Keystone Reckoning Podcast

Alexandra Hunt: Congressional Candidate (PA-03) (Part 1)

February 07, 2022 The Keystone Reckoning Project
Alexandra Hunt: Congressional Candidate (PA-03) (Part 1)
Keystone Reckoning Podcast
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Keystone Reckoning Podcast
Alexandra Hunt: Congressional Candidate (PA-03) (Part 1)
Feb 07, 2022
The Keystone Reckoning Project

Join host Jesse White of the Keystone Reckoning Project and Alexandra Hunt, candidate for PA's Third Congressional District.

Part 1 includes Alexandra's unique path to becoming a candidate, her progressive issue platform, and how she is using TikTok to reach out to voters in ways unlike any other candidate on the ballot.

For more about the Keystone Reckoning Project, visit www.keystonereckoning.com.

For more about Alexandra Hunt's campaign, visit
https://www.alexandramhunt.com
https://www.facebook.com/AlexandraHuntForCongress
Donate at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/alexandra-hunt-for-congress-website

Learn more about the Keystone Reckoning Project at www.keystonereckoning.com

Visit www.truebluegear.com for all of your progressive political t-shirts and gear. Use the code "KEYSTONE" at checkout for a 20% discount for Keystone Reckoning Podcast listeners!

Support the Show.

Check out our previous episodes and subscribe to the podcast at https://keystonereckoning.buzzsprout.com/.

Follow the Keystone Reckoning Project on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
LinkedIn

Questions? Comments? Ideas for a future episode? Email us at info@keystonereckoning.com

Support us by donating to The Keystone Reckoning Project political action committee, and also check out our partner True Blue Gear for some sweet progressive t-shirts and swag!

Show Notes Transcript

Join host Jesse White of the Keystone Reckoning Project and Alexandra Hunt, candidate for PA's Third Congressional District.

Part 1 includes Alexandra's unique path to becoming a candidate, her progressive issue platform, and how she is using TikTok to reach out to voters in ways unlike any other candidate on the ballot.

For more about the Keystone Reckoning Project, visit www.keystonereckoning.com.

For more about Alexandra Hunt's campaign, visit
https://www.alexandramhunt.com
https://www.facebook.com/AlexandraHuntForCongress
Donate at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/alexandra-hunt-for-congress-website

Learn more about the Keystone Reckoning Project at www.keystonereckoning.com

Visit www.truebluegear.com for all of your progressive political t-shirts and gear. Use the code "KEYSTONE" at checkout for a 20% discount for Keystone Reckoning Podcast listeners!

Support the Show.

Check out our previous episodes and subscribe to the podcast at https://keystonereckoning.buzzsprout.com/.

Follow the Keystone Reckoning Project on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
LinkedIn

Questions? Comments? Ideas for a future episode? Email us at info@keystonereckoning.com

Support us by donating to The Keystone Reckoning Project political action committee, and also check out our partner True Blue Gear for some sweet progressive t-shirts and swag!

[Unknown15]:

hi welcome to the keystone recording podcast i'm your host jesse white and we have a special guest today alexandra hunt who is running for congress in the pa third which is currently represented by dwight evans alexander thanks for joining us

[Unknown16]:

thanks for having me good to be here

[Unknown15]:

great so the first thing i always do with candidates is give me thirty seconds about yourself yeah

[Unknown16]:

oh

[Unknown15]:

you may need a minute so go ahead

[Unknown16]:

well so let me think quickly um i am a public health researcher a girl soccer coach a former stripper i've worked as a server i'm running a a i'm challenging dwight evans from the left so that kind of gives my political views i my parents are both teachers i have a twin brother we have a very unique back story that would take a little bit longer to tell i am a huge dog lover and that's me

[Unknown15]:

cool how how many dogs do you have

[Unknown16]:

i have i have one i used to have two but my uh my sole dog died this past summer

[Unknown15]:

at my diet i'm in the same situation my sole dog died i've never heard it put that way uh she died about two years ago so yeah i know i and i'm actually i can see her ashes and her little collar from where i'm sitting in my office so so what's your what's your your dog's name that you have now what's what's their name

