Chico Chamber 2026 Congressional Candidate Forum | Audrey Denney

As part of the Chico Chamber of Commerce's 2026 Congressional Candidate Forum series, hear directly from congressional candidate Audrey Denney as she shares her background, priorities, and vision for the future of California's North State.

To learn more about the Chico Chamber of Commerce and its work supporting local businesses and the community, visit the Chico Chamber of Commerce website.

👉 Watch the live video recorded episode here

https://youtu.be/RZ5o_tsZTio?si=7TQZHfEr8TH8guWg

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Ms. Denny.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Please call me Audrey.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Audrey. Thank you. Welcome. Thanks for being here. Tell me a little bit about yourself and why you're running for office.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

So I've lived in Chico since 2003. Moved up here to go to school. Grew up on a family farm on the Central Coast. We ranched beef cattle and we had draft horses. And my folks were some of the first people to plant wine grapes north of Pass Robles in the mid-80s. And so moved up here for an ag education degree. Fell in love with Chico and State as many of us do, as is the common story here. I spent my career teaching agriculture at Chico State, doing some international human rights work. And then I've been in the private sector for the last decade, doing non primarily nonprofit consulting, some with some ag businesses as well. So really my whole career trajectory has been about um making systems work better for people. And that's really what I feel like I bring to this role. And I hope we get to dig into that a little bit today. I ran for this seat in 2018 and 2020 against the late congressman Lamalfa and back at it again to finish the job. It could not be more important, I think, in this moment in national history to have a representative leadership who has lived experience with these issues and has um kind of strategies and plans on how to tackle some of these really complex problems facing the people that live here. And um so I would be honored to to earn the support of our community as I try to as I try to earn this job. So that's yeah, that's what I'm doing here.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

Audrey, as you mentioned, um thank you for coming. Uh uh, as you mentioned, it's your third time running for this seat. Um how is this different? How are you approaching this than the first two at first two trials?

SPEAKER_00 1:48

I think the most important thing to recognize that is different uh is the maps. Um in 2018 and 2020, this was a deep red district. Uh the first year I ran, it had a Republican registration advantage of 10 points. Um in the political world, like that is that is not something that is not something that you can generally overcome, right? And so I had I faced a really kind of long shot, long shot uphill battle those first two times, um, just because of the the nature of the maps, right? And then in the special election, that's a slightly different map. Here's where it gets really wonky that I ran in in 1820. But then the post-prop 50, the new California's first district, um, gerrymandered all to hell to to favor Democrats by 10 points. Um, obviously that was the point of Prop 50 was to give, you know, to make these new maps um to push back against Trump taking five more seats in Texas. We've seen all of the things that have happened since then that I'm sure we can all get annoyed by. Um but so basically the biggest difference is I was going from our 10 district that I lost by nine and a half points in 2018, to now a Democrat plus 10 district, the safest of all the new post-prop 50 districts. Um so there will be a Democrat representing California's first starting January 2027 with these new maps. Um because wait for that's why they were drawn. Um, and so the biggest difference honestly is is the map is different, and so my chances are are way different. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

Back to like more of the personal stuff. Like what do you do for fun?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Oh so after I turn 40, I'm 42 now. Um, I'm sure several of you have have experienced this, but when you turn 40, you have to pick a new hobby. And the hobbies are uh pickleball, crafting, or bird watching. Those are the three.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

Or candidate forms.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Or candidate forms for podcasters. I have no art skill set, I'm not a podcaster, and I uh uh don't have any hand-eye coordination, so I chose birding. Yeah, so I am now an amateur bird watcher. I have uh four different bird feeders in my backyard. I have the Merlin app, the eBird app. Um, so mostly I stay in my backyard so far. Uh, but it is also really nice to have the same hobby as my cats because it gives us you know quality time to bond. Um, they also like gardening, so I do some gardening in my backyard in downtown Chico. Uh-huh. I grow some heirloom beans. Beans. Uh-huh. Very good at growing heirloom beans and loofah sponges. Uh, nothing else so far, but those are the two that I've been able to consider.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Have you bought an expensive pair of binoculars yet?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Uh I got a cheap pair. Okay. Because I'm a working class lady. So I got uh I got your kind of average binoculars, but I had a pair of crows that nested in my neighborhood, which is a pretty big deal. Uh I'm not sure if any of you are on the side of TikTok where you can befriend crows, um, but they befriended my neighbor and they like sat on his shoulder. Um they hold grudges. Interesting. Oh, yeah. We can talk about birds. So we're now this is a bird podcast.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

My uh post-40, uh I took dirt bikes and I graduated to side by side. So it's like slightly less hard on my body to do this. Yeah, that feels right. Yeah. I totally yeah, you get it. I saw how to hit that 40 mark.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Yeah, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

I mean, you're what now, 27?

