Hello, I'm Zeke, and welcome to the Zeke Podcast. Let's talk, Pennsylvania. The guest I have today lives in Albertus, Pennsylvania, and has spent her career in human resources helping people find opportunities where they can succeed. She's a working class mom, community advocate, and now running to flip the State House seat blue this November 3rd. Thank you so much for being here, Rachel Cuevas.

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.

Thank you so much for having me. I've been following you forever and I this is on my like bucket list of podcasts to do. So I'm super excited to be here.

Well, this is a short list for you, please. on your bucket list. This is a this is a this is a layup,

no problem at all. Rachel, I'm so happy you're running. And, you know, Stephanie Rafes ran for this seat last time and I'll never forget her because she lived in McCungee. Okay, with a name like

Yes.

McCungee, how can you forget that township? So you have big shoes to fill 'cause she was lovely.

She's a she paved the way for me and I tell I give

Mm-hmm.

staff credit all the time. it was it was just a a tough cycle year to

Mm-hmm.

to win as a Democrat and she is an amazing commissioner.

I'm not

surprised. Stephanie is amazing. When you see her, give her a big hug for me, okay?

I will.

but this show is all about you, okay? So we're gonna play some games and have some

Hmm.

fun. Are you ready?

I love it. I love games. Let's do us.

Let's do it. Okay,

Rachel, you were raised in a military family. Your father served

Yes.

twenty years in the US Army. Your mother served in the US Air Force. Thank you for their service.

Thank you.

what's your response to those who think the Republican Party supports the military more

than the Democratic Party?

I don't understand that because my husband's whole family is military and my whole family's military, like uncles, aunts, like I'm telling you, like everybody. And we're both very democratic parties. I think the pinning Republicans against Democrat, Democrats is getting old and exhausting and putting people in these boxes that should not exist is

never been my thing, right? So I've never looked

Yeah.

at somebody and be like, That's a Republican, that's a Democrat.

My my whole life I I dedicated my life to servant leadership and I'm like, I wanna be the good person in somebody's life. I want to help.

Yeah. No, it's so important. And I I just never understand when people say that the Democrats are not for our military. Because, you know, Katie Muth who is a Democrat and our state senator, you know, she has an expo that was started by her about seven years ago in Philadelphia, specifically geared towards the military to help them get the resources

Absolutely.

that they need. And, you know, healthcare, housing, jobs, all those things, you know, those are democratic values, right? You know, prescription drugs, super important. You know, mental health for people coming out of the military. So

It just never never makes sense to me.

Absolutely.

absolutely and and I've seen the struggles and I've seen the gaps and I've seen

where our government kind of failed us is where we need to step up and as a nation help each other because I don't whatever's cut at the state level, we need to make sure that our our Pennsylvanians are okay. And

Absolutely.

And especially I hate to say especially anybody, but our veterans, they they to say somebody like, Hey, I'm gonna die for you. That

Mm-hmm.

is something that I will forever honor and protect and make sure I give my all to them.

Well, we're gonna play a game called Military Acronym Roulette. Okay, I'm gonna give you some acronyms, and as a military

my gosh.

brat, I hope you know these, okay? So some of them are made up, and I'm not gonna tell you which

no. Okay.

ones are made up, okay? So we'll start with the first one. PCS.

I'm gonna be horrible at this. I don't know what P I

I just assumed since like they were there for twenty years you would l know all these.

know it's been my whole life, like from every part of it, but like

Uh-huh.

I don't know what PCS is.

Permanent change of station?

yeah, that my dad wouldn't know. I can call him right now. But like yeah, yeah. So I hope so too.

Yeah, PCS. All right, well I'll hope you get one of these, okay? How about this?

How about L E S?

Acronyms

No.

now.

Leave an earnings statement.

I may have picked the wrong game for you with it. It's it's the first one. It's the first one. It's the first You know what? It's okay.

I think it might it might be the raw game, I'm sorry.

You know, sometimes we like to humble I like to humble my guests on the podcast, okay?

I'm very humbled

right now because like it is my my dad separated his military like stories and he kept them at at work, right? Because

Okay.

of my dad what he taught for a living was how to withstand how to

keep a military secret.

Mm-hmm.

so a lot of stuff he's he did he really didn't take home until his little kids cause it was would have been traumatizing for us. He did.

Okay, yeah. Well I guess he kept all the acronyms to himself as well. Well I have I I

have a couple more, okay. How about A C

Okay.

How about A C? Is that real or made up? A C.

I don't know. Like I'm probably made up. Yeah.

That one's that one's made that one's made up. I made that one. Okay. How about this

one? D F A C.

Department

It's it's a dining facility. D fac. Yeah. Go go hit up the I would be I know. I would be I would be

is it? Okay. I'm about I'm I'm about to call my husband up here. He's working downstairs. He'll know he'll know all of these answers.

at the D fac all the time. that's what I gotta say. I

really? Yeah.

I love it. How about this? DRG.

