29: Running Toward Responsibility When Life Demands More

What happens when you realize no one else is coming and it has to be you? At 29, Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs is a mom of four, a military veteran, and stepping into one of the biggest leadership roles of her life. But this is not a political conversation. It is about what it looks like to step up when life demands more from you. In this episode, Elizabeth shares her perspective on leadership, responsibility, and showing up when the stakes are high, even when you are already carrying a lot. If you have ever felt the pull to do more but questioned whether you actually have the capacity, this conversation will challenge you to move forward anyway. Not just for yourself, but for the future you are shaping.

(Note: This episode includes a brief discussion of abortion as part of a broader conversation around reproductive health.)

Connect with Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs:

elizabethforvirginia.com

In This Episode:

• (02:15) Meet Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs
• (04:15) What the military taught her about leadership
• (09:05) Listening to people, not just leading them
• (16:00) Education, socialism, capitalism
• (25:00) Why people feel disconnected and overwhelmed
• (33:25) What needs to change for the next generation
• (39:40) How to support

Connect with Daffney:

The Game-Changer Consult → This 60 min deep dive offers you clarity and insight into what’s possible for your next 60 days. Leave this consult feeling full of possibility and with the energy of purpose!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay. So I'm going to do something a little different today. Right now for a run, which if you've listened to this podcast, you know this is one of the ways to best regulate your nervous system when everything's just feeling a lot. And if you're following today's guest, you're probably going to recognize that this is something she and I have in common. Elizabeth Dempsey Beggs shares a lot of her campaign trail while she's running. She's sharing stories, she's reaching out and connecting. And it's just to become a bit of a signature about her reflection and how she shows up with her own physical hard work. The idea of staying anchored while you're doing a lot is actually why I wanted to bring her to this show. Elizabeth is a veteran, a slostronomy, a mama four, and she's currently running for Congress at 29. And whether or not politics is your thing, what really stood out for me is her willingness to step into responsibility instead of waiting for somebody else to do it. Because the truth is a lot of women who understand this show understand that feeling that you are juggling work, family, leadership roles, community responsibilities, and trying to take care of her body in the middle of all of that. So as you listen to this conversation, I invite you to think less about platform and more about the leadership and the resilience and what it really looks like to keep moving forward when the stakes are high. Let's get into it. Welcome to Don't F and Shrink, the podcast, where we stop playing small and start showing up big. I'm your host, Daphne Allwine, and I'm here to cut through the noise, ditch the self-doubt, and get honest about what it takes to live and lead with unapologetic confidence. Each week you'll hear unfiltered conversations, powerful stories, and in real life strategies to help you take up space in your life, your work, and your world. So buckle up because shrinking is not an option here. Let's dive in.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Hey, Elizabeth. Hi, thank you so much for having me on. Yes, I am running for House of Representatives, so federal level Congress in Virginia's first district.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

So if you don't know already, Elizabeth is a vet. She is a mom. She is a first responder spouse. She's also a foster mom. And basically, service is in her blood. She is the person stepping up and showing up because the rest of us are still trying to fold laundry and she's filling out balance. Well, don't look how much laundry.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

So true. It almost never all gets put away, especially with four kids. Like my own is the last one to get put away. There's more important things right now. So it can wait.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Well said. Well said. I think the other astounding and cool fact about Elizabeth is that she's 29. That's pretty incredible. They're in the day, this day and age when a lot of our representatives are sort of in a spot, maybe not representing who we are in particular as women, as mothers. This is a new thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

What made you want to run? I want to serve my community and I want to continue to serve the country that I love necessarily. Did I want to run for Congress? Did I grow up dreaming of the day I would launch my first congressional campaign? Did I ever think the first time I run for office would be at 29 for a federal seat? No. But the moment demanded it and demanded something different. We have a vision for the future of this country. We know how much better it can be. Yeah. We're running because we love our country. We love our neighbors and our communities and we're ready to keep fighting for it. And it's going to take a different playbook. It's not going to take someone who's been in democratic politics for 20 years. We need radical change. I'm not going to sit around and wait for someone to come save me, come save my family, come save my neighbors when I have the ability to do it myself. So I'm just going to go fucking do it myself.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Well said, because there is a huge disconnect in this generation that no longer has the same effect or influence. Can you tell me what being a vet or being in the military really sort of grounded for you and who you are?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

