Couple of excited to have students and members of the community from a couple of nevada uni universitys. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. Everyone is aware that this videopos is being recorded and will be posted for viewing later. I have always been very we interested in the issue that we will be focused verson tonight. That is diversity in Public Service. Ost ive spent most of mypolitil career working in the political trencheseslook, looking around n seeing a lack of representation, struck me. De,on the political side, on the policy side. Tonight we are thrilled to be joined by senator cortez to talk about some of these issues. She is well versed. S she had spentsu her career fighting for issues andunderrer fighting for members of the representative communities. As joshua said, the firste latina ever in the un United States senate up until a few minutes ago, reportedly being considered for Vice President , to be running mate on joe bidens ticket. We are going to get back toted that and in this conversation. We are excited to dig deep in wo some of these issues. Heres how its going to work. Those of you that are zoom, y participating on zoom, you will see at the bottom of your screen and a cue and a button. Click on that to start typing in your questions. Keep an eye on the chat as well, because at a certain point, our staff will let you know whenwa youy are up to ask a question about halfway through the program, and once we get to you in your question, get ready because we will put you onlook s camera. T. Make sure you look your best. Senator cortez, welcome to thehe institute of politics and Public Service. Thank you. Excited to be here with all of you. I enjoyed our conversation. I want to talk a little bitnt about policy. I want to talk a little bitpo about pipeline. Liabout politics. Stalet us start tonight, actual, by talking about you. Tell us a little bit about your own path into Public Servicehe and what inspired you and what was for you personally to public p service . Re i probably did not realie it at theppreci time, but i camo appreciate it as i got older. Smy father was in local politics. B wmy mother and father both we activelyly and civicf it engagements. On the political side of it. Athis is a couple who weremarr. Struggling when they first got married. My father was a parking attendant at a hotel here andle my mother c was a bookkeeper fo a title company. They were always involved and engaged in making sure that around theing dinner table wews would talk about social issues,. Policy issues, what was happening in the community. At the time, as we got older, my parents made sure that my sister and i would graduate from college. My of household, it wasnt aou question of if we were a going l college. Itege was no, you willuate, then decide what you want to do. Continuedw up, my father continued and mother continued to grow in their professions. Wemy father went on to be coun commissioner when i was younger here and clark county for about 16 years. That really was an opening form for both me and my sister toment understand, what it means for good government. What it means to give back in your community. What itto means to listen to yh neighbors and community membersg of the challenges that they aree facing. Th yhowou working together, youn solve those entproblems. He went on to be as a presidency manyy of youy of know, that tag, what happens in vegas states in vegas. That was part of hisste marketig team. He was the president ceo. Not only is it a Success Story when i talk about my father. He was an american who grew up s at a young age was brought to las vegas by his parents. My grandmother, Mexican American woman was born and raised in los cruises. Iraqs the real grand as a young man coming to this grandfb country served as a military and became the United Statesit s citizen. It really was a story, tryingy e to come in a country, work hard. Worked hard rules so your family could succeed. That is what my siste parents d. So my sister and i could succeed. All the while, my father never forgot where he came wefrom, ad myem g mother as well. Hend i helped them get their. That is what my sister and i learned growing up. Even though i thought it, iou. Will be honest with you, i graduated from the university and real. I sch went on to law school. It felt natural for me to get back into Public Policy, the legal aspects of it and being involved in the community. I believe in good government. I believe in working with onepr another to solve problems. Othat is why i do what i dolleg today. If e, thyou would ask me when i, in college, where do you think to be, i would say no. But it was natural afterwards. Thats why, i truly believe why i do what i do today, its because i saw grew up in it witi parents. I saw the benefits of it. That ishat my passion and that s what motivates me, its solvingn problems in the community. Figuring out how you can work on something together. Ll i think we all come togetherb figure out where we can focus on Public Policy that suits all of us and that we come together inrough that process, working together through compromise. That is a little bit about my background and why do what i do today. I will come back to parts of your background later in the conversation. Just historic, but you haveform really used your platform to fig fight for a diversity and i underrepresented communities on a whole. I know you are also softball why player. Why does it matter to have more diversity in Public Policy and Public Service . Im it is so important and hers is why. We are going to pass laws andhe in this country that really address issues we are all dealing with,ems or trying to t solve problems that we are dealing with, then we need thate diversity around the table when we are making those decisions, when we are cracking that for those laws. Otherwise, people will be left out. Thats what it means to me. That is why i realized myhistor. Election was historic and that is great to make mos history, bt to me theeno most important para because they can be at the table, a voice at the table at the kn seat, addressing legislation