Hello, I'm Zeke and welcome to the Zekely podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. The guest I have today grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, but has lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since the early 90s, helping to spread democratic values across the Commonwealth and around the world. He's been called a political consultant, political operative and political strategist. But currently he's the executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Thank you so much for being here, Mitch Kates.

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.

Zeke it's my pleasure. I'm proud to be here. I enjoy your show and your show matters, my friend.

Thank you so much. I'm super excited that you're here. You do so much for Democrats in Pennsylvania. So we're gonna get to know all about you and have some fun. Are you ready? All right.

You sir.

Well, before there was Mitch Kates in the political arena, there was Jason the Terrible in the wrestling arena. I have to know the backstory to your professional wrestling career.

My professional wrestling career started when I was a little kid, like a very little kid, is for as far back as I can remember. I used to watch what they call TV wrestling back then.

we all lived in like my grandparents house and my aunts and uncles lived downstairs and, my older cousins would watch it and use me as a punching bag. But, but I loved it. And, and as I got older and I went into grade school and junior high, I started wrestling.

and I'll say my first year wrestling, weighed like 120 pounds. ⁓ I kept going through junior high into high school where I grew a bit. but for a while I was still not great and I wasn't very athletic,

And, know, I eventually went from being awful to decent in high school to college. I just kept working hard at it.

And so I eventually

I was able to represent my college at the New England championships at heavyweight. I defeated the previous year's heavyweight champion.

And then came October of the year after I graduated. And for those that wrestled, you know that usually around October 1st, you wake up sore. And I woke up October 1st, the year after I graduated and I didn't wake up sore. And I felt like something was missing.

Thanks.

Mm-hmm.

I had met a guy, one of the most famous villains in professional wrestling, Killer Kowalski. And I met him during the summer between my senior year at some wrestling. was like a fundraiser and some friends, we all went to see it. And so I went to the school that he taught professional wrestling.

Kowalski.

Mm-hmm.

Ironically, it was in the town of Malden, Mass, which is where I'm from. I was born in Malden, Mass. And so I started training to be a professional

Nice.

I had many gimmicks and one of the gimmicks that I really loved, because somebody at the school just said, you know, you guys look like you're related. And all of a sudden I became,

Killer Kowalski's nephew and I wrestled as Mitch Kowalski and which was awesome. I mean the honor of my life to be Killer Kowalski

⁓ huh.

And then one day Killer Kowalski Jr. was wrestling a guy named Jason the Terrible and it was big

my God.

And so

I get in the ring with this guy as we would say, blew up, he got tired and the match ended within 10 minutes.

And then the next day I went by the school and, and Kowalski sitting there and he had this very strong voice and he would say that Jason is a schlup.

I fired

but I have a new Jason. And I'm like, who? And he said, you. And I'm like, what do mean? there's a, there was a match coming up in a couple of weeks and it happened to have been on Friday the 13th. Right. And he ended Jason was the main event.

⁓ nice.

that's perfect.

And one of my, one of my colleagues, wrestling colleagues said, ⁓ I have a bunch of hockey masks because he used to play hockey. So he brought me a mask. He brought me this mask, right? This is the original mask. This is the original mask that I wore. but eventually I had to go to a different mass because as you can see, there's a big crack on that mask

is there's a Jason mask yeah that's the original one you wore in the ring

I see

there's a big crack in that, yeah.

Right. And that crack happened when I was wrestling in a match up in Maine, I'll never forget it.

And Kowalski was the guest referee.

So I turned around and I went, and I headbutt him and he leaned into it and crack

and he fell like a sack of potatoes, like right onto the mat.

And so then I got disqualified. I go back into the locker room, Zeke

there's this legend and Walter was a very big man.

and he's sitting straddling a bench

he's holding his head and I'm like, Hey, uncle Walter, are you all right? And he looked up at me and his eyes were spinning and goes, God damn, my teeth are rattling. And I'm like, I'm so, I am really sorry. goes, no bullshit. That was real. That was beautiful. And he was happy about it.

That was good.

For the love of the game.

I probably gave him a concussion,

wrestled when I was in middle school and high school, but I was terrible. I I won one match, I think, the entire time I did it. And then I stopped, like, I think in 10th grade. So you had a much more successful run than I did. My God, what a story.

