Thanks for watching this edition of the hot seat. I'm Travers Mackel. We are talking about another election here in *** big race in Saint Tammany Parish. It's not just Saint Tammany, it's Washington and it's Tangi. It's the race for State Senate district 12. We should point out three candidates have qualified in that election including the incumbent republican state Senator Beth Mll. We have invited everybody here to W DS U for *** debate, but we should point out Senator Mizell has respectfully declined telling us that her schedule did not allow her to attend and the other candidate in the race never got back to our repeated request, but there is *** Democrat in the race. Brit goal you are here. You are running as *** Democrat. We appreciate you coming in to talk about the issues for Senate district 12. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for highlighting this important race. All right, we are going to get to some questions here, what we're going to give you as we normally do for our hot seat debates, the chance to make *** 62nd opening statement even though it's just you, we want to give you the chance to sell voters on yourself and let them know why you feel you are the best candidate in this race? Hi, my name is, I'm from Southeast Louisiana. I grew up in this district in all parts of it. I'm *** fresh out of law school, working mother. I've spent the majority of my life working in the service industry from restaurants to the classroom, to the nonprofit world And I decided to run because I'm noticing *** trend in which politicians in Baton Rouge are more focused on DC culture wars than they are on addressing the actual hard material problems that our state is facing in terms of poverty, education, health care, and then the crime that follows. And so I'm running on *** very pro choice platform because our state had *** trigger law in effect that when Roe V Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, our state criminalized any doctor that offered abortion care to any woman with *** penalty of potentially 15 years in jail or $200,000 in civil fines. And I think that is *** front to our American democracy and an assault against women. And so I've been very forward and that will either make people gravitate to me as *** candidate or not. But that's why we have *** republic and *** democracy so that people can decide who they want, making rules that govern their lives. We're going to talk about some of the big issues, not just for your district but for the state. But let me ask you this question right now and it's *** political one. You do have the backing of the State Democratic Party as well as Democratic groups in Saint Tammany Tangi and Washington Parish. But how do you expect as *** democrat in what's considered *** Republican stronghold? How do you expect to win as *** democrat in *** Republican stronghold district and trying to unseat *** strong Republican senator. Well, first of all, before any political party, I'm *** woman and I'm *** mother and I know that our Louisiana is much more complicated than this red versus blue paradigm. We all fall on *** spectrum of *** political position and I believe that we are stereotyped to be either extremely far, right, or people on the fringe on the left, but *** majority of people in Louisiana just want the state to mind its own business when it comes to our personal lives and to care for people and to provide services that improve our quality of life. I do believe that our two part system is problematic and I was originally intending on running as an independent, but unfortunately, in the political world we live in, you do have to sort of pick *** side if you want to be considered *** real player in the game. And so I think that *** democrat has *** chance in this area looking at the numbers. It's about *** third Republican, *** third, independent, no party and *** third Democrat. But all of these people, um, have the common sense to know that the government has gone way too far into our private lives. All right, let's talk about crime. People tell us it's the number one issue for them on the ballot if you are elected. Are there any pieces of legislation that you would back or put forward to try to fight crime? Not just in the state, but in your district which includes areas like Washington Parish and Bogalusa that have seen spikes in recent months. People talk about crime and they respond with incarceration and that is *** response that follows the problem. It's not *** response that addresses the problem directly. And so my agenda for reducing crime is passing legislation that creates *** classroom system in our schools that nurtures things like compassion, kindness, respect, um that fosters *** care for oneself and for one's community, uh oftentimes we're told in education that moral values are meant for the home, are meant for the family. But I believe that there is *** golden rule, morality that we're missing in our classroom because we're so pressured to have our Children pass standardized tests. Um I think crime is *** byproduct of poverty and it's *** byproduct of hopelessness and it's *** byproduct of mental illness. And if we do not provide school systems that respect children's dignity, they're gonna go out into the world and not respect other people's dignity. Let's talk about the number two issue that voters have concerns with right now, especially people in Saint Tammany and Washington, the insurance crisis. That's plaguing the state. What is your plan to help with the insurance crisis? Because so many people aren't just paying high premiums. They're having *** time getting insurance at all in your district. The system of insurance is *** for profit business in which people collectively put into *** pot. And if people require to take out of that pot, they are compensated by the company that they've been paying into. The reason we're seeing insurance rates rise is because insurance companies are aware that the rising threat of climate change and the massive amount of coastal erosion and flooding that we're going to be seeing is going to be extremely costly for them. So their costs are rising as the threat of more people losing their houses to these natural disasters. I think that we need to have *** state and federal option. The federal government is going to have to recognize that private insurance companies are not going to be able to afford to respond to the level of disasters that we've seen and that we are going to continue to see. All right, let me ask you *** couple of yes or no questions here. Yes or no. Do you support the current governor who's *** Democrat? John Bel Edwards? Of course, I'm from his hometown. Yes or no. Are you supporting Sean Wilson, *** democrat for governor, 100%. He's the most qualified person for this job. All right. Well, let me ask you this one now. Yes or no. Do you support Congresswoman Julia? Let, whose district does touch Washington Parish? Unfortunately, I think Julie and I might