Breaking The Meta

Amanda Nelson (@Amandasmildtakes) built Y'all Vote to flip Southern statehouses after SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act. Here's the plan. Amanda has nearly 2 million followers — but the real power of Y'all Vote is the creator with 500. In this episode of Breaking the Meta, we dig into how a coalition of Southern content creators is funding 100 competitive state house, state senate, governor, and...

Kaylee Peterson won Idaho's Democratic primary with nearly 90% — now she's trying to flip one of the reddest districts in America against Rep. Russ Fulcher. She's back on Breaking the Meta for the first time since our very first interview. In a district the size of four states — 12 hours end to end, 1.2 million people, 63% federally owned — Kaylee lays out why she believes there's a real path to v...

Yen Bailey is running for US Congress in Florida's 2nd District, a 16-county, largely rural stretch where she says no candidate had campaigned in years before her 2024 run. A former ethics lawyer and Guardian ad Litem advocate, Bailey talks with Breaking the Meta about the affordability crisis hitting nearly half her district, the collapse of ACA subsidies and its life-or-death stakes for rural ho...

Aisha Farooqi is running for Michigan's 11th District on Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, and getting corporate money out of politics. The only woman in a crowded MI-11 race, Aisha sits down with Breaking the Meta for an honest, unscripted conversation about who she is and what she'll actually fight for. A child of immigrants who came to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1993, she grew up in Detroit Publ...

Jason Pearce is the Democrat running for Texas District 4 against Pat Fallon in 2026 — and he spent just $1,500 to nearly pull it off. 🔗 Support Jason: pearcefortexas.com Jason Pearce sat down with Breaking the Meta to talk about his run for Texas's 4th Congressional District: why he left his job last October to campaign full time, the affordability and education fights voters keep raising, his p...

Across Georgia, dozens of races have no Democrat on the ballot at all. Bob Herndon is out to change that—one unwinnable district at a time. In 2022, 51 Republicans in the Georgia state house ran completely unopposed. This cycle, Fighting 50 cut that number to 22. Executive Director Bob Herndon sits down with Mike to explain how a group that started with five people on a Zoom call now backs 70 cand...

Fail at your job, you get a performance plan. Shavonne Hedgepeth says Congress should too. A grassroots run in Maryland's 4th District (MD-04). Shavonne Hedgepeth works in capital planning at Metro by day and is running for Congress in Maryland's 4th by night — a "pragmatic progressive" who refuses to promise things a freshman can't deliver. In this episode she breaks down the real pain points in...

Georgia House District 120 candidate Suzanna Karatassos on healthcare, Medicaid expansion, childcare, and Georgia's $5.15 minimum wage. In this episode of Breaking the Meta, Leila sits down with Suzanna Karatassos, a Democrat running for Georgia House District 120 in the Athens area — a heavily gerrymandered seat spanning Clark, Barrow, Jackson, and Oconee counties. A SCAD graduate and political c...

Denise Slipy is a first responder running for Minnesota Senate District 6 — and she's winning over Republicans. Rural healthcare, ICE, and common sense. Denise Slipy never planned to be a politician. A reserve police officer and first responder from the Brainerd Lakes area, she stepped up after the seat opened unexpectedly — won her community's endorsement, took the special election in April, and...

What does a Justice of the Peace actually do — and why is it one of the most important votes on your 2026 ballot? Marine veteran Will Robertson ("Sergeant Rob") sits down with Mike Winson to break down the court most people ignore, and why it matters now more than ever in rapidly-growing Denton County, Texas. From an infantry machine gunner at Camp Pendleton to Marine security guard postings in em...

Yes, his last name is Epstein. No, he's not related. Rob Epstein is running for Georgia State House District 23 — and his story is more interesting than the name. A 30-year tech leader turned political first-timer, Rob lost his wife to cancer in May 2024, retired, prayed on what came next, and felt called to run in one of the reddest pockets of Cherokee County. In this conversation we get into: →...

Lauren Pinkston is running for Tennessee Governor as a true independent. She's never registered with either party — and she has a plan. In this episode of Breaking the Meta, Mike Winson sits down with Lauren Pinkston — counter-trafficking researcher, PhD in community development, mother of four, and lifelong Tennessean — to talk about why a state that votes deep red is actually one of the lowest-t...

he grew up in a birther household. Now Heidi Sinsley is running for NC House District 69 against Dean Arp → https://sinsleyfornc.com Heidi Sinsley is the Democratic candidate for North Carolina House District 69, a Union County seat held since 2013 by Republican Dean Arp — one of the legislators responsible for North Carolina still operating on a 2023 state budget. She's a young attorney, a new mo...

