Federalist Party NPC Elections HQ

[Joseph Cao]

[Heading west in the company of Mayor Hernandez and other local Federalist leaders, Representative Cao joined them in their attendance of a public meeting with community leaders in Austin. A copy of his speech at a COVID-compliant event following the meeting is reproduced below for public release.]

Good afternoon, Austin. Thanks for coming – especially for continuing to keep your fellow Atlasians safe by masking up, and especially if you’ve been vaccinated. I promise I will keep my remarks brief this time.

As the Mayor’s recent meeting has shown, quite clearly in my view, Austin has seen admirable progress on going all on our reinvestment initiative at the granular level. The response from community members here has been great for developing a plan that we’re hoping will give a few different areas of community interest the right kick needed for it to thrive and sustain itself. The empty lot has had potential for some time, a blank canvas that Austin’s inhabitants were able to draw on and did. Obviously the city’s financial support of enterprising locals and small business owners through the initiative’s grant system has been something that’s borne fruit in the newly opened grocery store, the food trucks, the secondhand bookstore, all the rest of the new community-oriented development that Austin has needed. Some of the corporations who have pledged financial support for these redevelopments have also been convinced to extend their support for longer periods: as long as necessary for the community to get off the ground.

The redevelopment and refurbishment of some of these properties comes at just the right time for a Chicago that is just coming back to its full strength and, hopefully, ready to demonstrate just what it is capable of doing. It highlights the very involved nature of this whole operation as well. Contrary to what other parties have proposed, it is very much the case that a municipal government has limited reach in managing citizens’ interests for them – and it’s harmful if that happens. The Mayor hasn’t been closely involved with aldermen of all parties, even to the extent of receiving reelection endorsements from across the aisle, for no reason. We’re very aware that where the top of the government cannot step in itself, others must take up a role. And opposite that is the need to guard against the corporate mentality of maximizing short-term financial returns. We’re not going to leave the inequity problem at the wayside and as long as they are part of this effort, it is on the businesses and private-sector parties involved in this to continue to recognize that. We are not leaving Austin behind; we do not plan to leave this community or any others like it behind.

And, of course, without you ordinary folks’ involvement in this rebuilding from its very earliest stages, it would have been nigh impossible to find a way to aim this thing toward the outcome we needed and the community targets that had to be satisfied. Without your continued involvement and reinvestment of your time and your effort into grasping some of the opportunities that will spring up with time, the community may yet fall back off the beaten track. It’s up to us all as a neighborhood and as a city to prevent that; to stop any of our people from being left behind, and to pay attention to what the government and the private businesses are up to in regard to our collective wellbeing. That means participation in the community right down to the ballot box. When you vote next week, Austin, please consider what your community has needed, what it still needs, and vote based on that – it’s the only way to ensure you get the leadership you need. Thank you all very much!

[Joseph Cao]

[After a public fundraiser in New Orleans proper, the Representative travelled out to Kenner to join the gubernatorial candidate and a promising state legislative candidate on the hustings. Both activities, as per Federalist Party protocol, had mask mandates in effect for attendees who could not provide proof of vaccination.]

Thanks for having us here, Kenner. My thanks as well to the next Governor of Louisiana for so succinctly laying out what he plans to do in office. I’m aware that I tend not to do that – but I’ll try to keep this brief anyway.

While we wait for the results in the federal election, I want to be absolutely clear: win or lose, I’m not about to sit on my hands and go to sleep. There is much to be done regardless of whether I end up in Congress. The structure of the Senate now has worked both ways in that regard; it’s not clear how easy it will be for citizens to submit their concerns to a unicameral chamber as one of them was recently able to do on the House floor. But what unicameralism does make clear, much clearer in fact, is the roles that each level of government has to play. I love my colleagues and respect them highly, but I am under no illusions as to our collective abilities to legislate for every single citizen in this great nation; part of why I am a Federalist is because I recognize that basic limitation of ours and support delegating what we can to the governments in the regions and states which can better understand your local needs.

I talked earlier in Montgomery about Louisiana’s own telehealth bill and how their legislator was able to advance the idea before the federal government thought to do so. The bills I talked about have all been broad-based affairs, covering a lot of ground but leaving the details for the regions to fill in, which was the main reason for my Aye votes on both of them. That leaves state legislators and the communities themselves to make sure that detail is represented in the laws that they pass. As it happens, that same telehealth bill for Louisianans is also a testament to what can be done right here in Kenner. Dr. Navarro knows that firsthand.

Your next state representative is a staunch advocate for the Honduran and Hispanic community here in Kenner, someone who pointed out many of the issues faced by them in navigating the healthcare system over their language and systemic barriers and worked to patch them from her position with Access Health Louisiana. Dr. Navarro’s taken note of the increased need for translators to help with telemedicine in the age of COVID, not just during consultations but while trying to access the telehealth system to begin with. Her insight was twofold: to link Access Health’s services up with remote language operations provided by interpreters, and put those interpreters in the driver’s seat for coordinating appointments with both doctors and patients. Louisiana’s Hispanic population has spent too long falling through the cracks, and Dr. Navarro plans to work with the communities here in Kenner and in the rest of Louisiana to find and train willing public servants who can bridge that gap.

Dr. Navarro’s dedication to protecting her patients – to doing no harm, and to doing good – is admirable and exactly what the legislature needs more of; I think the policy priorities and strategies she’ll tell you about in a moment will demonstrate that. I’ve gone on long enough; please give a warm welcome to your next state representative, Dr. Edmunda Navarro!

[Joseph Cao]

[Continuing across the state, Representative Cao stopped in New Roads to campaign and distribute voter literature alongside a prominent young state representative. The two later addressed a masked and/or vaccinated crowd at an outdoor event nearby where the speeches were livestreamed on Federalist Party websites and social media.]

Hey, New Roads! Good afternoon! Thank you all for coming out here today. Your state representative here is absolutely right about the challenges that the people of New Roads and of Louisiana are facing, challenges for which the Federalist Party’s candidates all across the state are rising to the occasion. And he should know – he owes his career to it.

As you all will remember from last year, Representative Cole’s previous tenure as mayor of New Roads was interrupted in its final term by COVID-19, something he worked very hard to stave off with measures that by and large kept the communities here safe. In those early days it was imperative that every level of government work together to nip the pandemic in the bud as far as humanly possible. And so, as soon as the pandemic began to recede somewhat, he did his best to make up for it: to counter the impact that it had had on our small business owners and their livelihoods with a couple of creative policies that kept New Roads’ businesses going under safe conditions.

Chief among these, and apparently a tradition of sorts by now considering its return this past winter as restrictions began lifting, was a weekend-long pop-up shop that gathered all the city’s small businesses into one place for the New Roads community to stop by and lend their support. It was a win-win for both the business owners and the people, not least because the logistics of the event added to the convenience for our community and eliminated any overhead cost the small businesses might otherwise have borne. Feedback from all quarters was overwhelmingly positive for something that countered the effects of the pandemic, no matter how small its effect; I’m told by the state representative that his successor is looking at making this an annual event and continue to display all that New Roads’ small businesses have to offer.

The representative himself has continued to draw attention to our local entrepreneurs and communities in his own way since being elected to the legislature last November. Already he has taken a fine-toothed comb to the distribution of state funds during the last budget debate, pointing out a notable imbalance in the provisions of small business relief and individual relief to communities out in the metropolitan boondocks and rural areas. The highlight of his findings, however, were gaps in the enforcement mechanisms for delivering those funds to inner-city New Orleans. The extent of the current administration’s neglect of Louisianans doesn’t get any more clear-cut than that. And the state representative has pledged to improve some of the temporary fixes the legislature adopted after these revelations. They already form the basis of a bill he’s working on which Ken Pham has promised to sign if elected Governor.

While the Governor and his allies in the legislature sit on their hands, the Federalist Party is bringing all the energy of the actions in their local communities to combat the pandemic; to ensure our neighbors can stay fed and clothed and housed; to carry all of Louisiana, city by city and parish by parish, to the greater heights it deserves. Make no mistake, Louisiana deserves it – but we need a state government, people like Mr. Pham and Representative Cole, that won’t throw their responsibilities away and expect Nashville and Nyman to pick up the slack. Vote this month for a government that will take the initiative for Louisianans!

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao spent most of the rest of his afternoon in Morgan City attending a youth community forum incognito before rejoining the gubernatorial ticket at an evening event in the middle of town. Attendees were required to mask up or show proof of vaccination.]

Glad to be here with you all in Morgan City this evening. As we wait for the federal election outcome, what better place is there to talk about the future of our nation? A future that lies much less in the hands of the federal government than some care to think. What happens in Baton Rouge, on the other hand, can determine a lot about the futures of ourselves and our kids, and so I’m glad to see all of you present here after the New Generation Forum we attended earlier.

