Nina Turner talks about her latest congressional race, which she lost, where the Congressional Progressives Caucus was, & what's next for her. Amy Vilela talks about her own congressional race for Nevada's First District.

https://twitter.com/amy4thepeople

https://twitter.com/ninaturner

Amy Vilela grew up in poverty, relying on programs like WIC & SNAP in order to make ends meet as a single-mother. She took classes at night while working multiple jobs to become the first in her family to earn a degree. She became a national advocate for Medicare for All after her daughter Shalynne died at the hands of our nation’s profit-driven healthcare system. After working her way up to become a CFO, Amy has since retooled her professional experience to provide vital campaign services to other progressive candidates. In 2020, serving as a State Co-chair, Amy led the charge for Bernie Sanders’ landslide victory in the Nevada caucuses.

The Vilelas first moved to Nevada when her husband, Major David Vilela, was transferred to Creech Air Force Base. If elected, she would be the first ever active duty military spouse to serve in Congress. In addition to Congresswoman Cori Bush & Senator Nina Turner, Amy’s campaign has attracted national attention and has been endorsed by Brand New Congress, Sunrise Movement Las Vegas, the Center for Biological Diversity & more.

Nina Turner, the oldest of seven children, grew up in a working-class family in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard community. Her Mother was a nurse’s aide & her Father was a truck driver. Experiencing the impact of income inequality firsthand, Turner took her first job at age 14 to help support her siblings & keep the family afloat. Turner’s Mother battled high blood pressure her entire life & died at age 42. This experience exposed to Turner the serious problems with our health care system, especially for Black & lower-income families. After working her way through college and graduate school (she earned an Associate’s Degree from Cuyahoga Community College & a Bachelor’s and Master’s from Cleveland State University), she started a career dedicated to keeping Ohio working families afloat too.

Turner made history in 2005 as the first African American woman to represent Ward One on the Cleveland City Council, & again in 2008 as the first African American woman to serve as a State Senator in Ohio’s 25th District. In the legislature, Turner repeatedly defended against attacks on women’s health care freedom & partnered with working families & organized labor to protect collective bargaining rights. As a champion for criminal justice reform, she led the effort to create Ohio’s first task force on police & community relations in the wake of tragic police killings in Ohio & across the country. Turner went on to serve as the Chair of Party Engagement for the Ohio Democratic Party, leading the effort to build a more robust & inclusive organizing infrastructure & support for local Democratic candidates across the State. Turner took her record of accomplishment & commitment to justice nationwide when she became a national surrogate for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential campaign & National Co-Chair for Bernie 2020. In those roles, she traveled coast to coast building support for progressive values such as a $15 living wage, free education from kindergarten through college & health care as a human right in the form of Medicare for All.

Between those two campaigns, Turner also served as the President of the national grassroots political organization “Our Revolution.”

Nina Turner is a wife, mother & proud grandmother. A former Assistant Professor of History at her alma mater Cuyahoga Community College, she is also the current host of the “Hello Somebody” podcast on iHeartRadio.

***Please support The Katie Halper Show ***

On Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow

Follow Katie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kthalps

Callin link: https://www.callin.com/episode/nina-turner-amy-vilela-qsJgTwzHDK