Jenny Beth sat down with the CEO of EZAZ.org, Merissa Hamilton in Phoenix, AZ. Merissa is highly engaged in the political and electoral process in Arizona. Her group EZAZ.org tries to simplify the process and provide the tools necessary for grassroots activists to achieve victory at all levels of government.
Jenny Beth sat down with the CEO of EZAZ.org, Merissa Hamilton in Phoenix, AZ. Merissa is highly engaged in the political and electoral process in Arizona. Her group EZAZ.org tries to simplify the process and provide the tools necessary for grassroots activists to achieve victory at all levels of government.
For More information visit: https://www.ezaz.org/
Twitter: @merissahamliton @jennybethm
Merissa Hamilton (00:00):
If we don't take back our freedom now, we will lose it forever. Because if government is holding your children hostage in whatever way it looks like, how are you as a citizen going to stand up for your rights? You wanna protect your kids, and you might sacrifice your freedom to do that.
Narrator (00:16):
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 (00:48):
My next guest was a business woman focused on providing for her family when she got fed up with what was happening in the public school system and decided to do something about it. Now she's in the thick of it in Arizona politics as a c e O of easy, easy.org. She's the executive Director of Kerry Lake Save Arizona Fund, and a former candidate for Mayor of Phoenix. Marissa Hamilton is a conductor of change in Arizona. She's focused on inspiring everyday people to get involved, to take action and to be part of the solution to save Arizona. Marissa Hamilton, thank you so much for being with us today. You have an amazing organization with Easy Z az. I met you about two years ago now, and um, I was impressed with you immediately. Just I could tell that you understand the grassroots and you understand what they need, the kind of tools they need, and you've really been making a difference. We were just talking about part of the difference that you made in a huge win that you had down in Tucson. Would you tell the audience about that?
Merissa Hamilton (01:53):
Absolutely. So Tucson is one of the most bluest areas in Arizona. It's considered, um, just unsalvageable, uh, by many Republicans. Uh, but the conservatives down there were not deterred by that, and they are so committed to taking back, uh, their district and our state. And so it was great to work locally with the grassroots. So e z az, we, uh, launched our Save Arizona Rescue Mission workshop down there. Uh, we taught the grassroots about how government operates strategies to defeat the swamp and the radical left. Uh, and then we told them the bad things that were going to be in this proposition. It's basically the Green New Deal on steroids. And, uh, the mayor down there has declared that, uh, Tucson will become a 15 minute city headquarter, uh, which means that, uh, eventually they will put in the infrastructure where people cannot go past 15 minutes of walking distance in their personal cars without getting fined.
(02:47):
Uh, where this has been implemented in, in the uk, they actually find them $86 for driving in a car past a 15 minute walking distance. It's, it blows my mind. So this was really, really critical for us to defeat. And so, uh, they put hidden in this prop four 12, uh, it was supposed to just extend their electricity, so it sounds like a good thing, right? Everyone wants electricity, but they put a hidden tax in there that would fund all of this screen New deal infrastructure, um, completely destabilize their electricity resources and, and whatnot. So we mobilized the grassroots organized with them. Uh, E Z AZ created a website that informed the voters what was on their ballot. So we put what a yes vote meant what a no vote meant what 15 minutes cities are, how the electricity provider was trying to do a backdoor, 12% increase on their electricity rates. Uh, and then the grassroots locally, they, uh, had organized about 200 volunteers. They text messaged 85,000 voters personally from their own cell phones. Um, easy, a z organized a, uh, 5 0 1 C three effort with the website to just notify the voters what's on their ballot. We messaged about 30,000 voters and, uh, between our efforts, uh, they also put in, uh, signs that just little, little yard signs that said no with our website on it. Um, it got so much, uh, feedback and attention that the cell phone providers marked my website as spam
Jenny Beth Martin (04:18):
Wow.
Merissa Hamilton (04:19):
And so we were blocked, uh, closer to the election time. Um, but the radical left found out that we found out that the polling was showing that we were going to crush them. So in the last week of the campaign, they started putting out, uh, op-eds saying that it doesn't go far enough. It's not radical enough to sow vote no on it. We won that election with over 55% of the vote.
Jenny Beth Martin (04:43):
That's amazing, Marissa.