I’m always happy, as I informed a House spectator from the floor yesterday, to see our citizens take an interest in the workings of the government. That goes doubly so for the students who presented their ideas for local initiatives at the forum: doubly because of their interest in politics and in local government, a part of government that needs all the competence and civic participation it can get. Look no further than the Governor’s office now for what happens when it doesn’t get that. The students come from schools across the Morgan City area and have noted firsthand what their communities are in need of – refurbishments for the public library, a tutoring program run by high schools, a community garden – all things that look marginal but could easily provide the margin needed for an improvement in the community’s wellbeing and potential.

This is a tradition Louisiana has been proud to see flourish over the past quarter-century. The first generation growing up with it in their schools are now in positions of leadership in the city, in the councils, in the parishes, and in the state legislature; they know firsthand that kindling and allowing our youths’ interest in civic participation, seeing their projects grow through their efforts and those of the city, brings the entire community up and insures its continued survival and thrive through the actions of its younger generation. And now that they’re in positions to bring the state government into the picture through grants and communication of ideas, communities like Morgan City can get the resources they need to act on these blueprints. This bottom-up government has been promised to lots of people, but we’re willing to invert the chain of command and make clear in our actions that people like Ken Pham and Frank Fisher work on behalf of the people rather than the other way round.

Governor Bouisseau campaigned on solving lots of problems; he hasn’t done that. The other candidates, undaunted, are now campaigning on solving lots of problems. We know quite well that whatever we promise out here on the campaign trail, it will ultimately come down to places like Morgan City, people like the parish president and the students and the supportive citizens, where part of the problem will be solved. We are dedicated to working with the communities here in Morgan City and across this state, to putting the people back in charge of the government – urban or rural, of whatever race, of whatever circumstance – and leading all of Louisiana out of the crises that we’re seeing. Let me now yield the state to someone who gladly give you the details on all this: Ken Pham, the next Governor of Louisiana!

[Joseph Cao]

[The morning after the election, Representative (now Senator-elect) Cao travelled up to Chicago at the mayor’s express request for a rally in Albany Park, a request to which he was only too happy to oblige. The speech he delivered under COVID restrictions is reproduced below for public release in addition to its livestreaming on Federalist Party websites and social media.]

Albany Park! It’s great to be here with you all once again.

We did it, folks – I couldn’t be prouder of many of you campaign workers and volunteers here, and of my fellow Atlasians, including my friends and family, for your support this election. While the results haven’t yet been certified, I’m told the networks are confident enough in my victory and its margin to project my election to another term fighting for you in Congress. It’s an honor. There’s another public servant here this morning who has a staunch record for leading Chicago, so this is your reminder to get out and vote for Mayor Hernandez this weekend!

It has been a bit surreal watching the election aftermath from out here in the heart of Atlasia alongside some many millions of others. It appears that the courts may have to get involved – and while I will most certainly work with whoever our incoming President is, and do so gladly as my voting record has demonstrated, I’m not seeing an adequately watertight case that either side has won at the moment. And to the election workers here in Chicago and in the state, elsewhere across the nation, the mayor and I stand fully behind the work you do; please stay safe and well.

I wish I could say the same for the political class in Nyman that doesn’t seem capable of getting through this without embarrassing itself. With a very few exceptions, Senators Yankee and FalterinArc and Spark among them, this election seems to have amplified their worst sides. The commentary is practically unreadable and unwatchable at this point. As I mentioned to both presidential candidates, I’m not a fan of using elections to score points no matter how high emotions may run, and this nonsense needs to stop – if it’s capable of stopping at all; I’ve never seen the media controversy train run on anything else. It makes me all the more glad that the final week of this campaign will be spent alongside a fellow Federalist who has demonstrated a class and care for Chicagoans that Nyman could use more of.

Whatever Laborites may think of Governor Gaviotti or Mayor Hernandez, given all the rumors of mafia connections or corruption which the national party has been trying to spread, I am convinced that our state’s leaders show a better way forward for politics. Springfield and Mayor Hernandez have both done their level best in tackling the problems before them. That is something Albany Park knows firsthand; this beautiful multicultural community did not come back nearly from the dead fifty years ago by people deliberately misinterpreting each other, being suspicious and accusatory toward each other, or any of that nonsense. Some people say one thing in private about not drawing lines between Atlasians and turn around in public and demand the opposite, but you won’t find that here in Illinois; publicly or privately we are dedicated to bringing people together, bringing communities back and further upward, and getting our city and our state through the problems it faces.

As long as I have been in politics, it has been with the attitude that bringing the art of the possible into reality cuts both ways, bad things as well as good; we’ve seen plenty of the bad on display, but that should be all the more motivation for us here, for my fellow Senators-elect, for Governor Gaviotti and Mayor Hernandez and the aldermen of Chicago and all Chicagoans of all party affiliations to fight all the harder for the good that can come out of politics. Here to tell you more about how that’s been done right here in Albany Park over the past seven months, it is my great pleasure to welcome the Mayor of Chicago!

[Joseph Cao]

[The mayor and Representative Cao were present in the Northwest Side as the afternoon continued; as Federalist volunteers conducted more GOTV efforts, they attended a town hall hosted by the Forest Glen Community Club and later spoke at an outdoor event livestreamed on party websites and social media. Both events had limited attendance with all participants either masked or vaccinated (or both).]

Thank you once again, Forest Glen. Couldn’t be happier to be here. I suppose part of that is the shade – this June heat is no joke even here in Chicago. So I wanted to thank those of you who came out here still masked up, and the rest of you who have gotten your shots as well; we do appreciate your effort to keep the community safe.

We owe a lot of that shade to Chicago’s green spaces. I’m sure the residents here who walk anywhere in the mornings or afternoons will agree when I say that most of northern Chicago has its greenery to thank for quite a few parts of this community and others like it. You literally have it in your neighborhood’s name, after all! So it’s all the more urgent that they be preserved in the face of problems like the increasing heat, the conflict between development and a green focus, and not least the emerald ash borer infestations that come periodically and wreak havoc on our trees – to the tune of tens of millions of our ash trees, Chicago’s most prominent, in the past two decades.

But it is a huge undertaking for our trees to undergo maintenance and upkeep, and the city’s forestry department has understandably been rather stretched for resources in recent years. The alderman here has lobbied for recommitting more funds to the city forestry department. My understanding is that the Mayor is disposed to do so as well for the next budget, but that is unfortunately still some time away; in the meantime, I cannot be more proud of the good folks here in Forest Glen who have taken matters into their own hands to save their trees. Many hundreds of our most vulnerable trees, as identified by a herculean effort from concerned citizens and local leaders who worked on the inoculation effort the last time it was performed in this area, were protected and re-inoculated from emerald ash borer beetles just last month. It seems too that not all the funds were used, and if the people here in Forest Glen are still willing to protect their trees I’m sure the Community Club will find equal success in their plans to inoculate more trees down the road.

The rest of the Northwest Side has of course faced similar issues with their trees and other greenery, and patterns like this and other problems are not unique to any one community – but it is very important that Forest Glen has managed to effect this change by its own means; it displays, in a very concrete fashion, what we in the Federalist Party have long said about the potential that a coherent community possesses. The folks here in Forest Glen have demonstrated what they can do to solve the ash borer problem; what the city government wants to do, and to continue doing if you elect Mayor Hernandez to a second term, is to replicate that potential community by community, for all the pressing problems in the West Side and the South Side and the forgotten corners of this city, a full-court press alongside the communities all across Chicago.

We got out of the pandemic that way, and we can tackle the rest of our problems that way; our housing problems, our institutional problems with policing, the small businesses and citizens ravaged by Chicago’s past conflicts can all testify to that. It will take leadership at the top to guide this effort, however, and that leadership is here today – please welcome Mayor Hernandez for a few words!

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao joined the gubernatorial ticket on a campaign swing across northern Louisiana; their attendance of a short town hall in the Monroe city center was followed up by a few speeches across town in West Monroe. Attendees at both events were required to either mask up or show proof of vaccination.]

Glad to be here with you all in West Monroe today. And certainly your next Governor raises an excellent point about what kind of a leader is needed up at the top of our state government – someone with Louisiana’s best interests at heart, who has a long record of demonstrating that in their work with Louisianans across this state who will be best placed to do what Governor Bouisseau hasn’t done.