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Oh, it's eternal 27, you know that now though. Yeah, that's nice. Very nice.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

That means that I was uh so I I'm not sure. Famous, famous thing about me, I'm not sure if anybody knows, is I bartended for a long time. I was at the Banshee downtown for six years. Uh basically, I think I started there about a year after they opened, and then I would worked there until I turned 30, uh, which is a while ago now. Um, and then I bartended uh the brewery during my undergrad. Um and so I was gonna say, Mark, if you're still 27, then that means I was serving you drinks illegally because you would have been knocked 12 when I was working.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

So slightly problematic. But his secrets are yeah, he's got a portrait of the basement though.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Well, as we uh kind of jump into uh this thing, um can you think of one thing that Doug did that you would continue to champion that you think he did well and that you appreciated about him?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Absolutely. So Doug and I had uh we got to know each other pretty well in those couple years I was voting against him, you know, and I um I'm gonna talk about one thing I appreciated about him as a person, and then I got a policy answer for this too. But um one thing that I always appreciated about him as a person um was when we would show up and be in the same space together, like we could go, we could go at each other about policies like when the cameras were on. Um, but as soon as the cameras were off, or even sometimes when they were on, he'd be like, Oh, you know what, Audrey and I don't agree about much, but we both love the San Francisco Giants, you know, or in the he was always um a really like affable guy who really, I think at the end of the day, um had what he thought was best for his constituents in mind. Um and you know, honestly, like talking to James Gallagher, like kind of the who's following in his footsteps, like James and I have a lot, we agree on a lot of stuff. Doug and I agreed on on a lot of stuff around some stuff around forestry, rural education, and I'll talk about more of that in a second. But like the at the end of the day, a lot of that is when you're from here and you care about this part of the world and you care about the people who live here, a lot of what we want for our communities is is gonna look the same. Like we want people, like we want healthy forests, we want to l lower our fire damage or fire risk. We want to make sure that we can live in homes we can afford, where there's a good economy, where kids can stay here and raise their families, you know. Like we want a lot of the same things. It's just that our solutions or our strategies to get there um might look different, and our beliefs about the role of government might look different. Um, and so that's one thing that gives me hope um in this like divided partisan environment that we live in is when we can like actually have the conversations about like saying, hey, like we actually want the same thing, but our ideas to get there are different. So then let's talk about the ideas and let's talk about the policies. Um, so that's I think for me that's pretty exciting. But one just specific, like one of the things that Doug was doing right towards the end of his tenure was um really advocating for the reauthorization of secure rural schools, which is such a critical program um for our rural counties. So famously, California educ famously, uh everyone knows this. Uh eight to twelve.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

Yeah, I don't, so please uh educate me.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Famously, eight to twelve percent of California's K-12 education funding comes from the feds. That's not not you shouldn't know that. I should know that. Um, which isn't a tremendous amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but it's really important money because that money mostly goes to rural schools and high need schools, which is in our you know congressional district in our part of the world, huge. Secure rural schools is actually uh administered through the Forest Service and it goes to school districts that have large chunks of federal land. Because when we have a bunch of federal land, what do we have less of? Tax base, right? And so um when they took, when they basically when we stopped being able to pull green timber uh sales out of Forest Service, they started this program. Um, and that money goes to both school districts for them to use in a lot, like really flexible ways, but also um to maintain roads in rural counties. And so that's really, really crucial funding that has to be reauthorized every two years. So Doug was able to pull off um the reauthorization that had been stalled, and I want to build on that, and I really believe that one of the things that I can do in the first two years is um get legislation through that'll make secure rural schools permanent. Um, so it doesn't have to be reauthorized every two years. Um, because in the current context, like school districts can't count on that money coming through because here's another famously, Congress famously can't get its act together and actually pass a budget. So we're running on CRs all the time. Um, and so so school districts can't actually count on that money being reauthorized or actually showing up. And so when it does show up, they're like, great, I guess we'll repaint the parking lot. Real example from Alturists, um, instead of paying for what they actually need, which is school counselors, more teachers, like things that they actually need. And so um that is one thing that not only Doug worked on that I want to continue building towards, um, but also something that I think I can get done and and hopefully in the first two years by working across the aisle with other members of Congress from other states that have high percentages of federal land. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Now on that, Audrey, what are you know, you said a lot of good things as Doug Doug has Doug's done and done for the area and did for the area. Kind of what is something that you would do different that that uh as opposed to to what Doug did?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Man, um so the biggest like this feels really national, but it's actually not the biggest thing that is the difference between what Doug Doug and me, or honestly, James and me, um, is like if you believe that Trump is doing everything right, you should probably vote for James, right? If if you if you believed Doug was or like Trump was doing everything right, you would have voted for for Doug. Um, if you don't think that, you should probably vote for me. Um, because the uh the real effects of having Donald Trump as our president um is hitting small businesses, is hitting working class regular people, is hitting um people who are on Medicaid, people who have food stamps, small businesses, small businessers, small businessers that are um getting hit by tariffs, making supply chains, everything coming in the supply chain more expensive, while also like losing market access on the back end. Um one big beautiful bill. There was a couple things in there that we can talk about that I believe were helpful, including um gesturing wildly at Brandon. Um like the increase of low-income taxing, low-income housing tax credits, right? Really helpful. Um, that was one thing I think was important for solving or for making progress towards one of our big and tractable issues of affordable housing. Um but when we look at at it overall, the the broad brush of it is cut services and earned benefits to people to be able to pay for tax cuts to billionaires and corporations. Um, and so that's like when it comes down to it, like that's the biggest difference, like between voting for James or voting for me. Like that's that's what it is for me.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

So how do you differentiate yours differentiate yourself from Mike then?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah. Um if you think that what's happened in Sacramento over the last 12 years, if you're super pleased with what's coming out of the state capitol, vote for Mike. Mike has been in the state senate for 12 years. He was the leader of the California Democrats under a supermajority. Um, and so and he'll tell you everything that that the state senate has done for you. And if you can actually feel that difference in your quality of life, I like rolling with the city.