It changed my world perspective a lot. My job as a leader in the military, and I was one of the first women to integrate into combat arms. So I was a tank commander. I integrated my unit and infantry battalion so women could serve there. And I was the only one for a while. A lot of people did not mock me in that leadership role. And that was okay. That was okay. And that's the important thing we need to look at. And being in the military really grounded the selfless leadership in me, the wanting to fight for my community, but more so leading.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Whether people voted for me or not, whether they have the same religion as me or not, whether, I mean, just so many things that can make us different. Whether we have the first, our first language is the same, whether we have the same skin color, whether they're a parent or not, or they have a degree or they don't have a degree, that doesn't matter. They're in my district and they deserve representation. Yes, yes, yes. And that's what being in the military grounded for me. That's amazing. When I stood shoulder to shoulder with somebody, like that's all that mattered, is that there was something that united us. Yeah. And that's what we're missing. And I refuse to raise my children in a world full of hate, in a world full of adults entering college, entering the workforce that don't know any different than division and hate.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

You know, there's something really profound. And I've I've I have dear friends and women who have actually volunteered for combat type positions. And this is the nuance that other people don't know if this isn't part of your community. Like you said, women are not always welcomed into these spaces. They haven't always been welcomed. So the, I mean, like at Hegeseth right now, right? There's a really good position that, like, this is you're not really welcome into this. You have to earn every inch of your leadership when you are a woman in a military position. So I have a dear friend who talks about all those times. She's very profound in her leadership because she had to earn this. This was never given to her. This was not something that was easy for her. She had to dig in into a world that didn't really match her or didn't really prioritize her or even value her in a lot of ways. So these are some really big conversations that we're having because this is a really, really big piece of who you are and how you speak and how you show up in these cases. This is earned valor. This is earned leadership. This is an earned voice.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

And that's a problem, not just within our government, not just within our military. You know, people who don't live in this space, you can look at other spaces that you're in where you see this happening. And I have made mistakes as a leader. And I was lucky to make them young. And will I probably make some more even when I'm in the seat?

unknown 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

But I expect to be held accountable. I know how to hold myself accountable for those mistakes. But so many of these basic ones, figuring out who you are as a leader, how you handle the pressure, what it means to truly be a servant leader and recognize like you will be leaving a lot of comforts behind. So, yes, we need younger leaders, absolutely, with a vision, with this real experience. But that's the thing. We also need leaders who have that with a mix of true experience. This comes with a lot of sacrifice and a lot of work, and it should be exhausting. That's when like when people are like, well, what are you gonna do after? And I'm like, well, I'll find something after. It's like, oh, you don't want to like, you know, you could run for Senate, you could do this. I'm like, no, no, like that's not what I mean. I don't want to be, yeah, let me, you know, fight for what we need, save what we need right now, and then it's time for the next person because there's no way my body should physically allow me to be doing something like this 10 years from now. Yeah. It will stress you out. It will take a toll on your health, and it should. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

No, you're absolutely right. And you, I mean, health is part of your platform too, right? Is this dedication to showing up and being healthy and being vibrant and also being a mother, right? Like not offsetting this to somebody else. You've actually brought your kids into your work, even just intellectually, that like this is my responsibility, so that this generation, I think any mom can relate to the idea that anything they see going on is not really about them. It's not about our egos. It's not about like even this podcast for me. This is not about my ego. This is about showing up now and cataloging this voice for the generation I'm creating and you're creating and looking for.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Because the generation deserves that. And the moment demands you having this voice right now.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

They do.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

And the moment demands you highlighting it. So I like I always say, I would love to run this race anonymously. Really? I don't want my name out there. I don't need pictures of myself everywhere. I'm good. When you're going out and you're speaking to your constituents, what's like? Well, I mean, I guess you can say I've been a professional yapper my whole life now. Okay. Right. So that is the best part, is I get to go spend my days knocking on people's doors, wow, showing up where they are, or getting DMs from people. Yeah. And really doing this outreach and saying, what matters to you? What do you care about? Yeah. What would make your life better? Tell me. And I get to hear that. And there's so many opportunities I have outside of being an elected official when that happens in January, that I can start making a difference now and connecting people with resources that they might not know about. Working on plans like our VA healthcare plan, we're working on to implement that now. Because that doesn't matter if I'm in the office or not, right? Will I have an ability to push it forward more and all that? Yeah. But if it's not me, I'm gonna make sure whoever it is still has these plans and is pushing it forward. And if you think it's bullshit and you have lost face in the system, I completely understand why you feel that way, but at least give me the opportunity to hear you out. Yeah. And you know what's funny? What matters on these doors and what matters on these doors? Exactly the same. We want a place where we're safe. Yes, where we have security, where we can raise our families, where we can pay for our grocery bills, where we can work hard and get ahead. And it's just two different sides and two different messages, right? There's so much propaganda, there's so much message being sent on every side of the aisle. It's like, no, and that's why I go knock on these doors.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

