“Well, what a summer it’s been!” says Joan Neal at the start of this week’s episode. And August only just began!
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind in U.S. politics. A shooting targeting former president Trump left many injured and two people, including the shooter, dead. Coming off a debate performance that raised concerns about his age, President Biden withdrew his bid for reelection and quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman in U.S. history to be the presumptive nominee of a major party. And just this past week, Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate—with only 85 days left until the 2024 election.
To make sense of all this, Laura Peralta-Schulte joins Just Politics this week. Peralta-Schulte is the senior director of public policy and government relations at NETWORK.
“While the media likes to focus on the horse races … what we’re really talking about is who is going to represent us that will pass paid leave, make sure kids are not hungry, make sure that everybody has access to affordable healthcare,” Peralta-Schulte says.
Sometimes, hearing from policy wonks can leave us feeling like things are actually worse than we thought. But Peralta-Schulte offers a hopeful read of this election season, pointing to the many people already engaging with energy, inspiration, and solidarity. “It’s not Pentecost,” she says, “but it seems like it sometimes when you have folks going to their parishes and doing voter education and voter registration in places like Cleveland.”
Peralta-Schulte points to NETWORK’s online resources and tools that anyone can use to get informed on the issues, find voter registration and polling place information, and take action. And she offers an invitation to NETWORK’s Nuns on the Bus & Friends tour, hitting the road this fall.
Learn more about what’s going on, what you can do, and why we remain hopeful and engaged on this week’s episode of the Just Politics podcast.
NETWORK Advocates is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing the principles of Catholic social justice and does not endorse or oppose any candidate or party in the upcoming election.
Additional Resources:
- NETWORK’s 2024 Election Resource Page
- NETWORK’s Equally Sacred Checklist
- Nuns on the Bus & Friends “Vote Our Future” Tour
Transcript:
Joan Neal: Well, what a summer it’s been. No, it’s not your imagination. This has been a chaotic several weeks and we’re all feeling the strain. In late June, what began as a bad night on the debate stage for President Joe Biden led to several weeks of unrelented questions about his age and whether he should continue his bid for a second term. Meanwhile, on July 13th, a shooter at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania injured several people, including former president Donald Trump, and killed one person before dying at the hands of Secret Service. This ugly event served as a reminder that the specter of political violence always lurks in the background.
The following week saw a tumultuous Republican National Convention, followed quickly by President Biden’s decision on July 21st to become the first sitting U.S. president to withdraw his bid for reelection since 1968. And his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris means for the first time in U.S. history, a Black woman will receive the nomination of a major party.
We now find ourselves amidst a newly announced vice presidential pick, Minnesota governor Tim Walz. And, the Democratic Convention kicks off next week in Chicago, also for the first time since 1968, with only 85 days left till the 2024 election. Yes, it has been intense and unprecedented. That’s why we need to stay spiritually grounded and keep a healthy perspective while on this journey. And frankly, keep hope alive!
Eilis McCulloh, HM: And we can think of no better person to welcome back to Just Politics than NETWORK’s Senior Director of Government Relations and Public Policy, Laura Peralta-Schulte, to offer some perspective on all of these events.
We checked in with Laura last week, just minutes after the announcement of the vice-presidential pick.
Laura Peralta-Schulte: It is so good to be with you, Eilis. Thank you so much for having me today.
Eilis: So Laura, as Joan talked about, we know that this summer has been packed with significant political developments. As someone who has been working on federal politics for over 30 years, I think, how did all of this hit you?
Laura: Well, I must say, when Joan said “unprecedented,” she is exactly correct. This is really unique in U.S. history for a sitting president, this late in the game, to step away from his bid, in terms of President Biden. So the beauty is that the elegance around his stepping down, his quick endorsement of Vice President Harris, you know, just was met with such enormous… there was a beauty to it, in terms of folks embracing her as the Vice President. She was able to garner quick endorsements from key players. She was able to raise and is still raising substantial amounts of money, which is very, very necessary in a presidential race.
And for me personally, I have enjoyed a kind of waking up. There is a lot of joy about talking about coconuts and brat! And I think the clever thing is they’re dipping into the culture. And I think today’s announcement, as Joan said, with Governor Walz is really going to kind of move that forward. I suppose we’re going to see pictures of him at his county farm and with his young daughter and it’s just energy. So I think it sets up for very interesting contest, frankly a contrast as we head to the polls in November.
Eilis: Excellent, I love that this like new energy is surrounding us, given kind of the tension and the struggle that so many of us have felt for the last month or so, or two months. And so when we were thinking about talking to you, what I kept hearing in my head is how at our meetings, you always say like, “don’t lose focus, stay on the mission.” So with the shifts from Biden to Vice President Harris, with everything else going on, what is our focus right now? What do we need to be focused on?
Laura: So I would just say we are in, at least in terms of the campaign cycle, in a bit of a honeymoon when you’re looking at the vice president and Governor Walz. I suspect that it’s no coincidence, perhaps, 68 in Chicago was tumultuous, to say the least. You know, there is still a lot of tension simmering in the Democratic Party, particularly over issues of peace. And so, I guess I have curiosity as to what next week looks like.