[Unknown16]:

coda with a te

[Unknown15]:

you you could usually tell a lot about people by the way they name their dogs so yeah that's a that's a

[Unknown16]:

it

[Unknown15]:

unique name which is cool

[Unknown16]:

he's named after lakota

[Unknown15]:

got it okay so you like you said you have a very unique back store and we're gonna i'd like to get into little bits of pieces i am not going to lead with the fact that you're a former stripper because i have a feeling that my question well i guess my question is more of a process question about that are you getting tired i'm sure of that being the first question you're asked by everybody

[Unknown16]:

um it no i'm not tired of it being i i know that it draws in attention and sex work and advocacy for sex workers is something that we should be having conversations about so i'm very happy to talk talk about it i also like to talk about

[Unknown15]:

right

[Unknown16]:

other things so just having a well rounded conversation is always something i enjoy

[Unknown15]:

excellent and that's what we're are gonna do so i i have to say you have the distinction of being the first candidate i ever found via tick tock and i am a forty three year old you know sis white male i'm not tick tocks prime demographic i do not broadcast on tick talk because i know how ridiculous it would look but i always working in social media i always try to you know learn different things and i i found you on there and i was fascinated right before we went live i was just watching all of some of your most recent ones and they're hilarious so is that your primary method right now of kind of reaching out to people and tell me a little bit about your process with that

[Unknown16]:

yeah so you are you're uncovering something that we've been trying to keep on the dl

[Unknown15]:

sorry

[Unknown16]:

which is how okay it's all right it's about time it came out but um tick tock is a very powerful tool it's really

[Unknown15]:

yes

[Unknown16]:

powerful to reach a lot of young people and young people that we need engaged in politics and to speak to them about policy points and platform and personal issues and ways that they can relate so we when when we first launch we have a facebook we have a twitter and instagram and tick top and i think there might be an unused youtube channel too but twitter is so saturated with politicians and candidates and it's hard to like yellow over everyone you can't be heard so we we were like you know we're kind of doing well at tick tock and because i am a young candidate i might do well on tick talk we might back away from twitter a little bit and see if we can thrive in this other environment you can commit um and uh that so that was what why we chose to go to tick back

[Unknown15]:

well it's interesting so for context for our listeners and it's at alexandra hunt for congress the you have fifty seven thousand five hundred followers which is pretty good especially given the fact that on tick tock unlike most platforms you can't do political advertising so this is all that's all organic right

[Unknown16]:

it's all organic

[Unknown15]:

that's awesome that's awesome and it looks like you post i don't know every every day every other day is it kind of just you know there is there a method to your badness or is it just kind of like i see an article it pissed me off i'm gonna just throw something up about it

[Unknown16]:

the method to i've had a lot of people ask me for strata strategy tips and i am very lacking i can just tell you what we

[Unknown15]:

right

[Unknown16]:

do what i do and it's basically i i try to spend five minutes going just flipping through listening for sounds popular sounds trending sounds and see what can i can i use that to pull in something about our platform or something about our story i know that tick tock really likes story time and so i do try to sometimes find longer sounds so i can give a personal story and then explain how that ties into policy points um and that's really the the method that and and sometimes it it goes off really well and sometimes it just gets a couple of years

[Unknown15]:

yeah i mean i'm looking at some of i mean well when you say a couple i mean we're you know most of your the lowest one i'm seeing on here is like five thousand so it's not nothing and so a couple more questions about that because again this platform stuff you know i work with a lot of different clients all over the country and the big challenge is how do you talk to voters because voters say no one ever talks to me but then no matter how you try to talk to them they get all pissed off right don't email me don't text me don't call me don't show up at my door

[Unknown16]:

yeah

[Unknown15]:

and stay out of my social media so where's the middle you know how do you hit people and it looks like you know you may have found a way to kind of break through some of that in a way quite frankly that most candidates wouldn't have the guts to do because your stuff isn't fake it's real it's authentic

