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Welcome back to the Daily show. My guest tonight represents the 14th district of Illinois in the House of Representatives and is the co founder of the Black Maternal Health Caucus. Please welcome Congresswoman Lauren Underwood. Well, well, well. You got a lot of fans here.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

I'm so excited.

Welcome to Chicago.

Well, thank you. It's great to be here. They love you.

Thank you. Thank you.

As they should. As they should. I am so inspired by all of the work that you do. So having you here is a real treat. And especially being here in Chicago, I couldn't imagine a better guess.

Thank you very much.

You have quite a few friends. You are the first woman, the first person of color, and the first millennial to represent your district.

Yes, ma'am.

You're also the youngest black woman to ever serve in Congress. Ever. Now, there's another woman that is on the cusp of some firsts.

Yes.

Do you have Kamala Harris? Sorry? Does she have you on speed dial for advice?

Well, you know, it's been so interesting welcoming Vice President Harris and so many folks from around the country here to Illinois. It's made me reflect on conventions of the past. You know, this is my fourth democratic convention, and so in years past, some girlfriends and I would travel. We called ourselves social delegates. Some of them were here today. We were here for the vibe, for the party.

Oh, there it is.

Thanks.

Yay.

We had a great time, you know, obviously, as proud democrats, but also really doing some professional development.

Yes.

Here at the convention. Yes.

You spoke last night.

How was that?

How did it feel?

Wonderful.

Thank you. The speech was really exciting. We were able to talk about so many healthcare achievements, you know, the way that I've been able to work with Vice President Harris and President Joe Biden to lower out of pocket health care costs for the american people. Our successful legislation that allows Americans to access health plans for $10 or less per month is now law. And obviously, my work with Vice President Harris to advance and address the issue of maternal health in this country.

You actually have a combined 18 pieces of legislation that were signed into law since you entered in 2018. That's right. And many of them. 18 is a lot.

A lot. Thank you. Thank you.

That's incredible. And so, so many of them were health focused.

That's right.

Healthcare, maternal health space, specifically, what inspired you to want to focus so much of your work on that?

So I'm a registered nurse, spent my career working to expand health care coverage. Thank you. In communities across our country and I've really seen firsthand the impact of the high costs of healthcare. So many people can't afford to see a provider. If they get an unexpected diagnosis, they can't afford a procedure, much less get the medication that they need. And so I really took advantage once I got into office, of course, of the opportunity to lead and make sure that we were taking action to realize the promise of affordable health care through the ACA. And so, obviously, have really been successful to advance legislation. And we've had the lowest number of uninsured americans in us history.

Wow.

That's incredible.

In Congress, we say we put people over politics, and what that means is we're focused on lowering costs, the american people, but also making sure that in healthcare, we're taking the opportunity to address longstanding disparities, especially disparities in maternal health. What I'm talking about is, in our country, black women have been three to four times more likely to die of pregnancy related complications than their white counterparts. It's devastating. I had a good girlfriend die in 2017 after delivering birth to a beautiful baby girl. My friend's name was Shalon Irving. And so I knew that when I decided to run for office. And if I won, this would be an issue that I want to work on. And so in Congress, I've been so honored to partner with great leaders like then Senator Kamala Harris to introduce groundbreaking legislation, historic legislation called the mom to bus, designed to address every clinical and non clinical factor contributing to preventable maternal death in this country. And we've been successful. We've had one of our bills signed into law.

I mean, maternal health feels like an issue that should absolutely be bipartisan. Shouldn't there be an overwhelming amount of support for these things?

Well, the issue itself absolutely is bipartisan. We are seeing so many families recognize themselves in the story. And so this is an issue that touches every zip code, every state in this country. We have tremendous disparities, meaning poor outcomes in rural communities, you know, folks who are unable to get the quality of care or the choice of provider. We believe that if you want to see a midwife or want to get a doula or need some help breastfeeding, no matter where you live in this country, you should be able to access those resources. And right now, you can't. You can't. And so we've been able to work together as Democrats and Republicans to be able to advance this legislation. And we're looking for the first legislative opportunity to get the whole package, the whole mom to bus signed into law.

Yes.

From your lips to God here. It's an issue that doesn't just impact women. People talk about these issues like they're women's issues. These are family issues.

