Black, Gay, and Political: Drexel Heard

Growing up, Drexel Heard experienced life throughout multiple states across the country. Being a self-proclaimed “military brat,” this sparked his passion for helping others which led to pursuing a career in politics.

Heard’s political path began with his bi-partisan efforts working with both college Democrats and Republicans. Using his talents, he provided expertise and advice to politicians in both parties seeking election. He was quite successful in aiding the election of North Carolina Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr, as well as working on the campaign trail for both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Heard’s knowledge of the government system and keen sense of domestic and international policy naturally created his strong political voice which he happily utilizes through social media and other outlets.

Now, Heard represents the 39^th California Assembly District as the youngest Black Executive Board Member and Delegate to the California Democratic Party. Additionally, he is the first Black Community Vice President for Stonewall Democrats Los Angeles, and he is an active member in several other political organizations. Throughout the 2020 Presidential Election, Heard has been sharing commentary as a political analyst for NPR, BBC, and BBC Radio.

OUT FRONT had the opportunity to talk more with Heard about his political career, as well as hot button issues surrounding the upcoming November election.Hi, Drexel! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me. How have you been doing during these unprecedented times?
I know there are so many more families that are far much worse than my family here in Los Angeles. We have been fortunate enough to be in a place where there are a lot of safety measures here in L.A. County, but that is not the same for folks across the country. I think everybody has been dealing with this pandemic very differently. With this election and my particular job, it has been focused on November. We have been distracted by that, but I know a lot of my friends have been laid off. I know that it could be worse for me and my husband, so I cannot complain. It is always stressful to know that your friends are not doing well.

Coming out of this whole thing, despite the way that this president has been handling things, it certainly is shedding a light on how important community is and how we have to be there for each other at all times. I always tell folks that our nation can sometimes be very selfish. As we look at issues like health care, college affordability, and the ways that families are struggling, in pockets across the country, you do see communities coming together, but if you look at the larger impact of this pandemic on our health care system, especially employer based health care, hopefully people’s opinions are shifting.

I wholeheartedly agree. Now, you are a political analyst for BBC and NPR, as well as the youngest Black executive director of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Have you always had a passion for politics?
I did. It is so interesting because I always tell folks that I started out when my mom threw me in theatre camp when I was 10. I always remind people that theatre and politics go hand in hand a lot. It’s all high drama, that is really what it is. At the same time, I always had a passion for leading. I was student body president, class president, and in college, I was a student senator. I did a whole bunch of stuff. What really got me into politics, it was my senior year in high school. Our AP Government teacher made us start watching The West Wing. I think anybody who is a West Wing fan will tell you that if they are into politics, especially in this generation, The West Wing really did a number on them to get them interested. I did the commencement speech for my high school earlier this year in June, and my theme was all about what’s next and what’s next for the future of the country, but it was all centered around The West Wing.

So, I think my passion for politics comes not only from having that fire lit from The West Wing, but also my mom. She was always teaching us to make sure that we are looking out for people when their families were sick or they needed some place to stay. My mom was a military spouse. We were able to provide for our friends when they needed things. I think that is really important for me, and that is how I have continued on. My mom passed away 10 years ago, so part of what I like to focus on is making sure that every decision that we make will help people. I believe that is something that everybody is thinking about when they are running for office or they are getting into a position like mine. At the end of the day, you have one job, and that is to help people.

You also helped work on the Bush and Obama campaigns. What was that experience like?
In 2004 when I got to college, it was very different. Republicans were very different back in 2004, and I think anybody can tell you that. There were national security hawks, and as a military kid, that was all you knew. You are surrounded by a mentality that is country first. It is kind of a personal responsibility and you are not really looking at other pockets of the country that do not have the same opportunities as everybody else.

Then Barack Obama came in almost the same year because he gave the 2004 convention keynote, then started running and won his senate seat, then ran for president. That kind of shifted my politics because we were in our own little bubble. Being able to see somebody like Barack Obama get out there and talk about energizing young people, bring hope after coming off of a war, and still being able to talk about national security in a way that is focused on relationship building. Those are the things that have shifted. That shifted in the campaigns for me. At the same time, John Kerry, I think he got swift boated in 2004. He didn’t really run a solid campaign for me, and I think we all dodged a bullet with John Edwards, and I say that as somebody from North Carolina.