[Unknown16]:

right and and it does take gus there with with some of the most vulnerable posts that i've done um there is always this this moment like right before i go to post it of just like my heart rate is increasing right now and i'm just going to post it turn it off and not look and and you know whatever comes from that i'm i'm gonna take a breather and not check it but um i i think that i think it is a really good way to connect and that that's what people especially young people have been looking for it they're they're happy to talk about student debt cancellation but they want to know how does this impact you and can i tell you how this impacts me and then kind of get into the conversation coming from a personal place because policy is personal um and the same thing with with and i i don't know it because i can't take tick talk and know who who follows us who's in philly who's in the district and so that makes it hard so i i don't know if i'm reaching voters it based on some commons it sounds like

[Unknown15]:

what

[Unknown16]:

it we have found that algorithm or whatnot um and we do use the hashtag philly to try to get

[Unknown15]:

right

[Unknown16]:

get as close to to home as possible um but i i think people just want to be able to connect and know that you're going to listen and and and fight for the issues from like from a place of understanding and not just a place of this looks good on my campaign

[Unknown15]:

yeah well you answered my next question which is you know with all those followers are you able to see where they're coming from and you know so the answer being no i guess the next question is then is there a concern so i i'll put it this way if i were managing your opponent's campaign which i'm am not i would say if nothing else to make them feel better i'd say they're not hitting the people that are gonna actually come out and vote don't worry about this tick tock stuff it's not gonna hit with their you know our people how much of a concern is that for you and i'm not talking about necessarily location i'm talking about demographics i mean we all want younger people to come out and vote but historically getting them to do it has been extremely difficult especially in a primary so how how do you reconcile that

[Unknown16]:

so as i said i i don't know if these are voters but i do

[Unknown15]:

m

[Unknown16]:

know that these are young people i want involved in politics so while they might not be able to vote for me they can volunteer for our campaign and so then we reach voters with with our message through other means um and some some people when we're knocking on doors i've already heard of her i see i've seen the tick tocks we we're on board or or they you know reach out through other means of of supporting our campaign through fundraisers or in person forums or stuff like that i mean i i zoom but but things that are tied into the district and we know that voters are showing up to but they found about us on tick tock

[Unknown15]:

last tick tock question cause i'm just fascinated by this is how has it driven your fundraising

[Unknown16]:

uh we had a big boost from tick tock over the summer and i wish i was shock everyone was shocked um

[Unknown15]:

all night

[Unknown16]:

and

[Unknown15]:

no

[Unknown16]:

really

[Unknown15]:

i mean it makes total sense i mean it you know y you if i'm just you know someone that cares about these issues and i see you and i see you're kind of breaking the mold and doing unique things you know i'm be like oh yeah i'm gonna throw a few bucks you know to to try and i like the right on your thing there it says your ten dollars helps right you're not

[Unknown16]:

yes

[Unknown15]:

aiming huge you're being realistic so i'm sorry i me to cut you off about about how it's helping your fun reason

[Unknown16]:

yeah it it is helping our fundraising um it i mean it's not it's not the the bread and butter of it that that's through more traditional methods but it's definitely helped and just been kind of a shock that we've been able to fundraise on tick tock and and it's hard because you can't do any advertisements and if you directly ask for a donation i think the algorithm suppresses that yeah so you have to find creative ways to to be like hey to check out what i'm asking for on the profile and and kind of point people in that direction and hope that they land there by giving you a contribution

[Unknown15]:

cool i have two more process questions that we're going to jump into policy because that's what i really care about i know that's what you really care about too so in terms of fund raising i looked uh dwight has raised at the end of the year his cash on hand was about three hundred fifty thousand i'm sure he'll be able to raise more as needed where i mean do you feel as though you know what have you done so far in terms of fundraising and i didn't have a chance to your filing but and do you feel as though you'll have at least the bare minimum resources to compete you know with someone who's going to you know who with for whom money really won't be much of a problem

