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- [00:00]
Kevin Gentry
Hi there. I'm Kevin Gentry, and welcome to the Going Big Podcast where we'll explore some of the strategies that can help you transform your effectiveness by 10xing your fundraising. Each week we'll sit down with some of the most influential business leaders, CEOs and nonprofit visionaries to talk about leadership, the power of giving, and how you can make a real impact. If you want to make a transformational change to the cause you're working on, this is the place for that conversation. Also, take a Look at our website, 10xStrategies.com that's T E N X strategies.com for lots of free marketing and fundraising resources. And be sure to sign up for the free weekly fundraising tips. Now let's dive in. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the Going Big podcast where we dive into some of the groups and visionary leaders, business efforts, nonprofit organizations that are really going big with a consequential vision to change things in a big way. And I'm so pleased to have as my guest today Daniel Garza, who's the founding president of the Libre Initiative. He helped found the organization in 2011 and has today led an effort which is having a tremendous consequential effect on the political environment and and the United States. And we're going to dive into some of those central questions, but just a little bit more about Daniel. Daniel was born in the Central Valley of California, but he and his family migrated from their town, their hometown in Mexico, Garza Gonzalez in Nueva Leon, Mexico, and worked as migrant farm workers in Nebraska, Washington state and California for a number of years until he was 19 years old. I think initially you went into law enforcement, but then also in public service very quickly. You worked for Congressman Doc Hastings from Washington State when you all were living in the Yakima Valley. Also, you served on the town council, city council of Topanish, Washington, and then were recruited to come work for President George W. Bush in the White House while he was there. In particular around 2004, 5, 6, you were, you went into Spanish language media and other programs in the United States and then you came to really start and lead libre, which I want to get into in a minute. But I want to kick off, Daniel, with really the big question of the day. And this is the political story of our modern time. The growing Hispanic and Latino population of the United States, the growing voting population. Do you believe in the 2024 elections it will be seen as one where it may have been decided by Hispanic and Latino voters? Give us a sense for how you see the political world today.
- [03:03]
Daniel Garza
Yeah. Kevin, first of all, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this. I'm honored you would ask and thank you for the. 1, 2, 3, fast and dirty on my personal life history there. It's been quite a ride, that's for sure. Look, obviously the story is to be written by the American electorate, every one of us as individuals coming together, participating in the democratic process. But there's no question that I think Latinos will have helped define many of the outcomes, especially in the swing states across the electoral map, in the presidential race and of course the Senate races in Nevada and Pennsylvania, possibly also in Ohio and Wisconsin, depending on how tight the margins are going to be there. And of course, you know, across, I think, a bevy of congressional races as well, where the Latino populations are even the majority in those congressional districts. So there's no question that I'm, you know, the Latino vote is going to be so important. I'm anticipating really a record turnout, I'm being told, or at least I've read, that 25% of all Latino voters this year will be voting for the first time. And that's incredible when you think about how fast the Latino electorate is expanding. And I'm looking at Trump getting about 40 to 44%, which would be massive and quite an accomplishment. But again, I think this makes the Latino voting bloc, it's not only the largest in, in the country, but the, the most sought after swing boat in the country. So I'm, it's, it's exciting to see what is happening within the Latino community. I think it's a great opportunity.
- [04:48]
Kevin Gentry
Well, really want to get into understanding some of the issues that are driving the shifts, the changes in voting patterns. Some of the changes in voting patterns are really what's making the most waves and all of this. But before we do that, let's establish a foundation a little bit stronger. So first of all, by the 2020 census, it's estimated there are over 60 million Americans of Hispanic or Latino origin. So first of all, we use Hispanic or Latino together, sometimes interchangeably. What does it mean when you say Hispanic or Latino?
- [05:29]
Daniel Garza
There is a difference. The term, yes, there is a difference. Hispanic means you have Spanish blood or are of Spanish descent from the country of Spain. So plenty of Latinos south of the American border, of course, are of Spanish descent. After all, we were conquered by the country. Latino describes all Hispanics and the indigenous people of the Americas who are not necessarily of Spanish descent. So everyone south of the American border is Latino, but not Everyone is Hispanic. And so I use sort of the catch all Latino, which includes both the indigenous, if you're Aztec, Mayan, Borincan, Incan or the Inca or whatever part of the indigenous tribes of the Americas you are a part of. So I think Latino is most inclusive.
