Waste over 50 Million Dollars for candidates and specifically with the Bernie Sanders campaign we endorsed very early, raised one point 8 million for him. Members participated in 115,000 phone banks. 75 billionm to make phone calls during the course of the campaign which is an outrageously awesome number and one of the reasons the media was not capable of killing the campaign. We played a very important part in their that we really appreciated being able to do and it seems like the perfect way to continue on the work of what democracy for america is all about which is about fighting a strategy of battling up and down the country. What we are here for today is the next steps for the Political Revolution. We have some great candidates, bernie is no longer a candidate the presidency well, i guess technically that will be true in a few weeks but technically since he endorsed hillary i think we can say that confidently. But we have Political Revolution candidates up and down the pellet in a position to make headway for the Political Revolution as soon as the Upcoming Elections happening right now. That said, this is a longterm movement. If you look at what democracy for america has done, this is 12 years later after a similar exciting grassroots president ial campaign that motivated and empowered the grassroots across this country. We are still around 12 years later and we are bigger than ever and doing an incredible work. I am excited to see what happens is the revolution moves forward. We only one in one state, aboutt and well had 500,000 people at our largest point. For example on our email list. Andad Sanders Campaign win 22 states and a blind people and 75 my calls. I mean, they not on 5 million doors. That is pretty amazing. Imagine what that will mean as we move forward. I want to put some questions to our panelists. They are pretty straightforward. I would like to start with alex. Can lesson do you think we learn from the Sanders Campaign as we move forward right now and maybe longterm. Thatwas 80 biggest lesson i learned from both starting off as a volunteer and entering the inpaign is to have trust grass roots organizing and your volunteers. Not bevement would possible without the millions of people and volunteers that stepped up and demanded change. So regardless if bernie is not our president , it sets a resident of that to grassroots organizing, at least in my lifetime and the generation that was able to watch bernie and hillary debate, it shows that people are powerful and if anything it is to make sure i emphasize the amount of trust we had within the Bernie Sanders campaign and relied on grassroots volunteers to do the bulk of the work. Great. Similarly a, you are running for congress locally here against lacy clay, right . What are some of the lessons you feel like you have learned from the Sanders Campaign that you could apply directly to the campaign you are running right now. I love this question. Heres what i would say. Toreal and like, talk people. Have a relationship with people on the ground and communicate translate. So, something that happened, i think you all know about it, it is called ferguson, right . The ferguson uprising. Our congressmen did not show up until four days after tear gassing, four days after burnings buildings. Breakake a fiveweek every single august. I am dealing with a challenger who is riding on the coattails of his father. Between the two of them they have served for 48 years in congress. That is one family that has served for 38 years. So when things went down in our community that was like one of my first wakeup calls that we have some serious, serious issues that are going on and we who is need someone present. Someone who is willing to communicate the challenges that people live every single day and to be unafraid to communicate those challenges. So when i said in the very beginning, the real, like people want to hear the truth. So despite who you paris off people are going to be thankful for that. You need to tell me when to shut that the share. 39 hour filibuster this year on a gbp rights. Thank you. Applause] crisis,t into another radioactive waste that has been in our community for about seven decades. Has not congressman done anything. So i was like a surveying as a School Board Member and eight representative because i wanted to give extra time. I resigned from the school board when i found out the number of cancer clusters we have in the area that i represent and he represents. Then all of a sudden we get this up call, criticalnothing more than having an Absentee Congress member. You know, 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 and then all of a sudden there was a seat that was open in st. Louis and he ran for a special election. And then there was another seat that was open and he ran for a special election. And then his dad resigned in then he ran for congress. So he is been living in maryland for quite a long time. You know, what i think is important about what Bernie Sanders brought to the table is you should always be with the people and speak the truth and if you make a mistake here and there, you are speaking the language of the people. Never be afraid of speaking the limits of the people because someone will understand and we deal with racial issues pretty badly here in st. Louis and in missouri and i thought it one point in time there were a lot of white oaks it were upset with me for translating the issues that my constituents work concerned with but what i found out was that they were also grateful for me standing. Because they saw that the silence we had been living and breathing from quite a long time is the same type of silence they had been dealing with when it came to radioactive waste contamination where older and are getting sick. Sorry. I was not trying to cut you off