that i know will impactct people in my community and at the same time, part of my th responsibility is opening door even wider and bringing more people through it diversity. It really is it starts with we are going to pass laws, if were going tot focus on Public Policy that impacts alled of us, then we neo to have thatse diversity in the room, making those decisions. It is very simple. This is what i have always felt working in government is, if we are actuallyyby going to do rigt by our constituents whileen working int, government, the rey government and the people that work in government should really mirror the constituents that they represent, becausend that way you understand the issues. Youyou can understand about what theyre dealing brwith and brig those issues to the table when you are trying to finds solutions. Letbout me say what is crazy abi all of this. When i got to the senate, you can probably count with two hands, about 20 or 22 men women overhist 200 year history of the senate, United States senate, there were only 50 women in the United States senate, the i know this because i was number 50. This is why this is so crazy,hat this idea that people are passingsla laws and legislation and it is an elite group that are trying to address issues that matters to me as a woman,n, bu also to so many communities of color wo, so many of our being communities that are beingpect m discriminated against. T. How dot we expect them to making address those issues unless we are there in the room making those decisions . That to me is what this is all about. It is making sure we aret respos opening that door. Responsibilitytat sure we keep bringing people with us and bring that cs diversity. The covid crisis is maybe one of the most importantof timely examples of this. We have seen data of howes, minority communities of color dispropo are disproportionately affected, not just onso t the public healh side, but on the economic side. Thewe put a spotlight on the structural disparities, both in health care and economic, with communities of color. Can you talk about that a little bit . Reabout the real policy challenges there. And what being of women of color, what perspective you bring to that conversation, if you figure out how to moveart os forward . Part of it starts with the data you just talked about. Now we have the data. Now we know. But we did not have the data, initially. We did not actually ask for that data. We did not demand that demographic, whatever it is, that we collected from the very beginning. Federal government does do not o enough of collection of that type of data to be specific, so that we can ensure that we are bringing resources to everyone equally. That is the challengeethe stillt the federal level. Ourincluding and some of our se level governments as well. Parti we know now during this pandemic, nevada is a beautifully diverse state. A third of the population are latinos. They are one of theg p fastestgrowing Asian AmericanPacific Island or population. Still a strong and robuston. American population. We havegho over 23 communities throughout the state. It is just beautifully diverse. What i was seeing after talking with our state health cares experts, was that some members in the Minority Community were being hard hit by this pandemic, particularly what we would know now in nevada, the lip teen oh community was getting really hard hit. They were seeing more e lanumbes of covid19 diagnosis, not enough Health Care Access to that community. Not enough education to make sure thatsure the community mems what they can do to protect themselves. Ce so once we got that data, then s we can Work Together at the t statehe level, the local and federal ho level, to figure out how do we educate . Ee how do we getd the resources that we need to get to thoseto t hotspots and how to make sure we aret communicating . Particularly in our asianres a community and latino communities sometimes there is o a language barrier. You have to be able toake s make barriers to connecting and understanding and knock down those barriers to bring the resources into the communities. Notfor me, as somebody, not ony as a woman of color, coming from a mexicanric american fathr and my mothers italianic american,an but working in the communities, and realizing that the language barrier, realizing that the lack of accesscare, sometimes to health care, realizing the lack of access toe clean air, and sometimes clean water, and some of our they a neighborhoods are low income. Theyeych are challenged alreadyt we haveo to recognize that to bo able to then fight to get theust resources where they need to at go. Thbecause we have the data now o the federalca level, i have been col advocating a lot of us withth colleagues that we now ensure that the resources that we need to address this pandemic get into those communities. Howhere do we do that . We find local clinics. Cl wei find where there are local areas in southern nevada. Shop,there are a lot of latino s there where we can es tgo in educate themem and bring resources tore them and talk to them so that they are educated on these issues. I will tell you, every time we e think that we make one stepessig forward in addressing any type of discrimination, or a barrier or any t to getting access to health care, or any type of relief to somebody will comegh along and tried to take it away. T we had that happening right n literally. It t is stones me this many administration. We have fought so many years to di r down those barriers for discrimination around housing, health care, and uk shun, and rol now this administration has rolled back some of these now we regulations. See,now we see, unfortunately, e of the diseasier ability to discriminate. An example right now, just out today, where we know that under the Affordable Care act, the secretary of health and human services, in the middle of aew pandemic, the sites tori rewrit the regulation on the care act and rollback on some of the discriminatory laws that we put in place. Anti discriminatory laws that we certain place to protect the individuals. Weals have certain individuals w who