Merissa Hamilton (04:44):
And it was an all mail-in election. There was no in-person voting. Uh, and it was completely run by, uh, Pima County, which is one of the most corrupt recorders in the nation. And so, for us to be able to have this victory, it shows that when the grassroots is organized, when they're unified, uh, when they give a coherent message to the voters and they show up, we win.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:07):
And you can overcome corruption by making sure you have enough people voting that basically you, you outweigh any potential problems or cheating or other errors.
Merissa Hamilton (05:17):
Yeah, absolutely. They never saw it coming. And, uh, the political class was very aggressive with this election. They were well funded over six figures of funding that we were up against. Um, and they kept, uh, bullying all of the conservative large donors that wanted to help us. And so every time we'd get a donor ready to go to help fund a, a, a sufficient effort, they would back out. The grassroots was not deterred by that. We kept going and we won what kind
Jenny Beth Martin (05:44):
Of bullying was going on.
Merissa Hamilton (05:46):
So if anyone had, if anyone had any type of business relationship, uh, either directly or indirectly with any entities associated with Tucson or the electricity provider, they were being threatened to participate that they were going to lose their contracts.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:00):
Wow, that's that's pretty serious because it affects their, their financial, their livelihood Yeah. Or their business's livelihood. So of course they would back out from supporting you at that point.
Merissa Hamilton (06:11):
Yeah. They were essentially threatened by to be canceled.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:15):
That's crazy. That's just crazy. But you overcame it even if you didn't have the big funding.
Merissa Hamilton (06:20):
Yeah, absolutely. We only had the grassroots chipped in about six $6,500 total, and that's
Jenny Beth Martin (06:26):
$6,500,
Merissa Hamilton (06:28):
$6,500, and we were up against at least $300,000, but probably a bit more than that.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:35):
That's amazing. Very good. And it, that should give everyone in the audience hope and encouragement that you can make a difference and that the grassroots can make a difference.
Merissa Hamilton (06:43):
Absolutely. Our government was designed to be of, by and for the people, and I firmly believe that the vision that the founders had for our constitution is alive and well today, which means, no matter what tyranny we face, as long as we still have our constitution, we can stand up and we can take back our local jurisdictions and the country.
Jenny Beth Martin (07:02):
Now, some people would say, oh, all is gone. We can't really make a difference. But I I, I don't believe that. Otherwise I wouldn't get up every single day and do the work that I do. And I know that you don't believe it either. What, what, what kind of things have you seen here in Arizona and around the rest of the country? Other examples of success?
Merissa Hamilton (07:23):
Well, in, in our legislative race, uh, this last cycle, we actually won big. So in the primary, the grassroots was very organized and very motivated, and we fired a bunch of what I call pro tyranny Caucus Republicans. I like that term. Yeah.
Jenny Beth Martin (07:38):
These
Merissa Hamilton (07:38):
Are guys that, uh, they do not support freedom. They typically will caucus with the left on some of the most tyrannical, uh, policy ideas ever. And, um, and so we, we worked hard on that, uh, especially when it came to parental rights and election integrity issues. So we fired them. We then were able to elect very strong, uh, pro-freedom conservatives heading into the general. And, uh, and we were able to keep the majority, Arizona was destined to turn completely blue, and we now have one of the most conservative legislatures in the country.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:10):
And when people think, oh, Arizona's in so much trouble, it it, it's not, it is, it is potentially in a lot of trouble. And with, um, the governor who is currently governor in Arizona, that that is, there's trouble to come because of that.
Merissa Hamilton (08:26):
I call her the occupant of the ninth floor
Jenny Beth Martin (08:29):
Merissa Hamilton (08:50):
That
Jenny Beth Martin (08:51):
So it's not all Freedom Thieves running things in Arizona.