- [06:27]
Kevin Gentry
Well, this is, you know, it's, it's kind of bizarre in the United States about how groups of people are classified because this is not a racial group. This is an ethnic group, perhaps or group or demographic group is one way to describe it. But as you say, so that, so the census said, you know, not only over 60 million, and obviously that number has grown since 2020, more than 20% of the US population. But it's not a monolithic voting group by any means. Your family originally from Mexico. A majority of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States have some origins from Mexico, but lots from all over south and Central America and the Caribbean even. Certainly everyone from, you know, Venezuela and recent years to Cuba back after the fall with respect to Castro, to Colombia and Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras. Tell us a little bit first of all about the, so the, the, the vast diversity and, and also the diversity within the United States. Florida is very different than New Mexico, is very different than Northern Virginia is very different than California or the Rio Grande Valley in Texas where you're from, but also how that relates to sort of voting trends and patterns.
- [07:52]
Daniel Garza
Yeah, Kevin, so great question. Consider us similar to our fellow Americans, right? We're so rich in diversity, right. We are 62 million individuals, when you really think about it. We have all different aspirations and dreams and experiences. Also consider, of course, we are of different age, gender, generation of immigrants, different nationalities, as you were describing, economic standing, educational level or attainment. We are of different religions, mostly Catholic and Protestant, but, you know, very diverse in that sense. Our ideological alignment is also very diverse. Some of us are military, some of us have never been a part of the military, or even family members are military from different professions. Right. And, and, etc. Right. It's just, it's incredible, I think, how, how, how much, how diverse we are. We are, we have a shared language. We have some commonalities and some common ground. There's no question about it. But, you know, you talked about the different ethnicities and nationalities, right, who settled in different parts of the country like New Mexico and Florida. Florida is mostly Caribbean and South American. That's just the folks who started settling there. New Mexico, for example, has a long lineage, proud lineage of generations, generational immigrants from Spain. And they like to tell you that Right. Texas and California, which by the way is half of all Latinos in the country, are mostly Mexican American, although even that is starting to change. In Texas, for example, or I'm sorry, in Harris county where Houston is situated, there are over half a million non Mexican Latinos. Now, this just happened over the last 10 years. So the growth of even of non Mexicans within the Latino community is exploding in places like Houston. And so it continues to diversify, it continues to change. And so that, of course will change the elections in a very real way, given their preferences for one party or the other. But my sense is that nowadays nobody is voting based on the memory of a party's sentiment 10, 20 years ago. There's very much been a reset.
- [10:19]
Kevin Gentry
Well, well, thank you. And first I want you to explain that just a bit and then we'll get into some of the issues. Certainly, as you say, especially I think, with respect to Florida, because so many immigrants there were fleeing socialist authoritarian governments. Certainly we know with respect to Cuba, again, now with respect to Venezuela, but you've seen that at different times with Bolivia and Peru, Nicaragua for sure, Colombia at times that has a certain ideological impact on party and party identification. Entrepreneurs, you've told me, Dan, before, entrepreneurs, people who are more religious people, military background, tend to be much more associated with the Republican Party. But again, that's sort of breaking apart. Is that comment on that? And then we'll get into some of the defining issues this year.
- [11:15]
Daniel Garza
Yeah, let me preface real quick by saying that at one point, for several years there was from Canada all the way down to Argentina, in the entire Western Hemisphere, every elected leader was center left or considered center left, with the exception of La Calleboa in Uruguay, Uruguay of all countries, which used to be a very socialist Marxist country. That is of course changing with recent elections that we're seeing. But that tells you of the kind of experience that Latinos had been facing, that it was very much a top down sort of government that they fled or were coming from when they came to America. For the longest time, there was a base of center right Latino voters that was about 20 to 23%, I would say, year after year you could just count on, you know, certain Latinos who would vote right no matter what because they were pro life, because of their faith, whatever you want to say, or limited government, they were very much going to vote center right. There was a 25 to 30% base that was center left. And then there was this big chunk in the middle that, you know, sort of trended towards the left because Basically for the longest time there was a one sided conversation about politics and policy that was dominated by the center left. And it was university professors, it was Univision and Telemundo that were center left. There was leftist organizations, nonprofit, nonpartisan, you know, there was the party itself, you know, the Democrat party that had made a ton of investment into minority communities, while the center right basically just sort of stayed away for decades. That has changed. That dynamic now has balanced out where even Libre being a part of the conversation on, you know, media platforms like Univision and Telemundo, we are constantly on with a censor right point of view. There's been massive investments made by the Republican Party as well, where now the conversation has strikes more of a balance than it was in the past. And if you tended to be rural, of faith, working class, you were going to vote center right. If you were urban, young, college educated, you were going to vote center left. If you were a Latino. All that again has been reset given now a new conversation that is spontaneously occurring within the Latino community based on bad outcomes because of bad policy and looking at the alternative, what's working.
