From School Board to the RNC: Angelina Banks on Finding Her Voice in Pennsylvania

There's so many different ways to get involved and to have your voice heard outside of standing on a street corner screaming. So I've worked for a number of members of Congress and governors and I was always surprised how few people, how few voices, when elevated up to the congressman for instance, made a difference. I mean, six people would call with the same message and all of a sudden we're working on it, paying attention to it. And I'd be like, that's an orchestrated thing by that, you know, that wacky group. But I think that's a good thing. I mean, we want people to be responsive and, you know, you can go and meet with your elected officials. One of the things that we do with America's Prosperity is try to aggregate those voices. I mean, you get how many people probably watching this. I hope you're watching America's Potential and yelling at it maybe. But, you know, you're watching the news and, you know, telling your spouse, why don't they get this right? you're slapping the couch and you're frustrated. Well, your voice aggregated with other people, though, actually is much louder. And that's something that we try to do. Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential. Welcome to the American Potential podcast. I'm your host, David Fromm. So 250 years ago, America chose freedom over tyranny. And that's not just something for right now. I'm sorry, that's not something just for back then in the history books. It's a reality now. We have to keep choosing freedom. And people are enlisted in that battle to keep freedom alive in this country. So in that effort, we're traveling around American Potential with Americans for Prosperity, attending the America's 250th anniversary birthday events that we're doing. And we're in Philadelphia right now, attending the first one. And what we're doing, we're talking to people who are taking that one small step to defend liberty in our country and keep that American dream alive. And today we're talking to a Pennsylvanian who did just that, took one small step by finding her voice. She ran for office, didn't win, but has kept fighting, is committed to better policy, has gotten really involved in her community, and is taking that one small step to make her state, her community, and her nation a better place. So I want to welcome Angelina Banks to the podcast. I'm so excited for you to join us and talking to us today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks. So, hey, you have a unique connection here in Philadelphia in your history and your past. Share that with us. So it's pretty cool. So the Art Museum in Philadelphia houses two pictures from my family's past, and it's the Montiers. And what's interesting about that is I am a direct descendant of the first mayor of Philadelphia. So Mr. Monteiro was the grandson of the first mayor and he married Cremora and generation, generation, generation, you have me and my children. And if you ever see the picture, we look just like her. It's amazing. And so local PBS actually did a special on it. And it was a love story talking about how love can transcend all boundaries. Oh, how nice. Truly the city of brotherly and maybe otherwise love. That's great. So growing up, even though you're descended from the mayor, but you didn't really grow up in a political family, right? Or did you really pay attention to anything? I think I was your typical 90s, 80s kid where I was ripping and running outside. It's good life, I can tell you. Oh, it's the best. Ripping and running, riding my bike, climbing trees, you know, didn't really pay attention to politics, kind of left those adult discussions to my parents. And I think presidential elections were always on the radar, civics tests, current events tests in school, but I didn't really have a direct connection to what politics meant for me as a child, no. So you went away to school, if I'm not mistaken. And so did that help? Did you get more interested then? Or like what kind of brought you to start paying attention? So actually it happened in high school. I went to Central High School, which is a big school in Philadelphia at 260, for those who know what that means. And it was a 10th grade, 11th grade. We had to talk about candidate platforms. And so I took my the platforms of the various candidates and I went home and I said, OK, parental units, my parents, this is what my homework is today. You know, who are we going to vote for and why? and my dad slaps his hand down the table and goes I'm union baby and I was like what does that mean he's like democrat all the way and I'm like but and I'm looking at the candidates and I'm like you complain about this particular guy every time we drive through this intersection because he was a former mayor who took took out streetlights and so I said so you're going to vote for him and he says my union tells me who to vote for it and so I thought that was interesting and then I realized that looking at platforms, being informed about who you're voting for is actually a good thing and not necessarily just going along with your party bosses or your union bosses. And so that's when I started looking at politics, not just as parties, but as issues, as policies. I think it's fascinating because, you know, when you study politics, you realize how much voting happens out of habit you know how many people vote because well that's how my parents voted that's other people i identified with vote and then when you you talk about the issues or you know you set a platform people might be open to it but then even then you're like we just think we just change everybody's minds it's it's a process it's like an emotional process for some folks and i i think that that's a there's some real truth that's why it's been so fascinating over the last 10 years to see some reorganization and shift and um yeah that's really pretty