Again, I think there has been a very concerted effort, and you saw that yesterday with the announcement that the vice president has secured all of the nominations necessary to win the nod. I think that the party has done as best they can to kind of line up the ducks so that it can be as smooth as possible to move that forward.
I really have to give a lot of that credit, frankly, to President Biden. Because it must have been, after 50 years, a very painful decision to step away. But the elegance! There are rare times in my life that I’ve seen politicians so beautifully transition power, you know, to the next generation. So I think that it is both the vice president herself doing an outstanding job, obviously staff, and President Biden. So we will have to live into what happens next week in terms of the convention.
I think we just need to be also very aware: this will be a close election. And while Trump has definitely come off of the honeymoon from the convention, as has, I think, vice presidential pick Vance. You know, it’s going to be competitive.
So, the mission that you’re talking about, Eilis, is making sure that people understand what’s at risk and making sure that people are voting for a vigorous democracy where everybody can thrive, without exception. So that maintains to be the mission. That is the mission of NETWORK as a part of the Catholic community, knowing that there are a lot of issues that we deeply, deeply care about, at stake.
Eilis: Excellent. You teed up this next question very well. You know, as we’re talking to folks in the field, they know that everyone is focused on the presidential campaign. But there are still key issues that we need to be paying attention to, that we need to be watching what’s going on in Congress and how people are talking about different legislation and policies. So what are some of those key issues? And then, how can we best prepare our community to engage with them and to still know what’s going on, on that level?
Laura: Sure, I’ll just give two quick examples, Eilis, in terms of congressional action. The first is, I just need to report in about the child tax credit. Because we have been working tooth and nail to get additional benefits to families, particularly after some of the COVID packages where you saw child poverty reduced by half. So that has been a mission, to try to get back those supports to families.
My colleague, Jarett, is leading the way with members in Congress. We did an outstanding job passing an improved child tax credit through the House of Representatives. That is no small feat, given the lack of action in that body. Overwhelming support for extending the child tax credit, along with some business tax credits that had expired.
And we have been working very hard in the Senate to move that forward. And frankly, the political calendar completely shut down the conversation. We were finally able to convince the leadership to put that bill on the floor last week. And the only reason why it lost is because of politics. There were members of Congress who decided it was in their political interest not to move that forward. So that’s 16 million kids that will not be receiving the benefits they need for school supplies in the fall, for food and everything else. So that is really a very deep disappointment.
And in this very perilous time, there’s a contrast. And it really, I think, Eilis, makes the point that politics is a decision. Because you probably remember how painful it was to get the funding bills through FY24. My God, it was pulling tooth and nail, particularly with the House trying to cut all of the programs we care about — food, housing, support for maternal health. While at the same time, the two women in the Senate — Patty Murray, Senator Murray from Washington and Senator Collins, Republican from Maine — kind of quietly working, you know, on behalf of the common good. We’ve got that same dynamic here this year. So we’ve got the House teeing up bills that are so bad, the Republican caucus is even refusing to pass them, while you’ve got the women of the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, working beautifully together to fund the kind of programs that we seek.
So we just have to remember while the media likes to focus on the horse races – ‘who’s ahead today, what does that look like?’ – you know, what we’re really talking about is who is going to represent us that will pass paid leave, make sure kids are not hungry, make sure that everybody has access to affordable healthcare. These are the real issues.
Eilis: Excellent. And I think it’s so important that people stay focused on that. There are huge, big issues at play that affect our communities, that affect our schools, our healthcare systems. And it really ties into our Equally Sacred Checklist that we’ve been sharing at NETWORK. So I’m wondering if, from your point of view, what are ways that our field, that people can keep us or keep our country on track during these next few months?
Laura: I have been so proud of our Grassroots Mobilization team and our Communications team because I think the work that they do is really on the pulse of where we need to be. As you know, NETWORK’s Communications team has put together beautiful tools and content so people can understand the issues that we’re voting for. We’re voting to make sure that our climate survives generations from now, intact, so that our communities can thrive. We’re voting on the freedom to be free from harm — so issues of gun control, supporting safe communities for marginalized communities, including the LGBTQ community. We’re voting for health care… all of the tools that have been put together come straight out of our call as Christians, as Catholics, recognizing that there are so many issues that need to be resolved so that our communities can thrive. So I’ve just been proud of those tools that are readily available for folks to use.
Also, when you look at data, in terms of voting, oftentimes the problem is not that people don’t get the content. It’s that we have an extremely confusing system. I know we were talking about this the other day with Latina and Latino voters. If you are kind of new to the country, you’re oftentimes coming from a country where the country signs you up to vote, you don’t have to sign up! And, you don’t have to change your registration when you move from apartment A to apartment B.
So really the tools that Comms [NETWORK’s Communications team] has pulled together as to the “how,” are really critical for our community to be effective in terms of reaching out into communities that might be a little different from their own. You’ve got to be culturally-competent as you’re moving forward. And I think the tools that we have are really excellent to do that.