- [14:03]
Kevin Gentry
That's why we have you on the Going Big podcast, because of the key role you have played in this over the next almost nearly 15 years, especially with respect to the Libre initiative. So let's talk a little bit about that. First, tell us a little bit about your own personal story about how your family came to the United States, how you grew up and how you came to embrace the principles of a, of a free society.
- [14:30]
Daniel Garza
Thank you for that question, Kevin. My parents were from Garza Gonzalez. No, Mexico, where I'm actually at today, right next to my parents home, visiting with them. I'll be returning today. But when they married, they saw America as the promised land. Really. I mean, I always like to quote a passage from Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath when he's referring to the Joad family. Actually it was Woody Guthrie in a song referring to Steinbeck's novel. It says they came to the mountaintop and it looked like the promised land. A rich green valley with a river running through it. There was work for every single hand. They thought there was work for every single hand. It just sort of describes really sort of the, the sentiment of that my parents felt about America, right? There was opportunity. If they worked hard, they could achieve whatever their aspirations and their dreams were for themselves and their family. And so, but they, you know, they had a fourth grade education, Kevin. You know, they, they didn't make it far because that's as far as the school went in this rural part of. Of Mexico that is about 50 miles away from the city of Monterey, which is a metropolis, about 5 million people now. But the point is we're on the other side of the mountain of that city. And I mean, that's as far as your education went. My parents didn't have a driver's license. They didn't have a high school diploma. They didn't know how to speak English. And yet, you know, they. What they could do was work with their hands. And so they were farm workers. They were, you know, farm workers until I was 19 years of age. I was born in California during the grape season, moved to the state of Washington when I was about four or five years old, where my parents picked apples, pears, peaches, cherries, anything under the sun. And it was there where my parents converted to evangelical Christians. I saw just an incredible turnaround of my father's life where maybe he had put no checks on his vices. He did then. It was just remarkable to see, you know, my parents almost like reset their life and their lifestyles, started making the right choices and worked hard, saved up some money, and then they risked it all in a small business, and we were on our way. We were achieving the American dream with a small business and aspiring, obviously, to improve on it and create value. And so, you know, at a certain point, you know, my life also took a. A turn when I had to drop out of high school because of the farm working, missing so many days out of the school, and being a part of a public school system where I didn't fit in, it couldn't accommodate for someone of my lifestyle. Right. Because we would travel to Nebraska for two months out of the year and then travel to Mexico for another two months, you know, during the winter. Winter. And then, of course, missing every other day working in the fields, in the orchards. And so it was a burden. It was something that I had to take a look at my life and see where, you know, where I wanted to be far into the future. And so my second chance, Kevin, and I'm not embarrassed to say it was a ged. It was getting that GED put me back on track. I went off to college and became a police officer, like, as you mentioned. And that's where I sort of started seeing the world in a whole different way than I'd seen it before. Just the crime, the alcoholism, the domestic violence, the gangs, the narco traffic. It was a whole new world to me. And so it made me want to get involved in my community. And so I ran for city council and I won. And then I got involved with the Bush campaign and the Republican Party because I was pro life. And it just one step led to another where I was invited to be a part of the team at the White House with the president in 2003. Now imagine that, Kevin, at 17 years of age, I'm a high school dropout with no prospects of a professional career or no future, you know, that I could see. And 17 years later, I'm working in the White House for the President of the United States. I mean, what a country. I'm just so grateful, you know, to God and to the opportunities that America gives us.
