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. Our bonus season continues, as I welcome the new chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, Randal Gaines. Chair Gaines is a lifelong civil rights leader, a veteran and a former three term democratic legislator for Louisiana's 57th House District. He has also previously chaired the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus and the House Democratic Caucus. He now stepped into the role of party chair for a four year term, and essentially unpaid position with mountains to move to rebuild, rehab, and unify a party that's in a state of crisis. In some ways this interview bookends a conversation we started with Louisiana Democrats in January of 2023, when we released the episode titled 'Demystifying Party Chair Elections,' in other ways that conversation will necessarily continue. While I've seen a range of reporting between spot on accurate by those in attendance to pretty laughable spin by opinion writers, Randal and I don't get into specifics here about the meeting where he was elected chair. We also only briefly touched on the officers that have been elected to serve with him on the executive committee. But I promise a debrief or two will come, More immediately, I wanted you to have an opportunity to meet chair Randal Gaines. If you haven't already come across him in his decades of political advocacy and community service, and to hear his initial plans and goals for our Louisiana Democratic Party. Chair Randal Gaines, thank you so much for joining me on Louisiana Lefty today.
Hey, it's totally my pleasure. It's a privilege for me to have an opportunity to dialogue with you. I appreciate all the assistance you gave in organizing, leading up to the elections and of course, your assistance with a, what I call, a transformative outcome. You've always been a source of expertise, knowledge and impactful action. We appreciate you.
Well, thank you, Chair Gaines. And I want to introduce you to folks who may not know who you are. You are the new chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, you were just elected recently. And you've got a new executive committee, the officers were just elected, you've still got some other positions that will be voted on soon. But for folks who don't know your history, can you briefly tell me, first of all, what was the first thing that ever got you interested in politics?
Actually, I was always... first of all, I was always interested in social justice and politics as a mechanism to be able to advance good social justice causes. But for social justice, like I said, I knew I wanted to become an attorney when I was 12 years old. And I think I mentioned this after watching the movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, in which there was a racially discriminatory climate in a small town and this minority individual was being falsely accused of something he didn't do. So I was 12 years old and I decided, you know, this is something I want to do. And also watching the civil rights movement on black-and-white television. Not saying my age... but watching Dr. King, and the organizations that stood on the front lines, and really won the rights for African Americans to suffrage and a lot of sacrifices. Many people lost their lives. What a lot of people don't know also is that half the people during the civil rights movement during the critical periods, half the people that were killed, that stood up for the rights of minorities were white, so it was about black and white. So it was a joint cause. It was always the right minded people who stood for the right cause that came together. So it wasn't just a black movement. It was an American movement. When I watched King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the late 60s to lead that charge successfully. And as God would have it, ironically, because of my passions I was elected to serve as National Vice President with Dr. Martin Luther King's nephew, who was the president time and then I rose to the level. And now I'm currently serving as the vice chair of the National Board. So yeah, I've always had a commitment, social justice. But in politics, I always... one of my life lifelong goals from a young kid was to earn an election to the Louisiana legislature, which I did in 2011. And as I said, it's really just put you in a position to make transformative changes on a broad scale, because you can do it as an activist, but when you in office, you not only do you have the compassion and the passion and the and the opportunity, but you also have the position in authority to make changes, which makes things happen a lot faster when you have the authority.
And was 2011 the first office you ran for?
I actually ran for the for the DSCC in 2007 and won that. So I joined the the DSCC in 2007. And then I think in 2010, I was elected as vice chair for elected officials. Which I held that until 2019, when I was elected as a national committeeman.
Okay. And where are you originally from, Randal?
I'm from a small town in St. James Parish, Lutcher, Louisiana, small town of 5000 people. And we are about midway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
I've driven past it many times. Is that where you can go see the Christmas time, the...
