Transcripts For CSPAN Future Of The Progressive Movement 20160807

Lets get started. I would to thank everyone for coming today. We will have a question and answer session as we move into the street i want to start off first by giving everybody a chance to introduce themselves, tell you and tiny bit about themselves and then we will get into some moderated questions and we will open it up for all of you. First, with the bank for much for being here. Especially at 9 00 a. M. If youre like me were out extremely late last night and this is super early. Thank you very much for taking the time to come here and participate. With that, i would like to give each panelist a chance to briefly introduce themselves. Startingith alexandra rojas. Hello, everyone. My name is alexandra. I used to work on the Burning Campaign as a Digital Field manager on the distributed organizer team. Shortly after, granted congress is not an old concept in women talking about it for quite some time. The founders, it is not shortly after, granted congress necessarily a new idea. A good place for me to go next after bernie. And just a bit background, im 21. Im still in progress with going to school. But bernie, as many volunteers have, has just consumed. Im into political organizing as well as activism. We have state senator maria the doll running for congress. By Marissa Palma doll and i was a state representative for three terms and in the second term of my time in the senate with the missouri senate, it was a pleasure to endorse bernie, i think i did that and perhaps may. I wanted to have an opportunity to really listen to the issues that impact the community that they represent, which is ferguson. I heard the message loud and clear and decided to endorse bernie because we needed to go in a new direction and the people who have been voiceless for so long deserve and need to have champions were not only in congress, but also the white house. Thank you. We also have misty snow who is a democratic candidate for u. S. Senate in utah. She is also one that the mechanic from her nomination. Democratic primary nomination. Im running for u. S. Senate in the state of utah. I wanted grandma credit primary 18 democratic primary. A lot of people were surprised. I entered the race kind of late. I started a guy started six months ahead of me and i thought it was wrong on a lot of issues. I felt that we democrats need to nominate people who are actually got to stand up for things like women reproductive rights, lgbt community, living wage, reforming the criminal Justice System which disproportionally and carpets or its people. It was silent on it. I thought he was wrong. I challenged him for the nomination and i just from the primary a couple weeks ago and im happy to be here today. Thank you all for coming. And you for inviting me and other people. Thank you. And we have cars and alan grayson running for u. S. Senate in florida. I was the fourth member of congress to endorse Bernie Sanders and i did so after we set up the website grace and invited people to come vote for the two candidates but also to ask when why. The vote came in at 86 bernie and 14 Hillary Clinton group always fascinating to make was to see all the explanations. Bernie sanders supporters really want to see change in the country, fundamental change. He understands t system is rigged and we need somebody as a leader who will change that. Im trusting going, the executive director of democracy for america. An organization that started 12 years ago after governor howard dean ran for president and we started a longterm organization of which we elected over 846 candidates to congress up and down the ballot across this country, raised over 59 for candidates and specifically with the Bernie Sanders campaign, we endorsed very early, our members participated in over 115,000th on banks phone banks helping to make 75 million phone calls which is an outrageously awesome number. Its one of the reasons why the media was not capable of killing that campaign. We appreciated being able to do that. It seemed like a perfect way to continue on the work of what democracy for america is about. It is fighting a 50 state strategy. What we are here for today is one of the next steps for the Political Revolution . We have some great candidates. Bernie is no longer a candidate for the presidency. I guess technically that will be few in a few weeks. We can say that he confidently. We have Political Revolution candidates up and down the ballot that are in position to make headway. That said it, this is a longterm movement. Democracy forat america has done, this is after another exciting grassroots president ial campaign that empowered the grassroots across the country. We are still around and effective and bigger than ever. Im excited to see what happens as the revolution moves forward. We only won one state. People atd 500,000 our largest point on our email list. The Sanders Campaign 122 states and ad 8 Million People 75 million calls. They knocked on 5 million doors. With all that, i want to put some questions to our panelists. They are pretty straightforward. Lets start with you. What lesson do you think we can learn from the Sanders Campaign as we move forward. I would say the biggest lesson i learned from both starting off as a volunteer and entering the campaign is to have trust in grassroots organizing and volunteers. This movement would not be possible without the millions of people and volunteers that stepped up and demanded change. Regardless, it bernie is not the president , is that the president that rasters organizing, at least in my lifetime in the generation that was able to watch bernie ancillary debate, shows that people are powerful. It is to make sure, im beside the amount of trust we had within the Bernie Sanders campaign and relied on grassroots volunteers to do the bulk of the work. You are running for congress, maria locally here against lacey kelly. One of the lessons you learned from the Sanders Campaign that apply to the campaign you are running. I love this question. Heres what i would say, be real. Talk to people. Have a relationship with people who are on the ground. Communicate and translate. Something that happened, all of you know, it is called ferguson. The ferguson uprising. Our congressman did not show up until day seven. Thats like four days after teargas and and two days after buildings were bernie. Were burning. Congress was on a fiveweek break. They take a fiveweek break everything august. Im dealing with a challenger who is riding on the coattails of his father, between the two of them to have served for 48 years. That is one family that is served for 40 years. When things went down in our community, that was like one of my first wakeup calls that we have some serious issues that are going on and we need someone who is present. Not