SPEAKER_04 13:33

I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

If you think that what the California Democratic political insider supermajority in California has done over the last 12 years has not benefited you, has not made your life easier. Um, I wouldn't vote for him. Um, also, the biggest infringement oh, I'm feeling a little spicy. I might have had one too many cups of coffee. Bring me more coffee. Um the biggest difference, honestly, is who we're accountable to. Uh that guy has been funded by corporate PACs his entire career. Um, and I don't take a dime of corporate pack money because I only want to be accountable to real people. So if you want a political insider that's uh never had a career besides public office, vote for Mike. Um if you want somebody who has lived experience in these issues, who's from here, uh who will only be accountable to real people, vote for me.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

So kind of on that topic, as far as experience, he has a lot. I think you have less, which could be a positive. But do you have any examples of have have, and I don't just don't know. Like, have you held any public offices? Have you uh maybe boards or things that you uh have had to work at that are in that kind of governmentally kind of world?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Cannot wait to tell you all about them, but I want to drill in here on the word experience. And I'm gonna really, you said this was just a conversation and I'm platform. So I'm gonna This is a new movement. I'm gonna drive this to what I think is a really important point. Um, and what I would like to highlight that I'm sitting around the table with three brilliant middle-aged white guys, professionals from Chico, right? And me as the only woman in this in this race, um, I'm gonna bring it to a slightly different direction. Um, I have never held elected office. I think that's a really good thing. Um I have the exact same amount of experience doing federal policy as these two guys I'm running against. Right. The the the thought that being a state level politician immediately gives you experience that you can immediately transfer to being a member of the US House of Representatives is what I think is an inaccurate frame. And it's also one of not one of, it has been the biggest attack that people who supported me in 2018 and 2020 have used against me this year. I'm gonna start by saying all of labor unions, all of organized labor in 2020 endorsed me. Every single endorsement.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

Oh, uh it's okay. We got the good, yeah, yeah. Keep going.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Um this year, organized labor as a whole, instead of saying, hey, Audrey, you know, uh, Mike's been our guy for 12 years. He's voted with us 95% of the time. We've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of pack checks in him. We're gonna go with him. Instead of saying that, organized labor said, Audrey doesn't have the experience. Audrey's not experienced, but I was experienced enough six years ago to get all their endorsements. And so the the experience that I've gained professionally in the last six years as the president of the board of the largest human rights organization in Latin America, um as a leading national consultant for nonprofits like Feeding America, the experience that I have as lived experience as a working class human that has lived paycheck to paycheck as a bartender before while putting myself through grad school and also teaching, you know, like the experience that I have bringing diverse stakeholders together to make evidence-based strategies that lead to our outcomes and then measuring those outcomes to see if we actually achieved what we were trying to achieve. Um, the experience I have overseeing million dollar, millions of dollar budgets, like um that for me is is the experience that I bring. Um, and on top of that, um as a woman in this political world running against two career politicians who've been in Sacramento, um, the amount that I have to know to be considered even competent or capable of doing this job, the amount that I have to be prepared versus what it takes for these guys is a total different bar of entry. And so since 2017, when I started this journey, I have been going to every community and every small town in our part of the world, all the way, you know, Aetna, Callahan, Altourists, Taylorsville. I've been sitting in coffee shops and church basements and auction yards and talking to people and understanding about their lived experience and their problems. And then I've been going home and I've been researching like a madwoman what are the actual federal levers that I can press as a member of Congress to tangibly make people's lives better. And so that is what I've done over the past eight years now to prepare myself for this job. Um, and so uh thank you for letting me kind of go off about uh sexism and experience. Um but what I hope is the takeaway is that I'm wildly prepared for this job and I will do a really good job at it. Um, and that is that metric that I will use to be the broader of whether or I did a good job is is will life tangibly get better for the people who live in my congressional district over the tenure of my service? Um and and I believe that that is a thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

I guess I was gonna follow up on that. It seems like you said the dynamics have kind of changed for you. I mean, for the past two elections you've been involved in this position, you've had the whole Democratic Party behind you, and they've literally switched sides on you. And uh and personally, as a friend of yours, it's sad to see um because I know all the hard work you've put in put in with them over the years. Um how has your approach now changed with a lot of the people who, as you're saying, who supported you before aren't supported you now as you speak to potential voters and everyone else from here to Healdsburg uh for this district?