It could be real or fake, I don't know. Okay. Okay.

Okay, it's that that's not a real one. That's not a real one. All right, all right, here's the last one. Last one. SRP

I'll say it's real, but I don't know what it is.

It is real. I'll give you a half a point for that. It stands for soldier readiness processing.

Well, it's okay. you know

So interesting. I wish I knew those.

what? If your dad listens to the show or watches, just skip this part, okay?

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

That's a question people ask me all the time. And

So the the values of of the Democratic Party align with my values. and

I believe I'm here to help people and to remove barriers. I would never I'm not somebody who's like the Republicans are bad, Democrats are bad, you know, kind of person. I'm I I just align more with the Democratic.

views.

Like I always give the story. My dad was online at at CVS at the time and there was this older gentleman in front of us and he couldn't afford his medicine. He's like, I just don't have it.

And my dad, without question, took his wallet out and paid the man's prescription. It was five hundred dollars and he was like, Woo, you know, because like we didn't have five hundred dollars to give, but he still did it because the man needed his prescriptions before we needed anything, right? So I think that's the value that I see with the Democratic Party that we are here to help, we're here to make sure we remove barriers, we're here to make sure our neighbors are okay. And I align with that.

I think that's why I'm a Democrat.

No, I love it.

I I don't think that anyone should be ashamed, should suffer for not being able to get their medications that they need. It it's it's a right. I'm sorry. We cannot be the wealthiest nation in the world if we have anyone, veterans, non veterans, who cannot afford their medications. It's just not okay. And we

A million percent.

and we have the money. I I I'll say this, I've said it before, I'll say it again. If there's a problem and it can be solved by money, it's not a problem. And and we we have the money. And so I

We do.

We we do, and so I'm very happy that you are in line with the democratic values and I can't wait to see you bring those values to Harrisburg.

Rachel, the current Republican

state rep serving in your district voted no multiple times to raise the minimum wage in Pennsylvania. How do you feel about that?

I am saddened that the the information that's out there is not getting to him, that how there is a lot of single moms or mothers that take jobs you know, when their kids are at school that have to make minimum wage, that there's veterans who can't find a job and just need to make ends mean who are make getting a minimum wage, that the the the most of the people that are getting minimum wage are over thirty years old.

And is impacting our elderly, is impacting.

Yeah.

I don't know any job out there where I would ever give somebody less than fifteen dollars an hour. And

when you're making less than a pound of meat it an hour. It this is not how

our society

is gonna be successful.

So I don't understand where he's getting

information 'cause when I go to door to door and I've hit or my team's hit over twenty thousand doors, the constituents want

the minimum wage to go up.

I'm glad

It is.

that you would vote

to raise the minimum wage. And Governor Josh Shapiro is ready to sign that into law.

Hey, thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Zekely Podcast. And if you're enjoying yourself, please take a moment to rate my Podcast. Five stars would be great and leave a comment as well. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit follow. OK, back to the show.

Rachel, your favorite food is sushi, but you've also tried

Do I say she knows?

chicken hearts, alligator, and ostrich. So that

Yes.

that's pretty exotic. I've actually had chicken hearts too at I when I was at

Mm-hmm.

Fogo de Chow. I love all can eat Brazilian restaurants. They're wonderful.

Same. Yes.

and I've had ostrich before, a long time ago. I was at a restaurant in California or something, but I've never had alligator. Is it what like what's the texture of that?

It's it tastes like chicken. it it's a little bit more gamey yeah. Like if they say that but I have I had snake I had snake before too and it tastes like chicken. Yeah.

Tastes like chicken. Tastes like chicken. my god.

so I'm adventurous. I will always try something once.

Hm.

And in the alligator I will only try it once 'cause for some reason I had a headache right afterwards and so did my son. So I don't know if it was a reaction or if it was a 'cause

Yeah.

it was a lot of it was a lot I was

traveling, I think it was either in Virginia or traveling somewhere. I was going I was on my way to South Carolina and we stopped and I guess that's not a good like midway stop food to try, but

Yeah, I don't I don't know why you do that. I feel

like that's kinda like gas station sushi, you know, like what just like a qu quick stop for Alligant. Yeah.

I was about to say I I've had gas station sushi once

and it was a huge mistake, right?

Yeah.

So I'm yeah, like I I'm a lesson learned kind of girl and lesson learned.

Are there any foods

that you would like to try that you haven't yet?

I don't think there's anything on my list right now, that

What about bugs?

Would you like go into the bug realm?

Yes, I I've had Crickets. They're actually really good. They're like a salt salty like snack. And I I know this is gonna make me like seem like the weirdo candidate that eats bugs because you're not you're not the first person that asked me if they ate bugs before and I don't know if is that my personality like a Rachel eats bugs, but that'd be amazing. I will co sign on that.

I don't think I I don't think look, that is an interesting clip. They may choose to run a attack ads against you, but there are f compared to what

compared to what Trump is doing these days, I mean, eating bugs is like, you know, like a nothing burger, so it's fine.

