North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble

June Krise, 9th Congressional District Chair, Democratic Activist, and Candidate for GAHD 8

Fannin Co. GA Democratic Party Season 2 Episode 27

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

Our guests highlight democratic activities and actions to work toward a Blue Georgia. The 9th Congressional District spans 20 counties across the region and covers a good deal of northern GA including Blue Ridge, Morganton, Fannin, Union, Banks, Athens/Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties. 

Our democratic party podcast also disseminates information and interviews powerful Democrats across the state of GA working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact. 

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Meral Clarke:

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County Georgia Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our guest June Krise Georgia Democratic chair, activist and candidate for Georgia House District 8. Welcome to the show June. We're happy to have you with us today.

June Krise:

Thank you very much, Meral. I am delighted to be here.

Meral Clarke:

Wonderful. Well let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. June is a registered nurse and resident of White County Georgia June has practiced professionally for over 30 years in the healthcare field after 12 years of working in regulatory services and community care Medicaid policy June opened her own consulting firm called Quality of Life Enterprises. She helps people develop in-home health care and personal care home businesses. June also works with a statewide Medicaid agency assisting elderly and disabled adults with transitioning to personal care homes. She assists eligible recipients to qualify for Medicaid waiver programs so they can stay as independent as possible in their own community settings. In addition to our consultation work June is also an advocate for intellectually and /or developmentally delayed adults. Thank you for all of your hard work in that area. June, she has worked in grassroots politics for several years, she received the speaker Thomas B Murphy Lifetime Achievement Award from the Democratic Party of Georgia or DPG in 2014. She was also appointed as a state committee member by two chairs of the DPG. She is currently first vice chair of the Georgia Federation of Democratic Women and chair of the White County Georgia Democratic Committee. She also serves as chair of the ninth congressional district of the Democratic Party of Georgia, which encompasses 13 North Georgia counties. She serves on the executive committee for the DPG including on the credentials and county affairs committees. Under her leadership in the ninth congressional district, a record 37 candidates qualified and ran for office in 2020. June was also one of them running for the Georgia Senate from the 51st district. She and her campaign team work tirelessly to help get the vote out and ensure the Biden Harris, Warnock and Ossoff victories. Wow, that is an impressive and incredibly busy background. So how do you balance all of your Democratic Party responsibilities in your county and the district and still run for office?

June Krise:

Thank you Meral. That impressive resume comes with living long time. I've been around a while. And I've tried to stay engaged professionally and politically. I think if you enjoy what you do, and I enjoy grassroots politics, and my spouse does as well, so I have a partner in crime there. It's easy to carry and wear lots of hats. As far as running for office, I did qualify again this year, but not for senate district 51. Because after our race last year, that caused a little bit of a stir, you know, when you run against somebody, sometimes it stirs up their background and what they're doing, and you're able to present that to the public. And it raises a little suspicion and it causes some changes, we were able to make some changes as far as policy especially, and Union County with their water processing that was going on. And Steve Gooch was involved in that who I was running against two years ago. But we had redistricting come along. And Senator Gooch, I'm sure was instrumental in seeing that I was cut out of the 51st Senate district so I could not run against him again, even if I had wanted to. So the line comes basically right near my front door, which put me over in the 50 senatorial district and we have a good candidate over there. So I did qualify to run again, but I'm running in house district eight, which encompasses almost all of White County, all of Union and all of Towns but since I'm already doing some other duties, grassroots duties for the Democratic Party, it just sort of fits in if I'm going to be working getting out the vote to help the statewide candidates and our local candidates here. Why not be on the ballot and put your own signs out when you put everybody else's out when I make a phone call or send a text, anybody that I'm asking to vote for June Krise for house district eight, if they're going to vote for me, they're going to vote for other Democrats. So if we all work together, it's easy.

Meral Clarke:

Oh, absolutely. And it does take a village. So after having run for Senate, why did you decide to run for the Georgia House this time around?