Yeah

Yeah.

Well, we're going to play a game called the Catch Phrase Quiz. OK, I'm going to give you some catch phrases and you're going to have to name the wrestler. So let's see how big of a fan you are. OK.

Yeah.

Okay.

Are

they old school catchphrases? Because if you go at me with some new ones, I'm going to fail this.

⁓ I

think you're gonna be okay based on the story you just told me. hope to God you know this, all right? I am the game and I am that damn good.

that sounds like something that, Mr. Perfect would say or Kurt Henning, maybe.

I mean, I don't know if there's any cross using catchphrases at all, but I did a lot of Googling, but evidently Triple H said that a lot.

so fun fact about Triple H. Number one, he went to Walter's professional wrestling school, but, but he showed up on the scene like two years after I moved from Massachusetts to Pittsburgh. So he and I never met.

Okay.

Okay, so you shared that? Okay.

Okay.

He and then China too, she also went to the school around that same time. But I literally miss them by maybe two years.

Well, let's see if get the next one. What about, I'm the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be? You got it, Brett of Hitman Heart. Got that one?

that's Brett Hart, right? Brett the Hitman

Hart. I wrestled Brett quite a few

I mean it must be

a really small world in wrestling. You kind of know everybody when you're in it.

All right, well, you got one right, one wrong, so far I have two more. I think the next one's a little too easy for you. Rest in peace.

Yeah.

⁓ the undertaker. Yeah.

The Undertaker, right? You got

that one. Alright, here's the last one. Give me a hell yeah!

that's Stone Cold. Yeah.

Stone Cold Steve Austin. You got

it. All right. Well, you know, you know your catchphrases. That's very good. Most of

Most of them.

Mitch, what have been some of your accomplishments as executive director of the Democratic Party?

we have a very, very small staff compared to other states, like shockingly small, but we have a team of warriors.

I have, in my opinion, best digital director in the country. have the best data director in the country, Young, who last before we found him, he did Andy Beshear's campaign in Kentucky. Right? He's done some really,

wow. Yeah.

he's wicked smart, wicked smart. And then, ⁓ Kate Ahern is our deputy political, you know these guys because they're the ones doing their rapid response stuff. And my God, man, like,

some big stuff.

Yeah.

We hadn't done anything on digital for a long time, quite a few years. And I've been trying to, you know, I worked towards getting Lenore in cause I knew once she got here, man, she was going to, and she was forever my secret weapon.

now, now a lot of people know who Lenore is and she just keeps cranking the shit out. And, and those guys are so gifted working together, like with, as a unit and they're putting together like the content.

Yeah.

the direction of it, the messaging behind it. And then Lenore puts the,

design around it. Our viewership has exploded since they started in like February. It's really remarkable. Yeah.

No, it's great. I love

making the, what did PA Democrats do this week? You know, I love making video versions of that.

PA Dems are not just the staff. They are the entire ecosystem of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, all the way down to a local committee person. And when you treat it that way, then people feel more included. we're not perfect. We have lot of warts and all, and there's so many things that we could do better that we need to do better, right? But we attack.

Yeah.

act this again with a tiny team compared to other states. We're a tiny team, but

Yeah.

we're not fucking around. Like this is important work. And we have to be able to provide as much resources as possible.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And you know, the information we're putting out on social matters so much because so many people are getting their political information. You know, online and which in some ways is unfortunate.

Yeah.

Because a lot of it is absolute bullshit and people don't know and they think, you know, like the sky is purple when, when true social talk. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that's why that's why we got out that we have to flood the zone and that's why I'm doing the

podcast to keep people focused

Correct. Correct.

you named your business company after your motto, Think

So do you have a secret to big thinking? What's your secret behind that?

mean, I know it sounds corny and shit, but it's literally thinking big thinking outside the box. Like, you know, one of the things that I'm very famous for is when people tell me there's no way in hell Mitch, then I get stubborn.

that race that I did against B Brian Blair. I, I had.

members of the press who had knew me by then, like off the record would say, Mitch,

this with Kevin? Like Kevin's gonna get killed. The fact that he's running openly gay, he's gonna get killed. And other, know, like some of the big democratic donors in there were like,

This is an important seat and we can win that. We have to win the seat and you know, Kevin's nice, but there's no way he can win. And I just stubbornly would say to every last one of them, Kevin Beckner is going to win because he's running as an openly gay candidate. And they didn't know, first of all, they didn't, they thought I was nuts. And then the first finance report came out and I first time candidate for a local county commission race raised like $48,000. And I had a friend of mine who was thinking about getting in that race.

