Built in the Hard Places

A Voice for Missouri, A Contract with the People

Tonight on It Takes a Village, Political Jess sat down with Democratic congressional candidate Matthew Levine, who is running for Missouri’s 6th Congressional District — a sprawling rural district where people are tired, frustrated, underrepresented, and frankly exhausted by politicians who seem more interested in cable news appearances and corporate donors than the actual human beings trying to survive in their communities. And honestly?That frustration sat at the center of this entire conversation. Because this episode wasn’t just about one campaign.It was about trust.Or more specifically:the complete collapse of trust in American government. The Village dug into the growing anger boiling across rural America, where hospitals are closing, schools are underfunded, wages are stagnant, healthcare is crushing families, and politicians keep showing up every election season pretending they suddenly discovered working people exist. Matt Levine spoke openly about why he decided to run:watching elected officials ignore the people they were supposed to represent,watching legislation benefit corporations over communities,and watching voters in Missouri repeatedly have their voices overridden by lawmakers who simply did not care what the public actually voted for. And throughout the interview, one theme kept coming back over and over again:representation is supposed to mean service.Not enrichment.Not celebrity.Not insider trading with better lighting. Service. Which led directly into one of the biggest moments of the night:the creation of The Village Pledge. Not a branding gimmick.Not campaign fluff.Not another meaningless politician PDF full of words like “unity” and “innovation” while somebody quietly sells the country for stock options behind the curtain. A contract. A public contract between candidates and the people they claim to represent. Political Jess unveiled the framework for what would become The Village Pledge live on air — a sweeping commitment centered around accountability, anti-corruption, public transparency, working families, civil rights, healthcare, education, judicial accountability, and the rejection of personal enrichment through public office. The pledge explicitly rejects: * insider profiteering * corporate influence over legislation * backroom deals * political favoritism * lobbyist corruption * post-office enrichment schemes * politicians using public service as a stepping stone to personal wealth. And perhaps most importantly:it establishes that public office is not ownership.It is not entitlement.It is service. That distinction matters deeply to the Village. Because after years of watching politicians campaign like populists and govern like investment bankers with flag pins, the Village is done handing out blind loyalty. Support will now come with standards. Real standards. Not performative outrage.Not social media slogans.Not empty promises made during election season before vanishing into donor dinners and consultant group chats. The Village Pledge is designed to become a public accountability tool:a baseline expectation for candidates seeking the support, money, volunteer hours, amplification, and trust of this community. And Matt Levine didn’t hesitate. Throughout the conversation, he repeatedly emphasized that government officials should be accountable to the people first, that lawmakers should not profit from public office, and that ordinary people deserve representatives who actually understand the realities they face every day. The discussion covered: * collapsing trust in Congress * healthcare affordability * IVF accessibility * attacks on public education * free school lunches * workers’ rights * paid family leave * rural hospital closures * reproductive freedom * LGBTQ rights * corruption in government * judicial accountability * and the growing disconnect between politicians and working-class Americans. But underneath all of it was one giant uncomfortable truth:people are tired of being governed by politicians who seem to see public office as a business opportunity instead of a responsibility. And the Village is tired too. Tired of politicians who magically become millionaires while constituents ration insulin.Tired of lawmakers who campaign as “outsiders” before immediately cashing checks from corporate lobbyists.Tired of watching Congress behave like a dysfunctional HOA with nuclear capabilities. So this episode marked a shift. Not just interviewing candidates.Vetting them. Demanding commitments.Demanding transparency.Demanding accountability before endorsement, before money, before volunteer labor, before support. Because the Village is not building a fandom. It’s building a movement. And movements survive by holding power accountable — even when that power wears your own party’s jersey. The Village Pledge is the beginning of that accountability. And if candidates want the Village standing beside them,they’re going to have to prove they’re willing to stand with the people first. Get full access to It Takes a Village Politics at ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe [https://ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Nevertheless, She Persisted Off