Yes, the bonfires. And looks, speaking of my small town, I was... when I just finished college and was on my way to law school I hosted a political forum, which I was 21 years old, and I hosted a political forum. And I remember getting ready to give my speech at a forum, you know, it was in a gymnasium, a crowd of people, maybe a local elected school board town council or something like that. And I'm really trying to give my speech and I had these cue cards. And I had it all neatly organized on these cards. And when I went to the podium to cause fell off and get up, you know, with all the order, Floyd, and got out without an order. And I said, I know you're gonna stand here and say what you have to say, in an effective way. Don't ever think about going into politics. So I was able to, I was able to articulate the cause and the purpose. And I remember one of the one of the teachers at the time, when I was walking out of there, I heard him say, when I walked out of the gymnasium, he said, 'that boy is going to be running things one day.'
You served in the legislature for three terms. Right? And then you termed out and decided you were going to run for state party chair, what made you decide to do that?
That decision was after a lot of requests. Yeah, well, I knew when I joined the party, in 2010, I got to know John Bel, you know, our former governor, he was the caucus chair at the time. And when I decided to run for the legislature in 2011, John Bel, select about four-five of us around the state that he felt would ultimately be leading the party one day. And they called us, I remember, '(inaudible) Five'. And all of us won our seats. But during the campaign running in 2011, John Bel gave us a lot of support. He raised a lot of money. He was trying to. David Vitter raised about a million dollars to reduce the number of... to elect more more of Republicans to the state legislature, we had 45 at the time. John Bel was determined to not to let that number get reduced. So he put a lot of money and he had some experts from all over the country to come out and work with us and all of us were successful. And I just remember the lady that... she had run through congressional races and other states and she was working with me and she said, 'Well, if you're one of the people that John Bel sees to be as the future of the party one day and we have to get your elected.' So you know, that that resonated with me and I worked very hard to with John Bel to establish and, and really, at some point after 2011 the party actually started to grow. We built a strong base, by 2014 we had 2000 volunteers and we started moving the party in a positive trajectory. Particularly once we got John Bel like in 2015. We thought that was the turning period. But you know, as things pass, things went the Republican push, push back... They really went all out to try to unelect John Bel, it was an embarrassment to them for a Democrat to be elected in a deep south in 2015. So they push, they push back really hard against that in 2019. Of course, you know that that helped to cause John Bel to go into a runoff election with Rispone who was backed by Donald Trump. Donald Trump had come down two times prior to that October election, drove out about 100,000 more Republican votes. And I was called to Baton Rouge for a meeting at the Trial Lawyers Association. John Bel's campaign people with their connacher, who's on a Trial Lawyers Association, and I would get compensated the time and he said, 'Look, now let us explain something to you. John Bel has gotten as many white votes as he's gonna get, whatever number he received in October, that's basically what he's gonna get in November, if he's gonna win this election, it's gonna be strictly based on the turnout of the black vote.' And that fell on my desk, of course, and I, you know, I asked him for, for the money that I needed to vote for radio and some other things that we needed. And I put the plan together, which included the faith based leadership all over the state includes every senator, every sitting state, Senate and state rep in the state. And it also include included some other support objects like the union, and, and the trial or trial or solo state. So and of course, I also include the universities that we talked to the President, and they got the SGA involved, and we put, so I wrote the plan for it. And, and, of course, as you know, we produce a record turnout vote, beat Donald Trump. And got John Bel, elected as the only Democrat in deep south, re elected, as governor. And as I mentioned, before, CBS News interviewed three people, which include me, myself, John Bel, and the Mayor of New Orleans. But that just basically showed, which is a direct line to what I've always believed in the Democratic Party, that we can do it, we can mobilize our voters, our voters will vote, we just have to give them a reason to do that. And now I've experienced that, in other I've had other experiences with the party over the last 10 years. That is what I would say, really firmly established that that that is absolutely accurate and true.