only someone who is present, but someone who is willing to communicate the challenges that people live every single day and to be unafraid to communicate those challenges. When i said at the beginning, be real, people want to hear the truth. Despite you is off, people will be thinkable for that. You can tell me what to shut up. 39 hour filibuster this year on lgbt writes. [applause] we got into another crisis. It is radioactive waste that has been in our community for about seven generations, excusing, seven decades. Our congressman has not done anything. I was surveying as a School Board Member and state senator because i wanted to give extra time to my community that i live in. I resigned from the school board when i found out the number of cancer clusters that we have in the area that i represent. All of a sudden, that this wakeup call, i can go visit st. Louis. There is nothing more pitiful that having an Absentee Congress member. He grew up in maryland. He went to Elementary School in maryland. He went to middle school in maryland. He went to high school in maryland. He went to college in maryland. All of a sudden, theres a seat that was open and st. Louis and he ran for a special election. Then there was another seat that was open and he ran for a special election. Then his dad resigned and that he ran for congress. He has been living in maryland for quite some time. I think what is important, what bernie brought to the table is that you should always be among the people and always speak the truth. If you make a mistake here and there, you are speaking the language of the people. Never be afraid of speaking the language of the people. Someone will understand and we deal with racial issues pretty badly and st. Louis and missouri. I thought at one point there were a lot of white folks who are upset with me. Translating the issues that my constituents were concerned with, but what i found out is that they were also grateful for me standing up because they saw that the silence that we had been living and breathing for quite a long time is the same type of silence that they have been dealing with when it came to radioactive waste contamination. Where children are getting sick. I think one of the things that youre saying, it is not just about truth, you are also saying its about action. When have somebody who is an absentee that is not in what they need to get done, this time to have some of someone stand up and take action. That makes a lot of sense. I think one of the things that, barrier smashing about the Sanders Campaign is the way in which it broke conventional wisdom. One of the big waste i think conventional wisdom was broken was this concept of that you have to run to the middle. We saw that independents want to hear a bold articulated vision. They are not looking for the middle, they are looking for some of that inspires them. When you look at a 22 point victory in new hampshire, it was based on that. It was the independence that gave the 22 point victory. I think the interesting way in which is massive conventional wisdom. When you think about utah, there is often the idea that this is a red state, no way a liberal could win, no way to sanders democrat can win utah. The conservative democrat should be up to walk away with the race. What do you think you can learn from the Sanders Campaign and how will impact the race . What ive learned is you just have to speak what you believe in. Be honest about your beliefs. Dont try to do this moderate, just, they want honesty from the politicians. A lot of people are trying to frustrate politics as well. They want to see anger. The state of Utah Business reputation of being conservative but also really young estate could you look at the population, 18 and over, 41st six 46 are millennial. The program you ties that but a participation is really low. 2014 election, state of utah had about 28. 8 you tolerate. The Second Lowest aside from texas. We are forfeiting our government to conservatives because a lot of times, a love democrats, democratic voters, they feel like theres not a choice because utah Democratic Party, they were these selfdescribed conservative democrats. Almost indistinguishable from republicans. Not quite as extreme. The band of losing by 30 point margins because they dont offer an alternative. I think its important to offer a real or tentative. Alternative. We will stand up for a living wage. We will stand up for women rights in the us to be teaching energy. We will give you affordable college. We will try to address the racist criminal Justice System. The people of color being treated unfairly. We will fight to offer a new vision for the country and look at the future instead of the old ideas. The things that people want politicians to say, saying those things. The guy i run against, mike lee, not that popular. He only has about a 38 approval rating. A lot of people think he is a lock for reelection. I think we will suppress them. Every step of the way, people have underestimated me. He a lot of people thought it would never win the primary and i won by 90 margin disobeying 19 margin despite being outspent 41. [applause] 19 outspent and won by speaking the truth. He had like a million dollars, which is not a lot for a senate race. A lot of people dont think it is competitive, no donations coming in. I think a lot of people have realized, as a Bernie Sanders movement, the next step in the local revolution is we have to start supporting down the ballot. The senator from utah has just as much power over your life as a senator from texas or florida, if we want to change out dialogue as a nation, we need to get my progressive throughout the country know matter where they are from. The more progressive you have in congress, the better the Progressive Agenda and harding to fight for the policies that Bernie Sanders talked about. He was to have 15 minimum wage. Affordable college. We need more progressive in college congress. Every victory get is another boat. That is where we need to go. Thank you. [applause] continuing on this theme of this conventional wisdom is the idea that in red states or purple states that somehow democrats win that about a more moderate or conservative, nobody on this panel has probably experienced that conventional wisdom or stronger than congressman alan grayson because he is someone who was elected and is working with the establishment every day. Or against them. What we have seen as being tired establishment is sort of working against you like ernie. Bernie. Real talk about your general election opponent yet, were talking about your absolute terrible opponent in the primary. What do you feel about your learned from the Sanders Campaign that he taking in implementing into your senate race . Im pleased to see that theres an audience for progressivism. The Sanders Campaign is the most