Here in West Monroe there has been a concerted effort to carry on with local projects and improvements to the city without relying on the state government for help. You’ve got a long history of that, of course; that was how the city was rescued from oblivion a century and a half ago. And since then no community in Louisiana has put more effort and reaped more rewards in beautifying itself through green spaces, historic buildings and neighborhoods, and the like than West Monroe. We were very glad, the gubernatorial candidate and I, to see your community thus recognized recently with that award for the Cleanest City in Louisiana. And so you will of course know what can be done on your own, when the community works together to fix its problems without being dragged back by a recalcitrant governor.

But what if the governor was willing to help? Ken Pham, as he’s just told you, has long taken a special interest in the ways communities like West Monroe have bounced back through crisis after crisis. There are opportunities for this area that Governor Bouisseau has passed over because, as best we can tell from his actions, he doesn’t think you need them. And while the Federalist Party is running just one of the tickets on your ballot this weekend, we believe we’ve got the best and most comprehensive plan for redevelopment and reinvestment in all our regions – the poorer parts of New Orleans, the threatened communities down along the Gulf, the folks right here in Monroe and places like it that have gotten passed over for too long.

There is another point I want to make about this race. I think that on the whole, with good reason, it has been a decidedly civil race so far; a remarkable contrast to the presidential one that’s just ended. And while I’m no expert in politics, it seems to me that part of it comes from Louisianans knowing what they want in the government which affects most of their daily lives; not a do-nothing Governor, not a Governor who tries to make an example of people he disagrees with, but one that will rededicate the office to serving places like West Monroe and providing much-needed opportunities to it and other communities across Louisiana. A Governor like Ken Pham, whose work has brought him again and again to the ideals of good government and how to realize them. A Governor, in short, who recognizes not only the tangible potential of West Monroe and its like-minded places, but also the broader goal of making Louisiana the Cleanest State in the Nation – in its politics, in its people, and in all that it aims to say and do on our national stage.

I’ve gone on long enough – there’s someone here today who you’ll find has a great deal to offer on how to achieve that in the state legislature: please welcome your next state representative!

[Joseph Cao]

[Continuing the campaign swing, Representative Cao and other Federalist leaders distributed campaign literature in Ruston following a meeting with the mayor and an event at which the following speech was delivered to a limited audience and livestreamed on party websites and social media; it is reproduced below for public release.]

Good afternoon, Ruston! Thanks for having us, and boy is it good to be here with you all today – I may not be a meteorologist, but you don’t need to be one to like the weather we’re getting today. Couldn’t be a finer day for Ken and I and your other candidates here to meet with you lovely folks.

Appropriately for the home of Louisiana Tech, it’s been obvious on multiple occasions recently that the city leadership itself has been remarkably forward-thinking. I suppose you won’t need to look any further than the idea your Federalist mayor recently had in response to a few citizen complaints about the lack of workable internet service options. And really, if you’re in a college town, what else would you expect? But the plan to build a fiberoptic internet service which city leadership recently proposed after a feedback process from people here in Ruston – that was certainly out of the box. With Tech just nearby, it seems that the city won’t have too many problems building and installing it on its own; certainly the city council seems to think so after reviewing the final plans. If they approve it this week, as it seems they will, this will provide yet another service for Ruston in addition to the city’s efforts to purify its own water and supply its own electricity.

There is of course a massive amount of work that goes into realizing ideas of this sort. The mayor, a hardheaded thinker if I ever saw one, wasn’t being facetious with his timeline of about two years – two years for an additional service to be installed in a relatively small town working with some of the best minds and services Louisiana has to offer. Lots of work, as I said, but since when has that been a reason to shy away from a challenge? If your next state senator here has her way and manages to secure your confidence on the ballot next week, that will be a thing of the past. The problems remaining in Ruston are going to need creativity, yes, creativity that the city’s leadership has demonstrated in spades. But it needs to be present at all levels of government if we are to tackle these problems effectively.

Ken Pham has a vision for Louisiana that depends on just that, one that he’s confident others across this state share based on the decades of work he’s done  from Shreveport to St. Martin. These places don’t always have the means to solve their own problems, so we want to make sure they get the help they need; help which hasn’t been provided so far. Not all of Louisiana’s communities have a Tech or a burgeoning local economy to rely on, so as we emerge from this pandemic we are going to make sure our economic policy supports community growth in all parts of this great state; with that growth we will be able to hew out of the mountains of problems Louisiana faces, community by community, new stones of hope.

We’re not going to leave any part of Louisiana twisting in the wind; that’s not what the Federalists do. We’re betting that there are leaders like your mayor in communities all across this state, whether of the prominence he’s achieved or otherwise, who can join Ken Pham and a Federalist state House and state Senate in finding community-oriented solutions. That will be a matter for our next speaker to tackle – give it up, folks, for your next state senator!

[Joseph Cao]

[The northern swing continued in Bossier City, where the Representative was tasked with introducing the gubernatorial candidate at an event held under continued COVID restrictions; vaccinations or masks were required of all attendees and the event was livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

Thank you once again for having us here, Bossier City. Thank you. Let me do my best to keep this as short as I can make it.

I think many of you are aware of the stakes we are facing this election: a government that can provide the good governance and attention to each community and each Louisianan which you all deserve, or a government that can’t. And the Federalist ticket has certainly been pressing its qualifications on the campaign trail thus far. Frank Fisher’s speech earlier speaks for itself. I do suspect, however, that what we need most urgently to make sure of those wishes we have, to make sure that the government you folks elect next month does what it says it’ll do, is accountability.

Now I’m no stranger to accountability as a concept – my office has been remarkably good at telling the Atlasian people what they can expect from me, and I make a point, something I haven’t seen too many other elected officials do thus far, of meeting with folks on the ground at regular intervals and getting a feel for what they need from Congress. It may have played a part in the vote margins I’ve pulled in my various elections. Certainly the state Federalist Party seems to think so, or they wouldn’t keep inviting me back and Ken here wouldn’t be pressing the issue of being honest with the people of Louisiana.

It is plainly an issue which Louisiana could use more of in its next governor and legislative offices. We in the Federalist Party are prepared to be accountable for our actions, as we’ve been over the past seven months, because of that need at all levels of government. It’s obvious right here in the Bossier City Council where the Councilwoman who’s running for state Senate wants to be clear about what they’re doing when they bring the city’s crime ordinances into line with state law – it’s fairer for all in Bossier City, for those who committed the crimes and those who suffered from it, and allows justice to be exercised with greater discretion. It’s obvious with the activist running for state House, whose lobbying efforts have resulted in Bossier City’s Cybersecurity Awareness Week and a renewed interest in a Federalist-written bill to improve the state’s cybersecurity efforts. It’s obvious all across our state where dozens of candidates like them are fighting for the needs of their communities, led at the top by Ken Pham and Frank Fisher and our long-suffering Minority Leaders.

Governor Bouisseau has not been the best example of accountability in office, to put it mildly, and both the other parties have waffled on what they really want to do; meanwhile, as any of our leaders can tell you, our mission for the people hasn’t changed. We will fight for accountability and enforce it as best we can so that the people of Louisiana don’t have to suffer through another Bouisseau. We’ve made clear in our policies that the communities of Louisiana will not be overlooked again. If that needs to be underlined, there is no better person to do it than the next Governor of Louisiana: please give a warm welcome, once again, to Ken Pham!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Representative’s victory speech in Bloomington–Normal was followed up by a trip up to Chicago to continue campaigning with Mayor Hernandez. Several speeches were delivered in Morgan Park as part of Federalist volunteers’ focus on GOTV efforts in the Southwest Side, one of which is reprinted below for public release.]

Good afternoon, Morgan Park! And thanks to the Mayor once again for stressing what we need this weekend at the municipal elections. This is Chicago’s chance to determine the course of the next six months for your family, your friends, your neighbors; make sure you’ve got a good handle on what the candidates stand for and what they’ve done so far.

As a matter of fact I wanted to speak about something of the sort this afternoon. The Mayor’s work as a community activist before assuming office last November, as I’ve said before, informs every facet of what this administration does – including the very concerted reinvestment in the South, Southwest, and West Sides’ struggling communities. Here in Morgan Park, home to the first worldwide community service operation as undertaken by Rotary International over a century ago, we know very well the reputation we have to live up to. It resonates more than ever – this community, at the edge of Chicago, was passed over for far too long and the shuttering of the local Target was emblematic of that neglect that people here felt.

But in the process of drawing up plans for rejuvenating this neighborhood in concert with some of the community leaders who are here with us today, the mayor found unexpected help from Governor Gaviotti’s plan for several extra healthcare centers to be operated by the state of Illinois. It seems that the city council is very taken with the idea of establishing one of those new healthcare centers in the shuttered Target here in Morgan Park, as are many of the community leaders. If this goes through with the council when they convene for their next session, this will be a big win for everyone: Morgan Park, the city, and Illinois as a whole. Most importantly, it is a win for the people: we are in the process of being able to expand our safety net for the people who most need it here on the Southwest Side, and employ approximately a thousand deserving folks who need the work.

