Federalist Party NPC Elections HQ

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

St. Louis, MO

This speech was held to bolster Federalist candidates for Missouri State and Local Government. All Covid precautions listed in the previous event applied likewise to this event.

Good Morning Missouri!

Today I want to speak with you about the importance of getting out to vote next week for Federalist State Government. As the recent regional polices have demonstrated, the Federalist Party is committed to the interest of the people on main street and this is especially when it comes to infrastructure. We believe that when done responsibly infrastructure can bolster the economy, promote jobs and not break the bank financially.

Such are the projections for the regionally passed dam project and the benefits to the state of Missouri are going to be substantial. Of course, there are many other important reasons to get out and vote for Federalists for state Government as well and I have noted them frequently, from respecting local control to protecting your freedom and natural rights and of course preserving the fiscal responsibility that will keep your taxes low.

I therefore encourage you to get out to the polls and vote to elect a Federalist Governor and a Federalist Majority so that we can have the same kind of main street first governance here in Missouri that we have at the regional level. Your vote and your voice can be the crucial difference this election, so lets not let that go to waste.


Thank You and Have a Blessed Day!!!

[Joseph Cao]

[Shortly after his campaign launch in Bloomington–Normal, Representative Cao headed north to join the Federalist mayor’s own re-election launch in Hermosa at a limited-seating event livestreamed on party platforms and social media; masks were optional for verifiably vaccinated attendees and required for all others. The Representative’s opening speech is reprinted below for public release.]

Chicago!!!

It is good to be back. And it’s great to see you all out here tonight! I must say it’s a welcome change to see that enough of you have been vaccinated; all credit to the administration in Lincoln for what in the end was a beautifully smooth rollout. As the representative who brought the federal vaccine rollout effort through the House, it’s an especially important demonstration of what politics can be.

And on that note, if you haven’t heard, I am in fact running to return to Congress; this isn’t the last you’ll see of me over the next two weeks. But I’m not the focus this evening. That honor lies with a leader who has shown the same commitment to solving problems for the people of Chicago, who I’m honored to be with here at our joint campaign launch this evening. The Mayor’s track record on guiding this city through a succession of crises is a credit to Chicagoans, and the strides we’ve made under this administration in rehabilitating our vulnerable communities is exactly what this city needs as it emerges from that pandemic, from the economic fallout, from the social fragmentation we’ve seen firsthand in this city and this state. We’ll continue laying out the actions your Mayor has taken in events to come, but I want to make one thing clear to begin with. This progress has been made because of Mayor Hernandez’s belief in federalism as the best means to bring about all the possibilities of politics on behalf of the individuals and communities it prioritizes. This was an administration that extended far beyond what would have been possible with only the mayor at the helm; it’s been, as close as any government can credibly claim, an administration by, of, and for Chicagoans.

I don’t doubt that the national media will fall all over themselves in making vague accusations against the mayor; they seem to be doing so already. But Chicagoans are a pragmatic lot and don’t swallow that stuff easily. The pundits seem to want to believe that the most active campaign Illinois ever saw was spearheaded by an invisible mayor, and in my unasked-for opinion they’re more than welcome to do so. It’s a free country! I hardly think, however, that the people of Chicago and the communities that have seen frequent visits from the mayor will agree with them. If the campaigns of the past months are any indication – if the current conventional wisdom about this race is any indication – we’re going to see a lot more of this airheadery in the coming weeks focused on bashing the mayor for unsubstantiated allegations and caricatures of scary out-of-touch fat cats. But this administration has overseen a new day for Chicago grounded in the conciliatory and optimistic tone we struck last November, and if others need a fresh reminder of what that means we will be more than willing to give it. We don’t want any more us versus them! And it we can help it, there will be no outside attempts to artificially divide Chicagoans and pit them against each other; we’ve had more than enough of that in the past.

Mayor Hernandez here isn’t a stranger to overcoming huge partisan deficits, or defying the conventional wisdom with one of the largest polling swings this nation has ever seen. And in the weeks ahead we’re going to do just what Chicago needs: reach out to all inhabitants of this great city, all communities regardless of their situation or who they support, because that’s just what’s expected of a public official elected to serve all of Chicago. It’s certainly my hope that the next weeks help Chicagoans make a more informed choice about the races on their ballot – mine, the mayor’s, the presidential and regional races – and if that happens, regardless of the outcome, it’ll be the result I hope for. The mayor as well, I am sure, though don’t take my word for it: folks, please give a warm welcome to the Mayor of Chicago!

[Joseph Cao]

[Ad airing in the Chicago television market and online until Election Day.]

“THE WINDY CITY”

[We open with wind whistling through the gaps between buildings as J.S. Bach’s “Air” plays softly in the background.]

NARRATOR: Chicago’s faced enormous headwinds over the past year.

[The camera pans across the Loop skyline, a housing area in Bridgeport, and a crowded street in the South Side with a gust of wind kicking up dust eddies on the pavement.]

NARRATOR: A pandemic that hobbled our city. A housing crisis. A breakdown of public trust in our institutions and in each other.

VOTER 1: We don’t always agree with what the mayor does, but you can’t argue with the leadership that Mayor Hernandez has shown in guiding Chicago out of the pandemic.

LABOR COUNCILWOMAN: I give the mayor credit for recognizing that running our city isn’t a job for just one person. Do sparks fly between us sometimes? Sure they do. Still, we’ve been proud to work alongside each other and bring to life our visions for what Chicago can be – from reinvigorating our communities to improving our environmental footprint.

VOTER 2: That’s the kind of leadership we need.

VOTER 1: The leadership Chicago needs in the coming months.

VOTER 2: That’s why I’m voting for Mayor Hernandez, and for leadership for all Chicagoans.

[As “Air” fades out, the screen fades to orange with the election date and the mayoral campaign logo prominently displayed.]

[Cut to a brief shot of the mayor’s office.]

MAYOR: I’m Mayor Hernandez, and I approve this message.

[Joseph Cao]

[The afternoon brought Mr. Cao and the mayor east to Streeterville and adjacent areas near the north side of the Loop for continued voter registration efforts, which concluded with another small event in the neighborhood at which the mayor gave the opening speech. Mr. Cao’s own speech is reprinted below.]

Glad to see you folks here. And my thanks to the Mayor for that excellent speech regarding the actions taken on the pandemic and other crises which Chicago has braved in recent months, actions which wouldn’t have been possible without the people having spoken loudly and clearly on them and the mayor’s classical Federalist determination to giving the communities of Chicago what they need.

It’s D-Day today, and after the muted celebrations we had here last year it’s been good to watch the commemorations return to full public view. We have precious few WWII vets left with us to tell us what they went through, less still of those who were present at Normandy; their stories and testimonies of what the war was have become even more important as a result. Not just for historians either – we as a society came out the other side of that war having learned some important lessons which guided us through the next several decades, lessons we may soon forget as these times of trial for our nation fade out of the public consciousness. We ignore those lessons at our own peril; at risk of once again, as the old saying goes, learning nothing from history; in danger of finding ourselves unable to fix the human impact these wars have had on the people who lived and sacrificed and suffered through them.

Streeterville’s just one of the many areas of Chicago whose history has been shaped by the wars of the last century. You can see it in the landmarks, the ebb and flow of its industries, and the stories our fellow neighbors and institutions can still tell. Before its move down to the Loop the Military Museum did a fine job of providing the history of the war on your doorstep, and others like it continue to do that crucial job for Chicagoans and the rest of the Atlasian people. I say crucial because this nation’s past actions continue to affect our policies and visions today in a big way; it’s important that we maintain a good handle on our past in order to understand just how we got here and how we can move forward into our future – to build a bridge to our collective march upward which doesn’t abandon our fellow Chicagoans and doesn’t get trapped by the pitfalls of previous mistakes.

In this we aren’t just talking about WWII any more. Chicago has seen much more than its fair share of conflict over the wars that came after it, for which many more people remain around to testify to the impact they’ve had on our fellow citizens. I’m sure Vietnam stands out in this regard to many of you; it certainly does for me personally. But whether they served in that particularly infamous war or not, the fact remains that many more men and women who have seen war firsthand are still around, detached from society in varying degrees and in many cases still carrying the physical and psychological burdens of their time in uniform. The veterans who served in Vietnam and all the wars before and after that theater remain in need of assistance; we’ve seen this at the federal level most recently with a bill written by my fellow Illinoisan and Chicago’s own former Representative Beeman. But at lower levels of government, particularly here at the state and city level, there’s much more to be done.

