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Melissa Harris-Perry: I'm Melissa Harris-Perry, and this is The Takeaway. As of Friday morning, more than 2 million Floridians are still without power in the wake of Hurricane Ian with the storm continuing to crawl up the mid-Atlantic. Now, Ian had come ashore Wednesday on Florida's Gulf Coast as a nearly category five hurricane, one of the strongest storms ever to hit the US. It flooded homes on both of the state's coasts, cut off the only road access to a barrier island, destroyed a historic waterfront pier, and knocked out electricity to nearly a quarter of the state's utility customers.

About 600 miles away from Tampa, Florida, schools are closed across the Piedmont Region of North Carolina. I know this because this is where I live and my kid is out of school on a Friday, and we're bracing for high winds and rain, and that so many can be affected by a single event like Ian. It's perhaps just another reminder of how connected we really are.

39 days from the midterm elections, and a lot of politics, well, it feels very local. Voters are choosing school boards. They're determining county commissions. They're shuffling up who is serving as sheriff, and they're determining the best representatives for sewer, water, and levee boards, but as local as these elections are, we are nonetheless connected. Just 39 days away from the final day to cast a vote in the midterm elections, it is possible to see some big trends within all this disparate local campaigning, and one of those shared through lines is the diversity of the candidate pool.

According to a new analysis released this week by our partner, this is the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, more women ran for governor, the US Senate, and House, and state legislatures in this election cycle than ever before. According to the Victory Fund, LGBTQ+ candidates for the US Congress and transgender candidates overall reach record numbers as well. Let's figure out what it all means for all of us. Political Strategist Aisha Mills is here. She was recently a candidate for New York's 18th Congressional District. Aisha, welcome back to The Takeaway.

Aisha Mills: Hi, Melissa. Glad to be with you.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Absolutely. So happy to have you, and Maria Cardona, CNN Political Commentator and Democratic Strategist and Principal of the Dewey Square Group is also with us. Maria, welcome to The Takeaway.

Maria Cardona: Melissa, so great to be with you. Thank you.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Thank you. Aisha, I want to start with you because you were president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to elect LGBTQ people up and down the ballot, which, so I feel like, good job, you planted some seeds there, we're seeing this record here. Talk to me a little bit about the races that you are watching most closely this year.

Aisha Mills: Well, let me just start by saying, Melissa, you're right. There were seeds planted that have led us to this place where we literally have the most diverse Congress that we've ever had in history, and we're also seeing the most diverse state legislatures that we've ever had in history, and it's because there has been a multi-decade strategy to train, to recruit, to develop, to invest in people to be public servants.

Now, I ran the organization, the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which did the pipeline building for LGBTQ folks, and we're now over 800 out elected people all across the country because of that work, but EMILY's List has been doing this pipelining for women for many, many, many years, over 20 years. There's also the Latino Victory Fund that is doing this for Latino candidates.

I want to just start off our conversation by letting everyone know that while there are a bounty of amazing people in communities who have been doing the Lord's work of public service in their own ways that step up and answer the call to run for office, there also is a organizational structure that would it have not been for many of these groups who go out and support these candidates who are frankly underdogs most of the time that actually got us here and is pushing forwards for structural change.

I am always watching to see, of course, which queer candidates are going to be able to break through first the establishment and the establishment coffers, and yet the establishment head nod, and then to see how they might do in the broader sense of the general election. I light it up that way because my experience has been that the first challenge for diverse candidates is actually getting taken seriously by those who hold the purse strings and those who control the political establishment where they are. One candidate that I can--

Melissa Harris-Perry: Aisha, I want to pause right there because it's such an important insight and I don't want to go too quickly past it because I think there is a way in media that we talk about elections as though it is voters making decisions on candidates, and yes, but even the framework for which candidates you get to make a decision between is set with all of these other prior decision-makers, parties that nominate or don't, those who give to campaigns or choose not to. All of these intermediary decision makers who determine in part the viability of a candidate before that candidate ends up on a general election ballot for voters to make a choice between.

