Welcome to Louisiana Lefty, a podcast about politics and community in Louisiana where we make the case that the health of the state requires a strong progressive movement fueled by the critical work of organizing on the ground. Our goal is to democratize information, demystify party politics, and empower you to join the mission, because victory for Louisiana requires you. I'm your host, Lynda Woolard. On this episode, I speak with Nick Laborde, who's running for Louisiana Public Service Commissioner in district two, while we don't ordinarily interview candidates during their campaigns on this podcast, this race, this year, presents an extraordinary opportunity for Louisiana. First, not enough folks know about the Public Service Commission, so there's a danger that they might skip voting on it. And this is perhaps the most important elected office voters in Louisiana don't know about. But also, this is an open seat this year, and Nick is the only Democrat running, so that gives us a better chance of getting the flip. Why that matters is this is the first time in many years that we've had an opportunity to have a majority of seats on this commission. And that's not just about it potentially being a Democratic majority body, but as Nick puts it, a pro Consumer Commission, a public service commission with a targeted focus on the customer, instead of energy corporations would be a big effing deal for progress in our state. So let's get right into our conversation. I want you to have the 411 on this race, on Nick Laborde and on the historic opportunity that will be on some of y'all ballots this year, as always, relevant links will be in our episode notes. Nick Laborde, thank you so much for joining me on Louisiana Lefty
Thank you for having me. I am excited to be here, a big fan of the show, fan of the idea that it's more than just like, you know, from I show Arrested Development, whereas that scene where he's like, there's literally dozens of us, I love the idea of just connecting us all together and talking more about the important things we're doing here in our state. Awesome.
Well, I wanted to talk to you because you are the only Democrat running for this Public Service Commission seat, and I think folks need to know a little bit more about what the PSC is and how important it is, and how Louisiana is one of the few states that actually even allows the public to weigh in On who serves in that role. But before we get to all of that, I believe we met on social media. Is that correct? I
believe so. I think you started following me, or I started following you, and then I was like, Hey, we should do this thing. Yeah, very good. That's how we met.
How did you first become interested in politics? Nick,
Oh, I have the best possible answer for you on that question. And the good news is, I've told the story about 5000 times in the past three months, so I'm pretty good at it now. I've got it honed in. I can do my 62nd candidate intro like like that now. So I am Nick Laborde. I was born in Ville. Platinum never been back. So I'm Cajun born. You can't take that away from me. But I grew up in marksville, Louisiana, in a bowls parish as the son of a mayor. My dad is John Ed leborg, who is the crawfish bread man from jazz fest, which is perhaps the most compelling part of the bio that has nothing to do with politics. But what most people don't know is he was mayor of the town. He got elected in 1994 in the year I was born. And I don't remember it because I was, you know, very small back then. And what I do remember is growing up, we'd ride through town, and on the edge of town was the fire station, and we'd ride past, and he'd get this big smile on his face, and he'd point, and he would say the thing I was most proud of as mayor was turning the volunteer fire department into a permanent, full time, fully funded Fire Department, and to this day, 30 years later, still there, still fully funded. And he's so proud about that and doing that for the town. And then it gets even better, because his grandfather before him started the volunteer fire department. So in three generations, we solved fire protection in marksville, Louisiana. So solving problems and helping people is the lens through which I got to view politics and public service. So that that that's my stump speech.
I love that wonderful story, and then so from that origin story to today. You running for office, sort of, what has your mini bio been that has taken you from that to running for the PSC,
Absolutely. So, you know, grew up in Marksville, and then I came to South of I-10 for college. I am a the only raging Cajun in this race. I mean, not one, but two time UL grad go Cajuns, which I don't get to say this side of the river very often, because I live in Baton Rouge now, but I spent six of the best years of my life in Cajun country. After that, I came to Baton Rouge in 2018 when my wife took a job here. At the time I got married in 2017 we moved here in 2018 been here ever since. So I've started my own businesses. I ran a video game development company for the better part of 10 years, and then I took some other jobs at local startups here in the tech industry in Louisiana, and then I realized along the way that what I really liked doing the most was building great teams, helping organizations thrive by investing in their people, because it's might come as a shocker to some folks, and I get paid to tell people this, so it is. If you give people what they need to be successful, and they feel like they're taken care of, they'll do their best work, they'll be excited to show up, they'll keep showing up, and they'll make the business or the organization successful. And then it's a cycle. And then the organization stays in business, the people stay happy, and then good stuff gets done. And I teach organizations how to do that and how to invest in their people. So that's what I do. I build great teams. Also help ship crawfish bread all around the planet, which, again, it's just this data point that I have to include because it's culturally relevant. Nothing to do with my campaign. But, you know, crawfish present Ford,
it is indeed, it is indeed so from that, what made you decide specifically on the Public Service Commission?
