Trump gets Nightmare News in Florida with Shock Poll!!

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2:23Ben Meiselas:But let's check out Florida right now where Donald Trump is negative 7.5. Folks, what was once thought of as a ruby red state, Florida no longer looks to be that way. And you know we've been covering the state house races in Florida, the mayor's races, where there have been major Democratic upsets. And as we head to the midterms, I think the voters in Florida are absolutely pissed at this regime. We can go across all demographics and see people pissed at this despicable Trump regime. I mean, take a look. The Cuban population deported at the highest rate ever when Donald Trump and the MAGA said, oh, we're not going to go after you.

3:04Ben Meiselas:We're just going to go after the criminals. The pro-opposition, pro-democracy Venezuelan population that thought that Maria Karina Machado would become the leader of Venezuela. They are dismayed and disenchanted as Donald Trump is having the oppressor, Delcy Rodriguez, run things so Donald Trump can take the oil from Venezuela and use that proceed money to transfer it to a Qatari bank account to help Donald Trump. You talk about tourism in Florida is getting absolutely crushed based on the Canadian and European boycott, which only seems like it's going to expand after the horrific behavior by Donald Trump against Europe and Canada, which is only accelerating and escalating.

3:44Ben Meiselas:You look at recent plans by the Trump regime to propose new offshore oil drilling off the coast of Florida, which if you look at the oil spread models could be just a complete and utter disaster in Florida. You take a look at the utility costs, the insurance prices, affordability. Florida is getting absolutely crushed. It's got a completely out of touch governor, DeSantis, who is mocking the East Coast right now, which is about to suffer a massive winter storm that is suffering a massive winter storm, a deadly winter storm. DeSantis is like, well, at least it's 80 degrees here in Florida. It's not funny.

4:26Ben Meiselas:We should all be Americans, DeSantis, not rooting against areas to die. You realize that it's fortunate that there weren't any hurricanes by Florida this time around this past hurricane season. But FEMA is so woefully underprepared. And every time Florida is hit with serious hurricanes, the country rallies around Florida. We're all Americans. This behavior right here is absolutely despicable. And he's run Florida into the ground. Take a look at what DeSantis just said. It's so disgusting. Play this clip. That was a great night. Yeah, well, well, first, just let me say on the on the weather, because you provided the adequate warnings for people across the country.

5:08Ben Meiselas:Just for the record, in Florida this weekend, the average is going to be about 80 degrees. And so it's a great time to be in the free state of Florida, not just for low taxes and low crime, but also for that. Now, when you have these MAGA Republican Congress members like Congress member Mast go to town halls, they frequently get booed. And you see this guy, for example, it seems that all of these MAGA Republican Congress members from Florida actually hate their constituents. Like Congress member Mast right here, he says, Doge has been so great to the people of Florida. We should have Doge everywhere.

5:43Ben Meiselas:This is what he said early on in the Doge process. Doge was an absolute disaster where federal spending actually increased. It gutted our federal government. It destroyed the ability for the government to function. But look at this MAGA Republican from Florida. This is why I believe that there's a chance and a good chance for Florida to Florida to turn purple or possibly even blue. Watch Brian Mast here, this MAGA Republican. What I want to say it here, play this clip. Is Doge working? Is it successful so far? Doge has been beyond successful. Every American should be thanking President Trump. They should be thanking Elon Musk, the team that they work to put in place and be begging them to go not just to every federal agency, but say, please come to a hometown near me and start digging into my federal, my state government, my local government, my towns, my municipalities, because who knows what you'll find.

6:38Ben Meiselas:And we will all be more efficient. We will waste less dollars. There'll be less inflation. This is the goal of all of this to say, hey, you're the American taxpayer. You deserve to keep that money in your pocket, not have your government wasting it, sending it abroad on these, you know, 15 million dollars in condoms for the Taliban, who is our enemy, not wasting money on things like this. But you keep it and you enjoy your life. It's the work of your hands. Thank you to the president for doing it. Congressman Brian. And here Brian Mast was getting booed at a recent town hall that he held or town hall he held several months ago.

7:10Ben Meiselas:Rather, here play this clip. on U.S. theory going into the pandemic. So, these are all very specific examples. That's not a godly thing you say in the church. And what we're going to get to is free training for the United States. So now I want to bring in the lead Democratic candidate who's running against Brian Mast, someone who has set all types of fundraising records over this past year. Her name is Pia Dondia. She was a teacher for years, launched a high school that she was the founder of, graduating 100 % of its class at Harlem, New York. She's a White House fellow. She then went into the public policy realm, and she grew up in Jupiter, Florida, in this congressional district area where she is now going to be running against Brian Mast.

