University of nevada are participating, welcome and thank you for joining us. The video is being recorded and will be posted for video later. I have always been very interested in the issue that we will focus on tonight, that is diversity and Public Service. And i spent most of my career working in the political trenches looking around and seen a lack of representation it always struck me on the political side and the policy side and tonight we are thrilled to be joined by senator cortez masto to talk about these issues she is well versed in them and spent her career fightingg for issues and for members of underrepresented communities, the first latina ever in the United States senate up until a few minutes ago reportedly being considered for the Vice President to be running mate on joe bidens ticket. But were excited to dig deep into these issues, here is how its going to work, those of you participating on zoom, you will see at the bottom of your screen a q a button, click on that to start typing in your question, you can populate them with your questions now, keep an eye on the chat as well and at a certain point we will let you know when you can ask your question halfway through the program and once we select you in your question, get ready we will pitch on camera so make sure you look your best. So with that i think thats all the housekeeping and senator cortez masto you, welcome to Public Service. Thank you, im excited to be here with all of you and look forward to our conversation. I want to talk are little bit about policy and pipeline and i want to talk about politics. Lets start tonight actually by talking about you and tell us about your own path into Public Service and what inspired you and what the call was for you personally into Public Service. I probably did not realize at the time that i came toye appreciate as i got older, my father was my mother was always actively engaged in the community and Civic Engagement on the political side of it. This is not a couple like any couplel struggling when they first get together, my father was a parking attendant at the casino and my sister and i were little and my mother was a bookkeeper for a title company. And they were always involved and engaged in making sure around the dinner table we were talking about social issues, policy issues, what was happening in the community and at the time, as we got older and my parents made sure that my sister and i graduated from college is in my household it was not a question if we go to college, it was you were going to go to college and then you can decide what you want to do but as we grew up, my father continued and my mother continue to grow in their profession and my mother went on to be county commissioner in clark county for about 16 years and that really was an opening and then my sister to understand what it means for Good Government, what it means to give back in your community and what it means to listen to your neighbors in your Community Members about the challenges theyou are facing and working together you can solve the problems and then he went on to be over the Commission Authority and the many of you know what happens in vegas stays in vegas, that was part of the marketing team, he was the president ceo. Not only is it a success storyry when i talk about it, my father was mexicanamerican and grew up in new mexico and at a young age wass bough brought to las vegass parents, my grandmother was born and raised in las vegas and my grandfather crossed the rio grande as a young man, serving our country and our military and became a United States citizen. So it really was a story of trying to come to country, do right, work hard, play by the rules and your family can succeed. Thats what myht parents did. All the while my father never forgot where he came from and my mother as well who help them get there, thats what my sister and i learned growing up, even though i fought it, i went to unr and graduated from the university of nevada reno but i went to law school nevada, it just felt natural for me too get back into Public Policy and the legal aspects of it and being involved in the community. I believe in Good Government and working with one another to solve problems and that is why i do today and if you asked me why was in college and where id want to be i would say no, bute it was a natural path for me. And thats why i truly believe i do what i do today because a group with my parents and i sell the benefits of it, thats my passion and thats what motivates me, solving problems in the community and figuring out how we work on this together, i dont think compromise is a bad word, we come together for that reason to figure out where we can focus on policies for all i of us working together to compromise, thats a little bit of my background and what i do today. Im going to come back to your background and the conversation. Your election is not just historic being the first latina ever elected but you have really used your platform to fight for plversity and underrepresented communities on a whole host of issues. I know youre also a soft ballplayeri salt toss a Softball Team right now. Why does it matter to have more diversity in Public Policy and Public Service. It is so important, heres why, if we are going to pass laws in this country that really address the issues that we are dealing with or trying to solve a problem that we are dealing with, we need that diversity around the table when were making those decisions, when were crafting that legislation or those laws. Otherwise people will be left out, that is what it means to me and thats why i realized my election was historic and thats great to make history but the most important part, i can be at the table and have a seat there when were addressing legislation that i know impacts people in my community and at the same time part of my responsibility is opening that door wider in bringing more