have some disagreements. Yes. All right. If you can talk about the rural areas, especially in Washington Tangi, Northern Saint Tammany, what is your plan when it comes to the farming industry and environmental issues that are impacting the rural parts of your district right now? Well, I'm certainly not gonna go in *** war against solar energy. Um that the incumbent has, uh in my district, we have *** very wealthy parish, Saint Tammany and then two neighboring parishes that are economically suffering even though Hammond is one of the fastest growing economies in the state. Uh, the infrastructure uh between these three states. The difference is, it's embarrassing. And so we need to have *** representative in Baton Rouge that's gonna recognize that this is *** multi parish state and in terms of infrastructure and the environment, we need to recognize that not everyone can afford *** vehicle. We need to look at more pedestrian pathways and options. I see *** lot of white crosses on the side of the road where I live because there are people in rural areas and communities that are trying to find areas to purchase food, to make their errands. And if they don't have *** vehicle, they're often times walking and hitchhiking. And, you know, it's unfair that Saint Tammany is the only parish out here with *** cute bike path and like more, you know, pedestrian access than we have in the neighboring parishes. Then in terms of the environment, I certainly don't believe that our oil and gas industries and petrochemical factories deserve to go as unregulated as they run and as under taxed as they are, if you can talk about this issue right now, the economy, it's *** big issue and you kind of touched on it right now, but let's focus it on Washington Parish. If you're elected, what would your goal be to get money from Baton Rouge or the federal government to try to incentivize businesses to not just come but to stay in Washington Parish. Well, in terms of the economy, the first thing that we can immediately do is raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to something that is livable and that is something that the current incumbent voted against. So in terms of immediately responding to the economic crisis that we're facing across the state, not just in Washington Parish, we need to fight for *** livable wage. We cannot expect people to work 40 hours *** week and then barely have enough money to get by considering the cost of living and cost of housing in terms of incentivizing people to come to Washington Parish. This is gonna be *** decades long process because unfortunately, these sorts of crisis are not fixed overnight. And Washington Parish is home to the international paper mill, *** mill that used to employ thousands of people that's now owned by *** Chinese um financial institution and that causes *** lot of cancer and *** lot of pollution. So if we're gonna be incentivizing industries and businesses to come to Louisiana, we need to look at industries that are not going to result in people living less years of their lives by living in proximity to these job providers. All right. What is your stance on the state's current abortion policy? Do you believe that restrictions for things like rape and incest should be allowed into Louisiana law? Which right now they are not. I'm going to go *** step further and say that as *** woman that had an abortion as *** teenager and *** woman that has openly talked about working at *** women's health care facility that provided abortion. I believe that our state's abortion law is cruel and insensitive and it is been used for decades as *** political pin for people to follow. People will say, oh, I cannot apologize for being pro life. No one's asking people to apologize for their religious or moral preferences. The question is whether or not are we going to allow our state government to criminalize doctors for providing abortion care services. If someone cannot fathom that there are reasons *** woman would be pregnant and desire to not be pregnant, then that person has not lived in poverty. That person has not faced severe medical crises. That person may not experience the tragedies. I've spoken to hundreds of women on the day that they have chosen to have an abortion and I have heard more stories than the average person could potentially handle. But it is for those women that I am running and to represent the fact that this is *** necessary medical procedure and for our state to blanketly decide that every single person is pregnant, be forced to go through that pregnancy and give birth regardless of their circumstances, is going to 100% cause more problems than solutions. And we need to look at the system that draws people away from being able to be *** parent. It's an incredibly difficult time to have *** family. The cost of living is more than we could possibly imagine. Our wages are not matching, you're not guaranteed health care if there are people sleeping under the bridge across the street from the station. Now, that means that it can happen to anyone. And we have serious issues of poverty and education and there are reasons why women are saying that they cannot. And for the state to say that they must is unfortunately, and this might be controversial to say, but it's, it's borderline fascist. All right, we could get to *** lot more issues. Unfortunately, we are out of time. We are gonna give you *** chance to make *** closing statement. We do want to reiterate once again, you are *** democratic challenger for this seat. We did invite the incumbent state Senator Beth Mizell, *** Republican. She respectfully sent us an email passing on our debates. There is another candidate in this race who never responded to any of our requests to attend. So M Gaddafi, you have 30 seconds to make *** quick closing statement to let voters know why you feel you are the best candidate. Yes. Well, I'm the only woman that understands that the state doesn't have any right to dictate family and parenthood to people when they're saying that they cannot. And I'm also the only woman that understands that there are programs and policies that we can adopt that would reduce the number of women in that circumstance to begin with. I'm *** graduate of Loyola law school. I have worked in the service industry my entire life and I would like to go to Baton Rouge to put Baton Rouge back into the service of helping people. Our government is here for safety and our government is here to be in the service of everyday citizens. Our government is not in the business of dictating our personal choices and controlling our private lives and we need to get Baton Rouge back on track to protecting people as opposed to oppressing people. Right. Britney. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Thank you very much. That's all the time that we have for this episode of the hot seat. We have so many more covering dozens of races across Southeast Louisiana. You can see them all right here on W DS U dot com.