Aaron Viles of Progress Kentucky [0:00-5:15]

So we're here today with Aaron Viles, the chair of Progress Kentucky. Aaron, welcome to the state of Kentucky. Yeah, thanks for having me, Bruce. So you made a suggestion that we talk about Progress Kentucky's involvement with no means and also with various activities in Lexington. So before we do that, why don't you tell all our listeners and viewers about Progress Kentucky where it came from, what it does now? Sure. So we were organized I think in about 2020. Originally we were called the Mitch McConnell Retirement Committee because we were focused on that election and working to really just kind of be an anti-Mitch voice in the conversation. If we all recall, that was kind of a tough primary for the Democrats. Ultimately, it was also just a tough election with Trump on the top of the ticket. The Democrats did not do well, although Amy McGraft did do better than Joe Biden in Kentucky. But yeah, we were basically focused on being the anti-Mitch voice on that space. After that election, we kind of turned to our group of volunteers. What's next? What do we want to do and determine that really state policy, which is probably a place that people who cared passionately about kind of politics and making a better Kentucky and had supported folks like Andy Beshear, when he won, and Amy McGraft, when she lost, really needed to plug into the state level as well. Frankfurt seems to get a lot less attention than it needed because the outcomes coming from Frankfurt were not great for sure. And so we started to do a little bit more work focusing on Frankfurt with our kind of weekly live stream kernels of truth and engaging candidates as that election came up, looking at a slate of candidates that we could endorse and then actually canvas for as well. So with progress in Kentucky, we've been engaged at the federal and state level politically ever since then. It's interesting to me as I've watched your organization grow. It's gone from sort of an online organization to really being boots on the ground. I mean, there's a lot of activity that y'all are doing. So we could go into a lot of that, but why don't you tell us about No Kings and Lexington? Yeah, so progress Kentucky, we've always looked to align with networks that we agree with and that might offer more information or resources or expertise. Like Kentucky. Exactly. We're proud to be on the forward Kentucky network common ground Kentucky is also a community that we're really excited to be a part of common ground Kentucky action C4 table that's working on making Kentucky better politically. And then we're also a member of the indivisible network. So as such, you know, we've kind of been at the forefront of engaging for some of these big mass mobilizations that have been happening basically for a year. Right. If you think about it, the kind of the 50 51 group did a really good job with the president's day protests and we came out to one of those and met some of those organizers. And said this is, you know, we need to keep doing more of this in terms of the mass mobilizations to respond to the latest, you know, outrage from the Trump administration. And so we started doing those events working with other indivisible groups in Lexington. So bluegrass activist alliance is kind of the other well organized indivisible entity. But then the 50 51 Kentucky group that kind of sprung up out of those organizing efforts. AFT so Kentucky 120 united has been really active and engaged. And a lot of really other great groups at Lexington's I think worked really well together with a lot of different groups. We've got a very established and I think there's a lot of trust in the coalition that puts the mass mobilizations together groups kind of step up step back in terms of who's got the capacity to help lead the big groups. But we've worked with some, you know, some very kind of politically engaged and thoughtful entities that are very, you know, see three in their orientation, right. So folks like the NAACP Lexington branch, the lead women voters, the Lexington chapter there, been really active participants. You know, Kentucky and so the Commonwealth Central Kentucky chapter that's in Lexington has been a great collaborator. And then bluegrass DSA as well has been kind of at the table. So and I should not forget peaceful bluegrass resistance, which is another group like 50 51 that kind of sprung up after this Trump 2.0 started just ripping up the Constitution and being so outrageous.