Merissa Hamilton (08:54):
Yeah. Yeah. And the important thing that we did there was two important things that we did. So one, um, my good friend Dan Farley and I, we organized an effort going back into 2021 to mobilize, uh, the Scottsdale and North Phoenix area. Uh, those are swing districts. Those were destined to turn solid blue. And instead, uh, we did weekly meet and greets. We, uh, trained the grassroots as to how to be a be effective and how to organize in your neighborhoods and mobilized. And from doing that, we, uh, basically just sent out 3000 handwritten postcards. We followed up with phone calls. We did a little bit of door knocking. We invited them to weekly meet and greets with candidates and legislators and, and, you know, whoever else was important. Uh, we recruited them to engage and get involved. And from that effort, we were able to recruit about 400 new volunteers. And then we were able to also recruit about a little over a hundred precinct committeemen. Uh, and we were able to salvage one of the seats in that, uh, Scottsdale district in LD four.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:54):
And that helped save the, the, um, the house, right, that, that
Merissa Hamilton (09:58):
Saved the house. Uh, we also were able to keep both of the seats in the next, uh, next door in North Phoenix in LD two. So that saved the Senate.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:07):
Let's talk about two different things that you've mentioned, the Save Arizona Rescue Mission. Yes. And also, I wanna go through more about the meet and greets, but start with what is the Save Arizona Rescue Mission? Yeah, so
Merissa Hamilton (10:20):
The Arizona Rescue Mission is about, uh, mobilizing in your neighborhood. We, when we look back at the way the founders saved our country, it was largely in living rooms, dens at the pub, the taverns. It was within every local community. Uh, and so this is about meeting people, meeting your neighbors, getting to know them, informing them on what's going on with the issues. And what we're finding is one outta three conversations we have at the door, someone is signing up to get more involved.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:50):
That's great. That's really quite remarkable. And then when they get more involved, what do they do?
Merissa Hamilton (10:56):
So when they get involved, uh, if they're available, they'll come to the meet and greet. We just had a great meet and greet, uh, in that same district I was talking about at LD four. We had about 35 voters show up that hadn't been involved before. And so when we're there, we had, we had an elected, two elected officials there, um, a city councilman, school board, a person. They're able to ask questions to their elected officials personally, one-on-one in the same room. And then we, uh, go through what is the state of Arizona, um, why we didn't win all of the seats that we wanted to in the last election. Uh, what the radical left is doing to our state and what the solution is to mobilize against it. Uh, and then everyone gets a clipboard with a signup sheet, and they sign up where they wanna get involved, and we follow up with them and get them plugged in.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:42):
That's very good. Your website E is, um, easy. Easy. It is a really cute website,
Merissa Hamilton (12:09):
So when we first started the organization, I was actually just doing a quick little interview outside with, uh, someone that has, uh, just like the social media videos. And, um, he was asking me what we do, and I said, uh, it just blurted out we make civic action easy as pie. And then, uh, we went back and looked at it and we're like, Hey, that, that actually is a pretty cool tagline. So then we developed an entire theme around it. But the other interesting thing is we found that people were afraid to come together. They were afraid to socialize, even they were afraid of being canceled. And, um, and community, especially from Covid was something that was very missing. But also so many people wanted to be able to participate in a safe, fun, friendly, relaxed environment. And pie makes everyone happy. It's, you know, there's a lot of bad things that our government is doing against us at all levels of government, but when you are, uh, when you're talking about that over a piece of pie, it kind of makes it feel a little bit better and gives you hope that you can overcome it.
(13:08):
And so even our meet and greets, we serve pie and coffee at our meet and greets and, um, it's even, we've had better turnout with pie and coffee than we have with cheese and wine
Jenny Beth Martin (13:20):
That's great. That's really good. Well, and there's so many options with pie. Uh, it, you're right, there's pie and pie makes people happy. And if you can't find some sort of pie that you like there, there's probably something wrong with you,
Merissa Hamilton (13:33):
Yeah. Well, and I have a gluten and dairy allergen, and so we also will find, uh, you know, pies and homemade ice cream and things like that that everyone can have. So even people with dietary issues can come and participate and have fun with us. Um, but they can learn how, what's going on in their government and how to take action and then mobilize to defeat it, and then we celebrate with more pie.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:54):
That sounds good. And then what kind of action items do you give people?
Merissa Hamilton (13:58):
So we created an actual site, easy az.org/action. And so we track our government, we track the radical left, and we identify what I call Jenga pieces, for lack of a better term. A big government is basically kind of, if you think about a Jenga game where, uh, bureaucrats will come in and they'll take a piece from the bottom and they'll put it on the top, and it might make government and freedom a bit wobbly, but they're like, look how beautiful we grew government. And so what we try to do is we try to find, uh, where is, where is the item that we can take action on? What area of policy can we target that will basically be the Jenga that pulls, uh, all the bad government down. And so that's where we focus on, we try to focus on things that are very easy.