[Unknown16]:

so um i i feel like my opponent's war chest is digging his own grave um because of where he goes to get his money from it it's been brought up by other sources besides myself it's definitely been brought up by our campaign about you know why why is he taking money from private prisons why is he taking money from oil companies why is he taking money from weapons manufacturers when these are crises that are impacting the district um so i think that while he might be out raising us um i think the way that he's going about it is pretty damning as for are we going to be able to compete yes this past this last quarter we raised a hundred and three in the quarter

[Unknown15]:

at

[Unknown16]:

he raised one hundred fifty one in the quarter we are on his tail we are we are there and all all of us are very competitive and ready to go and and ready to to find ways through small dollar fundraising and connection and networking of how how can we actually outrage him when we're against a corporate backed politician

[Unknown15]:

so redistricting it's you know it's going back and forth and it looks as though the supreme court the state supreme court is going to be the final arbiter of

[Unknown16]:

let's see

[Unknown15]:

the lines which is great for democrats in general what is what are your concerns specifically about is that gonna make much of an impact in the district or

[Unknown16]:

not for us i i was looking at maps

[Unknown15]:

okay

[Unknown16]:

republicans are putting now and democrats were putting out and nobody cares about pa three is not being touched too much we might get a little bit more on the south on the south end um maybe just like a little corner added to it but it it's really not changing the lines the concern was how close we were getting to needing to collect petition signatures and that was causing a lot of ang but with the new deadline being i think the eighteenth that's that's past the petition deadline so they're gonna move the primary

[Unknown15]:

right right yeah i i saw house republicans state house republicans have you know they've talked about this insane idea of doing you know seventeen at large you know and it's i know seth grove it's insane

[Unknown16]:

it's a

[Unknown15]:

yeah

[Unknown16]:

threat they're they're just trying to spook people and and it's stupid i i the the a g o p i i've got no time for

[Unknown15]:

and that is the luxury of running in a an ultra progressive district which is just awesome you know when i was in the state house i represented a swing district that now i couldn't get an elected to to save my life partially because my views have gone to the left the district has gone hard right and you know they voted for trump in the whole bit and you know it is one of the things that always blew my mind was just what a different daily existence my colleagues had that represented philly and other you know really strong blue districts and it's something i always kind of like craved because it just it gives you so much more freedom to do things

[Unknown16]:

so i i know that you want to wanna talk about my my race and and pa three but i'm i'm actually very curious about your

[Unknown15]:

sure

[Unknown16]:

district and because what what we're seeing we're seeing a polarization of the country and it's happening in pennsylvania and and at home and and um democrats really speak to urban areas that's where they target that's where their strongholds are and that's what they're trying to protect is is that that big city pittsburgh philly in our state and then spreading out from there but into the more rural areas they've kind of accepted that it's red and i think that part of it is because no democratic politician is going into the these rural areas and speaking to the needs of these people but red republicans are they're they're saying and they're also speaking to the fears of these people so i i just want to hear about more about that shift you said they've shipped further to the right they've shifted towards voting for trump what what is it that they are needing that they're getting from republicans

[Unknown15]:

that is a fantastic question and to clarify the district that i was referring to was when i lived in southwestern pa so it was like it was the just south of pittsburgh all between like it washington county so it was right below allegheny right above green so it was like down the southwest corner and what switched it there was and the thing that bounced me out of office was that's where all the fracking started right at the very we going back to like oh three oh four i was in office for most six to fourteen and what happened was they came in and you know we always said that fracking was its own political party so not only did they the republicans just fell in line but they co opted all most of the democrats you know my state senator fell in with them and all these you know every and there was this idea outside of the energy industry stuff that you had to be the southwestern pa democrat you know you had to be pro gun and pro life in order to even have a seat at the table and

[Unknown16]:

yeah

[Unknown15]:

you know i kind of fell into that when i started you know i i was always pro choice and and yeah that wasn't going to change but you know i i fell into the the gun stuff a little bit and it was interesting because it was my colleagues from philly i was on the house judiciary committee and so we dealt with a lot of gun legislation and i saw that you know the gun issue was just a totally different issue you know when you talk