And finally, Eilis, the Grassroots Mobilization team has been in the field, in the field! Making sure that people have everything they need to be successful in talking to folks. Those are sacred conversations. I’ve been so proud to be a part of NETWORK and see that happen in real time.
I’ve been equally as proud as people have caught the fire. It’s not Pentecost, but it seems like it sometimes when you have folks going to their parishes and doing voter education and voter registration in places like Cleveland. I don’t know, it does my heart good. It reminds me that D.C. can be kind of a narrow place, very detached from the reality of most American lives. And I just, I’m glad to see it catching fire and people taking action. Really at the encouragement, I think it is, of the Holy Spirit. So it’s been very, very exciting to watch.
Eilis: Excellent. I just want to lift up the one thing you said about, you know, voter registration and checking, and the differences. Just last night or the other day, I was on an advocates team meeting and someone who serves as a poll worker said that he received a text message that he was no longer registered to vote. And it was a scam message. And so he knew to immediately go to the Board of Elections website and check to make sure that he was still registered.
But I think what you’ve highlighted is the importance to really continually check your registration and know where you’re voting, when you’re voting, all of those things. Because so often we hear stories of people either getting purged from the rolls, or your polling location changes and you don’t realize it and you show up and you’re at the wrong location the day-of, or just things like that.
Laura: Eilis, you are raising a very dark side of what is happening. And I think we just have to really name that. The voter disinformation is very real. You probably picked up the paper yesterday and saw that the Justice Department in some states asked Elon Musk to pull down one of his tools, one of the chat boxes, because it was full of voter disinformation.
I know Joan has mentioned this over time. There is and will continue to be very strategic voter disengagement actions, both by folks in the United States and frankly, our intelligence is picking up players outside of the United States, think Russia and China. We’ve got to be on our toes because there are folks that think it is strategic for people not to vote. And so whether it is states that have put in new barriers to voting — and that has been a strategy of some at the state level to make it harder, not easier for people to vote — whether it is online and the disinformation… We have 85 days left. We’ve got to really focus, because part of it is going to be bringing people in and part of it is going to be making sure that you are there, Eilis, to answer those calls so that people don’t stay home, that they have the ability to exercise their vote.
Eilis: I think that’s excellent. So kind of one last question on this is, we’re doing something really exciting this year at NETWORK, and we’re going on the road with Nuns on the Bus & Friends. Can you talk a little bit about the significance of our bus trip this year and why that is important?
Laura: I love that we have brought back Nuns on the Bus this time with a bit of a different twist! Because we know the threat of white Christian nationalism is real in our country. We know that we’ve all got to be together, in terms of defeating it. So this year, we will have our Catholic sisters, because we’re going to follow their lead as we have for 52 years. That is mission for us. And we are excited that we have some wonderful sisters at each leg of the trip that are going to be leading us.
And, it’s important that we have partners, so that our Jewish partners, Muslim partners, our secular partners, they all feel part of a call to vote our future. I am excited about it!
We have the locations based on our website. We’re going to be doing everything from rallies in Philly to town halls in certain locations, to — one of our favorite things — visiting service providers who are just doing the work of the hands and feet of the church, and doing good work to meet the needs of communities. We want to brag a little bit about the good work that they’re doing because oftentimes the political narrative is, “this can’t be done.” And we know when we are together that anything can be accomplished. So that is really the vision, the work that we want to lift up on the bus.
Eilis: Excellent. I know I’m excited for the bus and so many people that we talk to are just thrilled and, I think, wish that we could land in every single city across the country and visit it. So with the bus, you can definitely find out more information on our website on nunsonthebus.org.
And so for our final question today, we want to talk a little bit about hope. And we know that the Holy Spirit is at work among us. So how do you see the movement of the Holy Spirit here and now?
Laura: I love that question. It is the most important question, I think, of the conversation. We are an Easter people. We are called to be people of hope. That is who we are when we believe in the resurrected Christ. Even in the midst of darkness, we’ve got to keep hope.
So, I always like to have places where I find it very readily identified. And just, I would say, for this campaign, I have found it with NETWORK. I’ve found it in the work that you are doing and the Grassroots Mobilization team is doing. I find it in the work that Comms [NETWORK’s Communications Team] is doing, communicating the gospel, because that’s what we’re doing. We’re communicating the gospel to people that need that good word. And I’m thinking about Joan’s work on white Christian nationalism and really naming it, taking it out of the shadows where it so often lurks and bringing it right into the forefront of the conversation so that we can identify it and defeat it. And I know that is not the work of one day, that is a work of a lifetime, but that is sacred work.
So to anybody listening, if you are in search of hope, I hope you join us, because life needs to be lived in community. And I think we have resources and certainly the staff that could embrace you. If you are feeling lonely, no reason to be alone. Come join us. Come join us at the bus!
Eilis: Amen. Thank you so much, Laura, for joining us for this conversation.
Laura: Oh, happy to be here. Thank you.
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