The human impact has been at the forefront of the Mayor’s thinking as the administration works to upkeep our hospitals and housing projects and move this city’s public services toward greater functionality and effectiveness for each and every Chicagoan. Just last week, at the mayoral commemoration of Memorial Day, we had a timely report about the actions taken to support veterans under this administration and the problems that still remain to be tackled. And believe me when I say they will be tackled one way or the other. As Mayor Hernandez has just told you, and as I will repeat again because it happens to be a sentiment I fully agree with, the very best way to thank veterans for their service and the least we can do to repay the sacrifices they made is to make sure they get to experience firsthand the fruits of the nation they fought for. And if Atlasia is to remain a great nation, this must become true: not just for veterans, or veterans’ families, but for every marginalized community in this city and across this land.

That’s what Chicago needs, and it’s the kind of people-oriented policy Mayor Hernandez has consistently displayed over the past seven months. I urge the people of this great city to evaluate the candidates as best as you can: not least the candidate who learns from Chicago’s past to help Chicagoans of the present and the future, the mayor who’s fought to help vulnerable communities across this city, and the leader who embodies the best of what the Federalist Party stands for. That is Mayor Hernandez, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Streeterville, and please register and get out to vote!

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao’s presence in Dunning was the result of a concerted push on Thursday morning to assist local precinct captains and volunteers for the Federalist Party in turning out votes in a historically overlooked Chicago neighborhood. The speech given to conclude the canvassing operation, where he was joined by Mayor Hernandez following morning duties at the mayor’s office, served much the same purpose. Participants were either masked or required to show proof of vaccination and the speech was livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

Happy to be here, folks. Thanks to the community leaders who invited us to speak this morning; I know your time is of value, so I’ll do my best to keep my remarks brief. I won’t tax your patience when all of you have been so good as to either mask up or bring your vaccination cards with you today.

A couple of days ago I talked about the problems that continued to face our veterans and other vulnerable members of Chicago’s community. Paramount among these has been mental health, an issue for which the stigma has only recently become marginally less painful and which remains one of those things that causes a great deal of suffering in the people they afflict, and they’ve been especially pernicious as the pandemic ravages our social connections and the means by which they might be treated. How do we get medical attention out to the people who need it? And the fact that our medical dispatchers on the ground have found success in treating an increasing number of mental health-related issues despite this should be nothing but a credit to their abilities.

There have been and are bipartisan efforts to combat the malign effects it has on our citizens, as a recent widely-publicized House bill has shown. That effort has created great strides at the federal level for measures to augment and extend our healthcare system; to lend its capabilities to our continued effort to live up to the preservation of Atlasians’ health as part of our collective life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. But there’s more to be done on the lower levels of government where this stuff actually becomes concrete policy and comes within your view. As we Federalists are fond of saying, there’s value in making sure the governments closest to your daily lives are well-run and serve the people – as best they can, and as far as they can, for as long as they can.

Here in Chicago, the suggestions and cooperation of local leaders and the mayor’s leadership in getting this effort off the ground has resulted in a much better, pandemic-tested system for managing our public hospitals’ responses to places where their services are needed. It’s early days, but we’ve seen much better response rates to all these urgent health needs that the far corners of Chicago put up at all hours of the day. And that’s just the start. In the coming months, the mayor’s got plans for a permanent wage increase for our hardworking, hard-pressed doctors and nurses to formalize that temporary pay raise they had last year, and to begin a full integration of University of Chicago-developed diagnostic tools that our hospitals and medical personnel will be able to make use of in the course of their fight against disease and injury, physical and mental alike.

It’s all a far cry from what Dunning’s name used to be synonymous with: a mental asylum that became a byword for this part of Chicago and the people it attracted. Things change, don’t they? A beauty of this city is just how fast that has happened. Chicago has a long history as one of Atlasia’s premier beacons and attracted many, many hardworking people who have contributed greatly to the city we inhabit today. Our city’s management has belied that sometimes – no, many times. It’s arguable whether we have been able to adequately take care of them and honor their sacrifices and commitments in return; as a thriving community we should have been able to do so then and we should be able to do so now. That’s been something the Mayor has thought long and hard about, which you can see reflected in the policies that this administration has pursued over the past seven months and plans to pursue in the coming term if you re-elect the hard worker here beside me this morning, whose every hour as Mayor has been committed to putting the people of Chicago first.

That forms part of the Federalist commitment to looking out for everyone in the city – this community we all live in and guide into the future together. As long as Mayor Hernandez is able to work for you all in the mayor’s office, that will be the law of the Windy City and you can take that to the bank, to the bar, and most importantly to the ballot box. Thank you all; please now join me in giving a warm welcome to the Mayor!

[Joseph Cao]

[Federalist leaders including Representative Cao spent the afternoon in attendance at a roundtable with the Mayor and community leaders of Humboldt Park. Following the meeting, the Representative delivered another speech outside in the park to a limited masked and/or vaccinated audience, the text of which is provided below.]

Well, thank you to the Mayor for another excellent speech. May there be every success where the city’s situation is concerned! Plans like those just talked about are just that – plans – so we’re going to make sure, as we’ve done in the past, that they pass muster with you the people of Chicago. It’s something the people have taken upon themselves just as you all have shown up protecting yourselves one way or the other, by vaccination or by mask, and I applaud you all for it.

As far as that goes, we are especially focused in on what can be done for the communities the mayor and others are serving here – the Federalist philosophy of public service demands it. And the continued growth of neighborhoods like Humboldt Park must bring long-term benefits for the people who live and work in them. What Mayor Hernandez has been doing here in Humboldt Park, in Hermosa just next door where they’re very proud of the decades of service and advocacy the mayor has undertaken, and in like-minded communities united by the idea of Chicago and its people, has been stimulation and rehabilitation of the potential in their inhabitants: ordinary folks like you all and your friends and families.

We have to say, by the way, that this wouldn’t have taken the form it has now without the much-needed input and cooperation of our fine community leaders and the various watchdogs and advocacy groups who have identified a need in their communities and worked toward it. There isn’t a much better example of that here than the library expansion which members of the community and the local alderman have consistently lobbied for. What made it all the more urgent besides the dire state that some parts of Humboldt Park are in economically was the notice that the library wasn’t able to enforce social distancing during the initial months of the pandemic and had to close for an extended period. So the fact that the need was there and extremely present, and that it dovetailed very neatly with the broader goals of this mayoral administration to invest further in rejuvenation of the South and West Sides, in a smart targeted way rather than simply throwing money at the problems as others have done in the past, was a very good outcome that we were able to get onto almost as soon as the rejuvenation effort began this past December.

The leaders have been able, first of all, to get a reasonably detailed picture from residents here about what they need in the proposed expansion, particularly those near or below the poverty line who stand to benefit most from an additional landmark in the community; the resources and the additional rallying point for the community which this library can better provide from now on will be – indeed, already have been – of invaluable help in helping our kids up the socioeconomic ladder. The library commissioner has been a needed voice from the perspective of needing to balance all of Chicago’s library management issues. And as far as the mayor’s office has been concerned there hasn’t been a single problem with spearheading this. Obviously the West Side has had some experience with Mayor Hernandez’s previous work as a community activist, and some of you may perhaps recall a protracted struggle over educational funding that resulted in much the same result as we are getting over here and in other neighborhoods all across Chicago. And I think that speaks for itself, really, and shows pretty clearly where the mayor’s priorities lie.

Mayor Hernandez’s history of activism from the streets of the West Side to the mayor’s office has had a number of common threads, none more prominent than education and what can be done to reinvigorate poorer communities. So rest assured that we aren’t going to stop until we can say with certainty that every community in Chicago has the resources and drive they need to lift their inhabitants out of the poverty spiral and the rut that changing industrial patterns and the economy and the pandemic have left them in. Libraries like the one being expanded here in Humboldt Park aren’t simply symbols of big important projects, though there is no denying that they may play that role; they impact their communities in a big way, they provide resources that people can use and a safe space for all members of the neighborhood, families and students, young and old folks, people of all walks of life. They are the leading edge of what Chicago’s current rejuvenation program can do to breathe fresh potential into our neighborhoods.

We’ve been proud to support the cause of better libraries, better institutions, and better leadership for Humboldt Park and all across Chicago. There is a rainbow coalition of concerned citizens, community workers, aldermen, council members, all the way up the leadership ladder who agree with it and with what Mayor Hernandez has done to lead it over the past term, and we hope you’ll join them – our communities have benefited tremendously and there’s more to come. Thanks, Humboldt Park, for your time; get out and vote, tell your friends and family, and make your voice heard!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Apologies for butting in, but, how did a Federalist get elected Chicago mayor?