but i think one of the things youre saying, you are saying it is not just about truth youre also saying it is about action. When you have somebody that is in upton tea not getting done what they need to get done, it is time to have someone stand up and take action and do work which makes a lot of sense. You know, i think one of the things barriersmashing about the Bernie Sanders campaign is the way in which a repetitively over and over again broke conventional wisdom. One of the big ways i think conventional wisdom was broke was this concept that you have to run to the middle to get independence. Instead we saw that actually independence once to hear a bold difference. When you look at the victor in new hampshire, it was based on that because it was the tiedendent who actually between hillary and burning. I think it is an interesting way in which it smashes conventional wisdom so i think it is a good leadin to betsy. When you talk about utah, you think, this is a red state there is no way liberal could when common away Bernie Sanders supporter could win. Could walk away with that race. I can guess where youre going to head with this but what do you think you can learn from the Bernie Sanders campaign and how will it impact your race as you move forward . What i learned is you have to kind of speak what you believe in. You know, kind of be honest about your beliefs. Do this moderate, you know, talk one thing and say another. Just say, you know, they want honesty from politicians. A lot of people are kind of frustrated, politics as usual. They want to see change. In the state of utah, it is also a young state. If you look at the population 18 and over, 46 are millennials. The youngest state in the nation. Mark millennials in utah than gen xers and baby boomers combined. And baby boomers combined. But but a participation is law. But Voter Participation is low. Forfeiting our government to conservatives, to the longterm, you know, democrats and democratic voters they feel like there is not a choice because Utah Democratic Party for a long time dominated the selfdescribed conservatives who are prolife, antilgbt. They are like, well they are not quite as extreme but then they and up losing by a 30 point margin because they do not appeal. They do not offer an alternative. So it is important to offer a republicans. Ive to we are going to stand up for womens rights, for lgbt, affordable college. To a dressg to try criminal Justice System with unfairly color being incarcerated. Were going to offer a new vision for this country, you know. Look at the future instead of trying to think about old ideas. Saying the things people should say. Utah the the state of 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 supervise him. Surprise him. 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 a 19 margin despite being outspent 41. 19 outspent and won by speaking the truth. Withat i said resonated voters. Mike lee, 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 down supporting candidate 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 to start fighting for the policies that Bernie Sanders talked about. He was to have 15 minimum wage. Affordable college. We need more progressives in 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 better by being more moderate or more conservative, you know, nobody probably on this panel has probably experienced that conventional wisdom or stronger than congressman alan grayson because he is someone who was elected in washington, d. C. , and is working with the establishment every day. Or against them. What we have seen as being the entire establishment is sort of working against you, like bernie. Talking about your general election opponent yet, were talking about your absolutely 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 50 years. If anything deserves applause, it is that. Right . [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. Also, 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. You know, we have gotten into this right here in america where political discords consists entirely of ad hominem attacks and we end up choosing between the lesser of two evils. There is no doubt that both candidates are evil because all we have seen our negative ads about them for literally weeks upon months before the election takes place. That is something not what people want. One thing people remember about the election is sanders saying emails. Ut the 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 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 43. Of us to raise most my Campaign Money from small donors. And now we saw that happen 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. And of course, that was just trump reaching into his own pocket so that does not really count. So what we see is there is an alternative way to run for president , senate, im the only Senate Candidate whos racing raising most of his money from small donors. 150,000 contributions already. If you want to go to se natorwithguts. Com and make a donation, i will not stop you. [laughter] this is what we need. I see 434und and members who were largely bought by special interests. 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. The 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. Thank you. [applause] continuing on the theme, what do we need to do to get the catchto get it and to onto the critical aspects of the policy fight. The vision for america. 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 political lite instead of on real values. Turn them down. 