people in more diversity. But it really starts that we will pass laws and if her gonna focus on Public Policy that impacts all of us, then we need to have the diversity in, the room making those decisions. It is very simple, this is what i always thought were getting government, if we are actually going to do right by our constituents while working in government, the government and the people that work in government should really near a constituency they represent. Because that way you understandn the issues, you can understand and be empathetic about what youre dealing with in bringing those issues to the table when youre trying to find solutions and let me take whats crazy about all of this, when i got to the senate, you can count on two hands and under 2022 women that were in the United States senate, think of this, over 200 year history of the United States senate, there were only ever 50 women in the United States senate, i know that because i was number 50. This is why this is so crazy. The idea that people are passing laws and legislation and its an elite group that are trying to address the issues that matter to me as a woman but matter to so many communities of color, so many of our communities that are being discriminated against, how do we expect them to addressie e. Ssues that is what this is about, making sure were opening the door and have the responsibility to make sure we bring people with us and bring the diversity. The kobe crisis in one of the most important time of the examples of this, weve seen all the data of how the minority communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected, not just on a Public Health aside but they are real, you put a spotlight on the structural disparity in healthcare and economic with communities of color, im wondering if you can talk about that a little bit about the real policy challenges there and what being a womans color, what perspective you bring to the conversation figuring out how to move forward. Is starts with the data, you just talked about it, now weow have data and we know but we dia not have the data initially and we did not actually ask for the data and we do not demand, that is demographic or whatever we us from collecting in the very beginning. Governofederal government does o enough collection of that data to be so specific so we can ensure that were bringing resources to everyone equally. That is the challenge still at the federal level including some of our state level government as well. But we know down during the pandemic that its going to be beautifully diverse data and you dont think about the 3 Million People but a third of the population are latinos, we have one of the Fastest GrowingAsian AmericanPacific Islander population, a strong and robust a africanamerican population, 23 tribal communities throughout the state and it is just beautifully diverse. What i was seeing and talking with our experts, some members of the Minority Community are hit by the pandemic in particular what we know now in nevada is the Latino Community was getting hardhit meaning we were seen more numbers of covid19 diagnosis, not in the Healthcare Access to that community, not enough education to make sure the Community Members know what they can do to protect themselves into once we got the data, we can Work Together at t the state level, local level and federal level to figure out how do we educate, how do we get the resources where they need to be in the hotspot and how do we make sure were communicating as you know in her Asian American communities and latino communities has a language barrier. You have to be able to make sure youre connecting an understanding and not beyond the barriers to bring the resources into the community. For me, not only as a woman of color coming from a mexicanamerican father, my mother is Italian American but working in the community and realizing a language barrier and realizing the lack of access to healthcare, the lack of access to really clean air and clean water and some of our neighborhoods are lowincome and there a challenge already, we have to recognize that to be able to fight to get the resources to where they need to go. Because we have the data at the federal level, i have advocated with my colleagues that the resources to addressvo the pandemic get into the communities, how do we do that, we find withers local clinics and withers local areas like in southern nevada, the market is one place where a lot of latino shop young get them to them and talk to them so they are educated on these issues. I will tell you, every time that we think that we make one step forward in addressing any type of discrimination or a barrier to getting access to healthcare or any type of relief to individuals, somebody will come along and try to take it away and we have that happening right now literally, it astounds me that this administration in it took years to tear down the barriers for discrimination around housing, healthcare, education and now this administration has rolled back the regulations and unfortunately more of the ability to discriminate and let me give you an example, right now just out today where we know under the Affordable Care act, the secretary of health and Human Services in the middle of the pandemic decides to rewrite the regulation under the Affordable Care act and rollback the discriminatory laws that we put in place, antidiscriminatory to protect individuals. That means that certain individuals now will be discriminated against and not at the healthcare by the Affordable Care act. Women, lgbtq, people color, view of the language barrier, if youre out of luck, that to me is why when we fight and pass legislation, we have to be vigilant around it to make sure that we are constantly talking about these issues because even though you may pass a law that addresses discrimination and ive tried to eliminate housing issues and thats been rolled