fascinating. So. Well, I think your values, your value system, what's important to you should definitely be reflected in the types of leaders that you are going to be electing or that you're going to put your energy behind. And I think there's been so much polarization, especially with the advent of social media, that we that people are emotion based and they react to everything emotionally without having a moment of pausing and thinking about what does this mean to me? How does this affect my life? Is this realistic? Is this feasible? We're not in fifth grade where you can promise everybody ice cream on Fridays. We're looking at people who are trying to put into play policies that have a real cost, a real impact, and real unintended consequences if not articulated and executed properly. So Pennsylvania, you know, especially in the Philly area, has pretty strongly held political beliefs by a lot of different people. And we've seen some reorganization that. But like, as you were growing up and then you, you know, come here, you start a family, you know, what was your experience in that political ecosystem? So I feel like we didn't really talk about politics outside of election seasons. I had no idea what my neighbor's political view was. We didn't have yard signs. The yard sign culture, I think, really came after I was an adult. There were buttons I remember seeing the Frank Rizzo buttons for mayor And I remember things like that but yard signs and and door knockers That wasn a really big thing when I was a kid. It was pretty much, that was for the kitchen table. That was for the adults to talk about. And the kids, we sat at the kids table. Yeah. Yeah. So you had her adulthood here, you come back here to start a family and all that. Like, how did you take that initial step to get involved, kind of enter the public policy political arena? So I've always been a fairly opinionated person. I will, if anyone asks me my thoughts on something I'm willing to share, I don't mind. But I had a really unique experience I don't think the average Philadelphian has. I had the opportunity after I graduated college, even during college, to say yes to opportunity. So I lived all over the country. I lived North, South, West, California, Baltimore, Connecticut, Florida, Texas. And I was able to see different approaches to similar problems. And I think when I was living in California, I lived in LA, I saw some really, really feel good progressive policies get passed. And the kind of policies where surface level, you're like, okay, that's a great idea. You know, that sounds great. That's going to help somebody. And then really quickly, we saw the unintended consequences of some of those policies. And it It's like, oh, maybe what we think is going to help people really makes the problem worse. And we're not solving a problem. We're putting a bandaid on it. And so where I lived rapidly became fairly unsafe. So I made a decision to move back east to the East Coast. And within six months of me moving back, I saw some of those same policies being discussed. And I was like, well, I lived through this. I've been there. I did that. This is not a good idea. um so you see those things happening and what'd you do about it so well one of the first things i did was i was googling like republicans because i i i think i shied away from labels i think a lot of free thinkers tend to shy away from labels but then i realized that if i was going to make a stand i was going to have to identify with a group um and so there's strength in numbers There is strength in numbers because otherwise you're the crazy lady on the corner saying the sky is falling. So I took me a while to seek out my local Republican organization for where I live. And when I did, I went to a meeting and, you know, they said, you know, here are opportunities for you to voice your opinion. Like you don't just have to write emails. You know, here are the meeting schedules. Because sometimes this stuff is a little buried. If you're not already in the know as somebody who's saying, OK, well, how do I get involved? How do I make my voice heard? Sometimes those avenues, the access is not always obvious, especially in an area like southeastern Pennsylvania, when you have a little bit more of a conservative approach to things. So I think my big splash came in when I started watching school board and township meetings and I was informed about the things that people wanted to complain about. And instead of complaining about, oh, why does this happen? I got involved in the process about how does this happen? And so then we started being vocal, started calling in the school board meetings, started going to township meetings, started getting really, really involved because I couldn't actually believe what I was hearing and seeing. In the township of 20,000 people, there's seven people at a meeting. There's 10 people watching online, but 10,000 people voted. So do we have any idea what those votes are actually accomplishing or not? Well, I think that this is so true across the whole country. You know, I've been fortunate to work in a lot of states in the public policy area. And unfortunately, it's so true, particularly in places that have a lot of units of government, like where I live in Illinois, where you live in Pennsylvania, I think are the top two per capita for units of government. And it's so hard to hold them accountable. I mean, there are people who are just, you know, they're outside the rules. They're spending money that they shouldn't be spending. a lot of sometimes attorneys enable it and so we used to hold classes we still do the grassroots leadership academy to try to train people as to uh how to be watchdogs go and it seems it sounds like what you trained yourself to do is to pay attention to understand what's going on and to hold your local people accountable because those local governments should be some of the most responsive to public opinion uh because they're closest to us but so often they just kind of operate in darkness and you know even if you do watch or go to it you don't necessarily know what's going on. And I think that's such a great way to get involved. And I think it's a wonder, I think we would make such a transformational difference if one of the one small steps that everybody take that, that, you know, thousands of people take is to just go and pay attention and learn about what's going on in your local government. And I think that, you know, it makes such a difference for property taxes, spending, bonds, all. 100%. You have to be an active participant in, in your life. That's democracy. 