And I don't ignore them. And I ask, what matters to you? Like, let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

And when we actually take off the bullshit armor, we don't play this political game. Yeah. We sit and we have a conversation, and there's so many things that are so important and so popular across the country. Yeah. But the reality is, like, we all want the same things at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

We have to get back to that. We're not that far apart. And I think, I think there's this very interesting thing. I'm sure you're watching the chasms happen, right? Where people are starting to realize that party lines don't protect them anymore. I think there's this mindset for years and years, and you probably grew up sort of rural like I did, where people really truly believe that their party reflected their community, who they were, who they were expected to be, and where they felt safe. But I think we're realizing you are such a dichotomy of so many things. You are a veteran, you're a mom, and you are, you know, traditionally, right? In those words, taught Sunday school. This is what I mean in the in that regard. And you're choosing democratic, which is clearly not where you started, right? Because you have a clear mindset about right is right and wrong is wrong.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

And it's either going to be And I'm also a data-driven person. Go on. Yeah. That's a big piece of this that we kind of forget. And, you know, uh some of these red doors, people be like, you know, I like this, but like, where's that money coming from? Nothing's free. And I'm like, let's actually look at the numbers. Yeah. I was a director in corporate, ran a team, started a division down here in Richmond. I finishing up my MBA, I'm like, no, let's look at these numbers.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to. So let's talk about abortion. Okay. So let's say we have some single issue voters. Yeah. And that's pretty common. And so often I would always hear, like, well, you can't be Christian and Democrat.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Well, a lot of things have been blown off about that one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah. But so let's say, you know, you just you find abortion immoral and under any circumstance, that's what your religion leads you to believe. Okay. You have the right to feel that way. Absolutely. Yes. You don't have the right to legislate it, but you have the right to feel that way. But let's take it farther. Let's talk about this. If you want there to be fewer abortions, the data shows us a ban is not the way to do that. The rate of abortion does not lower under a ban. It actually goes up under a six-week ban because you're putting this ridiculous timeline on people. And they have no other what does make the rate lower, though, is democratic policies. We have decades of data since Roe felt showing us that the rate of abortion falls under democratic leadership. That's not because of bans. That's because we are providing stability, because people have access to medical care, because the maternal death rate falls, because there's comprehensive sex education, because birth control is affordable and accessible. All of these reasons, paid parental leave. Yes, all of these things lower the rate of abortion. So if that is truly your cause, you have the answer here. And you've already picked the made the wrong choice, right? And I mean, let's be honest, at a brand party does a terrible messaging when it comes to reproductive health care. I mean, it's just a terrible messaging. And so I don't blame a lot of people when we have these conversations. And the right does a good job. Thank you. Well, like, what about late-term abortion? Yes. Yeah. Like, come on, guys, like, let let's sit down. I'm like, and I always ask, like, have you ever spoken to someone directly who has had to terminate late term? And the answer is always no, because as soon as someone actually has or has been affected by it, they understand what it is. And I'm like, well, let me tell you, because that is a wanted child. Yeah. And somebody's life was at risk. And a doctor and the parent decided what the best course of action was.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

No one wakes up at 35 weeks pregnant and decides that they're not going to go through with having that child. That's not what this is. I'm like, this is an incredibly traumatic event. Any way you spin it. And if I could take that pain away and I could make sure that wasn't an option, okay, I would. But that's not the world we live in. And I don't think that's up to a judge or a legislature that has no medical experience or training. That is up to a doctor and that is up to the patient. And those are the only people who are making that decision.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

It's also just no, you know, be being in your 40s, you get the value of hearing other women's stories. It's kind of like you said, like, you know, if you're ignorant to it, if you're not a woman, if you don't have friends who've been in this circumstance or in this situation, it's really easy to sit back and be ignorant and be righteous or self-righteous in it. It is righteous.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