It's such a yeah, it's

not like I'm eating it like every day. I've had it like twice in my life, but yeah, there was actually

It's okay. You you have those crickets,

Rachel. You have those crickets.

Yes.

No judgment. No judgment for me. Well, we're we're gonna play a game, okay?

because in the Poconos, there's a place called the Butcher Shop. two Ps

Okay.

and E at the end. They indeed sell some exotic meats. So I'm gonna quiz you whether or not they actually sell these. Okay? So simple yes,

Okay, I'm ready.

no. Do they sell rattlesnake?

Yes.

Yes, they do. That is correct, which I have never had. Okay. How about

And and I would eat it.

how about zebra? Do they sell zebra? They

Absolutely not. That's unethical.

Yeah.

Yeah, they do not they do not sell that. They do not. How about kangaroo?

I'm gonna say yes. Mm-hmm.

They do. They do. I'm kinda

surprised by that. I think I feel like, you know.

Yeah, they're not

endangered. there's so I wouldn't eat kangaroo just because they're so cute.

Yeah.

But yeah,

how about camel?

I must say yes. Yeah. Yeah.

They do. They sell camel there. I have never had

camel either. I have two more. How about an anteater?

endangered. I'm gonna say no. Yeah. Yeah.

They don't. I made that one up. Yeah, they don't. And I don't yeah, that

doesn't look too appetizing either. All right, here's the last one.

Yeah.

How about emu?

Yes, emo is something people eat in this area. Mm. Wild.

They do, they sell Emu too. Very good. See that that game he did very well on. Okay.

I don't know that that's gonna get me elected, but definitely I know

I don't know. It's okay. Just don't

I'm I'm very into like what's endangered and what's not. I was very, very

Uh-huh.

sad and recently when a couple animals were taken off the list, that shouldn't have been taken off. But you know, making sure that our food chain and making sure that our animals are safe is very important to me.

Then you must like what the Democrats are trying to do policy wise because I think the Republicans are trying to peel back every, you know, hunting law. This is terrible. They're just allowing them to kill

This the wolf yeah. It

anything.

yeah, there you have to make sure that the the food chain is intact for a reason. there's we can't ignore science. I'm I'm sick of this, right? Like we can't ignore science and

You can. I mean the Republican Party is showing actually

you can very much ignore science, but I'm glad that you will not.

Rachel, in Lehigh County, a 5.1 million square foot Atlas Industrial Data Center is proposed near Parkland High School. And there is also a proposal for a 2.6 million square foot project at the former Air Products headquarters in Upper McCungee. Would you pass laws in Harrisburg to keep data centers in check in Pennsylvania?

And check, absolutely. that's without doubt. Every company has to be transparent. And I can't I can't imagine anyone saying otherwise. If we had any company come in this area, they were gonna have to give us information about their electrical use because there is feasibility of having like brownouts if if they're using too much of the energy and the kiddos who are on, you know, medical devices that need electricity, it's gonna endanger a lot of people.

Yeah.

My fridge going out and three hundred dollars worth of food going down the train, I can't afford a

replace that. So it's very important for people to understand that's why the transparency is needed. I worked at a company where it was really, really hot out. We had to reduce our energy level by 30%. So these companies won't be able to do that. So that transparency, how is it going to impact our environment? How you know making sure it's in the proper industrial zoning, there's going to be important things to make sure that there's guardrails. And that's why we need a little bit of time and that's why I I stand with Shapiro on having a motor

So everyone has the ability to take a beat, understand, you know, the I always say, get the smartest people in the room, like the environmentalists, get the business owners, and let's go ahead and work this out, you know, brew a cup of coffee and let's talk about it. And then let's do it properly. Because we know I live in in Laura McConji. We know we overdeveloped too quick. There's so many empty warehouses in this area.

Yeah.

That hurts and that hurts us with our land. Once your green land has a warehouse on it, it will never be green again. It hurts employment because all those people are like we have if you go to war notices, guys. if you type in war notices for Pennsylvania, that will tell you all the layoffs they're having in our area. These layoffs hurt people, right? Like you you can't have businesses coming here and not having solid plans of workforce management. so

Those are the things that need to be done in a room with very smart people and and then making sure that everyone's okay. so I'm very pro business. I'm very making sure that we have enough jobs for people in the Lee Valley. I wanna keep my kids here. I wanna be, you know, we have an an amazing industrial jobs. We have amazing white-collar jobs, but we have to do it properly.

Yeah, well, you're gonna be one of those smart people in the room, Rachel. We need people like you

I'm excited.

in Harrisburg to pass laws to keep these data centers in check because there's

only so much you can do at the local levels. I mean, there are people who are going to commissioner meetings and trying to get them to land on the right side of the issue, but they really need help in Harrisburg. They really do. And so

Absolutely.

you need to come into town and straighten this out. And thank goodness Josh Shapiro did sign an executive order helping, but we need the legislature to step in when we get the trifact.

