d everything else thatt is going o with them. that's the right wayo do it. this administration should be, u know, coordinatin and cooperating in that way. but know that the wor leaders are reaching out to hill as well, and f understandinge's not even getting all that -- my understanding is he's not geing all that information. that doesn help us, that hurts us. and the real issue is to make sure, again, this is seamless door nation. thiss -- coordination. this is not about ptisanship. this is about the way our country is going to be able to deal wit important allies and adversaries acrs the world. you know, president-elect biden has a lot of experiee here, but he still needs the assistance and engagement of the careerork force at the state department and elsewhere. >> host: max stier, president and ceo of the partnership for public service, talking about the transition process. thanks for being with us once again on "washington journal." >> guest: hey, my pleasure. thank you. >> we're back with louisiana dash shah brown who is the

co-founder of the black voter matters organization, and she's here with us today to talk about the black voter and the 2020 elections. louisiana dash shah -- latasha, good morning. >> guest: thank you for having me.vo >> host: first, tell us what the black voters matter fund is. >> guest: the organization started in 2016 because we wanted to shift the dynamics around how we were hearing the national media talk about black voters. more importantly, we wanted to build more power in our communities so we could have more influence on policies impacting us. so we started the back voters matter fund because what we felt is that in order to really have a robust democracy, you have to have an edge gauged electorate. and -- engaged electorate. and we would do work to engage voters on the ground level, on the local level so that they should shape policies and representation for their communities. >> host: so wt did your

organizing approach look like this year? what didin you do out on t ground to get mor black voters to not only register, buto show up and vote? >> guest: you know, there are a couple thingsgu that we did. one, we didn't start this year. we have been doing -- we started in 2016, and we never stopped. one of our themes is can't stop, won't stop because we think that what happens is often times, particularly in the black community, you often see people come around election time, right? and it's kind of like if you have a friend, you have a friend that only calls when they want something, you're not really that excited to see them. so for us, what we felt is a way to build power is we have to build a base. we have to continue to engage communities. and the third thing that we learned is all politics are local. so we started working with many of these communities including from georgia and the other 11 states we're working in is to support local referendums. so we've been building our

support over time, for the last four years. in addition to that, we actually show up and support them so as they are working around the school board races or other races or really being able to educate people around voting and the process of voting. we support them on that. we actually provide grant dollars this election cycle, 600 black-led, grassroots organizations, we were able to make an investment and give resources to so that they could run their own programs. in addition to that, we were able to give them tools from phone banking to text messaging campaigns, and we were able to really create like a coordinated campaign so that we were working in concert with each other all across the region, all across the country in thehe states that we're working in. so i think the things that have made the difference is, one, really recognize that all politic it is are local and really being able to build the capacity of groups where they exist. the second thing is the way that we talk about voting. we talk about voting beyond the idea ofat voting is about

participation. but for us, voting is about a power. and really being able to educate and connect our community on how voting is not c a panacea, it's not going to solve all of our problems, but it is certainly a leverage of power. and we with want people to use their agent so that we can have -- agency so that we can have more influence in selecting the representation for ourle communities, really to hold people accountable and take folks out of office that need to be removed and shape policy as well. and then the third thing is we thought it was really important for us to influence narratorship. i know as a black southerner, i was extremely frustrated that even in the national media platforms you would hear the south talked about as if we were just like a football team. there's a red team and and a blue team, right? no. i am part of the humanity team that,he fundamentally for me, nt who i am as a label, who i am as a human being. and wart of what with we want in our -- part of what we want in

our communities is better schools, more access to resources, economic development opportunities. we want what all other americans want. and so this is really important that we're really shifting the flower tuf of who we are in the south -- narrative of who we are in the south and a new coalition of people in the south that are rising to really be able to shape this country and to shape our states the way that we want them to be so that they're more accountable to us and that we actually benefit from the fruits of our labor. >> host: now, do you consider your organizatn a partisan organizati? are you regtering just black democratsings -- democrats, or are you registering black republicans, black dependents, black libertarians and you're encouraging everybody to slote? >> guest: black voters matter is -- [inaudible] our goal is to, that black voters matter: that's what our entire goalte is, to really provide civic education and engagement so when we're with rolling people, we don't ask