[Unknown16]:

yes

[Unknown15]:

about guns guns in southwestern p a are not the same as guns in philly obviously and i felt like the democrats as a whole you know this is like when rann dell was governor and everything they were demonizing gun owners but they were demonizing gun where they're really demonizing was gun violence which you know is not a bad thing but they didn't know enough to make they they showed a disdain for people who could not possibly identify with the perpetrators of gun violence in urban areas and they were offended that the comparison was being made that they were being lumped in with that you know you're talking about the quote responsible gun owner which they actually do exist you know

[Unknown16]:

is

[Unknown15]:

i've spoken a bunch of sportsman's clubs and stuff like that and you know they they don't all fit the profile some of them do but for the most part uh you know the and and folks like that that had been like union members and you know blue collar workers that were democrats you know they were they started getting demonized and they started wandering away from the party and i'm not going to lie i think there was a healthy dose of racism whenever obama was elected i think that definitely played into it and then on top of all of that the republicans got smart and like you said they learned how to play on those fears they learn how to say hey you are they're looking these east coast elites are looking down their nose at you they don't share your values and they learned you know they learned how to speak to them and it's one of the reasons i actually started the keyt reckoning project was because in pennsylvania specifically i think democrats messaging as a whole especially in legislative campaigns just sucks there's just kind of no nice way to say it and you know it's cookie cutter it's the same thing over and over and over again and you know i want to basically use this pack as a testing ground to show that no if you talk to people like grown ups about real issues they actually care about they don't care if it's a progressive or conservative you know take it's a take that matters to them and to speak to them in an intelligent way and to kind of you know take a page out of the republican's playbook when necessary to kind of beat them at their own game so that was a bit of a long winded answer but i was it was a great question so all right let's get back to you because that's what people want to hear all right so let's get off a process for a minute because we've done enough of that let's talk policy so you've got you know the the progressive what you're you know in a perfect world you walk into congress day one you can make any one thing happen what's it gonna be

[Unknown16]:

we i mean we have to i i tell this to everyone our number one issue has to be climate action because we can fight all we want about reproductive rights and gun ownership and whatnot but if we don't have a planet to live on it's all move so we we have to address the climate crisis and the the green new deal is a start there there's been drops the bucket but there isn't enough legislation yet to to say just just one thing it it's just that that we gotta check that box now

[Unknown15]:

how how do you think what do you think the way forward is when you're dealing with these quote conservative democrats and you know obviously you've got the joe mansions at the far end of the spectrum in the senate but you know one of the challenges on climate issues especially is this idea that it's you know it's hurting jobs in american energy independence and all that kind of stuff which we know to be bullshit right but it's

[Unknown16]:

yeah

[Unknown15]:

unfortunately kind of congealed as a conventional wisdom with so many you know conservative dams along the lines of what we just talked about about how do you how do you talk about these issues without demonizing folks what's what's the strategy there how would you you know how would you talk to a colleague how would you you know what would you know obviously as a member of congress you're going to have a voice and a platform how would you do that messaging

[Unknown16]:

it's tough because i have i have fielded phone calls from different members of the the u house and they are not kind to progressives they are not kind to the left wing voice um and while environment is a big issue the the biggest problem they have with me is the platform i have on criminal justice reform and so that that it it it makes it very difficult when two people are trying to speak past each other um as for

[Unknown15]:

well let me let me stop you there for because that's a really interesting thing so you've gotten calls from sitting members uh and and i'm not gonna ask you to name who they are it'd be awesome if he did but i can fully respect

[Unknown16]:

he

[Unknown15]:

that but that what has if if they really disagree with you what has been the crux of the call is it like hey we want to get you out of the race we want to get you to say things you know we we want is it