Rachel, you have spent your career as a human resources professional at Amazon and Boston Beer. How will your experiences help you as a state representative?

So there are so many transferable skills. I'm basically was the state representative for my companies. And mind you,

Okay.

huge and it sounds silly, right? But we did policies. We did you know, we made sure that budgets, we made sure that I was the resource to get them the information they needed if they needed to go on FMLA, short term disability, also create like ERG like programs to make sure everyone has a a

place to to fit in there, right? And making sure that I was able to give everybody the resources just to have what they need to do better.

everything that I told you I was gonna fight for, that you'll see them fighting for you in there.

Yeah, we're gonna have great mentors. I mean, Matt Bradford, Joanna McClinton, I mean one wonderful

Amazing.

people, speaker and the leader of the house. They're gonna take good care of you. And you're I have no doubt

Yes.

you're gonna hit the ground running and pass some great things for not just your constituents, but all Pennsylvanians.

gonna play a game, HR, okay? So Yeah, you will, you will.

my gosh, it's I'm gonna get this one.

So as an HR rep, I want to know how would you respond to an employee in the following scenarios? And I'm gonna be the employee, okay? So some of these might be sticky if you don't navigate. I'm gay, and one of my coworkers constantly goes out of their way to tell me my recent marriage is against God's wishes. what would you say to me?

So I've had that happen. so it is not a scenario that I have not come across. So when when the employee comes to me and brings up this concern, I would have to take the other employee in and do to seek to understand. So you basically ask him.

you know, their side of the story, what happened. if they admit that this is what they're doing, inform them that at work this is not the dialogue that's gonna happen. If they have their personal beliefs, they will not be saying something that makes somebody uncomfortable at work. This is a place where you're at work and you're free from from judgment, harassment, and they no longer can continue that dialogue. and

depending on

the response to me at that moment if they're like

Yeah.

my gosh I'm sorry I am gonna never do that again you know or if they're like I'm gonna keep on doing that depends on my next actions. So it would be up to you know termination depending on the response. Yeah

Yeah, it's de I mean, it's definitely harassment. I mean, that is harassment.

Like a hundred percent. Yeah.

It's harassment, yeah.

And interestingly enough, or you might not be surprised about this, the current Republican state rep serving in your district voted no to recognize same sex marriage in the Commonwealth. So I don't I don't think if he was E HR P care that much. You know, if that was happening at work.

okay, one of my coworkers is handing out pamphlets at work with abortion remains and the writing abortion is murder on it.

Mm.

getting a little upset because that would really frustrate me. And you have to remove your emotion when you're in HR and as everyone knows. And you have to remove your emotion honestly when it comes to many things. I would call my office and tell them that they would not be able to distribute that at work and they would get a written warning. But they and then they would get the information on the next steps.

I would make sure it was it was known that no propaganda would be

distributed on on work rounds. Yeah.

And that is that is prop and it is propaganda as a physician

it that abortion is not murder. But interestingly enough,

Right.

or not surprising at all to you, Rachel, the current Republican state rep serving in your district voted to require a funeral or cremation of abortion remains and voted no to establish a constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania. So yeah, this is a this is Yeah.

That makes me extremely uncomfortable because

the the way that they vote is an a direct attack towards women.

It is.

against IVF, against birth control, against women's rights, and it is not the government's decision to make any of those decisions. Any decision it comes to anyone's health, women, men, anybody's health is between them and their doctor. If they want to include their family and their clergy, that's their choice.

So I'm very as you can tell, I'm I stand strong on this, because there's no laws on men's medical needs. And I don't understand why it's okay for there to be laws on minor medical needs.

It's it's it's all about power and control. It's ridiculous. But I I I'm

Mm-hmm.

I'm on your side and I'm glad you're on my side as well. All right, here's the last one. I have an elderly mother that I care for who has multiple health issues, and one of my coworkers tested positive for COVID, but they came to work anyway because they believe nobody dies from it anyway.

Well, it is against our company policy to be at work with COVID. I've actually had this struggle myself where someone came to work with flu and wanted to argue with me that they could stay at work with the flu. I don't it wasn't an argument because it's black and white, you you can't be at work sick. Once again, your work environment is a safe environment. You cannot COVID is something that's transferable and make you sick. I know it's not a political COVID is not a political stance. Yeah.

It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. But you know, right right now in Pennsylvania, we have

a measles outbreak. And the Republican Party is once

First.

again, just like in COVID, gaslighting us. While people are dying. Well, there are people dying in Pennsylvania. Bab yeah, babies are dying. An 18 year old died. And

Babies, babies dying. Babies.

if you there's actually a website you can go to,

Pennsylvania.gov, you can track and see the number of people who have gotten sick from the measles who are vaccinated versus unvaccinated.

And it's less than one percent of people who are vaccinated who get measles. So, like vaccines work.

well

Once again,

sick and tired people not listening to science.