So you know, if I have my history wrong, please correct me. I believe the Public Service Commission was started by Davante Lewis in 2023 because no one knew about it before then. But on a serious note, you know, in 2022 that was the first time in my life that I'd ever really thought about or interacted with the Public Service Commission, because that was when a lot of our bills went haywire in the spring of 22 and I knew what it was before, but I never had to actually send them a message or have a constituent issue. So I did at that time, and I just thought to myself, Wow, I had great service with the incumbent commissioner who was the incumbent in the district I'm running in now, Commissioner Craig green. And I thought like, this is just such an important thing, and people need to know about this. So back then, so two and a half years ago, I got on Tiktok, and at the time, Tiktok wasn't really being used for Civic Engagement stuff just yet, like they were starting to figure it out. But no one had really, really used it for that, that I was seeing, like, successfully at that time. And I said, you know, it's like five second videos where you go, ha, ha, scroll past, ha, ha. I was like at the time, three minutes was the limit. I said, What if I made a three minute video about teaching people what the public service commission was, how to find out who their commissioner was, how to write a letter to their elected official and how to get help on these crazy energy bills. Well, I made a video. It went viral, got over like 200,000 views. I think Commissioner Green's office had actually responded indirectly to that, saying, like, Oh, we've gotten a lot of requests. Thank you. You know, please keep it coming. JP, Morrell, in the New Orleans city council, who regulates Entergy, there, for the folks who don't know that bit of our legislative overlap, quoted my video directly and said, we've gotten so much response from the you know, the bill stuff going on right now, and if you have never written a letter to an elected official before, here's how you do it. And he quoted my video word for word, which I just it really made me smile, because I'm like, I did that. I helped. I got people to care. I made this impact, and that was just from educating people on something they didn't know about. So I've actually been messaging about the commission for almost three years now and then, when this seat opened up in June 2024 when the incumbent announced he was retiring, I just knew that I wanted to help my community. I knew that I wanted to get involved, and I was thinking about running for something, and was kind of just really trying to figure out, especially as that qualifying date looms like, what was my path and then I'll never forget, I was on a call with a mentor, because this is before the news dropped, and I was asking, like, look, thinking about this Public Service Commission, like there's this incumbent who's very well funded, very well liked, been in there, but in 2018 there was no opposition, and they were uncontested. And I really don't think in democracy anyone should be anointed, like there should be competition, even if the incumbent is, like, so I was really thinking, you know, I'm going to do this. It's going to be hard. I'm going to get obliterated, but let's, let's try, because someone needs to do it. And then we had this, like, 45 minute phone call, and I'll never forget it started at 130 and then we got off the call at like, 2:16pm and my mentor ended it. But. Saying, Nick, can I pray for you? And I said, Yes, sir. Now I'm Catholic, and we pray up here. I'm pointing to my head, for folks who don't see the video, but you're listening. So when a Catholic says they'll pray for you, it's like, oh, great, yeah, you know, we're going to think about it later, and I'm, you know, never going to know about everything. Let us pray. And he bows his head, and I said, Okay, we're doing this now. And it was very sweet and sincere. And then he ended it with something I'll never forget. And what he said was, let there be no crack in the door. Let the door be opened wide or slam shut so that Nick can make his decision. 20 minutes later, the news broke that Commissioner Green would be retiring, and I thought to myself, there's no crack in the door. I know what I'm doing now.
Slap goosebumps from that.
I know it just it feels like it's a long winded way of saying I kind of just got pointed here and I didn't expect to be and here I am well,
and I don't generally speak to candidates on Louisiana lefty. It's not what the podcast was created to do. I certainly don't speak to candidates when there's more than one Democrat in the race, sure, but this was an easy one for me to want to speak to you. I did. I've spoken to Davante Lewis before and after his PSC race, and I thought that was really important, because people need to know more about this right. People need to know more about this body and what it does and how they can engage with it, and how important, how incredibly important it is for them to vote in these races,
the single most important regulatory body that no one knows about and
the opportunities that exist for us to make big change through the PSC is one of the reasons why people really need to pay attention to it. You mentioned that the New Orleans City Council regulates Entergy in New Orleans, but everywhere else in the state, it's the PSC. It's all about the PSC. Correct,
correct. I can't tell you why it is that way, but it is that way.
Hit me with at least some of that content from that three minute Tiktok I'm not saying, repeat it verbatim. Give me some of that Tiktok info.
So what I basically did was, I started out, I was like, if your energy bill is insane, here's how to fight it. So people go, all right, I'm ready. I fired up about energy. And so then I just kind of cut. And I'm like, so I know you're really tired of people telling you to register to vote, but literally, I cannot tell you your district or who to contact unless you register to vote and pull up your voter registration. So go vote. And then I'm like, Alright, now that we've done that. And today, of course, is October 7, which, by the time you hear this, it'll be later than this, but today was the last day for mail registration. On October 15, 2024 will be the last day for online registration. Don't know if we'll be out by then, but just want to always bring up those dates, because I'm doing the candidate thing these days. So I told people about that, and then I explained, okay, this is the Public Service Commission. These are the people that regulate water, natural gas, you know the hardwired telephones and electricity. These are the people who are supposed to hold interchange accountable. So let's go to the website, lbsc, you know, and say, look at your voter registration. Here's how to find your elected officials. Here's where Public Service Commissioner is. Then you go on the website and you send them an email and see what their process is, because each commissioner has different staff and methods for how they'd want you to reach out, because a lot of times, you know, you can just email the staffer directly, and they have someone who is handling these constituent requests. And then I said, All right, so now that you know you're registered to vote, you know who your commissioner is, and you know how to contact them. Here's how you write a letter. And it was something like, dear Commissioner so and so. My name is XYZ. I'm having some issues with my industry bill. I have a past I've attached my past few bills as PDFs so that you can see this irregularity. Is there anything you can do to help with this bill? And then you send it off, and then you wait to hear from them. And the amount of people who told me like, I didn't know it was that easy to write a letter to an elected official. I didn't know I could just do this. I didn't know I could just send them an email and they can help me. And you know, we I smile as I say that, but so many people kind of view government as this nebulous idea that it just kind of happens to them, right, which is the opposite of what democracy is. Democracy is, you know, we are their bosses. Even though it may not feel like it, especially with the Public Service Commission, which is a separate Lane from the governor and the legislature, it stands on its own. So really, the voters are the ones who are the bosses of the Public Service Commission. So. I'm always explaining to people, as I did in that video, as I do on the campaign trail every single day, this is its own body with absolute authority on utilities in this state. And PSC two is the swing seat. We might get a three, two pro consumer democratic control commission for at least two years, because Foster Campbell was termed out at the end of 2026 and we could do so much, and that's the long and short of why I'm doing this. It's the right place, it's the right time, it's the right issues, and we could make Louisiana number wanted something. We can embrace clean energy. We can make energy pay more, hold them accountable, and just make sure people can keep the lights on in these crazy storms and crazy summers,
so real quick, not every state has people vote on this. It's very few really, right? Important,
it's either 10 or 12 states have elected PSCs, but each of them does it differently,
right? Okay, okay, and it's in Louisiana, at least. This really started as a railroad Regulation Authority, right?