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah. This is um one of the things that gives me the amount of freedom that I have right now is that I am not the endorsed candidate of the Democratic Party. Um and a big reason why I am still in this fight, because to be honest, this is not fun. I'm not doing this for fun. Uh, I'm not doing this for self-enrichment. By the way, you don't make money when you're running for office. Um a big part of why I'm doing this is I still believe in the Democratic Party, but I believe that it needs serious change and serious reform. And I need that, I believe that we have to call it out from the inside. And so a big part of what I'm doing is speaking truth to power within the Democratic establishment and saying, hey, uh when you're bought and paid for by corporations, you're not actually showing up for people. When Mike McGuire and James Gallagher have at least 73 of the same corporate PACs on their donor rolls from the last 12 years in the state legislature, that shows you that the parties, the establishment parties are working for the same entities and they're not regular people, right? And so for me, um, the freedom that comes from not being endorsed by the Democratic Party allows me to say, hey, like we can be better, the party can be better, and if the party doesn't want to be better, well then let's start a new party, or let's all become no party preference voters and let's actually show people what it means to have people in leadership that that fight for them. Um, so yeah, that's I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

That's I'm gonna steal one of Dorian's terms here and say, I want to double click on the you know, talking about the Democratic Party and things that can change. And I'd just love to get your thoughts on on that and like what are some things that you feel like they've kind of gone the wrong direction on and how you push the bed on?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah, yeah. Did you see how I used a word that didn't believe? Yeah. Fool me once.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

Growing up.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Um, okay, I think there's there's two really big things that are intertwined. Um the the one is like there aren't enough of them who will call out the fact that or even cop up to the fact that they uh Require and rely on corporate money to continue to get elected in special interest money. So, like, like for me, that's the root of all almost all evil. That's like, like, why don't we have and I think we need a single payer nonprofit healthcare system. Why don't we have that? Well, because the Democratic Party is also captured by the private insurance and big pharma, right? So, like that whole corporate money piece is really important. But I think the other side of it is like they've failed to articulate a vision over the past decade of of something that of an America that actually benefits working class people. Um, and they've spent so much time being uh timid and trying talking about incremental change and protecting institutions that they've become and just saying, oh, just trust us. Listen, we can't handle a division in the party, just just vote for Hillary. We can't handle division in the party, just vote for Biden. We just, we better, we we have to do something. Who can beat Trump? Me, Harris. Well just instead of actually are that's what they sound like in my brain.

SPEAKER_05 23:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Um instead, I said I wasn't gonna do voices, and then I did. Um, but they they haven't cast the vision for like, here, here's what the next 250 years of the American experiment can look like. Um, here's what what our democracy looks like when it's founded on systems um that that center people. Here's what the political and economic system can look like when it centers people and neighbors and communities and not and not corporations. Um, and so I'm really interested in helping both cast that vision, but also helping say, like, here's the anti-corruption measures that we need to put on the whole system, on both parties, to make sure that we um are working towards a democracy where people trust it again, right? Where people trust the outcomes of elections, where people believe their vote matters, where people believe they have um a say in what happens. So for me, that's those are those are some of the things that I want to be a part of. And I I think it's gonna take a new generation of leaders that are um like like of their communities, but also like representative of their communities. Um, and I believe that that that means also more women's leadership, more working class leadership, um, both things that I bring.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

So you're saying it's not okay to go into Congress with no money and then come out of $100 million uh worth $100 million?

SPEAKER_00 24:30

I'm so interested in how that happens.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

Um I want to sign up for that.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

That's I think the only problem for me, besides the fact that I believe that we need to immediately ban uh congressional stock trading and executive branch stock trading and for their immediate families. Um I think to benefit from insider trading, you need something to trade. So I'm like, oh, I would, I would, I would never get it, I would never make it. Just kidding, that was a little joke about being a working class human. Not my best one. Um, but yeah, I think I mean that's such a low bar. I mean, members of Congress, the executive branch, like trading individual stocks to make bazillions of dollars using their insider knowledge. Like, come on. Yeah, wonder wonder why people don't trust them.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

