How do you reach and persuade more people on a tight budget? Use free AI apps to create, translate and stream your message!
Rachel Levy is running to represent Virginia's 59th district. She recorded a podcast interview with me for Digital Politics Podcast. We discussed the challenges of a campaign trying to reach voters in a district that spans both rural and urban areas.
How can a campaign share it's message with more people for free? In audio form so people can listen to it while working, driving or running? Provide the message in English, Spanish and other languages? How can the message be easily shared through social media? And do all this for free? This blog explains how to do us free AI apps to reach and persuade more people for less. But first, listen to Rachel's message!
How to use AI powered streaming audio in your campaign
These streaming audio files were created with free AI powered apps. The project took about four hours.
The podcast interview was recorded with ZOOM.
A transcript of the interview was generated with DROPBOX.
A Spanish translation of the transcript was generated with Google Translate.
These recordings were edited in Google Docs to work better in an audio form.
Audio files of the English and Spanish transcripts were generated with Audyo.
The files were uploaded to the SoundCloud streaming platform.
QR Codes of the audio file links were generated with QR Code Generator.
Who is Rachel Levy?
Rachel is a Democrat running to provide every citizen of the 59th District with competent, responsive, hard-working representation, no matter who you are or how you vote.
"I’m running to strengthen and improve our public schools, ensure better access to healthcare including maintaining access to safe and legal abortion, protect our environment from pollution and conserve our natural resources, address the housing crisis while supporting responsible development, create a strong economy that works for ALL Virginians, and take more steps to prevent gun crimes and violence. More generally, I’m running to protect our rights and freedoms, and to push back against extremism.
I ran for House of Delegates in 2021 and increased Democratic turnout in the old 55th District by 30%. Now I am running again in the new 59th which includes most of Louisa County, Ashland and western Hanover County, and several precincts in northern Henrico County." - Learn more
TakeAway: Campaign smarter for less with AI powered apps and streaming audio.
Deepak
DemLabs
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Transcript of file used to create streaming audio
Read this, or listen to the audio.
Rachel Levy is running to represent Virginia’s 59th district. Listen to why she is running.
I grew up in a very civically active household in Washington, DC I'm the daughter of two civil rights lawyers who embraced our public democratic institutions and really valued local government and volunteering and contributing and using our advantages to help others And now I live in the town of Ashland, Virginia, which is in Hanover County. The district has parts of Louisa, Hanover, and Henrico counties.
Unfortunately many representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates do not represent all of their constituents. And I think that's wrong. You should not have to be a good old boy to get representation. Or a utility monopoly. Or a corporation to get representation. I think that every citizen deserves a responsive, competent, hardworking representation, no matter who they are or how they vote.
I got my calling to public service from spending most of my career as an educator, as a public school teacher. And there, you are a public servant who has to educate to the best of your ability, every student who comes before you, no matter who they are, what their background is, or what their attitude towards schooling or towards your classes. I am a wife and a mother of three. I love them very much. My children's future is also very important to me. That in a nutshell is why I am running.
The biggest problem in my district right now is right-wing extremism. It used to be on the fringe. But now it has become more mainstream including my opponent who is the incumbent. We have to save our democracy. It is flawed and it takes a lot of work to make sure that our democracy works for everybody, and serves everybody But that is a fight worth having. It is something worth saving. I think that's the biggest thing: extremism and loss of our rights and our freedoms. You know people no longer believe in our institutions. People want single party rule which is authoritarianism. That's not democracy.
People want to control when they get pregnant and give birth. That is an example of our rights and freedoms. There's book banning going on. Attacks on our first amendment rights. Our freedoms are under attack. The right to be who you are. The right to be transgender. The right to be gay. The right to marry who you want to marry. All of that is under attack right now
I think some people are unaware of what is going on. Others are in denial. It's a hard thing to face and to put your foot down. To me it is not about being conservative or liberal. I've lived here for many years and I've been very active. I've gone to school board meetings and board of supervisor meetings for a long time. And I've built relationships with people. This is not conservatism. This is something else which is far more dangerous.