And it's, you know, I'm pro-life. I support this. It's like, well, these policies don't actually like these policies are pro-birth. And let's be clear when I say someone can say that they are pro-life and vote Republican and truly be pro-life, that they feel like they are doing the right thing and they are supporting that. But educating, saying, well, these policies, though, are not pro-life. They actually raise the rate of abortion and they damage families after the children are born, too. They're not caring for them. And you know how some people are like, well, that's the parents' responsibility. Well, right? Socialism, because then you're depending on the state for that. Right. Our education's failed. So many people. Right. It's not to say people are not intelligent. There's a strong difference between someone saying someone is intelligent and they're smart and the education has failed. That's also like the approach that has to be understood. People are not dumb. Yeah. The people of my district, the people of this country are not dumb. Yeah. But our education has failed in a lot of regards. And social media just adds fuel to that fire. But socialism, communism, like these are all two different things. And socialism actually is in place for capitalism to actually thrive and be capitalism because we don't live under capitalism right now. No. Most people think we do, but no, we don't. Capitalism only works when you have strong antitrust laws, strong anti-monopoly laws. And we have some on the books. They're not strong enough. And they're also not being enforced, right? When you have places that have these food deserts and you have Dollar General going in and being predatory on these and essentially holding monopolies, like that is not capitalism. But when you have universal health care, that actually allows capitalism to thrive. People can start their own businesses. Yes. You do have healthy market competition. Again, it's just coming down to like the education and the data when we talk about these differences people hold. Now, let me be very clear when I say this, and I do always put this caveat to it. There are extremists on both sides. True. I'm not trying to bring these people together. I'm not trying to walk away from my morals, what I believe. And it it really bothers me when people are like, well, if you voted for child, you're racist. Like, no, you're not. You had a different source of information and you were doing what you thought was best for your family. Wow. Okay. I need to have the grace and allow you to have the ability to come over and say, I was wrong. This isn't why I voted. I mean, take the time. Go watch Fox News for a day and realize what people are being told.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Yeah. It's you're you're absolutely right. A lot of people, and this is this is where accountability, this is where personal responsibility comes in, you'll agree, in that people don't take the time. They're off, they're offsourcing their values to a party. They're offsourcing because they I love how you said that. This is the party that's gonna take care of them.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

That really challenges how I think about this too.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

This is the accountability, right? This is the idea that I don't want to be accountable. So I'm just gonna stand behind a group of people. So when it gets real for people, when it gets to a place and I don't know how you can be a mother right now, and shut off the idea that voting red is good for your child in any capacity. And I don't say that in any other way that I've always been a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

No, I know what you mean by I've always been an independent. We all should be independents. Let's let's be clear. And this idea that you can't dissent within your own party is insane. There are things I don't agree with within the Democratic Party. Yes. And there are things that every single person who is on the Democratic ticket should disagree with within the party in some way, shape, or form. Same on the red side. Like we, there should be so much dissent. Now it's not to say we don't come together and we don't pull our resources and push and have ideals and stand for something. There should be dissent. Just because someone's a Democrat doesn't mean, you know, whatever X person does in X state. That doesn't mean I fully support that because we're on the same party ticket. Like we have two parties, guys. It's there should be a lot of dissent within these parties. Uh absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

If there is, yeah, this background. You know, you made a really excellent point earlier. I know you're running a grassroots campaign, which is a completely different experience, right? Because you, like you said, you are knocking on doors, you are talking to people, you are having conversations. And these are the conversations that are moving us forward. But the other side to that is the people who are sitting in those offices right now are disconnected, are not feeling the grocery store issues, they're not feeling the electric bill issues, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

How can we bring a voice? Like, what's your strategy for bringing a voice so that people realize they're not being represented? Like you said.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Yeah. Um, the biggest one's campaign finance reform. The reality is citizens united, it's people are like, oh, we need to overturn it. Well, Congress can't overturn a Supreme Court decision, right? And our government is so complicated that these things are very tricky issues because it's not just a, yeah, we're going to overturn citizens united. Bullshit. I'm lying to you because a representative doesn't have that power, nor should they. We have separation. But there are things that we can do. There are plans that we can implement. Because the reality is, I a lot of people don't understand this. There's a lot of dark money being funneled, even though it's publicly reported who you're taking money from, how much they're donating to you. It's you can look it up pretty easily now, but there are super packs and there are ways to hide it and to funnel it. But with that being said, you know, we talk about Powerbill. Virginia, we've seen about a 15% increase because we have Dominion Power, and that is who we have in Virginia. That's the option, which means the it is a monopoly. Yep. Um, which means the government does intervene when there is monopoly. And, you know, the utility company is one where like kind of makes sense. There's a monopoly, right? Power lines take up a lot of space, blah, blah, blah. Big investment. Yeah, big investment on their part. But the so the government is in charge of, you know, how much they can raise rates, how much they charge a household consumer versus how much they charge a large consumer. And we don't have to get into the whole data center thing. You live in Virginia. Well, I live in. But let's talk about, you know, what was raised under Yuncan and what was approved and this rate. But we have Dominion Power gives left and right. They don't care. They will give a lot of money to whatever candidate is willing to take their money. So there's someone in this primary against me who's taken almost a million dollars from Dominion Power. Wow. How are you going to tell people you are working to lower their bills? Mm-hmm. No, you're working for a Corporation.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