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Apologies for butting in, but, how did a Federalist get elected Chicago mayor?

Same way a Federalist is NYC mayor? Coalitions are different in Atlasia (see: labor holding a ton of rural states)

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Apologies for butting in, but, how did a Federalist get elected Chicago mayor?

Same way a Federalist is NYC mayor? Coalitions are different in Atlasia (see: labor holding a ton of rural states)

Hmm. When you put it that way it makes sense.

[Joseph Cao]

[In the morning, Representative Cao joined the mayor and Federalist precinct leaders for several hours' canvassing in the South Side's neighborhoods, which culminated in a speech in Avalon Park which was livestreamed on Federalist Party websites and social media. Masks were required for attendees without proof of vaccination.]

Good morning, Avalon Park. Glad to see you all out and about, and for those of you who I still see masked up, I do hope you’ll get your vaccinations soon – feel free to talk to the volunteer over there if you’re still hesitant about it; she’s a former vaccine skeptic who can tell you exactly what she found out about the pros and cons of the available vaccines.

Though the fact that not too many of you are still wearing masks, and that a lot of you are jabbed and ready to resume normal life, is a good sign of how far along with the return to normality we’ve managed to get. At this point, I may say, we’re pretty close to the barrier we talked about during a congressional debate over the vaccination incentives bill which passed some time ago: the issue of the final small proportion of people who have their concerns about the vaccine itself. I’m not going to lump them all into the anti-vaxxer herd, not with the broad latitude of views on display here in Chicago alone which would make any broad-brush painter reconsider that action. But even anti-vaxxers start their decline with a basic trust deficit in the people who tell them what to do, even if that distrust is misplaced.

We do have a much broader trust problem here in Chicago with the police force and the broader institution of law enforcement, and it is something Mayor Hernandez has devoted a lot of time to trying to unravel in concert with Chicagoans, with police watchdogs and people in the judicial system, and with law enforcement agencies. The Mayor has approached the policing problem with the knowledge that any reform needs to bring the police as an institution back to its function of keeping people safe and making them feel safe. There’s no denying that the South Side still needs the protection and the rapid response which a good policing system can provide. But that goes out the window if people feel as threatened by a militaristic police as they do by shootouts and kidnappers and abusers. So what the Mayor has done first has been to work with force training in deemphasizing the practice of hostile confrontations beyond times when it becomes absolutely necessary – in the most violent of situations taking place on the most violent of streets. Starting at the root of the issues that face new officers when they step into the academy sets us up for the next part of the reform that the Mayor’s office has undertaken.

The next step has been to reorient the police force around the neighborhoods that they serve, assigning officers to areas that they know and where their presence will be as familiar representatives of an institution rather than strangers assigned to treat their neighborhood as a war zone. We’ve heard from many communities, not least those of you here in Avalon Park, that it has had the effect of reducing tensions further. The response to 911 calls has been something we’ve focused on as well, adding more crisis workers to the response to urgent non-criminal activity-related calls such as medical emergencies, epileptic fits and seizures and the like, that don’t need the unnecessary escalation of armed police officers handling the scene. We now try to make sure that every opportunity for injurious or lethal escalation in the force’s actions on a typical call or response is avoided.

The trust issue is a big one that we still haven’t solved in its entirety, which is why the importance of bringing all parties to the table can’t be overstated – we are trying to foster a better relationship wherever possible, including the oversight and repeated opportunity for better interaction that implies. The watchdogs have been important; the members of the force have been important. But most importantly, the role played by the people of Chicago, ordinary folks like you all who are gathered here today, cannot be overstated, and it is emblematic of where this administration’s focus lies. Reelect Mayor Hernandez, and the mayor’s office will most assuredly continue down the same path of bringing Chicago into the loop that you all have seen on display in the administration’s every action over the past seven months. It is progress for Chicago, and it can improve still further under the Mayor’s continued leadership. Thank you once again, folks, and remember to get out and vote!

[Joseph Cao]

[The mayor continued campaigning in southern Chicago neighborhoods as the afternoon wore on; the final (masked and limited) stop of the day came in Burnside, the smallest community area in the South Side, where the mayor delivered a speech summarizing the day's themes which the Representative followed up on with his own speech, a copy of which is reproduced below.]

Thank you, Burnside; great to be here! It really is remarkable to be back here after having seen so much of Chicago and of the South Side; to see for oneself how the artificiality of some of the boundaries we erect within Chicago doesn’t extend to the people who live within them – people who come masked up and who are skeptical of muddy politics, who know their neighborhood and their acquaintances well, just like the millions of others across this great city. It gives me hope, as I’m sure it does for the mayor here and for others who are here with us today.

Part of that perhaps can be put down to how well-defined of a community Burnside has been throughout its history, and how that has both increased and limited its potential. The fact that it happened because of its physical boundaries, the roads and railroads that enhanced transportation for everyone outside of Burnside but not those living within it, might have charitably been described as a historical accident if it hadn’t resulted in the passing over of opportunity after opportunity for this neighborhood. And goodness knows they were needed in the past fifty years. But in the face of its historical shunning by its surrounding neighborhoods and the city, the people here in Burnside built their own institutions and learned to compensate for all that was located outside the tracks: schools, educational programs, churches and other gathering points for social circles to spring up. Burnside’s history speaks to what can be done as a community when people stick alongside each other and focus on making the neighborhood great – its people and its opportunities.

Burnside today isn’t much easier to physically reach if you’re coming from outside the neighborhood. But the days of its being passed over for influence, for opportunity, for any of the services or rewards that the rest of Chicago has gotten are receding into the past. That’s partially thanks to the mayor’s hard work in promoting this neighborhood and its surroundings as a centerpiece of the South Side’s redevelopment program. It has brought a new mobile health center within Burnside’s boundaries, one that will better serve the people who need it here and link Burnside to the neighborhoods around it; we’re hoping that the projected growth in the coming years will strengthen those links and bring up all parts of the South Side together. The police reform we talked about over in Avalon Park is just one other piece among the ways we’re trying to combat the uprootedness that people feel and the feeling of being cut off from others who can help.

And more than simply linking Burnside up physically, we’ve wanted to bring the economic opportunities experienced by others in Chicago over here and over to the rest of the South Side. Part of that has been what I believe has been independently assessed as a promising mentoring program between small businesses, individually owned enterprises here in Burnside and all over the South Shore, and the Fortune 500 companies and corporate philanthropic orgs that have been the national faces of Chicago’s economic growth. The program’s targeted nearly two thousand such small businesses in Chicago, the bulk of them – many of the best success stories, in terms of improvement to their outlook – concentrated in the South Side, and several of them right here in Burnside who you may know about. I had the good fortune to speak to one of them earlier at the community meeting, a lovely woman who works in data aggregation and has benefited from the advice offered to her by Chicago’s most prominent data management enterprises. She’s just one of the stories Burnside has to offer and can still offer with the opportunities now afforded to it.

With Mayor Hernandez in office, the entire city – right down to the smallest neighborhood here in Burnside, right down to the least hopeful and most overlooked area – has been able to feel the benefits of what can happen as we ease out of this pandemic and look toward a better era of growth that lifts all of us up together. That’s the legacy of the Mayor’s first term, and it is my fervent hope that you good folks will weigh the options carefully when you go out to vote this month. Thanks very much, Burnside, and please welcome the Mayor for a few words!

[Joseph Cao]

[Mr. Cao was invited to introduce the Mayor at a masked and socially distanced event in Calumet Heights shortly after breakfasting at a recently opened eatery in the neighborhood. A transcript of his speech at the event is reprinted below for public release.]

A pleasure to be here with you all in Calumet Heights this morning. I’ll keep this brief: hopefully you’re doing your best to protect yourselves; I see a few still masking up, and if you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet please do your research and get the jab! The mayor’s website has a good primer on the vaccines available if you need it to help your decision.

We try to keep things like these going because there is an urgent need for greater and better civic participation from you all. But that has to begin with communities where you feel safe enough to engage and become better citizens, where people have their basic needs met – as all too many Chicagoans have lacked throughout its history and in the very recent past. So a large part of the mayor’s tenure has been bound up in the problem, especially present here in the South Side, of how to fix that need as our city and its people emerge from a pandemic and a socioeconomic disaster that has blighted too many of our lives. People need to feel safe without having parts of their lives taken away.

