impossible to criticize constructively a police force without being labeled as being anti police, you know, and then people say, you're not your anti law and order, you don't want anything to happen, when ironically many police men and women will complain about their unions and the jobs they do, et cetera. How do you find that balance then, between saying to the people of your states in Maryland, my job is to keep you safe. My job is to address what is happening on the ground that leads to crime. But at the same time, my job is to repair a police force that has lost trust in many communities and lost trusts you know, in the public in general, you know, and I think about with our race and our campaign. Our campaign was endorsed by both Progressive Maryland and the Police Union, and people say, how in the world did you pull that one off? Because basically it's the idea is this is that I was offering the same thing to both sides, a seat at the table, that if we are going to actually address these issues, we have to make sure that we're doing it collectively, and that we have to have a police force that is going to move with appropriate intensity and absolute integrity and full accountability. But we need to have the police force at the table to be able to make sure that happens. That we have to make sure that yes, we have to get violent offenders off of our streets and offer and out of our communities because no child, no child should have to compet the neighborhood they are afraid of, and we have to get these illegal guns out of our neighborhoods. But it's also but it also means but we also have to be very clear on this too. You're not going to rest your way out of this, and you're not going to militarize your way out of this. And I do think about it from the context where at eleven years old I felt handcuffed my risk. And if someone would have said to that eleven year old kid, you one day you could be the governor, I would have never believed them. So we've got to make sure we're investing our kids and when we say things like that that they actually believe. It's because if a kid thinks that you don't care, they don't care what you think. And so we've got to make sure we're coming up with pathways, true pathways for all of our children to understand that the future of our society, it isn't real unless they're a part of it. I would want to know for me as as somebody who's coming into politics. You know, you see so many politicians come in with with really key ideas of what they want to do and how they want to be, and very quickly they get slowed down in the sludge that is politics, whether it be you know, outside money, big you know organizations, d N C R N c whatever it may be. You see them slowing down and then they care more about being reelected than doing the job that they were elected to do. So, so I would start with this in the most honest way, what would you say is the big is challenged that you will have to face that people don't understand how challenging it is because oftentimes politicians we have to fix this, we have to fix it, we have to fix this. But I think we'll be interesting for policies to say this part here is going to be extremely difficult to fix because of X, Y, Z or Z. As you say here, like like genuinely, when you say, what do you say? What would you say is the toughest issue facing Maryland right now? Um? I still think it comes back to economics, because I still think people feel a very real sense of of an ease and economic uncertainty about where things are. Um. But I think that what we've got to do is, first of all, we have to let people know and and make sure they can believe that we can actually get this Donett, It's really important, right, and then also put the concrete plans in place about the things we're gonna to do to be able to address that, and it means things like when we say we're going to invest to get people back to work, it means we have to be able to do that in job reskilling and job retraining. Where you know, right now in the state of Maryland, we have two available jobs for every single person filing for unemployment. And people say, well, how does that make sense. It's because we have a dynamic economy in the state of Maryland. We're just not preparing people to be able to participate in that economy, right, So being able to put together the concrete practical plans in order to do that, it means being able to start earlier. And again, as a leader, I am data driven in heart led, right, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I acknowledge that. But data matters and I don't move without data. And I know this is that of brain development happens in a child by the time that child is five years old. So why we have children starting school of five makes absolutely no sense. We have to make sure we have PreK for every single child and meet in the state of Maryland. And so it really is saying we know what works. And again I have I've been a public servant for my entire life. I just haven't been a politician, right, but I've had a chance. I've led soldiers in combat, I let a successful small business helping first generation students go to and through college, and then I had a chance to lead one of the largest poverty fighting organizations in this country. I know what works. We know what works. Now. The question is can we derive the political will and the political and the political focus and intentionality to actually bring these things to scale? And that's where I think we had a unique value proposition that allowed the people of Maryland to say, let's go, let's go win this decade. Oh. If there's one thing even your worst protractors cannot argue is that you are not focused and you're not driven. You genuinely all thank you so much for joining me on the show. FeAs having you look to see what you do as the reality comedy like Westmore Everybody, What's the Daily Show? Weeknights and eleven ten Central Armed Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime I'll on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast

You're listening to comedy Central Governor elect Westmore, Are you using that yet? I mean, it's only even gonna be a firs short amount of time and then they'll be governor. Westernmar hasn't sunk in because you ran a campaign in a place where nobody expected a Democrat to be able to win the seats of governor and yet here you are and you've done it. What does it feel like? Let's start with them, you know, Um, it feels great because you're right. I mean, when we first started this race, we started a one percent uh you know, I say that I'm not voting was pulling higher than where I was pulling at it like people first, and um, but I think what we did was we continue to show people we're gonna meet people where they were, We're gonna go to every part of the state, talked to every part of the state. And that also meant even places where there weren't a lot of Democrats, and people would literally say to me, They're like, you're coming to a lot of places, not a lot of Democrats, And I'm like, yeah, but there's a lot of Marylanders and I plan on being their governor too. And I think the people show that that mattered. When you're able, when you're willing to put in the work and earn it, then the people respond. That is something that many people spoke about in your campaign. They it was very apparent, very early on that that you ran a different race to what many establishment politicians run. You you didn't pander to a base. You know, you spoke to the people of Maryland. You didn't make the race national unnecessarily. You spoke to the issues that were actually happening in your states. And I'd love to talk a little bit, a little bit about that. You know, I think i'll paraphrase you, and that you you said at one point you don't understand why patriotism is somehow like owned now by Republicans, when everyone can be a patriot and everyone can love their country and still want to fix it. Talk me through how you came to this understanding and whether or not serving in the military and your life that lit up to this contributor to thinking that way. Well, you know, it's it's it's will because I would hear people talk about this term of patriotism and I became so bothered by because I'm like, you haven't earned that right where where I I think about this, this constant where where my definition of patriotism was when I left my family and I put on the uniform this country and I served with the eighty second Airborne Division overseas in Afghanistan, and I was literally hearing people talk about patriots whose definition of patriotism was putting on a baseball cap and and storming the capital and trying to take down democracy. And so I think about it in my own life. I come from a family of patriots, because I come from a family of educators. I come from a family of people who have served as engineers and made this country with their hands I've served from. I come from a family of ministers. Right, these are patriots, and so and so I refused to be lectured, nor should anybody allow anybody to try to bastardize that term of patriotism, because we come from a place where I understand what it means to love your country, even when your country doesn't love it back, but you still love it. Wow. So for many people, they love the country. Many people love what they want the country to be. They have that ideas of what they want to do to fix it. You will actually now going to be in that position at a really interesting time in a Mary, Okay, at an interesting time, you know, for your state. Because you have a two billion dollar circlus you're in a position where you're going to be able to spend money to make ideas a reality, which is not often the case. Talk me through some of your plans, you know, for instance, reading through your life, there are many people who have read your book and they know the story. But for those who don't, you know, your your grandmother left Cuba, you know, and moved to Jamaica, Your mom left Jamaica and came to the United States, and so you you have a family that is from many different places in the world, you know, and so and so. You know, it's informed how you see healthcare because of you know, how young you were when your father died. It's informed how you think about education, how you think about basic services. So let's let's start with you know, one of the more basic ideas, losing your father at such a young age because he couldn't get the health care he needed, means you are now in a position to change that. What are you planning to change for the people in your states who may be in that same position. You know, I think about where everything that I am and everything we ran on has been influenced by my life right where my life has been consistently the consequences of broken policies and how it leaves people, how it leaves people behind. So when we talk about leave no one behind, which I learned in the military when I was seventeen years old, leave no one behind is not just a mantra, that is a value statement. And so my earliest memories were watching my father die in front of me when I was three years old because he didn't get the healthcare that he needed. That one of my earliest memories was when I was eleven years old when I felt handcuffs my wrists because I came up in a community that was over policed and we knew it that my mother was for I was fourteen years old when my mother got her first job that gave her benefits. And by the way, however, this is a woman who went on to earn a master's degree. So when we're having conversations, so when we're having conversations about about inequitable pay between men and women, or in equable pay between people of color and non this is not an economic exercise. To me, I don't need a white paper to explain this. I've seen this. And so when we say that our my entire platform, that what we're gonna do is build pathways for work, wages, and wealth for all Marylanders, we mean that when we talk about work, it means having an education system that's teaching our students how not just to be employees, but how to be employers. When you're talking about when you're talking about wages, it means making sure that people getting are getting paid a fair wage, because gone should be the days when we have people who are working jobs and in some cases multiple jobs, and still living at or below a poverty line. And then making sure we're focusing on wealth and that's simply the idea that you should own more than you owe, and that means doing things like being able to address unfair appraisal values and historically red line neighborhoods because housing is one of the greatest ways to generate wealth, and unfair appraisal vius has been one of the greatest wealth thefts that we have seen in our society, and it means getting a chance for people to have a sense of ownership, increasing liquidity to our small businesses, our minority owned businesses, women owned businesses, really creating a platform and a pathway for people to passing onto your children besides debt. So this is about