And, you know, you mentioned sort of the fight back and forth between the Democrats and the Republicans. And, you know, I was just speaking to a group of college students the other day College Democrats and was telling them, you know, one of the things I think we don't fully prepare Democrats for is that my final phrase to them is, this is the fight of a lifetime, this, this comes and goes, you don't just make progress, and then it's done. And you can let it go. It's, there's a constant ebb and flow to it. And if you're not constantly fighting back and pushing forward, we end up in situations like we're in now where we have Republican takeover of all the state offices and super majorities in the legislature, and it digs us a bit of a deeper hole. Because now they're going to be doing things that we've got to undo, you know, in future. So what are your plans as state party chair now? Like, what are the first steps you want to do? Because obviously, there's there's no immediate right back to that. I mean, I guess there is some immediate flight back to being able to stop the Constitutional Convention, hopefully. But what what are the first steps that you need to start building the party and the strengthen the party and the bench for the party, that's, that's going to be able to get us more progress down the road?
Well, you know, and you've stated very, very accurately the problem that, well, what led to this problem, and I still take the last 10-15 years, is that because the Republican was so aggressive, and that's their nature, okay. Predators are aggressive. So... they were so aggressive that we spent the last 10-15 years responding to a crisis, the crisis that we saw ourselves in as Democrats losing numbers. A lot of our Democratic voters who traditionally voted Democrat even though they were registered Democrat started voting Republican. So that really made us respond with what I call a knee jerk response to said, Okay, we got to try to do some things immediately to win these elections. Okay, without thinking about the elections down the road and how to build a bench and how you know, how to recruit the young people to start running for office from you know, out of high school, out of college, how to recruit really young leaders, upcoming leaders in local communities and start running for office. And we missed that. I mean, I will say we didn't take advantage of that opportunity, because we were too busy trying to respond to the immediate crisis. But that's my plan is really rebuilding the bench, going back to the local level six, you know, just totally rebuilding the party and not just rebuilding the party as an institution, but rebuilding the party as in terms of expanding our base, there's a lot of communities, that what I would say were marginalized or overlooked, and are still overlooked in our democratic dynamics that we have to, we have to go back and engage those communities and show them why they matter. You know, why the issue that they're concerned about matter to us as Democrats, we really just have to rebuild a family. And in speaking of family, and one of the things respond to your question, in terms of building for the future, is mobilizing and energizing and empowering DPECs to go into these communities become a part of this community, I would like to see them that. Typically, they've organized, right, six months before the campaign and three months before the campaign go to campaign cycle would start deciding how they're going to turn out the vote, who they going to back in the elections. But right now, we are at a disadvantage, because we in the minority, we come from behind, we can't afford to restrict and limit ourselves just to operate within the political dynamics, we have to step outside of that, that we have to be really aggressive, really proactive, and start to show leadership in those communities. I'd like to see the DPECs to be the liaison between the people in the communities and the government officials. Because once they start doing that, and start taking on issues that are important in Breaux Bridge, important in DeRidder, North Louisiana and Jonesborough, and some of those places. Once they get involved in the activities in those communities, start being there for those families, then those individuals that we reach out to engage and show leadership to provide a solution to will become a part of our family. We won't have to ask him to vote Democrat, they're gonna automatically vote Democrat, because we've been there for them, we have to step outside that political, the political limitations and go into the community activist arena.
100%. I mean, we hear that repeatedly during campaign seasons, when we call people to ask them to go vote, 'Well, I only hear from you when you want me to go vote in an election.' And so there has been this repeated, essentially request from the voters, for Democrats to be present before election day before campaign season. So I think you're 100% right about that. We've talked a little bit about like the amount of talent you have that's coming up with you on the executive committee, there are a lot of new people and you know, not to disparage folks who have been doing the work for a long time, but there is a certain amount of energy that comes with people who are coming into the work now. I think it's nice to be able to have that combination of people with experience who have that institutional knowledge. And the new folks coming in that have the motivation and the energy to bring some newness and freshness to the organization. What are your thoughts on that?