One of the Mayor’s first trials of that theory was right here in Calumet Heights where, you may remember, the idea was first floated that Chicago needed to find help wherever possible. The program that brought our experiment to life was first instituted by the Mayor’s predecessor, to whom we are naturally extremely grateful and have silently and publicly thanked on many occasions, but it found its flower under Mayor Hernandez’s leadership where we’ve a great deal to hope for where the South Side is concerned. I’m pleased to say too that this was a major promise of ours back in November on which we have seen much to smile about, none more prominent than when we had the opportunity to check in with the restaurant which got established here as a beneficiary of the rejuvenation program.

The rationale for a new restaurant was fairly simple: Calumet Heights has long been in need of some anchor for the people who live in it and felt unsafe, and some way to provide something very simple which was nevertheless desperately needed in the community – an opportunity for constant hot meals and sit-down dinners and to keep people safe while having them. The fact that we got to see a local entrepreneur take charge of the initiative for overseeing the building and initial investment effort was absolutely welcome too. I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet Kasim before today, but he is a lovely man and more than well-equipped for the challenge of sustaining what has become one of the main grounding points for the people of Calumet Heights. It bodes well, I think, for what else we plan to do in cooperation with the South Side and the rest of you good folks in the coming months.

Sometimes the change we need doesn’t need to begin with a huge overhaul that rips up the remaining parts of a community. We as Federalists have historically preferred to look at what works and build from there, and to repair things from the ground up together with the community that we seek to help rather than impose our own vision on them. Calumet Heights knows what that kind of change has been able to do, as does the South Side; here to expand more on what change can be made in the coming term, please give a warm welcome to Mayor Hernandez!

[Joseph Cao]

[A group of Federalist volunteers led an afternoon’s work of efforts in the South Side to register voters and canvass for the upcoming mayoral election; they were joined partway through by Representative Cao and the mayor, who brought things to a close with another speech in Chatham. As with all of the day’s events, attendees were required to either mask up or display proof of vaccination.]

Thanks to the mayor for another reminder of what we need more of here in Chicago. And good afternoon, Chatham! That was a great meeting we just had with some of you – I think it went very well, all things considered – so allow me to stress as I come back to you all that we take our roles as public servants very seriously.

That extends to the ways in which we exercise our offices. As I think you may know, I’ve been a persistent voice in favor of checking the accumulation of power in a single office wherever possible. That works fine with the federal government and its checks and balances, but here at the municipal level it’s a different story. Which is why the mayor’s supporters like myself have been insistent from the very beginning that the mayor engage all Chicagoans and have you all take an active part in the direction this city goes in. I think that between the involved policy decisions and the consistent meetings with local leaders around the city, Mayor Hernandez has done a pretty good job of that so far, regardless of what the national media may want you to think. To them I can only say that stories that sell well aren’t always true stories, as we also know pretty well here in Chicago.

Not that I came here today to talk about that. The mayor knows the importance of handling power carefully, and I want to be clear that our incentivization for further entrepreneurship here in the city’s struggling neighborhoods has been carried out in a way that keeps large corporations on a tight leash. And we’re not above using our own power – quite literally – as leverage for that cause either. A month or so ago, the time came for a renewal of Chicago’s agreement with Com Edison for electricity provision to the city, and it led to a fine demonstration of how we can certainly put our money where our mouth is.

During the negotiations, Mayor Hernandez brought demands for greater transparency, consideration of the energy costs that poor communities in the South Side have had been burdened with in the past, and stronger concerns for its environmental impact. With Chicago’s market the fourth largest in the nation, the city made it very clear that Com Edison shouldn’t expect to have the attention all to itself; we could certainly reconsider that agreement if other companies proved more receptive to those proposals. And the focus on making sure that these changes are actually footed by Com Edison in some form, not just passed on to the city’s utility users, absolutely underlined what we were trying to do. Which, I’m happy to say, seems to be moving along nicely toward a sufficiently equitable agreement that will help our city’s struggling citizens. It always helps when a corporation like Com Edison knows exactly where we stand on the issue of supporting the people of Chicago.

I don’t believe any of this will come as a surprise, though in the very recent past other parties have wanted ordinary folks like you to swallow the lie that the Feds are nothing more than a party of fat cats and bloodsuckers in the pocket of Big Business. Which would be amusing if they themselves clearly didn’t know otherwise. We don’t do that sort of thing, either here or elsewhere. We’ve always given it to you straight, no frills or spittle-flecked performative anger necessary, because telling the truth and nothing but the truth is the main basis for communication with our neighbors and communities which can actually help them rather than just milking them for votes.

What Mayor Hernandez has told you, and what I’ve just talked about, is the plain unvarnished facts – facts you can expect from a straight-talk administration that makes no apologies for its party label but knows what that philosophy can do for Chicago, and that will come before you all on your ballot very soon. So make sure to educate yourselves; don’t take our word for it, and bring your friends and family out to vote this month. Vote for good governance!

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao made his way down to Louisiana as a personal favor to the Federalist gubernatorial candidate, a new and promising officeholder, and assorted state legislative candidates. The first event at which he was in attendance took place in the aptly named community of Start, where those in attendance were either masked or carrying proof of vaccination. His introduction of the gubernatorial candidate is reprinted below for public release.]

Hello, Louisiana! It’s a pleasure to be back. And I am sure it is a pleasure to be here with you folks, the people who have been passed over by the governor’s office and by an administration that’s demonstrated a complete lack of interest in governing for the people of this state. And in such circumstances, it’s clear that what Louisiana needs is not more of the same, or more of the same dressed up in a different party color, but something that will live up to the name – a new start!

Start got its start as an accident of bureaucracy, a mere afterthought of the need for mail delivery to a trading store whose name was suggested nearly on a whim by the storeowner’s daughter. In the years since it’s come to encapsulate the Louisianan community, the opportunities it sees and why some of them go unrealized, and how it has held on regardless of the misfortunes that befall communities the nation over. It’s come far beyond the limits imposed on it and produced several nationally renowned worthies, along with equally good-hearted folks who toil away without that fame or prestige. And such a state of affairs was possible – is possible – because of good leadership here and the good citizenship we see on display from the people gathered here today.

So here’s the question we have to ask ourselves now: are communities like Start still being prioritized? Are the people still in positions to see those opportunities that float by, or survive when those catastrophes hit them and their community? Are the small business owners of today able to receive help as Start’s own trader of yesteryear famously did? Are we taking care of the successors to the little girl who named this community, the girl who composed the entirety of her graduating class in the first batch Start was able to celebrate, all the young people and young lives who either stayed here or left to find better luck for themselves?

The Governor hasn’t done that. Not for Start; not for the other communities across this state, from New Orleans and Baton Rouge on down to the smallest Acadiana hamlet. And it doesn’t seem as if his handpicked Liberal successor is showing much of an interest in doing so either. These are the questions that need to be asked on behalf of the people who watched the past seven months drift by without an effort to engage them in the prospect of their own futures. And if nobody at the top will step up, it’s up to the Louisiana Federalists to ask and answer them.

I’m proud to be here to introduce the Federalist candidate for Governor, a man who has traveled the state and has his roots in working to fix just these problems in New Orleans, in Shreveport, and yes, in the tiniest of communities like Start. He knows firsthand the long roads before us all in fixing the problems facing Louisiana, but – as the song goes, as a certain musician sung – he and the rest of our candidates for local and state office will work with all Louisianans under their care to get us wherever our trail leads us. Here to introduce himself further, please give a warm welcome to your next Governor, Ken Pham!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Representative was present in the Alexandria metropolitan area for a series of events involving local state legislative candidates, the most prominent of which was a large livestreamed event in the city’s northwestern portion overlooking Highway 28. Attendees were masked or required to show proof of vaccination.]

I’d like to thank the state Senator for his fine speech, a spirited defense of his own actions on behalf of the people of Rapides Parish over the past months in the legislature. It’s possible that the bitterness of political conflicts sometimes gets oversold for dramatic partisan effect. I live in Illinois; I would know. But there comes a time, as your state Senator very rightly reminded us, where the line needs to be drawn – the people of Louisiana certainly feel the same way.

But the fact remains that we’ve seen another way forward, another road we can take. Quite literally, in fact. Here at the crossroads of Louisiana we’re acutely aware of how many people’s livelihoods depend one way or the other on having a reliable means of transport. Many of the drivers and delivery workers of Alexandria, indeed of the entire state and region, are lower-income folks for whom this is a vitally important issue. So it is naturally of interest to people here that our roadways and highways are better maintained, and when your state representative introduces himself I believe he has something to say about his plans to work with the federal government and in the statehouse to make much-needed improvements to these.