- [18:50]
Kevin Gentry
Daniel, have you ever gone back to any of those communities where you were to speak to young people today about either your GED or anything else that you pursued in your path?
- [18:59]
Daniel Garza
I have actually. I have returned and spoken to entire gym fulls of, you know, high school students, middle school students, even elementary kids in, in the city of Yakima, in Toppenish and in Othello and different places, you know, where I sort of grew up, farm working in Central Washington State. I was just in Issaquah, Washington, also near Seattle, just, you know, obviously letting him know that if I could make it, given, you know, my barriers and, and impediments, there's no excuse, I think, you know, obviously we all have our. Our own barriers. You know, we face different challenges in our lives. So I, I just want to be an encouragement. I want to help to edify the lives of others. And if telling my story can do that, I'm happy to do it.
- [19:50]
Kevin Gentry
Well, Daniel, my understanding is that there are about 670 million, we'll say Latinos in North and South America, 10% of them living in the United States. Why have people come to the United States, in your judgment, for. From Central and South America? And what effect does that have on an election such as this?
- [20:16]
Daniel Garza
Look, I. I can't tell you what somebody from academia or some researcher can tell you. I can only tell you through anecdotal, you know, the conversations we have across the country with, with immigrants and folks, you know, for my community and our Latino community. And what they tell you over and over again is economic opportunity, safety and security for themselves and their family. The freedoms that Americans enjoy because of our amazing founding charters of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that enshrine these, These freedoms that, that make. That allow for us to prosper, who accommodate for flows of. Of millions and millions of Poor immigrants. And, you know, this country that can create, you know, opportunity for so many that that's what they seek, their ability to rise and achieve their purpose. I think is. Is one of the motivators. But I imagine a lot of it also has to do, you know, that they want the America that they see in the movies and in the television shows. And so, look, there's no question that America is the most prosperous nation in the world. I understand that 50% of the world's 1% reside in America, and 80% of the world's millionaires reside in America. I mean, that we are a wealthy country. California is, Is richer than all of Russia. Texas is richer than all of, wealthier than all of France. LA county is. LA County's economy is bigger than all of Mexico's. I mean, that gives you a comparison as to just how wealthy we are as a nation and the opportunities that we have. But it's come at a price. You know, our sons and daughters have shed their blood on foreign battlefields. We've had to defend those constitutional freedoms that I'm talking about. And that's what motivates me. Right? It's like, yes, of course I, I've benefited from the opportunity in America. I was born in America, in California, and I've been grateful for that. But. But I think I also feel that obligation and that sense of gratitude to fight for that system that made it possible for my family to, to rise so that others can also benefit from that.
- [22:33]
Kevin Gentry
Well, Daniel, you touched on this toward the beginning of our conversation, but in 2011, you felt called, presumably in the manner that what you're just describing now, to help start an organization, libre, which was an outreach to Hispanic and Latino voters on these very issues that you're talking about. Tell us about that and just tell us a little bit about what's happened. It's extraordinary. And there's got to be some cause and effect that the way voting patterns have shifted among this largest single demographic group is a result of perhaps a lot of the work that you all did in terms of sharing this message you're talking about right now.