will be discriminatedget against and not get the health care they need under the Affordable Health care act. Women, lgbtq, people of color, language barriers. That to me is why, when we fight to be at the table, we passed legislation, we have to be vigilant around it, to make sure that we are constantly talking about these issues. Even though you may pass a law that addresses some sort of i discrimination, on banking and housing where i sit because i try to eliminate rent and we housing issues. We t have to be vigilant because we have to be back there fighting. Reneoing there is this constantnging thou awareness of what is going on to ensure that we are bringing those resources to everyone. Just a reminder for those other from the Georgia Community and otherbm itcommunities, we can bn to submit your questions in thet q a tab at the bottom of your screen at any point during the g program. Feel free to do so. O. Conversation on education. Ame one other one i want to focusen onts, just given Current Events this criminal justice. Looking at the tragic death of georgeof floyd up in minnesota, or ahmaud arbery, very different circumstances but too where it took months for people to really pay tensions for what happened. In that case, the disparities once again, are tragically evident. Osetalk a little bit about somef those challenges on diversity and positions of power and Public Service and how tots address them. I think that is why it is soo importantim to bring diversity e all levels. I know is a prosecutor, one ofin the things that we looked in our statetorn, particularly as a attorney general was the state prison system. Why was there disproportionate shares shaof minorities or peope of . Color in prison systems . What was happening here and what can we do to bring change this . Theso we looked at the state lel of changing some of our laws to address what we were seeing,n t the disproportionate share of people of color in our prison system. Needs to be done. I think what we are seeing across the country is this have completely outrageous, you have a man of down color who can jogb the streeted or a woman sleeping in her bed is killed. W or what we just saw recently in minnesota with george floyd. It is outrageous. It requires and it mandates justice. At the same time, it also b mandatesa us all not to sit back and say, oh there it goes again. There it happened again. To demand change. We need a paradigm shift. Weange. Need this change. We need tooha recognize that it happening and figure out what we are going to do about it. Say and n we all collectively, o longer just sit back. We have to say and do and demand thatat change. Ice. Yes we want swift justice. We want to stop discrimination. Collbut we have got to work collectively at all levels to work it out. Fieldhink that is why for everybody who is watching, no matter what field you work in, you bring that with you. Angyou bring that sense of chan that sense of diversity, thatyou sense of justice with you. That will help make the change as well. I have always felt that way no matter what shot that i havehatu held. It is important that you carry y that responsibility with you and treat people equally with respect, tolerance, and you call it out when you see it. Have so much more to do. O. Natelp does not help when we just add this that we have a man in the white house that thinks is it is okay to discriminate and call people out, use hatefuloffh language in the highest office of the land. Tethere is no room for hate or discrimination in the white house, particularly from thedent president of the United States was supposed to represent the best of us, represent all of us. Is what we expect. That is what we demand. White i do not see that now in t white house. Tohang me, that change the elecn box in november quite honestly. Barack obamas election was historic. Racism did not go away. I am wondering if, there arety criticisms of him from the black community but it did not go far enough. I am wondering if that is an unfair criticism not just from them, but as a person of color, as a woman, do you think, do you feel undue pressure from communities you represent . Do you feel people are judgedore differently or that there are expecta Higher Expectations for you ina . Dealing with some of these thats challenges . That is a great question. Ti never looked at it from thate perspective, because the only thing i know that is true to me is that i am a woman, so have dealtue i with issues, it is the only issues i know how to deal with. For my perspective as a woman, Mexican American woman, Italian American women, and what ive had to deal with throughout my career. I th mywill say this, and this s what i say to so many people talk with them, with particularly when im talking to people of color. I do not know what it is like to stand in my shoes. You do not knowoes. What it is e to stand in mind. But if we stand together, we can be a force to make change. That to mee is what is it isli about. It is g,about listening, educatn understanding, education about around the issues that are impacting our communities. Example of you anan this. I worked my career around re Domestic Violence prevention, sex trafficking prevention,s reducing violence against women and children. H a woman, that what i to deal with around this issue, but i also know a man the that does not think aboa it from the perspective that i a do as a woman. I, as a woman, know that i am very cautious when im walking to myight car in the parking lot night, becausebein i have conces about being attacked or possibly raped or harassed. Amandas not had that samee perspective. As a woman, to educate , is t i do it with my husband and friend, to educate thatnder what it is like to be like init my shoes. Understand what i live with every day,an so that now they cn have together wei can work to make change. I think that is what it comes jm downs to. Tooftentimes we jump all the way to wanting and demanding and get results. But we forget theeduc education part. To make peoplee co understand what it is we are dealing with. How we come along through this i process. I think that