Well, unfortunately the current

Republican state representative serving in your district does not listen to science because he voted no to authorize licensed pharmacists to deliver vaccines recommended by the PA State Health Department. So we have an anti vaxxer essentially serving in your district, right? So that's why you need to get elected.

Yeah, yeah. He's an extremist.

Yeah, it's crazy. It is absolutely crazy. You've done a great job as an HR rep for your job, and we need to bring your HR skills

Thank you.

to Harrisburg this November third.

Yes.

Wow, you're still listening. Thank you so much. I want to make sure as many people in Pennsylvania as possible get to experience The Zekely Podcast. So to help spread the word, please take a moment to rate my podcast. Five stars would be great. Leave a comment as well. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit follow. Enjoy the rest of the show.

Rachel, the current Republican state rep serving in your district voted no to allow children under the age of 26 to remain on their parents' health insurance policy in Pennsylvania and no to prohibit health insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing health conditions. How do you feel about that, Rachel?

It angers me if somebody who has a condition that it's

a health condition that I worked so hard my whole life to have health insurance. And what if I got super sick and then I had to go to another company? They could say, Hey Rachel, you or don't have insurance for your sickness. You're

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

on your own, and that means

you die, right? If you can't afford medical, you die. So I

Yeah, yeah. And people and people have died.

People have died. They have.

I don't understand how anyone who values life is okay. We're saying that kiddos who are trying to get on their feet and be in college and and go to trade school or trying to start their career shouldn't be on their parents' insurance. It's how it affects them, first off. And then the second thing is how the sick can't have insurance. Is denying pre-existing conditions is saying

Yeah, it's crazy. Mm-hmm.

we don't want to make sure the sick are okay.

It's disgusting. I mean, as a physician, it's terrible. As a human being, I just c it's to me, it's one of the worst things you can do to try and justify not healing people or making sure that they are safe from getting sick. But clearly the current state rep doesn't care. And

the reason why it's

It's

so important

that we get these laws passed in Pennsylvania is because Republican politicians at the federal level want to get rid of this. Just like abortion is now no longer the law of the land, it relies on the states to protect access to reproductive health care. If

the Republicans ever got the chance to rescind the Affordable Care Act, which they're trying to, and they make no

Yeah.

secret about it, those two things will be gone at the federal level and it will have to come back down to the state level. So it really upsets me that any state rep would not try and reinforce those protections at the state level.

People need to look at the big beautiful bill, HR one, it's called. They are taking away month by month benefits. It's a direct attack towards the working class.

That's terrible.

It is from healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare to SNAP to WIC.

Yeah.

these it's food benefits that will harm us.

It's a war against working class.

And you you messed up the name.

It's not the big beautiful bill. I call it the big bullshit bill because that's what it is. It's bullshit. And when a lot of those cuts go into effect January first, twenty twenty seven, I'm obviously hoping that the Democrats will be in control at the congressional level. But you know that

Yes.

the Republicans in the minority are gonna blame Democrats for all the shit that's gonna happen now across the country. When people are getting dropped from their health insurance, when children can't be fed because SNAP benefits go away, they're gonna say, look, the Democrats are in control.

They already are.

The Democrats are in control, blame them. That's bullshit. It's the Republicans that got us into this. And unfortunately or fortunately for us, it's the Democrats

that are gonna get us out of it.

We'll get them out.

Rachel, you are an Eagles household, correct? How are you feeling

We are, yes.

so far this season?

Let me tell you.

winning, but it's ugly. So

You're winning. Anybody

anybody who watches or or listens to my show knows that I am the least sport forward person. maybe in Pennsylvania. I don't know. I don't follow sports at all. I know that sports exists, but I don't follow any of it. Okay. So I'm glad that you're enjoying the Eagles and playing dominoes and having a good family time.

yes,

it's all about that's what the know what it's not 'cause like football doesn't really interest me. It's the family time. It is seeing

Hmm. The family.

my husband and my daughter and my son getting excited and then

Mm-hmm.

like the the the passion and jumping up and down and like

Yeah.

anything that like 'cause at the end of the day I I could probably couldn't name three Eagles, right? But I could my husband could name all of them. But I the joy and the energy of the room is is

Mm-hmm.

what I like about football.

Yeah, I like the food in the commercials, quite quite honestly. But look, I'm

That's my super bowl. Yeah.

gonna I'm gonna give you a chance to redeem yourself a little bit from the initial game that we played. So I'm gonna we're

Was so bad.

we're gonna play a game called Roast Me. Okay. So I'm gonna let you ask me three questions about the Eagles that you think anyone should know, like with a heartbeat should know. And I'm gonna try and answer them. And I'm not gonna lie and say, no, no. I will answer as honestly as I can. Okay, so you get three, three questions. So fire off the first one.

Think like six year

What what

old. Think like six, eight year old. Okay, that's 'cause I'm still not gonna get it, but go ahead.

What was thrown at Santa Claus?

was thrown at Santa Claus. Snowballs?