I think that is so profoundly, correct? I was just telling several of the legislators and just people I was talking to I said, I said, 'If I had to write a script, and a profile for this recruitment committee, this class that joined the DSCC, I couldn't have written a better script. I couldn't have profiled him better.' I mean, it's really beyond what I thought we would even get to step up to the plate. I mean, the best and the brightest from Louisiana among the Democrats have really answered the call to step up to the plate, I am so impressed with the level of talent that have, you know, that has come to bear that have answered the call to turn his body around. And I guess, you know, I guess it was it was like an alarm went off all over the state. And he realized what happened to the party and because you know, as goes to party, so go out rights, and so go out route, quality of life and the things that our values and our freedoms, and because we as you can see, you see it pretty vividly clear that the harmful bills that's coming out of a coming out of Baton Rouge, and it's possibly going to get get you know, it's going to get worse. So, I think that I'm just impressed with with a talent that has stepped up to the plate. And so I I told somebody I say if I had to try to build a team by recruitment, I said no, this election and show that we are team ready. I mean, they just we we have the right team, the right people, you know, we don't we don't have to go through interviews and tripe. These people are talented and you're ready to hit the ground running and I love it. So So you know the future's bright and you know, brighter brighter days ahead. And
we talked a little bit too before we started recording about the potential of caucuses doing work with the party. And did you want to talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, well, one thing that was contributed, there's so much talent, and not enough seats. Not enough, actually. Bylaws only have so many offices that you can elect, we're gonna have to create caucuses, special interest caucuses, and use some of that talent to be to take leadership, those people who didn't get elected to office, there's a place for them. And there's a, there are initiatives and programs that they can take charge of because of the great expertise, they have the talents to took to augment what we gonna do as a party to really come to that everybody can come together and just build a great border, I'm looking for us to, to build a party, that's going to not only make positive changes in Louisiana, but getting national attention for for the level of effectiveness that we're going to be able to achieve for the organizing for the transformative changes we're going to make and target registering voters stressing the right to vote, reaching out to our communities. You know, I told John bill, governance committee and that was, I told him about a month ago that, that I want Louisiana to be the poster child on how to turn around the port in the Deep South and the fact that you said that there are people who work with Stacey Abrams campaign, who are willing to join us and who want to give us that support. That's, that's it is incredibly aligned with where we're at, with the goals that we have at the party. And I mean, it's like, it's like destiny is lining up all the stars and lining up.
I mean, there are a lot of people who want to help our state, like you look at like the environmental and climate folks that are national groups who see us as ground zero because we are ground zero for the climate crisis. They see us as an opportunity to invest and right we've got the fair fight action folks who are speaking to national groups who see an opportunity to invest here. So there, there's so much opportunity, if we can capitalize on it. What do you see is like the first thing you want to do for for bringing more money to the party, because as we know, we can. I've seen the party in both ways, right? I've seen it with money to spend to organize, and I've seen it without money, and how like a skeleton crew just really struggles to, to operate. And so I know that in order to run the programs, we need to run in order to register voters and mobilize voters and do the trainings that you need to do for this bench that you're building. It does require money. So what's your first thoughts on that? What's the first thing you want to do? Just
as I've said this, before, that I'm because I work with a national civil rights organization, people and I said this at the, at the at the data kings organization, these people don't give money to pay for your bills, they give money to make a difference, they give money to make changes, they give money to make a difference where no difference has been made. So we have to start, we're going to start raising what I call sustainment money, but to be raised that enhancement money in that growth money, we're going to have to really just put some things in place that we could when we when I make those calls, I can say this is what we've accomplished, this is what we do. And we want to talk about our plans. But I also want to talk about accomplishments to to be able to draw that money in because that's what we got, you know, we don't one of my old sayings is that, you know, you don't go in playing the violin, you go in blowing the trumpet. This is what this is what we're going to achieve, this is what we have achieved. So So that's, that's one of my goals is not just to start raising and sustainment money, but also raise national money, that this, this party can flourish. And we can use that as seed money to turn the to turn the state around. But to raise the national money, we don't have to build a track record. We got to raise some. But so initially, starting off, I think we're going to concentrate on the small donors through the messaging to the different communities and just build a large cadre of small donors that I can start to to bring funds in. And as I said, we're going to also reach out to the national to the national national audience, so to speak with national donors. I was in Chicago last week and I had a chance to meet with the with the key key fundraiser for the DNC. They have they've offered their help, they are going to offer that provide some contacts that we can reach out to to start to bring some some immediate, immediate money. And one of the things I'm going to do is I'm getting I'm requesting a copy of not just in a state of a national copy of the big the biggest donors who typically give to the Democratic