what party they belong to. what we're interesting in is really being able to talk to bblack people around their process, around their agency and really understanding the political process. we do have other organizations that we work, we have a c4 organization that often times -- [inaudible] black votes matter fund -- [inaudible] if not necessarily just because of a particular party, but because the community we're usworking with has decided that this particular candidate is the best candidate for our agenda. our focus is on building independent black political power in apo way that we can leverage and make some l changes and shift in our commuties. >> host: now, were youble to see any specificesults from yourtrategy that you with said you've been working on since 2016? can you point to any specific results from the 2020 election? >> guest: absolutely. i think we've got me are seats. i think the big -- many

reseats. a lot of people did a lot of work in georgia. working with a coalition of groups in georgia to make a difference. georgia has always been soon as a state that what you saw in particular when you look at who participated in the election, you know, there were more black voters that participated in this election than voted for president-elect biden than voted for obama. we wanted to increase engagement. when you look at many of the county areas in georgia, often times there's a lot of focus and emphasis on the urban areas and the metro center. but when you look at the numbers around, it was the state. we looked at the survey had a lion's shower of the votes, but you also saw an increase in savannah, albany and other places, the black voters of georgia that are a little bit more rural. when you look at how, i think, a lot of the messaging, when you

look at young people, that young people on the national their percentage of voting, national percentage of voting this election was 17%. in georgia it was 21%. so it worked. so the bottom line is part of our work is to get people to get engaged. part of what we believe is that america currently, there's 45% -- almost half of the country don't bother to participate in the election cycle. with don't believe it's because people don't care. we believeve people feel disconnected from the process because they don't feel a sense of power, they don't feel a sense of their own agency or understand how voting in that election is going to help advance or change your lives. so a lot of the work we're doing is to really be able to engage in those populations and young people and other marginalized populations that are often times not talked to, right? or not even sought for their support. so our work, what we are very proud of is that we think the outcome in georgia to have such a high turnout, the outcome of more young people voting, of

more people of color voting, we believe that actually resulted in work from organizations like ours and others that i could go on from new georgia project to georgia stand-up and others that have been created in the space to really be able to increase our voter education and our engagement strategies that is centered around peopleme and thr power, not necessarily political candidates and a party. >> host: let me remind our viewers that they can take a part in this conversation. we're going to open up our regular lines again, that moons democrats, you're at 202-748-800. republicans, you're at 202-748-8001, independents, call 202-748-8002. and you can always text us at 202-748-8003, and we're always reading on social media, on twitter@c-span wj and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. latasha, i know part of your story starts with your run for

office in 1998 for alabama state board of education. tell us about what happened in that race and how it affects what you do now. >> guest: you know, it's interesting, it's amazing that that was 20 something years ago ago. and i think about voter suppression. that's when i knew voter suppression, but i actually experienced it in that particular race. i wasas a young woman, i was 28 years old, i was running for state board of education. i had done a lot of education reform and youth leadership work, so i wanted to make an impact in the state and really be able to lift up policy issues that i felt like our community needed. and so i ran for office. i was certainly the underdog. i ran against a 12-year incumbent who happened to be a minister, who was a favorite, who had been a favorite for years. and here i am, a young woman, young single woman never running, had never ran for office in my life. quite frankly, didn't know much what i was doing other than i knew the cause, i knew the cause

that i was supporting. and so, matter of fact, i ran my campaign out of kink i coe's, and --kinko's. that was the campaign office. so as i ran and the campaign was able to do organizing on the ground, i also learned a valuable lesson in that race as well is that organizing works. when we were talking to people, it worked. so i went all around the state and talked to people in all of the areas that i was working in and, ultimately, what wound up happening is probably about two weeks before the election i got a phone callef to come and, to come and see someone who was very powerful in the state only to discover at that point is that the ap poll had us running neck and neck. which is really remarkable given that i was coming against such a strong incumbent. and so on election night, the race was so tight that they couldn't call it, right? it took them seven days. every day it went back and forth. so i understand how these drawn-out processes, it took them seven days to call the election. on the seventh day, they called

the election, and the results were that my opponent had 117 more votes than i had. so i accepted it. i conceded, i accepted it, i called him and congratulated him andte was prepared to move on fr the next seat. and so in the state of alabama, i was running in the state of alabama. in the state of alabama, you have, i think, there's -- after the election results, the state certifies the election. and so the state certified the election result at 12 noon. i got a phone call at 12:05 from my mentor to tell me to, senator hank sanders said that the head of the democratic party was to give me a call. i said, well, okay. so he called me and he said, l atasha, i just want to let you know i'm so sorry to make the call to you, but there's a sheriff in one of the counties that you ran, which is wilcox county -- which is a county that i actually had carried. i did very, very strongly in that county. the sheriff said that he found 800 votes that he had placed in