(14:41):
Uh, we say, if you have 15 minutes a week, you can help save the state. And so those are the items we target our, uh, our focus on. So we're very focused on freedom. Uh, we look at all levels of government, but we especially track the radical left. I, I think many conservative groups are so focused on, you know, rhinos, for lack of a better term, that we forget that we're actually against the left. And, and there's an entire like world economic forum, uh, globalist movement to put in infrastructure to destroy our freedom. And so we need to be careful that we're not getting distracted just by the shiny objects and then letting all the infrastructure go in to destroy our freedom. That's really what we saw happen in Covid. So by, by keeping the action items simple, we can keep people engaged to keep it moving. And no matter how busy someone's schedule is, they can stay involved.
Jenny Beth Martin (15:31):
That's one of the things t Pretty Patriot's action really works on. We try to give people five minutes. If you only have five minutes, pick up the phone, sign this petition. And the reason we ask people to sign the petition is that then we know that you care about the issue. Mm-hmm.
Merissa Hamilton (16:20):
Yeah, absolutely. And there's, uh, something called constituent power. Uh, we refer to it as we, the people, the left calls it constituent power 'cause they are about power grabs. Um, and, and, but it's the same as true for the grassroots side on, on the Freedom Movement. Um, you having that, uh, time to have input to your elected official, whether it's on the phone, whether it's by email, if it's in person especially, that's especially, uh, important and effective, um, that makes a huge difference to that elected official. 'cause ultimately what they care about is, can I get elected again? And there's only so many shenanigans they can pull with the swamp before they become unelectable. And I think we've seen that time and time again that, uh, the grassroots is able to mobilize and fire, uh, those Freedom Thieves, you said?
Jenny Beth Martin (17:07):
Yes. Yes. And it's good when that happens. I know that there are people who get so frustrated because they think that, um, they've been involved and especially people in the Tea Party movement, they've been involved since 2009 and they watched Republicans win and then things didn't change the way they wanted it to. And then Trump got elected, and then the former senator from Arizona prevented Obamacare mm-hmm.
Merissa Hamilton (18:31):
Yeah. There's actually something interesting that I found out recently, historically, that I think that the grassroots would take courage in. Uh, 'cause I don't think it was on anyone's radar as to how big of a deal it was, but when we look at the Freedom Caucus and what they just did with taking back the rules, well, that is a problem that's occurred going back to 1960. Yes. It was, the rules changes in 1960 that really put in the model of what's causing most of the bad things today. They put in something called regional government, which are really unelected bureaucratic networks of nonprofits the government elected officials sit on, but they have really no power in it. And, uh, they then negotiate with the federal government to keep doing these heavy spending programs that put hostile strings onto it to steal our freedom. That money then goes to local government to override the will of the people.
(19:20):
And so the rules change was so significant because they needed to do the rules change to get that to happen in the first place. And so for, for the Freedom Caucus to take back the rules, I don't think the, I don't think our grassroots recognizes how big of a leap forward that was. Um, that that was a huge for us to be able to do. Now we, the people have an opportunity to show up and be more effective, even at DC even in the swamp level, uh, to take back our freedom if we just show up.
Jenny Beth Martin (19:51):
That's right. And the Freedom Cook has, has been around for many years, but it, it took continued work and, and being engaged, making people learning what the rules are, learning where the root of the problem was in this case with that one, it's from the sixties with rules changes, and then figuring out, okay, what do I need to do to, to change that? But to get to the point where we want that change, we've gotta win elections, which means we've gotta get out the vote and identify voters and make sure they show up to vote. So it, and it might take winning more than one election cycle before they could get to the point where they could change the rules.
Merissa Hamilton (20:29):
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's funny because the radical left never says after they lose an election, well, we gotta give up.
Jenny Beth Martin (20:36):
No, never,
Merissa Hamilton (20:36):
Never. They use it to mobilize and reenergize their people to fight harder. And so, you know, when you look ideologically, the radical left, they want to mobilize to, uh, weaponize democracy to destroy the republic. Whereas on our side, we want to amplify the republic to preserve freedom. Well, we have to care about our ideology more than the left does in destroying it. And so we, we have to put everything we've got into mobilizing to take action, whether it's securing our elections, whether it's stopping the, uh, rabid crazy spending, whether it's stopping the infrastructure that they're trying to, this globalization that we saw during Covid, whatever it is that is some, that's passionate to someone, they can participate, they can make a difference, and they can help us win.
