Jenny Beth sits down with Chris Chavez while at the Turning Point Action Restoring National Confidence Summit in Las Vegas. Chris heads up the coalitions project for Turning Point Action where they aim to help build relationships in key communities to ultimately chase ballots in the fall. You can learn more at coalitions.com.
Jenny Beth sits down with Chris Chavez while at the Turning Point Action Restoring National Confidence Summit in Las Vegas. Chris heads up the coalitions project for Turning Point Action where they aim to help build relationships in key communities to ultimately chase ballots in the fall. You can learn more at coalitions.com.
Twitter/X: @thatChrisChavez | @TPAction_ | @JennyBethM
Website: www.coalitions.com
Chris Chavez (00:00):
You can start in your own neighborhood. You can wake up one day and you have a bunch of dots on our Super Feed app and you say, I want to go chase these votes. They're in my neighborhood. It doesn't mean you have to go and talk to 'em and say, who are you voting for? It means why don't you come on over this week and let's hang out. It's building relationships organically.
Narrator (00:15):
Keeping our republic is on the line, and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she is most proud of is Mom to Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:47):
This episode of the Jenny Beth Show was recorded on Radio Row at Turning Point Actions Restoring National Confidence Summit in Las Vegas. Chris Chavez heads up the coalitions project for Turning Point Action and he joins me now to talk about the exciting work that you're doing to engage people and turn them into activists fighting for the cause of freedom.
Chris Chavez (01:07):
Well, Jenny Beth, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here with you and everyone. Turning Point action here in Las Vegas. So coalitions, it really is grassroots at its level, at its core. It is all grassroots, and that's what I'm all about. I've worked in grassroots for the last six or seven years. I started as an activist knocking on doors for President Trump, and now I'm here working with Turning Point Action with coalitions. We started with just some of the basics, moms, Latinos, black Americans, farmers and ranchers. We want to start with them because all of our data points to those people getting involved, people that the RNC has never actually reached out to, and if they have, they've just blanketed them with generalities and said, well, it works here. It's going to work in the rest of the country.
Chris Chavez (01:52):
So we want to build all these coalitions from the ground up at its grassroots level. We want moms talking to moms, we want farmers talking to farmers. We want Latinos talking to Latinos. We don't want someone who doesn't even know the area. We want everything really community driven. So if you're in one community, we don't want to send you across town to go talk to another one. We don't want to send you across the state to talk to someone that if you live in Scottsdale, Arizona and you get sent out to Mojave County, that's 200 something miles in between and what's someone from Scottsdale? What's someone from Scottsdale going to know about farmers? So we want to make sure that everyone is talking to the right people. So that's pretty much what coalition at its core.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:39):
I think it is so important. It does not mean that someone from the city can't talk to someone from the country because they both in their heart want what's best for the country and they have that in common. So it isn't that we all need to be able to talk to one another about all the issues that we care about. It is making sure that the people who face unique challenges or have a certain issue set that they're the most worried about when they're looking at the future of the country. They're talking to people who understand it and can empathize and sympathize with them and be able to share that common concern and look at these are the solutions that are best and this is how we're going to take care of the country.
Chris Chavez (03:26):
That's right, and like I had said, because it's so community oriented, we want to be neighborly, right? That's something that Tyler Boyer talks about here at Turning Point. Action is being neighborly with your fellow voters. We want to build out from our neighborhoods out. So for example, you go over to your next door neighbor's house instead of saying, what's the most important issue facing Arizona to you? Who are you voting for in this next election? People don't respond well to that. People want to know. You want to go over to them and be neighborly and say, Hey, I'm having a barbecue this weekend. Would you like to come over? We bring your whole family. I see you guys have a family of four. We'd love to have you and go do that for every other house on your block and bring people together. Maybe on your third or fourth time you guys are congregating, that's when you say, Hey, did you turn in your ballot yet?