June Krise:

Well, as you said, we had 37 candidates that ran two years ago. And that was an exciting time because we had the presidential race, and we were fighting Donald Trump. He was the president. And that stirred up a good bit more interest. And it made people want to come out and we were still fighting Donald Trump and his big lie, but there didn't seem to be as much interest after the win with Warnock and Ossoff in that run off where we had to go even longer. Everybody was just exhausted, and we were just getting rested. And now here comes the midterms. And as you know, usually, the midterms, there's not as big a turnout, there's not as much excitement because it's a gubernatorial year, not a presidential election. But leader Stacey Abrams is at the top of our ticket. And so I waited to the last day on Friday. And nobody had qualified for the House District that I'm in on the Democrat side. So I drove to Atlanta on Friday, and said to Richard, I'm going to qualify for this race. And I'm going to do it again, because we have got to have some more candidates out here because that generates more votes, the more people working to run for office, the more campaigns active and grassroots volunteers. And I really respect Stacey Abrams. I think it will be exciting to say that you were on the ticket with Stacey Abrams. That is very exciting. Yes, I think this will be a historic election, it will be close and expecting her to win and win or lose. It will be a pleasure to work and support the statewide ticket and do as much as we can here. If we just move the needle a little bit more, it's going to help our statewide candidates.

Meral Clarke:

There's no doubt about that, Richard, of course, being your extremely patient, understanding husband, correct?

June Krise:

Yes, that's an understatement. When people meet him, they say, Richard, you must be a saint.

Meral Clarke:

Bless his heart. That's wonderful. So thank you for running, and thank you for your candidacy and all that you do to progress progressive policy in Georgia. So what issues are you most passionate about in? Why?

June Krise:

That's a very good question. There's several I would have to say at the top health care, because I'm a registered nurse, and it has pained me to get the calls that I get to try to help place people in personal care homes, especially when they're living on SSI. Sometimes they don't qualify for the Medicaid waiver for various reasons. And even when some of them do, they have to go on a waiting list. And if we had expanded Medicaid like we should have during the Obama era, we'd be doing so much better for our sick and our indigent and our disabled as far as being able to get them into personal care homes, and helping their own home. Of course, number two is women's reproductive health and the right for a woman to choose if she's chooses to have an abortion for whatever reason. And usually those are the personal, deep seated reasons that you just have to stand in that person's shoes to know why they would choose to have an abortion and it should be safe and legal. And then, of course, the gun violence, we have to have some safety regulations. And we need to have the ban on the assault weapons again, like we did during the Clinton era, we may not get that I know everybody's probably following what they're doing in the Senate now in DC. But we can do some things on the state level. And I would fight for those three things right at the top. Because education is dear to my heart too, because my husband spent over 30 years in public education. And I know what teachers and administrators in the public school system are faced with and like I say it's God bless the teachers.

Meral Clarke:

Oh, yes, no doubt. Absolutely. So circling back around to your first issue of Medicaid expansion. Why do you suppose Republicans are so reticent to expand Medicaid in red states? Why do you suppose that is?

June Krise:

Medicaid? It pains me to say this, but I really do believe that they did not want President Obama to be successful. They fought this tooth and nail and you remember, when it first happened, they said that they were going to get rid of it in Didn't I spend like two years trying to get rid of it? And I think it went to the Supreme Court. And wasn't it Justice Roberts that cast the deciding vote that ACA would remain?

Meral Clarke:

The Affordable Care Act? Yes, yes,

June Krise:

I remember that so well. And I thought, well, there is a God, because look how many hundreds and 1000s of people it's helped. And I think these red states like Georgia that are still just dug in so deep against the Democrats, they you know, they're expanding Medicaid anyway, in their small ways. Just like recently, Georgia expanded mental health services in hospitals and clinics, you know, mostly outpatient services, and some crisis and acute care, we need affordable housing for the mentally ill like we have for the disabled, but that's another long podcast. But they've got so dug in with the hatred. And instead of just going ahead, after these eight years, and expanding Medicaid and getting what we need, they just still so dug in, and everything is so polarized. And it's really sad. But I think that's the main reason it couldn't be because they think it would fail at this point, because look at all the states that expanded it, and they haven't gone bankrupt, and they've done fine. And their programs are flourishing, and they cover a lot more people with the basic health care needs. I mean, so it's got to be the fact that they just dug in against it, and they're so dead set on not admitting they were wrong.