successful progressive president ial campaign in the last many years. If anything deserves applause, it is that. [applause] it gives us hope that the Democratic Party can so be the home of progressivism. It seems that there is definitely an audience within the party for progressive values of justice, equality and peace. Theres also consensus within the swath of the party that the system is rigged and something needs to be done to change that. The second thing i learned from the Sanders Campaign is this, voters want elections to be about something. Theyve got into this rut in america were political discourse consists also kind of ad hominem attacks and we end up choosing between the lesser of two evils. No doubt that both candidates are both evil is always seen are negative ads about them for literally weeks upon month before the election takes place. That is something not what people want. One people think will remember is that sanders saying enough about the emails. People want to hear about what we need to do to make our lives better collectively and how the locking a cop was that. That is a message that is fundamentally progressive. When the system is broken, we need to take the system over and change the laws and make things better. Thing we learned is this, a democracy is not quite dead yet. We are not quite at the point where the oligarchy gets every single thing at once. What happened with the Sanders Campaign established a new paradigm in the wake of Citizens United regarding campaignfinance and that turned us be very important. Before he ran for president , senator sanders was the only member of the senate who raised most of his Campaign Funds from small donors. For two cycles in a row, i was the only house member out of 435 us to raise most my Campaign Money from small donors. We summit happened at the president ial level. While the campaign was actually going on, senator sanders out raised everybody else. He out raised donald trump by 71. That was just trump reach into his pocket so does not count. There is an alternative way to run for president , senate, im the only Senate Candidate whos racing with his money from small donors. 150,000 contributions already. If you want to go to and make it contribution, i will not stop you. [laughter] this is what we need. I look along around the timber and i see 434 members were largely taught by special interest. Lobbyists, multinational corporations, billionaires. People who want something for themselves. Democracy cant survive that way. After the Citizens United decision, when it was rendered, i said that if we do nothing, then you can kiss this country goodbye. Sanders campaign is a sign that we are doing something, that there is a possibility that we can have a functional democracy in this country. I find that encouraging. [applause] continuing on the theme, what do we need to do to get the party to get the into caps on to the chemical aspects of the policy fight, the vision for america that so often the Democratic Party make the decision that im not as bad, look at the other guy, he is terrible. Vote for us. Midterm elections running on toning down the values. Those are losing battles we have lost over and over again. 2014, we won races where it was a bloodbath across the board but the races we won the ones where we talked about a vision for america. Jeff merkley, al franken, brian schatz. Those of the people who one. How do we do a . It . Hadley breakthrough and make it happen . I think there is little or no hope of that happening. It is appalling meet to me to see how corporate bought and paid for democrats to control the process. In the because im a progressive and i want they want to see a rightwing democrat running for marco rubio. He cant possibly win on the issues so what they do is they attacked a personal. They are not good at defeating republicans. They do have a certain flair for getting under the skin of democrats. In finding ways to undermine progressive democrats finally run for office and we have seen all along the country. Donna Edwards Campaign is a good example of that. I dont think these people are ever going to wake up and realize that what theyre doing is bullish and that they have cut us cost us 900 legislation seats in the country. It is time for a new generation. Similarly, a foreign that the courage of her convictions and understand that the public is with us. I introduced a bill than a has 175 cosponsored to expand expand medicare. Why is it that instead of adopting Something Like that that the party adopts a platform to extend the bank for foreign car reservations corporations . The same way the Democratic Party is in the process of adopting a platform and thank goodness for bernie adding as hard as he did, we that form the house of representatives and the number one item on the platform is defeating isis. In my district where the average wages are told by dollars an hour jumped dollars an hour, people are way more interested in a 15 wage and they are in defeating isis. The entire leadership, nancy pelosi, the leadership has been corrupted by money. It is dealing with its own failures. It is not interested in pulling. A interesting poll, that showed that when you actually asked the public where you stand on issues come on solid specific progressive proposals, overwhelmingly the public is with us. The leadership is not with us. My only hope is to see the leadership replaced. We did get a complete and total overhaul. We have to elect new candidates across the board which is why misty is a fantastic example taking on republicans and murray is a fantastic example taking on bad democrats. I feel like you want to Say Something else. In my lifetime, the most progress the progress that the mermaid was when howard dean was in charge. We need an outsider. [applause] we need an outsider who can come in to the party and to recognize that is in the practice of values progressive by his belly to victory. We have candidates here talking about pushing that in new ways and if their candidate who is doing it in an open primary. Then we also have a Brandnew Congress were the actual mission is to replace everybody. He tells a little bit about how you are planning to do that . Brandnew congress is an idea we can together with it has been in the making for at least a decade so if youre familiar with zach exley, it was his idea and it snowballed into what we have today which is the unified National Campaign to elect 400 plus candidates in the recently say 400 plus is because, this is for the 2018 election, we have some existing members who should stay in their as well as others will jump on board if we give them a reason to. We are aiming to generate the same amount of volunteerism. We want to get people excited about running those 400 candidates and swooping congress that way. Anybody will qualify as artie