back on this administration as well. We have to find it again, it is a constant awareness of whats going on to ensure they bring those resources everywhere. Just a reminder, and the Georgetown Community and the other university you can submit your questions to the q a at the bottom of your screen at any point during the program. Feel free to start submitting them. We could have the same conversation about a whole host of issues, Climate Change, one on isone i want to focus given Current Events in the criminal justicece and when you look at the tragic death in minnesota were very different circumstances but where it took months for prosecutors to Pay Attention to what is happened and in that case the disparity once again are tragically evident. Youre a federal prosecutor, talk about the challenges in the diversity and positions of the power and Public Service that can help address them. I think thats why its so important we bring the diversity at all levels. I know as a h prosecutor one of the things that we looked in our state in particular the attorney general is a prison system, what was going on, why is there a disproportionate share of minority and people of color into the prison system, what was happening and what can we do to bring change and so we looked at at the state level of changing some of our laws to address what we were seeing the disproportion and people of color in our prison system wasnt enough, no, more needs to be done, what youre seeing across the country, this is completely outrageous and you have a man of color they cant jog down the street or woman sleeping in her bed or what we just all recently in minnesota, it is outrageous and it requires an mandate justice and at the same time it also mandates us all, not to sit back and say there it goes again, there happens again, demand change, we need a paradigm shift, we need this change and we need to recognize its happening and figure out what were going to do about it. But we all collectively no longer just sit back, wee have o say and do and demand the change, yes we want good jobs and we dont want to stop the discrimination but we have to work collectively at all levels to address it. I think that is why for everybody who is watching, no matter what field you work in, you bring that with you, you bring the sense of change in the sense of diversity and justice with you. That will help make the change as well, i always felt that way no matter what job that i held, it is important that we carry the responsibility with you and treat people equally withh respect, tolerance and we call it out when we see it, but as a country we unfortunately have so much more to do. It does not help that we have a man in the white house that thinks its okay to discriminate and call people out and this language in the highest office of the land and there is no room for hateful discrimination in the white house from the president of the United States it was supposed to represent the best of us and all of us, thats what we expect and thats what we demand, i dont see that now in this white house and to me that change starts in november quite honestly. Barack obamas election was fairly historic but racism is ongoing. And you hear criticism of him from the black community that did not go far enough. Lyim wondering if an unfair criticism, not just with him but as a person of color and do you feel under pressure from the communities you represent, do you feel that people are judged differently or theres Higher Expectations for you . And dealing with these a challenges . Thats a great question, i never looked at it from that perspective because the only thing i know that is true to me im a woman and ive dealt with aem for my perspective as woman in a mexicanamerican woman, an italianamerican woman and what i dealtom with throught my career. I will say this and this is what i say to so many people when i talk with them, particularly when im talking to people of color, i dont know what its like to stand in your shoes and you dont know what its like t stand in line but if we stand together, we can be a force to make change. Thats what its about, its about listening and understanding, education around the issue that are impacting our community and let me give you an example of this, i worked my career around Domestic Violence trafficking, reducing women entering violence against women and children. I know as a woman what ive had to deal with around this issue, but i also know as a man that does not think about it from the perspective as i do as a woman. I as a woman no that im very cautious when im walking to my car parking lotas at night becae im concerned about being attacked or raped or murdered or harassed, the man does not have the same concern. What our obligation is as a woman to educate, like a dude my husband is to educate them what its like in my shoes to understand what i live with everyday so now they can have a better understanding and together we can work to make change. I think thats what it comes down to is often we jump to demanding more from and in result and we forget the education, we forget to make people understand what it is we are dealing with and how we come along to the process. I think im not saying everybody is open to it but theres so many people that want to be educated and want to be there with us. A part of what ive always done with the piece of education, it gets discounted often, but it always starts with the education piece. Is really interesting, one of the things that is really stark for me back when i was working in politics is increased offer is age and in our politics and where people would talk about their concerns and their own livelihood from the direct competition with others. The anger that you feel that these communities over here were talking about them and not talking about me, putting more funding, that is coming away from us and it feels to me that too often political