So, these are the things where you look back and say everything happens for a reason. That is what I believe. There is a reason why I was in the place to help the Bush campaign in 2004, even though all of my friends in college were like no, you are actually a Democrat. A friend of mine signed me up for the DNC newsletters at the time as a joke because he wanted to make sure that I had all the information. I think working for Obama and getting out there to make sure he would win North Carolina, it is always a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on campaigns like that. I am sure folks who worked for Hillary Clinton will say the same thing, and certainly those with Senator Harris right now. When you are able to be in those situations where you are helping make history, you are a part of that no matter what. It will have an impact.

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What do you find the most rewarding part about your work?
I get phone calls all the time, not just from friends, but from voters here in L.A. County, and emails about what is happening in their life. I think the most rewarding part about it is being able to help somebody else do something. A friend texted me saying they were having some trouble with their ballots because they accidentally crossed something out. They wanted to make sure that their vote is going to be counted. All I had to do was make a phone call to the registrar’s office and ask for some guidance on this so we can make sure that this voter can vote. The same thing with another friend who was wondering whether or not she was able to vote with her maiden name. So, helping people, but at the same time, we are also out there talking to Latino voters here in L.A. County making sure they know that Democrats are focused on protecting their families and communities.

Like you said, being the first Black executive director in this role and being the youngest, my opportunity for failure is zero. So, when you get folks in positions like these, my goal is to always make sure that we are focused on the communities that I am a part of. I highlight LGBTQ and Black issues all the time when talking to people. If I want to do an event here in L.A. County, I am elevating my young colleagues because at the end of the day, we know that young leaders are going to be the future. I am going to want to put them front and center and much as I can with the influence that I have. These are the people we need to be listening to. It is rewarding to elevate the people that are going to go out there and do the work that is equally as rewarding for me, because I know that we are going to be in good hands.

What are some of the challenges of being an openly gay Black man in politics in today’s America?
Oh, man. Like I said in the last question, always make sure that you do not fail because so many people are looking to you. They want you to do well. They want you to represent well and see themselves in you, especially kids because they want to do exactly what you are doing. They want to know that somebody is going to be there to protect them if they are not getting that in their household, friendship circles, or school. Any good leader will tell you that representation matters, but representation also comes with its own set of challenges and struggles. At the end of the day, I get attacked just like everybody else. It is not as prominent, but there are folks who want to see me fail. There are folks who attack how I operate, but I am not going to let people walk all over me. Anybody who is Black, young, white, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ – they can get out there and do the job.

The biggest issue our country is dealing with right now is the COVID-19 pandemic. How do you think this will affect the election?
I think we are seeing that right now. Americans across the country are not able to vote in person like we normally would, and I think people are struggling with how best they want to vote. Through USPS, we have seen the president try to diminish the role of the USPS and try to delegitimize the work that they do every day. We want to make sure that voters know, whether or not you are Democrat, Republican, Independent, you need to know that your vote matters. The impact that COVID is having and the failure of this administration, this is its own form of voter suppression. There is a reason why this president has slow walked this pandemic, and that is because Republicans and this president knows that when voters vote, Republicans lose. They are using this pandemic as another form of suppression because they do not want to do anything about it.

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What are some other major threats you believe our country is currently facing?
Hm, that is a good question. The threat right now is always going to be about democracy. That is what’s really at stake right now and everybody knows that which is why you got bad actors like China and Russia wanting to see the United States fail. You also have inside the United States a group of people who want to see democracy fail, and the President of the United States is out there pushing that kind of rhetoric. While the threat is certainly this pandemic in how we are going to vote this November, the president is also a threat. This administration is also a threat. He is not just a threat to democracy, but he is a threat to you, me, families, and communities. We can talk about what’s happening in the Middle East, Russia, and what our NATO allies are doing all day, but at the end of the day, the threat that is happening right now is in the White House.