8:06Ben Meiselas:She's someone who has always won against all odds. And people think that, and I think that she has a real big chance of flipping this Brian Massey. She raised the million dollars folks in the past, in the past year. So I want to bring in Pia Dondia, who's one of those great democratic candidates who's been breaking fundraising records in Florida's 21st for a Democrat. You've raised the most money in Florida's 21st, and it's still in a primary stage since 2018. I know P is humble, so I'll give some of her background. She founded a high school when you were still in your 20s, and basically everybody from that high school in Harlem, New York, went on to go to college, and you started off as a teacher for four years or so, founded your own school.

8:55Ben Meiselas:You were a White House fellow. Then you went on to be involved in public policy later. And you were born and raised in Jupiter. So, you know, it's a natural spot for you to take your leadership and to represent the place you're from. And, you know, lots of big endorsements that you've gotten from Florida's 21st, from Patrick Murphy, who used to represent the area, to Ro Khanna. I could go down the list. And you've really galvanized people. And some would say you come out of nowhere. But those who know you know, know that's been Pia her entire life. And so I do want to focus on your background because it's a real compelling story.

9:31Ben Meiselas:But I just want to talk, start off with this Florida's 21st congressional district and Brian Mast. So I showed videos at the beginning. You know, there's this incongruency would be putting it nicely. There's an attack on the district by the guy who's supposed to represent him. So can you talk through that aspect of it? Then we'll go into why you decided Yes, absolutely. So my district where I was born and raised, District 21, has had Brian Mass in the seat since 2016. And I think that there has been a quiet opportunity building here in Florida for a while. And that became very obvious to me, especially as we got into early last year.

10:10I went to Brian Mass Town Hall. I was really taken aback by how angry it was and how many people were there. And Brian Mass's total inability to address people's concerns. For the last many years, there's been a real growing disconnect with his leadership and the people who elected him to serve, who he should be working for. And I think that we find ourselves now in a political moment where masks with Trump is not saying, you know, when I want you to jump, how high? It's, is it high enough? And I think that folks in our district are beginning to take wind of this and say, this is not what we signed up for.

10:45And you're not here to represent us. And so that is really what I want to take on in this election cycle. We have an elected official who even just a few weeks ago was voting to raise health care premiums for constituents in our district, which would have affected 70 ,000 voters that he himself serves. He's also been silent while ICE has been tearing through our communities without regard for human life. And the list goes on and on. I think he represents the perfect archetype of a Trump supported candidate who has been phoning it in for the last few years and having it pretty easy. And I want to give him a hard, hard run for his money.

11:24Ben Meiselas:You know, Florida's 21st is along what's called the treasure coast. And I guess when it comes to Congress member Mast and Donald Trump, it's basically taking away people's money and wealth and opportunities and hoarding the treasure for themselves in Washington, D.C. or Donald Trump's golden ballrooms or Qatari bank accounts. That seems to be what their priority is. You know, I just wonder, as you tour the district and you say to people, you go, okay, here's what the priority is going to be. And, you know, here's what Donald Trump's doing. They're like, what? Is it like what they promised, like affordability?

11:57Ben Meiselas:No, no, no. Hear me out. Golden ballrooms, and they're going to invade places. Take the money. Are they going to give us the money? No, no, no. Qatari bank accounts to help build golden ballrooms for Donald Trump. And they're going to do great Gatsby parties right in your backyard at Mar-a-Lago. They're going to rub it in your face. And that's basically it. It's ridiculous. Talk to us about your background, being a teacher, founding a school, getting the gangs to go away, reproviding for yourself. It's an incredible story. And I'll talk more about your district, but people have to hear it. Thank you.

12:30Yes, of course. Well, I studied government in college, and I knew that I wanted to commit my life to public service, especially because my family has been in this district for 40 years. It's where I was born and raised. My dad has been a doctor here for 40 years. My mom started a school for me 30 years ago that my son now attends. And, you know, our family has really lived the American dream. And it's a dream that I can see has been slipping through our fingers, especially for Americans who have been here for generations. I started having that realization when I went to college. So I knew that I wanted to commit my life to public service to pay forward what I'm so proud that this district and this country has given me.

13:08So I became a teacher and I wanted to focus on teaching in high poverty schools to really understand the challenges that those communities face and figure out how to be a part of the solution. And I just deeply fell in love with the work on the ground. I felt like there was truly no better place for me to be to understand the problems of poverty and public education than in the trenches. So initially I thought maybe I'd go to law school or get involved in policy work, but I scrapped those plans because I knew I was exactly where I needed to be. So I taught for a few more years and then I got the fire under my belly to say, what if I didn't just lead in a classroom?

13:43What if I led an entire school? Could I actually change life trajectories for kids living below the poverty line on the public dollar? So at the age of 28, I became a high school principal in Harlem. And I started a high school there with just one hallway, 100 kids, 10 teachers. And every year we got 100 more kids, 10 more teachers, one more hallway until we became a fully grown school. And we told families that if they came to this school that they had never heard of, their child would earn admission to college. Now, this was a very big promise to make at the time, knowing that the high school down the street was graduating students from high school forget college at a 60 % rate.