leaders do not do what you just talked about. We are not in competition. Just because were trying to take care of the economic disparity in the black and brown communities does not mean it has to come at your expense and vice versa. How do we bridge thehe divide . It goes back to what you sa said, you just touched on it, we have to stop making it us versus them, we have to when we are passing legislation we are looking at appropriation at least in congress, we have to make sure we are thinking and talking that it benefits all of us in explaining how it benefits all of s us. And we dont do enough of that in this environment is so partisan and fastmoving and we dont get enough of the piece of education in bringing people on. And for my purposes i love going to my community and talking with people, i know we can find Common Ground and no matter where i show up im willing to talk with you, if youre willing to sit and listen i know we will find Common Ground in nevada is a purple state the democratic areas and most rural are red and republicans. But i show up and they walk into a room to an association and all these incredibly white men who have incredible stories to tell who have worked for generation, the family of cattle ranchers. And i know they willns vote for room and say in a i know you probably did not vote for me but youre stuck with the next six years so lets get something done and we findro Common Ground and its access to healthcare, Small Business owners that need healthcare, immigration, who has been working there farms and ranches, theyre so supportive of addressing and making sure that individuals can come to this country to work and their supportive of putting on a pathway to citizenship or giving them the opportunity, there are so many things and you would not know that if you went out there to talk to them. Their environmentalist, they worked in the law of the land. If you want to talk to them about Climate Change and Climate Crisis and how we can sustain the land, they will be the first ones the farmers and ranchers because they have to do all the time. But we never engage them, thats what this is about, you have to be willing to take a chance to go out there and talk with them and figure out where you can find the Common Ground. I will not agree on rat everythg will come to a Common Ground somewhere and find an agreement where you can Work Together. I dont think that happens enough, it does not happen enough particular he and congress right now. You talked about the historc nature of your election and how after 200 plus years you were onlyly the 50th woman, the first woman ever from your state, the first latina ever, why is it so hard. What are the obstacles that people from these communities face breaking into the system . That is going to take longer than our conversation here. Let me just say this. Let me just tell everybody whos listening, as a woman in somebody believe me most of my career in Law Enforcement and most of people i dealt with were men in the Law Enforcement. What i would tell everyone, you are going to have barriers and youre going to have times when people will shut you out for reasons that you do not know more reasons but at the end of the dates how youon handle tm and how you want to educate or continue to move through the process and move over. There is no doubt in my mind i was turned down for jobs that i really wanted because maybe i was a woman for my background, you name it. But i did not let it slow me down. I think you have to continue to move forward, you have to figure outt a way that you can still achieve and what your passion is evout and move forward from that. And others help me along the way, i did not do it by myself. Thats the other piece of this, you dont hesitate to reach out and ask for the help and ask for assistance. A lot of the times we will not do that and i think thats part of it, once you get there and why am so struck about why im do this, you dont forget what you came from and helped you on the way and now to help others and open the door even wider. I was listening to an interview you did not long after arriving in the senate. You are talking about showing up and looking around and realizing everyone else looks the same, a lot of white men. From this interview was you said, we should be mandating diversity in our committees, mandating community in our hiring practices. Can you do that . Yes. Talk to me about that. Yeah. Let me tell you. This is why its so crazy. Remember when i walk in to the congress, into the senate, this is an over 200yearold institution that was run by white men. The rules they passed were based on their focus and their perception i still am on the Senate Rules Committee and i got asked to participate in a small group of senators to address some of the Committee Rules and make changes to update them. Remember this Committee Rule was 100 years ago. The. Not anywhere not one word or one time did i see the word diversity. Its bringing different people from different perspectives but the diversity didnt exist and quite honestly we need to change this. They need to be a diverse nature or have a diversity associated with them, people from different perspectives and the creation of the committee and that to me is a nobrainer but youve got to remember we changed the role three years ago so thats what im saying is sometimes youve got to get into the system and say what is going on here. Weve mandated diversity through thesenate offices on democratic side that you cant just check off. Youve got to figure out the different perspectives in the office is. The queen to manage this idea that diversity not only does it matter that we are going to make changes so that is what we have done and when i first got there my goal was to say everyone walking out was mainly white. I used that to the offices for a meeting with the staffers that were latino and i had a meeting with some