Correct? As as people would like to say when a new commissioner is elected, Huey Long's old job, right?
So now it is all of this sort of energy space, all of these energy spaces and utility space. This is probably correct. Say that
I believe when the current constitution was written and adopted in the 70s, that is when it became known as the Public Service Commission, if I have my history correct, okay, versus the Railroad Commission, what
would you want to do if you were elected and you got this three, two Democratic leaning body, I
would probably like not sleep for about two years so that we could get as much done as possible to help the people of Louisiana. That's the honest answer. I mean, I have a couple policy items. I'm very passionate about. One. I want to bring back one to one, net metering. And for folks who don't know what that is, you've probably heard of it, but you don't realize it's the word for it. It's the idea that if you have rooftop solar on your home or your business, if you generate one kilowatt hour of power from your panel from the sun, you get credited back one kilowatt hour from the electric company. Unfortunately, Entergy believes they are more powerful than the Sun and that they can put a price on it, and they say it's only worth about 30% of that value, which is just kind of insane. They we had one to one a while ago, and then energy, when the commission makeup changed several years back, energy successfully got that rate pushed down. So I want to make it one to one, because that's what people think solar is. When they want to adopt or look at it, they go, Oh, it's just going to be like, yeah, if I generate 10 kilowatts, I'll get 10 kilowatts back. Like, that's, that's easy. That'll knock off a bunch of my bill. So a lot of people who are able to do it adopt solar, and then you get that first bill and see it's hardly anything different. And they're like, Why did I do this? Which is not the reaction we want from folks embracing renewable energy. So I want to bring back one to one net metering, which could really kickstart, like a solar revolution in Louisiana. I mean, we'd have so many more individuals and businesses and schools and churches that could put panels on their roofs and lower their bills and reduce strain on the grid, like it would just have this domino effect. There's a great thing they do in New Orleans called Community lighthouses. It's about half a dozen places where, after the storm, folks can go, and they're powered by solar panels, and they have electricity not required for the grid, they can charge their phone, get some air condition and reconnect with the world. I would love to do that throughout South Louisiana, like at scale. And we can do that and make that more viable if we have one to one net metering, so that one policy kind of influences so much of our renewables direction. So I want to do that. I also would like to continue reducing the rate of prison phone calls. There's an FCC rule that is getting adopted that will drive down the rates, because Louisiana is pretty egregious of what they charge. But again, I'd love to produce or eliminate entirely the cost of prison phone calls, because that sense of connection that incarcerated ones can have with their family is very important for being productively able to get through their term. And with criminal justice system, there's so many issues where rehabilitation is not one of the main factors, as we all know in our system, but at least if we have connections with loved ones, that puts folks on a path to having that essential connection, like remembering that humanity of every single one of us. So that's something I'm very passionate about. And then honestly, I say this, and everybody always goes, well, how are you going to do that? But make energy pay more? I mean, three out of five votes can tell Entergy what to do. Like there was a $2 billion grid plan that got approved earlier this year in 2024 on the PSC, and they put up like 300 million against the $2 billion plan. And I'm not great at math, but that's 15% And this company makes a billion dollars a quarter when we have and this stat was as of 2019 so unfortunately, it's probably worse now with covid and inflation, but I read a stat that in 2019 150,000 plus Louisianans spent 25% of their income, their monthly income, on utility bills. The amount of poverty in this state, it is just unthinkable. And folks who live here have ideas of this poverty, but people not from here, just cannot fathom it. And that's something I'm passionate about as well. I've asked people like, hey, you know What? What? What really can we do with three out of five folks who really just want to make sure that energy is in line with the people, not the opposite way around, not telling us or the commission what to do. And sometimes people get a little nervous because they've forgotten what it's like for energy to not get what they want. They've forgotten what it's like to see a democratic, controlled body in Louisiana. They've forgotten what it's like to win, and that's what I like to tell people, we can win. We can do this. We can make energy put up. You know, it won't be 100% because of that great thing that got state granted, monopoly, guaranteed profit. It's pretty, pretty sweet gig for the bottom line, but not sweet for the people who spend so much of their money every month just to get by. And those utility bills are so high. So instead of putting up 300 million against a $2 billion plan, maybe in the future, they do 500 600 800 million, 1 billion out of 2 billion. Who knows the sky's the limit? There's a lot of boring utility policy that drives how that is done. And it'll never be 100% it'll never probably be 75% but we can do a lot better than 15% so that's a couple of the things that I'm really passionate about, if I'm elected to this position, well,
and Louisiana can be better at generating energy for its people, right? Absolutely,