- [23:17]
Daniel Garza
Yeah, Kevin, it really started when I was working for President George W. Bush at the White House, and my role there at the Office of Public Liaison was to promote the President's agenda to the Latino community and then represent the Latino community's interests and priorities to the President. And I found out that almost the entirety of Latino organizations were center left. They had a perspective that I didn't align with as a Latino. They looked at government as the answer to all our problems, to every social ill under the sun. And it was an answer that I didn't agree with. I didn't want more growth of government. I didn't want government intruding into the lives of our family, our church, and our free markets. And so that's something I was fighting against. And I didn't want to help to fan that right sentiment or those ideas. And so when I left the White House, there was a burden, almost a disquietedness that I felt that we need a national Latino organization that believes in reversing the centralization of so much power and money and control in the hands of politicians in the federal government. We need an organization that is going to fight to defend those freedoms enshrined in our founding charters. Who's doing that in the Latino community? There just wasn't. And so it was in the absence of good ideas, bad ideas going to take hold. And that's exactly what was happening in the Latino community and why I think those in the center left were benefiting so much from the vote of Latino voters because, well, they just weren't hearing the other side. And that's really, I think, what the genesis of the Libre initiative was. We need to launch an organization that is going to advance the principles of a limited government, government that governs least, governs best. I've always believed that and continue to believe that. So when we launched the leave IT initiative, you know, there's a little bit of trepidation because, you know, this is a conversation that was rarely had within the Latino community. I wasn't sure how they were going to respond to it. But, Kevin, let me tell you, the response from the Latino community has just been absolutely overwhelming. It's been amazing. We're in 15 states now, across the country, hundreds and thousands of folks that have come to our events and rallies and policy forums. The exposure that we've had on national platforms in the media has reached millions of Latinos across the country. There is no other organization that is center right as large as and as influential as the Libre initiative. But it has more to do with, I think, that innate response from the Latino community that this is what they came to America for, that they were searching for that freedom. Those ideas that made America different, that made America exceptional, that made it the most prosperous, strongest country in the world. And I honestly believe it has everything to do with those. God's grace, of course, but those principles found in our founding charters. And I dedicate the rest of my life to Defending those principles, American principles.
- [26:34]
Kevin Gentry
Well, what do you think is creating so much of the shift right now? That's at least the discussion point. Maybe we'll find out there wasn't much of a shift. But on the one hand, is it discussion in a positive sense about offering a particular positive vision for the country or is it also a reaction to some of either the policies, the policies that could be economic with respect to rising food and energy prices and areas like that, or even some of, you know, what we talk about in terms of the woke approach of the, of the left and how that is very offensive to many people. What, what's your sense? Again, you, you've already made clear you're, you're not coming at this as an academic, you're coming at this as someone who is working and speaking with every day people in these communities across the country and you have firsthand anecdotes about how people are reacting.
- [27:35]
Daniel Garza
First, let me say I think everyone, and Latinos are not the exception, ask themselves one fundamental question when they walk into the voting booth and that is, who can make my life better and the life of my family better? This person or that person? Fundamentally, I think that's what we ask. Right. And when I say better, I'm talking about, you know, the economy of my home, the education of my children, the healthcare of my family and who's going to keep the country safe. Right. That is fundamentally, I think, a common question that everybody asks themselves. And it's up to the party, of course, and every candidate, you know, to make their case by connecting and making their case by becoming familiar, I think, with different voting blocks and to be trusted by them. Right, but, but you mentioned some of those issues. And Latinos right now, you know, I really feel that they've have sophisticated as voters looking beyond racial strife or any kind of, you know, false narratives that the media is spinning. Really what they're looking at, again, listening to them, not listening to the media, but listening directly to the community. Inflation has hit them hard. The high cost of everything because of unfettered public spending, where we had too many dollars chasing too few goods, you know, caused this, this, this spike in prices. And some folks who are barely making it from week to week are not taking on water and it's really hard for them. The economy is a big issue and jobs and opportunities, wages, if they can keep up with inflation, is now very much a priority. That is top of mind for the Latino community. We want to see productivity in our economy that improves the well being of everybody and allows Everybody to rise. And so these issues over racial strife or abortion or woke agenda of public financing of transgender surgeries, those are all secondary issues. Other organizations can come and try to impose these issues on the Latino community. But as a block, what we're hearing above everything else in vast percentages is inflation, the economy, jobs, opportunity, productivity and wages.
- [30:09]
Kevin Gentry
Well, thank you, Daniel. One tactical question. So with respect to Hispanics and Latinos, you noted Hispanics are derived from the country of Spain, certainly Spanish. The Spanish language is uniting force. If you think about Asian Americans, that's, you know, not the case. There's, you know, Korean or Japanese or Chinese or whatever it may be, the language that's, that's spoken. With the exception of Brazil, which the people speak Portuguese, and maybe with the exception of a few tiny countries in the Caribbean that speak Dutch or French, it is a Spanish language unifier.
- [30:50]
Daniel Garza
That's right.
- [30:50]
Kevin Gentry
In the United States. My understanding, you correct me if I'm wrong, about a third of Hispanics speak only Spanish at home or watch Spanish language media. About a third watch only English or listen to English language media, and then about a third both. Tell me a little bit about that. And what effect does that have in terms of how a group like Libre reaches Latino and Hispanic voters?