That's a lot.

And he called me up, he pulled the finance report he's like, dude, who the hell are these people? I don't recognize any of their names. And I said, asshole, I told you Kevin's going to win because he's running as an openly gay candidate. Who do you think these donors are, man? And oh, by the way, they're donating from Florida. They're donating from other states because we're reaching out to donors that care about gay candidates. and you know, the, the, the moral of the story is that

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, there it is.

Yeah, that's a lot of

Not only did Kevin Beckner win, but one of my friends that worked on the Obama campaign said, Kevin outperformed Barack Obama in Hillsborough County, number one. Number two, since Kevin, there are like, I think in St. Pete across the bridge, at one point, I think they had like four openly gay city councilors. The mayor of Tampa is an openly gay mayor, right? Like it opened the flood gates.

Yeah, I mean that

because

somebody was brave enough to step into the fray and, and, and I was stubborn enough, or I just believed, I thought big, see, I big, that, that we can win this race. And, and we did. so.

To think big. You thought big. You thought big. Yeah.

It's very inspirational.

I just like your motto. I think it's great. And clearly you've carried it from your business time all the way through your political time. And I think more people should think big. And I'm glad you're thinking big in the Democratic Party.

you

Yeah.

you have led winning campaigns all over the world, including for prime ministers of countries in Georgia and Kosovo. So

Mitch, how the hell did you get dragged into international elections?

Um, that's a great question. You know, for years when I became aware that there were these things called international and I had heard about, you know, Americans and some people that I met that did international campaigns. I'm like, how the hell did you get that gig?

So just as I was about to go back to work with some friends and that would have brought me back to Pittsburgh, I got an email

from my, I've always considered him my senior political guru, my Yoda. Craig Smith is his name. And for those that are really paying attention to the whole political world, he was the original Clinton person.

And when Clinton was in the white house.

He was his political director and deputy chief of staff. And I mean, he's just been,

obviously he's been to the mountain top and, and then Craig was doing a lot of international campaign work too. And so one day I opened up my email and I got an email from Craig.

And I'm, and I replied like,

can you tell me like what's going on? Because like, I, I was just telling somebody that I go back to Pittsburgh, but you know, what's happening. So they picked up the phone and he called me and said, well, there's this race in Georgia. It's not the Georgia you think it's the Georgia on the other side of the world. And, ⁓ we're working with the opposition party and we need a guy on the ground. And I think you're the right guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then he said, can you be in Washington tomorrow before noon? Cause one of the opposition party leaders is, that Pat and Boggs and, they wanted to meet with

Just so the next morning I got an early flight. landed in Baltimore and took a train down and I got to Pat and Boggs 10 minutes early, which was a miracle. sat down and there were two principals. One of them was Tommy Boggs.

That is wild!

the named partner on the largest lobbying firm in the country at that time, and another principal, Larry Harris. And then there was a woman sitting on the other side of the table, and she happened to have been a representative of one of the opposition parties.

And so I asked a couple of questions and then on my right ear, I hear Larry Harris go.

How soon can you get to Tbilisi? And I looked over at

and then I looked slowly over at Tommy Boggs, and they both said, like, simultaneously, if Craig Smith says you're the guy, you're the guy, how soon can you get there? And I needed to get my passport updated, otherwise I would have been on a plane like the goddamn next day. But two and a half weeks later, I flew from

Yeah.

to I landed in Tbilisi, Georgia. It was three in the morning. It was a snowstorm

I get in this, you know, big SUV. mean, dude, it's like right out of a movie.

And yeah, and that and then I spent I spent dude, spent a year, an entire year of my life in Georgia.

That's nuts.

Georgia

running and you won I mean you won I guess politics no matter where you go in the world if you as you like to say think big it's translatable right yeah I mean different language different culture you were able to tap into what was necessary to harness the electorate and get it done

Yeah.

You

Listen,

You know, the Georgian government, you know, the voters feared the Georgian government.