Meral Clarke:

Well, not only that, but and I think you're correct in your assessment, but also Republican policies have never benefited poor people, or people with smaller incomes than the folks that actually do get benefits from the Republican Party. So I think that has something to do with it. Just my opinion. That's because low income people are the folks who are suffering from the lack of Medicaid expansion. Moving forward to abortion rights. We know that abortion is health care for a lot of women and people who identify as women or who have uteruses. So why do you suppose the Republicans are attacking these reproductive rights? And let's face it, they've been planning on this for a long, long time, we're talking about decades. So first, why has Roe never been codified into law? And second, why are they so bent on disenfranchising such a large segment of the population? Do you think

June Krise:

That is a difficult one from what I read 57% of the country and then you read some statistics that are higher favor Roe and accept Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party, as it stands today is not the Republican Party of years ago, it's the Trump party. And evangelicals play a large part in this scenario, the way I see it, and you know, religion, in general, there are some religions that believe that life begins at conception, and it's murder. And that's what they teach in their churches and to their congregations. And they became very political, the mega churches. And of course, the Catholic Church has always had participated politically in its way even though most people believe in separation of church and state, but the Evangelicals came on the scene. And this was their main issue still up here in North Georgia, you will see the springtime when they'll have like hundreds of crosses in the front of some of the churches remembering the death of aborted children, many of those still put those little crosses out every year. And so I think the evangelical element of the Republican Party gained favor with Donald Trump, and that's one of their main issues. And then to they they're very strategic about their message and about the Democrats being baby killers. And that whole message that came out in I think it's sort of silence the Democrats on abortion a little bit and then we got comfortable because we thought Roe v. Wade would be the law of the land, but I think it's a wedge issue for them, just like guns is and they use it very effectively in their messaging.

Meral Clarke:

And I do want to mention that they're not aborted children. They're aborted fetuses and embryos.

June Krise:

Yes, that's very important. And you know, nobody wants to really have an abortion. But I can tell you this from being a registered nurse and for being as old as I am, and knowing some Republicans have over the years they use birth control and Many of them have had abortions. Just recently you saw the representative Bobby

Meral Clarke:

bover. Yes, Lauren bover? Yes, yeah,

June Krise:

She had two abortions. It just came out in the news media yesterday, or she did not deny, and that's fine. So Republicans do have abortions, and not just Republicans, people that might say, Oh, no, I would never have an abortion, and I don't believe in abortion, when it comes to it happening to them or their child. They seek out illegal abortion, and a lot of people have the means and the money to travel, wherever to get the abortion there, again, like you say, it's the indigent women, right, that will suffer and will not be able to have a safe legal abortion and will most times resort to a back alley type abortion, and it's not safe and a lot of deaths occur. So in my opinion, it's sort of hypocritical, because many people that stand on the anti abortion line and hold signs, they know people that have had abortions and will go get them, but they'll rationalize it by saying there's was a special circumstance,

Meral Clarke:

Right, although Republicans don't seem to empathize with people unless they go through the same things themselves. And that's where the problems come in, I think,

June Krise:

and they might not empathize after that. I know, physicians, and I have articles that I've read, where the clinicians, they'll interview the client that comes in, that's going to have the abortion, and they'll say they don't believe in abortion, but they'll say now this is different, right. And the last one, their their get their Lucien, and they've even picketed, and their church doesn't believe in it and all of that, but they rationalize that this is what happened to them. And, you know, they've prayed about it. And this is different.

Meral Clarke:

It's hypocrisy, pure and simple. So speaking of gun rights, we've all been watching the channel where he's six committee hearings, which I have found to be riveting and very interesting. And at the same time, they're working toward a bipartisan gun deal, which of course, has not passed yet. But I suspect that by the time it does, it will be so watered down. I don't know if it will have any real teeth in stopping gun violence. Tell me your thoughts on that, and why you're so passionate about gun violence.

June Krise:

And I almost cannot talk about it still without almost crying. And you know, and I don't even know, the children, I don't know their families in Texas, but it's almost it's immoral not to do something, when you see the devastation that these automatic weapons do. And the longer we wait, the longer the Republican sink, put it off. And the NRA can put this off and the hurt wears off, or some next big story comes up. But you know, for some reason, I think this is going to last longer. And I think because it happened in Texas, the gun capital of the United States of America, almost I think that that has given this a little more force in my heart and in my soul I can not understand why they won't go back to the ban on the automatic weapons and lock your guns up. If you have children in the home. There needs to be a penalty if you don't have those guns locked away where children cannot get to them. Just common sense gun safety rules. And the high capacity magazine and the ban on the assault weapons are just common decency. To me it's common decency, and it's just common sense.

Meral Clarke:

I completely agree with you. But the majority of Republicans not only do they not want to reinstate the automatic weapons ban, which they allowed to expire. And of course mass shootings went up by 230%. At that point, they don't even want to raise the age to lawfully buy an automatic weapon from 18 to 21. And the majority of mass shooters are between the ages of 18 and 21. It boggles the mind.