already being a good enough . Alan really wants to know the answer to that question. I think their people like senator sanders and Elizabeth Warren have consistently shown that they fight very hard for not only progressive values but what their constituents really want, what the American People want. That is why we say 400 plus in addition to the fact that it is funky with the way that different cycles work. Thank you. I want to open it up for you all to ask questions we have microphones here. We would like you to come up to the microphones. In advance, the microphone actual not be able find your internally, as microphones are for the video. Still speak your loud when you talk to the microphone. Very loud when you talk into the microphone. If you have a question, get in line behind one of the mikes. We will get you in just a moment. Maria, you take on this mantle of being a sanders democrat and what has that meant . When you are starting at 9 a. M. With a mountain dew. This is my second one. Whatat does it mean hasnt meant to be a centrist democrat in your campaign so far check of so far . There are so many people on the ground running who have been inspired either by ferguson or by Bernie Sanders. What i have chosen to do in my senate life is support many of the candidates who are running on a progressive platform. Thisfore there was movement for congress. Im doing a movement right here in st. Louis for progressives so we can take out some of these establishment democrats who do nothing and dont show up. Thats what im doing. I have my own Bernie Movement right here and it happens to be the legacy that i want to leave here in st. Louis because we need younger people, inspire people and people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work. What it means is challenging your party as often as possible. As a senator, i do that. If there is enough room for a prolife democrat in the senate, there is enough room for ferguson democrat in the senate and in congress. Give anything to add on that what it means to be a sanders democrat running in utah . Its about the issues. About fighting for things like living wage and affordable college. We have more millennials per capita than any other area in the state. Mediaof people make a deal about me being the first transperson if i get nominated for the senate. I would also be the first millennial and the u. S. Senate. There would be a couple other first there. Really put those issues out there. I wanted to give voice to other issues i thought were not getting voiced in the utah Democratic Party because no one was talking about things like 15 an hour minimum wage. Some people told me they voted for me at the convention because i was the only candidate that was even talking about issues people of color. I was talking a lot about that and got a lot of respect because i know there are important issues. Utah even 39 white, but we do have our present population is disproportional and the more minority. He didnt die, but he was severely injured. Hes going to have not ever going to be the same because of that injury. That is an issue. Its not just an issue that happens in the east of the south. It happened in my own city and zoellick city where an unarmed black teenager are being shot by police. We need to really adjust the way we do our police in this country. Entire to reform our system from the police and to the courts. I want to give a voice to a lot of these issues. A lot of these issues resonate and utah because there is a lot of people who do care about these issues and a lot there are also young people who have not really gotten involved. A lot of people i think are getting excited about me because im talking about a lot of the same issues. Before i won the primary, i was pulling a 37 . Might seem bad, but its better than 2012 i democratic nominee for u. S. Senate and utah that 30 of the vote. 2010 candidate that 32 . 37 in a june poll is really good and new job. If i fear making close that gap, especially if i can continue to build name recognition and fun rising fundraising. Hopefully that will continue. I would like to try to keep my to take a bunch of money from corporations like my opponent who Something Like 20 of his money comes from wall street. I do not have to do that. I think Bernie Sanders has the right idea, you can do it from small donations. Fantastic. Thats another great pitcher heading to somebodys website. Mistyksnow. Com good morning. My name is robert smith. How you ladies and gentlemen things going. I like to wish you well in your campaigns. This is my question. How do you propose to make sure Health Care Workers get health care in the state if you work 10 hours a week and the minimum wage here is seven dollars and . 65, you dont qualify for benefits. This seems like a great question for you maria. Answerme tell you your question and address one of the differences with the Establishment Party that im a member of. It was suggested by our caucus that we file a minimum wage bill of 10 and . 10. Sign ond to sign on to that bill. I said let me take this. I would be recalled if i filed that. So i filed the 15 minimum wage increase this year and i said i cannot hold my head up and go back home knowing that i signed onto a minimum wage increase of only 10 and . 10. The second thing, im looking at your teacher. For the last couple of of years, ive been a huge proponent of home care workers and let me tell you why. When i used to work for the lieutenant governor, we did an assessment on Nursing Homes and people who are in their homes. More people of color stay in their homes as they age. We are looking at that population of people who are serving, those individuals as well in these pockets. Yous absolutely true that do not and your comrades do not get paid a livable wage whatsoever for the work that you do. So im guessing you are a member of sdi you. All right. Is you in case no one knows the fastestgrowing union in the country. They are also one of the unions that have stood up for immigrants and refugee rights. Would encourage and also try to do my best and have done and work towards is ensuring that you do have coverage. You that weto tell have not passed Medicaid Expansion in the state of missouri. It has cost it this is money that should come back to the state to benefit you. My mom is also having to deal with the challenges that are presented to her because she is depending on the i get it. I think that you do and i will work towards i think you deserve more. Im working to make sure that you have your own Health Care Benefits because what you do and what your allies do and the other folks and the union are the work that people are unwilling to do. I want you to have health care deserve to have your health care. When you see advertisements of the increase of minimum wage, ask them is a 15 or 10. Letsecause