I'm not talking about like your neighbor or your coworker who might be a Republican and is a reasonable person. I'm talking about the Republican party. It's not normal for people's rights to be taken away. It's not normal to ban books. That's not normal politics. I think there's a lot of people who are worried And that is also a reason for why I'm running There's a lot of people who work either one really hard job or two, three jobs and they can barely make ends meet. They don't have much time to pay attention and they just know that they're suffering.
They can't afford housing. They can't afford healthcare. They can't afford childcare. Sometimes even if they have healthcare, they can't afford it. Even if they have housing, they can't afford it. Some people are too busy just trying to make a living. Just trying to survive to pay attention. Those are the people where we have to come together and say: extremism will not help you. Banning books will not help you pay your bills or afford medical care. Taking away the rights of transgender kids is not gonna help make housing more affordable. So even if people can't let certain people into their hearts, they have to understand that our democracy works better when everybody's rights are respected. And everybody's humanity is valued And that we can still do that.
Your representatives can still do that and you can still get your piece of the pie. Some politicians use issues to get people riled up and distract them from the things that really matter like education and safety and their freedoms because people get so agitated about nonsensical issues that they forget what's really important. Actually you know strengthening and improving our public schools is probably my number one issue. Partly because this is where our kids and our community, especially in a more rural district like mine. This is where the community comes together and lives and learns together.
I find sometimes Democrats make the mistake of shaming people for not being ready to accept certain things. It's not okay to compromise on someone's rights and humanities. I won't do that as a representative, but can we say okay, I'm not going to argue with you about whether you think it's okay if your child is transgender or not. I'm not going to argue with you about that. But, you know, are your grocery prices too high? Is your health care affordable
What about that? Can we talk about that and how government can help you there? Because I don't think the government should be deciding what pronouns people use. And so I'm not going to argue with a voter about that. And so I do think that it is a big distraction from the grave inequalities that we have in our country and in Virginia. That working class and middle class people are underpaid and overworked and overtaxed, compared to the most wealthy people and big businesses.
When I last ran the district was a more rural and more conservative district. We increased democratic voter turnout by a huge percentage in a red wave election. And the way that we did that was we knocked on hundreds of doors. We have already surpassed that. Knocking doors even in rural areas is the most effective way. And having a message that resonates with people. And having policies that show people that you're trying to help them, you're trying to help make their lives better and showing up at their door and having conversations and asking what do you need?
What issues are on your mind? What does someone running to represent you and Richmond need to hear about? We do phone banking and postcards and texts. We have two billboards and we have dozens of barn signs and hundreds of yard signs out there. We have a radio ad. We have four social media channels, we have digital ads, we have a great catchy logo which is ‘Rachel runs for us.’
Meaning I run for office and I do also run for exercise. I have a lot of energy. That logo captures my energy, but also says I am running for the concept of 'us'. I am running for our community, for all of us, and I will work for all of us. So all of those things and just showing up is so important, especially in more rural communities.
A lot of people think there is no diversity in rural areas. That isn’t so. The people you have in cities, suburbs, rural areas and small towns are the same. The things that I hear about the most in rural Hanover is 'gun violence'. People are scared to death for their children's safety. These are gun owners too. People are scared to death of their children getting shot in school. I talked to a former Marine gun owner who wants more regulations on guns and more training on who could have them. So this is a much bigger issue. Cost of housing, cost of living, cost of health care, cost of energy. And then reproductive rights, maintaining access to safe and legal abortion.
My district isn't entirely rural, mind you, but it is small towns, it is inner ring and outer ring suburbs, and it is rural areas. But we already have lack of access to healthcare, and it's multiplied, you know, further when it comes to reproductive healthcare. This includes reproductive healthcare in general. Contraception. Prenatal care. And yes, abortion services and abortion care. Those are the things I hear about.
People thank me for running because they say, I don't know how you can do this. Politics is so scary right now. People are scared. And I say, well, this is how I deal with it by not being scared. I engage. I fight for our democracy. I try to restore people's faith. Get them to have a sense of faith in government. And representative democracy. And democratic governance. The nationalization of politics is a big obstacle.
Go to my website to learn more about why I am running to represent Virginia’s 59th district. The website has everything. RachelForDelegate.org
Donate! Volunteer! See what volunteer events we have coming up. Check out my endorsements! My policy platform, which is very extensive. Please join me in making life better in Virginia’s 59th district. And to fight for a democracy that works for all of us. Thank you.