Capitol Courage

Welcome back viewers to another episode of Capitol Courage! In case we haven’t convinced you yet why Big Tech and its creepy little tools of AI and data centers are one of the biggest scourges of our country — and progressive politics — let’s just add more evidence to our case! We’re so honored today to be joined by Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United, Let America Vote, and the End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund. Aside from her courageous work and dedication to getting corporate and dark money out of politics, she is also a history maker and was the first openly LGBTQ public official elected in the state of Kansas.

Our discussion today focuses on how when we say the federal government is broken, we mean that it’s broken for regular people. It’s working great though for big corporations that see their profits go up, shareholders happy, and more and more tax breaks. If people’s healthcare has to get cut along the way, that’s just the cost of doing business for so many corporations. And what has turbo-charged — and continues to enable — that system was the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. And while lots of corporate actors abuse the system, few are worse and more insidious than Big Tech right now — making your life more expensive and surveilling everything you do.

But as Tiffany shares, there are hundreds of reformers running for Congress this year to change that. Join us today, and visit https://www.endcitizensunited.org/unrig-washington to learn more!

In our season 3 premiere, we discussed some of the frustration and honestly heartbreak we felt (right before Graham Platner dropped out) that his replacement might be selected by the establishment, just weeks after Mainers had decisively voted for a bold, progressive policy platform. Luckily here we are to celebrate the fact that new Senate nominee Troy Jackson is the best of Platner (anti-corporate messaging and policies) without the worst of him (he’s not a literal rapist).

And while when we recorded Episode 3 it was a few days before the Michigan Senate primary and we didn’t yet know the outcome, we shared some thoughts on that race — and now can extend our official congrats to nominee Abdul El-Sayed!

Dear establishment: listen to the grassroots. Listen to the base. Now. Please.

We’re thrilled to welcome to the pod today environmental advocate and lobbyist Jay Ford, who joins Ryan for a conversation on data centers in Virginia. Jay was deeply involved in the recent budget negotiations over whether or not to require stricter environmental standards for data centers (spoiler alert, the can was kicked) or to get rid of the total sales tax exemption for data centers (spoiler alert, it’s still around). Join us to learn more about everyone’s favorite — or at least unavoidable — topic in Virginia politics, why you should care about data centers if you don’t already, and why they’re uniting people of all political persuasions against them.

Well over a year since launching this podcast, with two seasons behind us (and two unexpectedly long breaks between seasons), we’ve done 25 episodes and learned a lot, including the fact that if we’re going to keep doing the pod, we have to do video. We probably don’t need to remind listeners — now viewers! — of this pod, but video is everything these days in content creation and news. So get ready to see clips of the pod more on your social feeds, and we’re excited to welcome future guests to the pod where you can see them, not just hear them.

On today’s season 3 premiere we break down some of the recent and upcoming Democratic primaries across the country, including the one getting the most attention this week, Maine’s Senate race (spoiler alert, Graham Platner should have dropped out yesterday and another spoiler the nominee should be a bold progressive who can carry his platform). This is an exciting time in progressive politics, and stay with us here on the pod to stay up to date.

As we’ve been recording Season 2, our day jobs keep getting in the way of both recording, and in today’s instance, posting an episode we recorded 5 days ago. So apologies to our listeners that some references might be a little old. Join us today though as we break down some recent Virginia General Assembly debates on affordable housing and gaming, discuss the latest in AI, and celebrate Women’s History Month!

It’s been a huge week in Virginia politics, for many reasons we break down on today’s pod. One is Gov. Abigail Spanberger giving an incredible Democratic response to Donald Trump’s long and awful State of the Union and showing the roadmap for a good and succinct message on affordability impacting real people. Two is Senator Louise Lucas and Senate Democrats staying strong in fighting to hold data centers accountable and not waste taxpayer dollars on giveaways to the world’s biggest companies. And three is the amazing courage shown by a Virginia leader this week in standing up to abhorrent behavior. Thanks for joining us on the pod!

We’re now less than 3 weeks until the close of the 2026 General Assembly session in Virginia, and the battle lines are being drawn over what they might — and might not — do to address affordability. Of course a major part of what the legislature can do about affordability comes from the state budget. Tax cuts, investments in affordable child care, housing, and health care, the quality of schools, and more are all decided based on how much money we have in our budget, who we tax, and more importantly who we don’t tax. In Virginia we let a lot of super rich folks and big corporations off the hook when it comes to their tax liability, and the best thing in the House and Senate budgets released yesterday is the Senate’s idea to eliminate the data center sales tax exemption. It likely won’t make it entirely across the finish line, but props to Sen. Louise Lucas and others who are showing how serious this issue is.

For a little fun on today’s pod, join us as we break down former Delegate Tim Anderson’s possible return to the General Assembly and why politics should be engaging.

We hope you’re enjoying Season 2 as much as we are, and for the third day in a row, we’ve recorded today’s pod in a different location — let us know which audio you like best!

On today’s pod, we revisit a topic we explored last year when we interviewed Sen. Russet Perry and Del. Josh Thomas: data centers. Increasingly, data centers are driving up electric bills, taking our water, harming both the environment and the health of people around them — especially those near schools — and sucking up billions of dollars of taxpayer money in Virginia. There have been scores of data center bills in Virginia this session, and we hope this is one issue where legislators and the Governor continue to show courage in holding this industry accountable. Among several bills that have survived post-crossover, some really good ones include Sen. Lucas and Del. LeVere Bolling’s bills to shift more costs of energy capacity and infrastructure onto data centers, and Del. Sullivan’s bill to reform the data center sales tax exemption so that the data centers have to promote better practices for affordability, health, and the environment if they want to qualify. We hope these bills get signed into law!

We’ve been on team “Fight Trump’s Corrupt Plan to Steal House Seats with Fire” since last summer, and we couldn’t be more excited that one of the major accomplishments of the Virginia General Assembly so far is moving forward a constitutional amendment that will go before voters statewide in an April 21 referendum to temporarily give the General Assembly the authority to draw new Congressional lines. The General Assembly has also released the proposed new maps, and under recent election results, the map would result in a 10-1 Democratic House delegation from Virginia. This is what it looks like to flex power and recognize that to pass good policy at a moment when people need it, you need to use every tool available to you. That’s courage!! Props to the General Assembly, its leadership, and Gov. Spanberger for moving this plan forward.

See you tomorrow (!) on Capitol Courage Season 2, straight from the 2026 session.

While our 3 month break was not entirely intentional, we’re rebranding it as a season break, so welcome back loyal listeners to Season 2 of Capitol Courage!! We’re thrilled to be back, and we’re coming to you live today — and nearly every day for the rest of Virginia’s legislative session — from the General Assembly Building. Today we break down our favorite bills from the session so far and discuss what real affordability means vs the use of the term as a buzzword.

We’ll be here nearly every day through mid-March, so hit us up if you have suggestions for topics to cover, interviews to host, or tips you want us to share/discuss on the air. See you (tomorrow) on Capitol Courage!