im not saying everybody is open to it but there are so manymany people tht just want to be educated and understand it and want to be there with us. Aav part of what i havee i alwat done is that the piece of educationd gets discounted. Enmost i itth always starts for me, with thee education. At. It is really interesting that you sayne of that one of e that is really stark for me back when i was working in politics, with the increase the number of focus groups ieopd sat in where people would talk about their concerns of their own livelihood. It was in direct competition withger others. Thet anger that you feel, thathe thesere communities over here, e are talking about them, but yout youre not talking about me. If you put funding in this community, that is taking away from us. Feels to me that too often,onw political leaders do not do what younect just talked about. Weconnecting the dots. We are not in competition. Just because we are trying to despai take care of economicunity doesm disparities from the black or brown at communities, does not vice mean it has to come at yourw expense or do vice versa. How do we bridge that . Wha i think it goes back to t you just said. Youo justuc touched on it. Twe have to stop making it an us versus them. We have to, when we are passing legislation, are we looking at appropriation, at least in congress, we have to make sure s we are thinking and talking in terms of all of us. This benefits all of us. Andand explaining how it benefs all of us. We do not do enough of that. Particularly in thispartisan, environment, it is so partisan,o so fast moving. Nt gwe do not get enough of tht piece of education. For my purposes, i love going out into my community and just talking to wpeople. I know we will find Common Ground. Sho know that no matter where i show up,you. Im willing to tal with youi. If you are willing to sit and listen i know we will find Common Ground. Nevada st is still a shock a democratic rura urban area, butt of our rural urban areas are really red and republican. But ip. Show up. A i walk into a room. I will walk into a room and all these incredibly white men who have incredible stories to tell who have worked for as generations. The family as cattle ranchers. L wai will walk in the room andy ok,k, i know you probably didnt vote for me, but you are stuck with me g for the next six year . So lets get something done. We find Common Ground. Access to health care. Small Business Owners need health care. Mi gimmigration. Ing who do you think have been working the farms and ranches . They are so supportive of addressing t hand making sure tt count individuals can come to this country to work, and they are oa supportive of putting them on a. Pathway to citizenship or giving them the opportunity toh. Succeed. There are so many things that you would notgo out know if you didnt talk to them. They are environmentalists. They work aand love the land. If you want to talk to them about Climate Change and crisis, how too sustain the land, they will be thearme first ones ther. There are farmers and ranchers, it all theto dodo time. T we never engageha them. To me thatce is what this is ala about. You have to be willing to takew that chance. Talk with them and figure out where you d. Can find that Common Ground. We will not on agree on everyt everything, but we will come to somegroun Common Ground somewhee and find how we can Work Together. I don dont think that happens quite often or enough. It does not happen enough and congress right now. Im yuck you talked about elt the stark nature of your election and how after 200 plus 50th years you were the 50th womanyo, first woman ever from your state, first latina ever. Why is itd . So hard . What are the obstacles thatit peopleie from these communities face in breaking into the . System . Th that will take longer than our conversation here. Let me just say this. Julet me just tell everybody wo and is listening. As a woman and somebody who lawbelieve me, most of my career is in Law Enforcement and most of the people have dealt with were men in Law Enforcement. What i would tell everyone is,g yeah,to h you will have barrier. You will have times where people will shuthu t you off fo reasons you do not know, or reasons that but at the end of the day, it is how you how handle them. It is how you educate, how you continue to move through thatov. Process and move forward. Mthere is no doubt in my mind, i was turned down for jobs that i really wanted because maybe i wasman a woman or my background, name it. Dobut i did not let me stop slow me down. In i think thatue is it. U i think you have to continue to go way forward. You have to figure out a wayhat that you can still achieve from what youreforwar passionate abt and move forward through that,wa and others help you along the way. I did tnot do this bythe mysel. That is the other piece thiofhi this. Tayou do not hesitate to reach out and ask for that help from somebody, or ask fort do assistance. A lot of the times people dont do that. I think that isis once you get there, this is why feel so strongly about why i do this. Dont fro forget where you come from. You have a responsibility to help others. Opened that door even wider. I was listening to an interview today not long after arriving in senate. Nd loo about showing up and looking around and realizing that no one else kind of looked the same, right . A lot of white men. What really took back from this interview as youat insaid, we should be mandating diversity in our communities. And our daily practices. Can ycan you do that . Yes ell let me tell you. This is why it. Is so crazy. You have to remember. When i walk in to the congress senate, this is an over 200ye over a 200yearold institution that was mainly run by white men. The rules they passed were based on their focus and got perception of things. When i first got there, im ask still on the senate rules committee, i got asked to participate in a small group of senators senators to address some of ourh Community Rules and make changes to them and update them. Reme remember this Community Rum probably the aslast time anybody looked at them