Tonight on It Takes a Village, Political Jess lights the entire patriarchal group chat on fire with a conversation about women in the year of our lord 2026 — how far we’ve come, how much we’ve survived, and how exhausting it is watching some people try to drag us backward with the energy of a haunted church pamphlet and a podcast microphone. This episode is furious.It’s funny.It’s deeply personal.And honestly? It’s long overdue. Because the Village is talking about the war on women — not as a single law, election, or Supreme Court ruling, but as a system. A system that has spent centuries limiting women’s choices while pretending those limitations were somehow “protection.” We’re talking history.We’re talking bodily autonomy.We’re talking economic control.We’re talking the fact that women in America once couldn’t own property, open bank accounts, keep wages, access credit, or leave marriages without proving they had suffered “enough.” And somehow, in 2026, we’re still debating whether women deserve full control over their own bodies, healthcare, marriages, and futures. Cool cool cool.Very freedom.Very democracy.Very “land of the free unless you have a uterus and a Wi-Fi connection.” Political Jess breaks down the terrifying reality that rights for women in America are now increasingly determined by geography — where crossing state lines can change your bodily autonomy faster than a gas station bathroom key exchange. The panel dives into: * attacks on reproductive healthcare * the backlash against women’s independence * economic inequality * no-fault divorce * domestic violence * medical misogyny * motherhood and fear * how patriarchy trains women to survive while rewarding men for simply existing comfortably inside systems built for them. And through all of it runs one giant uncomfortable truth:Women are no longer asking permission. That’s the real panic.Not birth rates.Not “traditional values.”Not whatever nonsense some mediocre podcast philosopher is crying about between crypto ads. Independence. Because once women can own homes, leave bad marriages, reject bad men, build wealth, choose careers, delay motherhood, control reproduction, and exist outside male approval, patriarchy starts looking a lot less like “nature” and a lot more like what it always was:a power structure terrified of losing control. The Village also gets painfully honest about the emotional labor women carry every single day:raising daughters in a world that still teaches girls how not to get hurt instead of teaching boys not to harm,navigating male-dominated workplaces,being talked over,being underestimated,being told to smile more,being expected to absorb pain quietly,and somehow still being asked to hold society together while being treated like a supporting character in our own damn story. But this episode is not hopeless. Not even close. Because underneath the rage is something stronger:women who survived anyway.Women who built anyway.Women who organized anyway.Women who loved, led, worked, raised families, created businesses, fought systems, protected communities, and carved out freedom anyway. This conversation is messy, raw, heartbreaking, hilarious, and deeply human.It’s about mothers raising daughters.Women raising sons differently.Men learning to stand beside instead of in front.And the Village refusing to quietly hand over rights that generations of women bled to secure. So if you’ve ever been told you were “too loud,” “too emotional,” “too ambitious,” “too difficult,” “too angry,” or “too much” — congratulations. You are probably paying attention. And the Village is very glad you’re here. Get full access to It Takes a Village Politics at ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe [https://ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Cancel the Reality Show

Tonight on It Takes a Village, Political Jess sits down with Oklahoma congressional candidate Jeff Pixley for a conversation about chaos, courage, and why some of the most important fights in America are happening in the places political consultants already gave up on. Because here’s the thing the Village understands that establishment politics never seems to:People still live in these districts. Families live there.Workers live there.Teachers live there.Queer kids live there.People struggling to afford groceries and insulin and rent live there. And if we claim to care about democracy, we do not get to abandon entire communities just because the map is hard. Jeff Pixley is running in Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District against longtime Republican incumbent Tom Cole in what many pundits would smugly label “an impossible race.” Which is adorable, honestly, because impossible races are where movements are born. Jeff is not a polished career politician manufactured in a donor-funded laboratory somewhere beneath Washington, D.C. He’s a retired Air Force colonel who spent 35 years serving this country, walked away from military service rather than compromise his oath, and decided that if democracy was heading toward the guardrail, somebody needed to grab the damn wheel. This episode dives headfirst into the exhaustion so many Americans are carrying right now — the feeling that we’re trapped in the world’s worst reality show while billionaires profit off the chaos and working people drown in it. Political Jess and Jeff unpack everything from social media rage cycles and billionaire influence to collapsing trust in institutions, voter burnout, attacks on public education, healthcare failures, and the deliberate strategy of keeping Americans too exhausted and divided to organize effectively. But underneath all of the fury is something far more dangerous to authoritarianism:hope. Not performative hope.Not “thoughts and prayers” hope.Village hope. The stubborn kind.The working-class kind.The kind that shows up in impossible districts and knocks doors anyway. Jeff talks candidly about why Democrats cannot continue abandoning rural America, why low voter turnout is a symptom of hopelessness, and why representation matters even in places where the odds feel brutal. Because every uncontested district becomes permission for extremism to spread further. Every ignored community becomes easier to manipulate. And every underdog willing to stand up anyway becomes proof that democracy is not dead yet. The Village also tackles something bigger in this episode:What if the goal isn’t just to survive the chaos?What if the goal is to interrupt it? That means organizing instead of doomscrolling.Showing up instead of spectating.Caring about races that aren’t flashy or guaranteed wins.Building coalitions instead of purity tests.And refusing to let billionaires turn the rest of us into contestants in their little reality-TV collapse simulator. This episode is full of righteous rage, sharp humor, hard truths, and enough inspirational sass to keep democracy goblins fueled through at least three existential crises and one Supreme Court decision. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, furious, politically homeless, or one bad headline away from moving into the woods and screaming at satellites, this episode is for you. Because the Village does not believe in disposable communities.And we do not believe in impossible races. We believe in showing up anyway. Get full access to It Takes a Village Politics at ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe [https://ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Built in the Hard Places