You know, the minute that the opposition leader announced he was running for

was the president or prime minister at the time, he stripped him of his

And then if anybody was suspected of supporting the opposition, their houses were taken and sold the next weekend. They were thrown in prison, all this crazy shit. I couldn't get anything printed in country. I did one infamous.

Well, you know...

Yeah.

time I was able to sneak a print job

I had a million, over a million and a half pieces of literature printed in the middle of the night without anybody knowing it. And they got it out into the across the country in the middle of the night. And I wouldn't let any of it go back to the headquarters because there were spies there and I didn't trust anybody. And so I pulled that off but I was literally smuggling shit in from China

Then once upon a time I manufactured licensed product and a lot of it was

produced in China.

Yeah.

this is

definitely book-worthy stuff. mean, first of all, amazing story. And I have to say that the kind of stuff you went through in Georgia, I mean, there's a lot of crazy stuff happening in America right now. Certainly, know, autocratic type language, I'm sure, that you saw in Georgia. And I'm really grateful that you're back here now because we need people like you who think big and can take on these giants who are trying to ruin this country. So what an incredible story, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, but here's what's important Zeke.

You know, in all the years that I've been doing campaigns and the time that you've been spending, one of the takeaways that we always say at the end of every election cycle is, God, I can't believe there weren't more people that showed up to vote, right? Even last year with the stakes so high and the obnoxious volume of ads and all that shit, it was still a low turnout election. So in that Georgian

over 95 % of the voters turned out.

but it was done in free and fair election at the ballot box with no bloodshed. Not one person got punched, no rocks thrown, no cars flipped, no windows broken, no bricks thrown, no fires. It was people showed up. And the government, both governments, the times that I was there, fell.

because 95 % of the voters showed the fuck up. And so imagine what would happen if the voters in this country showed up.

know.

That's what I try to say over and over and over again when people are throwing up their hands in the air and waiting for someone to come and save them I say the buck has and always will stop at the voter. Always. Always.

That's correct. That's correct.

Mitch, why are you a Democrat and why do you choose to represent the Democratic Party?

I, I, I don't know. guess the long and short of it is that I have empathy and I care about people and, I didn't grow up in a, political household at all. Not at all. Zeke, I did not. but. You know, I educated myself. I was the first family member to go to college. And so, it just became something that was important to me.

And I mean, that's the long and short of it. Yeah. Yeah.

I it. I mean, I think it's such a perfect, I think it is a perfect answer. I

really do. I think it really encompasses what it means to be a Democrat, the values that we share. It's all there. I love it.

Right.

What do you say to people who believe that the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania or just in general is lacking leadership? How do you combat that thought process? Because I just want you to know, I disagree. I feel like there is a lot of leadership in the Democratic Party and a lot of this falls back again on the voters, right?

If people want to see a certain political party or ideology in charge, have to put them in charge. So what do you tell people when you hear that?

And as I'd been speaking at different events, as when I spoke at the hands off rally, right? I said, I hear this a lot. I'm sure many of you have heard this a lot. Where's our leader? Who's going to lead us through this? My answer is we are the people that we've been, that you've been looking for. All of us, like a pebble hitting a pond, one after another creates a ripple effect.

Right, yeah.

Right. Right.

and those ripple effects continue to build and one ripple at a time until that turns into a tidal wave, right? The leadership has to come from the people.

Mm-hmm, right.

We have so many incredible accomplished leaders some of them

Are still in some ways just getting started, right? Josh

Right, yeah.

he gets shit done, right? And he's one of these people.

Yeah, you're right, he does.

That is doing counter to what so many Republicans say at all levels of government. Government's broken, the government doesn't work. And then you have elected officials like Josh

so while Trump and his cronies are dismantling our government, like making sure government doesn't work for people, right? By shutting it down in many ways. We have people that are ready, that are, that are leading right now that are running their states or fighting the good fight who

Right. Yeah.

who believe in government, they believe in it.

I want to bring up what you talked about earlier about committee people. And every single time I hear people say, are the leaders, I tell them, I'm surrounded by leaders. I'm surrounded by people in the Democratic Party. know, if you turn on CNN or MSNBC, you're not going to see your local committee person on there. But they're out there knocking doors. They're out there getting information to the electorate on who's going to be the sheriff.