I really appreciate what you said about articulating the vision. I also appreciate you your uh your nod to doing the research of what levers you can pull to make a difference, and I really appreciate your accountability to regular people. Uh, those three things I think are great nods to what your plans are. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about what a successful term as a congressperson looks like for you.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah. Okay, so my first term. Yeah. Okay, so I want to I want to set the scene. I want to set the stage. I want to keep the viewers at home excited. Um, so my first two years in the House of Representatives are going to be the going to be going to be the last two years of Donald Trump's term. We might, we will potentially have a Democrat House of Representatives. Maybe Democrats will control the Senate. We don't really know. Donald Trump will still be the president. Uh, regardless, this is not, this is not the two-year time frame where big bold pieces of progressive legislation are gonna get passed, right? I believe, quick pause. Um, I believe that the economic conditions that we're gonna see in the next 12 to 18 months, um, with the AI bubble potentially bursting, with massive layoffs from from a lot of companies because of AI, uh, the the energy and water costs that we'll see changing because of AI, I believe that the economic situation in 12 to 18 months is going to be incredibly so much more dire than it is right now, especially with our loss of, or not our loss, our our intentional cutting of so many social safety nets like Medicaid and food stamps because of one big beautiful bill, that I believe stuff's about to get a lot worse for the everyday American before it gets better. And I believe that we will be in a place that we will need bold progressive solutions akin to the New Deal to get regular working class people like back on track. Do I think that I'm gonna do that in the first two years? No, absolutely not. Here's what I'm gonna do in the first two years in this historically divided, uh least productive Congress since the early 1900s. Um I'm gonna be hyper focused on what I can do for the communities that I serve. That does not look like trying to get a bunch of legislation passed. That looks like how do we use earmarks, congressionally directed spending, community project funding, whatever you want to call them, um, three words for the same thing. Bringing it, bringing resources and directing resources back to our district. Here are some of the like we talked about secure rural schools, right? There's um in FEMA, there is pre-disaster mitigation funding called BRIC BRIC, um, that we can leverage for uh some of the uh infrastructure projects, specifically with roads with evacuation routes, um, that I think is something that's really worth tapping into. This is gonna sound crazy um because it's not a problem that we have here locally, but in Lake County, there is an insane amount of unneutered cats and dogs, specifically in Clear Lake, to the point where it's causing like a public health crisis. Like I had at a meet and greet I had in Clear Lake, I had 15 people sitting around in a coffee shop. The only thing that they all agreed on was what can we do about the cats and dogs? Like it was, it was like it was wild. And so then obviously, what did I do? That's the that's the sound sound that research makes. Um, but I looked up, I was like, okay, like if we get it called like a public health crisis, we can go through USDA, World Dev, there's like money, we could like get a spay and neuter mobile clinic van and drive it. I mean, not we we I wouldn't be driving the spay and neuter van technically. Um, but you know, we that's like a specific earmark that we could get done that would have a tremendous difference for that community, right? Um working, and then I I want to sit on the ag committee and the natural resources committee. Getting a farm bill, we've been on the same farm bill since 2018. It should have expired in 2023. Our government is continuing to try to govern itself with last-ditch emergency measures and continuing things instead of because they're too uh dysfunctional and polarized to even like pass a clean budget. Um, so I want to be on the committee that helps get the next farm bill through. And that's, I mean, that's SNAP benefits, that's nutrition assistance, all federal nutrition programs. Um, that's for service budget, that's conservation funding, that's you know, ag processing, all of that's tied up in the farm bill. So um, yeah, those are a couple examples of like really the the kinds of things I'll be focused on are what where are the opportunities to use these federal levers to this this money, famously the power of the purse, that's will be my biggest way to influence to make life better for folks. And so those are some of the ways that I want to do that.

unknown 30:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

You bring up you bring up agriculture, Audrey. And as you know, it's we're both an ag, we're both in families, both an ag uh major economic driver in this district. Yeah. Um commodity prices, trade, water issues, a lot of things going on. Um, what are some things, you know, as you as you mentioned, and what are some other things that you can see to help the ag industry here within your district and locally?

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Yeah. Um, so the farm bill is huge. Um, and there's a couple, like a couple angles that I want to kind of bring up as we as we're thinking about federal farm policy. Um so much of it is dictated by um who has the most expensive lobbyists, who has the most power, who has the most representation. Um, and when you look across the Midwest and you look at most of our commodity crops grown in the Midwest, corn, beans, um, those are going to be the major crops that are generally supported in the farm bill. Most of our stuff out here, um, our specialty crops, our orchard crops, our wine grapes, um aren't things that are traditionally advocated for because there's there's less of us, right? There's less members of Congress in California that have deep deep and rich backgrounds in agriculture. And so, one, making sure that specialty crops, California agriculture is is is front and center at those discussions is really important. And then also, like, that we're actually centering family farmers and not um not massive corporate entities. Um this is so another thing to kind of weave into this. Um, I love not having to keep my answers to 90 seconds, by the way. This is my preferred format. I knew this format.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

It's made for you.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

So we'll be having this is a three and a half hour podcast interview that everybody will be excited to watch.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

I do live in 1130.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

I gotta leave at 11.30. So sure. Likely story. Um, okay, but this one other thing, real quick, it's exciting. Um, when we think about like the impact of the tariffs, right? So I told you I grew up on a wine grape vineyard. We lost the ranch actually in 2010. We lost all of our grape contracts with the economic downturn in 2008. I kept it going for a little while and then uh sold off all the parts he could, and then eventually um lost it to foreclosure. Um and so I I know this this really personally. Um and so when we look at specifically Trump's tariffs and their effect on markets, like we lost 25% of the California wine grape market overnight to Canada, right? And that those aren't markets that are coming back. Um and already even before that, these dang Gen Z kids aren't drinking enough wine. We clearly are. Um, but so consumption patterns are down. So so we're California wine grapes before the tariffs were already in the biggest crisis since prohibition. Um they pulled out in the in the year of our Lord 2025, they pulled out 50,000 acres in California of wine grapes. Looks like we probably need to pull out another 40,000 acres for the market to hit equilibrium. Which, what, which, which of the wines are gonna get pulled out? Which which one of these these guys aren't gonna make it? E and J Gallo or Mom and Pop Vineyard in Hillsburg, right? Like, so we need farm policy that centers and supports small family farmers um who are the lifeblood of this area. We can talk about water, we can talk about labor, uh, but I'm not sure if you want me to keep talking about it. Water, let's go water.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