These priorities are a turnaround for Morgan Park as they’ve been for so many other neighborhoods in recent months. The tears of sorrow that many here cried when the Target shuttered will hopefully be replaced by tears of joy when the new center opens and infuses new life and new earnings into this community. We intend to continue with that work, to continue making sure every neighborhood in Chicago gets what they need and is able to join the rest of the city in climbing out of the problems they’re in, but we need your help just once this weekend at the ballot box. There are volunteers at the back to help you check your registration and where your nearest polling station is, so make sure to check with them and bring your friends and family to vote this weekend for a better and brighter Chicago. Thank you, Morgan Park! Stay safe, and go vote!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Representative’s final speech of the day before heading back to Nyman for Speakership duties came in Garfield Ridge, where he addressed a limited audience required to show proof of vaccination or arrive masked.]

I couldn’t be happier to be here with you all in Garfield Ridge today. And, as I said earlier in my victory speech, I’m so proud of all of you for turning out for elections this past weekend, no matter who you voted for – and I hope every one of you comes out again this weekend in support of a mayor who has fought for you all.

By a certain measure that is more or less the bare minimum of what a leader should do to fulfil their duties to their constituents, of course. That ought to be the case both in words and in actions. But it seems some can’t even manage that. Elsewhere in Lincoln we have a campaign that boils down to an attempt to divide people up by partisan affiliation, to place a black mark on everyone who does not vote for the favored party, hand in glove with reports of private statements regarding Federalist supporters that totally contradict whatever claims of benevolence might be being made out on the campaign trail.

That is, in a word, ridiculous. Ask Mayor Hernandez whether any part of Chicago or its policies over the past seven months have been predicated in this kind of nakedly partisan claptrap. The LeClaire Courts redevelopment doesn’t care what party you voted for. The immigrant-owned banh mi restaurant out on Archer, one of the best in the city by the way, doesn’t check your political affiliation before serving you. The leaking faucet or broken-down elevator does not magically fix itself if you profess your undying loyalty to a certain party. We don’t do that here – not in Chicago, not with the Federalist Party.

But neither are we about to bow to the rumblings of a desire for revenge on the right, for a hard-edged politics that refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the other party to engage in the political discourse. I have heard that the only way forward is for this party to engage in the same nakedly partisan claptrap. Now I never attended kindergarten, or any form of formal education until the age of thirteen for that matter, but I am reliably informed that this is a tactic well-employed by kindergarteners. As a general rule of thumb, I am not about to approach politics the same way a kindergartener would, but unfortunately the continued misunderstandings and nursing of grudges and slinging of insults seem to be dragging our politics in that direction.

Garfield Ridge got its name from the cliff left behind during a glacial retreat that sculpted the land Chicago now stands on, and until recently it was overlooked as a residential area. Whatever happens to our politics, the cliff we obviously walked up to the edge of over the past few days, I intend to continue making a case for my party and my own willingness to hew stones of hope for the Atlasian people out of the mountains of despair crowding our political scene today. Mayor Hernandez and other like-minded leaders across this nation speak to the success it can find, the political home it can provide even in the most inhospitable of places; we will not give up and we will not give in. My thanks once again, Garfield Ridge, and please welcome the Mayor for a few words!

[Joseph Cao]

[Continuing the northern campaign swing, which now took a more westerly direction, Representative Cao returned to the Shreveport area for a public fundraiser with the gubernatorial candidate and area Federalist luminaries before attending an outdoor event in the Queensborough neighborhood. The speech he gave to a limited and COVID-compliant audience is reprinted below.]

Shreveport! Thanks for having us here today. It’s a great honor to be back after spending a good deal of time with you all last November, and it is my hope that the good work our Federalist candidates have done over the past seven months is reflected in the results when you all go to the polls this weekend.

I do have to say, too, that Shreveport has changed substantially for the better since I last stopped by. For a long time both the council and Shreveport’s citizens have been painfully aware of the longstanding issues with blight and upkeep in several areas of town. It’s been a source of complaints from citizens on and off, but especially since the pandemic forced us all back into our homes and neighborhoods. And with good reason: people want to take pride in where they live! It’s not too much to expect that living in places affected by this lack of upkeep does something to your self-esteem, as one of our residents recently said. It affects the community’s morale. Blight is an attractor for stress and draws criminal activity to the very neighborhoods that need the most help in fighting it off.

It has therefore not been too much of a stretch to expect that cleaning up these areas, taking better care of properties and lots that don’t have owners to provide upkeep, combating the overgrowth and neglect that springs up in these areas can get people to help take more pride in their communities. When residents are involved in this job they can get some change done for themselves and their neighbors – a worthwhile investment to anyone. But someone had to get the ball rolling on that; who better for the job than city leadership and the newly-elected Federalists on the city council?

So it is that your councilwoman here in Queensborough, who is now running for state House, spearheaded a systematic and stringent plan targeting especially overrun neighborhoods for a more involved cleanup. To my knowledge they’ve been extremely successful in engaging the community so far. In the wake of the spring cleanup a few months ago we’ve been able to see the improvements that have been made: a distinct reduction in litter and waste out on public grounds, a comprehensive report from property standards inspectors with recommendations on which violations to focus on fixing, plans for future community sweeps to continue the process of citizen-led revitalization that begun this past year, and so on.

Little things like this – however broad they may be in their action plans and long-term strategy – are one of the best ways Shreveport can move forward. We can build all the developments and bring in all the job opportunities we want, but at the end of the day it is the people that make Shreveport and it is the people who will determine where this city goes. We need the people’s help; if you elect Ken Pham and your local Federalist legislative candidates next week, we will do what this administration hasn’t, what other parties haven’t: we’ll listen to you the people and bring all of you up together for a brighter future for Louisiana. Thank you, folks; go vote!

[Joseph Cao]

[Travelling southward, Representative Cao arrived in Logansport to join a state Senate candidate on one of the most energetic local campaigns of the election season. A short speech, reproduced below, was delivered to an audience whose attendees were required either to mask up or show proof of vaccination.]

Glad to be here in Logansport this afternoon. Let’s keep in mind what this election is about: a future for Louisianans, a future for communities like Logansport and the others across this state. Hopefully what you’ve just heard from the next Governor of Louisiana is a reflection of what we need at the top levels of government here.

We are conscious here in western Louisiana of what has been accomplished in the past and the heights that must now be aspired to. Logansport sits at the north end of one of the largest manmade reservoirs in the South, built just over fifty years ago on the Texas border. Right at the south end, of course, is a dam and hydroelectric generation plant that produces enough electricity to power a mid-sized city, and all along the lakeshore are opportunities for wildlife observation, for commerce, for outdoor recreation of all kinds. And it was built with no federal aid whatsoever, as your state Senate candidate never fails to point out; he’s one of Logansport’s and DeSoto Parish’s greatest boosters and can do a great deal for this area in the state legislature.

It is worth looking at what the reservoir means for us today beyond a surface-level view of the opportunities and whatnot. What needs to be made clear is that these were not the only reasons Texas and Louisiana came to an agreement to build it: people downstream in the Sabine watershed had suffered some of the worst floods in the two states’ shared history and that is saying something when Louisiana is involved. There are big problems remaining today that need to be solved, many of them just as severe for modern Louisianans as the flooding threat to western and southwestern portions of this state in times past. And where is the Governor in all this? Seven months ago he campaigned on his common affiliation with his Texan counterpart; how has that cooperation developed? Wherever it’s gone, it certainly hasn’t taken any form that can help the Louisianan people. Party affiliation doesn’t carry you too far if you’re not willing to fight for your constituents, as other states across Atlasia have demonstrated.

There is someone here today who wants to fight for all of Louisiana, however. To lead the people of this state in grasping new opportunities as well as building on the opportunities that past achievements like the Toledo Bend reservoir have afforded us. Nobody else wants to come here to the backwoods and hear the needs of the people, but the Federalists down to the last man have always shown up and listened and fought for you in the legislature, stood up for what the sidelined men and women of Louisiana need, and brought the change that has been sorely needed here just as we’ve done in Nashville and in the halls of Congress in Nyman. And led by the next Governor of Louisiana, they are ready to get the needs of Logansport and communities like it brought into Baton Rouge. That is Ken Pham, ladies and gentlemen, but he can’t do it on his own: there are public servants all across this state, right here in Logansport, who have fought for you as well. Please welcome one of them: your next state representative!