Jenny Beth Martin (21:21):
Exactly. That's exactly right. Let's talk about some of those issues a little bit more. When you were talking about the 15 minute cities, I think, and I haven't done a podcast yet that really highlights what, what that is. Can you explain to the audience what is a 15 minute city and the fact that you're not crazy when you talk about
Merissa Hamilton (21:41):
It? Yeah, I know. I had a hard time believing this was a thing. Um, I, to give a little bit of a background, I ran for Phoenix Mayor in 2020. And, uh, and part of it was to defeat like the riots and, um, the, uh, defund the police movement and also be an answer to what was happening with C O V I D with destroying our freedom. There was a candidate named Yasmin Ansari that popped up for city council, and she started talking about, um, basically that the climate was racist. And, and I was like, it, it's wind. How, how is this? What does this mean? So I started going down this rabbit hole of, and I just thought it was absurd. And I was like, there's no way this person can win. This is the craziest thing I've ever heard of. Um, and it came down to that there is a climate, the climate agenda is attached to what I call transportation tyranny.
(22:32):
And that leads to the infrastructure that they want a 15 minute cities. And so they want to create these zones almost, it almost sounds like Hunger Games,
(23:24):
And now it takes 30 minutes for her to see her friend. And along the way they put in, uh, spy cameras all along the streets in the name of safety. So, because if everyone's walking, then they have to spy on, on all pedestrian areas to make sure you stay safe. And, and so that is, it's basically this like, it's like 1984, but on steroids. Uh, and, and so it's a terrible model. Um, it's being protested where it's being implemented, um, but this is the structure that they want so we can stay controlled in these little 15 minute zones. So it's kind of like, you will own nothing and be happy. You also won't go anywhere. You'll live in a virtual world.
Jenny Beth Martin (24:03):
And that is so against what we stand for in America. And, and the concept of personal property and property rights, if and the ability to have interstate travel and entru state travel. It, it's, it is a very oppressive idea. It isn't, it, it's, it may, to some people, it's hard for me to understand this, but to some people it may sound noble somehow that they're helping save the environment and, and save the world because of climate or whatever. By not, I, I, it's hard for me to explain what they think. 'cause I, I don't think that, but in their mind, they may think they're doing something noble, but by oppressing people, by infringing on their rights, that's not noble. It's, it's actually tyranny. It's tyrannical.
Merissa Hamilton (24:54):
Oh, it's everything that the founders warned us about. It's a violation of the First Amendment. Being able to go past that 15 minutes to go petition your government. That's a freedom of speech issue. Not being able to practice your religion and get to, uh, you know, your church or synagogue, that's a violation of freedom of religion. Um, you're violating someone's privacy to where they don't have the freedom of movement without the government knowing. Uh, they literally put in checkpoints. Um, they, you have to show papers in some instances of how this is being implemented. It is all the bad things rolled into one, uh, one policy model. And so it's really important that when we are looking at what's happening in local government, 'cause that's where they're implementing it through, um, in a very coercive fashion, we have to look under the hood under all of these policies.
(25:40):
Um, and it's also being funded by these big, huge trillion dollar spending packages that are going through Congress. So there's a lot of cohorts in this, and there's many levels of government that we need to work on to stop it. Uh, but again, what we just saw with Tucson is that when we educate the voters as to what's happening, the people show up. Um, but the radical left and the globalists and the swap, they are so bent on this ideology. They were happy to lose this election, but they did not wanna lose the talking point. They could not lose the election saying that the voters voted against their agenda.
Jenny Beth Martin (26:13):
So what did they say?
Merissa Hamilton (26:14):
They said that it wasn't radical enough
Jenny Beth Martin (26:26):
It because we, in America, in our heart and our d n a, we love our freedom. And when you start, you may be okay with doing something that might sound noble until you actually realize the impact it's going to have your life Yeah. And your family's life and your home. And then you're like, no, wait, we might want that, but not, not that much.
Merissa Hamilton (26:49):
And you can kind of, you mentioned Covid, you can go back to Covid. That was really the blueprint of what they're doing. Um, because as long as you scare people enough for their safety, they're willing to give up their freedom for that safety. And they're willing to listen to the government, uh, the experts as to what they say you need for that. And, and they were able to roll that out so quickly globally that really hardly anyone had a chance to, uh, step in and fight it. That's why it's so important for us to build this neighborhood infrastructure. Um, so, you know, so that we have people that can be organized together no matter what happens. I mean, if you're really caring about the climate and protecting earth, why wouldn't you wanna be get to know your neighbors and make sure that you're keeping your community clean and keeping your community safe. That's really the answer to all of the challenges that the left says we face. It's more freedom and less government.