Okay, okay.

unknown 33:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

Tell us about your water.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

I don't have a water problem. I turned on my faucet again.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Okay. And what's crazy is that some people in Butte and Glenn County in our rural communities do have a water problem.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Which is really important to kind of ground ourselves in. Um, it's also really important as we start this chapter of the conversation, which we'll go for an hour and a half. Um, like we have three minutes is uh famously, famously the most complex like water policy is in California. Like we have water rights laws that are that are from before California was a state, our Pueblo water rights laws. We that's what like when Mexico, when California was still Mexico, um, we have like pre-1914, post-1914, Sigma Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Like we have really, really complex systems. We have the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, both of which headwaters are in California's first district, at least until the new map. Um, and so there's there's DWR, Department of Water Resources at the state. Um, where the federal government plays in is um funding for infrastructure through the Water Resources Development Act, FERC, um the Federal Energy Regulation Commission for some of our like commissioning decommissionings of massive infrastructure projects. Um, and then the the executive, the Trump administration has has um started putting their finger on the scale too of like water flows um that we've seen um through through the system. So those are some of the different levers. I like a couple of the hot button issues that are happening around here. Sites reservoir, sites is happening, they're breaking ground in 2027. Like, whether I don't think it's the best use of $6.7 billion, but it's happening now.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

So get on board and make sure that like if you don't think it's the best use, the best use of that much money for a project that started theoretically in 1979, right? What do you think is the better use for storage in California?

SPEAKER_00 36:00

What so the cheapest way for us to do storage is to get our forests into a state of ecological health. Like when calm down, calm down. Um so like if we if we use $6.7 billion in massive landscape level forest restoration projects in in the watersheds in our part of the world, instead of building a reservoir where we're gonna have to pump water in, pump water out, and we're gonna lose 30,000 uh acre feet a year to evaporation. Like, uh it's not, it's whatever, it's happening, it's fine. Let's find more federal money to do the forest restoration work that we that we need. Um let's let's not raise the Shasta Dam because uh that will only actually help us store more water in the years that it rains. Famously, I one time in 2018 said, Doug, if raising the Shasta Dam would make it rain more, I'd be all for it. That was my favorite quote that I ever said to Doug. Uh he laughed. Um Sigma. Uh I mean, at the end of the day, bring it all together in one cohesive package, Audrey. Um at the end of the day, the best thing that I believe that I can do as a member of Congress to uh protect California's water future and our ability to capture rainwater, refill our aquifers, recharge our groundwater, um, is investing in the watersheds in our part of the world by and the forest restoration work.

SPEAKER_04 37:32

So I'm somewhat ignorant. Help me understand how a healthy forest is gonna re-charge. I mean, I'm guessing you're saying that it's gonna recharge our aquifers.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

So, right now.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

Um our forests have in okay, I need you to just go with me really quickly on a journey into the post, into the pre-colonial forests, um, where the Native Americans, indigenous people who had been living here for millennia had been stewarding our forests through fire, um, prescribed prescribed burns, indigenous uh cultural burning practices forever, right? So imagine an acre of forest land, right? It's gonna have about 50 trees, 50 to 80 trees per acre. Some of them are gonna be old growth trees, there's gonna be a diversity of species, there's gonna be meadows, um really different than what most of our forested land looks like now, after 100 years of fire suppression policy, chronic underinvestment in the forest service. We're looking at a lot of our forest service land has 800 trees per acre, all the same variety, um, all smoshed up next to each other like that. And so, in a lot of these cases, like the snowpack actually evaporates before it can even get to the top of the soil to recharge um the groundwater system to be part of that. And in a I love ecology, and in a in a post-fire landscape, too, like when you look at Plumas County and 60% of the land has burned, or 70, something don't quote me on that, says the woman who's being reported. Recorded, yeah. I'm pretty sure you just got quoted. 16 to 70, a large amount of Plumas County has burned, landmass has burned really recently. And so um uh re-um restoring those those landscapes to health to be able to, because the the the water quality, the pollution element that comes um with that when when when the water from the Feather River watershed is being like primarily directed down to like the metropolitan water district, like we need to make sure that there's enough of it, and that also that it also isn't full of a bunch of contaminants from burnt down houses, you know. And so these are these are some of the ways that that healthy forests can help us actually store water. So thank you for that question. Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Glad you love the ecology so much. That's great. Uh I want to double-click on something. Yeah, uh famously, we're seeing a ton of polarization, we're seeing incredible division in locally, in the country, all over the place. We're seeing these party line splits that are preventing anything from getting done. Tell me about your method for bringing people to your side. And tell me about what it takes to compromise or to stand your ground and to bring people to your side on the issues that you don't want to compromise on.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Yeah. So I want to push back on the frame a little bit because it's not um, it's not bringing people to my side, right? It's it's creating a collective, like shared vision for what we want in our community or our part of the world. And then it's solutioning the best way to get there. And every single vote that I take, every single decision that I make, at least 50% of the people are gonna be pissed at me. That's just, I mean, that's like maybe, maybe more, right? And that's like you can't govern under like trying to make everybody happy all the time because the very nature of these like really complex and tractable problems is that you have to uh make decisions that have either like benefit multi-stakeholders or or do the most good for the most people while trying to, I promise I wouldn't say this, mitigate the negative externalities of those decisions or like lessen the bad things that happen to other people is a is a more simple way of putting that, right? Um, and so um so for me, it's like how do we how do I make a big enough table where everybody, everybody's voice is there, everybody's lived expertise is there, um, and then how do we go from there? So practically what I want to do is I want to have a task force for each of these different issues: watershed restoration, rural health care, wildfire insurance, rural education, and have subject matter experts and people with lived experience on those different issues from all of the nine different counties that I represent. We'll meet monthly. Um and these folks will help us um identify problems before they become catastrophic, like Glen Medical Center losing its critical access designation. Like if we had identified that sooner, we could have potentially stopped the hospital from closing, right? Um, so it'll help us identify problems, they'll help us figure out those levers that we can press, figure out where those buckets of funding are that we can we can get. And then long term, um, they'll be able to help us like craft what are those pieces of legislation, what are the actual legislative fixes that we need. Um and so for me, it is really like, and that's not just gonna be Democrats, you know, like that needs to be for me, um people who want to put their community first, who want to look beside like beyond these partisan labels and want to say, like, how do we actually solution for our people? Using solution as a verb there, which it's not, but I liked it.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Yeah, you can solution things.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