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 are the people who one, right . Andow do we read through make it happen. I think there is little or no hope of that happening. It is appalling to me to see how corporatebod and paid for democrats often control the process. I am a progressive and they want to see a rightwing crowd running. Marco rubio cannot possibly win on the issue so what they do is attack you personally. They are not good at defeating republicans. They do have a certain flair for getting under the skin of democrats. 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 full us and that they have cost us 900 legislation seats in the country. It is time for a new generation. Somebody like Elizabeth Warren. Who has 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. If you pull this, it is astronomical. So why it is that that instead of adopting Something Like that that the party adopts a platform to extend the bank for Foreign Corporations only . In the same way the Democratic Party is in the process of adopting a platform and thank goodness for barney fighting as hard as he did and for withholding his endorsement as far as he did. Him on forum on the house of representatives and the number one item on the platform is defeating isis. In my district where the average people are an hour, more interested in a 15 minimum wage the 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. Pulling. Polling. And 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. 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. Misty could 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 it is the progressive of values that propel us to victory. Yes. 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. Right . So, can you tell us a little bit about how youre planning to do that . Brandnew congress is an idea we can together with it has been in the making for at least a are 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 a me generate the same amount of volunteerism, small dollar donations by funneling people are through Online Fundraising and get people excited about running those 400 candidates for 2018. Will qualify as artie been good enough or every race everywhere . 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. Loud when you talk into the microphone. If you have a question, get in line behind one of the mikes. Maria, you take on this mantle of being a sanders democrat and what has that meant . Actually, before i say that. I love your breakfast of champions right to put the red can mount to do. That is a candidate working hard. 9 00 a. M. With a melted it. This is my second one. What has it meant to be a sanders democrat in your campaign so far . There are some people who were on the ground running who have been inspired either by ferguson or by Bernie Sanders and what i have chosen to do in my satellite is support many of the candidates who are running on a progressive platform. Before there was just this movement for congress, im doing a movement in st. Louis for progressives so we can take out some of these establishment democrats who do nothing and dont show up. [applause] that is what im doing. I have my a pretty movement and it happens to be the legacy that i want to leave. St. Louis because we need and peopleple 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, then there is enough room for a ferguson democrat and senate and congress. Misty, do you have anything else to add to that . Fighting for about living wage and affordable college. State the youngest in the nation. Thingsf people make up about me being the first transperson. Inl be the first millennial the u. S. Senate if i got elected in the first woman in the senate from the top. There were some other firsts that are probably more important than the fact that im trans. I just happen to be trans. I want to the issues out there and give a voice to important issues that i feel we are not voicing of the Utah Democratic Party is nobody was talking about things like 15 an hour minimum wage or reproductive rights. Some people say they put it from at the convention because i was the only candidate those even talk about issues affecting people of color. Utahs a huge silence and when it comes to issues affecting color. I was talking a lot about that and i got a lot of respect. I know there are important issues. Have a9 white but we do prison population that is disproportionately minority. We have problems with that. Black teenagers getting shot by police. 17yearold was shot and severely injured by police. Happened, ithat happens to my own city in Salt Lake City where an unarmed black are being shot by police. We need to really adjust the way we do our police in the country and reform our entire system from a place of to the courts. Coure police up to the ts. I find that these issues resonate even utah. There are a lot of people who care about these issues and a lot of young people who have not gotten involved in the local process but are getting excited. A lot of people are getting excited about me talking about the same issues. Im hoping to get them in the fall and support me. I feel like we can win. Before i won the primary, i was 1 . Ing up 37 to 51 i got 30 of the vote. Getting 37 and a gentle is good in utah. I feel that we can close the gap and if i can continue to build redneck admission and fundraising. Name recognition and hundreds in. Fundraising. Myould like to try to keep fundraising and a try not to take a lot of money from corporations. 5 of all his money comes from wall street. I would like to not have to do that. I think Bernie Sanders has the right idea, he could get from small donations. Fantastic. Another great pitch. Mistyksnow. Com. Lets get a question. Good morning. How are you doing . I like to wish you well on your campaign. This is my question, how do you propose to make sure Health Care Workers if you work 10 hours a week in the minimum wage here is seven dollars and . 55, he dont qualify for benefits . You, to answer your question, and address one of the differences with the Establishment Party a member of, it was suggested by our caucus that we file a minimum wage bill of 10. 