How Gen Z Activist, Olivia Julianna, DESTROYED Matt Gaetz.

Matt Gaetz insulted our next guest, and she made 2 million bucks off of it. Wait, what? Okay, well, let's talk about it. Olivia Juliana is a political strategy specialist, and she's a Gen Z for change. And she did really do that, by the way, but not for herself, we'll explain. Olivia, great to have you here. Thanks for having me. No problem. All right, so look, you've done a lot of amazing things in Texas politics. You also trolled the living crap out of Greg Abbott, which we thoroughly enjoyed. And I want to ask what this Gen Z for change is because it sounds pretty good, okay? But first, let's start with, what was Matt Gaetz's insult of you? And how did it come about? Yeah, he went on this very just sexist, fatphobic rant at a turning point action summit. And I didn't like that very much. And so I made that very clear on social media. I believe the description he used was that all abortion rights activists were 5'3", 300 something pounds. And I responded and said, actually, I'm 5'11", 6'4", in heels. I wear them to remind small men of your place. And he didn't like that. He decided an appropriate response would be to tweet out my photograph to his 1.4 million followers. Alluding to an article that talked about how this would raise the dander of his political opponents, his speech at the turning point action summit. So he says dander raised and that's why you're responding to him. And he's putting in the picture there to try to get his idiot followers to attack you. Very classy by a US congressman, of course. So now talk to me about the jujitsu move you pulled on him to get the 2 million bucks. I had a lot of eyes on me after he decided that he was gonna target me individually. So I decided that I was gonna do what I always do, which is put my activism work first. And so I publicly said because he body shamed me, I would be fundraising for abortion funds in his honor. And it very quickly took off from there. I think within two days we raised $100,000 and then from there it shot up to 2.2 million within a span of five days. Wow, so where'd that money go? That money was split amongst 50 different abortion funds across the country. And it'll be used for access to abortion services, traveling funds, or for getting people access to reproductive health care services they might need that they might not be able to afford themselves. That's amazing. Okay, I got a lot more questions about that and how you guys make this happen and how it goes viral. But speaking of viral, we have a short TikTok video of yours or at least a portion of one to show folks. Let's watch. I know this beavis and butthead ass Republican politician did not just come for me on Twitter. But guess what, Manny? Guess what, Manny? I'm not the one. You wanna rumble? We can rumble, bitch. Olivia, I read that you watched wrestling growing up. So did I. And so that's why I love your rumbling attitude. We do that at TYT all the time. You're gonna punch me? No, I'm gonna punch you back so hard, it's gonna leave a goddamn mark. And so, but now you work with Democrats in Texas, and that is usually not their style. I mean, today on The Young Turks, we did a story about how Mark Kelly, the Republican, I'm sorry, how's that for a Freudian slip? The so-called Democratic senator from Arizona when asked, hey, you're running against some radicals. He himself is running as a guy who doesn't believe in democracy. And he just went there and said, no, I love my Republican colleagues. I think they're wonderful, etc. They're so goddamn soft. So number one, you get frustrated by that. And two, how do you interact with them and make it productive? I think that I know a lot of the statewide candidates and Democratic candidates here in Texas themselves. And I think that they're kinda starting to understand you have to take this more assertive and dominant and fiery tone that we're not seeing from Democrats across the country. I mean, me specifically, that's just who I am. And so I think we're kinda seeing the tides start to shift, especially here in Texas with the way that candidates are going about handling things. I mean, especially we've seen so much more passion from Beto O'Rourke, who's our candidate for governor. And I think that's starting to become more and more common here in Texas. I can't speak for the rest of the country because I'm not seeing that same kind of spark. But I think here in Texas, we're starting to see it more and more. Yeah, and I think that what's happening, and you correct me if I'm wrong, is that I've seen these guys in the past. They don't have any fight in them, okay? So now all of a sudden, they're fighting back a little bit more. And I've seen in the articles that they're communicating with you guys, not just with you, Olivia, although that's very literal. And you were talking to Beto, he called you out in one of the speeches as a person who's doing it right, etc. You're talking to some of the other candidates, but I mean, in general, Gen Z. And Gen Z doesn't have any tolerance for their weak sauce nonsense the Democrats peddle all the time. And I think that you guys are kind of showing them how to fight back. And then if you fight back, the world doesn't collapse in on you. Because I think that they were incredibly scared that it was going to. Am I over extrapolating, or do you think that there's a lot of truth to that? No, I think there's a lot of truth to that. I think that young voters in particular are kind of tired of this wishy-washy attitude we've seen from career politicians for a really long time. I've been working in politics for almost two years now. And when candidates ask me, how do I get to young voters? I say, tell the truth, be honest, be blunt. Because I'm personally, I'm just sick of the niceties and the pleasantries. I want you to tell me what your policy stances are, and what you're gonna do to make the quality of life of the people in this state better. And if you can't do that, then you might not be the candidate for the job. And I think that's the sentiment that a lot of young people have. And I think that's why we're starting to see more young people get into these spaces. Cuz it's not just us who's tired of hearing these things. I think the general public is tired of hearing these things too. 100%, no, it's just wonderful that they're listening to you guys cuz you're going viral, and it's affecting their power. So that's why all of a sudden their ears are perked up. But otherwise, they wouldn't