I can solution, I'm gonna solution the heck out of things.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Uh I I want to just I guess where my my head goes with that is I like your reframing of I want to paint a bigger picture that brings more people to the table, but I want to lightly push back. Yeah, do it.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

You can push back strongly. I can take it.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

50% that you know are hopeless. It harkens to Mitt Romney's comments of 47% of the country will never vote for me, which was a gaff, or Hillary's basket of deplorables, half the country will never vote for me, which was a gaff, right? What is how what do we do about bringing more than 50% to the same table?

SPEAKER_00 43:31

I think that I think that that 50% if I'm doing my job right, that 50% or that 30% of people who is mad at me is always changing. So I think that's a really key point because like um like I I one of my this was a this was one of my friends actually said that who was a he was a former state legislature legislator in in in Sacramento. He's from the Central Coast, and he was like, Audrey, as long as the 30 people who are 30% of people who are pissed at me is always changing. I feel like I'm doing my job.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

I think it's a wonderful distinction.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Good job, Jordan. Um, but so I think that's important to say. But also, like, um, I'm gonna take this opportunity to tell you something different about myself, um which is that like that my core belief that I bring to this job, that I bring to every interaction in my life, is that every single human is inherently equal in worth and rights and dignity. Every single every single human. Um and that comes from both like my faith perspective, like all God's children, but also it comes from my human rights training um and my human rights background and how that lives out in the world is that that means that every single like experience that you've had in your life is yours and it's it's valid because it's yours. And so the way that you were brought up, the family system that you were brought up in, the community that you were brought up in, that shapes your values and your beliefs, and then that shapes your actions. And so if I truly believe that your lived experience is valid and yours, then I can't say that I am morally superior, like because I believe like all of our opinions are are equally valid, even though they're different, right? And so that is the like the genuine frame that I bring. Um, do I sometimes think I am absolutely right about the best solution to get an outcome? Absolutely. I will dig my heels in and I'll be like, this is the best solution, there's the most evidence pointing in this direction. And then we'd have to wait for it, do a pilot test, or implement it, and then decide like what metrics we're gonna be using to measure success and then measure success on it and to see if we like objectively were able to do it. And if not, you know, then we change the strategy. Um, this is the the kind of thing in the professional world, in the nonprofit sector, in the corporate world, in the private sector, that is just really, really obvious that like any of you making a business plan or a strategic plan for an organization would expect. And yet our government is just like, Blue Cross told me to do this, so we're gonna do this now. Um, and so that that part is a little bit crazy for me. Um, so there was the answer to 17 questions that you didn't ask. Uh but I maybe one that you did ask.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

What I was hoping to hear. Yeah, well said.

SPEAKER_04 46:27

It's all kind of going on the political divisiveness thing, and it seems like there's this new thing in our culture where it's like, oh, if you believe this, I'm not I'm never gonna work with you and you're evil. And like, how do we come back to like you know reality? Yeah, like remake community, like it's okay to have healthy disagreement and still be friends, and like yeah, like to me, that's I don't know, that's what it's all about. Like, I mean, what are little things, what are big things we can do? Um, maybe I I you know obviously you can't legislate morality, but like, man, what do we do? How do we I feel like we got lost?

SPEAKER_03 47:03

Yeah, I think we have two wrapped up, and you've said, I mean, you've kind of in this conversation, kind of it's like Trump this, Trump that. I don't want to care about Trump or Epstein or whatever. I care about Chico, Butte County, what's going on here, where you can help. So, yeah, with Brandon's question, what do you do with that?