10 and i refuse to sign onto that bill. Let me tell you this, i would be recalled if i filed that, i filed the 15th dollars 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 . 10. Se of only 10 and the second thing, i look at your tshirt, for the last 12 years, i have been a huge proponent of home care workers and let me tight white, but i used to work for the Lieutenant Governor we assessment onn Nursing Homes and more people of color stay in their homes as they age and we are looking at the population of people and the folks who are serving those individuals as well and it is absolutely true that you do not get paid a livable wage whatsoever for the work that you do. Im guessing you are a member of sei you sviu it is the Fastest Growing union in the country. They are also one of the unions that have stood up for immigrants and Refugee Rights before any other union. Encourage and also try to do my best and have done and work towards is ensuring that you do have coverage. , weso have to tell you that have not passed Medicaid Expansion in the state of missouri and it is costing, 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 aca. I get it. I think that you do and i will work towards, i think you deserve more and i am working to make sure you have your own health care if its because what you do and what your allies to and the other folks is the work that people are willing to do. Unwilling to do. It is remarkable how you give of yourself to help the people who have stood up for us for so long. I want you to have health care and you deserve to have your health care and when you see the advertisements of the increase of the minimum wage, ask them if it is 15 or 10. Just because someone says lets increase the minimum wage, you asked them if you are talking about 15 where you talking about 10. . Thank you very much for the question. Good morning. My question is about tactics we can use to make, especially state legislatures more progressive. One thing that the right has done very well in the past is taking big money and putting it into small districts where can have a large footprint. One of the most inspiring things about the Bernie Sanders campaign was that they sent money to 21 other candidates by doing can of fundraising and that includes some state Legislature Candidates who with one email sent of small dollar donors from the Bernie Sanders campaign were able to fill of their budget probably for the next few cycles. How can we encourage more campaigns that you have large fundraising list that are able tos mobilize the National Progressive small dollar donors into small races where that money can make a huge difference . N . W do we make that commo my question goes along with yours. Brea mentioned this and she might shoot me for saying that that that might report yesterday so it is Public Knowledge now but one thing that is happening here missouri to talk about maria a little bit and asked the rest of the panel is, im executive director also of runningmissouri and im for committeewoman in taylors. Since my sharia maria caps on the money cant send the money she has been given into 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 policing in the state or a myriad of other issues that Progressive Care about. Maria has taken the money that she cant spend on her congressional race and given it to us so not only help her because in a comment, but we did a grassroots work at the most basic level to change our party and to change our state. We have 25 young people running for party positions, but we have Bernies Campaign manager running for state rep and another young man who introduced bernie at a rally is also running for state rep. There are a lot of us and i would say part of us, we are all Bernie Sanders supporters overall black lives matter activists before we were Bernie Sanders supporters. Can never pay maria for what she has given back to our community and how youre taking a leadership . Your leadership and running for the office that is critical. I would argue one of the most important things that we can do as a Political Revolution is recognized that our job is not just to get elected to congress or u. S. Senate, is to get elected to school boards, to offices across the nation, up and down the ballot. They have a huge impact. Sometimes they have a bigger impact on peoples lives in a member of congress can have. Often congress is just degnan and things dont actually forward and yet constantly and even corporate democrats, when it in the small town races, it is not just having a direct impact on your life, there also running themselves into position to make it easier for them to run again for Higher Office as well. Negative triple of affect. The great been people like maria and run up for member of congress with a member of house of representatives. That is what we need to support promoting from within and that starts at the bottom. This is a Perfect Question for you alex to expand on. I completely agree with what you said which is, why bring in congress is running that Single National unified campaign to generate the same amount of dollar contributions on a Massive National scale and get actuallycited about taken of the primaries and getting people, progresses into office. I think the way to do that is exactly that, grassroots organizing and small dollar contributions. The getting to work part in organizing is super important in addition to the money that is being spent so we can ask the allocate that. I think that is important and crucial as we expand. I think randy congress is focusing on congress. Created locallly organizing groups in every part of this country and so it brenda congress is about is, yes we are aiming for congress, but through doing this, we are igniting the flame of people getting involved at a local level, state level, regional level and federal level. That is whatthat bring to congress to try to copper which and will continue to do that accomplish and will continue to do that by letting people like maria and misty and alan to actually represent the American People and represent the demographic makeup. Promoted yourner event. 