That's right.

They impact everyone.

That's right. And it's an economic issue. You know, when we think about this upcoming election, I really think about issues like maternal health, like healthcare, as being on the ballot. And so as we all go out and vote, if we want to lower out of pocket health care costs, we have to vote like it. If we want to make sure that we can all access high quality, comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care, we'd have to go vote, because by staying at home. By staying at home, we're allowing the extremists to win, and we know the path that they want to take us down.

Speaking of extremists.

Yes.

JD Vance.

Yes.

And others have been responsible for quite a bit of anti woman rhetoric.

Yes.

What do you make of all of this?

You know, it's so clear to me that JD Vance has a deeply rooted pathology when it comes to his hatred of women. I really hope he's going to therapy. I really do. It's so clear that he needs therapy. It's clear to me that, you know, we might laugh, but he does not belong in the White House. You know, I grew up. I grew up here in the great state of Illinois in the nineties. And, you know, we had the fortune of having the Oprah Winfrey show on tv twice a day here in the Chicagoland area.

Yucky.

And one of the great guests that she would always have on Washington, Maya Angelou, who taught us that when someone tells you about themselves, you believe them the first time. Now, Jayde Vance has told us about his dangerous, extreme policy agenda for american women. And it's up to us to believe him right now and to reject it and make sure that we go out and vote.

I heard that your parents are here tonight.

Oh, yeah, right here.

Hi, mom and dad.

Oh, boy. You must be very proud of your daughter. Very proud. Good job, mom and dad. You did a very good job. I heard that your mom said that you have always been, quote unquote, quote unquote, a good girl.

Yes, I do. I'm a rule follower. I can't help it. You know, my heart starts to race if I sort of color outside the line sometimes.

Yes, I understand. As a fellow rule follower, good girl herself, I sometimes like to rebel a little bit by doing wild things, like doing crossword puzzles in ink.

Yeah. Wow.

Like that.

Living on the edge would you ever.

Do something like that? What's your. How do you act out when you want to? Kind of.

Well, I love reality tv, especially the show survivor. And there's a lot of parallels between that particular show in my workplace, and so I get a lot of inspiration from the great heroes and villains of reality tv.

I thought you were gonna say love island or Vanderpump rules.

You go.

Survivor.

You go.

Like, it still involves democracy.

Always. Every person has a vote. Thank you. So, umbrella. Thank you.

The joy and the excitement is palpable right now with Kamala at the top of the ticket. Now, you worked very closely with her.

Yes.

What was your experience like?

You know, Kamala Harris is an incredible leader. I can't wait for the american people to get to know her as I have. She is warm and smart and funny and kind. Kamala Harris cares a lot about the maternal health issues that we spoke about earlier. That's how I came to know her president. She's really taken action to invite folks over to her home, and she loves to throw a party. And at the end of her, you know, engagements and affairs, she gives you a parting gift. Now, that's a sign of a good party. Her parting gifts are these beautiful candles. She has these custom candles. Now. You're a millennial woman. I'm a millennial woman. And we know that we love a candle. Can we just say, I love a candle.

I love a candy.

Candy.

Who doesn't love a candle?

So I was inspired by her gorgeous scent and her candle to launch my own candle line. And did you get it? Of course. It's called domestic tranquility.

I mean, as though you're not busy enough, you have a candle line.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

It's called what?

Domestic tranquility.

Yes. Yes.

I want in on this. How do I invest in this business?

Oh, well, you can visit Underwood for Congress.

I'm in. I am totally in. Give you all the fun. Oh, my gosh. It is such a delight to have you on.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for all of the work that you do. It's truly remarkable.

Thank you.

Congresswoman Laurence, welcome back to the Daily show.

My guest tonight is the democratic governor of Maryland. Please welcome Governor west. More.

Wow.

Wow, that's some Midwest love.

That's a midwest. This must be a democratic audience in here.

We can check on that. I'm not sure, Wes, let me get this straight. You are a Rhodes Scholar, a college football athlete, an army combat veteran, a nonprofit CEO, and a governor of Maryland fair to say, the most impressive resume on LinkedIn.

I don't know, man. I haven't seen yours yet.

Yeah.

This is.