[Joseph Cao]

[The northwestern swing continued in Northwestern University and the Natchitoches area, where Representative Cao rejoined the gubernatorial ticket and several state legislative candidates in a varied show of policy and rhetoric focused on everything from transportation to the Red River. The Representative was tasked with introducing the gubernatorial candidate and did so in the speech reproduced below.]

All right, folks. My thanks to the state representative for some of the most important plans we’ll hear today. I couldn’t go through with this northwestern campaign plan without paying a visit here to Northwestern, and it seems from her comprehensive plan to help students and faculty here that the state representative feels the same way.

It struck me on the way in just how much of Natchitoches’ history was affected by the change in the Red River’s course. For all of the stuff I said about the Toledo Bend over in Logansport, there are times when humans must still accommodate whatever wishes nature has; I’m sure that will come as no surprise in this state, of course. Yet Natchitoches was built on the commerce and the resources that the Red River brought – after the river left it high and dry, it took a long time for the city to climb back with the tourism and the assets that Northwestern and the old town districts brought it. People continue to make use of the lake and the fishing and all the rest of it, but visiting the fisheries over on the other side of town still leaves you wondering what other paths Natchitoches might have taken without the Red River changing course.

But the important thing is that Natchitoches has found a way back. That is due in no small part to the efforts of your local leaders in being among the loudest voices for further infrastructure reinvestment, not just on the highway that has replaced the Red River as the conduit for commerce but in your local roads and buildings. Thanks to the Federalist voices in city leadership, we’ve kept a focus on what has become known as the Safe Streets program to ease the problems faced by overburdened communities: cleaning up feeder roads with help from local community helpers, improving and replacing faulty street lighting, and taking a targeted approach to removing the rotten crutches that have forced people here to languish and crime to proliferate. With the councilwoman in higher office – as she’ll remind you in a bit, she’s running a tight race for the state Senate – we can keep up the pressure from the people of Natchitoches on fixing local problems and getting better opportunities for revitalization of this city and others like it across north-central Louisiana.

All this focuses our attention back to the future that Natchitoches faces. You’ve been left high and dry by the change in course that Governor Bouisseau has taken almost as soon as he stepped into the Governor’s office. And it isn’t just you: urban and rural areas alike, Shreveport and St. Martin Parish, the Delta and Acadiana, New Orleans and all the smaller communities of Louisiana have been overlooked and underserved. Like all these places, Natchitoches has an opportunity to right the course this month: not by changing the course of that red river – recent events have clearly shown that the Governor is personally impervious to criticism and he’s being punished for it – but by bringing a new direction; a new highway bringing the opportunities that were taken away when the river jumped its course. The state representative has fought hard for education; the prospective state senator has been fighting hard for relieving the pressure that faulty infrastructure has dumped on our vulnerable communities here in the city. They’re just two of the public servants the Federalist Party is proud to support this month.

At the top, of course, is a public servant whose life has been driven by public service and helping the poor and those in need; a perfect complement to the legislative energy that our candidates have demonstrated here in Natchitoches. A public servant with what it takes to fix the injustice done to Louisianans with the changing of the river’s course. There’s a river of opportunity that the Federalists are willing to work toward on behalf of Louisiana and its people, and none are better placed to harness it than the next speaker here, who I am honored to invite up here now: ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ken Pham, the next Governor of the Pelican State!

[Joseph Cao]

[In between joining Federalist volunteers to canvass the Northwest Side and continue GOTV efforts, the mayor and Representative Cao dropped in at an afternoon function organized by the United Methodist Church in Edison Park. The following speech was given to a limited audience indoors, all of whom were wearing masks.]

Well, thank you for having us. Glad to be here in Edison Park this afternoon. Ah, the mic isn’t working? Pity. I’ll make do then, and if anyone can’t hear me please ask me to speak louder. Thank you.

As I was saying, I do want to thank the pastor for inviting us here today. Not just because it’s of the highest importance that you all come out as citizens and do your civic duty this month; all that aside, everyone here at today’s function has had a priority above and beyond that. The church here, others across Chicago, religious functions of all faiths in general have been one of the most important facets of Chicago life even if they get overlooked in place of more secular landmarks. They have helped to hold neighborhoods and families together and, as here, give some people the common purpose and drive that raises leaders for each community.

It is easy, perhaps, to say this in Edison Park considering its history: this very church is one of the earliest-established in the city, first established by the founder’s son and has run continuously since then. The pillars of this community have largely been raised here. This is a remarkably stable and continuous neighborhood purely from a faith-based standpoint and that has informed its other characteristics as well. An outlier in Chicago, all told. It’s much harder for the rest of the city and its considerably less staid history, but that is all the more reason for the vision which Mayor Hernandez has pursued.

You’ll know from prior meetings the mayor has had with your community that these are quite heavily based in the same roots as the religious activities that are carried out not just here in Edison Park, as they’ve been for a century and a quarter, but of all faiths in all neighborhoods within this city. The religious faiths observed by Chicagoans vary widely, but as a matter of course – from the rabbi on Archer Avenue to the imam in Bronzeville to our Buddhist and Taoist friends by the lakeshore – they exert many of the same influences that the church does here and elsewhere. They’ve all been advocates for changes we’ve needed to see in Chicago; in their teachings, moreover, they have been the guiding light on our nation’s principles of equality and justice at least since the Founders gathered in Philly – that city of brotherly love, that homage to this very form of community spirit – and signed a piece of paper that enshrined those principles in our collective memory.

That is merely one of the legacies they’ve left; far more important in our daily goings-about, in making sure those principles are acted out rather than being confined to paper, are the countless people who act them out in their own lives. That includes the Mayor, who has made sure religious leaders are consulted in their capacities as pillars of their community. We want to be sure that Chicago continues following the guiding light of these principles, for which our faiths have guided the way here in Edison Park and all across our city; here to explain just how that has been done, please welcome Mayor Hernandez for a few words!

[Joseph Cao]

"Well, all I can say is that whoever the Dispatch consulted had better fix their analytic equipment. Y'all had better get more accurate material if I'm going to be identified as an African-Atlasian man."

—an unruffled Representative Cao, upon leaving the above event and being informed of a hot-off-the-presses edition of the Citizen's Dispatch

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao travelled alongside the gubernatorial ticket across central Louisiana; on a return to the Alexandria metropolitan area, he was tasked with giving the opening speech at an outdoor rally in Pineville where participants were either masked or verifiably vaccinated.]

Hey there, Pineville! Glad to be here with you all, and thank you once again for humoring us out here – some of you still masked up, no less. But it’s good to see everyone doing their best to keep COVID at bay as we come out the other end of the pandemic all the same.

We’re also coming to a new period in the halls of power. I had the pleasure of meeting with a couple of my current and incoming Federalist colleagues yesterday, including your Senator-elect, former Delegate DTC, considering he made a stop here in Pineville a month or so ago and gave many of you here his word about what he wanted to do in the Senate, as well as Representative and incoming Senator Jimmy. I’m happy to say the discussion of our priorities for the upcoming legislative session, which my office is working on sifting through before it goes up on my website as always, went pretty well. It is important that you all at least know what we in Congress, folks like me who will continue serving all Atlasians, are getting up to.

As far as those priorities go, you know where I stand – and you can rest assured that the same goes for my colleagues in the new Senate. We maintain that while crime is a major threat to the overall health of communities like Pineville, there are many flaws in our justice system that negatively impact those put through it just as much as their communities. That should come as no surprise to Rapides Parish; you’ll know firsthand that far from helping people escape their prior misdeeds, the enforcement of justice locks many people out of the opportunities they need to truly reform. Areas like transportation and commercial ownership and work status are absolutely affected by it and continue to be to this day.

Which is why I was very gratified to hear your state representative’s bill make its way past both houses a few days ago. In some ways it is a remarkable analogue of Jimmy’s recent bill which has just made its way through the House; the federal bill will remove barriers for former petty criminals, people whose past faults should not preclude them from fair participation in society given the obvious distinctions between their offences and other considerably more dangerous crimes. The bill advanced by your state representative is a much-needed update to Louisiana’s past statute on their working status and the opportunities available to them, based on a careful study of the holes which the pandemic has highlighted in that statute for all to see; I want to highlight as well that these were very much community-driven results, things that affect all Louisianans from the Delta to the Sabine and everywhere in between.

It is this quiet legislation, this quiet attention to communities which people like your state representative serve across this great state, which people like Jimmy and DTC are prepared to bring to our new Congress – which the Federalist Party has stood for throughout its history, and always will in both word and deed – that Louisiana stands to benefit from in the coming term just as surely as this state has been wrecked by the past seven months of a governor who couldn’t be bothered to care. We are ready to govern for Pineville, for Rapides Parish, for all of Louisiana; here to explain how he and Ken will do that as a team, it is my pleasure to join you all in welcoming the next Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Frank Fisher!