was 100 years ago. Whenul esi looked at the communy rules to look at as we sit in our committeeity s, how we brig diversity there and equality and ask for an opportunity to speak andywhe ask questions. Not one word or anywhere did i see in the rules committee the word, diversity. Or the word bringing different people or from different perspectives or different color. Diversity did not exist. Nestlyand quite honestly, a womd not exist. So part of my thing was, we need to change this. Ittewe need to say that who are have to creating the communities, it has to be of a diverse nature. To be diversity perspec associated with that. So people from differentto me perspectives can be part of thet creation of these committees. S agremember, we just changed tt rule three years ago. So that is what im saying. Metsometimes, you have to get io the system and say what the here . . Going on chfigure out how you can make that change within the system. That system change has takenater place. That is on the Democratic Caucus side, when we create committees, there has to be a mandate for diversity. We mandated diversity throughra, our Senate Offices on the democratic side. You have to, on not only when yu areou ca higher hiring diversit, you cannot just check hthe box am done. You have to figure out how you are bringing those different perspectives into your offices. One thing i can h this is one that he really we understood and said, we need toc mandate through the democratic diversity, s idea that diversity, not only does itt matter,te but that we are goingo to make change about it. Whenthat is what we have done. When i first got there, michael was to say okay, how do i bring more diversity on capitol hill . Everyone there was mainly white. I reached out to the Senate Offices. Offices. I had a meeting with some of staffers who were latinos. Li had a meeting with some who were african american, Asian American, lgbtq. Native american. Anybodythat that i could talk t . That was on the hill. What are the barriers . What prevented you from getting here . Then mo . What is preventing you from moving up . Up in the ranks . Gettingible promoted. Once we had this incredible conversation. Once i the learned some of thos barriers, then as a senator, it is important for me to start tearing those down. Part of that was, many people of color do notto have the opportunity to come to capitol hill to work assh an intern because they do not have the means to be able to afford the room andat board. D. Those are theev people that, thy either comeme will pay for their room andd board or they get un pay for it. Cosunless you can cover your co, you are not going to be able tow come. So that is why we made change tt and ask in the senate, that we pass when we appropriated the funds, for additional fu appropriations for the cost of some of our interns so that they could come to capitol hill. Ii also is create created a scholarship in my office so that somebody wanted to come, that was first generation and did not have the ability, couldd not get the fellowship, could not afford women board. We would cover those costs for e them. I think that is the kind of how do change that i am looking for. How do we make it happen . Heheres the problem. Makenow lets make it happen. How do we continue to grow in this . To me that is important for capitol hill. Ioni have so many mores. S questions. Want to get to student questions. So students, im reminding you that this is to starta th placing your quests via the q a tab below at the bottom of your screen. Before we turn to them, lets turn to politics a little bit. Joe biden announced before he became the presumptive nominee that he was going to select a woman. And once he did that, your name immediately popped up at the top of many lists. You were apparently under consideration ho but just the lt couple of hours, you announced that youration withdrew your na. Can you talk a little bit about decision . Absolutely. First of all, it is an honor just to be mentioned as ama potential Vice President. And an honor to be in the category of women that he is looking at. The di diverse women that i kno, in their own right, our trail blazers and inspirational. It was exciting and very to humbling to be thought of. I will be the 100 for joen. Biden. To me, it is so important that we put him in the white house, but i also feel very strongly as a United States senator, i was voted and by the people of represent them for six years. Gave me that honor. Right now, nevada is in theelse, middle of a pandemic like everyone they were so hard hit because we aree industry. Ity basedy our revenue the majority of our revenue in this state comes from gaming and Tourism Convention spaces. Thats hospitality. 400,000 workers in the state ofe nevada our workers that work in thiswor industry that have now been furloughed or now there are concernedsses about their future. Small businesses, the same. On my focus really is on my state rightht now, ensuring that i continueces, to fight for those resources, that i continue to advocate where i can in the senate. Dutost make sure that our econoy in nevada turns around much w quicker. People have to realize,he when i was a treatyal, t general, thats from during the time of 2007 to 2014. That was in the middle of our he crisis. Again was hardhit. Ibecause of the nature of the industry. To re bring the resources back into our state and to ensure thatmy g we can bounce back. Thatat ourring economy has to recover. Ly ai wanted to spring back as quickly as possible, and that in the senate on behalf of the state of nevada, that is my commitment. Away from that right now. Obviously, selecting a woman brings diversity to the ticket. Iou think it is important that he selected women of color . I think it is important that we get the best person for thata job, and i think the best person is a woman. There is no doubt about it. Based on the women that are there, i am excited to see a a woman being chosen. I am excited for all of these women. They bring different perspect perspectives that we need, and that representation of course. I ami am biased in a sense thati