2016. Com. Iva, and question about brenda congress. I live in eugene, oregon. Theres a strong Earnings Group there organizing a march on the same day as your kickoff event there. Weve been trying to get a hold of somebody and i can much response to correlate to make sure we dont step on each others toes. And also im sure you are overwhelmed with stuff, a lot of us have here it was love to help so feel free to reach out for more volunteer help to field questions like that. You have a huge volunteer army and waiting. On, weddress that heads are building our sort of internal infrastructure and we are almost completely grassroots and the reason we have not gotten back to you is because at that point person for that and to give you guys a taste of something we are working on, is building actual infrastructure within the campaign of the Ground Support team that will be expanding and it is going to be able to support the local organizing that is to take place in washington as well as six other teams in california and other states already. I will be reaching out to you hopefully after this panel if you stay around to talk about it. Cool. And the question was about, until delta, your local kickoff there is on july 20. And it seemsre like a fantastic ending event to go to but in the facebook events, the people asked about this and so many commented, this is a local event. Would you all be willing to consider making that a more general event so therell will be summoning people from across the country will be there . We have two events going on. One on the 22nd and the other on the 28th as well as i will be there and tons of other volunteers who will not only be in this room but online and they will be meeting up in philadelphia to sell shirts and pass on information and answer questions. We will be there for much right to the convention and all the way through. And we can talk low after just to make sure you can eat make it to the event either make it to the event or we will talk about other strategies. And thef the lasting impacts that i dont think is resonating deeply across the board for a lot of people, the effect of the cedars campaign which is being incredible amount of grassroots supporters beyond the metrics reported on. Is to a 20ported million being raised from small donors. Classes oft the d. C. Software. Obsessed with. The reality is that one of the incredibly impactful aspect of the Sanders Campaign was the way in which it mobilized and engaged with the power of bulger to work for them and work for themselves in a slow ways. I think what is exciting about brenda congress and some of the candorptions of the , andin Sanders Campaign longstanding organizations that have extremely similar goals like democracy for america is that volunteers can, we have a lot. There are a lot of people who are really engaged out there who want to do actual things and we have a Democratic Party that for decades has said sit down and shut up. We dont want to hear from you. We dont trust you to say the right things and what has been exciting about the campaign is the way in which it has empowered volunteers to take it and take control and drive that change. That is why you can have a media for six months to you your campaign is over and he can still continue to win 20 more states. That is a really important lesson. Empathize, other Digital Field number, and i just want to emphasize that that point he may just made, almost the entire campaign was powered by volunteers, not only in individual states make it better, but they courted it naturally online and through other digital platforms and thousands of volunteers made 75 my phone calls. 75 million phone calls. It is the backbone of what we are try to do to expand and not only involve people who are been involved forever but people who are ready to get to work and fight for the change that they want. As long as you are willing to step up and get to work. Brenda congress has done for you to do. Has stuffew congress for you to do. Have a question about congressman grayson and Debbie Wasserman schultz. What the bernie revolution has done to decrease her status in the party. To charles, you seem to want downplay the list and treasure that is the list. List . Fa get access to the how would brenda congress get Brandnew Congress get access to the list . Lastly, or to say that i think it is a great panel and is so interesting that the clintons theyve has not come up yet. Hillary clintons name has not come up yet. My understanding is that there is a new segment director at the dnc now an executive director is performing a lot of the functions and decisionmaking. I think that debbie still has the title, im not sure how much shes involved daytoday decisionmaking. People tend to overstate her own personal authority all along and that the decisions that tended to infuriate certain parts of the party in the past couple of years were not hers alone. Is not a sophisticated view of how these things happen. There are powers behind the throne that are not visible. What should she was in charge of the party, she is the people person that people see. Run the debates and decisions made, it is to oversimplify the actual process by which those decisions were made. That is right. At the same time i was push back and say you look at some of the governor dean when he was there who constantly followed the exercise real power when he disagreed with them. You look at