Texas. Its always fun to be on and conversation. Youre a former cia officer, served in Congress Since 2016, the only black republican in the house and you represented more than two third of a latino district. You decide today leave Congress Rather than run again in november. Im curious for our younger listeners interested in entering politics. Whats your message to gen z. Is congress anyplace to get done, should you run for office or can you get more done outside of elected office. Margaret, great question, i think its all of the above. Ive been able to be effective as a black republican in a latino district, ive had about 16 pieces of legislation signed into law under a democratic president , republican president , a democratic speaker, a republican speaker. Its not easy and our system was designed not to be easy, but im proud of my legislative success and im proud that ive tried to be someone known who is willing to solve problems and ill work with anybody in order to do that. So, yes, i would do that, young folks, get involved. Right, being in congress and being elected office should be something you should, you know aspire to, but i also want to tell my colleagues, my peers, that we should behave and model the behavior that we want to see the young folks do when they get into office. I dont want kitdz kids when theyre like 10, 11 years old. I want to be a police officer, an astronaut and also want to be in congress. Our job approval as congress as a whole is not very good and we should be thinking about that moving forward. The other piece of advice id give young folks, go out and have a career before you get in politics. The reason ive been able to be effective is that ive had a decade in National Security, in cyber security, and so i was able it take that experience and bring it to congress and thats why a lot of my legislation that i passed has been on National Security. So ive been able to be more effective in a putting food on the table, a roof over the head and making sure people are healthy and happy do what they love are healthy and happy, then thats going to resonate with folks. People want to see as getting things done and solving problems. Unfortunately there are those on both sides of the political aisle that believe that contrast is the only way to ultimately win elections. That has been successful in the past but in my opinion you solve the problem come tell me what you did and what you did it, that leads to electoral success. Back back in the day biggest bst good policy is good politics. Sometimes thats been flipped and so i think we can use this time and this craziness we are all going through to say we demand people to solve problems. You have to solve problems at the local level, state level and federal level together. This is an opportunity for us but we need folks that have the willingness to make our choices. Because guess what. Its not easy getting attacked from both sides. Its not easy trying to show a middle way. But its doable. And in the end people care about results. Thats what i found come thats why people are frustrated right now is because they are not seeing it. The first three care packages, why did the work looks . Because we negotiated them at the beginning in a bipartisan bicameral way. When you do that the only way we get things done in this country is by doing it together. The first three packages. The buck stops at the topic youve expressed frustration with President Trump but your republican and he is the president and a republican. I know youve been thinking hard about how you vote yourself in november. Have you made a decision and are you willing to share your thinking . Look, as ive always said im disappointed with both choices and i have disagreed when i i disagree, and i agree when i agree. What i want is someone whos going to come in here and show that the way you solve problems is by empowering people and not empowering the government. I want someone who recognizes the way we achieve peace is by working with our friends and being nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. I want someone who recognizes and understand the way you have people up the economic ladder is by making sure that when were talking about free market, not socialism. So these are the things im looking for in this upcoming election. These are the things that people are frustrated with. I want to make sure we have two strong parties. Im proud to be a republican, and making sure we grow the party to people that havent been, havent even met a republican. When i first came into Office People were like, ive never met a republican. And so for me thats what my goal is. Thats what i want someone to ultimately do. One last question. Its an important one. What are you doing next . Are you running for political office, and when, what happens after november . Michael after november is ongoing to stay at the intersection of National Security and public policy. I will be doing that in media and talking about that. Ill be helping some highspeed low drag companies to be able to do that. If the opportunity comes to lace up shoes again, i will evaluate. If im able to hook my country i always will im looking forward to making an impact a different way. Congressman, pleased in touch with us. Thank you so much for joining us here today. Thank you. And our next guest is another texan, beto orourke, former punk band man, president kennedy, joining us live from el paso. Hello, beto. Good to be with you. Thanks so much for making a little bit of time for us. I know youre busy because youve launched powered by people last december. Tell us a bit more about what the group has been doing and since were talking with gen z voters and gen z americans today, how much what youre doing relies on engaging in young people . There are a host of extraordinary opportunities in texas right now. When we look at the november 2020 election, we have a chance for the first time in 20 years to gain democraticcontrolled of the statehouse. As you know the statehouse after the 2020 since this will be cast with redrawing the political districts for state house seats or congressional seats throughout the state of texas. As you probably also know that power has been used to disenfranchise black voters and latino voters for more than 100 years. In fact, texas until recently ranked 50th in the country in voter turnout because of the racial gerrymandering, the voter id laws, the polling place closures, the Voter Suppression tactics that have long been the hallmark of the kind of democracy that you see here in texas with the democratic majority we can begin to drop people back in to their democracy, dropping back into a reason to vote and really have a fully functioning democracy. The second big opportunity is for texas for the first time in 44 years to award out a Electoral College votes to the democratic comedy for president , jimmy carter 1976 was the last democratic nominee to be able to do that. I strongly believe in texas does this, the effect on american politics we will leave this program to take you live to the floor of the u. S. Senate to keep our longterm commitment to gavel to gavel coverage. You can watch the rest of this program on our website cspan. Org. And now live coverage of t