Navigating Political Challenges as a Young Latino Representative - Andy Vargas

Andy Vargas serves in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the 3rd Essex District, his home city of Haverhill. Formerly a Haverhill City Councilor, elected at age 22, Andy rose to the State House winning a special election in 2017, becoming the first Latino representative elected for his district. In the legislature, Andy serves as Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, and has championed issues of education, public health, housing, inclusive entrepreneurship, climate justice, and public safety.

www.repandyvargas.com

Summary:

Ever wondered about the journey of a minority politician navigating his way through the political maze? Come join us as we unravel the story with our guest Andy Vargas, a state representative from Massachusetts, who provides an intimate glimpse into his life and journey in politics. Born and raised in a feisty Dominican family, Andy inculcated his political interests early on, ultimately leading him to his calling in serving people and bridging gaps between the US and Latin America.

The second half of our discussion provides a deep dive into the power of local politics and the issue of brain drain. Andy shares his experiences of returning to his hometown of Haverhill to run for city council, and his internships that ranged from the US Embassy in Madrid to the White House. Hear about how he founded a political action organization, navigating through local politics, and the importance of studying abroad. Andy's experiences reveal the potential impact and passion individuals can harness at the local level to effect change.

And finally, we dive into the often-overlooked side of politics - campaign financing and work-life balance. Andy peels back the political curtain and shares the reality of campaign donations in Massachusetts alongside the task of striking a balance between a demanding job and political duties. He elucidates on the pressures faced by immigrants and young Latino politicians in a field often scrutinized by bias. His story concludes with a meaningful insight into the challenges and victories of being a politician and the power of making a difference in one's community.
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Transcript

Raul Lopez: 0:04

This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to. How Do you Say Success in Spanglish? The path to success isn't easy For minorities and people of color. Many attempt to join you with little to no guidance. Join me as I sit down with individuals who share their stories of perseverance so that together we can learn how to say success in spanglish. What's good me, Anthony? This is your boy, Raul. Welcome back Today's guest. I have a very special politician with me, my first politician on the show.

Andy Vargas: 0:39

Weird thing to recall, I know right, andy Vargas, how you doing. I'm doing alright. It's great to be here. Yeah, thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time.

Raul Lopez: 0:47

I know you're a busy, busy man, so just to kind of give you a little background about Andy. Andy Vargas serves in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the 3rd Essex District, His home city of Haverill, formerly a Haverill City Councilor elected at age 22. Andy rose to the state house winning a special election in 2017, becoming the first Latino representative elected for his district In the legislator. Andy serves as vice chair of the Joint Committee of Economic Development and Emerging Technologies and has championed issues of education, public health, housing, inclusive entrepreneurship, climate, justice and public safety. And that is a mouthful, Really impressive man. I really that seems like you're doing a lot there, but I guess, to kind of start off, we all kind of started from the beginning. Tell me a little bit about who Andy Vargas is.

Andy Vargas: 1:33

Yeah. So first of all, thanks for having me. I think this is a really important podcast for people to listen to who have different career ideas or obstacles that they might have, that maybe they can't see someone else who may have gone through those obstacles or actually got to their end goal. I think success is definitely a relative term. The fact that you have a lot of people on this show that could show the path that they've gone and differed in diverse careers and objectives in life, I think is really helpful. I know for me, when I was first running for office, there weren't many people that I could turn to and say how did you do this without money, without networks, without the traditional capital that you need to run a campaign? So I think it's really exciting that you're doing this. I think it's hopefully going to touch many lives and people are willing to reach out to any of the guests that you have on here. So kudos to you, ro, for putting this together.

Raul Lopez: 2:24

Thank you, I really appreciate that. That's the goal. I hope each episode we can help one person. That makes it worth it. Yeah, that's right.

Andy Vargas: 2:32

Yeah, so my name is Andy Vargas. I serve the city of Haber in the legislature. As Ro mentioned.

Andy Vargas: 2:39

I come from a really big and loud Dominican family where at every single holiday party there was some sort of debate. There was a debate about US imperialism, there was a debate about gay marriage, about religion Protestants versus Catholics and so on and so forth. And so as a kid, I grew up in an environment where every single holiday party there was this debate happening, and I'd have my uncle, who's Cuban and watch his Fox News all the time, on one side, and then my aunt and other cousins that were more liberal on the other side. And the thing that I love the most about it all was that, despite them sometimes arguing vigorously, at the end of the day when my aunt said ya, la comida talista, everybody shut up and everybody ate together one meal. They could be at their throats right before that moment, but when the food came out, they were ready to eat together as one family. And so I grew up in that environment, combined with the fact that my mom was a nurse and my dad, an immigrant from DR, worked in different nonprofit organizations and ultimately started his own nonprofit that's 100% volunteer still to this day working with medical equipment supplies and hospitals and churches that have surplus supplies or things that they want to donate to the Dominican Republic.

Andy Vargas: 4:04

And so as a teenager, I would wake up at like four o'clock in the morning on a Saturday after playing Call of Duty until like two o'clock in the morning and drive to some random hospital in like Western Mass with my dad to take hospital equipment that they no longer needed, that they wanted to donate to the Dominican Republic, and load it onto a 40 foot container that then would be sent to DR. And at the time I didn't really process two and two together. Most teenagers aren't really thinking big picture like that, they're just thinking about the next day. But I was heavily influenced by that, with service and thinking about other people and our responsibility to one another. My mom, after Mass on Sundays, would provide free care for people that wanted to get their blood pressure checked or just have a general check with the nurse that went to their parish. And so I grew up in an environment where service was all around me with my parents. And then you throw in there the political aspect of it, that every holiday party was a debate and I caught the bug and I knew I wanted to do something related to service. I enjoyed politics for a while there.

Andy Vargas: 5:14

I wasn't sure if I wanted to do international relations or domestic politics. I was really interested in the US-Latin America relationship. I think so much of our foreign policy is Eurocentric. In Latin America in particular gets sort of less left down lower on the priority list for US foreign policy and there's, rightfully, a lot of skepticism in the region in Latin America because of all the interventions and involvement that we've had. And so I for a time there and I was thinking that my career path was going to be trying to bridge the gap and rebuild trust in the region in Latin America, as somebody that knew US politics and informed policy but also related very much so to the region, particularly the Caribbean, with my family being Dominican and also understanding the history of the interventions that happened in the region.

Andy Vargas: 6:06

So for a while there I wasn't sure which one was I going to do go to DC or somewhere else, the State Department and ultimately I decided to come home to April, and the reason I decided to do that was because most young people from small to mid-sized cities and towns across the country don't come back home If you don't come from a big city New York, miami, boston, la, chicago, etc.

Andy Vargas: 6:35

For most young people in small to mid-sized cities and towns, I like to say communities with less than 250,000 people my city is 70,000 people If you grew up in a community like that, odds are that the message, whether implicit or not, for young people is success is getting out, success is work hard, go through our public schools or try to get it to a private school, go to college and get out, and that certainly was the message that I received, or that I accepted as a young person growing up here. And growing up here wasn't easy, right, I found myself being the only Latino in my AP and honors classes. Wow, in some respects not being this is all generalization of the issue but in some respects, not being white enough for my friends in my AP and honors classes, but then for my cousins and other Latinos in the school, sometimes not being hood enough for them, and so at the time it created a lot of social anxiety going through high school. But what.

Andy Vargas: 7:46

I realized now is that it was a blessing At the time was great, a lot of angst in a sense of, like I don't fit in any camp. It really was a great experience to be able to speak to all camps, to understand experiences in multiple camps and bridge divides, which is the sense that I try to bring to my politics, and so that's a little bit about me. I decided to come back home to try to stop the brain drain that was happening in my community, which happens in too many small to mid-sized cities across the country. I decided to run for city council and we took it from there. So I've been talking for a while. Let me stop.

Raul Lopez: 8:22

No, it's all good. I really appreciate all the information and it's an interesting journey and it's an interesting point you put. It's something we talked about in a couple episodes ago. That went ahead Christian and Dave and we discussed code switching. In that realistically we give it a negative connotation, but it's a skill that we can use to help benefit us and keep us going afloat. And so what is the demographics like in Haverhill? Is it mostly? There's a reason Dominicans are going to. You got your family went to Haverhill. Is there a big Dominican population in Haverhill?

Andy Vargas: 8:57

So yeah, yeah, right nearby Haverhill is a community called Lawrence Mass, which is about 85% Latino, of which the vast majority is Dominican Lawrence, and so Haverhill is right next to that and so a lot of the population spills over into Haverhill and so I had family in Lawrence, some family in Haverhill already.

Andy Vargas: 9:16

My dad worked in the last shoe factory here in Haverhill. We used to produce one out of every 10 women's shoes at one point in America. We had 300 shoe factories in Haverhill at one point. We're down to zero now, but my dad worked in the last one and sort of started to establish roots here and we moved from Cambridge to Haverhill because the housing crisis in Cambridge. I lived in Cambridge, so I was about six years old, and then expenses got so high in Cambridge that they moved an hour north here to Haverhill and they were able to eventually buy a two family home where I grew up on the second floor and they rented out the first floor, and that provided an opportunity for me to understand what even home ownership is. I feel very privileged to have grown up in a house that my parents owned, and so, yeah, that's sort of how we got here to Haverhill.

Raul Lopez: 10:14

Yeah, and I mean it's difficult. It's something a lot of people don't realize sometimes. That solid foundation really does help. It's something as my parents eventually got their first home and it helped lift them up and give them more opportunities to get stuff moving forward as they got older, build equity, more money to help cut down on credit and it's just. It's a nice blessing when you have that opportunity. But you mentioned that you knew kind of, I guess, early in high school, when you were a teenager, that you wanted to start getting more focused in the idea of being involved with politics. At some point Is that something you started incorporating in school and saying to your counselor I want to become a politician, what do I need to do to get there? Did that help guide where you wanted to go to school?

Andy Vargas: 10:59

Yeah, I mean, I didn't really think in high school like I'm going to run for office. I knew I wanted to do something in the public sphere.

Andy Vargas: 11:06

I wasn't sure that was like you know, foreign policy and like working in a US embassy abroad or working you know an agency, or work for the governor, or like I just knew I wanted to do something in that sphere and so in my mind I knew I wanted to study some of that and my major would be reflected that.

Andy Vargas: 11:25

Because I was a double major in political science and international relations, that still couldn't decide which way I was going to go and it really wasn't until my senior year that I made that decision. You know, when I was about to graduate it took a bunch of internships. While I was at BU I did an internship at the state house on the house side and on the Senate side. There were vastly different experiences. So one of the things that I often tell people is that you know, you often hear you know doing internships, see if it's the right fit for you. But sometimes that first internship isn't always the best example of what that sector or industry is like, because my second internship in the same building was totally different than my first internship and certainly hooked me in more to the experience of the state house.

Raul Lopez: 12:11

So to the state house, to the US.

Andy Vargas: 12:13

Embassy in Madrid interned over there.

Andy Vargas: 12:16

One of the big pieces of it always good people, particularly if you're still an undergrad is if you can study abroad, because the finances are never going to be that good for you to do it, especially if you have a financial aid package. When in your life are you going to be able to live in another country, have a host family? You know, even if you know I'm not giving you a financial advisor, but even if you have to get into a little bit of debt for that, it's worth it in the long run because when else in your life you're going to have the opportunity to go live in another country, experience another culture, eat their food every single day, study there and just broaden the horizons? And for me, that was the experience that I had in Madrid, spain, and I was able to intern at the.

Andy Vargas: 12:55

US Embassy there. And then, once I had the security clearance for that internship, I said well, I've got the security clearance, maybe that helps a little bit with an application to the White House to see if they accept me as a White House intern, and I was not optimistic about my prospects. I had a 3.3 GPA you know you're competing with, you know 3.9s and 4.0s from Harvard and Yale. But we submitted it and I remember one day I was eating Chinese food at the corner of 504 at South Campus by BU at Boston University and I got a phone call and you know, this is the White House, this is Andrés Madagascar, and I literally dropped my general South chicken on my plate and the house in the rest of his history. Yeah, I took an opportunity there. They asked me if I would take an internship in a different office than the one I applied for. I told them I will clean the bathrooms, I don't care, I just don't want to clean that space. And so then I went down to DC and did the BU DC program down there, where they also had housing and my financial aid package transferred over there. And while I was working at the White House, which was like 60 hours a week. I also did about 10 to 15 hours working for a startup to help pay for the bills as well, and that was a remote experience.

Andy Vargas: 14:23

And with about two weeks ago, in the internship at the White House, president Obama came to talk to his interns and one of my peers asked him a question that a lot of us were thinking about, which was sort of where do we go from here? We had this great experience at the White House. What are some things we should be thinking about as we look to the next chapter of our career? And the president kind of paused and he leaned in and he said well, let me be clear. He said the key to living of a filling life is don't think about who you want to be, think about what you want to do. And he went on to basically say that ever since we were two, three, four years old, we're asked do you want to be an engineer? Do you want to be a doctor? You want to be a lawyer? It's going to be a congressman. Do you want to be the president?

Andy Vargas: 15:15

And these are all focused on titles, right, and we don't frame the question around what are the actions that you want to do? Not necessarily the titles. So the problem nowadays is that we have a bunch of people in Congress that when they were little they said I want to be president or I want to be a congressperson, and so their whole entire point of reference and purpose of existence is framed around that title. And how do I preserve that title? How do I keep that title? How do I get there, whatever it takes to get there, as opposed to if you start with the root question of what is it that you want to do?

Andy Vargas: 15:47

Are you the lawyer that fights for working people? Are you the scientist that cures cancer? Are you the congressperson that fights for housing so that everyone has access? Those are specific actions that you want to take, and if you have an idea in your head around what are the actions or the issues and the things that you want to do, then that'll help guide then what you want to be. And so for me, that meant that I wanted to come home, and it was the opposite of what I wanted to do originally. I originally wanted to get as far away as possible from here, and I thought that because I wanted to originally get away as far away as possible, that was even more reason to come back, because there was somebody else like me thinking that same way right now sitting in that classroom. And if we all just make that same decision, then the cycle continues.

Raul Lopez: 16:38

Yeah, and that's amazing advice. There's a book Start With why?

Andy Vargas: 16:44

I don't know if you've read that one, but I haven't read it, but yeah, I heard about it.

Raul Lopez: 16:48

Yeah, and it's kind of the same thing where you discuss, is that the how, the what can all come after. But you have to identify why you're doing this. Why is your company or your job doing what it wants to do? And if you can solidify a good, why all the other pieces will fall into place with time.

Andy Vargas: 17:09

So it's you know. But that's a problem that says people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Raul Lopez: 17:16

Yeah, exactly. And so you talked about a very interesting point with internships and it seems like you did a lot of those and for a lot of people when they think internships they think I'm going to be making copies and it's not going to really help me with my career. But once you get into the real world you realize, even if you just did copies, having that on your resume shows some level of experience and some sort of workplace that will kind of give you a little bit of a bump when you're looking for a job, specifically when you're looking at things in politics. You know how important is our internship for people who want to get into politics.

Andy Vargas: 17:49

Yeah, I mean it's super important, I think you know, for two reasons. One is that because politics is an industry where, candidly, the money needed, particularly at the local and state level, is so finite. If you can get in an internship role and a fellowship role and a volunteer role, there's a lot of room for you to do real work, because there aren't, unfortunately, a lot of people willing and able to do that work. A good example of this is in my 2017 campaign. We had an intern. It was Kayla. She came in and started as an intern. By the second month. She was running all of our field operations and so people would come in. She would have the packets ready for people to go door knock and she became a staple for our campaign. And now she's worked for different political individuals mayors, senators. She works for the Planning Commission now.

Andy Vargas: 18:51

But that initial experience for her even though it wasn't compensated which we're trying to do better on, because people deserve to be compensated and I think it also removes barriers. If you're able to compensate people, you can get more people to actually have access. But in that case, as a first time candidate, I didn't have the funding or the fundraising to be able to pay everybody. The only person paid on my campaign was my campaign manager when I ran for state rep. But the point is that that opened the door to so many opportunities for her, not only because of the work that she did it was real, hands-on work that she got but because of the people that she met, because when she went to go apply for a job, people said where am I seeing you before? Oh yeah, you were in Andy's campaign. You were the one managing this, this, this and this.

Andy Vargas: 19:35

Oh yeah yeah yeah, yeah, and so it, through the exposure and the people that you meet, it can open the door to a world of opportunities.

Raul Lopez: 19:43

Yeah, and I think when you're in college and you're looking at internships, everybody's going for these big company names, these big names going up forward, and you don't get it. And then you're like I guess that's it for me and you never even try to look for smaller internships. And I'm guessing in politics the same thing Everybody's trying to go for the senator, the president and all these big things and sometimes starting at a lower campaign might help you build that momentum to start snowball affecting and getting your name out there.

Andy Vargas: 20:10

That's exactly right. You might. If you do a state rep campaign or a state Senate campaign or a city council campaign or a mayoral campaign, you might get junior level experience as an intern. You're not getting introductory stuff, you're not just picking up coffee, you're not just doing the basic things. You're getting real hands on work that can actually accelerate your ability to then apply for a job for a US senator or apply for a job to somebody higher up, because you have the real experience, as opposed to the many interns that perhaps did the internship work at that very high level but didn't get to get into the weeds like you did at a local level.

Raul Lopez: 20:50

Yeah, and you also mentioned you were working 60 hours for the Obama administration and then still working 15 hours at another nonprofit just to make ends meet. And you talked about the barriers and I think for a lot of us, our people, we don't have that luxury of being able to say, yeah, I'm going to take a semester and work 60 hours a week and not get paid. How were you able to handle that? When you were down there, I did it.

Andy Vargas: 21:17

I didn't handle it that well. I gained probably like 25 pounds. I was there, I think it was also the White House gives out free M&Ms, and so I was always eating these little M&Ms, with the presidential seal on them and taking them home with me and planning on gifting them to people, but then being hungry and eating. So I definitely gained weight during that period, but the work just felt so meaningful to me and I knew that it was temporary. I think that's the other thing.

Andy Vargas: 21:47

Right, the experience itself is temporary, but the impact that it has on your life is forever, and so I kept trying to zoom out and remember that, like this is temporary, I'm very lucky to be here. How do I put my all into this? I'll try to. You know, self-care is important. I have to try to prioritize that, and I wasn't as conscious about that then, but I just kept coming back to the fact that this is a six-month thing, and if I have to burn the grease here, then I'm going to just do it, because this is the one period of time that I have this opportunity and I know that I have to put my best foot forward.

Raul Lopez: 22:30

Nice and it's hard and, like you said, it's always keeping that mentality where, hey, this is temporary, but the gains are successful sometimes Sacrifice a little, especially as parents sorry, not parents, but having parents who are immigrants, it's a lot of what their journey was like. They knew sacrificing a little bit now was going to gain so much later.

Andy Vargas: 22:53

Yeah, and it's funny because I go back and forth on this a lot with some of my cousins because we have the immigrant guilt trip, what we call it right but I found it really helpful in those moments where for lack of a better word I'm eating shit. This is hard, it's very difficult, but when I zoom out and I'm like this is nothing compared to my grandmother going three different boroughs in New York to work three different jobs, three or six daughters, or this is nothing compared to what my mom had to do to be able to put herself through nursing school. This is nothing compared to that, and so having those reference points can provide a ton of strength in those moments. Conversely, it can also be very bad for us to put that type of pressure and guilt on ourselves, but I think you can find a way for it to motivate you without bogging you down or feeling too much of the pressure. I think that's the balance that we try to find with those stories that our families provide us.

Raul Lopez: 23:52

Yeah, it's difficult, like you said, and I think it's not necessarily either one or the other, because you could be one for a while until you realize I should look at it differently. As opposed to saying I've gotten this far, I've gotten this far and I'm not doing well, but my parents worked harder. Why am I such a failure? You look at it and say I've gotten this far, I've gotten this far and I need to keep going, and my parents were able to do it. Let me. What can I do to myself to keep me motivated? The way my parents get myself motivated, you know, and that's just about changing your mentality.

Raul Lopez: 24:28

So another interesting thing that you've done in Boston University while you were there was, I believe, you ran for student government. Is that something that's actually helpful, or was that just something that's fun?

Andy Vargas: 24:40

Yeah, you know it was interesting. I ran for CAS student government. We actually lost. We had a slate that we ran. We did not win. So that was my first and only election I've lost so far.

Andy Vargas: 24:56

But that experience was was was fun as well, and I think the thing about student government is and that can probably makes more sense for me to talk about the work that I did with as director of city affairs.

Andy Vargas: 25:11

So the student government at BU at the time had different departments and I don't know if this still exists, but it was relatively new that the student government was building up City affairs department and it was basically tasked with figuring out how do we get the student body to engage with the elected officials that represent the BU area, and so that meant you know city counselors, mayors, state reps, state senators, and so we hosted Forums where candidates would come in and talk to students.

Andy Vargas: 25:44

So that also was an introduction to politics and seeing how other you know city counselors and elected officials, they presented themselves and got engaged and got involved with students. And so the student government process I can't speak to it, you know, from a perspective that's kind of internal to the university at least, but In the sense that it allowed me to reach out externally to elected officials. That certainly did help a little bit. So I would say if you're interested in politics, you know the internal stuff of student government in terms of how do you, you know, move a student body in the direction that you want, to manage relationships between Students and admin, and how to get policy goals done at the school itself. I think that can be incredibly valuable. But I also can think it's valuable for you to represent students externally, you know, to the city or to some other external partner as well, to gain some other experience that Can help you think about what you want to do after college.

Raul Lopez: 26:49

Nice, and you also have a founded Organization, the Boston University political action organization. What made you want to help build that?

Andy Vargas: 26:58

Yes, I mean we. I looked around. I didn't really see Any organization that was organizing students for the issues that they cared about outside of campus. And so, you know, we hosted forums with Technology Privacy organizations At the time. We were having a lot of conversations about, you know, what is the digital revolution mean for privacy and security and how do we balance the competing interests of privacy and security. So we hosted panels on on topics that were of interest to students, and then we also Got students to write letters and engage in particular issues that were important to them. You know this was all you know, part of you know, during the the Occupy movement you know was was still happening then, and so there was a lot of Our interest was really figuring out how do we take the student voice and try to use it to influence our politics beyond just campus.

Raul Lopez: 27:57

Yeah, and I think for especially now, I think for a lot of people they feel like they don't hold power and getting things done and getting change done in their community feels like an impossible task. Do you feel that more people, especially people of color and you know Latinos and blacks and are using that as motivation to kind of run more for more for local offices?

Andy Vargas: 28:20

Yeah, I mean, I hope more people look at local offices for sure, because for two reasons. One is that's where the real action is actually happening. Down in Congress, there's not much moving. You can have all the great ideas in the world and head down to Congress, but if you can't pass the bill, then you just got a great idea. But if you run for city council, if you run for state rep, you know in my case, for example, you know I joined the legislature in 2017.

Andy Vargas: 28:48

The first bill that I passed was the most important bill that I wanted to work on when I joined, because it was a bill that actually started working on when I was 16 and a youth organizer Was mandating civics education across Massachusetts, and so I was 16 when I started working on that bill, organizing around it, and then at 24, I got elected as state rep, and in the building, many of the people that were there when I was 16 were still there when I was 24, and so when I joined, I said guys like this would be really cool if we could get this civics education bill done. Now, eight years later, you met me out on the other side of the table. Now I'm a colleague. This is really important and despite being my first term, you know we were able to get that bill done. Um, it's a concrete thing that was done. I mean, so much in our politics is tough to like. Point to specific things around like here's the bill or here's the law. That we did because in particularly in DC, it's just so partisan and so difficult to get anything done. But at the state level, at the local level, you know, I I don't say it's too low, but just to show that you can get things done. You know civics education.

Andy Vargas: 29:54

I just mentioned Universal school meals. I just passed that bill which makes free school meals permanent in Massachusetts. So every single kid, regardless of their income, regardless of their documentation, if they get in that line to get a meal at school, they're getting a free meal, which is also generating more revenue for school districts to be able to pick healthier meals for those students. We got that done. We passed comprehensive zoning reform to be able to change our zoning to allow for more multi-family housing. We created a gun violence prevention program. It's a 10 million dollar program within the Department of Public Health which looks at gun violence from a public health lens, which we advocated for after there was a shooting in my district and a young man who was 21 years old was shot and killed.

Andy Vargas: 30:39

So there, there are very concrete and specific things that we can point to and that's really important to me, like I need to. When I go to bed at night, I need to be able to say, like you know, this is what we did right, this is what we were able to accomplish, this is what I you know we're at the five yard line on this bill. Or, you know, this constituent called me about trying to get health insurance and we were able to get them on mass health. Very concrete and specific things are so important for at least me to continue doing this work and I can find that Thankfully still at the state and local level, where you can still get your done, whereas at the federal level it's challenging. It's, like you know, winning the day is like how do we win on social media? Or like how do we win on the news network, and that's just not a game that you know. I, at least, for now, I don't really find Appeal. You know there is.

Andy Vargas: 31:30

There is a lot of value, you know, at the federal level to you know, being a voice for representation for using your megaphone to try to move issues along. That's really important and they play a really important role. But the last you know, the last couple of years have been very difficult, you know. Thankfully, under the last congress, they got three of the biggest bills done in a long time on the inflation reduction act, arpa and Not the cares act. There's another bill that's escaping me now, but I'm not at the federal level. But my point is is that they can do big things but the windows of opportunity are pretty slim. Yeah, and so look at the state and local level people please, especially because there are a few people that know how to campaign at the state and local level. So it's also ripe for you to come in and run and get engaged and change your city or town. Yeah, and there's a lot of Positions that go unchallenged as well, you know.

Raul Lopez: 32:33

And sometimes people complain saying, oh, we Taxes or this and that and my city does nothing for me and nobody's going against anybody. And the same people just in there and Speaking about running. How does somebody start that seems like you know it's a marathon run, we all know, we all realize it's a marathon run, but it seems like an impossible task to start and nobody even knows how to get there. Sometimes, like what are some of the starting things that if someone's interested in becoming, getting into politics, yeah so it's sort of going back to what we talked about earlier around finding your why.

Andy Vargas: 33:12

I would say the first thing is kind of a self reflective process around like why you want to do it, and having a lot of clarity around why. What are the issues that you're fighting for? What do you want to accomplish? Not only because that's important to articulate to voters, but it's also important for yourself in those difficult days ahead, for you to come back to. Okay, why did I get into this in the first place? Why am I willing to take these hits? It's because I wanted to do this, this, this, this and this. These are the things that I want to accomplish, and so I would say literally write them down like why do you want to run? Why do you want to be engaged?

Andy Vargas: 33:45

The next step is to reach out to different organizations or people in your network that may have worked on campaigns or have some advice for campaigns. There's organizations like run for something for women. There's organizations like emerge for Latinos, does the Latino victory project. You know there's different organizations out there that can point you in the right direction, but ultimately, I think the most you know once you get all the advice right, because there's a lot of people that are willing to give advice and all sorts of tutorials and things online, but ultimately what it boils down to is is a couple of things. One is create a spreadsheet of everyone you've ever met in your life, and when people getting this advice I was I looked at them like they're crazy. But, like you know, my my campaign manager for my city council race was like even that second grader that you had a crush on when you were in the second grade. You know you got to put her name down there, even though they haven't talked to her in like over many years, and you got to put everyone you've ever met first name, last name, phone number, email and then a column for what you think they might be able to do for your campaign whether it's donate $10, $100, or they can get a union endorsement, or they can knock on doors, or they can design graphics or something for what they might be able to contribute to your journey and then start dialing right and just call, call, call, call, call people and ask them to be a part of your journey and hopefully people do step up to the plate and help out. I know for me in my city council race. We raised around 15 grand and that was enough for us to do very well in the campaign. We won that first time around. So that's that's what I would say is make, make the spreadsheet. And then there is a direct correlation there's a science to this between the number of doors that you knock and the and the likelihood of you winning. You know a lot of people get enamored with doing social media graphics and lawn signs and holding signs and waving outside and stuff.

Andy Vargas: 35:57

The number one thing that you can do on a campaign is knock on doors and be targeting about the doors that you knock. You know there's a platform for Democrats is a platform called vote builder. For people who aren't registered. There's a platform called nation builder that you can use. That gets you access to voter files and you can see everyone's. You know first name, last name, address. You know party affiliation, age, did they vote in the last?

Andy Vargas: 36:25

You know well of elections and you can sort all that in a manner where you can say you know, give me a list of everyone who lives in the district that I'm running for and only give me a list of the people that voted in the last three municipal elections.

Andy Vargas: 36:41

So now you've condensed the list to the what's called the super voters, and those are the doors that you want to make sure you knock first. Now I always say that you know political shot strategist will will say those are the doors that knock on. Just focus on those people and that's it and you win. And I offer the same advice with the caveat, however do the extra work to not only knock on those doors but then create a separate universe of people that perhaps they haven't voted in the last three municipal elections, but maybe they voted in a federal election for the presidential election right, because that gets all the attention to presidential races but nobody's ever knocked on their door to ask them to run or to vote in a municipal or state election, and so create a separate universe of those people as well and get them to come out and vote.

Andy Vargas: 37:29

And just keep knocking on the doors of the people that consistently vote. We're never going to get the people who perhaps have an interest in voting. You know, maybe they voted in a presidential, but they never were asked to vote in a municipal or state or never felt like they had a reason to. And so we call those warm voters people that have sort of they participate here and there. They primarily focus on presidential because it gets all the hype and attention on social media etc. But they've never been had a candidate come to their door and ask for their vote. And those people, I think, are just, if not more important, the long term health of our democracy.

Raul Lopez: 38:05

Yeah, I did some volunteer work for the battle campaign in Texas of a few years back and knocking on people's door and we had that list is you know? These are people who we know voted as people we didn't know voted and they're just like knocking everybody's door. And this is Texas. We need every vote we can get and it's amazing.

Raul Lopez: 38:24

It's amazing how many people doors you knock and they're like, oh, there's an election coming and it's like, yeah, like I voted last year that was a presidential, this is a new election, this is more local. And it's like, okay, and they didn't realize it and they're like I'll go and I'll make sure I go, you know. And so sometimes just a gentle reminder will get them going. So you talk to big word there. A big buzzword that we always hear all the time is campaign financing. You know, you started with your list, going down the list and trying to get money from people, trying to get whatever you can get. But how does finance, campaign finance, actually work and when do we go with that?

Andy Vargas: 39:02

Yeah, yeah. So it's the worst part about all this. Honestly, it sucks, and it's probably the thing that I'm least good at when doing all this. It depends on a state to state basis, but in Massachusetts we have some of the tightest campaign finance laws in the country, which I think is great. So, en masse, the maximum that an individual can donate is $1,000. So a household of two can donate $2,000 or $1,000 per person. When I talk to some of my colleagues in Virginia, for example, or Texas Texas is a good example Like people write ridiculous checks to candidates. They're like 5, 10, 25, $30,000 checks to candidates because there's no limit and I feel very lucky that here, en masse, that we have the system and the structure that we have.

Andy Vargas: 39:53

But, yeah, you start with the list that you have of people that you've met throughout your life and then, after you're done with that list, you start trying to cultivate other donors, people that might be interested in supporting your candidacy and that might be because they relate to an issue that's really important to you. So, for example, if you're running for school committee and education is really important to you and you're set to be the first Latino or Latina on the school committee, can you look for organizations that work on curriculum and development for making sure that the curriculum is culturally responsive? For example, look at their board and look at are there people on their board that might want to live out their values of making sure that our school system reflects our population by helping elect the first Latina or the first Latino to that school committee? That's one quick way to try to cultivate the people that identify with your narrative, your story, the issues that you're prioritizing. The other way is by asking people in your community that perhaps you just met so you can go to chamber events. You can introduce yourself to business owners, ask them to support your campaign as well, but it really starts with that list and making those phone calls and following up with those folks as well.

Andy Vargas: 41:21

There's a great database in Massachusetts called OCPF Office of Campaign and Political Finance. You can look up every single donation that anyone made to an elected official so you can go up on the website. You can look at how much money I have in my campaign account. Who donated how much, where do they work? All of that is publicly available for folks to see, which I think is great.

Raul Lopez: 41:45

Nice. Yeah, that's a real good transparency to be able to have, because I think a lot of times people just hear about the kind of campaign financing and they think they're just pocketing all the money. But when you get really low the lower level is it's not as lucrative. And it's not just that. I mean in general, I think the position people think politicians are going to be raking it in and a lot of times politicians are still working day jobs Is politics something that people are able to do while still holding jobs?

Andy Vargas: 42:16

So, yeah, when I was on the city council, I was still working for a nonprofit called Entrepreneurship for All, and so I was doing both. The city council paid I think it was $14,000 a year and so I had to maintain my full-time job to make the numbers work. And then, yeah, in the state legislature, I would say about half of my colleagues still have another job as well. This pays a full-time job salary. The base salary for every state rep I think now is like $69,000 or $70,000 around there, and but most of my colleagues still, they do real estate or insurance or attorneys or do something else. I myself am licensed real estate attorney and, with a kid in child care expenses, you have to try to find ways to generate more income, but it's definitely a career that can allow you to do something else for a couple hours a week on the side, but I take this as my full-time number one job before anything else.

Raul Lopez: 43:25

Yeah, and I think jobs like real estate agents and insurance sometimes give you that flexibility with your time because you guys are busy. You guys are always busy. Even before this call, you were busy. So, every time you see you and see things on Facebook, you're doing something. How's the work-life balance and how do you handle that?

Andy Vargas: 43:44

Yeah, it's a great question Because at first I was running myself into the ground. I wanted to be everywhere and everything to everyone. And it's just impossible and I think, particularly when you're a child of immigrants, you feel this sense of like I'm so lucky to be here and I have to prove to everybody that I'm going to work harder than everybody else and I've got to be everywhere and I've got to be everything and I've got to do everything, because if not, then I don't deserve it and there's this kind of cloud over a lot of kids of immigrants to think that way. When they get to a certain opportunity and I had to learn some of that I had to say no, yes, I'm very lucky to be here, but we worked our butts off to get here myself, my family, my volunteers, everybody else. We earned the right to be here and we're serving the community.

Andy Vargas: 44:42

And if someone's going to be upset because on a Friday night I can't make their event and unfortunately I can't control that but I have to have dinner with my wife, and so we try to now implement a role where, for two nights a week, I have to make sure I'm eating dinner together with my wife and my kid, and so I get three nights where I can do the evening events that I need to do, and so my staff knows that If they see in my calendar that I've already got three events that week in the evening, they know that the fourth or fifth request that comes in for that week.

Andy Vargas: 45:21

Unfortunately I can't make that because I have to eat dinner with my wife and my kid for two nights at least.

Andy Vargas: 45:29

And so those are the kind of parameters that we put in place. I think the other thing that's important is to really value your own time and think about the ROI that you can get on your time For a lot of people. There are a lot of people out there that, for you, helping them and doing the work that you're supposed to do for them can offer you nothing in return, and that's how you know you're doing your job if you're serving those people. But then there are a lot of people that will invite you to an event with the same people that you've seen at the last event and it just seems more superficial to which it's OK to say no, right? It's OK because you have, let's say, a laundry list of 10 constituent cases that you're still working through that you want to spend your time prioritizing that, as opposed to quote unquote networking or having dinner or hanging out with the same people that were at the last three events, and so it's prioritizing your time and being OK with saying no.

Raul Lopez: 46:35

Which is difficult, especially when sometimes you worry and, like you said, as an immigrant, you feel you start getting the imposter syndrome and saying I have to prove myself. Even though I've made it, I still have to keep proving myself and keep keeping myself up. And do you ever feel that there's a challenge with the fact that you are Dominican and you're kind of not out of place but a different person than most politicians, that you always have to feel you kind of have to over exemplify, you have to work twice as hard for have to credit it?

Andy Vargas: 47:09

sometimes people say yeah, I mean sometimes, for sure, you know, when I do in the city council. There was that, but there was also the young aspect, right? I mean, I think a lot of times, you know, human beings, we like to put people into buckets, right? So we oversimplify like this is what a young person in politics believes, or this is what a Latino politician believes, or this is how, in my head, this is the bias I've created around that profile of elected officials. And so when I joined the city council, the first three to five meetings, I didn't say a word, right, I just sat there, I listened, I tried to get to know the mechanics of everything, because I knew that, you know, and many of my colleagues heads they said, oh, here comes this young kid you know, I was 22 years old, you know, thinking he knows everything and he's going to tell us that we've been running the city wrong for years and you know he knows better.

Andy Vargas: 48:02

And instead I just sat there and I listened for the first five meetings and got to know my colleagues in between those meetings and ask questions around what issues were important to them. And you know, I really cared about the facilities that our students were learning in. Our school buildings were crumbling. Who's worked on that issue? Oh, this counselor has worked on that issue. Okay, great. How do I partner with them and sort of build that relationship, before coming in and, just you know, guns blazing?

Raul Lopez: 48:27

you know this is wrong.

Andy Vargas: 48:28

This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. What are we doing? You got to fix this and I think that paid off. You know, we're able to build genuine relationships. That then allowed us to move forward with our agenda. And so I think the same goes with, you know, being a corner corner Latino candidate, even though, of course you know, I represent everybody in my district, Going door to door. Sometimes, you know, I would hear, you know, Andy, no thanks, we don't want Aval turning into Lawrence, Right, you know, and that sucks, but those people are out there. You just can't let them, you know, occupy too much time, or anytime in your head, because there's too many other issues and too many other people that deserve that time in your head.

Raul Lopez: 49:14

Definitely. You know, with politics it's always you have to be really thick skinned between always the potential of losing and then always the potential of getting hate thrown away from not just other politicians, from just the public in general. You know it's, it's. You have to have that thick layer of skin, and so I'm sure there's a lot of things you've learned coming through this and going through this, as you experience with time. If you were able to kind of go back in time and talk to yourself as a younger person and give yourself some advice that you think would have helped you, what's something you would have told yourself?

Andy Vargas: 49:50

That's a great question. I think the first thing I would help myself is sort of what we were just hitting on or earlier, which is it's okay to say no, right, it's okay to not try to be everything to everyone all the time. The second thing I would say is to continue to write and reflect on why frequently, because I think, as young people, we can often get lost in just being busy.

Andy Vargas: 50:27

We, we, you know where business, like a badge, like oh my God, I'm so busy, I have to do this, this, this and this, and like to us at the time, it might feel great that I'm so busy. I have all these things that are going on, but we never really pause to really reflect on what is it that's filling up my day, and my calendar does that.

Andy Vargas: 50:46

I reflect my values, my purpose, my goals, my jet objectives in life, and those objectives don't have to be just career related, their family related, a person related as well. So take the time to write and write those things down and, yeah, I think those, those are things I would say.

Raul Lopez: 51:08

Nice and what's next for for Andy.

Andy Vargas: 51:13

Well, now I'll probably get to bed because my kids going to wake up in a couple hours, but in terms of what's next for me, I don't know yet. Man, and I think, like any politician that's under 50 years old that tells you they're not thinking about higher office, is lying to you. So, yeah, of course I think about. You know, is there a potential to run for a higher office at some point? And I also come back to what we talked about earlier, which is like, for what, right, like what? What is my goal by doing that?

Andy Vargas: 51:49

And right now, the environment in DC isn't exactly appealing, and if you can't get anything done then and you feel like you can get more done at the state level, then, you know, maybe makes more sense to continue to pour everything into my state and do what I can to make life better here in Massachusetts, which has been a beacon for the rest of the country. We think about the first public school was here. Health, you know, obamacare was based off of our health insurance program here. The gay marriage, you know here. And so the work that we're doing here of course has an impact on our state, but has ripple effects across the country. And so, yeah, for now, my, my focus is trying to do the job that I have now. Well, to raise a baby to. You know, on the side, be a real estate, maybe try to build some intergenerational wealth for my kid, but in the meantime, you know, make sure that that I'm having fun and sticking to the purpose.

Raul Lopez: 52:56

Nice Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time out to talk to me tonight. It is a lot of knowledge bombs in this one.

Andy Vargas: 53:05

I hope so I might have a sleep mask. I hope it's still good.

Raul Lopez: 53:09

No, it was great man. I really, I really appreciate it and for everyone else that's listening in, as always, thank you for your support. I appreciate you guys tuning in and I hope you join me again next time as we continue to learn how to say success in Spanish.