14:2486 % of my students live below the poverty line, and we succeeded in getting 100 % of them off to college on the public dollar with a million dollars in scholarships. And I'm so proud of what that means for them, because year over year, we built that school with blood, sweat and tears. And as the principal, I did everything from hiring teachers to breaking up fights if gangs are waiting for my kids. And four years later, all of them were off to college. The school lives beyond me now, too. So we're on to our sixth graduating class, still serving the same demographic and still getting 100 percent of them off to college.

15:00I feel so strongly that we can do better. And I want to do so much better for kids and families across the entire country because of what I learned in serving the communities that I served in places like Brooklyn and Harlem. them.

15:12Ben Meiselas:That's really just rolling up your sleeves, getting it done, creating generational change and the amount of lives you've impacted. That's why I said, you know, for some people, it's like, where did Pia come from? You know, this is raising a million dollars in four months, essentially, in this race, breaking these fundraising records. And it's like, well, let's take a look at her background. This is what she's been doing the whole time. So let's let's zoom in, though. Let's zoom in on Florida's 21st congressional district, because, You know, Trump won that district by 58 percent in 2024. Brian Mast, who you're running against in his reelection, won it with 62 percent of the vote.

15:52Ben Meiselas:And so lots of people, including the Democratic Party, you know, until your surge, viewed that as one of these seats that are like safe seat. You know, do we devote our resources to this area? You know, similar to people saying, should we devote resources to trying to graduate 100 percent of people, you know, in an area in Harlem like that? But how how are you going to kind of overcome that gap? And what are you hearing in the district as you tour it now? And you're speaking to not just Democrats, you're speaking to independents, by the way, where Trump's approval among independents is 27 to 29 percent.

16:28Ben Meiselas:and you're speaking with Republicans. So how's that going? So I think there has been a quiet opportunity building here in Florida for a while. Let me tell you some stats about my district. My district is 40 % Republican. We're about 30 % Democrat and we're 30 % independent. Brian Mass has been in this seat since 2016 and he has had a real challenge in terms of a campaign that was supported by Democrats in DC in 2018. This district on the Cook County report is R plus seven. And it surprises most people to know that while we live 20 minutes away from Mar-a-Lago, which is not in my district, Mar-a-Lago is in a blue district.

17:07And so I think a lot of the feeling around Brian Mass and the permanence of his seat is the sense of permanence you get when anyone has been in their seat for a few years. We see a real path to victory here. And like I mentioned, that town hall was the first indicator of that. I am seeing a persistent continuation in this last year of Florida showing that we are not deep red without any other options. In April, we won a congressional seat that closed the gap by 23 percent, having a swing to the left. In September, we won another state Senate seat with a 22 percent swing. And just in December, we won a third race, a state Senate seat with another 22 percent swing.

17:51So my view is that it has to be my mission to build a campaign that is ready to meet the moment in November. And I think that we have to do that in two ways. The first way is that I think we have to keep hitting the milestones we have been, like you mentioned, with fundraising, with national endorsements and local endorsements that are on par with the Democratic candidates who are running in the most competitive seats across the country. We've been doing that so far and we've got to keep it up. And secondly, I think we need to have a real human touch to this campaign. We have been building deep coalition across the district with elected officials, with business leaders, with nonprofit leaders, with public defenders.

18:31And we are on track to having 100 House parties by the time that we get to November. We need to make this campaign one that people see and feel and can touch. And I want to bring back that human feel to congressional races, especially with a message that is going to meet voters. The more voters that I meet on the trail, the more I hear that nowadays they don't see themselves as staunch Democrats or Republicans. They see themselves as an observer about this political process. And they just want candidates who are going to meet their everyday needs, which for us here includes things like lives we can afford, health care we can rely on, social security we can depend on, and clean water for us all, which is a big issue here in Florida.

19:13So we need to be ready to meet the moment with the right coalition and with the right message. So in my view, it's not a one, two punch. It's a one, two, three, four, five punch. And we are ready to roll up our sleeves and do the work to make that happen with 41 weeks to go.

19:28Ben Meiselas:Where can people learn more about your campaign and learn more about you? A great question, Ben. You can go to my website, which is piaforcongress.com. You can also check out our Instagram, our Facebook. Send us a message. We would love to talk with you more as we keep building this campaign. We are building a real coalition that is local, that is statewide and national to flip this red seat blue. And we would love to be in conversation with you. Pia Dundia, high school principal, founder of an incredible school, White House fellow, running for Florida's 21st congressional district. Great to have you on.

20:04Thank you so much, Ben.

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