- [31:21]
Daniel Garza
Yeah, Kevin, So when it comes to outreach and engagement in the Libre initiative, I mean, ultimately, language is used to communicate messages and ideas. And so what we've done is made a balanced youth use of both English and Spanish because we're very much interested not in affirming English as the national language. And that's great. If it is, and whatever, that's somebody else's fight. I'm just interested in communicating an idea, right. The ideas of a, of a free market, of a free people, of a free nation. And so if I have to use Spanish to do that, I will. And whether that's on, you know, digital platforms, on print, in front of a television screen or radio, I am going to make the use of Spanish to effectively communicate, you know, the messages and the ideas that I feel are going to make America stronger and more prosperous and educate people on the issues that we need to educate. And you're absolutely right. 30 of us speak only Spanish and, you know, 30% speak only English. And then there's that chunk in the middle that are bilingual like myself, right. Who could sort of style flex and either become part of the monolingual Spanish speaking community or monolingual English speaking community. I'm fine either way. But, but not all of us are like that. You know, it Takes some folks a while to learn the language. English is hard. It's hard to learn. And so, you know, when you have so many folks that are coming to America, right, you know, with their country of origin and their language of origin, takes them a while, you know, to assimilate and to catch up to the rest of us. And so we want to be helpful. That's just another barrier that I think the Libre initiative addresses. We provide English classes. English, there's no question, is the language of business, the language of success in America. And we want our children, Latino children, to learn English as fast as possible. But meanwhile, there is the task of educating folks on policy and who those good candidates are that are going to drive good policy. And so we, we try to make the most effective use of the language possible.
- [33:46]
Kevin Gentry
Well, Daniel, I believe we got to know you initially as you were beginning to found Libre through your own background in media. What is the media landscape for Hispanic and Latino Americans? And, and what is the ideological orientation of some of those, if I might ask?
- [34:08]
Daniel Garza
Yeah, you know, for the longest time, Spanish language television and radio was very much center left. The perspective that was expressed was from the center left. The affinity and alignment with the Democrat party Democrat candidates was a given. It was the norm. So anybody who had to turn on the television and watch the news, you were going to get a center left perspective if you were Spanish speaking, monolingual, from either CNN and Espanol, Univision or Telemundo, to their credit, in the last 10 years or so, I've seen it since we launched the Liberty Initiative. I have seen them open up their platforms to us. There are at least 8 to 10 of us at any given time that are on Spanish language television or mainstream television talking about the ideas that we believe in, talking about these American principles and defending these American principles on Univision shows and on radio, on print. So I've been. One of the things that I'm most proud of has been the kind of positioning that we now have on Univision and on Telemundo. I'll give an example. I was asked to be at the anchor share on election night with Telemundo. A couple days later, I get a call from Univision that, that Jorge Ramos wanted me to be with on with him that night, an election night to cover the elections. So we had both of the major Spanish language networks reaching out to invite me to be a part of their election telecast. Of course, I could only commit to one of them, Telemundo, because they asked first. But that speaks to how much they welcome our perspective, that center right voice to be a part of their telecast, you know, for such an important evening. And so I'm grateful to Univision and to Telemundo because they've done that and we're going to continue, I think that that great relationship that we have with them. Again, this is about communicating ideas and our messaging and there's no quicker way to do that than reaching millions at one time.
- [36:30]
Kevin Gentry
Daniel, if someone wants to get involved with the LIBRE initiative, what should they do?
- [36:36]
Daniel Garza
Yeah, there's different ways of doing it. We're on social media, we're on Facebook, Instagram, we're on Twitter. You can, you know, reach out to us and contact us through that method. We're on the Internet, we're@www.believe it.org. we have offices in 15 states that we operate in and you can see which states those are on, on, on our webpage and you can give us a call. We have about 65, 70 full time staff. You reach out to them and they'd be glad, of course, you know, to, to engage with you and interact and then hopefully if you want to be interested in, in becoming an activist or a volunteer with us, you can do that as well. You can come to some of our events and policy forums that we have across the country. And lastly, you can, you can join, you know, our sister organizations, the Libre Institute or Libre Action, where we get involved in some elections and we go door to door, we make phone calls on behalf of good candidates. So there's plenty of ways, you know, to get involved if you want to be part of the effort.