[Joseph Cao]

[Further along in the afternoon and downriver, Representative Cao was asked to introduce the gubernatorial candidate at an event in Bunkie which was livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

Bunkie! It’s great to be here. Thanks to the state Senate candidate for that excellent speech, the exact kind of fire in the belly our communities need fighting on their behalf in the legislature. Listen, folks, we are not taking a single thing for granted in this race – we’re going to put our message out there as much as we can. It will be up to people like you all across this state to make the final decision, and we can’t tell you how to do that, despite what others seem to think.

We couldn’t be more proud of the work you’ve done here in the parish to keep your fellow citizens safe. And rest assured, as far as the rest of Louisiana goes, there are many others in the same boat – all the more reason this needs to be prioritized by a Governor and a legislature that won’t touch the problem beyond activating the state guard every time a hurricane passes us by. Ken here, as he will tell you shortly, knows firsthand the magnitude of the flooding problem faced by Bunkie and other communities; growing up in New Orleans one nasty flood away from being washed out to the Gulf can do that to a person.

But it is precisely because of the scale of that problem that Ken and the rest of the good folks in the Louisiana Federalist Party have staked out their position. It is not a problem that can be solved alone by a governor or a group of people holed up in Baton Rouge. There is a constant need for our parishes and our communities and towns to keep their wits about them on the ground and to grasp what their communities need during these recurring times of crisis. People like your state Senate candidate are a good way of bringing that kind of community-oriented service to the legislature where it’s sorely needed, but that can’t be all. Ken Pham, if he is elected, will do what Governor Bouisseau hasn’t done and keep the parishes and communities of this state in the loop on the flooding problem, on the natural disasters that Louisiana suffers, and on everything we face as a state. He will depend on them as much as they depend on him.

We are banking on this to work because we’ve seen what this kind of sustained community feedback can do for places like Bunkie. The constant flooding here has led to the construction of levees to protect you all, and they have obviously needed equally constant upkeep; we’re all aware of past occurrences, however, of levees which proved counterproductive because of bad planning and the resultant havoc wreaked on the underwater geography which piled extra pressure on our defences. Communities’ response to such events has shaped the Federalist Party’s stance on our work down at the Gulf and all along the Mississippi: defences against flooding which must take into account the health of underwater ecosystems and their topographies as reported by both community feedback and the best available surveying. It’s a policy evident even in the Southern Chamber’s legislation for a dam up in Missouri. This kind of infrastructure holds many people’s lives in its hands; there’s no excuse for getting it wrong.

Governor Bouisseau can waffle around with putting the status of our wildlife above all else; this party will focus on keeping Louisianans safe by paying attention to the same forces of nature that both sustain and batter us – on protecting our flora, fauna, and citizens. We’ll see which vision Louisianans need at the ballot box. We are very pleased to now be able to welcome the best person in this state to articulate that vision that carries the Federalist Party this month: the next Governor of Louisiana. Ken Pham, everybody! Come on up!

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao gave the concluding speech reprinted below to cap a long day of campaigning alongside the mayor, which included a public fundraiser in the Loop and a town hall organized by the South Loop’s community leaders. Participants at all events were either masked or carrying proof of vaccination.]

Thanks for having us here in the South Loop. And my thanks once again to the Mayor for that exemplary speech and the policies that have been a great boon to this community – whatever the media or others might say, we are totally focused on serving the people of Chicago. The increasing number of people who have been vaccinated as we’ve seen over the past month of keeping in touch with you all is just one example of that.

I would like to thank the local leaders as well for being one of the most forthcoming of communities in our policing reform efforts over Mayor Hernandez’s tenure. It has been a pleasure, as was recently demonstrated at the town hall with some of you, to work with a neighborhood with this level of initiative and willingness to mobilize the community; naturally, though, that has roots in the history that the South Loop holds as one of Chicago’s oldest and most established neighborhoods.

The community-driven neighborhood watch that you folks recently came up with is one of many excellent ideas which reflect that history. It is gratifying to see the community take the lead alongside the mayor and other city leaders in trying to resolve the crime and policing problem, especially when that occurs through a means that the city is not well equipped to attempt. I’m referring, of course, to that neighborhood watch proposal. There is much that members of the community can do to create an environment within the bounds of their neighborhood to keep the seeds of crime from being sown, beyond simply asking for more police presence given its potential to backfire.

In this we’re of course grateful to all the leaders who made this line of thinking possible, including past leaders like former Presidents Yankee and Fhtagn who were very aware of the potential in taking a community approach to policing and signed legislation to that effect. If the mayor and I have been able to follow in their footsteps, the mayor with all this local effort to reform police operations and I with my recent sponsorship of one of Senator Spark’s many police reform bills, it is because all of us hold to the primary Federalist principle of giving communities and individuals the autonomy they need to settle on solutions that work best for them. We’re not fans of the one-size-fits-all governing approach that Chicago has suffered from in its past.

Furthermore, as the mayor has said before, policing works best when the community is able to communicate what it needs to the police and law enforcement, who in turn are able to communicate what they need to the people who they’re trying to protect on the ground. It goes nicely with our reform efforts at the city level, in keeping the job of policing closer to its originally intended function of protecting their community by ensuring that officers know and respect their community well. We’ve been trying get this city’s law enforcement in a position to be able to carry out their end of that communication. What is being proposed here in the South Loop, over at the edges of this city and across the South Side, gives the mayor and I hope that this communication process can be strengthened and develop into something that will keep each and every Chicagoan safe.

We made a promise to Chicago seven months ago when Mayor Hernandez was first elected: that come rain or shine, good or bad fortunes, the mayor would bring Chicagoans across this city back into the loop of governing. We’re glad to see the South Loop find and develop a way to protect itself in concert with the city rather than being directed to do so; to see Chicagoans and our fellow citizens stand up for what they need. That will continue as long as Mayor Hernandez is in office, because the record of this mayoralty speaks for itself here in the South Loop and all across this great city. Thank you, Chicago; thank you all for coming, and go vote!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Representative joined several state legislative candidates in Acadiana for a final push before the election, and delivered the following speech in rather overcast weather conditions to a limited audience. The speech was livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

Glad to be here, Sulphur. We are days away from the election, from getting out an incumbent in the legislature who’s become a byword for this administration’s unwillingness to listen to Louisianans, and it is of the utmost importance that every one of you makes sure to educate yourselves, go out, and cast your vote. I trust the Federalist candidate has made herself clear over the past few weeks on the priorities she has and on her track record of protecting her fellow citizens; there is no doubt in my mind that she will be an infinitely better state Senator in making sure the voices of the people here in Sulphur and all across this parish are heard and acted on.

We know this urgency for Sulphur because of what this community has been through over the past several months, ever since last year’s hurricanes which sent the quality of the water supply spiralling downward. Residents of Sulphur, the folks gathered here today, have one of the worst-quality water supplies in this state – even the minority who can afford to install their own water systems in their homes aren’t safe. It’s got higher-than-average manganese and iron levels, there’s sediment in it, it’s odorous, it discolors people’s skin and clothes and basically anything that’s washed in it. People have reported adverse health effects even after boiling it. And it’s still deemed safe for drinking by this administration!

The City Council is all the way behind raising the standards for health assessment, of course, as any sensible person would be given these facts on the ground. Louisiana last updated these health guidelines over two decades ago. We’ve learned much more about public health in the intervening time, including how it manifests in places like Sulphur and its fellow communities. They don’t get enough attention as they quietly try to recover from the natural disasters that hit them; disaster relief, contrary to what past administrations have done, has to extend beyond just throwing water bottles and aluminum blankets at evacuees for the two weeks after a hurricane tears through and upends entire parishes. The effects of natural disasters; of hurricanes; of the gradually rising seas which have drowned many miles of Acadiana’s coast cannot be ignored if our communities and people are ever to recover.

That’s why Ken Pham has pledged to raise the standards not just for water quality, but for a myriad of other indicators in Louisianans’ living standards. He knows from previous disaster work in New Orleans and St. Charles that the work never stops in ensuring that every person in Louisiana has access to clean water, adequate shelter, and a means of livelihood. Things begin with acknowledging the problem in Sulphur and in other places, with doing what this administration has stubbornly not done; those of us in positions of power have a duty to those we serve. And your state Senate candidate has made it a point to get the next administration’s backing, whoever it’s led by, to install new water filter systems in all communities – including Sulphur – as just the first step in a plan to ensure our public utilities perform up to their expectations and to those of the people. It is a uniquely Louisianan problem, but that means all the more incentive to fix it.