If people like an improv teacher for ten years, then they're gonna be very impressed. You're speaking tonight at the convention?

I am speaking tonight, yes. Excited for.

I spent a little time over there talking to people yesterday, and there is an energy. People keep talking about this vibe. I'm curious what you've seen. And do you think this energy now is actually going to translate into electoral success?

It will. And the vibe and the energy is real, because I think both people see that there is a clear path to victory, and they understand what's at stake. I think that we have this kind of unique thing that's happening right now, where we both have the moment and you have the candidate, where you have both the moment of people understanding that it's. We're talking about the ideas of economic freedom. We're talking about the fact that we should be a country that should be respected. We're talking about we should be a country that actually has a chance where the idea of an american dream shouldn't be a punchline for communities. And we have a candidate whose life embodies fighting for freedoms, whose life embodies protecting us from predators, whose life embodies standing up and raising her hand when the country asked her to. And so I think this combination that we have right now of Vice President Harris and Governor Wallace is great, because it's like, this is what victory feels like, and this will mean being tired.

Sounds like you're measuring some drapes here. Is that right?

Well, no, because we have work to do, you know? Listen, and I remember, you know, when I joined the army when I was 17 years old, in fact, I. And, like, real talk, real talk. When I first joined, I was so young, my mother had to sign the paperwork for me.

Really?

Yeah. But after my teenage years, she signed whatever paperwork the army put in front of her. It was actually pretty easy. But we learned something there. It was this idea that nothing is given, everything is earned. Nothing is given, everything is earned, right? And I think the way we are looking at this race right now is, we've got to go earn it. We've got to go earn it with every voter. We've got to go earn it with every community. We've got to go earn it with every constituency. And we have now 76 days to go out there and earn it. And that's exactly what we plan on doing now.

I think I will say, though, there's an excitement, but a criticism is there's not a lot of policy right now. And there's a big question. How would the Kamala Harris administration look different than what the Biden administration would look like? Do you see this as a continuation of the Biden policies or a marked difference with the Kamala Harris administration?

Well, one thing I want to be fair, the policies and the impacts that we've seen from President Biden and the Biden Harris administration have been pretty remarkable. And so we cannot, this idea, this idea that the vice president, in order to win or to have a successful presidency, should do some hard pivot from the work that her and President Biden did together. I would just say the only problem with that argument is facts aren't on your side. Right. That, let's forget when the president took over, we just finished, we almost had an attempted coup in this country.

I know. I was there.

Yes, you were. Yes.

You were working. Working, to be clear. Working.

Yes. I'm glad we established that difference.

Just to be clear, this goes on tape and the election doesn't go the way you want it to be.

Very clear. But I, but I think the idea of her putting out policies, I think she's already begun to do that. She's already talked about things like she is going to have an expansion of the child tax credit to $6,000, which, by the way, which would be one of the most, which will she enacts that? When she enacts that, that is going to be one of the most effective ways to fight child poverty that we have seen in this nation's history. So she's already starting to put things out that are really important and get us very excited.

Do you imagine? So in Maryland, you've been pushing some pretty progressive angles when it comes to climate change, gun control, healthcare. Do you see the Harris administration following suit and helping in that way?

Well, I think that everything we've gotten done in Maryland has been because we've had a great partner in the Biden Harris administration. I mean, look at what's happened in our state. When I was inaugurated, Maryland was ranked 43rd in the country in unemployment right now for twelve straight months, Maryland has amongst the lowest unemployment rates in the entire country. Our unemployment rate right now is 2.5. That we said we have now have a legalized cannabis market inside the state of Maryland. But I said, I said there is no way that we are going to celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization. And so, and so about, you know, a couple months ago, I signed the largest mass pardon for cannabis convictions in the history of the United States. But the reason. The reason I bring those things up is this. It was all done because I had the right partner in Washington. I had a White House that actually saw us, that worked with us. And so all the momentum that we are seeing when it comes to economic growth, the momentum. Maryland now has the fastest drop in homicides and violent crimes in the entire country right now.

This is all happening because we have the right kind of partner that we need in Washington.

And to be clear, is now an appropriate time to celebrate the legalization of marijuana?

Oh. What are you.

I'm just, uh. My. My parents were in the audience. I just want to sign off from a governor, um, in case I choose to partake of.