You you already took a job.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

And that was a big decision when I said, like, I will not take corporate money, foreign influence money should absolutely have nothing to do with our elections, any of this, because to me, my vote is not for sale and no one else's should be for sale. So there are ways around this, you know, capping how much you can spend for each election, like X amount for Senate, X amount for House of Representatives. We can't tell states what to do. Elections are not federal, right? And that's a good thing. Yeah. You know, we can get into the Save Act on that. But as Congress, we can't tell states what to do for, you know, their governor for their this. You know, Virginia's laws on that look different than what they do federally. But we can have other systems in place. Other states have seen some really good systems in place. And we have to make that change.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Because again, my vote is not for sale. And campaigns have gotten so incredibly expensive. You know, in case of point, like I'm not wealthy. You don't have to be wealthy to run for office. You don't have to have a huge list of a ton of donors, but it does make it really hard when you don't. And when things change, it makes it really hard for grassroots candidates to stay in the game and to react. And people who are fighting to make this better and to make it so systems that do work for you. Like I mentioned earlier, things that are incredibly popular across the country. Let's look at banning congressional stock trading. There we go. Because you shouldn't have any financial interest in decisions you're making, right? This is something people are going to be like, well, the left does it too. Yeah, I know. Like this is an issue across the board. Across the board. Yeah. So one of the most popular policy issues is to ban congressional stock trading. You want to sit in this office. You cannot personally, or your immediate family, cannot trade stocks. Can you have a mutual fund that you're not controlling what's being bought, sold, whatever? Sure. Sure, retirement fund. None of that matters, right? We're not saying can't have investments, but you can't personally decide, oh, I'm going to buy$5,000 or$50,000 of Boeing stock right before I award them a contract. That's absolutely not okay. You're not a professional. Incredibly popular, incredibly popular to ban that. So why hasn't it happened? And it's because who loses when that happens? Right. It benefits the people who are in office and the good donor class, the people who know, you know, look at you take Boeing, right? If they know, hey, this Congressperson can buy$50,000 for a stock, they'll personally make a lot of money, we'll get awarded the contract. Oh, and let's just throw a million dollars at the re-election campaign so we always know that we have an advocate for us winning the contract in this, what we're lobbying to get through. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

These boomers really uh set the deck for themselves, didn't they? Right. So here's here's my question on this. There is this idea that we do need to bring new faces, new generations into the mix. Yes, 100%. These are the consequences. Also, we're not as jaded by by that. We know that we have skin in the game, that we have children at this stage. We have people I would say we're just so jaded that we just don't care anymore. This is the generation that needs to step up, yours in particular, right? Where it's showing up, knowing that people are struggling. They've got student loan debt, they can't afford a house by themselves. They're moving back in with their parents or they're living as an extension of their parents.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Like, no, and that's why I say maybe it's just because we're so jaded that we're no longer thinking, oh, this is left versus fight. This is everyone's sucks. This is us fighting the oligarchy. This is the 21% who's made their wealth exploiting the working class. So we can look at, you know, when we talk about these policies that have a strong economic return. You know, for every dollar we invest in early childhood and community, it's an$8 return on investment. So it's not just the moral thing to do, it's a good investment, but you'll hear pushback, right? But where's that money coming from? Like nothing's free. You just want handouts. They're not handouts, they're handops. They're what allow people to thrive, to contribute, to not just be in survival mode. Yeah. And we have the money. Yeah. Here's the more important thing. We're paying for it already. Your taxes are paying for it already. Yes. This isn't raising anyone's taxes in the working class, in the middle class, in the upper middle class. I don't even, even if you're making a million dollars a year. Yeah. I don't need to raise your taxes, to be honest. But when you're making a million dollars in interest a day by exploiting our labor, I'm at least gonna close the loopholes for you to continue to exploit. Because trust me, we have the money for both a strong defense system and to ensure that no one's going hungry. And a lot of it is people just want to protect their family, right? They're like, I'm already struggling to feed my kids and to make ends meet. I don't want my taxes raised so that somebody can not have a job and go use drugs and just get handouts. Yeah. And I understand where that anger is coming from. Right now it's not understanding and it's not empathy, but like I get it. People are just scared. Yeah, it's identity. People are literally. And it's working to this idea of hey, this is us versus them, right? This is you hate your neighbor, your neighbor is not going to work and you're funding it. And, you know, they chose to go to college and take out all these loans. Like they could have worked as hard as you. Why should you have to fight for student loan forgiveness? Blah, blah, blah. That where it's like trying to get the fighting in between. Or and distract, right? Things like the Epstein files, things like these.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Like it's it's a brilliant warfare plan, which you probably know all about. And it's working well. You have both sides of the coin. You get to, you get to see that there was this, there's this whole thing going on that even the way social media is operating right now is a way that is trying to tire you out to get you to give up, to get you to, you know, just just so we just let it go already and just just look past it or ignore it, or I it's it's fatigue, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:54