SPEAKER_00 47:19

I I'm gonna answer that question. I've got two two things that we can do. And I wanna, I wanna like I hear what you're saying, Mark, but I also want to just like acknowledge the fact that like Trump's decisions have real impacts on people's actual real lives. So like we can be like we can call it, we can say this this administration, we can say one big beautiful bill, but but we have to be able to still be able to have a conversation of like these policy things that have been enacted hurt real people. Like these tariffs that's so like that. I just want to say with that.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

I hear from the if four years or two years ago with the Biden administration, it was the same thing from the other side. Those policies. So, like I said, I want to get away from that. I want to I want to know, you know, how do you, as as Brandon so ugly put it, how do you fix that divide? How do you look at community? I don't care. I can there shouldn't be there shouldn't be right or left when it comes to a bike lane in this town or a car in this town or whatever. How do you how do you go about working that and fixing that issue that has become so divided? Because me and you don't see eye to eye on everything, but we're really good friends. And you know, my neighbors and everything else. And how do we get back to that?

SPEAKER_00 48:28

How do we heal the social fabric of our country? Yes. So there's two without blaming Trump. There's two things that I there's two things that I think we can do. Um, I think that we're circling around a little bit, um, one of them, and I think it it starts so local. Like my very next door neighbors are um Linda. She recently lost her husband, John. But um, when I moved in to my house four years ago, I was able to buy. Um, I am a homeowner as a 42-year-old, which I feel really single income. I feel very, very honored and lucky to be able to do that. I will live into this home until I die. Um when the life, lifelong Republicans. Um the pickup truck had a sticker in the back of the window that said scare a liberal buy a gun. And I so I was like moving and I was like, well, we'll see what happens here. So I hop out of my car the first day, and John was there to greet me, and he said, Audrey, it is so nice to meet you. I am so proud of you, and I cannot wait to have a glass of wine and learn about everything that you learned on your campaigns. And I just like started crying. I was like, Will you be my dad? Um, and that's how like we became really, really close friends. And so, like, these are people that I now like I sit with them weekly and and have wine and like the like and we talk about our differences and we talk about like all of our shared common values, you know. And so I think like re in a culture that is so on our phone and into the like digital space, I think actually re-grounding ourselves in community with people who believe different things than us, um, and finding ways to to love each other through that, I think is crucial. Um, and so that's like the thing that everyone can do. Um, and in like social in social movements, anytime we're trying to make social change, there's always two elements. It's like what what can what is like collective change is made up of lots of people's individual actions, but it's also made up of like what is the type of leadership that you're deciding to elect. Um, so there's the two different things no matter what social change we're talking about. So that's the individual action, that level is like we can each be more engaged in our communities, finding people who disagree with us and loving them and becoming friends. And the other part is like you could elect leaders like James or I, who are both on opposite sides of the table, but both deeply, deeply believe in our communities and care about our parts, our part of the world and like want want to solve problems for everyone. And like um, I really I believe that his and I ability to actually have good conversations around these issues and say, like, hey, we don't agree on everything, but like here are the stuff we do agree on. I think that sets an example of a kind of post whatever this crazy partisan divide is, like what post that could look like, you know. So those are those are two things that make social change. We have six minutes till he has to.

SPEAKER_04 51:31

I was just gonna say, yeah, yeah, you're watching the clock too.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

So uh um, let's see. Let maybe we land the plane. Let's land the plane. Land the plane. Land the plane. Land the plane. Yeah. Uh Audrey, thank you so much for joining us today. As we wind down, I want to create space for you to give us a closing statement. Tell us what you want to make sure this community knows about you.

SPEAKER_05 51:57

Well, the first time I'm just saying I've ever seen you speechless. I'm not speechless, I'm thinking. Let a woman thinking.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

Um so I want what I hope this community knows about me. Oh, didn't expect this to happen. Um is how deeply I care. I love this part of the world. I love Northern California. I love Chico, I love Butte County, and I feel like you know, 23 years deep, I I can say I'm from here. Um this is my like this is my home. Um and I believe I have a really unique skill set and perspective um to serve our communities well in this specific role. The reason why I have not run for city council or county supervisor or state assembly is because I think I will be a really good federal policymaker. Like that is what, like that is where my passion is. That is what I'm really excited to do is make that system work better for the people who live here. Um and I don't want to be a career politician, but I want to go back there for the six years until they redraw the maps and then find some other way to serve my community, right? Um, but I just really, really believe that um the skill set that I bring, the the political courage that I bring, and the um freedom from influence from corporations or special interests or party establishment on either side um will allow me to be a really effective policymaker for my part of the world. And um it would just be the greatest honor.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

Audrey Denny, thank you for what you do. Thank you for rising to the occasion and for caring about this community. We appreciate you today, and we look forward to following your campaign with great interest.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

Yay! Thank you so much for having me. This was fun.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

Yeah, thanks, Audrey.

SPEAKER_03 54:00

Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 54:01

Thank you, everyone. Thank you.