we can invest in the grid and create resiliency by embracing renewables. And there's a lot of I always say it's boring, but I say it with a big smile on my face. The average person doesn't care about it, but they they need to care about it because of this critical work that the PSC does to make a very complicated thing much more brief and more digestible. There is we're at this intersection where every couple of years, the utilities in the state have to submit plans for how they're going to generate additional power, what their plan is, etc. We're actually at this critical deduction point where Entergy and some of the other utilities are going to be retiring some old coal and fossil fuel powered power plants, and they want to replace that generation. And the conversation is renewables are getting so much cheaper. Will they be replaced with renewable energy, which would reduce strain on the grid, lower cost or rate payers, etc, and with a three out of five Commission, we can compel energy to make those decisions. We can have greater conversation about the power sources and the power mix that powers our grid, there's, you know, I'll say this as if you're on the left, if you hear the word deregulation, your red flags go up and the alarm bells go off. And I admit, coming into this space, you start to hear the word deregulation a lot, but it's inverted in this space, because the rules are written for Entergy, so the same rules that apply to energy apply to you and me, like, if we want to go put solar panels and how much would be paid, you know, per kilowatt hour, etc, etc, for all of utility policy, it is that way. So you can imagine, the rules that are written for Entergy do not necessarily scale downward to the individual homeowner or business owner or just individual rate payer. So in this space, there's talk right now of deregulating some of entergy's monopoly to create more options for users to get their power from. This is called customer centered options. And a lot of the heavy industry who, again, those of us on the left gonna look at it, it's kind of the big bad list, right? Like your Exxon, your Chevron, your Dow, well, they're Energy customers too, and they don't like energy. So it's kind of, you know, this weird campfire moment of, oh, we truly all don't like paying the utility bill. But even they see renewables, not for, you know, the good reason, like helping the planet, but as a cost saving maneuver, right decision for the wrong reasons. At the end of the day, we can still accept that, and that's still a win for the people of our state. They want to be able to generate some of their own power through renewables and front the cost and do it on their own, which would be separate from Entergy, rather than Entergy brokering it. And again, we're getting knee deep in utility policy here. We're at this critical junction point where a lot of legacy fossil fuel generation is needing to be retired and renewable generation can be built in its place. And whoever gets this seat on the Commission decides that direction of the utility policy, and this ultimately will position or not position. Based on who wins Louisiana to embrace the energy transition and to be at the forefront of it. And this is literally like a once in a lifetime opportunity for our state to really win at something and excel on the other side of this hurdle.
And what you're talking about with the renewable energy as well is an opportunity for more jobs, and transitioning jobs away from those old fossil fuel jobs into new and even more exciting, probably higher paying jobs in some in some ways, absolutely, and
I'll tell you this, I work in HR professionally. You know what I've described as my job earlier in the podcast. Here is what I like to call fun HR, just making the organization run well and investing in people. And something that I would love to do now this kind of goes into more of the legislature versus the PSC, but I'd love to see if we're going to be doing something where we're saying, okay, energy, yes, we're approving this plan for you to dismantle this old coal fired plan and replace it with renewables. We need to have options for Workforce Training and Development to give those folks options to transition into that industry, because it's not going to be one to one, but if they want to work in it, they want to, you know, continue to remain in the energy sector. We should create more opportunities for them. And it's not just, oh, the coal plant where your family work for four generations is now shutting down and you're out of luck. It should be, oh, we're transitioning to a new form of power, if you want. We can provide additional training so you can successfully transition yourself and your family and your coworkers into this new industry. And you know, like you said, even end up in a better paying job, a more sustainable long term sector. So we're we'd be creating new jobs. We'd be creating new sectors of energy. Louisiana has always been an energy leader. Why not continue to be an energy leader? And energy independence is something we can do with this as well, if we have greater access to renewables. If a greater portion of our grid is powered by renewables, then we're not reliant on fossil fuels or natural gas to power the grid. And going back to that original Tiktok video about the reason the bills went crazy at that time was the fluctuating price of natural gas, which Entergy and our grid is heavily reliant on to produce the national average is 8020 for power generation, about 80% fossil fuels, 20% renewables. In Louisiana, we're lopsided. It's about 96% fossil fuel power generation, 4% renewables. So if anybody says that they're being forced, or there's too many of them, well they don't know what they're talking about, because we are well below the national average, but if we reduce that lion's reliance on those legacy sources, we create a more resilient grid. We can drive down costs for ratepayers, and we could, you know, really be built to withstand the upcoming increased demand that we're going to continue to have on our grid, especially with hotter summers and colder winters.
Louisiana was set up with not a great deal with what money stays in Louisiana from the energy that we're producing in Louisiana. Would renewables and bringing in new sources of energy suppliers give us an opportunity to sort of write new deals so that we're keeping more money here. Absolutely.
So again, we're getting into the the weeds of utility stuff. But there's something called miso, the mid Continental, inner something system of operators. It's basically the folks who control this section of the grid at this part of the country, and there's like three or four of them in the whole country, the regions. And then we're so we're in this area of meso, and we need to, as folks have said to me, win the battle at Mezo to get investment in Louisiana, because other southern states are getting prioritized, because they are choosing to invest in clean renewable energy, then there, as a result, they're getting more funding and more opportunities to build more transmission to support greater grid capacity and all these things. So as we said just a minute ago, sort of to put Louisiana first in those conversations, to show that we're serious about the future in the energy transition, if that comes down to electing a third official who really says we're going to push forward on this path, and we're really going to help us go drive into the future here full speed. And then when they see that we do that and we're serious about that, they can prioritize more assets for us. They can, of course, as a result of that, we can have additional transmission capacity, which means we could do more renewables, drive down costs for rate payers, and really just help our grid become more resilient. So yes, long winded way of saying there's more to be done there, and the seat on this commission is going to determine if Louisiana gets that prioritization, or if we stay at the bottom list. That's the key.