It's per purposefully fatiguing. People are exhausted. Yeah. And it's purposeful. And being politically involved is a privilege. Let's not get that wrong, right? When we talk about it, it is easier to identify with your party and just hope that they're going to do the right thing on your behalf. And I don't blame people for that either.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Yes, you have personal responsibility to do it. You can't be looking at what 700 races across the country. Yeah. I can't do that, and I'm in one of them. Right? That's not a possibility. And that's why we have some, you know, and I will say like there's a big difference between ideological packs that might give a candidate$500 versus, you know, your corporate packs, like your Walmarts and your that stuff. Big difference there. Big difference. Um, because it allows people to be involved and say, this is what matters to me. You guys go out, you find the right candidates, this. But it is such a privilege to be politically involved, even here in Virginia. How many times do we ask people to vote a year? And it's like, hey, you're actually dropping your kids off. You know, you have three kids. That's three different drop-offs, three different pickups. This person has sport. Don't forget it's spirit week at this school, but not this school. That's next week. Oh, and you have a job. Oh, but inflation's so high that your job actually you can no longer afford your mortgage because your power bill has gone up and your insurance bill has gone up. But hey, make sure you recycle. Um, it's definitely not on corporations that our planets dying. It's definitely you, not recycling. That pizza box or that that detergent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Speaking of which, you were talking about voting and how Virginia gets to vote. There has actually been a bill that passed the House so far. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Save Act. Yeah. Yes. So the Save Act, yes, on the federal level. So that is a bill, technically the Save America. And the idea is that it's supposed to protect our elections. Our elections are protected. It's actually, that's not what this is. The idea is that only citizens are allowed to vote. That has been our laws for a very, very, very long time. Yes. That is not new. And when we investigate the rate of non-citizen votes, it is so low. It is statistically nudgeable. I'm talking 0.00001%. Like a handful of non-citizen votes get counted. And this is both in red and blue states where it's been investigated. Yes. So this is not a problem. Now, it's a distraction and it's to protect power in midterms because the Republican Party, MAGA, knows that they are losing the House in midterms. Yes. They've seen it across the country. These seats that they even felt were safe red are going strongly blue. And it's not just because more people are showing up to vote. That's part of it. But a large part of it is safe red voters are voting blue. But the Save Act is going to Senate. And it essentially to prove that you are a citizen, you have to go bring your paperwork. So I changed my name. I added bags as my last name when I got married. Now I have a passport. So I would just have to go re-register and show my passport. Half of Americans do not have a passport. Then if you're married, your passport has to add. And do you know how expensive it is to get a passport?

SPEAKER_02 31:04

I do.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

So$200. Do you know how long that takes?