someone says increase in wage, you ask of them are you talking about 15, are you talking about 10. Thank you free question. My question is about some tactics that we can use to make, especially state legislatures more progressive. One thing that the right has done really well in the past years is taking big money and putting it in small this districts work and have a really bit large footprint. One of the most inspiring things to me about the Bernie Sanders campaign was that they sent money to 21 other candidates by doing tandem fundraising and that includes some state Legislature Candidates who with one email send a small dollar donors from the Bernie Sanders campaign were able to fill up their budgets, probably for the next few cycles. How can you encourage more campaigns that do have large fundraising list that are able to mobilize the National Progressive small dollar donors into small races where that money can make a huge difference. Comment ake that common . Thatria kind of mentioned she might sue smith should me for saying. His Public Knowledge out. But one thing thats happening here in missouri and to talk about maria little bit and ask the rest of the panel, im andexecutive director also im ready for a Committee Hearing the city of st. Louis. Since maria cant spend the money and her state General Assembly campaign, she is in getting it to about 25 different candidates who are my age and most of them younger that are running for Committee Positions to take back our party at the state level. Where missouri refuses to talk about abortion to talk about place in our state or a myriad of other issues that progressives care about. We not only help her when against an incumbent, but really do that grassroots at the most basic level. We have Bernies Campaign manager running for state rep. Another young man who introduced bernie at a rally is also running for state rep. There is a lot of us and i was a part of us, we are all, i think we were all very supporters. We were all black lives matter activist before we were bernie supported. Can never repay berea for what she has given back to our community and how are the rest of you taking that kind of leadership . Thank you for your leadership and running for an office and a party that is critical. I would argue one of the most important things that we can do as a Political Revolution is to recognize that our job is and just to get elected to congress or to the u. S. Senate, our job is to get elected to school they have huge impact. You think about it constantly corporations and even corporate democrats win in these smalltown races so its not just that they are having a direct impact on the life, but they are also building themselves a new position to make it easier for them to then run again for Higher Office as well. It has a really negative affect that is not great. Whereas instead, we can have great people like maria who can come for state senate and run up for a member of congress before a member of representatives like allen who can then went to the senate. Thats what we need to support promoting from within, but that starts automated bottom. This seems like a Perfect Question for you alex to expand upon. I completely agree with what to said, which is generate that same amount of small dollar contributions on a Massive National scale and get actuallycited about taking over the primaries in getting people progressives into office. I think the way to do that is exactly that. I think its grassroots organizing. And a small dollar contributions. So getting to work part in the organizing is super, super important in addition to the money that is being spent because you actually able to allocate a good amount of resources that. I think that is really really important and crucial as we expand. I think also a Brandnew Congress is focusing on congress. Bernie has really created local organizing groups in every part of this country. Ist Brandnew Congress about, is yes we are aiming for congress, but three doing this, we are igniting the flame of people getting involved at a local level, at a state level, at a regional level and at a federal level. I do believe that is what Brandnew Congress is trying to accomplish and will continue to do that by the small dollar cut to be shins and actually electing people like maria, like to representlan the American People and represent the demographic makeup of the united they. The united states. Do you have anything you want to add . Maria2016. Com i have a comment and question live in eugene, oregon. Theres a strong bernie group there organizing a march on the same day as your kickoff event they. We have been trying to get a hold of somebody and not getting much response to try to courtney to make sure we dont step on each others case. I want you to know that in general and also ensure you are overwhelmed with love. Whoes a lot of us out here would love to help. So feel free to reach out for more volunteer help to field questions like that. Debbie huge volunteer army in waiting to help. To adjust that has on is heads on, we are actually building our sort of internal infrastructure and we are on the almost completely grassroots powered the reason we having gone back is just to give you got a taste of something we are working on is building actual infrastructure within the campaign called the Ground Support team that we are going to be hopefully expanding. Exactly going to be able to the local organizing that will take place in washington as well as i believe we have six other teams not only in california, but also in other states already. Will be reaching out for you hopefully right after this panel to stay around to talk about it. The question was about from philadelphia another interesting timing, your local pickup there is on july 28. I will be there and a lot of in thets ill be out streets. Seems like a fantastic ending event to go to. But in the facebook event, people asked about this and somebody commented over this is a local event. Would you ill be willing to consider making that a more general event since they released so many people from all across the country who will be there. We actually up two events going on. We have one that is on the 22nd i believe. The other one is on the 28th tons of otheras volunteers that are not only in this room, but our online and scattered will be meeting up in philadelphia to sell shirts and pass on information and answer any questions. Well be there pretty much pride to the convention. I think one of the lasting and maybe one of the impacts im not sure that has resonated deeply for a lot of people, and an impact for the Sanders Campaign manager which is the incredible amount of grassroots support that actually be on the kind of metrics that are often reported on. What gets reported on his things like 220 million raised from small donors and stuff