the safe that he forgot. and i guess he remembered three minutes after the race was certified. so me in my peevety, i said, oh, that's great. so count the votes. because, in my mind, that's another chance. so i just wanted those votes counted. 800 votes, you know there was legitimate votes, sure. he said, well, it's not that simple, the race has been certified. i said, what do you mean? said, we can't count the votes because the race has already been certifieded. at that particular moment, i felt completely powerless. there's nothing that you can do. so heree was a person who had votes, you know, that conveniently remembered, and he was entrusted by the people to really be able to protect those votes. and hee conveniently remembered seven days after and three minutes after the race was certified. you know, that's when i first came face to face with vote sup prosecution. and nothinge ever happened, you know? -- suppression.

well, you can actually, you can see legal remedy. what we know off the top is those cases are very, very hard to be overturned. but at the time, i didn't have a lot of money. i was a first-time candidate who had done very well at running a grassroots campaign. so there were three things that i learned. the first thing i learned is how insidious, like, voter suppression, how common it was. as i i start talking to other candidates and other people, particularly in those rural areas, i really recognized that vote suppression was an issue. i was dedicated that i was going to fight. that if people voted, they should actually have their vote count. so i became a major proponent for the rest of my life around making sure that people's votes count. the second thing i learned in that process too was that how if we have to create more accountability measures. those who have been bad actors in thiss, process, we have to hd them accountable. we have to lift those stories up

and really be able to let people know. and then the third thing i learned in that process is that organizing works. as a young woman who did not know what i was doing, had never run for public office, i was running against an incumbent, you know? but what i did know how to do, i knew how to organize. knew that if you go to the people and talk to folks, be able to listen to them, to connect to their issues, that in fact you can make a difference. and all those things that are part of the shaping of my work as i look 20 years -- work 20 years later. i'm still doing work that's informed by that experience id had, and it's actually fueled my commitment of why i fight so hard forgh voting rights and to make sur that every person has their voice and their vote counted. >> host: let's let some of our viewers join conversation. we'll start with hah ron da on the independents line. good morning. >> caller: good morning.

i'm african-american, and i believe -- i'm not republican or democrat. i cana think on my own. andcr the democrat party, they have brawn washed -- brainwashed black people because most black people vote democrat. they voted for joe biden. joe biden is the biggest racist there is. he has said many racial things. he was for segregation, he dswas -- [inaudible] kkk that were segregationists. he said that -- [inaudible] black said you're not unless you vote for him. he said that we all think awe like. so -- alike. so how can you call donald trump a racist when joe biden is the biggest racist there is? and even if you overlook his racial statements, he is --

[inaudible] >> guest: so a couple of things i think are really interesting. i think when we're talking about alcomparison, even what she's raising a around, what you're raising around biden, you talk about 20 years ago. i can give you examples around donald trump just a few months ago, just a couple of weeks ago who aligned himself with the proud boys who said to stand down and stand back which is known by even the fbi as a white supremacist group. being a woman who has done work around ending structural racism, i don't take that lightly. the idea that you will align yourself with a white supremacist is a problem. donald trump has a consistent, long history around discrimination including in his own, in his own properties. but you know what? donald trump is gone, so i'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about donald trump, because we got rid of him. aside from that, what i would like to raise is part of what black people have voted for is there's an assumption that we're voting for something other than what we're voting for: we make a

tactical strategy, and black folks voted for black people. black folks made a decision. the majority of us made a decision despite a lot of the miss information because some of the information that the caller was raising i'm not familiar with, i have not heard of. i've even checked into some of that, i've seen some of that online, and some of that cannot be substantiated. what i do know is there's an african-american woman that is on the ticket, kamala harris, that will be the vice president-elect. that makes me happy. as a black woman who i've dedicated my life to making sure that we expand representation, that makes me happy. when i look at some of the policy issues, right, things that i want, when i looked into the biden platform, that resonated with me. when i looked at who biden surrounded himself, i saw black women on his campaign, i saw black people on his campaign, black that i suspect and admire like suh e moan sanders -- simone sanders.mi that makes a difference to me. so for me, the candidate when we're doing work and we do this

