INTERVIEW: Ashley Allison Talks Midterm Election Day, record-Breaking Voter Turnouts, The Root 100 + more

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hold up, every day I wake up, wake your ass up, The Breakfast Club.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:05)

You want to finish or y'all done?

DJ Envy (0:08)

Morning, everybody, it's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. Lola Rose is here as well. We got a special guest in the building.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:16)

Yes, indeed.

DJ Envy (0:17)

Ashley Allison, welcome. Hey, guys. How you feeling this morning?

Charlamagne Tha God (0:20)

It's all happening tonight, Ashley. Well, we're saying tonight because it's airing tomorrow, but midterms.

DJ Envy (0:26)

Oh, yeah. Yes.

Ashley Allison (0:27)

I mean.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:27)

How you feeling?

Ashley Allison (0:29)

Well, I just wanted to be over.

SPEAKER_5 (0:30)

I'm on it. I'm so tired.

Ashley Allison (0:33)

I feel good. You know what, actually, I'm excited because the numbers of people going to vote is breaking records, and that means that people believe in this democracy and know that they have some agency and they do not like what's happening right now and they want to change it. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_5 (0:52)

I don't know.

DJ Envy (0:52)

It's surprising because people are exhausted. People are tired.

Ashley Allison (0:55)

Yeah. Yeah. It feels like a passive engagement. They're like, I'm not going to march. I'm not going to this. I'm just going to go vote so this nonsense can be over.

Charlamagne Tha God (1:04)

Is this a vote of confidence in the Democrats or a simply rejection of Donald Trump? Because I feel like voters always express skepticism in regards to Democrats and people like Haley Stevens don't make it any better.

Ashley Allison (1:16)

She will not live rent-free in my head, so I'm done with her.

I actually think that there is a slate of candidates this cycle. You look at Scott Colombo in Mississippi. You look at Angie Nixon in Florida. You look at Abdul in Michigan, Talarico in Texas. Like, that is not the Democratic establishment. That is a new wave of talent. And so I think people are excited about folks, the guy and the pastor in Kansas, right? Like, there is a new breed coming in. And I think that if they win, they will try and set a new agenda and reframe how the Democrats are, you know, being perceived right now.

Charlamagne Tha God (1:52)

But what about the people who I believe believe in establishment self-preservation? That's what I believe Hailey Stabins is.

Ashley Allison (1:59)

Yeah, but I don't even think she's really a Democrat at this point, you know? So, I mean, it was like what she did. I was with her actually a week ago because I did CNN with her.

And she lied to everybody. She like lied to my face, you know? We talked for 20 minutes and I was just like, she was like, yeah, you know, I think he can do this. It just is wild, wild work.

Charlamagne Tha God (2:22)

So how do Democrats gain power and then restore public trust?

Ashley Allison (2:28)

They need to put an agenda for where it makes housing more affordable. Programs that if you are a first or a second time homeowner, you can buy a home, bring down the cost of groceries, come up there different tax incentives, grocery taxes that you can take off of. We need to get out of this war in Iran. Like they are going to have to go in and put forth an actual agenda. Now, the thing that's important for people to remember is that Donald Trump will still be the president and he will still have veto power. But it is important not to just passively say, well, let's wait till 2028 to make changes.

There are, make Donald Trump say, no, I'm not going to lower your groceries if Democrats get in power. I fundamentally believe they can do that.

DJ Envy (3:12)

Now, do you think, you talk about a new wave of people coming in. With this new wave, do you think they will learn from what we've seen Donald Trump do? Like from the first day of office, start just doing issues with the pen and saying, F everybody else.

I don't care how I look. I don't care if you like me or not. I'm just doing what's in my best interest that we really haven't seen.

Ashley Allison (3:30)

I think they're campaigning like that, honestly. I think that if you look at the way Talarico campaigns versus the way Angie Nixon campaigns, it's not what you've seen in past elections. They are themselves. I think that is, whether you like it or not, Donald Trump is himself.