like that. That is what the c class is obsessed with. They are obsessed with the fundraising common ancestor that kind of thing. Is that one of the impactful may be the Sanders Campaign manager the way in which it mobilized and engaged in a power volunteers to work for them. And but i imagine will end up ultimately also being a new i had said i was a Digital Field minister on the team. Thatt want to emphasize point that he just made. Almost the entire campaign was powered by volunteers, not only in their individual states when it came to down to it, but the team correlated it nationally online digital platforms. Thousands of volunteers, 75 million phone calls was is significant. And is the backbone of what we are trying to do and expanding Brandnew Congress. That havenly people been involved in politics forever, is people that are ready to get to work and fight for the change that they want and they can be new, they can be anyone as long as youre willing to step up and get to work during the congress has stuff that you can do. Next question. I have a question for congressman grayson about Debbie Wasserman schultz and what the burnie resident guest revolution has done to hopefully decrease her status within the party. And then for charles, you seem to want to downplay the list and the treasure that is that list. During the past couple of years, we are not hers alone. Not as sort of is sophisticated view of how these things actually happen. There are powers behind the throne that are not visible. She is in charge of the party, so she is the person people see. You personalize it the way that it has been done because of the decisions made regarding the debates and so on. The actualimplify process by which those decisions are made. I want youame time push back and say look at some of my governor dean who constantly fought with the party real power when you disagree with them. You look at the 50 state charted you where you have been at rom walks outgs of the room just off and says fark you. Howard deans response was i dont care, and still going to do the 50 state im not giving you money and kept doing it. There is something we set for leadership in that role. Even if of course no question its hard fighting against the establishment. She did not take that role. You would agree with that, right . The party under howard dean under debbieame wasserman schultz. We can all agree on that. Howard dean was more willing to assert itself. Some people think thats a good idea, some people think its pointless because we have no message. So what do you do . You buy a lot of ads. The answer is, absolutely. When howard dean ran the party, the party really meant something very important and none of us can for forget the principle involved that when you run a that is a lesson that still has not been in by the Democratic Party. And misery, we have more payday loans operations than walmart, starbucks, and mcdonalds put together. That is because theres people like my opponents and others like Debbie Wasserman schultz. The other thing is since neither one of them want to debate in front of the people that they represent. And especially here in missouri, when you have had an incumbent peoplefor 40 years, the do deserve to have an open debate. [applause] to address the magical email list. I think its also really crucial that we know that. But at the same time, the way becauseiew it to and Brandnew Congress does not have that list, we have to earn every supporter we get now. We actually have to go out, so the reason why well be in washington, the reason why philadelphia is because we are and find00 city tour out what theyre saying. It obviously would be nice if we have such a big email this already which would certainly help with our fundraising right now. However, im excited to work with grassroots and to work with local organizers to find out new ways to talk to voters and really, really understand and get to know everyone. To give mysome perspective, i think some but a regular happens among the political professional classes that we literally talk about it like its a list. And its not. I get obviously it literally is. But its people. There are people attached to this email just is and so the fact that sanders has 8 Million People on his list, thats fantastic. Those people are out there and if we are talking to them and were giving a bold vision and real leadership and roxy doing the real work, and so many ways that people will help find you. They will help find us and they will come to us. Certainly it helps the more sanders can highlight people that are arguing network than the better. We cook to continue to partner with sanders as you move ahead. My hope is that some of that means we get that exposure that also have spring the people in our door. The bottom line is that there are people and people are inspired by real vision, by real action and Effective Work and if youre doing this think they will come to you. That is why Bernie Sanders has gotten over 12 million votes even as he was being fought at every step of the way by the establishment and every possible way they could. Two. Next question. In 2014, 60 of state legislature states were opposed. 40 of them were completely uncontested. I live in springfield, oregon. And in the past three races, races. Ere 26 18 out of 26 were unopposed. On the eighth im out of 26 or people running. Becauset too surprised of ferguson made james knows the third, you couldve had voter turnout at 100 , and it would not have mattered. No one ran against him. As far as addressing these down blogspot. I work for nation builder, i came no because i started a website called one for office. Org. With Portland State university. I was simply sick and tired of the elites in the democratic and Republican Party holding onto that information for how to get on school boards, how to get on to all those special districts. Democracy for america, where were you . 