Welcome to Democracy-ish.

And I'm Danielle Moody Mill.

This is a special episode of Democracy-ish.

Danielle and I are sitting here with Brandon Dean, someone I recently met on Twitter.

He was the youngest black mayor of an American city, Brighton, Alabama, which has 3,000 people,

and a significant crack and heroin problem that he had to deal with. As soon as he became mayor,

he is currently running for Senate in

Pennsylvania, where he has never lived. We're going to get into that. His number one issue is

reparations, but also an incredibly important issue to him is homelessness in America, partly

because himself is homeless and not yet sure where

you're going to stay tonight. So a plethora of issues. I want to talk, I think about reparations

and why that is the number one issue for you in your building Senate campaign. You want to be

Pennsylvania's senator in 2022. You're

challenging Pat Toomey. And reparations is your number one issue. Why? Thank you, Torre.

Everything that you said respects the true nature of why I have engaged in public life,

public service, and electoral politics. It's true.

I was the youngest African-American mayor in the United States when I was elected at, I believe,

24 years old to serve not only my hometown, but the city where my grandfather grew up, my father

grew up, and my great-grandfather moved after migrating from Cusina, Georgia,

in his youth with a third grade education to buy property and start a family.

The United States Senate, if it was not evident to the average American who happens not to be

engaged with the conduct of the legislature on a daily basis, the United States Senate came into the view of all the

...