100%. And I think so much we hear, especially the echo chambers on social media. It's a lot of complaints, but it's like, you can go to the meeting. Here's your elected officials email address. They have office hours. They respond to you here. There's so many different ways to get involved and to have your voice heard outside of standing on a street corner screaming. So I've worked for a number of members of Congress, the governors, and I was always surprised how few people, how few voices when elevated up to the congressman for instance made a difference i mean six people would call with the same message and all of a sudden we're working on it paying attention to it and i'd be like that's an orchestrated thing by that you know that that wacky group and it's like uh and i but i think that's a good thing i mean we want people to be responsive and you know you can go and meet with your elected official one of the things that we do with america's prosperity is try to aggregate those voices i mean you get how many people probably watching this you know i hope you're watching american potential and yelling at it maybe but you know you're watching the news and you know, telling your spouse, why don't they get this right? You're slapping the couch and you're frustrated. Well, your voice aggregated with other people, though, actually becomes much louder. And that's something that we try to do. And I think like sounds like something you were doing is one of your first things is to hold government accountable and then get other people involved. Especially if they're going to be enacting something you don't agree with or doesn't serve the heart of the community, especially so in small knit communities where I live, where most of the people who used to live there were lifers. And now we have this, I don't want to say incursion, but we have a migration of people who didn't grow up and don't understand the value system that made this community successful. And so even when people like that get elected into positions, sometimes they don't always respect the history and the context that built the community that you live in. Like where I live is a wonderful place to live, but it exists that way because of the people who built it, which is kind of like this whole country. This country exists because of amazing people who were willing to sacrifice and make hard choices to build something beautiful Well I think that one of the reasons we doing these you know 250th birthday celebrations for America is to talk about the founding principles that we need to have a fidelity to, because they're kind of the pillars that have set up this country and allowed us to, you know, be the greatest country in the world. And, you know, things like civic duty or freedom and opportunity and dignity and others, you know, there's just, it's important that we remember what made this nation great. And we try to keep preserving that and allow people to, you know, chase their American dream. So but so you you go from paying attention to your your local government and holding them accountable and you run for office and then eventually you're on stage with President Trump. I mean, that's quite a little quite a story and quite some distance to travel. I tell tell me the story about it. Honestly, it was it's a whirlwind and I look back. Sometimes my phone pops pictures up and I go, wow, that's amazing. That's incredible. and so I think uh watching him in 2016 and it was like you know the Beatles Backstreet Boys Michael Jackson it was kind of crazy this energy that Prince is also cool too um that follows him and you know I I could admit it in 2016 I was a Ben Carson girl that's who my that's whose bumper sticker was on my on my um on my refrigerator and you know certain things I was just like that's the guy like I and so that's and then the process happened and so President Trump was the nominee that we had and just watching him and I remember one thing he said that really stood with me it was if I'm not the smartest person in the room then I want that person on my team and I said okay well you know what there's another aspect of him that's that's somebody I need to pay more attention to and so that was kind of really like invigorating because it was the first time somebody spoke plainly, I think, in my lifetime as a politician to the American public. And I said, wow, I want to be a part of that. And then you go from not really caring about politics or it being a big part of your life to these rallies. And they're larger than life. And then you're like, man, I want to go to one of those. I want to be one of the people he points to. I want to do the YMCA dance with him. At the same time, still doing your civic duty and being a part. So at that point, And I had become a committee person. I had been very involved. I remember thinking to myself, man, I'd really like to go to a convention. So I did a lot of work locally and was able to go. I got elected as an alternate delegate. So like that was really cool. And this is a 2016 convention? This is 2024. Oh, Milwaukee. Yep. I attended as well. Milwaukee. Let's talk about Milwaukee another day. But, you know, just from somebody who's saying, I'm going to have a congressional candidate