with black voters matter, our work is not necessarily around just the candidate or the party, our work is about us, that we're making a tactical decision of who can we represent, who can we support that is, one, going to help reduce the harm happening to our economy, that will be more accountable to our community and have at least a track record of engagement in our community around the things that we care about. so the fact of the matter is i think that we are, to keep going back and forth around two candidates that i think are distinctively different because, yes, i understand we've shown in america -- you know what, america is way more than one race in this country. there's quite a few of m 'em. but i also know as someone who's dealt with that issue that there is a distinction between even racism and white supremacy. and we have to be able to draw that distinction and that line and create a very dangerous -- it creates a very dangerous environment for me, my community and the people that i love and care about. and there's an unraveling of

democracy. one of the pieces that i think dangerous around donald trump and as we continue to see, he continue to do as we speak is to unravel democracy. as a person who's a native of selma, alaska, for people who were -- alabama, for people who were beaten on the bridge 55 years ago because we understood that having a democratic government was far, far safer for us. fundamentally, he has done everything to unravel democracy. is so i am certainly, certainly happy that with the results that we have, and i certainly think that black people, most black folks are sophisticated vote ors enough to know the difference between racism and white supremacy, we're also sophisticated enough to know that there are many people who seek to exploit black pain, that will come up with misinformation just as a dog whistle not because they really care about racism. when weil heard that coming from the trump camp, that's not like they really care about racism.

we see his actionses every day. but he would also use that as an opportunity to exploit black pain. and the third andnd final thingi would say is i think there has been a movement of folks, a intergenerational, interracial coalition that has been building ourselves, has been warranted, has been organizing so that we literally can shape whoever's in politics, that we can actually put pressure on whoever is elected in office to make sure that our agenda and our issues are also considered and part of the agenda going forward. >> host: let's go back to our phone lines. we've got a lot of calls waiting here, so let's go to robert from price, utah, on the democratic line. robert, goodh. morning. >> caller: hey. first thing, jesse, you are the sharpest dress or they've got. you're looking good. ms. brown, i'm hearing and, you know, i don'tnow, but i'm

hearing that black men are not as enthusiastic about voting democrat as they may have once been. i'm wondering if there's an effort -- i mean, nobody would understand black men more than a black woman. so is there an effort to focus on that and get the guys back into camp? because we're going to need everybody. you're looking at the numbers. yo know, the overall numrs over the, of t nation is, you know -- we can't afford t lose anybody. i was wondering if you're making an effort to do that, and thank you, and i'll take tt off the air. >> guest: thank you for theai question. what i will say is i think that there'sn issue around just men in general. when you look at, when you look at black men -- let me offer kthis. black n voted for biden at a higher perntage than a other

constituency group inhis country. whiteup men, white women, latin, native americans. black men voted at a higher percentage rate for biden than any other constituency group in this country with the exception of black women. and i'm raising thatecause i do think that there is sething to unpack. but i think there are three kind of core pieces. one, 80% of suppo for any candidate or any party is actually extraordinary. we d't see that with any other constituency group, right? so ihink even while there's a focus around, a focus around what -- howid that come about, i think we just need to acknowledge that. so this victory, while it was certainly led by black women and black women, have just been on the vanguard, black men were not that far behind us, and they wereertainly in front o every other gup in this country. the second tng i would say, too, is that there is a

frustrationn the political proces across the board in this country that we all feel it. and there has been a frustration with black men, with black people consistently around even when we've been talking to folks around will our issues be centered, will the democratic party be respoive to us, will any of the parties be responsive to us? we are literly going to be able to see the shaping of when we've seen how the criminal justice system has devastated our community and and has exploid our community, there is discontent in our community, and it is discussing content that actually is rooted in something real andeal experiences. is part ofre what i often s is that i do think that, as i was saying to the previous caller, is that there has been an effort, a concertedffort that has been documented by the republican party to exploit black pain. there has always been a white power structureys that has been willingwe to go through wtever it needed to go through to exploit bla pain because it does exist. these same people who haveeen

creating commercials t really be able to tap into the frustratns and thehe anger and the disappointment of bla men are the same people who are literallyeading efforts -- i can takerump in particular. like, when we're talking about the platinum plan, but 80%, 80 of black businesses did not receive any stimulus burglar dollars. -- stimulusollars. sodo i think there's three thin. i think tt's one. i think t second is around the discontent. think the third piece is often times the reason that we're doing the work that we'reoing is because people don't talk to, that often times folks are not going to listen to what are the concerns in the community. people, i remember we would talk to young men in detroit that said they weren't going to vote. we listened to them and asked em, well, what is it that you care about? really engaged in a conversation with them? they said, give m the paper let me register vote. part of it is there's a constituency base, i do thi we