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

So by the time this actually goes through and gets signed into law, if you do not have your passport, you will not have time. And if you don't have the extra funds on hand, you will not have that to be able to go register to vote. This is just not only then, you then have to go re-register to vote with these documents that are expensive, right? And you have to get your marriage certificate and your birth certificate. So if you've changed your name, your birth certificate does not match your name anymore. Right. So then you have to bring your marriage certificate. It has to be the certified copy. So if you don't have the original certified copy, which a lot of people don't, should you? Sure. Absolutely. Yep. You have to request a copy of it from whatever county you got married in. That has an expense attached to it. Yep. So it's these things, um, the military. Yeah. Right. So for to request a mail and ballot, you they're trying to cut down how many people can do that, but you still have to go register in person to vote again with your citizenship documents. So if you're deployed overseas, if you even are stationed in California and you're registered to vote in Virginia and you don't want to change your state of residency because that's your home, you're temporarily stationed somewhere else. If you don't have the money for that flight to go out and register to vote, if you don't have the leave to be able to be approved, you no longer get to vote, even though you took an oath to defend the Constitution. Yep. Even though you're the one protecting people's rights to vote, that will be taken from you by the party that loves to claim patriotism.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

That is ridiculous. And there's so many other people this is going to affect. Um, adoptees.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

A lot of a lot of people are going to be affected by this. And it's just, are there ways around it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you're passionate about enough about wanting to vote, but here's the thing that you're not supposed to have to be. This is a right that you have in a republic.$500 later. And it's one that's being taken. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, who's going to make that investment? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

In these, yeah, in these circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

You can say, oh, well, like they should care and they should care enough. Well, it's not even caring enough. It's like you've shown the government doesn't work for you. We've known that for years because of, you know, congressional stock trading, campaign finance laws, all this. You know this. So why are you going to go spend$500 to vote when you feel like it's not going to make a difference?

SPEAKER_02 33:23

In a in an ideal world, in a in the world where you finally take office. We're very excited about that, by the way. What's different?

SPEAKER_00 33:31

What's on what's on the top of your list? So my three pillars are number one, accountability, then affordability and rights. Now, here's these are very, very broad topics. But when we talk about accountability, we can't address affordability. We can't address even protecting our rights until we have accountability.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

We can have band-aid solutions and people need their lives better tomorrow. So I do have those solutions why we work towards the long-term goal. But accountability looks like one impeachments. If you've violated the Constitution, yeah, we're gonna file for impeachment. Accountability for even Epstein files, things like these. And if that means that we bring in international law enforcement, we hand over all of our DOJ records, okay. Okay. Impartial. Right. We've we've shown that we cannot do the right thing, then okay. Yep. Um for Heg Seth, I mean, those are war crimes. We know those are war crimes. And again, if that has to be international, then that has to be international so we can rebuild some trust, both at home and on the international scale. But accountability also looks like banning congressional stock trading. It looks like campaign finance reform. Yeah. And on a personal level, for me, it's not something I can legislate everyone to do, but it is being held accountable by the people that I represent. Notice I don't say the people who elected me. Because I'm working to flip a seat. Yes. Not every person that I represent elected me. Yeah. And they still deserve to hold me accountable.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

There are going to be times where I propose a bill they don't like. I'm going to vote in a way that they don't like. Fox News will tell them to hate me. Sure. That I hate them. I've turned my back on America, all these things, right? They still deserve accountability from me. They deserve truth in newsletters, in true town halls that aren't moderated with comments turned off and only talking about what I want to talk about. They still deserve me showing up at the firehouse, at the library, that, and that's my commitment. Yeah. That I can't commit that I will always do everything that you love. But you will have an answer from me on why.

unknown 35:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

If you want to listen to that, you are welcome to. And then we talk about affordability, and that touches so many aspects. I mean, here in the first district as it stands right now, we don't have broadband access to a large geographical part of my district. That affects education. That affects employment. That affects medical care. Yeah. So many things. And you know how much it would cost to get that there? Nine million dollars. Which might sound like a big number. Is that a life-changing number for me? Will it be life-changing for my campaign? For a lot of people, yes. Is that a lot of money in the federal budget? No. That is next to nothing. That would allow employers to come in. That would allow schooling opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Community colleges, dual enrollment courses, working from home so you have more people who can live there and spend their money there. I mean, just a million and ten things that improves. Um VA healthcare, big platform. I would love to fight for universal healthcare, and I will fight for universal healthcare for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

But we can ensure that we expand Medicaid right away. And we can cap insurance company profits. Insurance companies in this country, before Reagan, they were a nonprofit. That's what people forget. This is a new system that we have.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