Jenny Beth Martin (27:39):
Exactly. Right. That is exactly right. Choose freedom, not socialism. Mm-hmm.
Merissa Hamilton (27:51):
So I got involved from the parental rights issue from many years ago. Uh, I, I think it's really more of a, uh, God direction. I think that our heavenly Father, um, put me in the position to really see what was going on years before we've, it's manifested as mainstream. And so back in 20 15, 20 16, um, uh, prior to that I was very involved in the pro-life movement. I was helping save girls from, uh, crisis pregnancies. I'm a survivor of domestic violence. So I was also involved in helping, um, moms and women in crisis to flee from their abusers and be able to be stabilized and safe. And I found that, um, the more vulnerable someone was, the more government wanted to get involved in helping them. And at first I was, you know, very naive and idealistic and was like, well, great. Let's get them resources that they need.
(28:40):
But I found that government actually was an antagonist. Government made these women suffer. They made children suffer when they got involved. They would separate them. They would create hostile requirements where it was impossible for that mom to be able to get her children back. And especially when it's a situation of violence, you should be looking at the adult victim and the children victim and keeping them children, victims and keeping them together and rehabilitating them together and helping to stabilize them together. And instead they would say, well, adult mom, um, or sometimes dad, but mostly moms. Uh, you let your children be abused. And what we saw during Covid was that really government was forcing these women to become a human shield to protect their children. 'cause resources were gone. There were no options. Um, but somehow, uh, this, uh, tyrannical parental system, uh, government parental system was still intact and families were still being destroyed over it.
(29:36):
And, uh, same thing with sexual assault. You know, I found that victims were, when government got involved, um, the criminal would actually end up having more rights than the victim. Uh, the criminal would end up getting justice, uh, not the victim. And, and so, um, and in the pro-life movement, I found that many, uh, many vulnerable young women, uh, government, even in very Republican states, was trying to force them either into an abortion. And if they didn't, then they would put them on a path of a hostile adoption and they would take their children from them at the hospital. And I was very concerned about this right before Covid. Um, I asked us, um, who's now Senate president Warren Peterson. At the time, he was majority leader in the house. If I could meet with the director of D C s, I showed him some of the stories that were happening in Arizona.
(30:23):
Um, the government was actually allowing a sex trafficking operation to occur in Sierra Vista for 10 years. They were adopting children out, taking 'em from their parents, putting them in the sex trafficking ring for the safety of the children. And that is what got me involved, because I could not believe that this was the United States of America. But when I looked at the laws that were in place to protect the system and violate parental rights, I was finding that it was frequently being used to abuse a medical freedom, decisions of parents frequently being used, hostile as a hostile mechanism to stop homeschooling of your children. And, um, and my conversation I had with, uh, D c s, the Department of Child Safety in Arizona in 2019, was that it would only take a spark for this to be weaponized against all conservative families. And unfortunately, we saw during C O V I D that that manifested as we saw the sexualized propaganda coming into the classroom.
(31:19):
Um, it was only because there were so many kids being, uh, schooled from home that parents started seeing it and catching on. Um, but man, how fast did that spread? Now, if you're in a very, very, uh, you know, radical left city, you can lose your children for not letting your child really be mutilated, um, and drugged. Um, and they will convince your children that they're someone that they probably aren't. And, uh, use it to satisfy big pharma and to satisfy this entire network. So that's what got me involved. Once I saw that I could not look back. And I, uh, essentially went on a path of abandoning my career, um, in the private sector, in the supply chain, and, uh, just thought, if we don't take back our freedom now, we will lose it forever. Because if government is holding your children hostage in whatever way it looks like, how are you as a citizen going to stand up for your rights? You wanna protect your kids and you might sacrifice your freedom to do that. Um, but long term, that's a very dark road for humanity. Um, but we have enough time to, uh, stand up and take our country back, protect our kids, protect our families, and, uh, salvage our neighborhoods again.
Jenny Beth Martin (32:27):
That's very good. And then what took you from there to wind up running for mayor of Phoenix?