know that is a latina, the impact that i can have on other latinos and latinos in my i community. When i got elected, i will telli you, i got out reached by so many people. Ii tell that storys all of the time. Is indicative of the story that i get from i so many people meet. When i was campaigning on the a campaign trail, i got a letterg. From a fifth grader. She isssh a tina and she found t i was going to be the first latina in the United States senate, the first woman. She was excited and writing about it. Se towards the end of the letter she said, im in fifth grade. Win . Im running for student government. Do you have tips on how i could get in . I thought wow. I have to meet con her. I called her in. We had a conversation. I realized that part of myo responsibility as somebody who s is now can potentially be andou became a senator is to make sure that these young latinos and latinos know that one, i advocati am advocating on their behalf, and that to, i will pull them along that stream of support is if i can do this, they can do this to. That acis the one thing i wanto get across to people. It is that particularly, young girls that i get to meet their opportunities for them. La zeas i blaze this trail and whatever you want to call it, my goal is to make sure thatlist they know that listen, the only thing i wo have done is work had and make sure that i look out and advocate for others. If this is something that youur want to do, you can do it as wellssio and follow your passio. Follow yourass passion and it wl take you t owhere you want to g. Y tofor me, that is i think they to all of this. N wit is to ensure that to get tt right person in the vp. Young girls, particularly willd. Look at that and say why, she did it. Th means i can doat to. This is what this is about. I will put a pin and my question. Because when we call on you, students, please introduce yourselves as to who you are. Lf, twhat you are studying. Omiwhere you are zooming in fro. Hatwhat year you are in school. First up is jacob. Urseljacob, introduce yourself. Jacob might be muted. There we are. Can you hear me now. Sorry about that. Good evening madam senator. A i am a rising sophomore. I am studying International History and im from new jersey. Question is, there are members in our party right now whobid are advocating for Vice President to begin reaching out to black americans right now. What is your advice to our to party about balancing our black outreach to the black community they so that they dont feel theirec . Forgotten in the upcoming election . The best question and thats is what should be occurring. Heres what i for know Running Office in the state of nevada that is so beautifully diverse is, you cannot show up at the last minute and say oh by theo t way i want your vote. Youarl have to start early. You have to be engaged. You have is to be talking to thm about issues. You have to be listening. It is the only way you will only build a relationship. It is the only way, when you fr really want to ask for support in their th vote, they know you, they know that you will be an advocate on their behalf. Theyard talk to, they listen. They tha know you showed up befe and that you are not andjust showing up forr a vote and then going to forget them after you getit elected. So it requires that to happen in that engagement, to happen early, and you need to be inhe those communities all across the country, engaging now. Ncreyou have to have a credible staff. You have to have folks thato know thosedo communities and do their part. Then you have to do the followup. Part of what i have always seene is, you go into thosend communities, and then you neverr hear from upyou have to continue to show up. Agees and o continue to be engaged on the issues that matters to those communities and reshaped reaching out. I think to know that joe biden, has done it, i have seen him do that in nevada. I know there are trying to work as hard as they can across the that country, he will be successful. Forthat is the recipe for succ. For any candidate. Not justntial. President ial. Andyou have got to be there and talking always. Tion. Jacob, thank you for the question. Let us turn to jody whos tuning in from the university of nevadavers reno. Jody, you are on. I am a graduate student at the university of nevada, and i also work at the university of nevada. I would like to know, what do you think a graduate student, traditional or nontraditional alike,nal can do to help propage diversity and local areas and then feed into larger state and national stages . Thank you, jody. Itgreat to see you. It is a great question. Ink i think, first what i woulde figure out the passions an issues that matter to you. Ll hwe all have those. Hthen figure out how you can work within the community, whether that is getting engaged withs a group that is similarl has issues passionate about, or working in the local government, orering wh volunteering on a campaign. Volunteering with a group onon those issues, and then when you go working on whatever thosee issues are, you are also demanding at the same time sho diversity. You ysshould always this is a great question, jody. K i go back to see so many people. They think diversity is just,t oh i check that box and move on. This is a are we are thinking about this all the time. We haare at the point where wee longer have to think about it is just happening at all levels. It is not a check box. It is diversity that is happening because that is whoy w we are and everybody now has an opportunity to work and live and love wherever they want. But now, we are obligated and we have a responsibility to demand,mand because it is not happening all the time, and it is not automatically there. Happens, we have to demand it wherever we go. Thank you for that. Thank you, jody. Next up, weve got haley. Senhello haley. Introduce yourself. Hi, senator. Thank you for being here with us. Ingoveior at georgetownn economics and government. My question for you has to do where y with is the river moment that you have had in your ednd oncareer e youve changed your mind ond bea something, or your opinion shifted