that were asianamerican, native american. What is presented to nato prevented you from getting here and what is moving up the ranks. Its important for me to start carrying those down. They dont have the means they come from a school that will pay for the reward or get a fellowship unless you can cover the cost, you are not going to be able to. They didnt have the ability and couldnt go forward through the fellowship. That kind of changed so how do we make it happen. Heres the problem. And that to me is important on capitol hill. There are a lot more questions for the opportunity that start with questions. In the last couple of hours can you talk a little bit about that . Guest first of all it was an honor just to be mentioned in the potential of a. Im going to be there 100 for joe biden. To me it is so important but i also feel very strongly. They gave me the honor and right now in the middle of a pandemic like everyone else if you are so hit the majority of the revenue in the states come from gaining and tourism conventions on hospitality. They are workers that work within this industry might focus is on my state right now people have to realize when i was attorney general during the time of 2007 to 2014 that was in the middle of the subprime crisis and again most hard hit because of the nature of the industry and i worked really hard with the attorney general t attorneyg the resources back into the states to ensure a. Of [inaudible] i am excited to see a woman begin chosen and excited for all of these women. In the representation of course the. When i got elected i would tell you i told the story all the time it is indicative of the story that i get. On the campaign trail i got a letter from a fifth grader and she found out the. Ive got to meet her. We had a conversation and i realized. Its to make sure that they know im advocating on their behalf and its important if i can do this, they can do this, too. These girls i get to meet, their opportunities for them to the goal is to make sure they know. The you want to follow the passion and take you where you want to go. That is the key to all of this is ensuring that when we get the right person, other people look at a she did and that means i can do is too and that is what this is about. And wealthier you are in school. First is jacob. There are a number advocating for vicbuyin toreach out to bls right now. So what isv your advice to the party about balancing the outreach so you feel like they are forgotten in this coming election. That is what should be occurring. Occurring. Heres what i know running for office in the state that is so beautifully diverse as you can show up at the last minute to the Community Using the same either way i want to hear. You have to start early and be engaged. You have to talk to them about the issues and be listening. Its the only way you will build a relationship when you really want to ask for their support they know you will be an advocate on their behalf and i know you showed that before and you are not just showing up for a vote and then forget them after you get elected, so it requires it to happen early and you need to be in thoseng communities across the country and have an incredible staff and you have to be working hard. Then you have to do the followup. What i have seen is you go into those communities and never hear from some one again. Youve got to continue to show up and be engaged in issues that matter to the communities and reaching out and i think we know that weve seen him do that here in nevada. Across the country he will be successful. For any candidate not justy, president ial youve got to be there now. Thanks for the question. Jody turning them from the university, you are on. I am a graduate student at the university and i also work at the university. Id like to know what do you think nontraditional and traditional can do to help propagate the diversity in the local areas to the larger state . Guest thank you, great to see you. First, what i would do is figure out your passion to issue a lee are thinking about this all the time. We are to the point that we no longer havthey nolonger have tot because it is just happening. Its not a checkbox. It is a diversity that is happening because that is who ce has anry that he now opportunity to work and live and love and wherever they want. But now we have the responsibility and it isnt happening all the time and its not automatically their. Until that happens, we have to demand it wherever we go. Thank you for that. Next we have haley. Thank you again for being here with us. Is there a moment where your opinion shifted because of the bipartisan conversations with thank you. That is a great question. Yes not only do i think its important to educate others but they also have to be open and sometimes thats hard. Sometimes we think that we know everythings and youve always gt to go in with an open mind to be willing to listenno to others. From their perspective. Thats happened in the senate and in my career as attorney general and particularly when im advocating and looking at legislation to. To tell us from my perspective tell me how this is going to impact you and if it is good to makepe change for the good legislation is passed. The we coordinate and to bring everybody in and then make changes where appropriate and that to me is a good Public Policy. Next up, we have j. Introduce your self. Caller ceim sure youre familiar with what has been occurring overin the years my question is are they being introduced to congress lets start with a lack of enforcement particularly what we have seen just recently the case is outrageous and to me that is where it starts there is justice and people are treated equally. F a. We have to make sure we are addressing both pieces of thought some of them are not being enforced and if they are there is an abuse of force and it should be accountability around it, and that is not