Who's going to be the prothonotary? Who's going to be your county commissioner? Anytime I hear people say that, I say, you go home, you go into the bathroom and you look in the mirror and that's the leader. we are going to have to save ourselves and you're not going to see a shiny person coming on a chariot and fix the entire country. That's not how it works in a democracy. In a democracy, the people are the leaders. And so I love your answer and I agree with you.

Yeah.

Right. That's correct.

And I witnessed

it seek in Georgia and Mauritius, 95 % of the voters showed up and they overthrew our government that they were terrified of the Georgian people were terrified of the government and they showed up. Yeah.

Can you imagine? Can you?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, can you imagine that, Mitch? Can you imagine

if 95 % of Americans who could vote showed up to vote? I mean, it would be transformative. This country would progress in ways that would be unstoppable.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

you're a man of many outfits. I gained access to another picture of you wearing a pink Boston Dunn Kings outfit, the one that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon famously wore for the Super Bowl commercial. I assume it was like, was it Halloween or something, or what occasion was that? Just a Tuesday? Uh-huh. ⁓

No, I initially ordered it because number

one, it was the greatest commercial ever, ever. was a great summer ever. And I'm from Boston. And so when I was working on the convention in Chicago and

And you are from Boston.

huh.

just got in my head, you know, like these things get in my head and I can't stop it when they're in my head. And so I thought,

It's going to be miserable. It's going to be incredibly hard. I'm going to be exhausted. It's going to be nonstop, but I'm going to find a way to have at least 10 minutes of fun. And so those 10 minutes of fun came in the form of this.

Okay.

putting on that outfit.

so what happened was we were, there was a big welcome reception and all the other States were there. And I was wearing like a black tux and a black shirt. And somehow, I don't know how, like I ended up being up on stage introducing people like, Hey, there's governor Shapiro from Pennsylvania to come on up and he'd up and he'd speak. then

Hey, there's Nikki Fried chair in Florida. Nikki, get up

where are you from, what county?

I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but I'm in Montgomery County now.

You're in Montgomery. Okay. So I don't

know if you know him, but Senator Senator Kane, John Kane. think he's from Delaware. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Emmett brings Kane in and we show him the outfit. He's like, yeah, sure. So he put it on.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah, he's from Delco.

Okay.

He put it on?

I figured out what song to do.

Uh-huh.

and

Kevin had the DJ have a queued up and he was able to like signal the guy before we came in. We're outside.

starts playing dirty water. Dun, dun, dun Boston. You're my town. He starts playing. This is like a random song. was not what the regular music was that was blasting. then boom, we kicked the doors in loudly and come walking in with our arms up in the air and we're going, woo. And, and I also had like this

huh.

Hahaha

fake bling like a Celtics ⁓ because the Celtics had just won the title.

Yeah.

And so at first people were like, what the hell's going on? And then the first person said, ⁓ shit, that's Mitch. Right.

You

And

and in some of the other states know me and they're like, shit, that's Mitch

And then some of the Pennsylvanians like holy shit, that's senator Kane, you know And then everybody want to take pictures with us. That was probably the only time I had fun that whole week was that ten minutes of of Doing that shit

awesome.

What an entrance.

You did a great, that's a great

you managed David Wecht's successful bid for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, who is also standing for retention this November 4th. So what would you tell people to pay attention to these in important judicial races?

that for the first time in the history of Pennsylvania, there were three open seats

the Pennsylvania Supreme Court out of

And that the implications and the significance

was successful winning that race could

absolute massive impact on the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

And quite honestly, even beyond the borders of Pennsylvania. Okay. Because Pennsylvania is one of the infamous battleground states. And then, you know, some believe, and I do that Pennsylvania is the battleground state. And so as Pennsylvania goes, so goes the country. Right.

Right, yeah.

having fair elections in Pennsylvania was on the ballot.

Ten years later, those judicial members run for retention and the voters are asked yes or no to retain.

So usually during retention races, part of the reason why they stay not political, nonpartisan is because there's a mix of Democrats and Republicans standing for retention. And so nobody, you know, you can't say vote no for this guy, but you know, it's just complicated. Well, this time.

every judge that's up for retention happens to be a Democrat. So now it's the perfect storm for the other side to go and do this massive vote no effort, you know, and just make up all kinds of bullshit about these judges. They had the audacity to say that, geez, they gerrymandered the maps. They're the fairest maps in the entire country. And the last election cycle proved it because they took two of the seats that were Democratic seats.