yard sign on my lawn to, you know, less than five years later, I'm going to represent my county was amazing. And so it was a lot of saying yes and realizing that the average person is really afraid to get from behind a computer screen and stand in front of a microphone and talk about what's important. And I think when these values are really mirroring who you are or what you feel or what you're trying to preserve for your children, you kind of have to. And so a lot of it was, well, I'll do it because nobody else would. But it never occurred to me not to stand up and speak. And so I think because of my willingness to speak, people go, okay, well, you know what? What would you like to say to the president? That's honestly what happened. Somebody said, if you had the opportunity to ask the president a question, what would you ask him? And I had the same opportunity with, at the time, vice president nominee, J.D. Vance. If you could talk to him, what would you say? And I said, oh, I'd say this. They say, great. How would you like to say that to them? And I said, okay, great. And just not being afraid of what people would think about me if I was willing to have a conversation with somebody who could make my life better. so this is something that's interesting to me because clearly we would benefit from more people getting up off the couch and more people getting involved and taking that step and i think it's a matter of courage generally and i'm not saying people are not don't have courage it's just in this space it's intimidating people don't know if they know what to say i think the step is a lot simpler um you know you were blessed with some courage to be to have opinions and want to express them. Did you find that by you having that courage to say what you were thinking and, and, you know, talk about your beliefs and convictions, did you find other people found that courage and came around you or did you feel alone? So it's a little bit of both depending on what space I was in. So when it, when it came to being in the political world with other people who felt the way I felt, then I, it was almost like I was that Olympic torch. I was that torch at the Statue of Liberty. A little bit of light just makes a way for other people who are afraid and they flock to it. But then at the same time, for people who maybe didn't agree with what I said, it became a lonely place. I lost friends, damaged familial relationships, social circles just yanked out. It even impacted my children. And they were small to the point where, you know, we would go to the playground when they were little babies and other moms would see me and they'd leave. Oh, here comes that Republican. And it, and that's, that was a reality that we had to live through, but I would still do it again because I'm not here for a popularity contest. I'm here to preserve a dream that was America for my children and for their children. You know, my grandfather, my family, I had so many family members give blood and sweat and so much of their time and their treasure and their talents to build this country and to preserve this country. And it is my responsibility as their descendant to continue to honor that. In real time, did you feel that burden and that motivation? Because you're also, I mean, you're staying home, you're staying with mom. I was. There's a lot to balance there, And I know it's like to have little kids. What was going through your head when you're like, there's trade-offs here? I'm losing friends, there's straining relationships, but I'm doing something I believe in. So I think for someone who has an active prayer life and who has an active relationship with God, that I understand that there are seasons for everything. And I heard one quote, and it said, man's rejection is God's protection. And there's always a time and a season for everything. And when things are clicking, you're on a roller coaster and it's almost it's an afterthought like, oh, I could potentially lose this friendship. I could potentially lose access to this social space. But does it really matter if this country is burning down around me? Does it matter if I have a seat at the table that I'm really not wanted at anyway? Yeah, that's kind of make it. Yeah, those are like spiritual tradeoffs. So you decided to run for office at one point. Yes. How'd that decision making process go in? Like, what'd you think of the experience? So it is running for office no matter how big or small what you going to run for is not a decision to be taken lightly And I think that the first time I ran for office I was so convinced that if I could just talk to people about what my platform was, then they would of course see that it made perfect sense and they would support me. I was not anticipating the polarization of labels. I didn't realize, especially for something as something like school board, that party would matter. And it's a shame because it really shouldn't. This is our children's future. It's the future of our community and our country, the well-being of our children. And so when I found out what was going on in the schools, I was absolutely appalled. And a lot of the parents that I spoke to who were not necessarily in line with what I wanted still had no idea what was going on. And so I think that was the biggest thing was just how uninformed or ignorant people were of of actually what was happening to their children, with their children, around their children. So what are you doing now to kind of stay in the fight and keep moving forward to try to advance, you know, your values and our principles? So I'm a committee person still. I am on state committee for Pennsylvania. I do a lot of outreach work with wonderful organizations, Americans for Prosperity being one of them. I say yes to opportunity to go in and to try to change minds. I remember with the presidential election that we had, we had these little poolside parties where I just