because of a bipartisan conversation . S a or porridge acacia . Thank you. Question. Yes. I know that not only do i think it is importanth that we educate others, but we have to be open to being educated. Metimsometimes that is hard. Sometimes we think we know everything. Ive covered thispecec not change my mind. Lwaysbut you have always got to in with an open mind to really be willing toto listen to others and hear it from their i perspective. Yes, that has happened in the senate. It has happened in my career as an attorney general. L. Partparticularly when i was advocating on an issue or im looking at legislation and laws that will have an impact on all of us. Key to having good law is ensuring that before you pass r it, youea have reached out to ao of the state nd anybody who will be impacted by the law, give them away in. To from my perspective, tell y perspective how this will impact you. Is we this a goodneed law . I dont like unfounded cons mandates. Tos. Ensure that that occurs whn we passisla legislation, we coordinate. We bring everybody in. Tawe talk to them. Let them see the legislation and hear from them. Then we make changes. Where it is appropriate. That way we can includeo everybody and them process. That to me is good Public Policy. Anks thank you haley. Next up, weve got jay. Du cejay, you are on. Introduce yourself to the senator. Hi. Issenator. My name is jay. I amdent a graduate student and, currently in atlanta. My question is, i am sure we are all familiarbeen with the that have been occurring romover the years with george floyd and others. Envoy involving black men and women. My any question is, are there currently laws being introduced to congress to protect those who particularly those of african descent,t, before another incident occurs again . I think that is exactly what we need to address in thisfirst country. First of all, let us just start with a lack of enforcement. We need enforcement. Particularly what we have seen just recently in minnesota with george the case is outrageous and it calls for justice. To meof, that is where part of t starts. There needs to be justice and people need to be treated equally. And the laws already exist. What is happening and why arent there more outcriesthati because of the lack of enforcement . That is where it starts and making changes their. Is think there is an opportuniy to look at this from a federalet perspective, and make sure we get it right. But we also have to include the states as well. There are state laws and there areke su federal laws. We need to make sure that we are addressing both pieces ofe o that as we look to addressing pe this in the long term. From my perspective, as somebody who is a prosecutor and former lawl enforcement, i can tell you right now, some of the laws are not beingenforced. Enforced. They are not being enforced, therethere is an abuse of forcd there should bethats accountaby around it. That is not happening. Okay, jay, thank you for the question. Letlet us turn to carl, a studt from hello, my name is carl. I am a student at the mlbberal college and political science. Thank you so much, senator for taking the time to talk to students and being so to talk accessible. I greatly appreciate your service for our students and the Asian Pacific communities and many of the diverseputting population in the state. Putting all of us at the forefront of your agenda. E family toend was when your offie had reached out to my family to share about a horse story when it came to family based apprece immigration genders. Iork greatly appreciate your wok and everything you do for us here and nevada. Oumy question for you is, in nevada, we have seen from reports in the Washington Post made in 2019, women, specifically women of color called the shots. To thishe day, nevada has the first majority femaleg our legislature in u. S. History. Being a u. S. Senator, what issle one or two of the largest victo legislature that are most mos memorable in your tenure as ourt senatorhank for people of color . Do im not done yet. Im only three years so far. , i will tell you. I sit on five committees. I am on the senate finance, i sit on energy and natural resources. Im also on the banking and housing committee. Senate rules committee and indian affairs. I sin will tell you, every singe one of those communities, ive passing legislation how it impacts communities of color aroundnddi housing discriminati, eduund health care arr discrimination. Cationeducation discrimination. And so many other areas. Right now, i have several pieces ofdressi legislatione hod addressing Affordable Housing d and how we address the discrimination around Affordable Housing. Iwith also have legislation deag with health h cacare and general and access to health care healt discrimination around Health Care May be in our tribal communities, they quite often get left out. They are discriminated against andted general and so many areat andio so there is legislation that i have had to address that i think discrimination. I think it is important and abo that is why, when i talk abouty bringing this with me, living it and breathing it every day, notte matter what committee i am on, i am always trying to figure al waout how to address e diversity piece, and knocked down that discrimination so treated equally. Let me say this. One of the things that is most disturbing in the cares actng that we passed is we left out of communities of immigrants that do not have access to health care,ree free testing, did not t direct payments. Ecabecause some in congress thought it was okay toin discriminateate against them. Ii signed on to a piece of legislation that cosponsored with my colleague so that we can make that change and in the nextt legislative package, fight so that those immigrant communities can have access to relief, resources that they need, just like everyone else during the middle of a r pandemic. It is nconstant. It is something that have unfortunately, we have tonti continue to address in society in our country. Thank you for the question. Ks fcarl. Lets take another student question. Nicholas. N. Introduce yourself. Senator, thank