Aisha Mills: Exactly, and the truth is, is that some of that inside baseball that we're talking about, that party politicking is what makes it difficult for people who are most connected to the pain, as Ayanna Presley, says to even jump into the fray and be of service to their communities, but it also does help in pushing forth the handful that are deemed to "be viable" and give them the resources to win.

Yes, I think about my friend Leslie Herod, who is running for mayor in Denver, Colorado, who is probably going to win and be the first Black woman and Black lesbian to serve there in Denver. She's been doing amazing work. She also has the backing of the LGBT community, the Democratic establishment at large, the governor there who also happens to be a gay man, and so Leslie has really positioned herself to be competitive, fundraising and otherwise just throughout her career.

I, on the other hand, when I was running this summer here in New York's Hudson Valley, ended up in a redistricting conundrum where I was running for the current DCCC chairman seat that he has vacated because he's running elsewhere due to redistricting, and he handpicked who was going to be his successor, if that makes sense, and the consequence of that is that I was the anti-establishment candidate and didn't win the primary for a lot of reason, but certainly, from a fundraising standpoint and a messaging standpoint ended up being against an establishment that raised me, that I grew up in.

Like we talked about, I ran various organizations helping hundreds of other people get elected. The political wins are not certainly just about the voters, unfortunately. Because if they were, then we would probably have even more diverse representation than we do now.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Maria, let me follow up on this table here that Aisha is setting for us, and maybe you can help us see that within the context of broader democratic party politics here. We had, for example, six Black women who threw their hat in the ring to be governor of their state, which is in a country that's never had a Black woman serve as governor, but some of them have struggled with exactly this establishment in terms of finding that they're being pushed, promoted, amplified by the Democratic party in the same ways that some of their colleagues who have also relative political newcomers but who are not Black women have been able to find support.

Maria Cardona: That's absolutely the case, and look, let's just say the reality here, which is, first of all, change is hard, and secondly, when you are looking at a trend that is different, which is Black women running, Latina women running, LGBTQ candidates running, it scares a lot of people. There's still a lot people who are not comfortable with that. Some of it is racism, some of it is conscious, some of it is subconscious, and that's what the trend that we all see that we know is good for this country, which is more diverse candidates representing what has become a more diverse demographic in this country.

That's good, but having that change, especially within the establishment, even the democratic establishment, has been tough, and so I commend Aisha and all of the groups that are doing such amazing work to make sure that candidates, diverse candidates across the board, are prepared for when they want to take those steps because that is incredibly important.

The other thing I would say is that the reason, I think, that we have so many diverse candidates running this time around is because you have the intersection between candidates who have been preparing with all the groundwork that Aisha and the other groups have been involved in for so many years, and then you have the political climate. Because people aren't going to run for office if they think things are hunky dory for them.

We saw in 2017 when Trump was elected that year, even though EMILY's List and so many women's groups had been doing such incredible work in getting women to run in years prior, we suddenly saw a barrage of women the way we've never seen them before run for office. Why was it? Because they felt threatened. They felt threatened to their core. It was existential.

I really think that is a big reason why so many additional diverse candidates are running this time around. They are threatened. I know Latinos feel threatened. I know LGBTQ communities feel threatened. You have people stepping out from those communities saying, "We are going to take the reins, we're going to run, we're going to be the ones at these tables of power making these decisions for our communities. We're not going to take it anymore."

I think the confluence of those two things are what has led us to this moment. Even though some of that change comes from a negative place because people don't see the country going in the right direction for their communities, I think the result is incredibly positive for the country.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Maria, I'm wondering, in that sense of threat, because there's that challenge between both amplifying or moving people because of a sense of threat but also a sense of hope or efficacy. You were just coming to it towards the end there. I do wonder, if for many voters and communities, the threat feels real, but maybe the sense of solution doesn't. That's where I want to pick up.