I believe so, yeah.

I was gonna say batteries,

but I feel like that was it was in baseball once a long time ago.

Why why did

I think it was batteries? Now I'm questioning myself.

Yeah, no, I think I th no,

because I know like back in the day there was I think there was a baseball stadium that handed out batteries as like a a gi a gift

Which is odd.

and then there was a baseball player who was really not well liked and they threw the batteries from the stands at him or something. That I might have been like thirty years ago, but I just remember that. But I mean I feel like snowballs make sense.

It was it was it

was a hundred percent yeah, it was snowballs and it was in nineteen sixty eight, so it was pretty long ago. So that

Snowballs. wow. Okay.

gives you the lore of Eagle fans since you know,

Okay.

nine before nineteen sixty eight. that's one of them.

Okay, give me another one. That was too easy. 'Cause I was yeah, I guess that

I

one.

I think I'm I'm gonna be I'm gonna give you easy ones because I think those are the ones that

Yeah.

who's our who's our quarterback?

It's I know it's not Donovan McNabb, but I know that he was at one time a quarterback. I do not know who the current quarterback is. Who is it?

So our current quarterback is

Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts. Wait, is Jalen

Jalen Hurts, who I absolutely love. He

Hurts the one who like did the split jump over somebody's head? Is that is he?

This that's Barclay.

see, that just goes to show I have no idea who anybody is. Okay, so j okay. Okay. I may I may actually lose followers after this segment because I I really don't know

Who is an amazing human? I love him so much. Yes. so no, no, no, no, no, no.

anything. Okay, so give me the last one.

when was the first Super Bowl?

The first Eagles Super Bowl ever won?

Mm-hmm.

come on. I have no idea on the super I have no like the year? Like the first the f the year.

They

they are.

Nineteen nineteen fifty nine.

You were close, it was nineteen sixty. So congratulations. That

Okay, so I got

was super, super close.

Okay, I have no idea. No idea. Okay, great. Well yeah, so there you go. I apologi I'm I'm not gonna even apologize, I'm not ashamed at all. I don't know anything about sports, and that further proves it. So anyone who doubted me, I don't know anything. I know a lot about politics, which is why I focused on my show on PA politics, but sports will maybe someday. Maybe a hobby someday, who knows?

Rachel, how are you going to address the cost of living as a state representative in Pennsylvania?

That's a good question. because there's a multitude of factors that need to be looked at. First is property taxes. so when you look at it, we are working at having

fully funded public schools, but we need to make sure that money's not syphoned into like charter schools. if we

Right.

do this, we're able to go ahead and lower property taxes because we're getting the money from the state and we're not getting it from our neighbors. I think that's important.

So I just wanna I

I love that you're connecting the dots here because I feel like people don't understand that when you don't fully fund public schools at the state level in Harrisburg, at the local levels, your property taxes are going to go up because you're gonna have to make up for the difference at a local level. So if you fully fund public schools with taxes that you're already paying, then your property taxes will either not go up or might even go down, depending on where you live. So I'm

Correct? Yeah.

glad that you bring that up because I think a lot of people do not understand that at all.

So East Penn recently was able to go ahead and fill a little bit of a gap, and our seniors are going to see a little bit of a relief due to that.

Mm.

So I think that that's just a good case study on how we can do it for everybody. We

Yeah.

need to help work in class. We need to make sure because our property taxes are getting higher, we're working harder, we're not making more money. So like it just needs to make sense. We can stay in our houses. and and

I agree.

so that's that's a solid way to do it.

And the Democrats are

there's also

the ones trying to

fully fund public schools. the Republican politicians in Harrisburg have tried for the last thirty years to defund public schools. So I'm glad that you at least are gonna try and take care of that one issue in Harrisburg.

So who doesn't want to educate our children? You know, who doesn't want to give

Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Donald

Trump doesn't want to educate her because he's gone on the record saying he does not like the educated people to surround him. He likes people that are not as smart as him to be in the room. Which like a as someone who's an HR, you know that the best way to build a team is to surround yourself with extremely smart people

Craps.

to educate everyone in the room and make your team better. And that is not what

Republican politicians want to do. They want to dumb down our educational process any chance that they get.

Rachel, the current Republican state rep serving in your district voted no to restrict distribution of machine gun conversion devices and ghost guns in Pennsylvania. How do you feel about that?

I feel sad. that we recently had at the school late last year a ghost gun at the school district and that we can have preventive measures and that that people that somebody in in the district is voting against it. I don't understand why we wouldn't want to have trackable guns, why we would be okay with guns that can hurt that we're not able to have like serial numbers

you know, like it we do ha I do believe in the constitution, I do believe in our right to ha bare arms, I do not believe the right to have ghost guns.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I mean, the most common cause of death for children in America is gun violence. You know, under the age of eighteen. It's if you are a state representative, your job is to literally keep people alive in your district. That's like the minimum. The the bar i

Yeah.

the bar is in hell if you can't honestly just do that for your constituents. And so the fact that the current Republican state rep cannot keep weapons out of the hands of people to kill each other means that you are not qualified to serve in office. And that's why we need to replace him with you as soon as possible.