you for giving your time tonight and thank you for managing the lgbtq lgbtq community. I am a candidate in the movement in that department in georgetown. In at2017 when the Trump Administration on in the military, you said it was wrong and you must stand for it. How ban would you fight for our trans brothers and sisters,. I like sergeants iolog apologize this is my dog. Two military, and who want to continue to serve in ourso many country . Timso many times butnot just in the military buty so many issues, our Trans Community are being discriminated is against in thes lgbtq and so many. Ag ainsthat is why it requires reqs continued vigilance and fighting. Part of this is introducing legislation or adjoining my intg colleagues on legislation thatd addresses discrimination, wheth whether it iser our military veteran veterans or in general where there is a barrier. Realize, bhat people dont realize is that battling this rl administration who is rolling back regulations that were there to protect those talked communities when i talked earlier ea about this administration, rollingt back regulations that protected individuals under the aca from discrimination, that included our Trans Community, lgbtq. Now there are concerns that they may not get access to the health care that they need, acco because of the administration rolling it back. We have to be vigilant also onog what this administration is doing with regulations who are rolling back those regulations, so we can actually fight those asment well and implement or challenge those. That is what wewe do. It is either legislation or c challenging the regulations, or writing a letter or the oversight role that we have in the senate, because we provides, consent to the administration on their appointments. Thosediv individuals come before us. They have to report to congress and so we have an oversight the adminr this administration through our community hearings. That is where you hold themnd accountable on the record and challenge them on what they are doing. Iimpole. Regularly do that in my committees around diversity and so many other areas where ie see there aree concerns about e lack of equality or resources going to all individuals. Thank you, nicholas. Senator, we are just about outu of time, but i want to close with one last question. Lastacey abrams, she recently said in the context of the Vice President ial selection process, she said as a young black woman growing up in mississippi, igron learned that if you do not raise your hand, people will not see you and will not give you attention. I thought that was very profound. If you do not if you are notofo. Putting yourself out there, you cannotere expect to get that set at the table. A lot of people put up their hand this year in the race toeae the democratic president ialatio. Nomination. With the two candidates leftmen. Standing that is a detract not to detract t from them, but i think there were a lot of people from communities that look at that and felt a little discouraged. I am wondering what your mes message is. To those people, who see others from their communities putting their hands up, trying to get f attentional, but falling short. What is your s hoi dont think that the fell short. If you look at the democratic president ial candidates running, wes had a Diverse Group of individuals compare it to what color, republicans had. Wead had women of color, we had so many different perspectives represented, lgbtq, it was aat, Diverse Group of individuals. Toas democrats thats who we. Are th we have to narrow it, doo but at the end of the day thats who we are as democrats. We opened the door toe we goingo diversity. Havbut ultimately were going have to narrow it down to less we go candidates, but we are going to hold that candidate accountable for all of those, issues wey, demand that diversity, and that perspective from the individual that wes elect as a democrat. To, mean thats what this is lok about, look at how far we haveii come. Thats why i say, i mean you asked me about being nominated to vp, just looking at the who diversity of women there, its who we are as democrats and it country, i think that our country is beautifully diverse, divers and we need to now demand that diversity in our government, whr and wherever else it could be, it needs to continue to grow. Im proud of the democrats, inmr theat sense that we have that beautiful diversity, and i down. Fhink were slowing let me say one final thing here. I know were not slowing down, because everyone participating, particularly with this generation, theyre demanding. They are the voting bloc of the future and theyre demanding that, change theyve alreadyy ae made up their mind, and they. Are moving us beyond that. Thats why im excited about the Younger Generation and what they bring to this country, its beautiful. And the diversity to me is needed. Outheynt are the ones that will make the to change. Its an exciting, time i kindes of wish i wastl part of their hd generation, but honestly its anount exciting time for all of. Us we have that responsibility u always to demand diversity. Let me say thank you for this conversation, and everyone who asked the question, and those that didnt, thank you for participating. I appreciate the conversation. Ed ive longed believe thaty in more diversity is important for the it democratic andgovernmentg republican party. Itssiness good for, governments good for business, its good for all of us. Senator, i want to thank you for your long fight to bring more diversity into public life and for fighting the issues that affect the affected that communities. Thanku you for joining us, tonight and for those of you who tuned and thank you for spending part of your evening with, us please follow us at ge politics to find out about our upcoming summer program. And with, that thank you and good night. Next on american history, tv pulitzer prizewinning author neuron chernow recalls the life of u. S. President , run is the author of the biography grant which was voted one of the best books of 20, 17 held at the National Book festival in washington, d. C. This is 45 minutes