You saw the crap.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

This system is exploitation. Yeah. This is new. So we can ban it. And we can cap it at 30%. That will improve people's lives right now. Because when you were waiting for treatment, when you are hungry, when you're desperate, that does not you don't care if I'm fighting a 10-year plan to get Medicaid for all. Yeah. You need to eat tonight. Tonight. Yes. You need treatment tomorrow. So I've been working with some people running and some sitting representatives on a plan to expand GI Bill benefits and VA loan benefits, something similar, to our firefighters, to our teachers, to our EMS teams, to our police officers, people who take these selfless jobs to our social workers. Yes. Where you're not being paid well at all. Yes. But you've chosen to make your community safe, your community better. You have chosen to serve because being in the military is not the only way to serve. And there's no reason we can't expand these programs to make home ownership affordable for you. So we have long-term plans to make it better for everyone, but we do have short-term plans that will address things that need to happen now. And it's not just me, right? I'm one person.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

So I rely on policy experts. I rely on people like social workers who've spent their life in this world, not just from my perspective as a foster parent. And I rely on other people running on other representatives because again, I'm one person. I can't make a bill go through by myself. Um, and then the third one when we talk about rights is so many rights, right? Your right to safety, your right to and from religion, reproductive health care, things that we need to ensure are protected. Voting rights, your right to marry whoever the hell you want. Like you are two consenting adults. Yep. The government does not get to choose. So there's so many things to address.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

You know, you have uh you've taken this on and you have so much energy, and we we're very appreciative. This is a big deal, especially as a mom, especially as someone who is holding the bag in so many ways. Like, you show up again. You show up again in service every single time. And we're very fortunate for that. Thank you for joining us. No, I thanks for sharing this.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

I appreciate it. And yeah, when you say, especially as a mom, you know what something here's like, you know, you have four young kids at home. Like, shouldn't you be focusing on parenting them, raising them? And I will say one of the most important things somebody can do is raise your children right right now. Raise them to go out in the world with kindness into them, because we will get past this and we need a world full of new leaders who know what compassion looks like, who know how to lead with empathy, yeah, who are inclusive. And that starts at home, that starts with you. So that is one of the most important things somebody can be doing. Yes. But that doesn't mean that I also can't be fighting for them. Because as a mother, how can I not? How can I not do everything I possibly can for my family and for my children?

SPEAKER_02 39:38

We need more of this energy.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Where can everybody find you?

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Where can everybody meet with you or see you or support you in this? Amazing questions. So you can find me at Elizabeth for Virginia.com. You can also find me on almost all social medias at Elizabeth for Virginia. I believe Twitter and Blue Sky have been shortened because that's a little too long for that. And those are great places. If you put in a contact form online, any of that, I I call once a week. I will personally call you to hear what matters most. And federal elections matter more than just if you live in my district or not, especially in flippable seats. They, your energy, if you're in a safe blue seat or you're in a deep, deep red seat, the most important thing you can do is be involved in these flippable seats in these competitive races, especially in primaries where if you don't, you're just gonna have an establishment pick. You can also contribute there. That that is really helpful. And I feel like it's always such a cough out, like, oh, give us money. But like it does really help. Um and I'm happy to answer like where every dollar you contribute goes in this campaign. We don't waste any of that. Accountability. And I believe in transparency and accountability that way. And then every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern, I do hold a town hall virtually. So please feel free. That's on Instagram live. Nice. Be on bring any questions you have. And then if you are local or you want to travel, or even if you're not, we do virtual phone banks. So that's a great option. You are given a script, a Google voice number, and you call people in the district, or then out of the district, sometimes asking for contributions, just getting name awareness about the campaign. And if you are local, um, you can come sign our petition. If you live anywhere in the state of Virginia, I need a thousand signatures to be on the ballot. And we hold a run walk playground event every Saturday morning throughout the district. So if you sign up on the website, we'll email you that location. Yeah. And we'll see you there. We can go for a jog, we can talk about issues, we can go for a walk, we can, you know, I kind of bounce back between different paces. Kids can play on the playground. And you know, we believe in being accessible. So that probably felt like a lot of options, but my job is meeting people where they are and not making it harder to be politically involved.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

So Elizabeth, thank you for not fucking shrinking, right? And I was like, this is a great way to tie it back in. But it is true, and this is why I love these conversations getting to talk to moms, getting to talk to professionals and now future congress people. Thank you so much for being here today. Oh, thank you so much, Daphne. I really appreciate you taking the time. Share this with your favorite vet, your favorite mom, anybody who can do pull ups, because we know some people can't. I can. Yes, you can. And we will talk to you next week. See you soon. Thank you.