Merissa Hamilton (32:34):
Uh, well, that goes back to my career in the private sector and the supply chain and food industry. Uh, when they called for the lockdowns, you know, my professional career was still very much in the background, uh, in my head. And I said, wait a minute. If we're in a real medical pandemic, the supply chain is king. You must protect the supply chain to make sure you can get medical supplies to people. Uh, but also on the other side, if you're shutting down restaurants, that's 50% of our food supply. So that means you're going to have empty shelves, you're gonna destabilize the supply chain during a pandemic. You're not going to be able to complete the routes to get medical supplies quickly enough to where people need to go. And now you're going to institute a panic at the grocery store because people won't have food available to eat. And I said, this is something else. This is not a pandemic. This is a hostile takeover of freedom. I don't know what this looks like or what the end game is, but nothing is good about this.
Jenny Beth Martin (33:26):
I, I, I wanna hear more a, a about, about, about that from you. I also worked in the supply chain. So I have program computers, and I worked for a, a Fortune 500 paper company and office, product company. And then I also worked for a do it yourself chain. So I'm trying not to say who it is, right. But the very large, large, large companies. And so I saw how raw goods trees were turned into paper and then shipped out to be turned into corrugated paper for boxes and, and saw that firsthand saw just in time manufacturing. So cool firsthand hand, it really is. And then when I worked at the other company, we worked, I, I worked, I did programming of computers for the imports department. So I was supporting the imports department. So I would see that when one of the people who worked in the building with me next building over, but we were connected together, uh, through the lobby or whatever.
(34:31):
We, um, they would place an order and it would, they'd, it'd go to China and it would get manufactured and loaded into a ship, and then it would be shipped back to Savannah, Georgia or San Francisco or, or Seattle. And then it'd get dispersed around the country. Well, from the time that order was placed till the time it was in the stores, it took six, not six, it took eight to 12 weeks. And I was thinking, wait a minute, China just stopped making everything. Mm-hmm.
Merissa Hamilton (35:23):
Yeah. In Phoenix, it was, uh, Kate Gallego, the mayor, um, that was leading this lockdown because, uh, the governor wouldn't do it right away. And so she basically organized, uh, with Kirsten Sinema, uh, the senator, along with the mayor of Tucson and Flagstaff to hold 80% of our supply, of our economy hostage. And I was like, this is bad. So that forced the governor into doing a lesser lockdown, uh, which was quite evil. It was still destroyed our state and destroyed, uh, the private sector and small businesses. Um, but even more so than that, going back to my background of survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, I just immediately went into it. The second thing was I went into a panic over that and I was like, oh my goodness, our public safety issues are going to explode. Yes. And domestic violence deaths increased 180% by the summer.
(36:13):
And, uh, in addition to that, our mayor was upset that we didn't have, uh, riots, uh, the Black Lives Matter riots in Phoenix. She was trying to get a Black Lives Matter, um, uh, plaza. And she wanted to have riots. So riots came to the city, and then she said they just needed to be heard. We had, uh, violence for, uh, three plus days, uh, before the governor would step in. They spread to Scottsdale, millions and millions of dollars of damage businesses destroyed. And, um, I had just had enough between all of that, but more so than that, with the biggest assault on freedom that we've ever seen, um, like she did a great emergency, which was eliminating the city council. Um, I organized an effort with the other Democrat city council members who in some cases are more radical than she is. But I was able to say, isn't this dissolving democracy if you don't have your power anymore?
(37:04):
And we were able to turn that over from a great emergency to a local emergency. And I thought, you know what? If no one stands up against this, then it's going to look like the city of Phoenix. The people of the city of Phoenix agreed with all of this tyranny. And so someone needs to stand up. We have to give the voters a choice. We have to give them a chance to make a difference. It ended up where she spent, uh, a million dollars on my race over 90 days. It was a very last minute decision to run. Um, she changed her, uh, um, graphics and her marketing materials four times. She started having her graphics have the same, uh, outfits I was wearing, which was bizarre. That's weird. And she used my tagline in her video. So essentially at the end of the day, even though she won for mayor, my ideology won.