More than that, we need your help: not just in continuing to highlight the problems with your communities, not just in raising hell with your public servants and local officials and getting their support as the City Council has done, as your next state Senator has done, and as Ken Pham has done, but backing that with your votes up and down the ballot this week. Make sure your voice is heard at all levels of government; only then is there a way for the issues to be tackled from all levels of government. And with Ken Pham and Frank Fisher in office and a Federalist majority in the legislature, you bet we’ll find a way to tackle them. Thank you once again, Sulphur, and it is my great privilege to welcome your next state Senator!

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao joined the Mayor in Bridgeport for a final rally before voting day which drew many local Federalist leaders in attendance alongside a limited and COVID-restricted audience. He was tasked with delivering the closing speech; like the others in the event it was livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

Good evening! Good evening, folks, and thank you for coming.

I could not be more proud of the campaign that Mayor Hernandez has ran, and of the many passionate defenses of this administration’s policies that have been made. Last November all eyes in our region turned to Chicago as one of the biggest test cases for recovery from the pandemic, from the economic downturn, and from all the little regional and local ills that plague this great city. And in the intervening months it has become clear, abundantly clear, that the leading city of this bellwether region of our beloved nation elected one of the best leaders it could possibly have hoped for. In all our history we have not been locked down by circumstances, but rather have risen above them and shown our fellow citizens all across the nation what potential we hold.

Mayor Hernandez’s tenure has broken new ground on the housing problem and reforming our law enforcement. It’s continued to establish Chicago as a leading market for innovation and environmental development. Throughout all this the Mayor has made sure to pay close attention to the living conditions of every Chicagoan and worked to improve the prospects of our poor and struggling fellow Atlasians. It couldn’t have been done without the willing help and work in concert with too many people to count here, the aldermen and community leaders on down to all the thousands of people who this administration has done its best to accommodate. We Federalists here in the Land of Lincoln take governing of the people, by the people, and for the people very seriously. It should come as no surprise that that is exactly what Mayor Hernandez has done.

And I don’t think any community exemplifies this better than Bridgeport, the First Neighborhood, the heart of Chicago’s past and a blueprint for how to get our most vulnerable communities across to the future. Bridgeport knows firsthand the pros and cons of the old politics that sustained over seven decades’ worth of mayors. As many other Chicagoans will testify, the cons of an inflexible partisan machine have often outweighed the pros, and the growing pains Chicago sustained all through the twentieth century will also speak to that reality. Bridgeport has changed, however; it’s seen a great deal in the intervening decades and we now know it as a united community, a melting pot of dozens of nationalities and ethnicities that don’t owe their allegiance to any particular party or machine. And with you good folks’ support, with the support of your fellow Chicagoans, we have proved firsthand – thanks to Mayor Hernandez – that we can move past that; Bridgeport can get the pros without the cons in a more responsive administration which respects the wishes of Chicago’s inhabitants without imposing its own views on them.

It therefore remains for you good folks in the coming day or so to take the stage all for yourself – no mayor in the picture, no aldermen, certainly no party leaders or apparatchiks. The voting booth is the Atlasian citizen’s time to shine all for themselves. So the efforts that so many of you, volunteers and ordinary citizens alike, have made to bring this city’s voice out to the polls to register as loudly and clearly as it possibly can must be commended to help make this a reality. When you go into that voting booth, remember Chicago’s past and the last seven months of its present under a mayor that has run one of the most community-oriented administrations in the city’s history, one that takes pains to sustain each neighborhood and helps them do so for the people living in them. We have a path to the future, one which the rest of Lincoln and all of Atlasia is looking to as an example. It will soon be up to the people of Chicago to choose this city’s path.

When you vote, vote on behalf of a future for your kids and your neighbors; for a Chicago that will continue to make Atlasia proud of what it has done and what it can still do. Thank you very, very much, Bridgeport. Please vote and stay safe. Good night.

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao stopped in Gretna on the final day of campaigning to help an old family acquaintance and promising state House candidate carry out one last push on the GOTV front; in concert with that, the two joined the gubernatorial candidate at a short rally in Gretna at which participants were either masked or in possession of proof of vaccination.]

Well, it’s been a minute. Good afternoon, Gretna! I couldn’t be happier to finally make my way back to a community that has supported me as it has supported many others in their bids for public service. But of course you will all know that firsthand, because one of them is right here today and he’s running for Governor.

Let me take you all back a few years. We know the pain that New Orleans and this whole area and its people went through back in 2005 when Katrina hit us. We lost a great deal. But we pulled through that loss, emerging on the other side bloodied but unbowed, because of what we did back then in our communities: coming together to help each other, the able giving aid to those who needed it most. We ensured that our voices were heard, here in Gretna, in its aftermath when the disaster became not the natural one but the one caused by an incompetent state government.

Many dedicated servants have emerged from that, and so did I. The legislature and the parish governments here are proof positive of that. Ken, as he will remember, was the voice behind this local community’s push for change and better administration, a push that begun with a landfill I argued against. From there we have managed to raise this community up into a voice for the voiceless, a community that is not going to be left behind again, and a community that has thoroughly demonstrated in its actions that it will extend the same opportunity to all who are hurting or in need of the same help that we were back then.

And aren’t we, once again, smarting from the inaction of an incompetent state government? Labor campaigned with a great deal of honey last November and look where their raw partisanship has gotten them. Our communities still need help – help that should be expressed not just in words out on the campaign trail, but in the actions of the parish president and the mayor and the councilwoman here who’s running for the state House, in their attempts to lower the tax burden for our burgeoning small businesses and their owners, for the fishermen who make their only living out on the Gulf, and giving the attention to our rising coastal levels that this administration has paid less than lip service to. This community isn’t new to any of these problems, and we have made inroads in solving them on what levels we can. Now it’s time to bring this all the way up to the top where the rest of the state can join in.

Disaster relief is never easy – there are people are still struggling with the effects of Katrina to this day – but the lessons of what can be done if it’s carried out correctly are a vision worth pursuing. Certainly Louisiana has had more than its fair share of suffering from incompetently performed relief. It’s time to change that, and the initiative for that lies not just with the next Governor, but with a legislature of people who have fought for their communities just as hard. Please welcome one of them now, Gretna: your next state representative!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Representative joined Frank Fisher in the French Quarter to assist local volunteers in getting people to the polls; their efforts concluded in the late afternoon with a series of speeches livestreamed on Federalist websites and social media.]

I’ve gone over this before, but all of us here today know the stakes of this election. We have an administration in office that has, by and large, failed the people of Louisiana because it has not demonstrated that it cares about any of them – urban or rural. We are here because we believe there is hope for a better administration which will actually work for the people rather than simply paying lip service to them, because at its heart this is an issue of whether our Governor and our legislature want to fulfil their role as duly-elected public servants. We believe they can actually care. Those of us up here onstage certainly believe the Federalists are in a position to demonstrate what we have said over and over in the past few weeks.

That is why Ken here, and the legislative candidates up and down this state, and the Federalist Party of Louisiana have not engaged in pointless gotchas on the campaign trail just to send up other parties. I don’t doubt it is fun to do so. But a party serious about governing is not going to spend its capital out in this rarefied partisan atmosphere in this fashion. We don’t need to depend on rhetorical devices to prove that we care; what our legislators have done, the quietly effected change which has been accomplished by our candidates in their various local offices, matters more than whatever complaining is done out on the campaign trail. The mark of what a party has to offer lies in what it has done in private more than what it says in public.

We in the Federalist Party certainly know which of those is more important for voters as we draw the curtains on another legislative session, in which many of our own legislators did exemplary work on everything from farming loans to Main Street investment grants to broadband installation to drinking water. The word of a single man in Baton Rouge is not going to change the quiet community work that our legislators have been effecting on behalf of their constituents; we know this because there is already a man in Baton Rouge whose entire record stands against that. Louisianans aren’t political naïfs. They know when their pols are pulling a fast one on them and that applies regardless of party. So we believe in granting them that basic respect out here on the campaign trail as well as in government.

That is the reason why I don’t put much stock in whatever polls or confidences are being trumpeted anywhere here – the people of Louisiana know well what an unheeding partisan trifecta has done for them these past months. The answer to that is – nothing! Get rid of the partisanship for partisanship’s sake, as candidates up and down the ballot have pleaded this month, and the battlefield clears. We aren’t finding any solutions for the people of Louisiana otherwise. And the Federalist governing philosophy is not one to get drunk on its own abilities as this administration has done. We’re more than aware that government is only as strong as the people it serves and legislated accordingly. That lies behind the Federalist commitment, too, to making sure other parties get the fair hearing they deserve, rather than being shut down over and over as they’ve been with Labor running the legislative show; the ideas they bring to the table are as necessary to Louisianans’ wellbeing as any others.