18 out of 26 races, no one is running, you not developing the bench. And all of those communities, and st. Louis county, just did the research for, the entire county is now on the site. Four of five of the missus polities dont have a website. There is also around five or six positions are publicly elected publiclywhich is a elected sheriff. You guys dont want for this position dday. We have a lot of work to do down ballot. Im a big proponent of open data. So i will not give us any specific group. It will go to everyone. Im also not entirely comfortable giving them a fan of Brandnew Congress that you guys get to pick these candidates for congress. Whats up with that. What are your metrics for that. The vettingms of process and what can i get candidate looks like, we are actually going into the communities. If we are looking at Congressional Districts, we are looking going to talk to the people that actually represent. Its more like a nomination then vetting process. Brandnew, thinking there is going to be a final decisionmaking process, but its after long vetting and long talking with the Community Members that identify those people. Its not on the career politicians, its actually numbers of the committee that we dont even know the epic im more concerned with tight make the choice in who will get that money and the backing of the group. I also like to say it happens in each night every one of the districts. All i do every day long is look at Election Results and above these lists of elected officials. The same goes for you, congressman grayson. Theres people that you neglect good on the ballot. As rossi voters. If someone is running for school board, you can probably count and a 50 votes for this. The bottom carries the tapping every four years theres a new astroturf operation the democrats that has to stop. Great questions. I want to be him to give other people i asked questions, so thanks for sitting down. Great questions. Let me just tell you just a 36 of the people who live in the first Congressional District live in poverty. 60 of the children there go to truck Public School are on frebergs lunch. The African American community is currently experiencing an Unemployment Rate of 70 . When you run for office, let me talk about the colorization of campaigning. When you are black and you are a woman, and if you are both like me, you dont get support from the party. So heres the other thing. When you look at how people are doing things. To mailfirstntable of all, he is republican and i dont even know how he got elected. , heres what is about to go down. There are people especially after ferguson who have woken up. You are charging the system. The people who im supporting them are running for lower ballot is because they have been inspired. Us,nstead of yelling at realize that because of the asset of a young black man in several deaths of young black man and young black women, we are inspired and we are engaged and we are waking up. We are saying we are not going to tolerate this anymore and it is our responsibility. Want to work who support grassroots and every other person who is out there who does not have an opportunity. I do want to push back. In fact here is our problem. Heres our problem. We have five people want to run for mayor in ferguson. That is a beautiful thing. Have people who are running against each other who ive been inspired in the same multiple seats. Im trying to figure out who my going to support rmi supporting growth. In a couple of races on supporting both people, because they are all inspired. This is not going to be perfect. You are not perfect and im not perfect it neither one of us, nobody in here. We are all children of god. What we should be doing is to help people who have no voice. And take the energy and the passion that you have and look at those numbers as you do and help build a strong party and oppose the establishment at every single turn that you have. , pose the party establishment. We do have our problems just like you all day. Do. Speaking for dfa on that aspect, bottom line is that we have worked hard across the board. To elect candidates on the ballot. Im not going to be defensive here. We cant support everyone all the time. We cant force people to run and districts, and cant require somebody, we can say you have to , we canou dont run push it and we do it me try to empower people as much as possible. We have been very successful at that. Think about the scale of what you are asking however. About statenk legislative races, there are over 3000 state legislative races in a year. We had a cycle budget of 10 million. Theres only so much we can actually be able to do for each and every candidate. We encourage people to run as much as possible. We look for candidates that are andally running for real fighting hard even if they are in a district that might be difficult. And we very much encouraged people to run for the levels of office and we been successful at it. In fact, one of the things that has set apart the fa of other organizations is the fact that as a national organization, we we supported her as one of our first candidates in 2004. Nobody else was supporting maria. We did it, we went out there we worked our butts off and we are continue to support maria as weve gone a long year after year. The reality is that while there are not enough i would love to be of the give you 3000 stories like that. I would love to military be convinced someone to run. Id love to be able to tell you that we have been able to build every School Board Race in every state senate race. The reality is is that is extremely that is a very big one of the exciting things we recognize thats what we are pushing for an trying to make happen, its likely to happen in. It also takes a lot more than just a few people, staff in burlington, or the researchers we had make it happen in 3000 seats. That takes people in this country having to get up in the local community these. If Anyone Running on a progressive values is anything is to inspire people that dont ,ave those resources to get up start organizing, and filling the seats instead of waiting for someone to come and do it. We recognize its more than one organization. We know theres room to be involved in a lot of cases. Places. Im from brooklyn, new york. Not a place where we have trouble with democrats per se. We have many, many democrats. As you talk about the more versus better, we have more. We need better. Im a member of the kings county democratic committee. , just anat much power iron over zero. One of the things that incumbent democrats were not in a silly front of progress is very, very much to hold onto their power is the gerrymander. I was wondering if you guys could address the structural obstacles that we face insurgencies. Are you referring to gerrymanders specifically what do you mean by structural challenge. Is that broader than that . There are certainly shoretel jobs within the party. Im referring specifically to the gerrymandering. Both parties love it because it helps them keep their incumbents incumbent. That is correct. With regard to gerrymandering, youre are right. A helping at some point there will be some dont knew Supreme Court case before a liberal Supreme Court that will end at once and for all. I think gerrymandering is unconstitutional and i think it violates equal protection clause and the clause that actually requires the federal government to guarantee democratic government in every state. There is a separate clause that does that. Im very committed to this. We had a tremendous success in florida. It took years to get the litigation. We had something called for district florida in my state. If you look at the records, youll find the first five figure check they received for their effortless