Rachel, you enjoy the show Ted Lasso, and it's it's a wonderful, wonderful show. and

I two, yes. Yeah.

this season is focusing on women's soccer a lot. spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen the season yet. you played

Yeah.

soccer when you were younger. Have you seen any growth in the way women are treated in sports since you were young?

There's a I do. I do. I I've I lived in a very blessed family where my dad was my soccer coach. I played in my in my my parents were in the military, I lived in Germany for four years. I played on a boy and girls team. I came to the States. There wasn't a girls team when I was younger in my town. So I played on the boys team for two years and they created a girls team.

I was somebody who was a a powerful soccer player. So I ignored I always had the ability to ignore when people made microaggressions against me as a woman. but I do see it in like the WNBA, I do see it in other sports, that women do get treated differently than men. But I think I

don't know if it's better. You know, I really don't know.

I mean, I I'm sure it's

not I'm sure it's not enough. I mean, even though

It's not.

even though the show is satire, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of truth that plays out in real life that women are not definitely not paid as much as men in in the sport. they definitely don't get the res the same kind of respect. They don't get the same kind of endorsements or anything like that. because it is again,

it's a male-dominated industry.

Yeah, I remember when the boys team had like these really nice uniforms and I I had to get these like tie-dyed for when I was on the basketball team, we made our own uniforms. It was like these tie-dyed

Mm-hmm.

t-shirts. Like we just didn't have the resources. and that's all I knew as a kid, right? It's all I knew was we were different and I kinda accepted it. And now as an adult, I'm like, it's not okay. You know, it's not okay that we're treated

No, it's not okay.

differently. Yeah.

No, and I think that as a state rep, you can actually contribute a lot to that. First of all, being a woman in a position of power that sends a message to younger girls and women growing up. And also, you know, public school funding could, you know, if you fund fully fund public schools, then they can have the resources to fund both male and female sports teams and get them the uniforms that they need and the resources that they need.

It's very important. And also I think people sometimes see things at a surface level level, like it's just sports, but sports are more than just sports. It's more than me kicking a ball or throwing a ball or it's it's community. It's me

Right.

having lifelong friends, it's me gaining confidence, it's me learning a new skill, it's me learning leadership skills, working with a team.

It's community. Once again, all goes back to community. Yeah.

It does.

Well, we're gonna play Ted Lasso or Led Tasso. So for those who ever watched the show, Ted Lasso, when he gets angry, he becomes Led Tasso. All right. So I wanna know the vibes of these current issues. Okay, so would this be Ted Lasso or Led Tasso? parental leave.

The vibes meaning am I pro it or against it? So and Ted Lasso's pro it then, right? All right. So

Yes. Mm. Yes. Yes.

Ted Ted Lasso, very like having

we have more rights for you know, not separating dogs from their litter than we do for humans. It is crazy. Like and

I know. It's crazy. Yeah.

like we our kiddos need us in the beginning. We need to be able to go ahead and make sure they're set up for success and then we can, you know, do what we need with in our careers. But we need we

Yeah.

need a we need a beat to be like, Hey baby

I am your mom.

I agree. Yeah, and and Democrats

want to pass parental leave in Pennsylvania, but we need the trifecta

It's important.

to do that. We need the trifecta. All right, I have a

Yeah.

couple I have a couple more. Renaming Lake Erie to Lake Pennsylvania.

Why are we have so much to do? Why are we doing this crazy stuff? lead tasso, lead tasso, yes.

Is that so so that's a lead tasso? Tasso. Yeah. Yeah,

well, the Republican state rep in Berks County, David Maloney, wants to do just that. So Republicans clearly have their acts together. You know, they they think, you know, making sure people don't lose their health care, feeding children, having a roof over your head, not that important, but you know, changing the Lake Erie's name. That should be on the forefront of everyone's.

Changing names

is wild. It is also like it's home. H-O-M-E. That's how I learned the Great Lakes. Let's not change it. We're good. Yeah, we're good.

Let's not change him. Yeah. I I I know his

inspiration is coming from Donald Trump, but come on, get real people.

It's such a weird thing to do. It is like changing changing the name when we have hungry constituents is just so silly. Yeah.

Yeah. Tone deaf. It's just tone deaf.

All right. I have two more. getting justice for victims of child abuse as adults.

Absolutely. Ted Lasso.

Yeah.

Yeah. I d I mean Josh Shapiro has been begging the legislature to pass a bill to basically grandfather and the people who missed out on it when the law was changed back in twenty nineteen. But Republican politicians in Harrisburg don't want to do that. They don't want to do it. mostly because they're in the pockets of the insurance companies. and a lot of those are funded by the church. So a fun fact there. So yeah, that we're not gonna

get I know it's very sad. So we're not gonna get that to change unless we get a trifecta. Here's the last one. This is a this is a layup for you, a layup, okay?