- [37:41]
Kevin Gentry
Well, Daniel, you're a very inspiring and impressive and dedicated leader. And it is shown in many ways about how you've recruited and mentored many of libre's leaders today. One in particular is our good friend Cesar Halas, who is the national spokesman now for libre. He has his own Coming to America story, which is terrific. But he now was a very popular drive time radio host in South Florida and has his own podcast, Sabotro Freedom. Additional ways that you all are beginning to continuing to get your message out. Thank you for that. I don't know if you have any comment on, on everything that you do.
- [38:21]
Daniel Garza
I think it's one of the proudest things about the Leave IT initiative that I feel is how we have develop the new generation of leadership folks that are out there defending those American principles. Rachel Campos Duffy, who was our national spokeswoman for a while who now works for, you know, Fox News, she made the statement she says, you know, Daniel, it was incredible. And she says, I graduated from college with an economics degree, but it was incredible how much I didn't know until I joined Libre. And so then that was one of the greatest compliments that, you know, I could hear, you know, that somebody, you know, of that stature and now has this national platform was able to really expand, I think, her knowledge base and. And the set of ideas that she now, of course, you know, promotes across the country, like Cesar as well now, you know, a total personality, you know, on radio and on media. And he also appears on Univision and Telemundo and all these other Spanish language shows. But it really speaks to the kind of influence I think we're having across the country and how we're able to influence people.
- [39:33]
Kevin Gentry
Well, Daniel, thank you for being a part of our conversation today. My final question to you, and again, you are a great example of what I see as going big, setting out a big, bold vision, stepping forward into leadership and leading, and really making a consequential difference. I think that we will see the consequences of your efforts for a long, long time. But in closing, how do you look into the future? We could be concerned about how many Latin American countries continue through socialist and authoritarian governments to really paint a pretty pessimistic picture of the future, although it does have the effect of driving wonderful people to the United States. Are you pessimistic about the future or are you optimistic?
- [40:23]
Daniel Garza
I'm mostly optimistic, Kevin. Look, the fact is there's been a major reset with Latino voters. It's game on. I mean, nobody is voting based on the memory of what a party was 10 or 20 years ago. Party affinity, I think, has been redefined, and loyalty to a party is no longer an issue. You have to win Latinos on the merits of policy. And I think that that's been an important change. And so, you know, I think in the end, one party has stopped ignoring us and the other party has stopped taking us for granted. And that means that, you know, both parties will now will listen to our priorities and stop imposing their will on our community. But also, look, I think we've never been freer, we've never been healthier or more prosperous than at this point in in our history. Technological and scientific advancement has been exponential. I'm from a generation before the personal computer, cell phones and the Internet pagers weren't even around. You know, when I was going to middle school, I didn't see that stuff until high school. And that was considered incredible advancement. But America continues to be the world power. And it's a nation of peace and a nation of prosperity and in diversity. And we also remain actually kind of isolated from people or states that would do us harm and at least have the wherewithal to keep our country safe. And this is a generation of just these bright kids, amazing kids that are doing incredible things and their ability to gain knowledge and information again is exponential. So I'm very optimistic. But there's no question that this is still a battle of ideas and we're in for a long fight.
- [42:24]
Kevin Gentry
Well, Daniel Garza, it is a great honor and pleasure to get to work alongside you and to count you as a friend, friend and thank you for joining us today.
- [42:32]
Daniel Garza
Kevin, thank you so much. It's a pleasure.
- [42:34]
Kevin Gentry
All the very best to you.
- [42:36]
Daniel Garza
Bye.
- [42:36]
Kevin Gentry
Bye. Thanks for listening to today's Going Big podcast. Hopefully you were inspired to go big for your cause. Remember, this is all about transforming your effectiveness by 10x ing your fundraising. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe or leave us a review at iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also catch this episode on YouTube. And also there are lots of resources available to you at my website, which is 10xStrategies.com that's T E N X strategies dot com. You can sign up also for our free weekly fundraising tips. This is all about helping you get to the root cause causes of some of the biggest problems in society today by transforming your fundraising and your effectiveness. Thanks again. We'll see you again soon. Bye.