Tonight on It Takes a Village, Political Jess sits down with Oklahoma congressional candidate Brandon Wade for a conversation that feels a little bit like group therapy for democracy goblins and a little bit like the opening scene of a revolution. This episode is deeply Village at its core: ordinary people refusing to surrender their communities to extremism, corruption, and billionaire-sponsored nonsense. Because while cable news is busy obsessing over the same five swing districts and whichever millionaire consultant currently has a podcast microphone glued to their face, there are working-class underdogs quietly stepping into impossible races all over this country and saying, “No. My people deserve representation too.” Brandon Wade is one of those people. He’s not a polished career politician factory-assembled in a DC focus group laboratory. He’s a union guy. A working-class organizer. A candidate running in one of the reddest districts in America because he believes rural communities are not disposable. Farmers matter. Teachers matter. Small towns matter. Poor people matter. And the people living in places political strategists wrote off years ago still deserve somebody willing to fight like hell for them. And honestly? That is the Village. This episode tackles the very real urgency of organizing in places Democrats too often abandon. Because movements are not built exclusively in safe blue bubbles with oat milk lattes and excellent Wi-Fi. Sometimes movements are built in hard places. Rural places. Forgotten places. Places where people have been told their vote doesn’t matter for so long that they stopped believing they were worth fighting for at all. But the Village believes something radically different:Every community deserves hope.Every district deserves opposition.And every extremist seat left uncontested becomes a permission slip for more cruelty. Political Jess and Brandon dive into everything from gerrymandering and corporate greed to collapsing public education, attacks on bodily autonomy, voter suppression, and the absolute clown car of modern American politics. There is snark. There is righteous fury. There is hope held together with duct tape, caffeine, and pure stubbornness. There are repeated reminders that democracy currently survives because exhausted people continue showing up anyway. The conversation also highlights the importance of local organizing and voter education tools like Vote411 [https://www.vote411.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] — because checking your registration, learning your ballot, and showing up for primaries is not “extra credit.” It is survival homework for democracy. As Jen reminds the Village during this episode, too many voters are arriving at the polls only to discover they are no longer registered, and that is exactly why preparation matters right now. This episode is for the exhausted people.The furious people.The people one bad headline away from running into the woods to scream at passing Teslas.The people who are scared but still showing up.The people building community while everything around them feels intentionally designed to crush it. Most importantly, this episode is a reminder that underdogs matter. Because history has never been changed by comfortable people waiting politely for permission. It has always been changed by stubborn people in impossible places who decided to fight anyway. Get full access to It Takes a Village Politics at ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe [https://ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

From the Back of the Ambulance to the Ballot

“We rise together, louder than fear.” That’s how we open. And this episode lived up to it. This week on It Takes a Village, we sat down with Bernard Taylor, firefighter, EMT, community organizer, and candidate for Congress in Florida’s 21st District — and we didn’t just talk politics. We talked about what it looks like when policy failure shows up in the back of an ambulance. We talked about seniors rationing insulin.Moms working two or three jobs just to keep the lights on.Families debating whether to call 911 because they can’t afford the bill. That’s not theoretical.That’s not a talking point.That’s lived experience. Bernard’s “camel moment” wasn’t a headline — it was watching real people suffer inside a system built for profit instead of people. And here’s what hit hardest: He’s not running because it’s glamorous.He’s running because he’s already doing the work. * Feeding 100 families at Thanksgiving. * Showing up at protests. * Knocking doors instead of dialing for dollars. * Building name recognition the old-fashioned way: by being present. In a political moment obsessed with consultants, PAC money, and insider strategy, this campaign is a reminder that grassroots still means something. We also had the hard conversation. About party pressure.About “the machine.”About what happens when progressive candidates are expected to fall in line. And here’s what mattered: Bernard didn’t dodge.He didn’t sugarcoat.He didn’t pretend the system isn’t stacked. But he also didn’t give up. He talked universal healthcare.Trade pathways for high school grads.Breaking corporate control over housing.Cutting waste where it exists and funding what actually helps people. Not ideology for ideology’s sake. Relief.Real relief.Tangible relief. And maybe the most powerful thread of the night? Hope. Not the fluffy, passive kind.The organized kind. The kind that feeds families.The kind that shows up at city council meetings.The kind that registers neighbors to vote block by block. This episode is for anyone who thinks: * “I care, but I’m not political.” * “I don’t have money to give.” * “I don’t know where to start.” Start small.Start local.Start where you live. Because democracy isn’t a spectator sport — and it was never designed to be convenient. Village, if this conversation lit something in you, don’t let it burn out.Grab the merch.Support the candidates who actually show up. And then? Knock on a door.Register a neighbor.Host a vote party.Become a poll worker.Call your precinct chair. This is how power is built. Not by waiting.Not by hoping someone else fixes it. But by rising together — louder than fear. Get full access to It Takes a Village Politics at ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe [https://ittakesavillagepolitics.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]