I love a good layup.

Defunding

public schools.

my gosh. Lead, lead all the way.

Led

So

open our history books.

They didn't want to give education to people where they wanted them under their thumbs. So I'm not gonna be under any of my thumbs. I use my education. I I am very

Yeah.

proud that I'm able to say, hey, this is wrong. This doesn't make sense. Science says no. History says no. You know, so like I don't ever want to take that away. And why would we like we wanna be a strong country? A strong country has educated citizens.

That's right. I agree with you. I agree. And they certainly the Republican politicians certainly don't want educated women. I can tell you that much. Because the this

Well, watch out, we're here.

I know. Thank god. Thank goodness for that. Thank goodness for that.

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

there's a lot of information out there that makes you not

connected and not wanting to go out and vote. I went to doors

where people are like, it doesn't matter anymore. And it matters more now than ever. Right?

when people are like, it doesn't matter, like politics, it doesn't matter. Everything you do is politics. Ever the water you

drink, the

air you breathe. So please keep it being engaged. Please I hope I can earn their trust. I hope the new the new wave can can earn your trust to be like, hey, we're out there to fight for you.

It's hard, you know, it's hard because we've seen we've seen the system fail us, but it's time to be like, you know what? Let's go out. They said they're gonna do these things, let's vote for them and give them a chance, because it's time.

Right.

The opposition wants you to be pessimistic. The opposition

Absolutely.

wants you to think that your vote doesn't matter because if they say, well, they're just as bad as me, doesn't matter if they're elected, then they just want to keep winning, right? They want they want to make you believe that you are just as bad as them. So just elect me anyway. And that is not true. Both sides are not the same. You, Rachel, are not the same as a current Republican state rep serving, and you will deliver completely opposite things on most issues than the person who is serving right now. So

I'm glad you're having those conversations.

And and I will

thank you. And it's it's the conversations that mind you, when I'm at the doors, I'm talking to Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. All right. I'm just not talking

Hm. Yeah.

to a niche group. I'm talking to everybody. And my

Mm-hmm.

neighbors can attest to that. And they're all everyone's saying the same thing. Everyone wants the same thing. The base they want affordability. They want to make sure that their land's not polluted. They want to keep the Lehigh Valley, the Lehigh Valley, you know, with farmland.

we live and I'm I'm biased, but I lived everywhere 'cause of my family being the military. Th my Lily High Valley is the most beautiful area I've ever been in. We have a diverse group of of neighbors. We have rural, we have urban, we have suburban suburban areas. This is we have industry, we have jobs. This we have a right to fight for what we have because we have a gorgeous area and we have amazing people that live

here. So that's why I'm running because

It's not because of losing hope, it's because hope, right? It's because like I know how amazing my neighbors are and they deserve better.

Well, Rachel, what gives you hope?

What gives me hope is the trifecta. It is me going door to door and and my neighbors saying, We're sick of this. We are still fighting.

I'm so excited, like and I get goosebumps, when I walk in Harrisburg, when I walk in into the Capitol building, knowing what we're gonna do there, it literally like it's just

at all of what we can do to make sure everyone's life is better. So that's what gives me hope. what is hope is my neighbors and how supportive they are and how amazing they are and how I know that they deserve better.

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

to fight like heck.

I know that everyone out there wants change and they want calm and they want community. And so that's what's gonna get me through it. What's gonna get me through it is that I know because I'm in the inside, I know the strong values, the people who are running right now, and I know that they're gonna do better and I know they're gonna listen to their constituents and I know they're gonna fight.

So that's what's getting me through the next, you know, forty some days until election day. But what's gonna get me through the next couple of years is just knowing that every day I'm gonna make a difference.

Leaning into the work. I love it. That is what everyone should be doing, not just you, but anyone listening or watching. To get through these tough years, we have to lean into the work.

Rachel Cuevas, Democrat running for state rep in Pennsylvania. Look, anything can happen this November 3rd. We need to get out there and support Democrats up and down the ballot all over the state. Rachel, what is your website?

So it's just V-O-T-E Rachel R A C H E L Cuevas, which if you want to know is Cave in Spanish. It is C-U-E-V-A-S dot com.

Well, if you live in McCundgee, Lynn, Heidelberg, Washington, or Weissenberg, get off your ass and go to Rachel's website, sign up to Doorknock, make a small donation, send some postcards. This is our time. We need the trifecta. That means increasing our margins in the state house, and Rachel is going to be a part of that journey. Rachel, I can't vote for you. I wish that I could, but I will be cheering for you on the sidelines, and I can't wait to call you and congratulate you on November 3rd.

I appreciate it. I appreciate you having a conversation with me. The fun the fun games we played. I'm I need to brush up on some acronyms I see, but

That's okay.

other than that, this was super fun.

You did a great job.

Thank you.

Well, thank

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