I want to talk about a less obvious problem, however. Until very recently there was a major flaw in the way fines were distributed and enforced for our region’s drivers. On behalf of his constituents, Senator Yankee first brought to light this problem and the myriad issues with revoking people’s driving licenses for failures to pay fines on time. In a state like Louisiana with little alternative means of transport, and especially in Alexandria, you can imagine how many people have gotten trapped into losing their only means of making a living and paying those fines. The Louisiana Motor Transport Association, some of whose members I’m glad to see in attendance today, also brought the problem to the attention of our Governor and state legislature. It was a serious problem with our system that created a death trap for our less fortunate citizens, and the Southern regional government took it seriously and with all the support which people like you deserve.

Governor LT and Delegate Tim are naturally to be commended for their quick work in fixing the loophole and closing the possibility of people losing their livelihoods over petty missteps. And here is the point I wanted to get to today: there does not need to be an attitude of headlong resistance from any side; there should not be people trying to impose their own belief system of what Louisiana should be like when others have identified major flaws with it or pointed out that it doesn’t help the people of Louisiana. The thousand and one little problems are not going to be solved without initiative from the top, driven by a concern for what Louisianans have been going through – initiative that has been wholly lacking thus far. We have seen a bipartisan way forward, but by and large the Governor has refused to take it.

I don’t believe that’s what the people of Louisiana need, and neither does our Federalist Party here in this state. We’ve got what we believe is a better way; in the coming weeks I certainly hope they will continue to fill you in on what it means – and the key there is filling you all in, rather than leaving everyone of a different partisan affiliation out in the dark. Louisiana needs more sun, a better governor, and a better government. And to tell you all about his plans for good government that begins with the people of Alexandria, please welcome your next state representative!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Federalist gubernatorial ticket and Representative Cao crossed paths again later in the afternoon following the latter’s attendance of a town hall in Montgomery; both headlined another general event at which attendees were required to stay masked or display proof of vaccination. The text of Representative Cao’s speech is provided below.]

Glad to be here with the good folks of Montgomery this afternoon. And quite aside from seeing many of you vaccinated, it was a pleasure listening to you all during the town hall earlier, where the people and their duly elected public servants of this state rightfully took the spotlight. I think, as a federal officeholder, that we in Nyman have more to learn about taking politics back to the spheres where people are most materially affected by its presence and can engage constructively in it.

Your state representative did invite me, however, so it appears she has a different opinion of where I stand on that. As we wait for the outcome of the Speakership vote it’s remarkable how federal discussion can mirror what your own legislators are doing in the statehouse; I have tried to be transparent with you all as well, knowing that I represent you just as well as I do the rest of Atlasia. (And if you’re not aware yet, I am running for reelection this weekend – so get out and vote! My staff and the party volunteers in back are ready to help with any issues you might have with getting to the polling station safely.)

I want to talk, specifically, about a bill which your own state representative brought to the floor as one of her first proposals back in December which was an early attempt to expand access to health centers and the like. Here in Grant Parish that has long been a priority of local leaders and citizens who know firsthand the struggles Montgomery and its like-minded communities face. Kids here are likely as not to have inadequate access to physicians or nurses while in school. There was a need to change that, and so your state representative brought up a proposal for a grant to help with providing and building the needed networking infrastructure and training school and nursing staff in an assortment of schools, rural clinics and physicians, and nursing homes in Montgomery and across parishes in Central Louisiana.

It was a nice coda to Speaker MB’s tenure this session that one of the last bills he sponsored was a similar bill to expand on the telehealth provisions written into law by former President Ted and the overall healthcare system whose construction was overseen by former Presidents Yankee and DFW. And, again, it shows very clearly something that your state representative and I have built our careers on, something I think people tend to avoid admitting out here in the artificial glare of the campaign trail: all sides have good ideas and it is not at all heretical or embarrassing in any way to go against that. Citizens across Louisiana have spent time wondering about the reasons for Governor Bouisseau’s actions with regard to stalling the aforementioned bill, not least the people here in Montgomery and Grant who would have been on the frontlines of their representative’s work. It strains credulity to believe that this is a passable state of affairs for Louisiana.

So it doesn’t have to be that way – especially with the Governor’s handpicked successor trying to claim ownership of Federalist ideals elsewhere on the campaign trail. Federalists in the state legislature, beginning with your state representative here, have shown a better way forward. And it can happen – a brighter Louisiana can happen – with your support for the candidates up and down your ballot who are working toward fixing the problems you’ve brought to their attention. Thank you, Montgomery, and to hand the spotlight back to a born and bred Louisianan, I invite you all to welcome your next Lieutenant Governor, Frank Fisher!

[Joseph Cao]

[While the mayor was occupied by a morning’s work at the office, Representative Cao did some campaigning on the mayor’s behalf in Bronzeville and its constituent neighborhoods. The following speech was delivered in Douglas to an audience of masked and/or vaccinated Chicagoans on 47th Street, and livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

Good morning, folks! I’m very glad to be with you all; it’s a valuable opportunity in itself and I couldn’t be happier to spend some time here in our beautiful Land of Lincoln in between the calls for work in Nyman. Yes, if you hadn’t heard – the House of Representatives, on behalf of the people it serves, has once again put its trust in me to serve as Speaker for the final weeks of our session! Thanks to your support, we’re ready to face the final weeks of this constitution and clear the mounting legislative backlog and get important measures passed for the people. Never forget that these things are only possible when you collectively register your voices in the democratic process and at the ballot box.

I’m more than ready to get back to work on your behalf, but I’m not the only such public servant campaigning this month. Mayor Hernandez is very much aware of the same crosscurrents that have changed the courses of politics over the past years, none more so than right here in Chicago, and the criticism that follows it. But as with this city’s founders and developers when faced with the prospect of building a metropolis on marshy ground, we see the political currents for what they are and work with them provided that they originate from the people we swore an oath to serve. Lots of agitations in politics aren’t caused by ordinary Atlasians or Chicagoans; if the people behind these think that I need to apologize or that Mayor Hernandez needs to apologize for not living down to their expectations, well, I don’t see things the same way and neither does the mayor. We’d rather keep our heads down and talk to our constituents directly.

Standing here in Douglas today, I am tempted to look back at how different things were for Senator Stephen Douglas in his time. Before acting as Abraham Lincoln’s foil at their debates and during the presidential race, he looked over the half-empty marshes by Lake Michigan and saw their potential. His most far-reaching law in the Senate was perhaps the creation of a railroad that tied the extremities of our state together by a system of railroads with Chicago as its center. He wanted to bind the Union with economic ties as closely as Illinois was, and over the decades he manoeuvred to develop Chicago as the most natural option for a national hub, almost at the expense of looking after the downtrodden people who were largely passed by in all of this.

And what a difference two centuries make – how wholly different are the challenges facing our city, even to those here in Douglas! The mayor’s recent meetings with your community leaders and the actions taken in response to reports of subpar living conditions is a whole other consideration for a city that has seen so much growth and decline. It wouldn’t be unfamiliar to Stephen Douglas or Abraham Lincoln, products of the 19th-century economic straits that they were. But it is thanks to the massive changes in the political currents they triggered that our mayor is now able to take the city which Douglas helped to develop and bring the focus back to the people where it belongs. The diversion of city funds to engage in building repair for the housing complexes which so many Chicagoans right here in this neighborhood make use of, the insistence on changing the adversarial relationship which many of you have had with landlords and owners through greater aldermanic and city oversight – that comes from a long-overdue sea change.

If we have shown one thing over the past seven months, it is that the mayor is fully cognizant of what that change means for Chicago. Our city has a future which it is freeing itself up to pursue, all its inhabitants together, right down to the people left behind by Stephen Douglas and still running behind now in the 21st century, because of the leadership shown by Mayor Hernandez. And that will remain the case if you continue to make your voices heard in the city’s affairs, things as small as damaged mains or unlicensed elevators – Chicago’s history proves that change can happen. We’re ready to work towards that change, but we need your help. Get out and vote, everyone, bring your friends and family to the polls this weekend for federal elections and next weekend for mayoral elections! Thank you, Douglas, and stay safe!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Illinois Federalist Party’s Chicago volunteers spent the afternoon on voter outreach in the South Side through door-knocking, phone banking, and distribution of campaign literature. Their efforts were partially aided by Representative Cao, arriving south after the earlier event, and by the mayor following an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. All parties converged for an event in Greater Grand Crossing at which attendees were required to either wear a mask or display proof of vaccination.]