That's right.

Right. Yeah.

that a Democrat

Right.

The next maps will be up in a couple of years. Do you really want to have a court that will work to gerrymander the state?

and that will affect the outcome of the big presidential elections too.

And it was our state Supreme Court that shot down all of these bogus bullshit lawsuits that were happening. If it was not that way, a lot of nonsense would have happened and our elections would have just been, you know, chaos. And of course

chaos anyways because, you know, Donald Trump puts it out there to question the legitimacy of any single race.

Right.

Yeah.

And he never stops doing that, which is such a threat to democracy. And people just don't understand why it's that much of a threat.

Yeah.

Correct.

Great. Great.

I appreciate you saying all those things because these elections in November, I look, I every election is the most important election, but these judicial races are crucial. Yeah. Yeah.

100,000 % for sure.

Mitch, you're Jewish like like myself, correct? We're both part of the tribe. Well, I take comfort in knowing that the majority of the American Jewish community still supports the Democratic Party and the ideals of its platform. But what do you say to the minority who feel that either both sides are the same or that the Republican Party is somehow better suited for the Jewish community?

Yeah.

we're living in, we right now we're living in very, very trying, troubling times. And, you know, I mean, I studied a lot about antisemitism and lived it in different ways. We all did Zeke, you did too. We all, we all dealt with it.

Yeah, right.

And I certainly studied a lot about it. was a history major in college and I wanted to learn more about how the hell did this Holocaust thing happen and all the, you know, everything about it.

And so the warning signs that exist right now that are telltale signs of what happened in the thirties and early forties and you know, people that, there's that's not what's happening. You you're just being over the top. No, I'm not being over the top. I'm being very real, you know.

Right.

These people are not geniuses that have thought of new ways of doing politics and running governments. They are stealing it from others that came before them. It is very, very obvious. And yeah, I've had conversations with folks that are Jewish that are like, it seems like the only people that are standing up are like Donald Trump and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, take a really good look at it. Really look at what's happening in front of your face.

Look at the administration that he surrounded himself with. How many of them are literally white supremacists? How many people has he broken bread with that are anti-semites? Violently anti-semitic, right? And so please don't get baited into believing that they actually really give a shit about us.

Right.

And, you know, like, I don't like to get, you know, like, I'm not the kind of person that wants to get into bait with people's Zeke.

I don't like to go toe to toe with some crazy Trumper or and try to prove them wrong. I don't engage in those conversations. I will engage in thoughtful conversations where a true conversation can happen.

the executive board.

of DJOP, is Democratic Jewish Outreach of Pennsylvania. What a group of thoughtful individuals from all across the Commonwealth who spent a lot of time helping, you know, elect Democrats. Shout out to Jill Zippen, the chair. I was so honored when they asked me on the board and I became like one of the vice chairs of the board.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Right. Shout out to a Jill Zippen real fast.

and we are doing good work and we're the only organization like it in the country, you know, so Pennsylvania's got a lot going for it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate all that because I it really hurts me, you know, from a Jewish perspective to see what Republicans and Trump is doing to the country and also just, you know, stoking this anti-Semitic rhetoric. And actually, it dovetails nicely to this trivia game I like to play with you called

Coexist Trivia, where I'm going to give you some scenarios and you're going to tell me where the political party falls. This is going to be really easy for you, I promise. OK.

So based on the legislation and rhetoric, which political party in Pennsylvania at the state level favors equal treatment of all faiths? It be the Democratic Party, Republican Party.

Democratic Party.

Right,

the Democrat party, because the Republican party often favors Christian norms, okay, based on their legislation. Or how about based on their legislation and rhetoric, which political party in Pennsylvania at the state level favors Christian nationalism?

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Republicans? No.

Republican Party, right? The Democratic Party opposes that.

And lastly, based on the legislation and rhetoric, which political party in at the state level favors public religious neutrality?

neutrality Democrats

Neutrality, Democratic Party, right? The

Democratic Party favors separation of church and state, while the Republican Party often blurs the line. So for me, as someone who is Jewish and who respects all different faiths, I know that the Democratic Party in my own state is safer for me as a Jew and all religions.