Party, or those who have a track record of giving to the party, we're going to reach out to them first. Also, we're going Want to reach out to different not just political organizations PACs, we're gonna reach out to foundations, foundations who, who also have given to the party and to because they, you know they have they have an interest, particularly environmental, the environmental arena, they really have an interest in fighting some of the causes we have, that we, that we have to deal with here, Louisiana, the justice reform people, they're all in their foundations that give money to justice reform and aid, you know, and they really give generously. So I don't think we've tapped into that, to those sources, to the extent necessary to be able to bring the money in that I know, we have the potential to bring in. So basically, response to your question, small donors and Laura's donor, we're gonna prioritize both but but also, with this great team. While I'm waiting until we were gonna have our first executive board meeting, committee meeting shortly, and next few days, and once we put our framework together, start putting a strategy together, we're going to put out we're going to develop a fundraising brochure to talk about all the ideas and the compelling things that we're going to do to, to rebuild a party, and primarily use that to start bringing some immediate money in. But also, we're going to have a measuring method method of measuring our performance. So we so that we can not just talk about what we plan to do, will be hopefully to what we're striving to accomplish. But we want to show that, look, this is what we've done in voter registration. This, this, even these, this is these are organizations that we've, we've partnered with power coalition to do this, this is what our deepfakes are doing, they'll have pictures, we're gonna have records documents showing, showing the progress we're making. And, and that's it at that point, I think fundraisers not gonna be a problem. That's
so important to be able to, you know, because success begets success, right? So if you can start showing people that you've made this progress, right, to invest in an organization, that's, that's doing stuff and can prove by metrics, that it's actually doing things and thanks. I always say, if you can't tell me the number of calls you made, or the number of voters you've turned out, if you can't give me that data, then I can, it's all just feels you're operating by fields, and that doesn't really help me assess anything. Yes.
You know, how, how you, you know, how you measure it, you know, we have to, we have to have some method of measurement, but also we have to be able to produce those measurements in a way that's compelling, you know, in an impressive way that show the kind of progress we're making. And I think, I think that that's going to enable us to, to really bring in, bring in the big, the big donors. And also I know, I do, I'm going to talk to the governor, he, you know, he is our top Democrat in the state right now. And of course, but, you know, we also have time control our quarter we have former congressman and senior White House adviser said Richmond who both, as of last week, pledged their support, to help with the fundraising and to bring money into the party. And so I'll have a conversation with the governor, because he's, I think he's the biggest lightning rod at this point for him to, you know, to be able to use his influence to direct force resources to the party as well.
Okay, I think what are your other things that you've got to as the party, not just you individually needs to work on? Is making people excited to be Democrats again, right? I mean, I think right now, there, there are some people who just don't feel connected and don't feel the motivation to call themselves proud Louisiana Democrats. And I think that that's something that needs to be worked on. Also,
you know, obviously, your clairvoyance because as you as you were saying, make them feel excited, I was actually just writing the word excited. Out. So we got it, we have to restore confidence. Well, we have to restore enthusiasm within the party, but we also have to restore confidence from in our base confidence around the state. And that's, that's one of them from when I was writing all the different scripts that I wrote, during the campaign and talking about my plan for the party is either, you know, the first thing that I would always say was that we have to restore confidence and trust in our party. And because, you know, that really confidence and trust builds unity. And we have to be united as a part of the party, that for the last four years, there was a lot of as you know, a lot of dissension within the party. Conflict. We can't afford not one day of that, because when you hit them at night And when you come up behind you, you have to be good and better. But you also have to be unified. And you know, you can't We can't do this without, with, you know, different factions not operating together. So we have to build real confidence. And it's not just confidence and enthusiasm is really the primary element to cause people to want to go out to vote. You know, people I learned a long time ago, you can give people all the data. You can have facts, data information. But two things that are important, they have to know that you really sincerely care, none of that stuff matters. And you have to be able to have they have to, you have to be able to get them excited, and enthusiastic people vote with their hearts. They vote based on how you make them feel about the things that matter. And we do it in a positive way. The Republicans will do it in a negative way through fear, fear mongering, divisive, divisive issues, that's what they do. And it is the method works for them. But it's a race to the bottom, we can do so much better, you know, in a race to the top by using positive messages and getting people excited. I've always say that if you get the I call it the four E's, you know, encouragement, enthusiasm, excitement, and empowerment, you know, we can hit those sorts towards, you know, we can we can turn out to vote, we want people to be out. And maybe I was all being overly impatient about it. But I said, I want people to look forward to election day. You know, I want I don't want this out. We have to vote today. I guess I'll get over that at some point. And I want them to be able to say, Oh, I think we can be voting on Saturday. I'm not I'm not making any plans. I gotta go and vote. Maybe I'll do something after that.