Rob Cooper is the Democratic candidate for Florida's 6th Congressional District (FL-6), a Marine veteran challenging Republican Randy Fine in the 2026 primary. From 7 months in a county jail cell to running for Congress, Rob's path is the kind America keeps saying it wants but rarely elects — a US Marine Corps veteran, addiction recovery advocate, and nonprofit founder who's spent the last 8 years...

Ashley Painter is running for SC House District 117 in Berkeley County — challenging incumbent Jordan Pace and the SC Freedom Caucus he chairs. Donate or learn more: https://www.ashleypainter.com A former foster youth who aged out at 18, Ashley spent her career in human services — family-based therapy, foster care and adoptions, and substance use counseling. She's now a small business owner and mo...

Andy Biggs is leaving AZ-05. Nurse Elizabeth Lee is running to replace him in Arizona's 5th district — no corporate PAC, no AIPAC, 2026 Congress. Andy Biggs vacated Arizona's 5th congressional district to run for governor, leaving AZ-05 wide open for the 2026 midterms. Elizabeth Lee — a board-certified reproductive health and infertility nurse with over a decade fixing broken healthcare systems, i...

Georgia House District 127 candidate Channing Von T. Taylor sits down with Breaking the Meta to talk about running for office in Augusta after surviving homelessness, military discrimination, and a system he says failed him at every turn. An Army veteran who deployed to Iraq, Channing was a commissioned officer at Fort Gordon/Fort Eisenhower when his music career took off — and he was retaliated a...

Missouri House District 63 candidate Donald Looney — UAW auto worker, St. Charles County Dem chair, on why an "uncontested" red state needs fighters. Don Looney isn't waiting on permission to run. After Missouri's legislature gutted the voter-passed paid sick time and $15 minimum wage initiatives, after gerrymandered maps designed to "pick voters," and after a school board run derailed by culture-...

Florida's 2nd Congressional District (FL-02) is an open seat in 2026 after Neal Dunn's retirement. Democrat Amanda Marie Green — a former USAID operations and contracts director — is running to flip the rural Panhandle and Big Bend. Amanda spent 10 years intervening in famine, malaria, and HIV/AIDS overseas before turning her sights on the 16 counties of FL-02. In this episode of Breaking the Meta...

NY-02 Democrat Jess Murphy is running to flip New York's 2nd Congressional District and unseat Andrew Garbarino in 2026. The Democratic primary is June 23. Jess grew up on Long Island, works in housing, and is still working seven days a week to afford her mortgage — the same fight her sister, her friends, and her neighbors are losing. In this episode we get into why she stepped into the race in De...

Joe Tache is running for US Senate in Massachusetts as the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) candidate, challenging Democratic incumbent Ed Markey in 2026. In this conversation he calls capitalism a "national emergency" and lays out why he broke from the Democratic Party. A Boston-based organizer from Roxbury and a Northeastern University grad, Joe traces his path from a private equity inte...

Michigan State Senate candidate Rebecca Amidon (SD-32) sits down with Breaking the Meta to talk about why she's running against a MAGA sheriff to represent Benzie, Mason, Muskegon, Oceana, and Manistee counties. A college professor, mom, firearm owner, and former Republican-turned-Democrat, Rebecca breaks down what nobody in Lansing wants to talk about: only two hospitals in five counties have lab...

hode Island Senate candidate Connor Burbridge is primarying 30-year incumbent Jack Reed in the 2026 Democratic primary. An Army veteran, elder care worker, and small farm co-op owner, Burbridge is running on universal healthcare, housing affordability, and a six-bill working class agenda — without a single dollar of PAC money. In this conversation, Connor breaks down why he's challenging one of th...

Robert People is a 21-year retired US Army veteran running as a Democrat for Congress in Florida's 15th District (FL-15) — challenging incumbent Laurel Lee in 2026. In this Breaking the Meta interview, Robert breaks down what affordability really means in Florida, why homeowners insurance is forcing residents out of the state, and how a creeping accountability crisis in Congress threatens our stan...

Two sitting congressmen just resigned. The Epstein files dropped. Four women running for Congress react and a retired Lt. Colonel who spent decades hunting traffickers explains why nothing's happening on Capitol Hill. In this Breaking the Meta panel, Mike Winson is joined by: • Alani Bankhead — running for U.S. Senate, Montana. Retired Lt. Col, special agent, former senior Pentagon bodyguard. • Br...