the 50 state strategy of the notorious meetings with rahm emanuel and rahm emanuel where walks out of the room and says fuck you. Always howard interest bonds, he was i dont care. I was to do it. Theres something to be said for the readership in the role even if no question, it is hard. You are fighting against the establishment. That . Uld agree with the powered under howard dean was not the same party under the be wasserman schultz. How do was more willing to assert himself on matters of principle howard dean was more willing to assert himself on matters of principle. Debbie has decided to excel in fundraising for the party. Some people think that its a good idea, some people think it is utterly pointless as we have no message. [laughter] what you do, you buy a lot of advertisements. Answer,ertisement absolutely. When howard dean ran the party, it really meant something very important and none of us can forget the principal involved when you run a real republican against the thick republican. That is a lesson that has still not been learned. I will not address that portion but i am watching the race in florida very closely and Debbie Wasserman schultz has something in common with my opponent which is, she support the payday loan industry. I dont know if you have read about the New York Times article recently but in misery, we have more payday loans operations and walmarts, starbucks, mcdonalds put together. That is because of people like my opponent and others like evie wasserman schultz. The other thing is neither one want to debate in front of the people they represent. Especially, i dont how many years she has done it, but here missouri, when you have had an incumbent family for 40 years, the people do deserve to have an open debate. [applause] just to address the magical email list, i think it is really crucial that we know that. At the same time, the way that i view it, brenda congress does not have the list. We have to earn every supporter that we get. We ask we have to go out. The reason why we are going to be washington, the reason we are going to be philadelphia is because we are doing a 100 city tour to actually go out and talk to people. And find out what they are saying. It would be nice if we had such a big email list already, it help withtainly fundraising. However, im excited to work with restaurants and to work with local organizers to find out new ways to talk with voters and get to understand everyone. Also the give my perspective, it regularly happens among the political professional classes we literally talk about it like it is a list. It is not. It literally is. It is people. There are people attached to this email addresses. [applause] the fact that sanders has 8 Million People on his list, that is fantastic. But those people are out there and if we are talking to them and giving them a bold vision and we are doing the real work done in some ways those people will help find us. Certainly it helps, the more that sanders can highlight people get into network, the better. Tocertainly hope to continue partner with sanders as we move ahead in my hope is that some of that means that we get that exposure that also helps bring the door. The bottom line is that there are people and people are inspired by revision, real action and Effective Work and if youre doing those things, they will come to you. That is why Bernie Sanders has gotten over 12 million votes even a few is being fought at every step of the way by the establishment in every possible way they could. Next question. In 2014, 60 of state legislator steeds were opposed and 40 of them were completely uncontested. I lived in springfield, oregon in the past three races there races, 18 of the 26 were unopposed, only times that of the 26 were people running. Dont act too surprised, and you couldve had but it cannot at 100 it would automatically go to nobody ran against him. Addressing it down about spots, i work for nation butter, i can do because i called run forte office. Org. I was sick and tired of the elites of the democratic interpublic and parties holding onto that information for how to get on school board, how to get onto all those special districts. Democracy for america, where were you . We had 26 races and no one is running. Youre not developing the bench. Consent was kathy, i just same as cap to, i just did the research, for a fiveyear municipalities dont have a website. There are five or six positions of publicly elected marshall which is like a publicly elected sheriff and you dont run for those positions either. We have a lot of work to do them ballot. Im a big proponent of open data. I will give it to any group, a got to everyone. Im also not entirely bring tole give them a convert that you think these candidates congress, what is up with tha what is your metric . In terms of the vetting process, were going to the communities. If we are looking at Congressional Districts, were going to talk to the people that actually they represent and it is more sort of a nomination and betting process. Vetting process. It is not a final decision profit from it is after long talking with the Community Members that identify those people and it is not only career politicians, it is members of the community that we dont even know of yet. Im more concerned of how you make the choice on who gets the money. Im also like to say that it happens in each and every one of your districts, all i do is look at Election Results develop these list of elected positions. The same goes for you congressman grayson. The people you neglect to get on the ballot, those are also your voters and some rain for in nextrk, you can come or 50 votes for those be at the top. Every four years is a new esoteric trip, it is bull shit it has to stop. Lets give people a check to answer. Let me tell you, a quick the people who live in the first Congressional District live in poverty. 