Yes.

I'm curious. As an army veteran, Tim Waltz is catching some flack from people on the right about, as they would characterize it, a mischaracterizing of his credentials as a vet. Is there any amount of service that Republicans won't criticize? How do you see that?

I mean, listen, it's disappointing, it's disingenuous, and frankly, it's pretty dangerous. And particularly, I'm gonna be very honest, the fact that this is coming from JD Vance is actually comical, and I'm gonna tell you why. JD Vance and I deeply respect the service of Corporal JD Vance, the work that he did in the military. He should also deeply respect the service of Sergeant Major Tim Waltz.

And I'm not as. I'm not as well versed in the pecking order, but it seems like. Like sergeant major's a pretty good one.

Yeah. You know, like, you know, listen, when you join the military, if you stay in for a certain amount of time, you hit corporal. Right. Less than 1% of all non commissioned officers will hit the rank of sergeant major. Okay, so this is just facts. Most people, if you stay in long enough, you hit corporal.

Oh, oh, I see. Stop wasting your time hanging out on that couch, right?

That's right. That's right. But, you know, but I do. And it goes back to this whole idea of patriotism, which I do. Listen, I served my country, and I led soldiers in combat in Afghanistan. I'm deeply proud of my service. I'm. I am. I am in love with my country. I love this country. And I just find it really interesting that you know that. But we're watching on the other side, where there's, like, the idea of patriotism means, like, having sexual relations with the flag on the side. Which, which, by the way, just a total tie comment. I don't know what is up with that ticket and their obsession with fabrics.

They really, they must love the feel on the skin.

They love the feel on the skin. Nothing like it. Yeah.

Do soldiers, do they respect somebody humping the flag or. That seems like an action of disrespect. I saw you post about your speech tonight that was going to be tough. I'm curious what you have in store. I'm also curious, in watching this, who the audience is for the DNC.

You know, I think a lot of the audience is going to be for me, it's the people who are the disaffected. It's the people who, when we say people who are undecided, it's not even just the people who are undecided between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. It's the people who are undecided if they're going to go out to the polls. You know, and I tell you, this is, it's actually very personal to me because, you know, when I ran for governor, I had some family members who I had to convince to vote for me.

Really?

Oh, yeah. Real talk. And it wasn't that I'm not cool with my family. I'm very happy.

Sounds like that might be it. That might be. It could be.

It might be a little bit.

If you were cool in your family, it might be easier.

But, but I had to convince them to vote. Like, I don't come, I don't come from a political family. I don't come from a political background. That's not something, it's not like, like I have members of my family who are like, oh, man, election day was last week. Yeah, but that's real. You know what I mean? And I think that's real for a lot of folks. I think that the demo that we've got to speak to are the ones, frankly, who still hold a measure of skepticism in their heart, who look at the history of this country and say, you know what, this country hasn't always been fair. And we have to be honest and look at them and say, you're right. That they can say, you know what, the history of this country has been uneven and you have to look at them and say, spot on. However, we, we do have to be clear that you can hold that skepticism in your heart and you should. But that does not mean disengage because.

The people.

Some of the, some of the greatest patriots that we have had had in our history are people who actually understood the measure of brokenness that we had in our politics and who still showed up every day and fought for a better country. That's what we need.

Some have said you might have aspirations for that big office someday. After watching politics over the last twelve years, I guess my question would be why?

I got to tell you, I am. I cannot be more excited to have Kamala Harris to be the next president of the United States. And let me tell you why. I remember when months ago when the key bridge collapsed in Baltimore, and I remember at 02:02 in the morning when my phone rang and I was told that we now had thousands of workers who now lost their jobs, we now had 13% of my economy that was shut down, and that we had six workers who were fixing potholes 180ft in the air that night who were now missing. And I remember one of the first calls I got that morning was from Vice President Kamala Harris. I cannot tell you enough how much it means to have a vice president and the president call me that morning as well. First phone call I got from the White House was at 330 that morning. As a chief executive, as someone who believes in my state and believes in our people, I cannot tell you enough how much it means to have a White House that is willing to be your partner in the work and that's willing to support you in that work and who understands that everybody should be seen and supported, whether they voted for you or nothing.

Governor Westmore, everyone.

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