And so tell me. Now we've talked about the grid a bunch of times. What does the PSC have to do with making sure we have a reliable, strong grid?
So they're the ones who's supposed to tell energy what to do, and hold them accountable, and all the utilities we pick on energy the most, because they're the big, bad monopoly. You know, say that with air quotes, but they're the ones who are setting the rates for electricity. They're the ones who are, you know, also regulating water, natural gas, hardwired telephones, you know, a couple other things as well, interstate trucking within the state. So the PSC are the ones who are ultimately voting up or down on the decisions energy chooses to make in the grid. And this is where we're getting the most exciting piece here, because if you have three out of five votes that are pro consumer, that want to invest in the grid, that want to make sure energy is not price gouging every possible cent out of the generally very poor people of Louisiana. If you have three out of five votes, energy has to come to the table with a better offer, because they know they're not going to be able to pass what they need to pass. And let's be clear, they're a business, and you know, they're in this to make money, and I understand that. But again, if you're putting up 15% it gets an 85% deal that the math doesn't math in my head. So when that commission makeup changes, that's when they will know we have the opportunity to really drive us in a new direction. We will know that, and Entergy will know, well, we're going to have to negotiate differently. We're going to have to give different options on the table for us to pass anything at the PSC, because if the PSC is log jammed and can't pass something, or hasn't made a decision to pass something, energy, can't make their decision on what they're going to do for the grant. And as a business, they do want to make money, so there's that mutual cooperation of they want to make money, but the PSC needs to give a direction on which way we're going to
go. And just to clarify for fall two may not be steeped in all of this, the grid a stronger, more reliable grid means less power outages, power coming back on, faster,
correct and, of course, lower rates because we're keeping the grid on. Like, think about it. Well, you may not want to think about what I'm about to say, but you need to hear it. Every time the grid grow goes down, you and I pay for it. Like, if you look on your energy bill, which is like a foreign language sometimes, because you can't understand what all the fees are, and you can't understand why we are paying certain things, or how long we're going to be paying certain things, or what that's even in service of paying for. You'll see, like a hurricane restoration charge. They don't barely even tell you what Hurricane it is. I think they the Hurricane Katrina surcharge is just finally starting to roll off of some bills. I mean, that's how long we pay these fees. And we've had more frequent and worsening storms ever since, you know, Katrina, 20, almost 20 years ago, 19 years ago now. So the there's just so much that we could compel energy to do. And whenever we create a more resilient grid, we're literally creating more uptime. We're keeping the grid online. Because again, whenever the next storm comes and the grid goes down, however long it's down, however much effort it takes to put it back together, so to speak, we, the rate payers, ultimately get charged that expense. So if we keep the grid up and we give more options for how the power is generated, and drive down rates as a result, when these worsening storms come in, we're hopefully not going to be completely offsetting everything to the rate payer, because the rate payer doesn't decide if the rate goes down.
So tell me how the campaign is going, Nick
Oh, it's gone pretty well. I'm excited I will not raise a million dollars like my opponents, because I'm not taking money from utility companies Commissioner Davante Lewis, of course, is the one who started that a little over two years ago when he ran for his now seat on the commission in District Three. And on day one of qualifying, maybe within 30 minutes of signing the papers, for folks who don't know for a state office, you go to the Secretary of State on Essen Lane in Baton Rouge, you sign your papers, and then at the end you have the option to talk to the press. And you know, they ask you, do you want to it's not required. I said, Sure. I was Greg Larose at the Louisiana illuminator. It must have been the second question he asked. He says, you know, Commissioner Davante Lewis committed to not taking utility donations. Will you take the same commitment? I said, Absolutely. I don't think that money should be in this race. I don't think you should take money from the people that you are going to be regulating. I find that to be an ethical boundary, and I don't think the current commissioners who have taken that money. I don't think they're bad people, but I think times are changing. People care how money flows in politics. People want to know who's given money to their elected officials, as they should. Should. People should care about that stuff. And here's the alarming piece. In January 1 2025 certain offices campaign finance limits are going to increase. That was a great, I say great with a lot of sarcasm. Thing that our legislature did in 2024 is they made it so now you'll be able to give $10,000 an election to public service, commission, Governor, other statewide officials, versus 5000 like it is now. So we just have this alarming money problem here, which is a very fancy way of saying, I will not raise nearly as much as my opponents, but I feel like I have the message I am resonating with folks out on the trail. I mean, I get people to care about the Commission who otherwise may not have. I had a great story where I ended up at the wrong location for an event a couple weeks ago. And needless to say, I walked into a lounge bar type thing at a place where I thought I needed to be and it was not the correct place. And it's the type of thing where you walk in a room and you immediately know, this is not the room I was supposed to be in, because there are a bunch of guys, like, maybe half a dozen, maybe, like my parents, age, Boomer, I generation, guys like, drinking at the bar. And then they see me walking in with my suit and my pushcarts, and they just kind of smiled. And one guy is kind of waves at me and says, What are you here for? So then, you know, reading the room a little bit, I'm like, alright, you know what? I'm running in a conservative district, and I have no problem engaging with people that have different views than me, because one that's part of the problem in our politics is we need to be able to look at people who have different views than us and talk to them. We don't have to agree, but we can listen and we can talk. And I'm very passionate about that. So I went up to him, and I was like, Well, my name is Nick Laborde. I'm running for the Public Service Commission. And then smiling, I