got caug up in the super there's a group of folks that their issues are not being engaged in. so i do think suddenly, as you said, we want to bring everybody along and really create nation that's going to wk if for all of us. we've gotot to talk to tse folks, we've got toddress their core issues, rights? we can't overlook it, and we can't justrite off them being with anoer party. we've got to understand what is that saying to us right now, and i think it's saying we've got to do more. >> host: dave is calling from clarksville, tennessee, on the republican line. dave, good morning. >> caller: hello. your guest who was just talking about racism, did you know that the late supreme court justice rgb, her 160 law clerks, and only one was black. enough said. >> guest: i'm glad he said that, because out of all of the judges

that donald trump selected, he did not select a single black person. not one.. >> host: let's go to paula who's calling from washington, d.c. on the democratic line. paula, good morning. >> caller: first and foremost, i'd like to thank you for your work, your hard work and being diligent and getting us through this election. the one thing i would like to say is that it just, in hindsight -- we're still looking at it, but i feel like it is disheartening still that so many people voted for a man like donald trumphe second time around. thear first timeou kind of accepted tha becauseven though most people knew who he was, you do want to give anyone a fresh start in any endeavor

especially if you're low call -- loyal to your country. but thissecond time, i a not understanding how people,e, especially people of color, could votepe for a candidate suh as donald trump. and i just wanted to hear your thoughts on that. and also just to speak on how you reached o to the younger voters, the 8-25s -- 18-25s, because they were dengaged in 2016, obviously, and just to speak on that. and i'll take the comnt offline. thank you. >> caller: thank you so much for at question. you know, part of, i think, part of the problem that we areoing to have tovercome is we're going to have toet out of boxes. we're going to have to get out of boxes and labels. even whe people try to label me, i want my voting rights. that's not a liberal issue. if there is a white male, you

wantinyour voting rights is not considered liberal if i want a quality education, that's not a liberal agenda. i deserve that. i pay my taxes, i should have access to the same thing that everybody else has. i oft think that what happens is we've got this political paradigmhat we're looking at politics, and wre looking at people's lives as if youe on the red team or the blue team, democrats or republicans. thbottom line is that i'm on the i hue panty team -- humanity am. if americans go to wk, they should be able to get paid a fair wage for thebl work. they should really be able to benefit from the fruits of their labor. i'm raising this because i think al of us have bee held hostage within this context of what is partisan. and so if you're on this team, you've got toind what is wrong with the oth team instead of having the courage anding being honest about what is right and what is wrong. there areha some things being de even by thisurrent president that is just wrong. it doesn'tatter whether you're a democrat or republican.

i'm not saying this because i'm -- i'm saying this because i love humanity. d i'm a human being. and anytime somebody's putting little children in cages, then something is t fundamentally wrg withdr them. i'm not okay with tha i don'ts care what label you put on me, i will never be oy with that. i am not okay with standing by someone that there are women who came over here seeking asylum, and they were given hysterectomies becse they had a different color passport. so as i do i my work, what i say we've got to shift this whole political paradime with this phrase, i've beenaying it,or the love of humanit before everything weot did. that literally i was making a vote for the love of humanity. i w supporting policy for the love of humanew. what would that look like? i was supporting candidates for thlove of humanit wee have to be crageous. fundamentally what i think is happening in this country, where we are, where we are right now is we all have beenomplicit, right? the republicans can blame the

democrats all day, the democrats can bmes republicans all day, but t bottom line is if covid-19 didn't show us anything else, it's tt we're interconnected, right? on some level what i do is going to impact you and what you do is going to impact me. so i am hoping we will rise above wheree are right now and we will get to the place that we can move beyond these boxes of partisanship and reay focus on making decisions and supporting policies tt are literally going to advan humanity, not just a limited agenda for a limited amount of people. so wrong with everybo having health care? ..

and so,nd in terms of you question related to young people what think happened and it's exciting is that we had young people on our team. we were supportin young people. our work in pennsylvania and pennsylvania was a key election this cycle was led by a young woman, brittany smalls, who is unde the age of 30. we have30 women who ran our work in alabama under the age of 30, the woma who ran our work in louisiana under the age of 30. >> unfortunately we are out of time so i really appreciate you coming on and would like to thank latasha brown, founder of black votes of matter but we will have you back on and we