for me. Efforts was from me. I from the beginning was committed to that happening even though i do have a blue district and inevitably my district scott walker down when i went into effect. What we need is the government to reflect the values of the state. We reached a point in florida where even though florida is the ultimate purpose date, we had 19 members of congress were republicans and only six after the 2010 election who were democrats. That was partly a function of money, but it was dirty money. It was almost entirely a function of gerrymandering. Have packed huge numbers of democrats into a tiny number of districts and they got away with it. The same thing is true in pennsylvania where the current delegation is if i recall correctly 12 republicans and five democrats in the state that has not a republican president ial election for more than a quarter century. In ohio now, the count is 10 republicans and four democrats. They create a situation where is so badlyuntry gerrymandered in congress that we have to win nationwide by eight points before we get too even and congress. That is almost entirely a function of gerrymandering. So it is a horrible situation. It needs to and. One of the things that has been done is in florida we have put it on the ballot. Fair districts florida was an effort to amend our constitution to prohibit gerrymandering. It took roughly 8 million from start to finish to accomplish that and we needed over one million signatures to get it on the ballot. There are other states where the same kind of effort can be made, not every state has referendum or Initiative Like florida. Where you doing something that needs to be done because the power structure will never ever reform itself. The democrats get the assembly and the republicans get the senate and everybody is happy. That is definitely a problem. I want to thank you very much for your question. Unfortunately we are out of time. We will not take any more questions. I want to encourage those of you who still had questions even follows from the others to make sure we are still going to be here for a few more minutes. Dont hesitate to come up and chat with us that your question. I do want to give each of our panelists a chance to say real quick closing statement if you can try to keep it in 30 seconds or less would be good. If theres one burning fat you want to leave us with coming out of this, lets do it. Go team blue. I was thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this and for a chance to speak to you. I encourage all of you to check out my website. Dont be silent. Speak up. Peoplere often times want to put us in a box as progressives. They want to label less, they want to say that we can do this, we can be that when and where and how reject that. You have an obligation as a progressive. Speak up, stand up and fight as hard as you can with every single tool that you possibly , and yourur corner toolset, use it. I am running for congress. I am running against an establishment opponent. Who takes money from the payday loans, from the renttoown industry. And also if someone who does not champion the same kind of policies that Elizabeth Warren does. My website is maria 2016. Com and im asking you for your help. [applause] i echo everyones sentiments on stage so far. Im very humbled to be on stage senators andgreat people that are running for congress right now. The message i want to conveys believe in yourself and never give up. A 21 euro fromg connecticut, including a 16 euro for missouri, anybody can get up, stand up, whether running for office or getting involved. If anyone must you can go to Debbie Debbie tobrandnewcongress. Org organize and get involved right now. Before we go there is one thing i want you say about what were learning here today. The key to it not going away is to not let them take it from us. Theres no question that we have a political establishment. We had a corporate establishment , we have a country that wants to tell us and keep us down and campaign is this over, this revolution is ever and they will say everything that time we lose over the next year, over the next five years, the next 10 years, they will say it every single time. Because what they are going to count our is to losses. What i want to say to all of you is that we move ahead, we need to be counting up our victories. The victories are what matters and were going to fight everywhere, thats how we can win everywhere. But in fighting ever, that means we are not always going to win. As we have three fantastic candidates on the stage, and i hope every single one of them wins. I think every single one of them has a chance. [applause] if they dont, its not over. Its not over because the candidates and people running across this country on our values, on our issues, on our vision and they need to be supported and that will be true tomorrow, that will be to a year from now, and if theres anything i can say as being the executive director of democracy for america that darted 12 years ago, they will be there 12 years now. This make sure we keep revolution going and we fight is hardly can. With that, thank you for being here. [applause] at cspan. Are you can walk watch Public Affairs and Political Program at any time at your convenience. Heres how. Cspan. Orgome page and click on the Video Library search bar. Here you can type in the name of the speaker, sponsored the bill, or even the event topic. Review the list of search results and click on the program you like to watch. Or refine your search retirement many search tools. If you looking for our most Current Program and you dont want to search the Video Library, our homepage as many Current Programs ready for your immediate viewing such as todays washington journal or the events recovered that day. Cspan. Org is a Public Service of your cable or satellite provider. If you are cspan watcher, check it out. Tonight on q a, civil war historian and Virginia Tech Professor Emeritus james discusses his book after the civil war. State rights, state of allegiance was very deep. Slavery is without question the major cause of the civil war. But you can expand the actions of good, decent men like robert e. Lee and the pious stonewall jackson. They fight because virginia needs them. Not that they support the confederate cause, neither one bit. On thursday, president obama was at the pentagon meeting with his National Security advisers about the military campaign to defeat isis. Afterward, he spoke with reporters about the progress being made and challenges that lie ahead. Some issuesussed raised by republican president ial nominee donald trump including payments to iran and possible voter fraud in november. This is just over an hour. President obama good afternoon everybody. I just met again with my National Security council on the campaign to destroy isil. I