The 'PUNK' that could FLIP the Congress BLUE

0:00Turn, Utah Blue! Can Utah actually turn blue? I'm Jim drastic. I'm Tiffany drastic. I'm Nick Knudsen. And today on The Dangerous Ones, we have a very special episode. Our guest today was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and didn't come up through power, privilege, or political pipelines. He lived the same reality as millions of Americans, with student debt, crushing health care costs, and relying on SNAP to stay afloat after a serious health scare. He's one of us, you guys. He's one of us. At 19 years old, he moved west, putting himself through Community College, then a major public university, grinding every step of the way. In 2022, he ran for state senate in Utah. It did something the political establishment said was impossible. He took on an incumbent that had been in office for more than three decades. And he didn't just win. He obliterated the margin by more than 50 points.

1:03It's low. He's earned a reputation as a punk, which I like, because he stands up to Republican leadership, takes on powerful interests and fights for progressive values. Let's go. Let's go. Now with 298 days until the November midterms, he's running for Congress in Utah's newly created first district. Woohoo! And has the full endorsement of a little known progressive named Bernie Sanders. Oh, right. Ladies and gentlemen, members of the danger corps, we are proud to welcome to the dangerous ones Utah State Senator, Nate Bluent. Nate, welcome. Thank you. That was a lovely intro. I did now. You're going to be fired up. All right. We do that, so you'll come back, you know what I mean? Well, listen, we have so much we want to talk to you about. But we wanted to start off with what's going on in Minnesota and get your take on that. And everything involving ICE across the country. What are your thoughts?

2:04Yeah, I agree with what the mayor of Minneapolis had to say, which was get out. I mean, these people do not need to be in our communities. They are not making our community safer. We've seen that when Trump sends federal agents, whether it's into Minneapolis, into Portland, and we've had instances here in Salt Lake City, people might have seen a woman get dragged out with the Salt Lake City International Airport a couple of months ago. They're not doing anything to make our community safer. They're making people scared. They're pushing them back into the shadows. And I think it's time to end it. I've been vocal already. I'm a fan of defunding and abolishing ICE. I think that's the way we need to move forward. Fantastic. And also really quick before we get to the next thing, really quick thoughts on what's going on in Venezuela. Yeah, it's ridiculous. I mean, we have taken Maduro out and we've left the same regime there and not changed anything on the ground for the actual population that lives in Venezuela. And we did it so Trump can have some more oil

3:05and some of his buddies can make billions of dollars potentially. And I'm sick of it. I think this sort of imperialism needs to end. There's a through line between what's happening here in the United States with ICE, what's happening in Gaza. And I'm just so sick of this mindset that Trump was going to be the peace president, which is what he told his voters and what many people said they were supporting him for. And yet he's been the most imperialistic president we've seen and I don't know how long and it needs to stop. I mean, we've now given permission to, you know, go into Cuba, go into Mexico, to Greenland. I mean, this is insane. And we've given license to folks like Putin to keep doing what they're doing. And I think that's incredibly dangerous to hear. Yeah, we, it's really encouraging to hear you talk like that because we have this thing called the People's Hotline. And it's a hotline that is available 24-7. You can leave up to a five minute message and you can remain anonymous. And it has been blowing up with how people are feeling

4:07about what's going on, not just with Venezuela, but what happened in Minnesota and now with Portland. Overnight, we got 90 calls. So I picked one of those calls. I just wanted to see kind of what your thoughts are about this. This is Sheila from Virginia Beach. And she is disappointed to say the least in political leadership. Now look, OK, yeah, we're losing this country fast. Might as well just call it. We are in dictatorship at this point. The only thing we have left, OK, in an eight much, are elected officials. And I'm tired of the public blah, blah, blah. You know, they get on the television and they're like, oh, this has got to happen, that's got to happen. They never do a fucking thing. It's because they're a bunch of babies. They don't know how to do it. And they're afraid that they're not going to get reelected. Well, it's time to stop. It's over.