be courageous if they're life dependent. I've covered Democrats for a quarter of a century, they're the biggest weaklings you'll ever see. With the potential exception of Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and all the betas on the Republican side. So now having said that, how do you do it, right? So you've gone supernova viral a couple of times. And so I'm sure the candidates come and ask you, my God, it was the same question I'm gonna ask, $2 million, Jesus, Lord, mercy, how'd you do that? I wish I could tell you. I mean, you just gotta have thick skin and you gotta be willing to roll your sleeves up and fight for what you believe in. And that's why people cared so much is because I think Matt Gaetz picked me because of my identity. I'm a Mexican, queer, disabled woman living in Texas of all places. He thought that I would kind of sit back and take that kind of abuse. And I think that's the way that a lot of Republicans see young people this day and age. But the reality is we're not fragile and I'm not fragile. So if you're gonna pick anyone, I think I was definitely the wrong one to pick on because I'll play these games. I was born and raised in rural Texas. So I think they could have picked someone a little softer to go after. Like maybe Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer or Joe Biden. Okay, so Olivia, I love your attitude. Yes, yes, double down on it. Make sure Democrats are listening cuz you're the only hope, you and the next generation is the only hope for Democrats to actually listen. Cuz when old school guys like us say, they're like, economic populism, telling people that you'll fight for them and for higher wages and healthcare for everyone. Don't be ridiculous. We have to tell people how similar we are to Republicans. No idea how frustrating 25 years of that incompetence is. So you're this ray of sunshine that I've been waiting for for a long, long time. All right, so speaking of which, now the rubber is gonna hit the road, right? Because a lot of corporate Democrats don't wanna actually do anything. It's smoke and mirrors. So how does Gen Z for Change know that these guys are gonna deliver given a 40 year track record of Democrats never deliver? I think the general consensus that I've heard from a lot of young people is that voting isn't enough. It's not enough to vote for the candidates you like. You have to go out and organize in your communities with either on the ground organizations or nonprofits that are gonna provide mutual aid for the people that need the most. I think that Democrats have done good things in the last two years. I wish we could have done more. I wish we had people who were willing to do more. But I think that right now we're in such a pivotal point, especially in states here like Texas, that we just gotta focus on getting local candidates elected who wanna make our day-to-day lives better. And then we can focus on going from there cuz I think that that's something that a lot of young people are talking about that older Democrats might not be aware of. Yeah, and the younger the candidate is, usually the better. It's not a blanket rule, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb. And the more progressive the candidate, of course, is better. But young people tend to be way more progressive and willing to fight back against the right wing. And as you can tell, those are issues I've got with the Democratic Party. So Olivia, for folks who don't know, what is Gen Z for Change? Gen Z for Change is a coalition of content creators and activists and organizers from across the country. Our main goal is to promote civic engagement amongst young people, but also fight for progressive change for the causes we believe in. We've done a lot of great things in the last few years. We've taken down tip lines. We've fought back against union-busting Starbucks corporations. There's a lot of different projects we've done to help people, not just in politics, but also within the labor movement and the abortion rights movement as well. Is there anything that people can do to help? You can visit our website and you can find ways to get involved at genzforchange.org. You can also follow us on social media pages at Gen Z for Change. We constantly have calls to action for people in our community and coalition. And we have a lot of ways that you can get involved and help coming into these midterm elections. Okay, Olivia, I'll ask you the same question I ask politicians these days. Now, if you help Democrats get elected and they don't do what they promised, which is, write that one down in stone, are you then going to push back and say, this is not what we argued for, this is not what we fought for? And the reason I ask it, it's kind of an obnoxious question, but the reason I ask it is because no one ever does follow up, to be honest, but you're a new generation. Yeah, I think there's a big conversation about holding politicians accountable. That's more common amongst young people. I mean, me and myself, there's Democrats in office right now who I've publicly talked about. I wish we could do more to address the student debt crisis. I wish we could do more to address the immigration crisis that's going on in this country. I specifically called out certain politicians in the past for that, including President Biden. And I will continue to do that through my career because it's not about what's left or what's right in terms of political parties. It's about what's right for the American people. And I think that that's the general consensus amongst young people is we're gonna keep calling people out and hoping that we can do right by the people in this country, not by the politicians. All right, last quick question. Was Nancy Pelosi definitely wrong for backing Henry Cuellar in Texas? I think that Nancy Pelosi has her reasons for doing what she does. I'm not privy to all of them, but I think that going into this midterm election, we need to focus on making sure that we can elect candidates in these state legislators that'll be able to pass laws in these state legislators if we can't do that in our National Congress this November. Okay, don't listen to their pretty little lies. Nancy Pelosi was definitely wrong. She backed an anti-choice, pro-gun, corrupt conservative Democrat. It's not gonna help anybody. All right, that's my sense of it, but I love the fight back you got, Olivia. I love it. Keep it going. Everybody check out genciforchange.org. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Thanks.