work, wages, and wealth. It's it's a it's a toll task. You know, you seem like you're up for the job. You you're really motivated and you know what you want to do about it. Let's talk a little bit about you know, being handcuffed when you are eleven years old. It means that you have a view of the quote unquote justice system that is particularly unjust. You can see how it can go wrong so fast. However, in America, I've noticed a really interesting trend whereby it is almost impossible to criticize constructively a police force without being labeled as being anti police, you know, and then people say, you're not your anti law and order, you don't want anything to happen, when ironically many police men and women will complain about their unions and the jobs they do, et cetera. How do you find that balance then, between saying to the people of your states in Maryland, my job is to keep you safe. My job is to address what is happening on the ground that leads to crime. But at the same time, my job is to repair a police force that has lost trust in many communities and lost trusts you know, in the public in general, you know, and I think about with our race and our campaign. Our campaign was endorsed by both Progressive Maryland and the Police Union, and people say, how in the world did you pull that one off? Because basically it's the idea is this is that I was offering the same thing to both sides, a seat at the table, that if we are going to actually address these issues, we have to make sure that we're doing it collectively, and that we have to have a police force that is going to move with appropriate intensity and absolute integrity and full accountability. But we need to have the police force at the table to be able to make sure that happens. That we have to make sure that yes, we have to get violent offenders off of our streets and offer and out of our communities because no child, no child should have to compet the neighborhood they are afraid of, and we have to get these illegal guns out of our neighborhoods. But it's also but it also means but we also have to be very clear on this too. You're not going to rest your way out of this, and you're not going to militarize your way out of this. And I do think about it from the context where at eleven years old I felt handcuffed my risk. And if someone would have said to that eleven year old kid, you one day you could be the governor, I would have never believed them. So we've got to make sure we're investing our kids and when we say things like that that they actually believe. It's because if a kid thinks that you don't care, they don't care what you think. And so we've got to make sure we're coming up with pathways, true pathways for all of our children to understand that the future of our society, it isn't real unless they're a part of it. I would want to know for me as as somebody who's coming into politics. You know, you see so many politicians come in with with really key ideas of what they want to do and how they want to be, and very quickly they get slowed down in the sludge that is politics, whether it be you know, outside money, big you know organizations, d N C R N c whatever it may be. You see them slowing down and then they care more about being reelected than doing the job that they were elected to do. So, so I would start with this in the most honest way, what would you say is the big is challenged that you will have to face that people don't understand how challenging it is because oftentimes politicians we have to fix this, we have to fix it, we have to fix this. But I think we'll be interesting for policies to say this part here is going to be extremely difficult to fix because of X, Y, Z or Z. As you say here, like like genuinely, when you say, what do you say? What would you say is the toughest issue facing Maryland right now? Um? I still think it comes back to economics, because I still think people feel a very real sense of of an ease and economic uncertainty about where things are. Um. But I think that what we've got to do is, first of all, we have to let people know and and make sure they can believe that we can actually get this Donett, It's really important, right, and then also put the concrete plans in place about the things we're gonna to do to be able to address that, and it means things like when we say we're going to invest to get people back to work, it means we have to be able to do that in job reskilling and job retraining. Where you know, right now in the state of Maryland, we have two available jobs for every single person filing for unemployment. And people say, well, how does that make sense. It's because we have a dynamic economy in the state of Maryland. We're just not preparing people to be able to participate in that economy, right, So being able to put together the concrete practical plans in order to do that, it means being able to start earlier. And again, as a leader, I am data driven in heart led, right, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I acknowledge that. But data matters and I don't move without data. And I know this is that of brain development happens in a child by the time that child is five years old. So why we have children starting school of five makes absolutely no sense. We have to make sure we have PreK for every single child and meet in the state of Maryland. And so it really is saying we know what works. And again I have I've been a public servant for my entire life. I just haven't been a politician, right, but I've had a chance. I've led soldiers in combat, I let a successful small business helping first generation students go to and through college, and then I had a chance to lead one of the largest poverty fighting organizations in this country. I know what works. We know what works. Now. The question is can we derive the political will and the political and the political focus and intentionality to actually bring these things to scale? And that's where I think we had a unique value proposition that allowed the people of Maryland to say, let's go, let's go win this decade. Oh. If there's one thing even your worst protractors cannot argue is that you are not focused and you're not driven. You genuinely all thank you so much for joining me on the show. FeAs having you look to see what you do as the reality comedy like Westmore Everybody, What's the Daily Show? Weeknights and eleven ten Central Armed Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime I'll on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast