Summary:

In this episode of The Zekely Podcast, host Zeke interviews Mykhala Richner, the president of the Centre County Young Democrats. They discuss her political engagement, the challenges young Pennsylvanians face, the importance of unions, and how her generation is showing up for Democratic candidates.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Mykhala Richner

01:31 Close Call

03:34 Up or Down

06:00 Wants

09:14 Democrat

12:22 President

14:34 Languages

17:08 What Did You Say?

19:53 POTS

22:48 ER

25:10 Engagement

28:09 Hope

29:25 Future

32:01 Wrap Up

Centre County Democrats: https://www.centrecountydems.com/

Full Video Episode Available On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheZekelyPodcast

Short Clips Can Be Found On TikTok: @drzeketayler/@thezekelypodcast and Instagram: @thezekelypodcast

www.thezekelypodcast.com

Hello, I'm Zeke, and welcome to the Zeke Podcast. Let's talk, Pennsylvania. The guest I have today is currently the president of the Center County Young Democrats and has been deeply involved in promoting democratic values in central Pennsylvania. She's a campaign field organizer, union builder, and doing it all under the age of thirty. Thank

Thank you so much for being here, Michaela Richner.

I’m Zeke, a doctor, a Pennsylvanian and unapologetic supporter of Democratic values. You might have seen me on social media working my ass off for Democrats and meeting some pretty amazing people along the way - like President Barack Obama and Governor Josh Shapiro.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. I love having the younger generation on my show because I just feel like there isn't a lot of representation out there. So I love that there are young Democrats in Pennsylvania doing the work. And so we're gonna have some fun, learn all about you, and play some games. Are you ready?

I am so ready. Let's get into it.

All right. Well, in 2017, you traveled to China

after taking your black belt in Tang Sudu,

which is traditional Korean martial art, and then you avoided potential kidnapping while you were there?

it was definitely a site to to be involved in. a couple of friends and I went out to see a couple places in China with our local high school

I was with another classmate of mine that was taking Chinese classes at the high school. That's kind of how we got into it.

and we were looking at one of the exhibits.

And this random man just like approached us from behind. And I immediately was like, we're getting pickpocketed, our passports are about to be sold, something like that. And

So originally I was like, okay, this is not as big of a deal as I'm thinking it's gonna be. So I just tapped my friend and said, put your backpack in front of you so your straps are towards the back and then all of your

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

pack stuff is in the front. And we did, and he still wasn't leaving us alone. we went to a couple other exhibits around the roundabout. There's a big monkey enclosure and they have tunnels around the top that you can they can explore.

We get to the middle, we go the whole way around, like twice, and they're still tailing us the whole time. And so I finally looked at her and was like, you know, rule number one that they told us with this high school is don't get into an international incident. So

Mm-hmm.

I was like, on the count of three, we're just gonna bolt. I'm not gonna look in the direction. I'm just gonna grab your hand, we're gonna go. And so we bolted to like the elephant enclosure, which is a good, I'd say like a quarter mile run. I was not a runner. so we're sprinting.

my god.

And it later find like we we lost them for a little bit. I think someone else ran into them that was from our group and said like they were definitely suspicious. someone else ended up reporting them, not from our group, but like that was at the zoo, ended up reporting these individuals, and they ended up getting like escorted out

And I like, How crazy is it that I just got my black belt? And I was like, they have no idea

I guess it's a good thing they didn't try and come after you like physically because you probably could have laid them out pretty pretty nicely.

That's that is a crazy story. Well I'm glad nothing bad happened and that the rest of your trip was

good. But we're gonna play a game called Up or Down. Okay, you ever watch the Karate Kid? It's like one of my favorite

Yes.

movies as a child, right? So remember when the he's teaching her to paint the fence? Up or down?

Okay,

Mm-hmm.

so I want you to tell me if you want this to go up or down in Pennsylvania, okay? the minimum wage.

Always.

Up, right? What are what are young people saying about the minimum wage in Pennsylvania?

I'm very fortunate that I make a little above that, but

no one in my area can afford to buy a house making minimum wage. In fact, even at fifteen dollars an hour, you're not gonna be able to afford that. we have folks that are you know, in their thirties now, just now starting to make, you know, maybe twenty, twenty five an hour because of the experience and and the the time that they've been involved in their careers. And they're like, Well, now I could afford the monthly payment, but I can't.

To save to get that monthly payment. so the goal is always to have a higher minimum wage to support everyone in Pennsylvania.

Right. And do do you explain to your friends and

young young Democrats why we don't have a an elevated minimum wage in Pennsylvania?

It's the Republican Senate.

That's right. Exactly. We have to get the trifecta this year and we can raise the minimum wage. We want that to go up. Absolutely. How

We do.

about duration of paid maternity leave in Pennsylvania?

Up always.

Yeah, that's also on the docket to be passed in Pennsylvania, but unfortunately, because we don't have control in the state senate, it has not been passed. I think it's crazy that the, you know, supposed party of family values does not pass a law to help people trying to start a family. I mean the it's crazy. It's crazy. I I I don't understand. I don't understand it at all.

Right? It's insane. I have

my boyfriend's mom used to be a labor and delivery nurse and she was like, Yeah, like they'd go back to work after four weeks and like that's still a fresh baby. Why are they

I know.

Like there's what most of Europe is at least eight to ten weeks. Sometimes some of the really good places give you like a year

No, you can't. It we're way behind on the national stage in terms of supporting postpartum, you know, people. So we need to work on that. Again, the trifacta, we can get it done. here's the last one. The number of child abuse victims waiting for justice in Pennsylvania. Yeah, what'd that go down? Right.

We want that to go down. Read it out.

Yeah. Josh Shapiro is begging the legislature to pass a law to get that done, but again, it keeps stalling in the state senate. So

yeah, once again, just goes to show we need more Democrats to get more shit done in Pennsylvania.

Michaela, what

do young people want today from their politicians at all levels of government?

The mo the biggest thing I've heard is they want to be heard. they want to be seen and taken seriously. I feel like a lot of politicians, not just in PA, but, you know, nationwide, have been looking at young folks and I say that as in like we our chapter is anywhere from eighteen to forty. So

Forty year olds have quite a bit of experience under their belt, but even someone

Yeah.

my age at twenty five, I've seen a lot of life. I've seen a lot of downs, I've seen the way that the world can beat people up. And I have some pretty good ideas as to how to fix that. Not saying I can do that alone and I'd never try to, but to have that input to say, you know, this is a problem I'm seeing, let's find a solution that everyone can agree to.

And a lot of people are seeing that their representatives, their state senators aren't showing up. They are avoiding town halls, they're avoiding accountability and just saying, you know, we we want the status quo on this. And the reality is we don't wanna push our way through and we don't wanna take over completely. We just want to seat at the table.

Right. Now do you see more young people getting involved politically these days in your part of Pennsylvania?

you know, it's a little bit of both. we've had a lot of really passionate people say, I'm out, I don't want to do this anymore, because they feel that they've been disheartened from participating, that they don't get a seat or a voice, and so they kind of say, I can't just keep getting

Mm.

rejected over and over and over again through this when I have good ideas. but we still have quite a few people, myself included, who are really passionate about not giving up.

Okay.

you know, you will hear me, you will see me. I am not going to be going away because it's not just my voice, it's everyone else behind me that gave up, that wants to come back to the table. That's my goal is to have everyone come back.

Yeah, I think the hardest part about politics is how long things take to get done. You know, I I feel like, you know, you talk to someone who has a position of power and then they just don't deliver for you. And that's deflating, right? And I think the whole purpose of politics is incremental change. I think we would love to have like a slingshot moment where we feel like in this country we're being pulled backwards and then we leap forward like so much progress. But if you look at the arc of this country, I mean I read a lot about presidents.

And you know, I I can read a thousand page book in a couple months and that's

like a hundred

years, right? That's like a hundred years that you're reading, and it takes a long time for progress because you have to get hundreds of thousands of people to like row in the same direction. And so yeah, I think people just have to keep foc you know, you're focused. People have to stay focused and just not give up because eventually if you keep working at it, you will see progress. But I can see as as someone who's young in politics who

their entire lives. They've kind of been living in this. I mean, I didn't always I'm old enough to know that this hasn't it hasn't always been this crazy, right? But for younger people, they're like, my God, I know nothing else. So just yeah, I'm glad you're not giving up and I'm glad that you have found politicians who listen to younger people because we need that inspiration to keep people in the fight.

Michaela, why are you a Democrat and why do you choose to represent the Democratic

know, I think that's the first time someone's actually asked me that. so I grew up in a very democratic household. some of my first memories are my dad coming home from his union meetings with a box pizza that was left over. So of course coming from like a seven, eight year old child that you know,

Yeah.

unions are great 'cause pizza.

Yes.

but I was actually very fortunate to understand just how much unions do when they're when you're young.

unfortunately my dad had an incident with his work. It was nothing bad, nothing awful, but because of a health condition he could no longer do the job he wanted to do at that company and they forced him out. Well the union came back and said, this man's about to be homeless and he has children and a wife and this is not acceptable if you're going to do this and you need to find him another job, another position that he can be involved in. and that union single handedly saved my family.

from hardships, much harsher hardships. and a lot of my family members are union as well. I myself has never have never been, but I've always been an avid supporter of it. And I also just think that being a Democrat has always meant acceptance. in my head, I don't care what race you are, I don't care what nationality or what color skin you have, I don't care what languages you speak. I'd like

Mm.

I don't care how you identify sexually, just be a good person. and you know, we've got much bigger fish to fry than what's in someone's pants. So for me, I'm just like I love my neighbors. I have several that are much further right than me. If they showed up on my doorstep and asked for help, no questions asked. Because that's

Yeah, yeah.

what you do. It shouldn't matter with that kind of stuff. And so often, I think when I was younger, it was a little easier to stay along party lines with that.

But now I've seen such a big division where like some of my neighbors won't even talk to us anymore. And like that's not it's their prerogative, that's what they want to do with it. But I'm like, man, like I just wanna be here to help people. I've always viewed the Democratic Party as the party that helps people.

Yeah, I agree. It's the values, it's the ideals that the Democratic Party you know carries on. And it's a it's on their platform, right? I mean, it's there. You can read the entire platform. It is all about helping the most amount of people. And I'm just glad that you have those values in Center County, Pennsylvania. And you know, I I I think that the divisiveness is made worse by today's politicians. Certainly the MAGA party, I think is terrible.

And it's hard to have a coherent, grounded conversation with those people, you know, because the biggest thing that MAGA has brought into the world is just normalizing lies. And so I do think it's hard to have conversations with people who who will not like agree on what the truth is. So I hope that eventually your neighbors, you know, the ones that are further to the right can have a a good conversation, but grounded in the truth and know that the Democratic Party wants the best for them.

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Mykhala what have you been doing as the president of the Center County Young Democrats?

I am so glad you asked. We I say we as in my executive board because nothing I do is me alone. I've I have always been very

about that, but nothing I do is a a me, me, me. It is all us. I could not do this without my board, I could not do any of this without my members and the amazing support we've gotten from the community. But one of our main focuses,

is unions.

that we are standing by them and putting pressure on representatives and elected officials to say you stand behind them. Or we're not supporting you on this anymore.

And so we are actually hosting an event. It's our first ever one, so no one judge me. I am terrible at event planning. but it's gonna be a solidarity picnic on September 6th, and we're inviting all of the local labor unions and all the elected officials in hopes of just letting the unions have a voice and telling us as community members and electives that are gonna be there, candidates that are gonna be there locally.

what they can do to actually support what actually makes a difference. And for things that are ongoing, like the SCIU healthcare contracts and stuff that are still being in negotiation, what is actually gonna help bring this admin and these execs to the table?

impressed. I have to say, I don't s hear a lot of young people talking about unions as much as as you are. And honestly, every time I talk to candidates and or current representatives on this show, it's the Democrats who are showing up for unions. You know, Republican politicians are not showing up for unions in Pennsylvania. They're not. You know, when there are

are strikes going on, it's the Democrats that show up and walk with them on the picket line, not Republican politicians. So I think it's just great that you're encompassing and carrying on those democratic values and just such a great role model for young Democrats in Pennsylvania. I think it's it's a wonderful endeavor.

Mykhala you were born deaf in your right ear, yet you have learned five languages. Well, at one time you knew eight languages, but you know five languages Spanish, Turkish, Mandarin, Italian, and more. It sounds like you and Pete Buttigieg would have an amazing time together. I know he knows like a million languages too.

Right? I heard about that and I was like, You're kidding. This is amazing. I love

love, love, love learning new languages. I can't do math to save my life, but you put Latin in front of me, I will figure it out in a couple of minutes.

That's amazing.

I so I was born deaf on my right ear and they still don't know what caused it. It's just they gave me that weird, really long medical talk for

I dunno, but this is what it is now, so have fun.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

there's nothing structurally wrong with it. There's no physical deformities or anything. So it just it just kinda happened. and when I was really little, my parents had me learn ASL because they were terrified that I would become completely deaf with no way of communicating.

Mm-hmm.

in fact the opposite kind of happened where they tested my hearing as a kid and as you get older they'll do follow ups with that. my left ear ended up compensating. So I have over a hundred percent hearing in my left ear. the only thing that sucks is I do have an auditory processing disorder. So when I'm really tired, I do that thing where you'll say something like what? And halfway through you repeating that sentence, I'm like, got it. Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

and sound location is terrible. you're not supposed to ride your bike with headphones in on a street. You're not supposed to as a as a woman, you're not supposed to have headphones in while you're jogging and that kind of stuff. I wasn't allowed to point blank period with my family because I can't tell where a car is coming from. If I can't physically see it, I don't know where the sound is. I can hear it. I know it's somewhere,

Yeah.

but it's just not a safe environment for that. and then around I think seventh grade

they came out with something called a bone anchored hearing aid or a baja.

but I got that external hearing aid for it and I don't wear it because honestly I can hear just fine without it.

That's great.

but when I do I have over 200% hearing, which is insane. So I like to say I'm basically bionic.

That that's amazing. I mean, I am terrible at languages. I'm terrible at languages. It was I was never motivated to learn them. I think Spanish I took in high school, but I just never got into it. So I I am always inspired with people that can learn languages and understand them and speak them fluently because that is a r a part of your brain that I just cannot access.

so we're gonna play a game called What Did You Say? I'm gonna say something in a language and you're gonna translate it for me, okay? And it's okay. I I only have

gosh, I don't know if I'm gonna remember all of these. no.

I only have four for you, okay? It's four.

No point.

Az un plan para votar antes del traiste noviembre, Pennsylvania. There you go. You

Do you have a plan to vote November third in Pennsylvania?

got the first one. Spanish. Very, very good. Okay. This is gonna I'm gonna butcher this one. Oi culanamak ikin caet yap termanen son gunu 19 Ekem 2026.

It's not Turkish.

It is Turkish.

Did it was it terrible? Was that like terrible Turkish? Okay.

Little bit. This is this is a little bit.

I don't know. Honestly, I'd I'm not trying to be mean. I don't think you push it. I think it's just been that long.

It's okay. It's I'm not gonna I'm not gonna judge you

on this because I I butchered it. It the last day to register to vote is October nineteenth, this year, Pennsylvania. Okay? Yes. Yes.

Okay. I got the October nineteenth part, so I was like I wasn't sure if if it

if you meant the last day to register or not, but I like, we'll see.

That's okay. Alright, here's this one. Shen qing yoji shuen piao ho shui shi shuen piao du zhe zh ri shi yorling yorlo nian shu yue yor shi shi ru.

was a date in there, I can tell that.

it's Chinese.

Yeah. What language is it, first of all? Yes. Yes it is. It was supposed to be.

you're butchering the tones a little bit, but it's okay. I like the I like the effort. I

Okay, yes.

still butcher tones as well with that, but what what does it mean?

It means the deadline to apply for a mail in ballot or absentee ballot is October twenty seventh, twenty twenty six. There you go. Okay. Yeah, yeah, again, this is

Okay. All right. Is is that

Chinese is one of the worst ones to deal with because you have so many conflicting tones. Their tonality is very important for stuff and that's

Yes. Yes.

that one throws me for a loop every time.

Well, they all throw me, so so I don't have to apologize.

Mm-hmm.

here's the last one. Puntiamo alla trifecta questano, Pennsylvania.

Will they get the track back to this year? Or in Pennsylvania?

Yes,

Italian, you got it. Okay, I you weren't even alive yet, Mykhala when we had the trifecta the last time, right? It's crazy, crazy.

It's fine.

It's fine. We're gonna get it again. We gotta get it again so

We have to.

that I'm alive when we have the next one.

Exactly, exactly. Well, thanks for playing with me and and that just goes to show I should stick to English, okay?

Yeah.

Yes.

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Michaela, you have POTS, which stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. And it's a condition that affects your nervous system and blood flow. So when you stand up, you can get dizziness and a racing heart and you can be tired. So how is having POTS influenced your political engagement?

honestly I'm too stubborn to let it win, which is not how that's supposed to work. I get yelled at

Yeah.

constantly by my ear nurse boyfriend and all of his coworkers to just slow down for a second, but I don't got time for that. I've I've got things to do, I've got races to win, we've got people to get out to vote, like we we don't have got time for it. but honestly it's it can be a little disheartening because like I said, I got my black belt when I was sixteen.

I was very active. I did marching band. I did theater. I had done like gymnastics and dance and all these things my whole life. I've been pretty active. but I always felt like I was out of shape even when I was in the best shape of my life. I would always get really tired, I would always feel like my heart was racing, or like I would stand up and I'd be like, I'm gonna go down and I'm fully hydrated. and it wasn't until recently that I discovered what that was

honestly through TikTok and had a cardiologist say, yeah, no, that's definitely what this is.

That's crazy.

since this all happened, have you ever been worried about your health insurance, about helping you out and any concerns like that?

I'm very fortunate that I work for the county. so we have amazing insurance with that. And I'm under 26, so I still get to be on my dad's. so the pre-existing health conditions thing for me personally has not been an issue. I know that I will stay covered through things.

my one of my best friends down here

graduated like a year or two after me in high school and she's now developing the same symptoms and is worried that if she loses the rest of her hearing the way I did, and develops plots and stuff that her insurance is gonna kick her.

because it's not covered through anything. And that's terrifying because you can't predict

Yeah.

kind stuff and you shouldn't be punished because your body gave out on you.

it doesn't logically make any sense to be like, well sorry you developed cancer in your fifties. We're not covering you for that because you should have known better.

Yeah, no, it's ridiculous. And I know that Democrats in Pennsylvania are trying to pass laws to secure those rights that you should have to not be thrown off of your health insurance plans because obviously Republican politicians want to do that. You know, they are fully on board with deregulating health care, allowing health insurance companies to throw people off, which is exactly what the Affordable Care Act was passed to prevent. So I certainly don't want you or any of your friends to have to worry about getting the access to their health care even after they're twenty six years old.

so yeah, I'm sorry that you've had to, you know, work through this condition of yours, but I'm glad you haven't let it hold hold you back and that you find support within your, you know, young democratic committee, 'cause that's great. It's great that you're all working together and furthering those values.

Mykhala your boyfriend is an ER nurse in rural Pennsylvania.

how has politics affected his job and the quality of care his patients receive?

We had two nurses and I I'll have to send you the link to it or something, but there is an individual working back in I think the mental health unit.

And a patient almost essayed her.

And the hospital said it's your fault. It's the nurse's fault. There was another time where someone almost got assaulted and I think he had her by like her hair tie or something up against a wall and one of the other nurse managers had to come in and get him off of her. That manager broke ribs.

And the admin still came back and said, Well, what could you have done differently in that situation?

We have to protect healthcare workers.

And to an extent I get it.

If they're looking for if they're looking for help, if they're looking for genuine ways to say, well, how can we improve? Yeah. But the nurses and the employees have already told them what would help improve that. Metal detectors would be great. Having extra security in the ER, like the mental health ward, would be great.

Yeah.

and it's stuff simple simple things like that that aren't being listened to. And somehow all of that becomes political when it shouldn't be. It's just it should be computer safety.

and that includes the vaccines. That includes, you know, better wages, more PTO, and just, you know, better safety measures.

Yeah, politics influences everything. It influences every part of your life. And yeah, I mean protecting healthcare workers is a big de it's a big deal. And it's a p healthcare workers are hurt all the time. Nurses often are the frontline workers and they're the ones exposed the most to patient violence. And yeah, I mean administration should be supporting that. And there should be politicians passing laws to protect them from harm.

and it's unfortunate that there are anti-vaxxers in healthcare. I I'll never understand it. I mean, it's a deep, deep ideology that they must you know go to to deny science in a in a field that is literally encased in science. Like it's like it's such it's so crazy to me. but yeah,

I definitely want your boyfriend to be safe at all times. And I and I think you both understand that the best way to do that is to have democratic politicians in charge to pass laws to protect.

Mykhala what would you say to someone who is disaffected with democracy?

There's a I forget what the saying is, but if you don't invest in politics, it's not gonna invest back in you.

Yeah, that's right.

you don't have to be engaged with it, but it's gonna influence the rest of your life whether you engage or not. If you engage, you can sway it how you want.

It usually depends on how folks are disenfranchised, if they feel that, you know, someone locally has dissuaded them from volunteering,

which we see a lot with young people.

or if it's just I'm burnt out and I don't see any any, you know, development or anything getting better. The biggest thing to that second point is get involved locally. We can look at the national.

Yes.

You can look at Trump going haywire at all this stuff. You can look at Glenn Thompson not showing up or holding town halls. You can look at, you know, whatever you want with this.

But that's stuff that you can't really control. What you can control is your local county or borough or township having flock cameras. You can march up to your council or your supervisors and say, Hey, I don't agree with this. We need to find a way to ban them. We need to do something with this.

and and get the ball rolling on that. You can be involved

in small capacities so that you don't get overwhelmed. Because not everyone has the time to sit here for hours the way we do and dissect different laws that are about to go into place, like Project Twenty Five, or twenty twenty five, or, you know, all of these things that this one Senator is doing and now you have these other reps and all this other stuff going on. It's a lot to manage when that's not

Yeah.

your primary responsibility. And you have kids and you have family that you're taking care of and

You just want a dang break.

Yeah.

but staying involved locally in your local community,

door knocking, volunteering, donating, showing up to a a town hall meeting or even just like a local like borough council meeting or something, even if you don't say anything, even if there's nothing on the agenda, just showing up when you can to stay involved at the capacity you can is doing more than you think. Because

Absolutely. Yeah.

it you're not letting things slide. If you're there.

If you're at the events and more people start showing up and engaging that way,

we catch the little things.

Right.

We catch the little ordinances that are being passed that we know that they wouldn't be approved on, and then we can hold them accountable.

All politics is local. All politics

Yeah.

is local. And that's why, you know, I I get all very frustrated when people are always focusing on the top of the ballot. because that is, you know, it's a big deal. What they do in DC is a big deal, a hundred percent. But what affects your everyday life, those are local politicians. And if you let that if you like you say, if you let things slide, they're gonna pass things, whether you pay attention or not. And it's gonna take longer to fix them. It's gonna take a lot longer for you to repair the damage if you don't stay engaged. So

I'm glad that you're that that positive messaging you're putting out there in Center County, Pennsylvania.

Michaela, what gives you hope?

think my community.

I grew up in Belfont. I actually bought well, I'm in the process of getting my childhood home from my dad.

nice. Congratulations.

thank you. I know I'm very privileged in that.

but I see a lot of the folks that helped raise me as an individual. I remember bouncing around from neighborhouse to neighborhouse and getting cookies and snacks and stuff with all of the kids

didn't matter if you were red or blue,

you got a snack, you could use their bathroom, you could use their pool, it was a community. And I think seeing

so many folks still invested in making sure that our communities thrive. Not just party lines, but you know, nonprofits in the area, local businesses,

that that gives me a little bit of hope.

You give me hope, Michaela. When I see young people in Pennsylvania doing what they can to move democratic values forward, to help good democratic candidates, it's hard to become completely apathetic, you know, and just the arc of history, right? The arc of history was full of people like you who woke up every day and tried to do one thing, just one thing every day and in a community and move the ball forward. And so, yeah, I'm very hopeful for people like you. And so thank you very much.

Mykhala my last question for you is what are your plans to get you through these next few years in America?

I wish I had a good answer for that.

I

I know.

the biggest thing that I have learned since joining politics in like 2022

is to not let yourself get overwhelmed. It is so easy, like we said, to look at the national media and say, there's no way we can fix any of this. And that's what they want.

They want you to become so overwhelmed that you become apathetic to the situation and

Right. Yeah.

you shut down and you do nothing.

So for me right now, we're about to go into midterm season. We're about to hit a bunch of doors and get a lot of people out to vote. I am taking this week as a vacation to recenter. something I haven't been able to do in years and definitely should have done sooner.

Yeah.

but remembering to recharge and give yourself time. Schedule it into your day if you have to. Even if it's two minutes, it's two minutes that you didn't have scheduled before.

And that gives you a lot more

energy and your soul because I'm sitting out there on the beach and I'm thinking, wow, you know, when I get back, I'm gonna look into how we can protect our environment locally. I'm gonna see what we're doing to protect marine life or like we have in PA, we have a lot of marsh creek area or like little streams and and rivers. I'm gonna see what we're doing to protect that or there's anything coming up that we need to be aware of or maybe

You know, a lot of local Lions clubs and like Boy Scouts and stuff will host cleanup days. Let's see if we can get involved with some of those. It doesn't

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

have to be, you

door knocking and all that kind of stuff every time. It can be little stuff like that. You can choose to be involved in a different capacity and it's still political.

but when we get back,

the next few years,

gonna elect a lot of local Democrats that we know are invested in our community.

live locally and aren't part of the one percent.

Because it is more important now than ever to ensure that our politics are represented by the working class or people that

have been working class for most of their life and not those folks that are just handed pac money

I think that's how we're gonna combat the next couple of years with the national administration is making sure that our local folks have the power that they need to keep their

themselves together.

So find time to decompress and lean into the work. That's that's what it sounds like what you're gonna do for the next couple of years in America. Well,

my God, Mykhala you are amazing. And thank goodness that there are young people in Pennsylvania who understand politics fully, deeply, and are doing the work. You know, I I am sick and tired of people saying that there are no leaders in the Democratic Party. I'm talking to a leader right now, I'm looking at one.

And as long as we have people like you all over Pennsylvania, you know, central PA, you know, I'm down here in southeastern PA. I live in a very blue area. Yeah, I mean, look,

We still love that piece, it's okay.

I I'm very fortunate to live where I live. It's a very blue area. And I want to protect my democratic values here and make sure that doesn't trend in in the wrong direction. And you are up there trying to expand that. So I I just am so grateful for you. And I just can't wait to see God this November third that we finally get the trifecta in Pennsylvania.

And we can get more shit done and and and that is gonna be because of people like you helping.

Thank you. And I wanna say that I'm so grateful to be a part of a podcast like this. I think that what you do is incredible. a lot of the folks that you've had on your show are folks that I know, especially out here in rural PA. and your the network that you're creating is I think much bigger than you were expecting.

is bringing people together. And I know a lot of young Dems that will be like, I I texted one person, I was like, my gosh, I'm gonna

huh.

be with Zeke And they're like, you listen to that too. It's like, Yeah, of course I do. Like I put that on my

That's awesome.

work and stuff. Like, of course. So you're reaching

That's awesome.

a lot more people than you think and it's really important with the work that you're doing as well. So thank you.

Thank you. Well keep doing the work and we'll we'll keep doing it together, okay?

Well, thank you so much for joining me here on The Zekely Podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved until next time. Let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.