60 of the token to go to Public Schools are on free reduced lunch. The average American Community is currently expressing an Unemployment Rate of 17 . When you run for office, let me tell you about the colorization of campaigning, when youre black and a woman, and if you are both like me, you dont get support from the party. Heres the other thing, when you look at how people im not accountable, hes republican and i dont know how he got elected. You heres what is about to go down, there are people after ferguson who have woken up for challenging the system, the people who i am supporting who are lower ballot, it is because they have been inspired. Instead of yelling at us, realize that because of that death of a young black man and several deaths and young black women, we are inspired and we are engaged in we are waking up and were saying we are not could you tolerate this anymore and it is our responsibility to help those who want to work on supportsroots and every other person who is out there who does not have an opportunity. I would to push back. We have fiveoblem, people who want to run for , mayor and that is pitiful. We have people running against each other who have both been inspired. Im try to figure out who my going to support or from supporting both. In a couple races on supporting both people. They are all inspired. This is not good be perfect, you are not perfect and im not perfect. We all children of god. Tot we should be doing is help people who have no voice and take the energy and passion that you have and look at those numbers as you do and help build and opposed the establishment at every civil turn that you have. Single turn you have. We do have our problems, just like you all do. Speaking for dfa, the bottom line is that we have worked hard across the board to elect candidates up and down the ballot, unlikely to be defensive, we cant support everyone all the time, we cant force people to run in district and we can require somebody, we can say you have to run. If you dont run, we can budget and we try to empower people. Weve been very successful at it. Think about the scale of what you are asking. When you think about state legislative races, there over 3000 state legislative races each year. We have a cycle budget of 10 million. Theres only so much we can actually do for each and every candidate. We encourage people to run as much as possible. We look for candidates Better Running for real and fighting hard. We very much encourage people to run for lower levels of office. One of the thing that is set us apart is that as a national organization, we do things like supporting her as one of the first candidates way back in 2004 in her race for state representative of missouri. Nobody else was supporting her. We did it and we worked our butts off and we continue to support her year after year. Reality is that while there are not enough stories like that, as i would love to give you 3000 stories like that, i was not to be to you that we convince him and i wouldayor love to tell you that we can fill every School Board Race and state senate race and the reality is that that is lift. Ely that is a big and when we recommend that is what we are pushing for, it is way more likely to happen. It also takes a lot more that just a few people, the staff in burlington other resources we have to make it happen in 3000 seatsin. Bigot than one organization. People having to get up in the local communities. Congress, Brandnew Congress, it is to inspire people that dont have those resources to get up, start organizing and filling the seats instead of waiting for someone to do it. We recognized it is more than one organization and as hundreds of democracy for america is hosting a pallid panel with a potential competitor. My name is cheryl from new york. Not a place for we had trouble with democrats. We have many democrats. But if you talk about the more versus better, we have more. We need better. [applause] the democratic committee, i have that much power, and iota over zero. That incumbentgs democrats were not necessarily front of progress used very very much to hold onto their power is the gerrymander and i was wondering if you guys could address the structural obstacles that we face insurgency. Allen, do you want to take that . Are you referring to gerrymandering specifically or, what do my structural challenges . Certainly structural , imenges within the party referring specifically to gerrymandering. Both parties love it. It helps them keep their incumbents. That is correct. We are the last primary and entire country and that is because it wavers incumbents favors incumbents. I hope at some point there will thatme new supreme case will end at once for all. I think emitting as unconstitutional and i think it by was the equal protection clause in the closet that requires the federal government to guarantee the democratic government in every state. There is a separate class that does that. Im very committed to this. We had a tremendous success in florida that took years to get through litigation. We have something called for district florida. Fair district florida. Youll see that the first five figure check they got for the effort was for me. I have a blue district. Need is the government to reflect the values. We reached a point in florida where you know florida is the ultimate purple state, we had 19 members of congress who are republicans and only six after the 2010 election word democrats for thats probably a function of money but it was always entirely a function of gerrymandering. They 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 andgation is 12 republicans five democrats indicate that stock on republican in a proclamation president ial election in a quartercentury. Ohio, tenor