found friends. I said, hey, do you wanna invite 10 to 15 people over that you think would be open to a conversation? And we just, and this is right after the convention, and my friend and I, who was a delegate with me, we went and we just answered questions and it was mostly policy-based. It was people who were conservative or independent, some Democrats, who were just like, okay, just tell me the truth. Like what is going on? What is really happening? Because I think some people realize they couldn't trust what the media said. And so they wanted to- You trust podcasts. Yes, this podcast. But even, so we were able to just do that. Just be willing to have the conversations and not shy away if somebody said something I didn't like. It didn't have to be a screaming match. I could concede a point. Well, you're right. But then I would pivot it back to what was actually important or what was relevant. it it's you know i remember when i was running for a township commissioner they wanted to know my thoughts on abortion well that particular role it's it's irrelevant right um it maybe it'll come down to a zoning issue but for the position that i'm being elected to do that that's not that's not an issue so i think um another thing that's been illustrated to me is the lack of civic iq that the younger people and some of the older people are yeah don't have no it's a danger it really is people don't know about our history our government that's right again doing these a250 events around hopefully we can help people kind of reconnect a little bit but it's a it's a problem you know people don't know why america is america and you know it's the shiny city on the hill right that's scary because then why do you want to defend that terrifying it's so funny uh i um one of the, so we do community day with my, with our group and we had American flag and America, Americana tattoos on our table and we had elementary kids come over and they saw it and they're like, ah, who likes America anyway? And so it's, it's interactions like that, that fuel me. Yeah. You know, and I look at my girls and they know that I'm doing this for them, but sometimes they're just like, mommy, we know you're trying to save, you're trying to save America, but we need you too. So as they've gotten older, it's been a little bit difficult to balance everybody's needs. So I just sleep less and work harder when they're asleep. Well, as you said, I mean, you know, quoting Ecclesiastes, all things have a season. And I think that is, you know, parent, that's one of the hardest things, right? There's such valuable things you can be doing. Is it, could it be more valuable than training up and, you know loving your kids and you can find a balance and you know i give you a lot of credit for taking that on uh because that's hard you know and it's not it's kind of one of those things i used to find when we were trying to get people to run for office at the core that was one of the questions and like but they didn't know how to ask it or who to ask it of because a lot of times people you know party apparatus is like no you're gonna win run it's like well how's this gonna affect me personally and so we try to have those conversations and those are like the real media meaningful conversations when people are trying to get involved. And I think we need to be sensitive to that. So, you know, you've done some cool stuff in a short period of time and probably didn't anticipate it. I mean, what would you say to people who are like, have an opinion, thinking about getting involved, but haven't really jumped in or taken that step? What would you say to them? I feel like the first thing that I will one, go for it, do it. Just don't have no fear because when you're on the right path, when you make the right decisions, when you, when you do things that resonate with what you're here to do and you're calling, it's amazing how the doors just open and the resistance goes away. No, I'm not saying it's going to be easy peasy and no problems at all, but any problem you encounter, you're, you're made for fine, fine, like-minded people, find your local municipal group, find your, your, your Patriot group, find your local Americans for prosperity, um, representative and, and attend a meeting and say, I'm interested. If there's somebody that's an elected official that you really, really like, say, how can I be a part of your team? How can I help you reach more hearts? How can I help you change more minds? And, and another thing I like to do is I post, if I see an article that is hammering home the points that I'm trying to get people to go and I'll just post it. I don't care. You know, give me your thoughts. Give me your opinions. We can, we can hash it out. But you know, part of what I'm doing too, is an education component. It's saying there's, there's more to the story than you realize. There's more to these issues. It's bigger than just your, your, your knee jerk reaction. That's wonderful. Well, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you. It's so fun. I appreciate you talking to us and sharing that. I'm, I'm a little inspired if I have to admit. So thanks. Good luck to you. Thank you. I'm going to need it. Yeah, you might. You do live in Southeast PA. We need people fighting behind the lines. Yeah, no birds. Well, thanks again. Appreciate it. Well, folks, if you like this episode and would like to stay connected with us, please subscribe and follow our YouTube channel and follow us on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. and always remember freedom and liberty are easily taken for granted don't take it for granted go out there and defend liberty and freedom thanks for joining us i'm gonna see you on the next episode thank you for listening to american potential you may listen to more stories from americans working every day to expand freedom and opportunity in their communities by visiting americanpotential.com