happening. Thank you for the question. Lets turn to carl. I am a student studying political science. Thank you so much, senator for taking the time to talk to students. I greatly appreciate your service for the students putting all of us at the forefront of the agenda. In nevada weve seen a women call the shots to this day they have the first majority female legislatureol they are most memorable in your tenure i wouldve told you every single one of the committees for the passing legislation that impacts the color of and around healthcare discrimination in oueducation discrimination in so many other areas. Right now the legislation is addressing Affordable Housing and how we address the discrimination around Affordable Housing. I also have legislation dealing with healthcare in general and access to healthcare and discrimination around healthcare and they quite often gets left out or discriminated against in general in so many areas and in some of the legislation might have to address that o discrimination. I think it is important in that way when i talk about bringing this with me no matter what s committee im on im always speaking about how to address that. One of the things we left out the those that dont have access to health care, free testing, didnt get to deduct payments because in congress they felt it was okay to delete or discriminated so i signed on to a piece of legislation and cosponsored so we could make that change in the next legislative package so that they have access to the resources they needed just like everyone else. We have to continue to address in the country. Senator, thank you for giving the time tonight and you said its wrong how do you continue toe fight [inaudible] i apologize, thats my dog. Guest on so many issues the communities are beingn discriminated against lgbtq. Part of this is introducing legislation or joining my colleagues that address the discrimination letter in general abut Perfect People dont realie is battling the administration rolling back regulations that werere there to protect the communities. When i talked about this administration rolling back regulations t that protected individuals from discrimination, that included our community lgbtq. Now theres concerns they may not get access to the health care they need because of the administration rolling it back so we have to be vigilant on what the administration is doing with regulation or rolling back the regulations so we can fight those as well and implement or challenge those and that is what they do so with either legislation or challenging the regulation or writing letters or the oversight that we have in the senate because we provide advice and consent. Those individuals have to report to congress so we have an oversight role for this administration through our Committee Hearing and thats important and that is why you will hold them accountable and challenge them on what they are doing. I regularly do that in my committee around diversity into so many other areas of concern about the lack of equality or resources. We are just about out of time but i want to close with one last question. Stacey abrams recently said and this is in context as a young black woman growing up in mississippi, ive learned if you dont raise your hand, people will not see you and give you attention. I thought that was a profound statement if you are not putting yourself out there, you cant expect to be at the table. A lot of people put up their hands this year in their briefs to the nomination but the two candidates left standing not to detract from them, but i think there were a lot of people that looked at that and felt a little discouraged. Im wondering what your message is two of those people that see others putting their hands up trying to get attention. If you look at the candidates running, think about this we had women of color, so many different perspectives. It was a Diverse Group of individuals and as democrats, thats who we are. We have to narrow it down but at the end of the day and thats who we are and they opened the door to that diversity. But are we going to have to ultimately narrowed it down to one candidate . Going toe but they are hold them accountable for all of the issues we care about. We bring that diversity to them and we demand that diversity and that kind of perspective from the individual that we are left with as a democrat and to me that is what this is about. You ask about being nominated to. Its just who we are as democrats and who we are as a country. We demand diversity in the government and to continue to grow. Im proud of the democrats in the sense that we have that diversity and i dont think we are slowing down. Let me say onem final thing. I know we are not slowing down because everybody that is participating particularly this generation, they are demanding it. They are demanding that change and theyve already made that. I shift and they are moving beyond that. Thats why im excited about this Younger Generation and what they bring to the country. The diversity to me is needed and they are the ones that are going to make the change. Its an exciting time to but theyve got to hold people accountable and we have that responsibility. Let me say thank you for the conversation and to everyone that asked the question and those that didnt get to, thank you for participating. It was exciting and i appreciate the conversations. I have long believed more diversity is a good thing. Its good for the Democratic Party and for the republican party. Its good for policymaking and government, its good for business, its good for all of us. I want to thank you for your fight to bring more diversity fighting for the issues. Thank you for joining us tonight and to all of you that tuned in thank you for spending part of your evening with us and please keep following us to find out about our upcoming summer programs and with that, thank you all and could night