[Unknown16]:

yes

[Unknown15]:

a fishing expedition what's what's that all about

[Unknown16]:

it's uh to bue me for running and and for having the views that i have

[Unknown15]:

that's wild that these are sitting members of congress that you know that that would engage in such a petty like they literally have nothing better to do than to call and bit you out for running for office

[Unknown16]:

wait and they're not in my district but it's not my opponent he's ignoring me it's

[Unknown15]:

well yeah i mean i'm sure these are emissaries or whatever but that's wild i mean so what do you say to that i mean how long do these conversations typically last

[Unknown16]:

i mean i'm i'm not someone who is un opinionated and who doesn't like to argue so i'll engage with it for a little bit

[Unknown15]:

right

[Unknown16]:

and then i'll say okay you know i i get it you called me you don't want me running for office process i i i have things to do i'm gonna keep working and and then we go our separate ways

[Unknown15]:

what's the nastiest thing that someone said to you

[Unknown16]:

oh

[Unknown15]:

you

[Unknown16]:

um i mean i'm from from from people who he here i

[Unknown15]:

i mean in these calls i mean what's the what's the

[Unknown16]:

how well

[Unknown15]:

nastiest thing that like a thing that a sitting member of congress said to you that you were like what the fuck was that

[Unknown16]:

i'm trying to i'm trying to remember but it was it was less directed at me personally and more directed at progressives in the left just that we were jokes and that all we do is tweet and that um were inflammatory and that and the i to me the most disgusting thing was not directed at my positions but at a story that one representative told about about wanting to throw a sixteen year old girl in prison forever and and uh why he he felt validated and saying that um and it that that to me is disgusting that's inhumane that's a sixteen year old life that's a young person um and people make mistakes and we have to get to a place of being able to forgive people so that they can move past those mistakes because there's so much more to a person than that one mistake that they made so that was the most disgusting thing

[Unknown15]:

so give me your give us your your platform on criminal justice reform that apparently has everybody so worked up like what is this insane radical propo platform that you have

[Unknown16]:

well before i was uh running for office i was a community organizer for mass liberation and so i am as as a survivor of violence i believe in prison abolition and i believe in restorative justice i don't

[Unknown15]:

yeah

[Unknown16]:

think that putting people in cages for any amount of time brings back results of rehabilitation and so i i i identify as a prison abolitionist and that really ruffles feathers

[Unknown15]:

so what so what does that look like then if convicted murder convicted rapist convicted child child master what happens to them how does explain how that works

[Unknown16]:

i think that when when i get into these conversations we always go to the most violent most extreme case and so i'm a survivor of sexual assault and um i what what my form of justice would be and this is only for me is to have the perpetrator understand because it it was someone i knew and someone that i thought would never do that um have him understand the the pain that it caused the consequences that i faced down the line from trying to overcome this trauma and to never do that again and to for him to figure out why why he engaged in that sort of behavior and to to fix that part of him that's what i want because now the the last i heard he has a kid he he has a partner and so for for me to come in and to take him to remove him from that environment to to want to put them in a cage i could be damning that that child for a similar future i d i don't know i don't know his back story but i think that when we react to that crime and punish it we we miss out on the backstory of how did you get here what happened because i if you've ever looked into the stories of people who are on death row they've done they've done really messed up things but they've had really messed up things done to them and nobody stepped in nobody said this you know this isn't how we should be treating people and and so we just perpetuate trauma and pain and violence um so what is it what does

[Unknown15]:

right

[Unknown16]:

it look like you you start you start with non violent crimes never never should be putting those people in prison if it's drugs get them rehab community help i don't know why they have to go to prison um if it's sex work absolutely not why do they have to be in prison they're work they're trying to live um traffic offenses i don't know what

[Unknown15]:

yeah

[Unknown16]:

what else sends people to prison but it seems like everything but it and it's all blue collar crime it's not white collar crime they're not in prison and that's something that that is often missed in discussion is that if you're a person of color you're poor or you're both you're targeted for prison and and it they they try to find a way to snatch you up and it's just predatory it and it's not it has nothing to do with justice and it's it's so people people who are