Even though he is clearly a threat, why do you think millions of people still support him?
That’s a good question. I think people see a lot of themselves in Donald Trump. The president started his campaign in 2015 talking about the forgotten man. We know that families are struggling across the country, and occasionally, we get it wrong. I think that Democrats can certainly admit that policies sometimes do not always work. When you try to do something and it doesn’t work, you move on to the next thing. If it’s hurting those families, we look at how we can fix it and make it better. I’m not always going to get it right in this job. I know that. I tell people that every day. I’m going to make a decision, it’s going to work or not, and then we move on. I think with a lot of Trump voters, first of all, I think white Americans certainly believe that they are going to go extinct, which is crazy.

We are seeing more biracial couples, the Latino population outpace every other race in America right now, the Black population is increasing, the Asian American population is increasing. So, white voters who certainly back the president, they feel that once Donald Trump goes, that is going to be it. Not necessarily America. What they didn’t see in Hillary Clinton, they are seeing in Joe Biden. I think what those voters see in Donald Trump is somebody who talks like them, whether or not they are right, and somebody who seems clearly unapologetic about his views whether or not they are right or protect the American people. I don’t think they understand that free speech does not always make you immune from the consequences. They want to be immune from the consequences, but they know that the moment that Donald Trump is out, they are going to be left out.

I have seen several people on social media, especially people around my age, mid to late 20s, talk about voting third party. Do you think that is wise?
Right now in this election, there isn’t a third party candidate that is like a Jill Stein. Nobody is getting that sort of attention right now. However, I do not want to discourage people from voting in a way that is right for them, but we also want to remind folks that this election is very important. Not because it’s about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but it’s about the future of our country and what happens next. My view on third parties, the more that you get involved and the more that people see that other parties are able to get involved and be elected, that is the only way for people to realize that there is some visibility in a third party candidate. Right now, that is just not the case. Our system and electoral college is not designed for third party candidates. Later down the road, I am sure there is an opportunity for that, but right now, they do not have the numbers, votes, or the right type of candidate to do that. At the end of the day, we want people to get out there and vote for the candidate that works for them, certainly do that, but we are just saying that now might not be the right time for that because we have an existential threat in the White House.

What is your opinion on the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barret?
It was Republican hypocrisy on full display. I think what we witnessed over that sham of a hearing was a nominee who answered very few questions about her judicial philosophy, and that is concerning. What is equally as concerning, other than her short time as a jurist or her inexperience in a courtroom, is her integrity. To be nominated by a lawless president, and propped up before the ink was dry on her as one who would rule to gut the Affordable Care Act, overturn Roe v. Wade, attack the progress made on marriage equality, and so much more tells us everything we need to know about Amy Coney Barrett as a person.

Speaking of marriage equality, Justices Thomas and Alito even suggested overturning Obergefell v. Hodges. How much are LGBTQ rights in jeopardy?
It is hard to comprehend how far back a 6-3 SCOTUS is going to put this country. We would be ruled by an ideology that is a minority of this county with a majority vote in the highest court in the land. LGBTQ rights and women’s rights will be the first on the chopping block. The Religious Right, also a minority, and Thomas and Alito have all but guaranteed that.

This year also brought racial injustice to the forefront. Do you think the Black Lives Matter movement will make a difference in the election?
I think it already had long before this election. We forget that the movement started with the murders of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Philando Castile. At the same time, there has always been racial injustice. We just live in a time where things cannot hide anymore. We are already seeing candidates step up to ensure progress in their communities, elected officials working to reimagine how law enforcement interacts with the community, and ballot propositions aimed at working to attempt to repair the damage that has been done. It will not just be this election that the BLM movement has affected. It will be every election going forward.

What’s next for you?
Ask me in a few years! Right now, I am just fine working on behalf of the Democrats in Los Angeles and making sure that we are protecting and defending our democracy.

To stay up to date with Heard, follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, or you can visit his official website.

Photos Courtesy of Heather Weiss