June Krise:

It's big money behind the NRA they take those big donations is this money in politics again, same way with abortion, big money going to these politicians that will vote the way that these groups want them to vote and healthcare the same way in Big Pharma. I mean, they accept these big donations and they actually can control the way our elected officials vote. If you stay in office too long. You're gonna become that way because the money that's in this just running for office, and this is my second time around here and seeing what's involved with advertising, digital marketing, paid campaign managers if you can afford one, a lot of people have paid staff, your US senators and all that. If we took money out of politics in this country, we probably have a depression. I mean, look at all the money that's in it. It is not just the PACs and stuff like that. But just people that work in Washington, DC, or politicians in these jobs. running these campaigns is a lot of money. It's staggering.

Meral Clarke:

It really is. And I don't think we're really going to have a free and fair democracy until money is removed from politics. But I fear that won't happen anytime soon. So let's drill back down to your race for Georgia House District eight. Why do you believe that you can better represent the voters of North Georgia and not your Republican opponent? Why are you best qualified to do this?

June Krise:

That is another great question. Meral. My opponent is a very distinguished retired superior court judge. He's, you know, extremely conservative. And I know he's not pro choice. And I am so we're diametrically opposed there. But the main difference I think I would make as opposed to him, If voters in north Georgia want to bust up when I call and this is what I call it, the North Georgia mafia of Gooch Ralston. And now my opponent and several others that had been in office up here a long time that control everything that goes on. For instance, Ralston wrote a bill back in 2014, I think it might have been 15. That if you serve in the legislature, and you're an attorney, and you're representing the client that you had to be granted an extension. In other words, if you couldn't come to court, you could petition the superior court judge, and they would grant you an extension to the case, you know, they would put the case

Meral Clarke:

off, right. And you're referring to David Ralston, Speaker of the Georgia House, who actually is from our county, yes, indeed. Fannin County, and he is an attorney. So that directly benefits him, correct? Yes, indeed.

June Krise:

And when my opponent was the superior court judge, of course, he would grant these extension to the cases and it's well documented in the AJC about what Ralston did in the bill. He passed, I had a member of my campaign research that deal and she said June I swear it was the most poorly written piece of legislation I have ever read in my life is so badly written, she said that there were so many mistakes, it was almost unintelligible. She said, this may have been on purpose, or maybe because it had been amended numerous times. She went on to say about reading this piece of legislation, but it does force the judge to a certain extent to grant these extensions on these cases for these attorneys that are also in the legislature. But there was one case that stuck out when we were researching this and child molestation case that went on for 10 years, my opponent was involved in granting the extensions to the case only several times, the judges could say, Okay, we've granted enough time here. We're going to court but usually they don't, because it's Ralston. But this one particular case, Ralston was not the attorney, but it was somebody that worked for his farm that kept getting the extension. So I'm still trying to research that. And I would just say to my opponent, now that you're not, I mean, you were following the law, you could just say I was following the law. Well, yes. But a superior court judge would have the power to say, Okay, this has been bad times, now that we've put this off, this is going to come to court, but that usually doesn't happen and see that people that hire Ralston and his firm can pay big retainer fees. And eventually they wear people out and they just settle out a lot of times or when it does come to court. It's been so long witnesses can't remember or their gone or something like that. But I would challenge my opponent and say, Look, tackle this issue. This is not fair. You know, no wonder people say No justice, no peace. I mean, they're again, Meral like you said, is the indigent people, they can't pay the big lawyers that can get these extensions form under these laws and write their own laws. And the justice system just really needs some attention. And I would say to my opponent, like some changes like this that are going to be fair to the people that are the victims. I think if I am elected, I will tackle these kinds of issues. He's certainly not going to stand up to Ralston who gave him a big appointment on the Judiciary Committee as a new incoming state representative, which they don't usually get so you know, as the good ol boy system, and maybe we need to bust that up. And maybe we need somebody that thinks about domestic issues, and not always about other issues that don't help our people at the lowest end of the economic scale. I just think we need a fresh new approach. And it would help if we just had one woman, there's not one woman, Republican or Democrat serving in the legislature from the ninth congressional district.