As much as others on the campaign trail might disagree, we here in the Federalist Party are not about to abandon conciliation. It is the only way for politics to become the art of the possible – all that is possible for the struggling single mom in Shreveport and the young unemployed man in New Orleans and the Acadiana family trapped by rising floodwaters. Atlascare and police reform and countless other achievements on the federal and regional levels have been the result of that willingness to seek accommodation rather than giving no quarter. Because of what these have done for Atlasians, because of what can still be done, we are not going to let what is possible for the people of Louisiana get run into a corner by the need to breathe partisan fumes on the campaign trail.

Different needs – the people’s needs, as articulated by people with a far better local understanding of Louisianans’ needs than mine – are taking precedence here in the Federalist Party, and you bet they will do just that in office as well. But enough from me about that. He can do it better than I, so kindly welcome your next Lieutenant Governor, Frank Fisher, up here for a few words!

[_.]

New Orleans, Louisiana

[Southern Delegate Abdullah gave a speech at an outdoor rally in New Orleans, Louisiana with Joseph Cao, Ken Pham, and many other high-ranking Federalists]

Thank you all for having me here in this wonderful city.

Today I'd like to speak with you all about why you should vote for the Federalist party. I'll try to keep this short. My appeal to you is that you vote for the party of fiscal responsibility during the next elections. Our party has a track record, upkeeping our services and making sure growth is possible all while managing to keep taxes low. In fact, we've had famous Lincolnites barge into our sessions and ask us to raise our taxes, having crocodile tears fall down their face about how we would turn into "Brownback era Kansas". They're scared of our low taxes and the talent from their regions that our responsible fiscal policy is attracting, you see.

You know what really did happen, though? We just got an estimated 55 Billion Atlasian Dollars surplus on the regional level, among the highest ever! And this massive, unprecedented surplus crafted by Federalist hands is gonna improve your lives, whether the current governor likes it or not.

In fact, every day we're passing things that help out the people of not just New Orleans, but the entire South. Our newly passed Universal Broadband Act, which was written by Federalists, is going to help build from the ground up new systems which will improve internet access in the most underdeveloped regions of the South, previously ignored by Atlasian leaders. We are the party of the common man.

The Laborites are so scared of our grassroots movement that they're sending carpetbaggers from as far as Oregon to other parts of the South to campaign. We are going to end Labor one-party rule though, whether they like it or not. And it starts here in the bedrock of Federalist support in Louisiana, in New Orleans, where the common man every day isn't worrying about who he's gonna cancel next or the number of genders there are, but is worrying about how he's gonna get food on the table. Where the common man still believes in the great Atlasian values which we used to build our country from the ground up, hard work, perserverance, and grit. We are the party of the common man, the working man.

And you know who cares about the common man? You know who believes in those great Atlasian values? The next governor of Louisiana, Ken Pham. A man who doesn't "wish he lived in Frémont"! A man who's proud of his state, region, country, and people! Don't take my word for it, though. Let him tell you about it himself.

[Ken Pham enters the scene to wild cheers]

[Joseph Cao]

New Orleans, Louisiana

[Southern Delegate Abdullah gave a speech at an outdoor rally in New Orleans, Louisiana with Joseph Cao, Ken Pham, and many other high-ranking Federalists]

Thank you all for having me here in this wonderful city.

Today I'd like to speak with you all about why you should vote for the Federalist party. I'll try to keep this short. My appeal to you is that you vote for the party of fiscal responsibility during the next elections. Our party has a track record, upkeeping our services and making sure growth is possible all while managing to keep taxes low. In fact, we've had famous Lincolnites barge into our sessions and ask us to raise our taxes, having crocodile tears fall down their face about how we would turn into "Brownback era Kansas". They're scared of our low taxes and the talent from their regions that our responsible fiscal policy is attracting, you see.

You know what really did happen, though? We just got an estimated 55 Billion Atlasian Dollars surplus on the regional level, among the highest ever! And this massive, unprecedented surplus crafted by Federalist hands is gonna improve your lives, whether the current governor likes it or not.

In fact, every day we're passing things that help out the people of not just New Orleans, but the entire South. Our newly passed Universal Broadband Act, which was written by Federalists, is going to help build from the ground up new systems which will improve internet access in the most underdeveloped regions of the South, previously ignored by Atlasian leaders. We are the party of the common man.

The Laborites are so scared of our grassroots movement that they're sending carpetbaggers from as far as Oregon to other parts of the South to campaign. We are going to end Labor one-party rule though, whether they like it or not. And it starts here in the bedrock of Federalist support in Louisiana, in New Orleans, where the common man every day isn't worrying about who he's gonna cancel next or the number of genders there are, but is worrying about how he's gonna get food on the table. Where the common man still believes in the great Atlasian values which we used to build our country from the ground up, hard work, perserverance, and grit. We are the party of the common man, the working man.

And you know who cares about the common man? You know who believes in those great Atlasian values? The next governor of Louisiana, Ken Pham. A man who doesn't "wish he lived in Frémont"! A man who's proud of his state, region, country, and people! Don't take my word for it, though. Let him tell you about it himself.

[Ken Pham enters the scene to wild cheers]

Outdoor rally in New Orleans, Louisiana alongside gubernatorial ticket, Southern Delegate Abdullah, and other Federalist luminaries

Thanks to the next Governor of Louisiana for, once again, giving us exactly what needs to be heard during this election season. My thanks to all of you here as well for showing up this evening. I couldn’t be more proud of the work that has been done over the past months by all you wonderful folks. Certainly I trust you will all have that opportunity in the coming months as well.

We have spoken about innumerable issues this election, and certainly it will soon fall to the thousands of communities in Louisiana to assess which party has made the best case to each of them. But I believe it is important that the people of Louisiana are as best-equipped as they can possibly be before exercising their fundamental civic duty. We need to know exactly what the need is this election, where we stand, why we’ve gotten here, and how we can get out of it; we run the risk, otherwise, of running round and round in a political train engine that tears itself to pieces, proposing policy after policy that uses up the precious resource of good governance. Goodness knows there’s a shortage of it in the Governor’s office at the moment.

When we here in the Feds get called one of the big parties it is often meant as a pejorative. I for one, however, take pride in this party of ours that has continuously survived for the longest time period among all major parties on the scene today, with the legislative record to show for it at both the federal and regional levels, and I suspect the rest of the party feels the same way. We’ve survived and we are here today in front of you all because the voters know what we stand for and always have: we fight for the autonomy in politics that our communities deserve, in the rights we possess as individuals and as regions with all the policy that follows on from that basic foundation. We can stand on our own without being propped up by a much larger party or fighting for the kingmaker’s privilege. As a giant of Louisianan politics once alluded to, that fundamental opportunity for the individual is what Louisiana needed then and needs now; it is an opportunity which the Federalist Party, an individual- and community-oriented party of long standing, is well-equipped to tackle.

As we have stressed before, however, being able to stand on our own two feet does not mean we are about to ignore the rest of the body politic. Governor Bouisseau made the mistake of pushing aside everyone who did not vote for him, consistent with the way he and his party handlers from out west campaigned last November. Can it be any clearer that the people of Louisiana regardless of partisan affiliation have suffered because of it? That’s a mistake we can’t afford to make again. Neither Ken Pham nor Frank Fisher nor any of our candidates have entertained the notion that we alone can fix things. Why would we? We’re limited in our ability and capacity. We know very well that other parties have solutions and ideas of their own; we aren’t too proud, as Governor Bouisseau has been, to admit when the people need those ideas. And it is a privilege of our governing model and political philosophy that uniquely among the players on the political scene today, we can recognize that fact without surrendering our values as a party.

So here’s where we stand today: the last seven months have made it beyond obvious that simple partisanship topped off with bluster and braggadocio does not work as a governing philosophy. And the lives of Louisianans are far too important to continue this path of mucking things up. There is one party on the ballot which has not gone all in on the my-way-or-the-highway politics that has all but driven this state off the cliff. There is one party which has the governing philosophy needed to accommodate the wide range of solutions which Louisianans and their state legislators have to offer. There is one party with the presence to accommodate all this with the skill and basic governing competence that we really, really need right now, without getting our state bogged down in ill-afforded partisan squabbling once again. There is exactly one party which has consistently demonstrated this in its words and actions over the past seven months, on the campaign trail these past weeks, and is ready to back that up in the coming term. That is the Federalist Party, ladies and gentlemen, and that is the party I firmly believe you will all consider as you go out to vote for the party that has made the best case to you.

Please go out and do your civic duty if you haven’t already – your families need your voice to be heard; your communities need your voice to be heard; this state needs your voice to be heard. Thank you all, Louisiana. Thank you, New Orleans! Stay safe, everyone, and good night.