Thanks to the mayor once again – I’m glad to hear, as I’m sure you all are, that the entirety of the Chicagoan community is united in keeping each other safe. Considering that that even extends to the number of you who have been vaccinated so far, and those of you who are still masking up and socially distancing, I’m confident that it’s going far better than out-of-staters might think from a cursory knowledge of our city and our state.

As I think Mayor Hernandez touched on in her monthly address a few days ago, the administration’s priority for Chicago remains the need to make sure of this safety in all respects; the communities of this city, Greater Grand Crossing and the South Side and all the rest of Chicago’s neighborhoods, need that safety and the people need that safety in order to reverse the debilitation of the pandemic and move out of it stronger than before. That applies to a great many things, just as the pandemic’s effects reached far beyond the realm of public health. And not least among these is the problem of keeping communities like Greater Grand Crossing safe from crime and issues of violence.

It is sort of a truism by this point that our city’s crime is concentrated in a select few neighborhoods. The real issue goes beyond that, however. The concentration of crime hotspots down to the street and block level has the extremely striking implication of a select few bad actors who cause most of the crime. So the Mayor’s strategy for combating this is rather far from what might be expected from a public servant of the old school – one who hasn’t grown up on the West Side surrounded by these problems or worked to fix the truancy and socioeconomic issues that fed into the problems. We have instead begun from day one in coming at the problem from the other end, providing inhabitants of these hotspot neighborhoods with extremely targeted means necessary for them to tackle the root causes between people in the neighborhood which power a lot of this violence.

The police involvement, as the mayor and I have both expanded on at various points, has been given careful consideration as well so as to make clear and ease them into their role of mediating conflict rather than sparking it. It always helps when the officers themselves know their neighborhood. Working with the community to get their input on what kind of overhead help is needed in fixing the endemic problems, providing them with help from law enforcement, has been the most crucial part; it allows us to make better use of the resources at the city’s disposal. That has had knock-on effects at the recent budget presentation, as many of you may know.

Chicagoans will of course also know that past mayors and past administrations have limited themselves to throwing resources at the problem, throwing police officers into the neighborhoods and onto the streets, throwing things at the wall to see what sticks – all of it for results that more often than not ended up on the national news anyway. Set against that, I think the results we’ve achieved over the past seven months speak for themselves. That also speaks to a basic problem-solving issue which I believe the mayor and our party has ended up on the right side of overall. The aldermen and community leaders may differ in partisan affiliation, but at the end of it there is an understanding that many of Chicago’s problems are specific to Chicago, and the implication naturally follows that the solutions must be extremely tailored and modified to solve these specific problems.

It’s a community issue and it will be solved only with the dedication of the community to that premise; the premise long held by the Federalists and by Mayor Hernandez, a premise that has been behind the successes Chicago has found in the policies implemented over the past seven months. It is a premise that Chicagoans have benefited from, that the people of Greater Grand Crossing have benefited from, and I firmly believe that you will benefit from it again for the coming mayoral term. The only way we can build on our successes and learn from our setbacks as a city far into the future lies that way; please register yourselves, get out to vote, and stay involved any way you can. Thanks for the time, Greater Grand Crossing; stay safe!

[Joseph Cao]

[With the Federalist gubernatorial ticket, two state House candidates, and a team of party volunteers, Representative Cao participated in an early afternoon’s effort continuing to turn out voters and distribute campaign literature in the Alexandria metropolitan area. The following speech was given to introduce the gubernatorial candidate at a concluding event in Cheneyville, near a family farm owned by one of the candidates.]

Thanks to you good people here in Cheneyville for coming out this morning. As mentioned by the candidate you’ve just heard, a staunch advocate of farmers’ interests and someone you can count on to fight for this community if you elect him to the state House, we’re glad to see the fruits of our community’s labor in the number of you who have shown up vaccinated or at least still masked and still keeping those around you safe. That’s something we want to touch on today in relation to the upcoming elections, and the frankly disappointing policies that Governor Bouisseau and his legislative allies have been pushing.

Louisiana’s been through enough with the pandemic, with federal and regional and state agencies working all together to keep cases down and nearly losing many of our communities in the process. Those same communities, places like Cheneyville and its surrounding towns, are still recovering from the yearlong ordeal we all went through. I don’t believe this is the time for tax hikes that will deal another blow to our recovery efforts on the ground: they’ve come at exactly the wrong time. Our small businesses who are going to be priced out by the increase, our citizens who are still cautious about their own finances that have been drained away by the pandemic, the teachers and sanitation workers and others on the public payroll who are being passed over by the tax plan Governor Bouisseau is proposing – none of these Louisianans stand to benefit in a single way from the plan. What is the Governor’s rationale for pushing it, and legislative leaders on the other side of the aisle for going along with the demands of a man who hasn’t governed for the people of this state?

Our recovery efforts are deeply precarious as it is; what potential there currently is for Louisiana will be nipped squarely in the bud by this tax increase. The people of Louisiana need the space to recover and patch the holes that have been blown in their communities before returning to a normal economic state of affairs. And until that happens, we don’t need to put taxpayers through another wringer that will kill whatever progress our folks on the ground have been making in the post-COVID recovery. The Governor’s attempt to put the cart before the horse is not going to fly in New Orleans, it’s not going to fly in Shreveport, and it sure isn’t going to fly here in a town that can tell the rest of us a thing or two about proper farming methods.

There’s been enough shoving the people and their concerns aside over the past seven months – seven months too many, as far as we’re concerned, when you think about the hobbled recovery that the regions and federal government have had to carry on Louisiana’s behalf. If this state is ever going to get back on the trail, it needs someone at the helm who won’t oppose their own constituents’ interests and pick fights with Nashville and Nyman just to satisfy their partisan overlords. It needs leadership that will listen to the people of Louisiana once again. That is the leadership Ken Pham is prepared to provide in the Governor’s office, the leadership that our legislative leaders are prepared to provide in Baton Rouge, and the leadership that Federalist candidates up and down the ballot all over the state and right here in Cheneyville are prepared to provide for you the people. But don’t take my word for it – here to talk about it in all the detail you folks deserve, please give a warm welcome to the next Governor of Louisiana!

[Joseph Cao]

[The rest of the Representative’s afternoon was spent in southern Louisiana and in the company of a quartet of promising candidates for the state legislature hoping to make electoral inroads into the Acadiana region. His speech alongside them at a COVID-compliant event in Eunice is reproduced below for public release.]

Good afternoon, Eunice, and thank you for having us here! I’d like to thank the mayor as well for a great reminder of what we need this election. She’s touched on some of the things she’ll do in the state Senate, which I’m sure she will be more than happy to expand on if you have any questions for her – though, of course, you know where to find her.

Although she didn’t mention it during her speech, I am sure that many of you good citizens also have her to thank for one of the biggest changes this city has seen over the past few months. The small businesses and commercial property owners here in Eunice have seen an unusually turbulent few years, a series of hurricanes and floods topped off by the pandemic and all the dropoffs in services that implies. As with most of southern Louisiana, this was only unusual because the natural disasters and the need for disaster relief in these parts has become part of the usual state of affairs. And it became increasingly apparent to many of us that the backbones of our local economy needed major help with restoring an integral part of this city’s social and economic identity.

So when your mayor took office last year, she partnered with the local Main Street initiative to put together an investment grant for property and small business owners to help repair and improve the buildings they own. It was billed, you may recall, as a first step to restoring the city’s potential for investment and stimulation of community development, and in the process of the plan’s playing out thus far – now in its second, expanded phase as the fruits of the first phase have become increasingly evident – that has been more than realized. We’ve seen certain small businesses go above and beyond with the resources they’ve been given and help to preserve the cultural assets under their care.

That plays into a large part of what we in the Federalist Party are focused on and always have been. The community must come first in our reckoning of what policies we pursue, and the impact they have on the people here in Eunice and elsewhere across Louisiana cannot be swept aside in favor of chasing what party leaders tell you to do. I would much rather see someone in the governor’s office and in the legislative chambers who will listen to the ordinary people under them than to the party men above them, if only because that is a far better and more beneficial means of governance. As your mayor has demonstrated, as your state representative will demonstrate shortly, as our Federalist legislative leaders have shown time and again in Baton Rouge and as Ken Pham and Frank Fisher have demonstrated over and over on the campaign trail, the Louisiana Federalist Party from top to bottom is committed to doing just that.