said, now I gotta warn you, I am a Democrat. Of course, they bust out laugh. And they had been drinking, so they're like, all great, you know, free entertainment tonight. And then they started just kind of going off on stuff, blah, blah, blah, like, Democrats, whatever. And then I just listened very patiently. And then they saw that I was actually listening and I wasn't just gonna walk away. And then one of them kind of raises his beard. He says, You know what, fellas, let's give him a minute. Nick, what do you want to do? Why you run it? And then I said, Well, I'm running for PSC, which is the utility board. This is important. Like, yeah, I'm a Democrat, and I guess you're not. And they laughed, but everyone pays a light bill this. This affects the whole state, and this is the seat that decides the direction the whole utility board goes. His eyes got about twice as big, and he kind of looked at his buddies and said, Okay, wait, I actually kind of want to listen to him for a little bit. And then we spoke for a few more minutes. And then at the end, like the guy who was the roughest on me, he just kind of said, you know, I didn't expect you to listen to me, and I appreciate that, and I'm sorry for being hard on you. I'm definitely not a Democrat, but I'm gonna think about voting for you. And then I said, well, thank you so much, and for letting me talk to you, and for allowing me this opportunity. And then I just kind of smiled and slapped him on the back, and I said, well, they shouldn't expect you'd be talking to a Democrat tonight. He busts out laughing. He slaps me on the back and says, Now get out.
I love that story because it drives home those personal, one on one conversations that we have with our neighbors, yes, and, and that's who people will listen to, right? Like it's the only way to cut through disinformation and cut through some of those social media meme sources that are just pushing out bad information or skewed information. Agreed the TV, you know, media, or whatever, that's really not giving all the straight story anymore, because they're engaged in sort of a both side or ism or afraid to go against the people who are currently in power, because that might deny them access, or whatever. You know, there's, there's reasons why that exact method of speaking to voters matters. So whether you're knocking doors or finding new people in a bar or whatever, that is, exactly what we need our people to do, to start moving the needle in the state and to make folks know. You know, I don't know exactly what city you were in when that happened, but I mean, there are people across this state, in little nooks and crannies of Louisiana, who think Democrats are evil, and when they can meet a Democrat in person, someone who acknowledges, I'm a Democrat, and I'm here to talk to you about things that we both care about and our values are actually quite the same. Exactly, the whole dynamic of how people think about each other, talk to each other and vote, it does. And
I mean, you know, I think at first when I told him I was a Democrat, I guess they thought. Almost, it was a bit or something that I'm like, No, I'm serious. Like, I'm here. I'm gonna be on your belt. You can load up the Go vote app right now and check it out. And it's, it's like, when I showed up and, you know, I let them say their piece, and they ribbed me and all that. But then they saw that I was there, and I was genuinely trying to have a conversation with them before I was gonna go on my merry way. It's something clicked in their heads like, oh, okay, well, maybe this guy is someone I want to listen to, because I actually got to look at him face to face and go, that's a Democrat who I probably don't talk to on a regular basis. And he listened to me, and he said, I want to help you. And he was sincere to me, and that's how we make change in politics. It's like, you know, I got an invite when you another story less entertaining than that one, but similar idea. When you run for office, you get invited to just so many events and candidate forums and stuff. And I can, I got one today, and it's just real down the bayou. It's like, literally at a rifle range hosted by some sheriffs or something. And it's very much like, you know, we have a speaker like, get woke out of whatever, you know, the soapbox. And these folks very sincerely invited me and said, Hey, we're inviting you. We, you know, we have a speaker, but we want to give you the opportunity to come talk to folks at our community. We're going to have all kind of people there. And I was just, I kind of laughed of like, you know, if I didn't have another commitment that night, I would have happily gone to that event. Because I am actually finding that when you go to those things where you may not think you're allowed to go, or you may not think people want to hear from you, people see you, and people hear you, and they go, you know, I'm probably not going to vote for him, because I don't vote for Democrats, or whatever their reasoning might be. But often they walk away thinking he came here, he talked to us, he engaged us, like even if I don't agree with him, or even if I don't really want to vote for a Democrat, I'm going to remember that I'm going to have a positive interaction with a Democrat. So it's no longer a boogeyman. It's no longer someone I see on a meme or on the national news like, these are people that live here too, and I think that's the important part.
I mean, I tell the story often, and I'm going to tell the very short version of today, but I often tell the story about registering voters. Back in the Obama days, the first Obama Presidential 2008 when we would go everywhere in the state that we could get to to register voters, and I remember speaking to an older gentleman who and we would wear our Obama T-shirts when we'd go out. We spoke to an older gentleman who was out working on his pickup truck out front of his house, and he was, I think he was 80 something years old, and he'd never voted. And we said, we're here to register you to vote. And he said, Well, I think I want to vote in this election, but you're supporting the wrong guy. And we said, well, it's okay, we'll we'll register you anyway, even you know, we're just here to register voters. We're not here to only register our voters. So we went back and forth for a little while, and I finally said, Look, how about I give you the form to fill out. You can keep it. I'll give you a stamp to put on it. You can mail it in yourself so you don't have to worry about us not sending in your registration, like we're not here to mess with you. We want to vote, and when we started to walk away, he says, Well, I don't agree with your politics, but you're real nice. People stuck with me, right? Because I think those, again, like you're saying, are the conversations that we have to have, and it's and that's where it starts, right? That's
where, absolutely, you wander into a bar accidentally, and a bunch of dudes and their friends start making fun of you, and then you listen to them, and then we've solved everything.
