Since we began The Damage Report,
one of my favorite parts of doing
this show is that I've been able to
meet and hopefully talk to and
then introduce to you candidates
from around the country.
In over the past few years,
we have talked to literally
hundreds of candidates.
Many of them,
first time candidates running in
both primary and general elections.
So many great candidates,
especially those endorsed by
the Justice Democrats.
We're very lucky to speak with now
representative Alexandria Ocasio
Cortez during her primary and so
I am thrilled to begin that process
for the next cycle as well as we
speak with the first endorsement
from the Justice Democrats in the
2022 cycle running in Tennessee's
fifth district, Odessa Kelly,
welcome to The Damage Report.
>> Hey, hey I'm glad to be here.
>> We're very glad to have you here
as well.
And so, hoping to speak with you as
this race goes on, and
there is a bit of time,
your primary is in August 4th of
next year, which is late and
there are side effects of that.
But it does mean that you have more
time during that primary election.
So if you could introduce yourself
to our audience,
we'd love to know more about you.
>> Of course, hey,
my name is Odessa Kelly and I am
a native from Nashville Tennessee,
which is a rarity in Nashville
these days is one of the fastest
growing cities in the country.
Yeah, I came from a working class
background and community and
I went through public school my
entire life, played basketball at
Tennessee State University,
graduated Tennessee State
University and
got a job working for the city.
I worked for Metro Parks and
Recreation for
almost 14 years of my life.
And that work is what led me into
becoming the executive director of
Stand Up Nashville in doing
activism work.
Every day I was in the community
where people always had their backs
against the walls, living check
to check, trying to figure out
how they were going to make it to
the next moment and understand that
they had these barriers that were
in front of them that they didn't
place there that we as a society
placed in front of them.
And then doing that work, doing
stand up Nashville that puts me to
this moment, where I was like,
I can't sit around in a moment and
watch democracy happy when I have
every right to be a part of it
just like you do.
>> Exactly, and you are running in
a primary, so there is a current
representative Jim Cooper,
a conservative Democrat.
So tell me about the decision not
only to run but to run in a primary
against this particular Democrat.
What made you want to do that?
>> Yeah,
this past year was eye opening.
I think 2020 showed us not just who
we are around the pandemic and
around racial tensions, but how we
don't respond to crises well and
how we have been putting fiscal
notes and pocket books in front
of you humanitarian needs.
And just I didn't want to let that
happen anymore.
People need to be centered
in the middle of the process and
people also want to have leadership
that I'm inspired by and
leadership that I can trust.
I'm talking to having leadership as
always the, how do you say, the
last person to do the right thing
and I'm running for my own life.
I have family members
who definitely need Medicare for
all, in need of Social Security,
something that you congressman
Cooper's always trying to coat.
>> And so some of the big
topics that dominated political
talk last year during the election,
we had the pandemic obviously,
there was the massive social
movement around Black Lives Matter
and criminal justice.
Jim Cooper,
what was his leadership like for
those crises last year?
>> I don't know.
And that's the problem,
as a organizer,
I can tell you about what we did,
I can tell you about how I was
affected by it as a black woman,
as a mother of a black son,
I think today, we just had another
individual that was shot and
killed.
I don't know what to say,
I have marched, I've protested,
we've organized around these things
yet it still keeps happening and
we need to have congressional
leadership that has a shared
perspective at the top that
knows the urgency of these needs.
>> Okay, and I know you have an ad
out and you talk about quite a few
high profile issues,
what are you hoping to make this
campaign sort of the center around,
what particular issues
are you going to be focusing on?
>> What are top two of things that
I want to focus on if I get
elected is Medicare for all and
Green New Deal with union jobs.
And the reason why this is
important for me is because again,
being a African American,
a person who's used to living check
to check,
I never have the time to think or
give my two cents about the earth
but the earth is important to me.
So voting for
the Green New Deal does two things,
It gives me a chance to help clean
up the earth and do my fair share
and also it helps build pathways
out of poverty for communities that
usually don't have those.
>> And Medicare for all, I mean
after this past year, I think we
had over 500,000 deaths and all
those could have been avoided, so
those are the biggest two things.
Another thing too is I want people
to be able to see themselves and
hear themselves when they have
someone in the congressional
leadership that's speaking on
their behalf.
And in actual I am, I'm someone who
has a shared perspective of people
who are only brown
everyday just trying to make it.
>> Okay, so whenever I have
a candidate on I do research about
them and I saw an article about you
from Fox News, attempting to verily
get out and define you as being
pro-political violence because of
some comments including a reference
to you wanting to smack the blank
out of I believe it was Ted Cruz.
Which is less incendiary than many
of the things I say [LAUGH] about
Ted Cruz on a normal week.
What do you think about that?
Obviously, political violence is
a big topic in America over
the past six months or so for
obvious reasons.
How do you respond to that sort of
criticism coming from Fox News?
>> I think he's rich, I think it's
a lesson to really be careful with
the words that you say but to clear
the air, I think it was right after
Trayvon Martin had died.
I went to an event,
there was people that was impacted
by his murder, and at that event,
all of a sudden these people just
started matching in with some bow
ties and I looked up and
it was Farrah Khan there.
So this is a person I only usually
see on TV, so I just tweeted out
fair countenance here.
[LAUGH]. >> And that
was considered very inflammatory.
>> Yeah. >> You stated the fact.
Yes, so I want to make sure,
I know that we're very early on
this process, normally
when we talk to candidates,
we ask sort of how they want
potential viewers who might want to
help them out to help them out.
But I have to admit at this point
with the pandemic still existing,
I don't know what
campaigning is like,
I know what it was like last year.
So at this stage,
what is your campaign looking for?
How can people in your
district possibly help out?
>> Yeah, thank you for asking it.
I mean it's very simple,
volunteering and
money is the two things that we
definitely need at this point.
The reason why we started so
early is because I'm
not independently wealthy.
There's a redistricting issue that
could happen here and we won't find
out until late January of next year
whether that happens or not.
And, I don't have the funds to just
jump in at that time, and
we wanted to run a serious race for
the people here who need help.
Go to odessaforcongress.com,
go to any of the social media
platforms whatever you can give, we
appreciate it, even if it's telling
your friend, your mama or your rich
friend give Odessa some money.
What we don't want to be as one of
those campaigns the wealth
gap is a real thing.
A lot of people come in at the end
of campaigns and give money, but
by that time, the other
candidate has a 19 month start.
So, we're really trying to reach
that goal right here in this
moment, so
that you can hear my voice.
This is a campaign I hope that
all of you out there are proud of,
because it's me telling a story,
and using this platform to tell
the story of real everyday
hard working people.
>> Okay, Odesa Kelly running in
the fifth district of Tennessee,
appreciate you joining us on
the show today.
Thank you very much.
>> Thank you for having me.
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