Candidate Carousel #2 puts one Courage for Democracy congressional candidate — Ericka Kopp, running in Virginia’s 1st District — and Progressive congressional candidate Abel Chavez, running in California’s 48th — across a panel of Nick Paro, Walter Rhein, guest co-hosts Lisa Gonzalez and Ellie Leonard. Kopp, a practicing healthcare attorney and caregiver to a disabled combat veteran, opens by pulling apart the Virginia Supreme Court’s reversal of the state’s redistricting referendum — the same court that had told the people to vote, then overturned the result by a single justice’s vote — and connects it to Louisiana v. Callais, which gutted the Voting Rights Act and led directly to Louisiana cancelling its US House primary.
Kopp’s institutional argument is procedurally sharp. She wants the US Marshals Service moved out of the executive branch and under the judiciary so that federal judges can actually enforce contempt against ICE — which, by her count and Lisa’s, has violated roughly 10,000 court orders. She commits, on day one of her term, to filing articles of impeachment against Donald Trump under Rule 9 to force every member of Congress on the record, followed by articles against the rest of the regime — and to backing a Speaker of the House who is not Hakeem Jeffries. She frames continuous impeachment as Congress’s constitutional duty, not a one-shot political maneuver. On the Epstein files, Kopp signs on — explicitly, on the record — to collaborate with Ellie Leonard and other independent researchers from a House seat, calling the missed statutory release deadline its own impeachable obstruction. Ellie pulls the conversation through US Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan and the 134 unsigned bank accounts, the Einstein visa pipeline as a trafficking funnel, and the DOJ’s deliberately obstructed search system. Both candidates agree: the people in those files cannot continue to be the people investigating them.
Chavez’s pitch starts at the school board he won in an all-red California district against a Republican incumbent with ten times his funding. From that seat he secured $30M in funding, built early-college high school pathways, and implemented trades programs — and that record is the spine of his federal platform: trades buildings and business pathways in every high school, STEAM funding restored where districts have stripped arts to pay for whiteboards, hard separation of church and state in publicly funded schools, no books banned in libraries, and a cabinet-level AI regulator whose officials are barred for ten years on either side from taking industry money. He grounds the AI urgency in concrete cases — the documented 450+ AI-induced suicide guidance incidents (the Last Week Tonight ChatGPT segment), the use of AI to deny Medicare and Medicaid claims with no human oversight, the DOGE grant-defunding fiasco, and Ellie’s reporting that teachers in her district are generating and grading assignments with AI while students do the work with ChatGPT teams. The throughline of the full two hours: institutional capture is solvable from the local rung up — Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors, State Corporation Commission — but only if voters fund grassroots candidates who refuse the corporate lane and refuse to flinch at the word “impeachment.”
Show up to local meetings before the vote. Lisa and Ericka are blunt: Board of Supervisors, Planning Commission, town council, and city council meetings are where data centers, ICE facilities, and rezonings get decided. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission is taking public comment on the NextEra–Dominion Energy merger right now — submit one. Hanover County’s planned ICE concentration camp was stopped by a standing-room-only Board of Supervisors meeting.
Check your voter registration monthly, not seasonally. Lisa Gonzalez was purged off the Ohio rolls after a DMV name change under a state “election integrity” program; she only caught it because the validation postcard listed the wrong name. Verify yours from Ericka Kopp’s “I Will Vote” widget at erickakopp.com or directly through your state Secretary of State, and put it on a recurring schedule — not just before primaries.
Treat impeachment as a continuous practice, not a one-shot. Kopp commits to Rule 9 forced votes against the entire regime, citing prior filings by Al Green, Shri Thanedar, and John Larson as evidence the procedural path exists. Track which member of your delegation will file, and which is hiding behind “decorum.” Citizens’ Impeachment is organizing the constituent side of that pressure.
Fund grassroots candidates who refuse corporate, foreign-lobby, and AIPAC money. Both Kopp and Chavez are running 100% grassroots against well-funded primary fields. Donate directly: erickakopp.com and abelchavezforcongress.com. The full Courage for Democracy slate is 150+ candidates organized to take a Democratic House majority without the corporate-PAC lane.
Pressure school boards on STEAM and on AI use. Ellie reports teachers in her district are generating and grading assignments with AI while students complete them with ChatGPT teams, and that arts and special-ed programs are being cut to pay for whiteboards. Ask your district two specific questions: who actually reads the work, and which line items in next year’s budget protect arts, music, theater, and special-education electives.
Demand an AI oversight regime with teeth. Chavez’s proposal: a cabinet-level AI regulator whose officials cannot take industry money — past, present, or for ten years after — with chain-of-custody auditability in any system touching healthcare claims, education, or the military kill chain. Lisa’s anchor cases: AI-denied Medicaid claims, the 450+ AI-induced suicide guidance incidents, and the DOGE grant-defunding fiasco.
I’m Nick Paro, and I’m sick of the shit going on. So, I’m using poetry, podcasting, and lives to discuss the intersections of chronic illness and mental wellbeing, masculinity, veteran’s issues, politics, and so much more. I am only able to have these conversations, bring visibility to my communities, and fill the void through your support — this is a publication where engagement is encouraged, creativity is a cornerstone, and transparency is key — please consider becoming a paid subscriber today and grow the community!.