So are you getting support from outside groups, community groups, or do you have like environmental groups who are helping you? Don't? I don't need you to tell me strategies or any deep you know, and honestly, some of the folks who might be helping you, you might not even really know what they're doing behind the scenes. But are you aware of any support you're getting from those kind of spaces?
Yes, there, I'll tell you this, everyone who was interested in Davante Lewis's race, and then some are interested in watching, I have gotten some great official endorsements. I mean, of course, the state party endorsed me at the committee meeting in late July after qualifying. I was endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, which is a huge honor. And I was also recently endorsed by the forum free quality pack out of New Orleans as an ally that meant a lot to me as well. And then there's a lot of other organizations where I've talked to them and done their questionnaire and waiting for them to decide. And every single organization does their own process and their own timeline. So yes, talking to a lot of folks, and I'm. I'm very, very excited, because if I make a runoff, and I really think I'm well positioned to the runoff, is going to be something else, because someone told me this, and I thought to myself, I didn't need to know that, but thanks for letting me know. Statistically, they said, Well, you know, because Georgia doesn't have Senate races this year, this will be the most high profile runoff in the entire country. And I said, thanks. I hate it.
That's lovely. Sometimes that works in our favor every now and sometimes, and you are endorsed by the Louisiana Democratic Party, and I do know that they have the ability if folks want to help, they have on louisianadems.org right on the front of their website, there's a big button that says, do something, and if you click on that, folks can find your race and click on it and start making calls on your behalf to voters, to let people know that you're running and to remind them of of when voting starts and how they vote. So you if folks want to support your race and take advantage of this historic opportunity, literal, historic opportunity, literally, they can make calls for you. There is there any other way for folks to plug into the campaign that you'd like them to know about?
Yes, please go to Nickforla.com that's n, i, c, k, f, O, R, L, a.com, sign up to volunteer. We can push you to the phone banking and, you know, whatever else, whatever other volunteer opportunities we have. You can hear it straight from us on the Louisiana Dems website. You can phone bank directly there if you don't want to specifically sign up to volunteer, but want to help. If you have some extra dollars laying around, every single dollar is going to count, because this is people powered, not utility powered, and it's going to take a lot for me to compete. But the good news is, we have a lot of history being made on november 5, and that really could propel a Democrat to a runoff and really into this seat. And I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge that history. You know, we've got vice president Harris top of the ticket history. We've got the new Congressional District Six, where for the first time in our state's history. We will send not one but two black representatives to Congress history. We also have a hotly contested Mayor president's race in East Baton Rouge. We're going to have the high Democratic turnout in East Baton Rouge, which is one of the population anchors of PSC two and something interesting, because we're talking about history. The last time there was a contested Democrat on Democrat runoff in East Baton Rouge Parish was 1988 would you like to know the last time we elected a Democrat to Public Service Commission District 219, 88 so we have this weird like amount of history and context, like past and present all colliding right now, where so many things could happen in so many different races, and we really, truly can elect a Democrat to this seat. This is not, oh, it's South Louisiana. They'll get 25% and we'll all be sad on november 5. No, we can not only make a runoff, we could win the whole dang thing.
What area is? PSC, two. Okay, I
will openly tell you what I tell people on the trail I don't know everything, and I'll tell you when I don't know. So my version of that here is I am looking up the map to make sure I don't miss anywhere we'll go by full parishes and then partial full parishes. Lafayette, Saint Martin Pointe, West, Feliciana, East Feliciana, Terrebonne and Lafourche, partial parishes, Iberville, assumption, ascension. West, Baton Rouge. East, Baton Rouge, Livingston. So if you imagine it's kind of like the old sixth congressional district that Garrett graves occupied and or, if you imagine Davante Lewis's District, which runs from North Baton Rouge through to New Orleans, this district kind of gives it a big old hug down to the coast. If
folks want to know if they're in your district so they can vote for you, they can go either to the Go vote app or go vote.com and look up what's on their ballot and see if they're in PSC two,
correct. The simplest amount of getting that information in the fewest clicks possible is to check up, check out your sample ballot, and if you see PSC two, then you're in the district. If you want to definitively know what district you're in, go to your go vote app or go vote.com click on my elected officials and you want to look for Public Service Commissioner district two. Okay,
so folks can make calls. Folks can help you out in whatever ways they you want them to help you out, whatever way you can instruct them to help you out. And they can also just text. Just their neighbors, their relatives, their co workers, and let them know how important this race is, because it's one of those races. Not everybody knows what the PSC is. So it's a race folks can skip sometimes if they don't know what it is absolutely
and they don't even spell it out on the ballot, it just says PSC District Two doesn't even say public service commissions. So you know, the educational part of this race is critical.