We’re ready to do what the current administration has shown very little interest in doing: delivering and solving the concerns of Louisianans up and down this state. But we can’t do that on our own. The people of Louisiana are going to have to make a decision this month that will reverberate in their personal lives and the wellbeing of their towns and cities and communities; we want you to make the best and most well-informed decision you can. Keep listening around, keep making sure your choice at the ballot box is one that you can trust on behalf of those around you. One of those people, a fellow you may know from his work alongside the mayor, is here today to talk about what he wants to see in the legislature and his plans to achieve them: please welcome your next state representative!

[Joseph Cao]

[Ahead of federal and regional poll openings, Representative Cao traveled to Lincoln Park to record a live address for his supporters; he delivered what might uncharitably be described as a jeremiad to a largely empty field in the middle of the neighborhood.]

Pleasure to be here with you all today. And it’s good to see everyone still masked up or vaccinated – we are going to raise those vaccination rates!

Having said that, you all know that polls will open for federal and regional elections this evening, just as they will for the mayoral and other local elections next week. I trust that everyone has been paying attention to what has generally been going on, enough to make a decision on which candidates are best placed to fight for the people and demonstrate it in both their words and their actions. Naturally I have tried to stick to that standard and kept you all informed and in the loop about what I’ve done in the Capitol – you know quite well who I fight for. Hopefully that will be the case at the ballot box as well.

I want to talk about something else, however. On that same ballot, up for election tonight alongside me and some other faces you’ll recognize, are the members of the Lincoln General Court. We here in one of the leading cities of Lincoln obviously take a close interest in what the newly rebranded regional legislature is up to; at the moment it appears to be not much to speak of. You won’t need me to tell you all that that is a worrying state of affairs.

Lincoln has had this problem in its regionally elected officeholders for quite a while now, of course, and it’s obviously bad for the communities and states that they serve. But there is a more pervasive problem than that in our politics. Officeholders can be active and yet not willing to serve the people well, as I reminded Atlasians last year from this very spot. Remember the fast food tax, supported by all parties except the Federalists? And when it’s mixed with the parliamentary apathy Lincoln has become dulled to, there is the potential for very bad consequences for all of us as a civic body.

Chicagoans will have had prior experience with the sort of politicians I’m referring to – those who claim a broad mandate in the name of the common man, who sweep into office by saying all the right words, and then sit on their hands, professing loudly in private to not care about the positions they were elected to or the people who trusted them with their votes. And whether or not this kind of contempt for their own supporters slips out in public, it becomes abundantly clear that they are motivated at heart by partisanship for partisanship’s sake. It’s become more pervasive in recent months in our national and regional politics, on all sides of the aisle, regardless of whether any side wants to admit it or shrug it off from their private quarters with feeble excuses. Even the structure of this speech speaks to that reality.

On the other hand, that may be the reason why Mayor Hernandez has found success – Chicago’s had enough of leaders who talk out of both sides of their mouth, who claim to be for the little people below them but whose actions in office show a blatant disregard for the wellbeing of the little people below them. They are not little, and Mayor Hernandez’s roots as one of them growing up on the poor end of the West Side and wanting something better have kept this administration fully aware of that simple fact in every word and every action that it takes.

Reasons like this one can be great motivators for change; for housing reform; for raising vaccination rates and the like. Unlike the politicos who think of other parties as the great unwashed and refuse to deal with them, trash-talking them without end, this is the reason for the mayor’s frequent outreach to Governor Gaviotti on the issues I’ve mentioned. Illinois doesn’t care if its governor hates Chicago’s mayor or vice versa, and the problems don’t solve themselves that way. I don’t think any of us expect them to love each other when they come from different parties – Illinois’ fractured past may have put us past that possibility. But people can work together; they can demonstrate in their words and their actions that they don’t want partisanship for partisanship’s sake, don’t want to treat their voters as expendable, and are not willing to fall into that trap.

Differences may be unavoidable. I think my congressional career has said something about the irreconcilable differences between parties that all too often emerge. But I am nothing if not an optimist: I will keep looking for common ground; I will continue as a public servant to conduct myself in private as I do in public and refrain from taking my own pickaxe to the public trust. And the public servants up and down the ballot who demonstrate in their actions the same motivations that their words carry, Mayor Hernandez prominent among them, will do likewise. Thank you for listening, Lincoln Park. Vote for good governance and honest leadership!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Representative and the Mayor, along with other Federalist luminaries, had a short meeting and roundtable with the Avondale Mutual Aid Society at their headquarters in the eponymous neighborhood. Participants were asked to mask or show proof of vaccination, and the Representative’s concluding speech was livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

Thank you for having us, Avondale. And my thanks must go to the Mutual Aid Society for hosting us, to their esteemed chairman for those very gracious remarks, and to the Mayor for a speech well-delivered and well said.

Like the Mayor, I’ve followed quite closely the actions of the various volunteer groups that have stepped in throughout the past year to aid this city’s vulnerable population. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to applaud the city’s partnership with groups like these to augment its relief efforts for the needy. They and others like them have been absolutely amazing at keeping on top of things: staying informed about the vital medical information and COVID-19 services, with the changes in housing policy, and making sure that residents here in Avondale and surrounding neighborhoods are informed as well. I think the city’s own workers will speak to how good of a job the AMA has been doing in the number of people they’ve met who have had little trouble with following or staying informed of any of these.

It is a model which Chicago has had a long history of, but which those at the top have been slow to appreciate. And I don’t want to minimize the role which labor movements in this famously red state have played in its early days. It goes beyond party, however – I didn’t see any of the volunteers here at the AMA stop helping people of a different party affiliation – and it benefits all of us as a city and within the communities like Avondale. Chicago’s mayors have often acted like monarchs and tried to exercise raw power in every facet of this city’s goings-on; the office isn’t that powerful, and as Chicago has continued to grow I don’t think we will be able to see any more of that one-man government. We know very well what our limits are, and when there are community leaders or volunteer organizations who know better or are best-equipped to tackle some of these problems, we are not too proud to avoid working with them.

Besides, I couldn’t think of much better partners than the AMA has been, given the very prominent community values that they espouse. I sort of touched on it earlier, but their vision of mutual support between members of the community here in Avondale is exactly the kind of thing we Federalists have promoted as a party. People need to help one another; that’s how they stick together. We talk about rebuilding social institutions; these folks are out there alongside our own volunteers with their more locally oriented experience and connections and doing a finer job of rebuilding those social institutions than we could hope to accomplish. And flipping the script, if the mayor and the alderman have been able to collaborate with community leaders to fix a housing area or lay out plans for a new library or bike path, it further demonstrates the need for connections that stretch both vertically and horizontally, between the people and their leaders and among the people themselves for situations when the vertical distance is too much for leaders to handle. The Mayor’s work has been geared toward lowering that vertical distance; we are much indebted to volunteer organizations like the AMA for shrinking the horizontal distance as well.

The COVID-19 experience has given us a taste of what happens when our communities get forced apart. And those communities have only survived because of the work of a great number of people, in the public and the private sector, paid and unpaid, all dedicated to counteracting the trends toward social atomization that can ultimately fracture communities. The Mayor’s grown up with organizations like these, and is more than willing to work with them and bring their values into the mayor’s office as a reminder of what tools Chicago needs to advance into a brighter future. That’s the promise Mayor Hernandez has made. Thanks for your time, Avondale; thanks once again to the Mutual Aid Society; register and go vote!

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao’s lunch hour was spent on the campaign trail alongside a promising young state House candidate in Washington Parish. The following speech was delivered to a limited crowd in Bogalusa, required either to mask or display proof of vaccination, and livestreamed on Federalist Party websites and social media.]

Bogalusa! Glad to be out here with all of you. I’m glad the sun has gone in a little bit; if I’m being honest I’d rather be able to see all of you without the glare. Yes, thank you for that.

I am not sure, in all of the travelling up and down this state we’ve done as a campaign thus far, that we haven’t seen a city more defined by so many different forms of conflict as Bogalusa has seemed to be. The city was built from scratch around a sawmill company which closed within thirty years as the lumber and the money ran out during the Depression. The racial conflicts that so much of Louisiana has seen were initially motivated by labor concerns, and as civil rights leaders and their intimidators clashed in the sixties it boiled over multiple times in bloodshed worthy of national news. The Gaylord chemical explosion and the industrial waste spill in recent years have not only posed health concerns for tens of thousands and stunted the economic prospects of the community; it’s also given the lie, a peculiarly dark one, to Bogalusa’s very name.