5:08They have to understand that unless they stand up and do something, they're not going to get reelected, OK? And I'm not going to pay for it. Are you? It's time to find leaders in this country. So that really encompasses the vibe of Americans and Ken and what they're thinking. So if you had a critique of how the Democratic Party has handled the Trump era, and what you would like to see them do differently moving forward, what would it be? Yeah, I think that collar was absolutely right. I mean, I took on, like was just mentioned, a guy, a Democrat, who'd been in office for 36 years, because he was busy cutting deals behind the scenes with Republicans here in Utah. We have a super majority. We don't have any real power. And so our only power is our voice. And that's, frankly, one of the reasons I'm running for Congress is because in DC, we actually have the opportunity to get things done. To hold people accountable, we're going to take back the House as Democrats this year. And we need Democrats in DC who are actually

6:10going to press forward with prosecutions with really focusing into accountability and using the levers of power that we have in office to actually get things done. One thing I've said, I'm still trying to sort through like what the actual opportunities are going to be for legislation for us to hold Trump accountable. But we need to be in ICE facilities. That's one thing I've said is I will be out in an ICE facility here in Utah on day one as a member of Congress. That's something we have the authority to go investigate, to hold them accountable to make sure that folks that are being detained there are being detained in a humane way at least. I mean, that's the absolute minimum we could do. But the moon needs to be just like Mayor Frey in Minneapolis saying, get the fuck out. I mean, I used some strong language here and there. Fuck it. People feel like we are actually real people. I'm a real person. I shop at the same stores. I was just over at Smith trying to convince someone not

7:10to sign a ballot petition that they're trying to knock this referendum off that got us the new district here in Utah. And so we need to be out there convincing people to come onto our side and speaking in plain terms and not being afraid to speak truth to power. And I think people have seen us shy away. We write strongly aborted letters. And we need to actually figure out what the real levers of power are and use them. I think one frustration certainly was the lack of prosecution of President Trump and Eric Garland or other folks who had the ability to really press forward there under Biden. We didn't do it. We may have been able to stop some of this if we'd to try and it really didn't seem like we were trying. So we might fail, but we get to try. And I think that's people want to see you stand up. And like I just mentioned, I don't have any real power here in Utah, but I'm going to stand up and I'm going to speak truth to power and people rally around that. And then we actually gain power because people show up

8:13and start taking notice. And I think that's really important. I absolutely agree and love that. It's so funny. We say that all the time. We're like, I'm done with the strongly worded emails. Bullshit. Where are the people who think exactly like us? Many, many Christmas. Nick, I know you had a question. I can see why they call you a punk in Utah. So your perfect. Full disclosure for our audience. You and I have a mutual friend. My director of partnerships at Demcast, USA, is Jamie Carter, who is one of the leading on the ground activists in Utah. And she told me that you are always out on the streets when there's a protest and you don't miss a rally. We're an activism forward show here. So what can you tell us about your background in activism and advocacy and how that influences your work as an elected official and how it might influence your work in Congress? Yeah, I think it's really important to have more folks who are willing to bridge the gap between activism on the ground and actually serving elected office.

9:14I grew up, I grew up in New Hampshire. I grew up going to protest in a stroller with my parents in the center of Henaker, New Hampshire. The little town I grew up in, mostly about peace. Peace across the globe, I think, is what they were focused on. And certainly we need to be back in a position where we have the moral authority to be talking about that. And we have it in recent years. We've kept funding Israel. And we've kept playing into imperialism and authoritarianism. And we need to stop doing that. But it's important to have folks who are willing to be out there on the ground and just serving in our communities and walking the streets with folks. I've walked picket lines. I've been a pro-test about the violence in Minneapolis, the murder in Minneapolis last night. And it's critical that we are out there just hearing what people have to say, there's anger. And I think there's a need to balance that and take it into elected office. And give people the feeling that they actually

10:15have a voice that they're being listened to because they are going to take action and do things that are going to be potentially dangerous for our country. If we don't feel like we have the voices in elected office that can carry that into a policy perspective and actually get things done. So that's kind of my thinking is like, I have the activist background. I love to be out there with folks and hearing their concerns and taking them and using their voice to influence what we can do in governments. And I feel like people usually feel like they're shut out of government when they're in that situation. So that's why I get out there and continue to walk the streets with folks and make sure that we are out there providing visibility and providing a backdrop for people to express their own concerns and to make sure that they have an elected official who's going to listen to them. As we mentioned on yesterday's show with Jim and I, tomorrow starts a National Weekend of Action around the killing of the murder of René Nicole Good.

11:19And thank you for not shying away from what it really was because we all saw the game. I appreciate you saying that. So are you going to be out there and what do you know what the plans are in the Salt Lake area? Yeah, I know there's a, I think an indivisible hosted protest rally, I don't know exactly what they're calling it, but we call it the city county building here in Salt Lake City, Washington Square. So I think that's at 10 a.m., I want to say. I know Jamie is an organizer that put that on my radar. So I will do my best to be out there. I will definitely get out there for something. We have a caucus training tomorrow because we go back into session on January 20th. And so we're gearing up for that. But do we call? Absolutely. Yeah. What was that? I said do de calls. Yeah. Do de calls. That's what I signed up for. You know, I am an elected official and we need to be taking that seriously because again, people, yeah, people feel like their elected officials are not taking them seriously. And that's why we see this sort of anger, this righteous

12:22anger. And so yeah, I'll be, we'll find time to get out there though for sure because it is important. And I think we'll see probably it was great to see hundreds of folks out on very short notice last night. I expect tomorrow will probably be larger than that. Yeah. And just for our audience, that event is ice out for good. That's this weekend. Go to mobilized.us for more information about an event in your area, which is super important. We got to get out there. I actually had just kind of a random question that I've been wanting to ask for a long time. Why is it that Bernie Sanders, AOC, mom, Donnie, when they go out and they speak, they energize. They really get people moving in my opinion. They're the only people energizing our party at this moment. I'm sorry, that's the truth. And so why is it that it's the progressive voices that are really energizing? And I guess you might say the establishment Dems

13:25are not, you know, the other day I saw there was like the five year anniversary thing, you know, and I'm like, great, that's nice. You know, of the J6 thing, that's nice. But we need to be out in the streets and doing stuff. I just feel like Bernie Sanders, AOC and the progressive folks are really, their message seems to get across and resonates through mainstream media. What do you think that is? It's because it's blunt. It's in your face. It is no bones about it, no equivocation. Like here's what I think. I'm just going to say it. I'm not going to worry about the poll testing and the act right words to say. I think we want to see people who are real, who understand what people are dealing with in our communities. And you don't see that out of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and many other folks in elected office right now. And I think we need to be willing to just use plain language and get our point across that way. And I think that does get people energized

14:25because it's a narrative, it's a rhetoric that they understand that isn't trying to couch what you're saying in some sort of coded language. It's just like, here it is, plain spoken. Here's what's happening. Here's what we need to do about it, get involved. Here's how you can help. And that's what people want to hear. They don't want to have to decode some poll tested whatever language that you get out there from the establishment folks. They want something that's real, that's tangible. And that gets people excited. And I think that's why those folks resonate. And I wish I could say I was like as eloquent as Zeron or any of them, but Zeron in particular, I mean, that guy is impressive. So the way you say that, on that stage, like saying, but the right thing, I mean, I watched him talking about, I think it was about Minneapolis yesterday or today. And it was just like easy to understand. The message was right, no equivocation, no shuffling around,

15:29just very direct and very, very, you know, moral and have the right message about it. And people appreciate that. Someday I'll be there. I would agree, too. I think there's a clear line between, and this is just what it feels like as an activist, is the people at the top of the party don't listen to the ones who are down here or clocking in every day or who don't have the money to, you know, we have somebody called the other day who said they are raising hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that they get elected next time. And they don't even know how much a loaf of bread is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't even know what a regular car payment is. They don't, there's, and it just makes you feel unwelcome and it makes you turned off as a voter. I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. And you know, in three or four, you can say what you want. And I have tons of things to say about the other side, you know, the Republicans at GOP and Trump. For sure. Everything's awful, but they definitely know how to take a message from the top to the bottom. We have not figured that out, but I do believe progressives have.

16:30And I think what Nate just said is absolutely true about just being blunt, that blunt message, fuck, we're not kids, man. And it just fits what all of us have been going through this entire time, is we're all broke, we're all struggling, we're all, we don't know what to do and the people at the top haven't been broke and they haven't struggled for so long that they don't know what it means either. That's right, thoughts. No, you don't, yeah, let's not beat around the bush anymore. I mean, people are struggling to pay the rent, decide to buy, you know, buy a house, pay a mortgage or childcare. I mean, those are visions that people have to make. And if you haven't had to make those decisions in 40 years, like some of these folks, then how would you even understand what people are going through? I mean, I hear it from my friends, hear it from my family, hear it from all around the community that people are losing healthcare. They're struggling to put food on the table because we have a food tax here in Utah. They're struggling to put gas in their cars and they're struggling to pay the electricity bill because we keep relying on these outdated fuel sources that are driving costs up and we got data centers

17:32that are padding the pockets of the billionaires while everyone else struggles to put food on the table. And so we need to make a real clear decision, make very clear decisions about how we're going to move forward with these things. I've had a lot of conversations during this campaign with many of the different locals, the union locals here and data centers and artificial intelligence and cost of living and healthcare, childcare, all continuing to come up in those conversations as well. And so we've got to be getting just right to the meat of it and talking about that sort of stuff that's quarter people's lives. Not that I'm sick. I mean, look, we need to stand up for the trans community for the LGBTQ community, for our immigrants, for all those things. And we also, we can do it all though. I think that's the message is we've got to also do the economic populism stuff that we're here and more up because that's what is impacting every single person and that gives us license to go even stronger and stand up even taller for the marginalized communities that are still out there.

18:32God, I love that. I love that. Absolutely. So, and thank you for listening to your concerns of your constituents. So a lot of our viewers are probably a little bit skeptical about a Democrat winning in Utah, but a lot has happened in the last year that has kind of changed the playing field in the landscape. So can you describe kind of the state of play in Utah in terms of the congressional districts and tell us about the district that you're running for, the first district? Yeah. So this is a process that's been going on since at least 2018. So the better part of a decade now, we passed a ballot initiative back then with the majority of the people to create an independent redistricting commission here in Utah and get fair maps that were not these pizza pie slices that lumped my constituents in Salt Lake County with rural voters across the state and just dilute those more urban voices. And so finally, the courts have upheld decision after decision

19:35that have been very strong. And we have a district that Kamala Harris would have won by 24 points last year in the Salt Lake County area around. It's got all of Salt Lake City. It's got surrounding communities like Mill Creek that I live in that are quite progressive. My entire state senate seat is within the new district. My state senate seat is actually even deeper blue and at about 50 points. And so that's the state of play right now is we've got the opportunity to send a real strong progressive to DC. One of my staffers told me the other day that this district voted for Harris by a wider margin than Massachusetts voted for Kamala Harris. Whoa! Wow! That's right! I hate him! And people don't quite grasp the reality. And that's where I'm going to communicate because we've got real establishment candidate who was in DC as a representative several years ago. He voted against abortion. He voted against raising the minimum wage. He voted against the Pro Act. And I will not do any of those things.

20:37I'm very, those are things that are core to my platform, fighting for medical freedom and for the working class to earn wages that actually let us get by. And we don't need to elect that sort of person this time around. We have an opportunity to get people involved on the ground, like the Zaron campaign in New York that really motivated people to show up for their community and put someone different in office. And we can do that here in Utah, which is something that people are struggling to grasp at this point. We're going to make sure they know. I love that. And so I'm going to ask kind of a strange question. Is Utah turning blue? What's going on with Utah? Because every now and then they pop off and you're like, oh my God, there they are. You know what I mean? What I know that I know they're not entirely turning blue, but what is your thought on when somebody says something like that? Yeah, so the other three districts are like Trump plus 30 districts or something.

21:38So it's going to be a bit. I mean, we've definitely, we were one of the only states that didn't trend right in 2024. You saw there was some pretty cool maps that came out that showed like Utah and maybe Colorado. Maybe there's some other underground states for the only states that didn't really get much more blue, but it kind of stayed where it was instead of going in the opposite direction like many states did. And we've got good candidates all around the state. I think we'll see some gains and just higher vote totals than we've seen in recent years around the states for around the state for different candidates. It's going to be a bit before it's a blue state. I hope we can continue to take some lessons from what Colorado and Arizona have done. I know legislative leaders there that were in similar positions. And they called it permanent minority brain, just this lack of willingness by the Democrats to fight back because it's kind of like a Stockholm syndrome situation. So one thing I've tried to do during my legislative service

22:40and as you know, in my career in politics is just to tell people that we can fight back and we can bring people along and send a different message that is being sent right now that people will respond to. And if we don't start doing that, then I think we will be in the minority for a long time. But we do have the opportunity with this seat and with other things that are going on to get out and send a strong message and hopefully bring down ballot candidates up and take that supermajority in the legislature out because that's really hurting our communities. That lack of a check on the supermajority here in Utah is really damaging for folks. And so we've got a big opportunity. It's going to take a lot of work to turn us blue. You've been one of the fastest growing states in the country and that leads to more diverse communities and an opportunity to change the landscape here. And so it'll happen and I'm convinced it'll happen during my lifetime. And we'll do our best to make that happen. Yes. One of the things about Bernie Sanders and that I love and why I caucus

23:42for years and years ago is because he is a firm believer in competing in all 50 states. And boy, I couldn't agree more with that because you never know what could happen. The things change on a dime. We have to start somewhere, somewhere. We hear from blue dots all the time and they're scared and it feels weird when they go outside because they're not surrounded by any of us. They don't hear what any of us are saying. So when you come on the show and you say, we're trying the hardest we can and that even just having a redrawn district that could possibly help us out, that's really encouraging to people out there. Yeah, yeah, these blue dots out there, they're just the salty. Hey, listen, we got one more question and it's maybe one of the most important questions we can ask you is we got a lot of viewers in Utah and across the country. What can we do to help you help your campaign? What can the danger cordu to help you? Yeah, so we're running the grassroots campaign. I've refused corporate pack money,

24:43a pack money, so we need grassroots donors, grassroots volunteers to step up. Actually, I can just say we are submitting 1,000 signatures to get us on the ballot today. That's after just a use of signature gathering. We need to get up to 7,000 and I think we're the first to turn any in. And so that's really exciting to be able to say that. I think we got labor endorsements coming that I haven't gotten full confirmation but really excited to announce some things in the next few days. Nice. All right. We just need people to get involved so they can sign up at Nate4UTA.com to either volunteer if they're here in Utah. We'll be out gathering signatures for the foreseeable future. We'll be knocking doors throughout the spring and into the summer. And we can certainly use your financial support because again, we're not taking big dollar donations from corporations and others like that. And so yeah, we just need that support. We need the shares on social media, folks to get involved there and spread the good word. And let us know what you think. Yeah, tell me what you're seeing and hearing.

25:45And I'll keep doing my best to amplify the voices that are important right now. And that's fantastic. Thank you so much. And we know the danger core will help amplify your stuff as well. We'll put links to his website and how you can help him out. We'll put that in the description today. Listen, we're on this road with your brother and we're here to help any way we can. Please don't be a stranger and come back anytime, OK? Happy to. Thank you guys. This was a lot of fun. You bet. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Wow. I love you. It's great. I'm on him to win. Let's go. Yeah. What a great guy. I really appreciate his. It's like no one talks about the people who lead the party come from a time where you could have health care and child care and house care and food. And we are in a time where those are ore things. You can have housing ore, health care, ore to end. Excellent point. And it's like the people who have the ants don't understand

26:46what having an ore is. So if the ants could get the fuck out of the way, so the orcs could come in and do the job, that would be great. Good ones in the orcs. I love it. Yeah. Also, a ginger core. Let us know what you thought of Nate. Put it down in the comments. Give us a call. Give us a call, 503212-4600-244-Hours-A-Day, seven days a week. You can remain anonymous. And I don't think I normally say this enough, but it's completely free. Also, you can email us at shoutatthegangerswans.com. We want to know what you think of Nate. And we want to know how you're going to help Nate get elected. We need more progressive voices in Congress. And what an opportunity, Nick. It's Salt Lake City. Here we are. We got this new district. What do you think? Yeah, no. I mean, it's a great opportunity for the party as a whole, because we're moving from Utah being a state where they have four deep bread, mega people, as Congress people, to three deep bread. And one potentially, like, real progressive.

27:47Right. That's a big deal, especially in a year when they did the Texas thing with the redrawing of the maps. And other states are doing that, too. So it's like we're in an arms race for district. Right. You have a new sum swooped in and redrew the California map. So it's all a bunch of fuckery, and this is a plus one. So I think having somebody, yeah, it's going to be a bonus. It's going to be great. And I, listen, I don't care. I know it was kind of a ridiculous question. I still want, I want to turn Utah blue. Turn Utah blue. Turn Utah blue. Turn Utah blue. Yeah, it's a really interesting state. Because the, like he said, they didn't move super Trumpi in 2024. And part of that is actually because the conservatives in Utah are deeply, deeply rooted in morality, because it's a Mormon population. And I know the Mormon women's groups, in particular,

28:50have been organizing against Trump for a long time. And listen, even if the Republicans, it's quote unquote, magas, or Republicans in Utah, shipped it even from maga to just George Bush Republicans. Or, or Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney. Yeah, that's it. No, it's going to say Dick Cheney. Oh, I've done this. Oh, wow. Well, listen, what a fantastic way to end the week. We are going to have Nate back on. We're going to have more candidates on this show over the coming 300 days until the November midterms. Danger Corps, we're so happy to have you here. If you haven't already become a channel member, go to our main page, hit join. You're going to get lots behind the scenes stuff. That's a cool shit. And it really helps us. It's a cool shit. And it helps us grow this channel. We get lots of independent voices like Nate's out farther. And we amplify that stuff. From all of us, we just can't thank you enough.

29:50We'll see you next week. Until then, be safe. Get into good trouble. Get into fun trouble. And remember, we are all the dangerous ones. Bye-bye. Bye, guys.