As soon as we get back, we're going to come back. We are still going to be talking with Aisha Mills, political strategist and former candidate for New York's 18th Congressional District, and with Maria Cardona who is CNN political commentator. We're going to keep talking about this sense of threat and hope. Maria, be ready for me as soon as we get back.

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Thanks for sticking with us on The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. We're continuing our conversation about the diverse pool of candidates in this year's midterm elections. Now, according to the Bookings Institution, 72% of Republicans running for Congress this year are white, whereas less than half of Democratic candidates are white. We're back now with CNN Political Commentator Maria Cardona and Political Strategist Aisha Mills. Maria, before the break, we were talking about this notion of hope or efficacy along with this concern about threat. What are you seeing about through where folks are in that space?

Maria Cardona: I think that there is a healthy combination of both, Melissa, because you're right. I think that people aren't going to jump into the ring if they don't feel hopeful that they are the ones that can bring the change that's necessary to their community. There certainly is that hope, that aspiration, that while they might not see things in the best light for their communities or the direction of their communities in this country are going the way that they see it, they do still see the promise of this country in terms of it being the one with the opportunities the greatest country in the world if you step up and you do things according to the laws. Well, most laws, anyway.

I think that's part of the point for people running. Sometimes they see those laws are unjust and they want to change them. The core of that is that positivity, that hopefulness, that aspiration that they can make the changes that are necessary. That is a blessing still that we have in this country. That doesn't exist in every country in the world.

You do have that, I think an important combination of understanding that it's going to be difficult, because clearly, the stats are that it is still much more difficult for a diverse candidate to get the support that they need from the establishment to raise that money, to make a name for themselves, to be able to be successful in a run for office than it is for white candidates. That is still a reality in this country.

At the same time, we are at a historic moment where more diverse candidates are stepping up to the plate than ever before. I am proud that it's the Democratic Party that has celebrated these diverse candidates. Even though sometimes we ourselves have to make sure to make room for those diverse candidates to bring them into the process.

This is where so many groups that have done exactly that, make sure they have the training, make sure they know how to raise money, make sure they have funders that are ready to support them because it's not easy. It is not easy to run for office in this country. I still think we have a long way to go for the candidates and then for elected officials up and down the ballots to actually represent the communities that they come from, but I think that we're making great strides.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All right. On just that, I want to come, Aisha. First of all, Aisha, I want you to come on down south with me, not just metaphorically, but anytime. Come on down, visit us here in North Carolina because I'd love to get your take on this US Senate race going on in North Carolina right now between Ted Budd, who is the Republican nominee, and Cheri Beasley, who is the African American woman nominee.

Cheri Beasley is running-- just for folks who may not know, Cheri Beasley is actually coming out of the court. She had served for a short time as the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. She's running this very interesting deracialized and departisan campaign that feels very much like her judge identity.

She's got a recent campaign commercial where she's been endorsed by multiple male judges from the court from different ideological backgrounds. What they're saying about her is she's not an ideologue, she's not a partisan, which strikes me as a fascinating strategy in this particular social and political moment. I'm really interested to know what you think, Aisha, to the extent that you've been following this Senate race.

Aisha Mills: Melissa, your observations are just always so spot-on and astute. I, too, have raised my eyebrow in curiosity around the-- I'm going to call it sanitizing of her candidacy in a way. At least that's how it looks from a national lens to me, especially because in contrast to, say, Stacey Abrams being on a ballot right now looking at a Mandela Barnes's Senate race that is super exciting, and out there in Milwaukee and such, so progressive in Wisconsin, and he's getting a lot of flare and energy. It seems to me that her race is designed to be very neutral even though she's competing as a Democrat.