Meral Clarke:

That's staggering. I'm just so sorry to hear that. And yes, I completely agree with you, you are the one to bust up this good old boy system and you go for it. I am so glad that you're running. And it's about time. So how has having so many Democrats running for statewide office this year affected the enthusiasm of Democratic voters? In your estimation? Do you think it's helped or hurt our momentum? And will we see Democrats coalesce behind the ticket once the primary is over? And

June Krise:

I think we will. But it has been a strain on us. We haven't experienced a democratic runoff election, I don't think we're in 20 years or 15 years, where we have six or eight people running for the same office. And you know, there's always hurt feelings if you don't win the primary. And you know, it takes time to heal a little bit. But then I think what happens is once we see what's at stake, the ticket come together under leader Abrams, there'll be a coordinated campaign effort, like we're not seeing right now, it seems like it's getting off to a slow start. And the DPG is just hiring its last few folks there that will be involved in this coordinated campaign effort. But I think it hurts that it drags out a little longer. But in the end, it might benefit us because we get more qualified candidates. And it just shows that we're turning a little more blue. It's coming this way. It's coming to preside like it did Gwinnett and the reason they gerrymandered us and took four of our counties that we had that were our most diverse counties out of the ninth congressional district is because Ralston and Gucci Knossos, they saw it coming, they saw the diversity coming over in here from Madison and Dawson. And we had a little bit of foresight and a little bit of cart, they took all that away, they took Pickens, so now they have their little chunk of hardcore red, but we're slowly nipping away, and they know they don't have much time allowed. So I think it's coming regardless and the Democrats will coalesce. It's been slow getting started, but it's coming. And we got to do this because I just don't think we can take another four years of the Republicans in power up there in Georgia,

Meral Clarke:

It hasn't been easy. It has not been easy. We all know that. And it certainly has not been beneficial for all of the citizens of Georgia. So let's hope that we can take some of those statewide offices. Well, June if someone wants to get involved in your campaign, volunteer, donate, what have you, where would you send them?

June Krise:

Before I close with that? And I think we're nearing the end. Just let me say I am so proud of Fannin County Democrats in the blue podcast. I was one of the first interviews that you did early on when perhaps you thought that maybe this might not go anywhere, but it has exploded. You're on so many platforms now. And I'm so proud to be the ninth congressional district Chair of democratic committees that are doing projects like Fannin County is doing and others that are doing in the ninth congressional district, we may be mostly red, but the blue that we have here is so blue, they can't stand it. So I'm so proud of you all and the fame that y'all have across the state and I just want you to know that

Meral Clarke:

Thank you June. Oh my goodness, that means the world to us. Thank you so much.

June Krise:

It's true, but they say this can be a historical series that you've created. I don't know if you can preserve it. It can be something like the history of the ninth congressional district and how we moved and slowly got in the fight and Democrats gained a little more control and I'm gonna band out how we can preserve this in a historical way through some sort of archives in the DPG you know, as you go along we'll talk about that but to help me is JuneKriseFor georgia@gmail.com That's my spelled out June Krise For Georgia

Meral Clarke:

correct and Chris is spelled K R I S E

June Krise:

and then my website is JuneKriseForGeorgia. Fantastic and listen if you don't mind me giving out my They'll phone number of people can call me directly.

Meral Clarke:

Oh my goodness, I don't know if I would advise that.

June Krise:

Okay, I'll give it out. People can call me directly. Okay, it's 770-722-7994. And I can't thank you enough for interviewing me today. And thank you so much for what you are doing.

Meral Clarke:

And thank you for your kind words. And finally, June and we ask all our guests this question, tell us a fun fact about yourself something not related necessarily to your democratic activism or your candidacy. Tell us something fun. Just about June. Do you have time to have fun?

June Krise:

I do. They have time to have fun. Oh, let's say after the pandemic was over and everybody had their boosters and everything, and I wasn't afraid to go out. I went to see Lady Gaga in Vegas. And I absolutely was mesmerized. She's really, really good.

Meral Clarke:

I am so jealous.

June Krise:

I love music. I love to get up and dance. I had a little dance troupe for years called the clogging company. And we did a lot of mountain dance and unclog and so I really am a fun person.

Meral Clarke:

Yes, you are. I can attest to that. I know you are. Well. Thank you, June for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work and candidacy to support democratic ideals and policy. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast to learn more about us and the work that we're doing. Visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia democrats.com all spelled out share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family. Be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcasts be a founding patron and friend of the show at North Georgia blue podcast.com/patron Now with three different giving levels to choose from offering cool swag recognition on the show and website and valuable gift cards to help us continue getting into more good trouble.