Chris Chavez (04:12):
Are you going to turn your ballot this year? Are you voting? That's when you start breaking the ice, but to just go door to door and act like a robot is not going to win a election. So we've seen that in the past. The other thing that we're also focusing on it is specifically the data and the numbers in the past RNC and other organizations have sent us to places that really don't make sense. For example, in the past, I've been sent to South Phoenix, heavily democratic areas, heavily, heavily democrat, but it didn't matter because they're Hispanics. So they assumed that, oh, well, they're Hispanics. They're going to want to talk to you. They've never seen a Republican before in their lives. Some of 'em don't want to. So I've had many doors slammed in my face many, many times, but what we're targeting now is the low hanging fruit. The Republicans, the two of four Republicans who are their Hispanics or their moms or their farmers and ranchers, they just don't get their ballot to the ballot box. They forgot. They just didn't see it on their kitchen table. Whatever the case is, we're going to places like Paul Gosar, district, Andy Biggs's district, talking to these people who are Republicans. We just need to get them and push them out to vote. A lot of it's going to take some handholding, but eventually we're going to get them to actually bring those ballots to the ballot box.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:23):
I think that it is so amazing that you're doing this now, what if people who are listening and watching today want to get involved and help first? What if they don't fall into one of the coalitions that you mentioned? What can they do to help, and then if they do fall into it, what can they do?
Chris Chavez (05:41):
Well, I would say start with the coalitions.com, coalitions.com. We've bought that URL. We are all about that URL, and it is now turning point actions, so please coalitions.com, sign up there. It will take you wherever you need to go in your state. So even if you don't live in one of our top 10 swing states that we're projecting that we're going to win this election with, we can still try and put you in a state that's close by. For example, we have some folks in New York that really want to get involved. We're going to put them over in Pennsylvania. We're going to try and get them with our faith coalitions out in Pennsylvania. They also, we've got some people in California that want to get involved in farmers and ranchers. Well, we are targeting a lot of people up in Mojave County and western Arizona where all those farmers and ranchers are. Maybe they can go to some farmers and ranchers events, maybe something with future Farmers of America. They can do events out there, but we want to point them into the right direction. coalitions.com will get you started in that.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:36):
Okay, and then the other thing that I'm want to go back to very quickly. Sure. You talked about how important it is to be neighborly, and we've been talking a lot about relational organizing, and if you haven't seen the podcast on that yet or heard the podcast and seen the video for it, you'll be able to, so don't worry about that. We'll have that information for you. One of the most important things we need people to understand is when we're talking about building relationships or starting new relationships and then developing relationships, when we see that, if you're only doing it merely for that transaction, if people feel like you're just coming to them and your hand is up because you want something or you giving them a pie, because in exchange you want them to make sure they turn their ballot in, they're going to see right through it. They're going to see you're not sincere, that you're transactional. Being neighborly, being sincere, really caring about your fellow American is part of how we're going to win the country, and part of how we're going to solve the problems today because we are the United States of America and we have to remember that and part of remembering that is being a good neighbor, being sincere when you care about other people.
Chris Chavez (07:47):
That's right. And like you said, it's not just going over to someone's house and bringing 'em cookies or a pie or baked goods. It's building a relationship with them from the ground up. It's getting to know them, their families, their families, friends, having them over to barbecues, block parties. We like to say to Molly parties, if you we're dealing with Hispanics, but we want to be sincere with them and bring them all together. One thing I noticed the RNC does is with their insincerity is they start with these RNC field offices and they do it every election cycle. They only open 'em for about two or three months, and they're like, we're going to hold onto this long for forever and after the election a few weeks after, they close 'em down. But there's always Hispanics or moms or healthcare workers that want to come to these RNC field offices and come together and coalesce, and they can't because they're always closed.
Chris Chavez (08:39):
So when you have, you're being very robotic about it. I feel like that's more insincere than actually going to your neighbor's door and saying, why don't you come on over this weekend? Let's hang out. Let's bring your family over. We'll bring my family over. We'll have a game night or something. And again, politics doesn't have to necessarily come up. That's not what it's about. It's relational organizing, bringing people together. We're the United States of America. We want to be united in these things, and all the data points to you can start in your own neighborhood. You can wake up one day and you have a bunch of dots on our Super Feed app and you say, I want to go chase these votes. They're in my neighborhood. It doesn't mean you have to go and talk to and say, who are you voting for? It means, why don't you come on over this week and let's hang out. It's building relationships organically.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:20):
Absolutely. Well, I really appreciate your time today. I think that what you are doing and what Tyler is doing with Turning Point action and what Charlie is doing with the entire Turning Point Network is amazing. I'm glad to be a coalition partner with you guys, and I hope that people who are listening, checkout coalitions.com learn more about what you're doing and get involved.
Chris Chavez (09:40):
Thank you so much for your time, Jenny Beth,
Jenny Beth Martin (09:41):
I am Jenny Beth Martin. This was Chris with Turning Point Action. Remember checkout coalitions.com.
Narrator (09:48):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mohan and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:08):
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