I don't know why that has been the strategic thought process. Do folks think that a Black woman can't win statewide in North Carolina, and thus, are trying to make her as sobering as possible for those who might feel anxious about her? I'm not sure, but I'll tell you this, because I get her emails and I get her fundraising text messages. She is coming across very differently in the fundraising fury of the narrative than what we see in the public stump speeching day-to-day campaigning and media coverage.

I always wonder how it ultimately will play out when there are really two different types of energies and narratives spewing out, one from fundraising, which is very, "The sky is going to fall if you don't elect me. We need Democrats to control the Senate. I can do this kind of thing," versus how someone is showing up with actual voters. It seems to me that that the authenticity across the board, and I use Mandela Barnes to contrast just watching his campaign, is what works and that people can sniff through it.

I am very disappointed that Democrats are not jumping up and down and doing more to support her. One, I'm a little bit biased because I think the Black women will save us. I do believe that someone who has been so above the fray or outside of the fray of the nasty vitreal of partisan politics just by virtue of her being a Supreme Court judge seems to me to be the type of person that we should be getting behind. The Democrats do what the Democrats do, and I hope that we are not disappointed come November because of the lack of enthusiasm around her.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Aisha, let me come back to you just real quick on this one and ask about media and the intersection of media coverage of LGBTQ+ and particularly LGBTQ+ of color candidates. Has media gotten any better about how we talk about-- think about in position these candidates?

Aisha Mills: That's always-- it depends on who the media is at any point in time, but I would say that's certainly the mainstreaming of LGBTQ candidates, queer people of color especially has been really important. Also, just culture breaking and culture making in terms of shifting people's ideas about what an elected official looks like. The media is to thank for a lot of that.

There was a great piece on Odessa Kelly, who was running down in Tennessee for Congress in a very Jerry Vanger district, which makes it a little bit tough for her, but The Washington Post did a great write-up talking about her as a mother, as an activist, as an organizer, but then certainly also as a candidate. She also happens to be a very tall former basketball-playing masculine-presenting queer person. I think that is very helpful.

I will say though, Melissa, to your point about media, it seems to me that we're also in a place where because of the media coverage around the pain, all of the issues would be it with policing, be it George Floyd or Breonna Taylor as well as the pseudo-celebrity of leaders of the Black Lives Matter Movement over the last decade or so. I think that people are also seeing hope in the opportunity to have resistance and to also be a part of structural change.

That's why we're seeing a new generation jump into the phrase well because part of the '80s and '90s felt like a big lull of Congressional Black Caucus doing whatever it was doing that was not necessarily connected to the day-to-day experience of communities of color's lives. Now, we are seeing movements rise up that are really challenging power systems. I believe it's inspiring people, and you see that in the media, to also step up to the plate because they believe that public service can be a lever of change. Again, it's a bit of a renaissance, I think.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Maria, I also want to come to you on maybe it's just the way the media talks about these moments, but as much as we've talked about Democrats having this diverse slate, it is not all on the Democratic side. One of the media discourses this year is the red wave of Latina candidates. A surge in Republican Latinas vying for congressional seats, many of them in Texas. I'm fascinated by this phenomenon that's occurring. Can you speak to it a bit?

Maria Cardona: Sure. I'll say that as a Latina, I think that's wonderful. I think the more Latinas step up to the plate to represent the community in either party or even as independents, I think, is good for the Latino community, is good for the country. The Latino community, as frankly are a lot of the diverse communities in this country, are exactly that. They're diverse within those communities. We're not all monolithic.

I think that's great. As a Democrat, I will say that the Democratic Party needs to continue to step up to the plate and to talk to Latinos across the country about why we believe it's our party that represents their interest because when we don't do that and if we don't do that, then Republicans are going to try to step into the fray.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Maria Cardona is a CNN political commentator and political strategist. Aisha Mills is also a political strategist and did that hard work of running for office very recently in a New York Congressional race. Thank you both for coming on The Takeaway.

Maria Cardona: Thank you.

Aisha Mills: Thank you.

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