Correct.

Bye.

What gives you hope?

as long as there's breath in my body, um, as long as there's others like you,

like when I was just volunteering, I met so many amazing people from...

presidential candidates to elected officials to celebrities. And last

was two days before I was going to Chicago and some guy called me and he's like, hey Mitch, so there's a celebrity who's been traveling the Midwest. He just wanted to do something. He's been going to all these different offices to just go there and give pep talks. And he's in Ohio and he's gonna cross into Pennsylvania.

And I was, you know, I thought maybe you could help. And I'm like, dude, I have to leave for Chicago. I have no time.

I'm like totally overwhelmed right now. I don't have a minute. And, and, um, I'm like, well, who is it? And he said, Sean Aston it. I'm like, well, why didn't you start with that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. ⁓ he was huge. He was huge on the Pan...

The Goonies, Rudy from the movie Rudy, Sam from

Lord of the Rings, right? That's Sean Astin. So Sean Astin shows up at the house and, God damn it, literally he and I texted each other two days ago. And that kid, I mean, he's not a kid, he's close to my age.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's huge.

Yeah.

Yeah.

⁓

But he's still very much a Goonie and he's still very much that individual that really, you know, like he lives

and, you know, they always say, you don't want to meet your hero. And I've had many different heroes. I've just like Goonies has always been one of my favorite movies. And like, he's, he's like a brother to me now. And, and it just makes me feel like, you know, I was just a kid. He was just a kid when that movie came out.

That's a great movie.

And I've been saying this Goonies Never Say Die expression for all these years. I literally said in front of the Prime Minister Kosovo, he had no idea what the fuck I was talking about ⁓ when some of his people were saying, we'll never be able to do this. And I looked around, said, Goonies Never Say Die. And the Prime Minister was like, I don't know what you mean. I said, you'll see.

You

huh. And then I was like, what are you talking about?

Yeah, and you showed them.

Well, my last question for you, Mitch, is what plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years?

just to, you know, keep focused, you know, eye on the prize. trying to get some exercise in, you

trying not to be as stressed out as I am, but I'm very stressed

trying to be supportive of those people I work with. you know, do everything that I

to help empower people to do what they need to do.

and to show

you know, like, like when I told my wife, I said, you know, I'm doing this podcast. She's like, you know, you've been going all day and I'm like, look, this is important. And, um, and frankly, I, it, know, I didn't expect, I didn't expect this to be as engaging as it was Zeke. And I thank you for that. Um, you know, this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship, my friend and tribesman.

Yeah, absolutely.

yeah,

You know,

yeah, absolutely.

um, you need to get your ass out here to the bat bar. You know, we need to break bread properly and, and, have a, have a, uh, a pint or two or, or a wee dram or two.

Okay.

Sounds good.

I am so glad that you're connected with, with Lenore and the others. Um, we're going to keep.

doing our thing so you can do your thing. and you know, for those people that watch this, listen to this for fuck's sake, please, you know, like this is our country. And as Sean Astin wrote on something he wrote for me, and it's a line from the Goonies. If you haven't watched the Goonies, Zeke get your kids and sit down and watch the Goonies. I don't know how old your kids are. It's a little scary, but watch the Goonies.

It's such a great movie.

And one of the lines is, is our time down here. That's right. This is our time. And so like we are in the bottom of a well. That's a really strong analogy. We are in the bottom of a well and we have to get ourselves the fuck out of that well. And we can, we can. It's going to take a lot of hard work, but people need to show up

Yeah, and the well, they're at the bottom of the well.

That's right.

we need to.

We need to get fucking shit done, man.

I know

we

to doing the work with you. I really do. I do. Well, Mitch Kates, executive director of the Democratic Party. you were going to tell me five years ago I was going to be doing a podcast interview with the executive director of the P.A. Dems, I'd say you were crazy. But I just have to say, Mitch, you give me hope. And I love how badass you are. And it's people like you that are going to keep the ball rolling. you're putting on the mask. We've got Jason the Terrible.

Yeah. Yeah.

Time to suit

up!

That's right. We're going to get shit done and we're going to do it together. So thank you so much for everything that you do, Mitch. I really appreciate it.

You bet, Zeke. And keep the faith, brother.

We will.

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