[Unknown15]:

what

[Unknown16]:

elderly ha they've they've shown that by the time they're over the age of i don't know seventy sixty five that they're so unlikely to commit a crime commit a violent crime if it's like less than one percent why are they in prison where they can't get medical care proper medical care

[Unknown15]:

so that yeah it's all fascinating and and you know and i to put in context you i practice law for thirteen years so i've worked in the system and you're right there i mean the injustices are there if you look at it it's not hard to find i guess my question is because that's such a you know it's such a not even controversial it's just such a out of the box position for a political candidate to have that i feel as though you probably have to do a lot of explaining as to

[Unknown16]:

yes

[Unknown15]:

what it means and you know and for example i mean i've never talked to a candid who's a prison abolitionist before so i'm just fascinated right so i guess like the question would be so for example and i get everybody goes immediately to the most violent crimes because

[Unknown16]:

that's

[Unknown15]:

those are the one you know i can i get the non violent offenses the drug offense i that that all i understand but like if we had somebody that was a violent criminal that you know that so you know they had committed a sexual assault or something like that i understand that we don't have prison but is there some sort of like intermediate uh custody

[Unknown16]:

but

[Unknown15]:

or something you know in terms of are their freedoms restricted while they're undergoing these you know the day they pulled the guy off the street you know i mean are they putting him in a cell ti it's all figured out while the you know okay

[Unknown16]:

no and that that came out of that came out of the time of of slavery that that idea of that that's how prison was born is is that we're going to hold on to these people while they await trial and figure out what their punishment is and then imprisonment became the punishment and it became the the universal punishment for all crime um so what what do we do with perpetrators of violent crime well these are are people who have fallen through the cracks usually they're they're they're there are people who have severe mental illness

[Unknown15]:

that was my next question

[Unknown16]:

who commit yeah who commit crimes with with no remorse and

[Unknown15]:

what

[Unknown16]:

really no rhyme or reason and so for those people they need they need a lot of mental health treatment and care and probably a facility for people who who do other sorts of crimes without that that mental handicap um it it's usually falling through the cracks and they need to be in in

[Unknown15]:

right

[Unknown16]:

some form repented re they had they have to have a scaffold built for them where

[Unknown15]:

yeah

[Unknown16]:

it's not so hard to live and survive and they can focus on working out the trauma that got them to that place so right now i'm thinking of a friend of mine who is he he was imprisoned as a teenager i think he spent something like twenty years in there most of it in solitary and the second he got out he went he went back to fighting for the rest of his brothers um and he is a phenomenal man and we missed out on twenty years of him because when he was a teenager he got caught up with what was going on at the corner

[Unknown15]:

eight

[Unknown16]:

um and uh i i think that if if we had had a system where housing was not a concern health care wasn't a concern a job wasn't a concern and it was more just about learning how to live in this society and provide for yourself and and become an adult we we could have seen him back three years two years how you know much much sooner because all he really needed was a job he he was worried about h what his income was gonna be when he turned eighteen

[Unknown15]:

wow okay that's i mean it it's definitely something you know you've thought about a lot and i'm it's something i definitely intend to do some research on after we' done here because it's just a fascinating topic what i want to do is take a kind of like a false non break break because i'm going to break this up into two episodes for podcast purposes so i'm going to do a fake closing and then we're just gonna start the second episode so this is the end of part one with alexander hunt running in pa o three and alexander give everybody your information if they want to donate or learn more about you

[Unknown16]:

yes please we're we're doing one hundred percent grassroots fundraising so every dollar really counts and is appreciated you can find our website at hunt for congress com spell everything out alexandra hunt for congress is our facebook instagram and tick tock and then twitter is a hunt the number four congress

[Unknown15]:

awesome all right alexander thank you so much for joining us and if you like what you heard stick around because we have our next episode come up with her right now

[Unknown16]:

can i just grab someone

[Unknown15]:

oh please by all means

[Unknown16]:

the wire oh i sorry well i can play another