I love that, though. That's yeah, it should be a holiday should be considered a holiday. Well, and right. So in order to get that message out, we have to raise enough money and have a good program to make sure people hear our message. And then I think the other thing that we've maybe lacked a bit of is contrasting ourselves to make sure that folks know the difference between voting for a Republican and a Democrat, right? If you're contrasting and saying this is what we're for, and this is how we're different. Folks don't know why they need to go out and vote. That's some of the feedback. I've heard from just voters in general. And the other thing about the party that I think is really important is that again, more feedback is, you know, there are parts of the state where you have Democrats running against Democrats. And that's where I think some of the, you know, the divisive pneus comes from is because but that's naturally going to happen in those Democratic stronghold, right Democrats. But where the party can be different is by not focusing in those areas and focusing in the areas through the rest of the state where there are enough Democrats elected and there's so much opportunity there to really focus on those areas where we could potentially get a Democrat elected where there's a Republican now, and that, to me, is where the party can really make some inroads and find some unity, right?
Oh, that's absolutely right. Well, and that's what I was talking about earlier about the marginalized community in the community, that we don't engage, that we're not engaged in communities that really their communities out there that may not be aligned with Democrats or Republicans, it gets overlooked. So we, you know, we can use that to broaden our base. But now we don't need to spend tons of money in and democratic, strong Democratic district where Democrats are going to get Democrats, we have to pick up new ground, it's not gonna do us a lot of good to like a few Democrats around the state, with high with high record turnout and high winning numbers and losing everywhere else. So we have to just reprioritize our resources to to gain the ground. One of the things that when I was fighting to to raise money for the Democratic caucus, the one of the first thing is that one of the major donors, which is Trial Lawyers Association, they have their their members, the first thing they want is okay, well, first thing he wants to know is, alright, are we going to pick up new seats? You know, you know, that's that was that that was their thing, that was their priority? Are we going to gain new ground? And that that was the I guess, the threshold we had to reach with them? That was the determining factor for them and whether or not they want to give? So yeah, we we have to broaden our base aggressive voter registration, reach out to the to the communities that have been overlooked because we have to we have to increase our numbers and broaden our base which which it can be done and you already did it? Well, we know Wait, I knew six years ago that Georgia was was in a good position to turn blue because of The influx of people migrating into into, you know, the major cities, particularly Atlanta. But we don't have that we will not we don't have that, that migration into Louisiana, like some of the some of the largest states do. So we have to find out we have to find out. Our I will say our salvation in terms of in terms of saving the party, we have to be able to define those, those new voters who potentially become Democrats, we have to find them right here in our state, and they're there.
That's a good point. That's a good well, I know you are a busy man busier now than you already have been. You've told me your schedule today. So I don't want to keep you too long. So let me get up. Well, first of all, is there a best way for people if they're listening, who want to plug into this sort of rebirth of the party? What's the best way for them to plug in now? Is it just to go to the website and sign up? Or is there some other way you think, folks should?