It may be an outlier in notoriety, but it counts – as it should for the state we stand in today. Bogalusa is no more and no less in need of help than the other communities of Louisiana, no matter how big or small they are; that seems to have been forgotten by the Governor. And beyond the usual lip-service about paying more attention to their needs, neither of the other parties have said much about how these places can be helped; how their concerns can be alleviated and their inhabitants brought along in the economic upswing we look toward as we move past the COVID-19 pandemic. Not so the Federalist Party! The candidate for state House, who I’m pleased to say is seeing his prospects looking up in this tight race crucial to control of the chamber, is uniquely placed to answer that question and continue his family’s tradition of bringing Bogalusa’s needs to national attention.

He’ll be able to speak more about his own plans later, but it seems right to introduce Mike Berenson first. Mike is a City Council member and the grandson of LSU’s famed cardiology professor Dr. Gerald Berenson, who first put Bogalusa on the map with an NIH research grant in the Seventies that grew into our nation’s premier community-wide health study. Many of those here today will know firsthand the study’s impact on their lives, on their results that the study has yielded, on the health issues that it has caught for so many people here – Mike among them, by the way. As the study has gone from strength to strength, we are looking at expanding the share of the state reserves that can go toward funding these kinds of projects in the medical and professional sectors on behalf of Louisianans, and we certainly hope that the federal government will continue its support. I did my own part with my votes for passage of the bills that have come up to fund further medical research; as Bogalusa can testify, endeavors like this benefit the community and the nation.

Mike is well on the way to continuing this legacy of community service. His work on the City Council in combating the crime rate through more targeted policing has been a defining part of his campaign, and we at the Louisiana Federalist Party firmly believe that this is a fight the state House needs to take. He’s followed with interest the regional and federal debates on the matter. If elected, I can say with confidence that Louisiana’s job in coordinating resources toward this thorny issue with Nashville and Nyman will be made that much easier. Rest assured, as well, that his grandfather’s efforts on health have more than rubbed off on him and his consistent support of our medical workers and researchers; Bogalusa has been made the better for it. It can still, however, be made better; it can receive the help it needs in the legislature and at the state level – if you’re convinced by what Mike has to say. Please give him a warm welcome, Bogalusa!

[Joseph Cao]

[Mr. Cao made his way upriver in the afternoon to rejoin the gubernatorial candidate on a campaign swing through northeastern Louisiana. The gubernatorial candidate, a state representative running for state Senate, and a number of local farmers headlined an outdoor event in Sondheimer, at which participants were required to display proof of vaccination or arrive masked. Cao’s introduction of the gubernatorial candidate is reproduced below.]

Thanks for having us, Sondheimer! Great to see you all and to be here with the state Senate candidate and everyone else this afternoon. My thanks to Mr. Fields for having us. I am considerably aware that Ken here has a great deal to share with you all, so I’ll try to keep this as brief as I can make it.

First of all I think the state Senate candidate here needs more recognition for the role he played in getting the voices of our farmers here in Sondheimer and the rest of northern Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta out to the Legislature, where a bill cowritten by him and a Labor representative is about to be signed into law. I’m very happy to say that this will nicely complement the bill passed by the Southern Chamber last year, and that the two bills put together are an avenue for the Mississippi Delta’s farmers to head into the coming year with a better financial base.

It’s been the culmination of a long process that begun a year ago with him travelling all over the parish and listening to the problems faced by our farmers here in the Delta. Left behind by past administrations and passed over in favor of their white counterparts, we’ve seen farmers like Mr. Fields here lose much of their opportunity to make a living, to plant their crops on time with working equipment, because of a bureaucracy that had been stacked against them. This is an untenable state of affairs. We’ve seen too many such farms fold up and die on the vine entirely preventably. Our Delta farmers, those disproportionately hit by all these problems and often unable to compete with larger agribusiness operations elsewhere, need the protection due to them; they are an integral part of Louisiana’s agricultural base.

Getting all of this out to the state’s attention has been half the battle if only because of how long the Delta has suffered like this. The state representative’s bill will standardize and place more stringent restrictions on the delivery of state loans. He’s also suggested an incorporation into the bill that would tie this to future regional decisions and ensure that our farmers get what they need. It is something long overdue for the folks here in the Delta, and for that reason we know quite well that this is not the end of the problem. With Ken Pham in the governor’s office and your state representative here in the Senate, we’re hopeful that Louisiana’s new leadership can work more closely with the regional government to strengthen these lifelines to our farming communities.

It gets to the heart of something I’ve been thinking about of late. Many of the Delta’s farmers are descended from the Civil War-era emancipated slaves who first heard Sherman’s offer for farm holdings. Our state and our region, this parish and the people who live here, are bound up in the legacies that slavery left behind. While slavery was especially pernicious here in the South, little different in brutality from the slave trade that flourished all over the world, the remarkable thing is that we got rid of it not out of economic necessity or political happenstance, but because our nation’s leaders rededicated the Declaration of Independence to its statement that all of us are equal; that all of us are endowed with the inalienable rights to life and liberty. And we still have hope for improvement to the continued burden which this legacy has left on us here in Louisiana and the delta today, and the means to achieve it if we commit ourselves to the journey, because of those principles.

That’s a journey we urgently need to recommit ourselves to, an attention to the health of our communities and the integral parts of Louisianan society which can drive the people of this state onward and upward, and a dedication to those same principles fully and properly applied in the lives of all of us here – the Delta farmers, the New Orleans workers, and all the rest of Louisiana. All of this isn’t present in the Governor’s office at the moment, and none of the other candidates are much disposed to step up and make sure we have it. That leaves one candidate: to tell you about his further economic priorities as your next Governor, and the people it can help, please welcome Ken Pham!

[Joseph Cao]

[As a result of using a regular phone instead of an android galaxy to type, naturally, the internet speed did not catch up fast enough to Representative Cao’s speech as it was delivered to a limited indoor crowd in Edgewater with members of the Olawakandi Appreciation Society in attendance. Attendees were required to wear masks or display proof of vaccination.]

My sincere thanks to the Olawakandi Appreciation Society for inviting us today. There is no finer place than Edgewater to look out over the vast expanse of the lake he once called home and reflect during this important date on the legacy he has left here.

To begin with – if you haven’t voted, please go vote federally and regionally! I have striven during my time in Congress to write workable and appropriate bills for the communities they affect. That extends to the two bills about Olawakandi which we dealt with some months ago. While I fully supported the spirit of those bills, I had my concerns with the wording and the careless way in which some of the provisions would be implemented, as I believe I told the OAS at the time. And the passage of the bill has thrown up very similar problems which have brought the mayor and I into frequent contact. Mayor Hernandez can further testify to the work that’s been put into running things past her counterparts in Wisconsin and Michigan, with Governor Gaviotti, and with the Lakefront’s state legislators here in Illinois. But I am happy to say that the preparations for June 30 are moving full speed ahead, and that we will be able to celebrate Olawakandi Day with the spirit it deserves. All wells ends well.

I consider it part of the sea change that the Mayor’s office has effected in seven short months. Of course it has been easier talking about Chicago’s affairs given the mayor’s background as an activist and community worker who hasn’t left those values behind. But that is precisely the point! For far too long, the citizens of Chicago might as well have been left hiding behind a wall which they were unable to surmount; for far too long they felt as if they were talking to the hand in their dealings with municipal leadership. Contrast that with Mayor Hernandez. The Mayor’s reforms to the housing system in many struggling neighborhoods, to the policing system, to the community rebuilding and renewal strategies, and to many others is a testament to how far Chicago has come. Due to fact the Mayor knows perfectly well that the way to a better Chicago is through listening and acting on the needs of the community and the people who live in them – ear powers, so to speak – as the Federalist Party has long stood for.

This Juneteenth, it is appropriate to remember that we are all creations of God, and He has no color. I want to be clear that this philosophy extends far beyond race; that thanks to the motivation of Mayor Hernandez and the leadership team in trying to give all Chicagoans a chance at a better life, our city has become better off one neighborhood at a time. We are motivated by stories like Olawakandi’s and by the stories of millions like him in our city. That will bring us out here again on June 30, but it will keep Mayor Hernandez busy working for Chicago every day of the remainder of the mayoral tenure. Vote for a better livelihood and better opportunities for Chicago – for a reminder that even though death may be inevitable, it it what we do in life that matters all the more. Thank you, Edgewater, and please welcome the Mayor for a few more remarks!