Very good. Is there anything else you want us to know about the Public Service Commission before we go to our last three questions of the episode? Oh,
I really think that. I want to emphasize that this is a separate Lane from everything else going on in our state, and especially as Democrats, we can feel pretty battered and powerless sometimes, especially right now, but the tide will turn, and until then, the PSC is a completely separate lane. Doesn't matter who's the governor, doesn't matter who's in the legislature, the PSC stands on its own, and we can flip the PSC to democratic control if we show up and we vote this year, this year 2024, let's make history. Nick
the last three questions I ask for every interview are kind of the same every time. So I'd like to ask you, what's the biggest hurdle for progressives in Louisiana, kind of going
back to that idea of, like, stumbling into the bar and talking to those half drunk guys, of people just saying, oh, you know it's, you know, demonized, and you know you're I've never talked to you. I don't know anything about you. You don't know anything about me like it feels like progressives are on an island in the sense of accidentally, maybe through our own doing, and also from the sense of just the culture and the climate we live in where people don't want to talk to each other. So what I mean by that is I feel like meeting people where they are is the biggest challenge. And this is my political science thesis. I will never go back to school. I got my MBA, and I'm never going back, but if I ever went back, I'd literally write a thesis in political science, and it's this, the number one issue we have in progressive politics, is meeting people where they are. One size fits all does not work everywhere. A Louisiana progressive and a California progressive could be viewed as different ends of the political spectrum, even though we're generally under the same big tent, and understanding that and meeting people in those moments is key. So perfect example, what I found across the political divide, people have no issues with solar power. People have issues with solar farms in Louisiana, in PSC, two sugarcane is very culturally important. People see a big solar farm installation, whatever you want to call it, and say, Oh, that's taking land away from farmers. And that's the way that they think about it. And they're not thinking about it as, I don't want this energy source. They're thinking about it is, oh, they're taking away something from that's important to our culture, right? So that's why I'm pushing for rooftop solar, and not really farms. And that's a whole other discussion, because half the time they don't get maintained. And then how efficient are those panels if they're half overgrown with six foot tall weeds and and all that stuff. So it's literally meeting people where they are, that's the biggest challenge. Because I think this is this is the hill. This is my theory. I think that progressive ideas are popular and can be even more popular and implemented in a place like Louisiana. Like Commissioner Lewis says, Louisiana is not a red state, it's an oppressed state. We just have to do better about meeting people where they are breaking things down, not talking like we have the correct point of view, and shame on you from for not being that way. It can be so enticing to say, Oh, I think the right way, and they don't, but that's how we're in this pickle, that's how we're in this situation that we're in. So really, that's the biggest challenge, meeting people where they are, and that's what I'm trying to do every single day on the campaign trail, what's
the biggest opportunity for progressives?
You know, honestly, I think it is. It's the same answer, but just from the opposite perspective, like, if we meet people where they are, we get people who maybe have never once thought about voting differently, never once thought about having a different affiliation or a different way of thinking. They show up if we show up for them. And Democrats are in their communities. Democrats are organizing like we're doing with the rebuild of the state Democratic Party, if we run candidates in races where Democrats previously didn't dare to tread, like the Public Service Commission District Two, which hasn't been able to vote for a Democrat since 2012 it's been a long time. If we dare to go there, if we dare to show up, we dare to engage and have conversations. That's how we turn the tide. That's how we go from a super majority before a single ballot was even cast to Democrats could win again. You know, 10 years ago in Arizona, there's no. You'd imagine them being a state with Democratic control in any way. They did it. They were working on it. They're creating even greater margins there, so the pendulum can swing and it will swing again. Will we be there? Will we show up? Will we engage to make that happen? I think we will.
Listeners do not see me nodding my head to all of that language. Nick, all right. Nick, last question, who's your favorite superhero?
okay, so I know this is my thinking is lame, but my answer is not my thinking is I just was really never into superheroes. I was never super into comics. I really have only seen like two movies in the modern marvel universe, and it was literally both spider verse movies, which are artistic masterpieces, by the way. But to directly answer your question, I think my favorite superhero was Jessica Jones. I loved the Netflix series. I love her as a character. I love that she has gone through a lot, but in spite of it, she's still just trying to show up and do her best and also use your powers for good. While she figures that that self, that part of herself, out, and I think that kind of resonates with me in a way, because I never once thought of myself as doing this. To be completely honest with you, I was like, Oh, my dad and my great uncle and some other people in my life. I've seen them do it, and they were great at it. But I'm I may not seem it, but I'm very much an introvert, and I don't know if I could go out there and ask people for money and ask for their vote. I just nah, nah. I can't ever do that. Well, here I am, and what I'm finding is that I'm pretty, pretty solid at it. I can connect with people. I can tell stories and convey these facts in a way that people can understand and that they get interested in, and then they want to support me like it's still for me every single time, whether it's on the phone, if I'm doing call time trying to raise money, if I'm out in the community, engaging with voters, or I'm just telling someone why I want to speak to their organization. Whatever it is, I'm always finding that I'm smiling as I do it, and I'm excited because I get see it as an opportunity to help educate people, to show them you have power. You can't forget your own individual power and agency. And that's part of why I'm just so excited about this, and that's a long winded way of saying that I like Jessica Jones, because she also was trying to figure out her power and her agency.
That's a perfect answer, Nick, and I'm totally on board you got me on board with your campaign and your candidacy, so I wish you luck. And I just want to underscore to listeners, this is I've said it before, but I'm saying it again, a historic opportunity for our state. Don't sleep on it. Don't miss out.
Thank you for listening to Louisiana Lefty. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you to Ben Collinsworth for producing Louisiana Lefty, Jen Pack of Black Cat Studios for our Super Lefty artwork, and Thousand $ Car for allowing us to use their swamp pop classic "Security Guard" as our Louisiana Lefty theme song.