(37:53):
Freedom won. The people of Phoenix, uh, uh, said, no, we don't want any of that. They just didn't know who they were voting for. And so it ended up changing the course, I think of Phoenix, of the direction they wanted to go in. Um, she was trying to defund the police. She lost the defund, the police vote. Uh, and she then tried to defund them by doing a vaccine mandate to force 60% of them to leave the force. And, uh, same thing with our firefighters. And we organized the city employees. We had a march with 2200, um, people, mostly city employees go from the Arizona Capitol to the city of Phoenix. And, uh, she gave up on our way, uh, on our way over to the city. She had, uh, people calling us from the city saying, don't come, don't come rand the mandate. Um, but I was just, I was so proud of the American people that day. I was so proud of our arizonans for stepping up and saying, no way, you're not doing that to us here. And it was inspiring to see that even when you're in the super minority in the city, um, with, uh, radical Democrats controlling your city, you can still rise up and win in a peaceful way.
Jenny Beth Martin (38:59):
And, and you can make allies across a political aisle. Mm-hmm.
Merissa Hamilton (39:22):
Yeah, absolutely. We organized over 300 volunteers in that very short campaign. And, uh, we, that is what we were able to use to launch e z Az. 'cause people didn't wanna stop after the race was over. They wanted to say, what more can we do to take back our city and take back our state? And, uh, that's led to all the successes that we've had in Arizona. We're not out the woods yet. Um, the left is gunning for us. They wanna take our state and flip it blue like they did to Michigan. Um, but we have some solid infrastructure here to take it back. Um, we just need to get more resources to the people, uh, get more education to the voters, help them to know what they're voting for, and they will vote better.
Jenny Beth Martin (40:00):
So what if you're, uh, one of the listeners or or watchers of this podcast and you, you're angry, you're frustrated, you're worried about the country. What, what do you say to those people? How, what are, what are the things that they should be doing? And they may be in Arizona, but they may be in other parts of the country. What do you recommend they do?
Merissa Hamilton (40:20):
I first will say to them, I have been there. I know exactly how you feel. I feel that every day when I wake up in the morning. Um, but I am reminded that, uh, through faith all things are possible. We are on the right side of freedom. Uh, and, and so I firmly believe that if we learn first how our government operates, learn the rules of how to participate in an effective way, strategize around that, unite, organize, mobilize, no matter what the problem is, we can take back our government at every single level. And so I, I want to encourage them, um, to get outta their comfort zone a little bit. Recognize that these small wins do matter. Recognize that it takes constant effort to mobilize, um, and understand what we're really up against. If we lose freedom in the United States, where do we go
Jenny Beth Martin (41:12):
If we lose freedom in the United States? It's not just where do we go the rest of the world. We can't even imagine the darkness mm-hmm.
Merissa Hamilton (41:31):
Yeah. And, you know, kind of go back to my faith a little bit. As a Christian, I believe everyone was born with a purpose. And so every single one of us was put here now to do something great with our lives, depending on, it can be different depending on who you are and what that looks like. But everyone can chip into helping freedom. And, um, I would rather wake up every day knowing that I am dedicated to driving freedom a little bit more. Um, I want the tyrants to wake up scared and be like, uhoh, Marissa's out of bed. I just saw her tweet
Jenny Beth Martin (42:28):
Well this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us today, Marissa. And if people wanna get in involved in Arizona, repeat your website one more time. Sure.
Merissa Hamilton (42:39):
You can go to, it's the letters E Z A z.org. Uh, you can sign up there. You can also find me on Twitter at Marissa Hamilton, spelled m e r i s, ss a. Um, and then we also have a group on Facebook, but honestly they keep banning us there,
Jenny Beth Martin (43:05):
Well, thank you very much and I'm so glad that you are here in Arizona making such a huge difference for freedom and teaching other people how they can make a difference as well.
Merissa Hamilton (43:15):
Yeah. Well, I wanna thank you for breaking the glass ceiling, so to speak, and, um, organizing the Tea Party and giving us a model of how we can take back our government never quitting, always staying persistent, keeping in the fight. Uh, we are able to do what we are doing today because of you, your organization and people like you that are helping us, uh, to, to be able to be effective.
Jenny Beth Martin (43:36):
Well, thank you. And it's our pleasure. So thank you very much.
Narrator (43:40):
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 (44:00):
If you like this episode, let me know by hitting the light button or leaving a comment, or a five star review. And if you wanna be the first to know, every time we drop a new episode, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications on whichever platform you're listening to. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow, and I appreciate it very much.