Yeah, I will say go to the website, but also, we're going to be every community, we are going to distribute the names and contact information on for the members of the Deepak, you can reach out to the Deepak we're gonna we're gonna I'm gonna have the party send out. Cards, we're gonna go into the voter file, and I'm gonna have the point, this is gonna be part of our messaging, to send out contact information, messages to all the registered Democrats all over the state on a regular basis. 24/7 and it's gonna have contact information on how you can give how you can join how you can get involved, get engaged, it's going to talk about the our issues and what's important. So it's going to be a medium of exchange that we're going to establish between our voters and and the party, that's going to give them everything they need to know in terms of how they can get in golf, how they can give, donate, how
they can get engaged, how they can donate,
how did you get in contact with if they have an issue, but right now until we get into all of this established, I urge them to, to go to the Democratic Party website has all the contact information. I'm
going to put that in the podcast notes so people can find that link very easily. I want to ask you the last three questions, I asked a version of every episode, first of all, and these should be very easy for you. What do you say is the biggest hurdle for Democrats in Louisiana?
The biggest hurdle that we have right now is where we've had is, is being apathetic about about voting and an apathetic about getting involved with the Democratic Party. And I think that was a problem or issue of leadership. And I always say that our, our voters and our base, they're not apathetic, okay? Because apathy is not the absence of interest is the absence of leadership. So we need to, you know, we're going to give them that leadership to get them to get them involved. And my other point I want to make, it's not to give up, ask them to do not give up hope. Do not lose confidence in our party, because we're going to provide you the leadership that's going to be able to, to address the issues that are important to you, at your homes are important to you, with your families are important to you and your communities, we're going to we're going to develop messaging and solutions, that which you at your doorstep, which way you live, I so so we're going to be the party of choice, the party that's going to make a difference, make a difference for you. And because we come from behind, you know, this has to be a movement, it's can't, we can't we will no longer operate just in the in the democratic. You he I would say the political dynamics of the political arena, we go on to step beyond that, to fight for you for the things that not to just ask you to come out to vote, but fight for you for the things that make a difference at your homes, and in the lives of your life of your family, with family members. So so so don't don't, don't be discouraged. But our job isn't to turn discouragement, into determination which we will do.
I love that what's the biggest opportunity for Democrats in Louisiana?
Well, the biggest opportunity I see is to reach out to is to turn this state blue is not going to be easy to do. But it's a matter of how much energy we don't put to it. I believe in the laws of physics, where every every action has an equal and opposite reaction that Republicans are not destined to rule. So so we, we have, we have the base, we have the energy, we have the talent, and we have the right message and the right solution to turn the state around to reclaim these positions for Democrats who care about what was important to our citizens as opposed to the divisive fear mongering messages that the Republicans are putting out for such things as the right now call it it's I think it's hypocrisy one on one because you know, postulating and advocating for things like well, you're pro you're pro life, but you Do you support the proliferation of lethal lethal weapons? You know, it's a it's a philosophical contradiction. So so we we want to expose all the dangers and harm that the policies as you can see what's coming out of capital capital now all these dangerous, harmful divisive policies. Only. We're the last line of defense, for public safety, for personal rights. And we're the last line of defense for our democracy. And I asked y'all I asked everybody on this podcast to stand with us to turn this around and stand with stand with us to make sure that we protect the rights and the quality of life for all the citizens of Louisiana, not just a few, not just big vendors, but every citizen of this state will last line of defense with that, and we will advance this cause to a level that you that that we that you will be satisfied and you will be your interest will be your if your needs will be fulfilled, and your needs will be met.
100% Thank you so much for that and cheer Gaines. Tell me who your favorite superhero is.
Well, I would say I would say Superman, but I think it was Batman. Because Because, because when I saw that episode, that he was locked in and safe, and all the bad guys walked away, thinking that it was done and when when when the episode came back on Super Bowl of Batman was standing on top of the seat with his cape blowing in the wind. And that's, that's what I see is the future for the Democrats.
I love that metaphor. That's wonderful. Chair, Randal Gaines, congratulations on being elected Chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party. I'm so grateful to you for stepping up and I just look forward to great things in the future and just let us know how we can help. We'll be there every time.
Lynda, you're great, wonderful. You're an inspiration and I appreciate having your help and support and your interest. Thanks.
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.