publicans and for democrats. They created a situation where the whole country is so gerrymandered that we have to win nationwide by eight points before we get to even in congress. That is also entirely a function of german touring. Situation. Rible it needs to end. One of the things that has been done, we put it on the ballot. A constitutional effort to amend our constitution to prohibit gerrymandered. Fromok roughly 8 million start to finish to a congress that and we needed one million signatures to get on the ballot. Not every state has initiatives like florida does. Where you do, do something that needs to be done. The power structure will never ever reform itself. The result of that is we have a situation where the voters dont pick the elected officials, the elected officials are picking their voters. The point i was try to make is that democrats where i come from, democrats love gerrymander. We have a cozy ranging between our state assembly in our state gette that the democrats the assembly and republicans get the senate and everybodys happy. That is a problem. Thank you for the question. Unfortunately, we are out of time. I want to encourage those of you that still have questions, even false of others, we are all going to be here for a while. Dont hesitate to chat with us. Our panelists a chance to say closing statement. 30 seconds or less. One burning thought you would leave us with. Thats good. But some of alan. Let us start with alan. Go team blue my website is senatorwithg uts. Com. I wouldnt think everybody for coming. And as turnout. I was thinking for the opportunity to come be a part of this and for the chance to speak. I encourage all of you to check out my website at mist yksnow. Com. If anyone would like to donate, i would appreciate it. Dont underestimate the power of small donations are large numbers. [applause] dont be silent. Speak up. Peoplere often times want to put us in a box as progressives and they want to label us you want to say that we can do this, we can do that, when and where and how, project that you have an obligation as a ,rogressive to speak off up stand up and fight as hard as you can with every single tool that you possibly have in your corner. Use it. I am running for congress. I am running against an establishment opponent who takes money from the payday loans. And also as someone who does not champion the same kind of policies that elizabeth warned us. Om andsite is maria2016. C im asking you for your help. [applause] sentimentsveryones and im humbled to be on stage senators andgreat people that are running for congress right now. The message that i want to leave as to believe in yourself and never give up. And anyone, including a 21yearold from connecticut, including a 16yearold from missouri from anybody can get up , stand up, whether running for office. If anyone was to get to work, he can go to www. Brandnewcongress. Org. To sign up and contribute to our website, you can get to brenda congress the website to learn more about the plan and talk to volunteers. I do so much. We look forward to hearing from anyone who has questions. [applause] , i think if go, theres one thing i want to say about what we are learning today, it is that there are Political Revolution is, it existed before Bernie Sanders. He helped bring it together in a way that was really strong and prove to thehelped country that there are at least 46 of the Democratic Party, 12 million votes, 22 states that absolutely understand how critically important it is to stand up for blood values and pulled issues. This not going away is to not let them take it from us. There is question that we have a political establishment in the corporate establishment, a country that wants to tell us and keep us down and tell us that this campaign is over, this revolution is over and they will say everything all time we lose over the next year, next five years, next 10 years. They will tell it say everything of time. Just say that we move ahead, we need to be captain up our victories because the victors are what matters and if were going to fight everywhere, that is how we can win everywhere. That means we will not always win. We had three fantastic candidates on the stage and i hope every one of them wins and think everyone of them has a chance. [applause] dont, it is not over because we have candidates and people running across the country on our values, on our issues, on our vision and they need to be supported and that will be true tomorrow, true a year from now if theres anything i can say as big executive director of democracy for america, they will be there 12 years from now. Lets make sure we keep the clinical revolution going. Political revolution going. [applause] x cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Willive change discuss issues important to political progressives. Mr. Green will talk about progressive voters and his attitude toward Hillary Clinton following her endorsement from senator Bernie Sanders. At morrissey will join us ed morrissey will join us. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal join the discussion. More now from netroots nation. Coming up a panel on the future of the Supreme Court and diversity of the judicial system. We will hear from oregon senator jeff merkley and minnesota congressman Keith Ellison. Congressman Keith Ellison. I think we are ready. Welcome, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here. Im the president of the alliance for justice and i would say, to netroots is like coming home. It is great to be here every of. I see some old faces and a lot of new faces, which is wonderful. I would say after the events of the past two weeks here in our france,and yesterday in it is really good to be among friends today. Thank you all for being here. We have an Amazing Group of speakers so i will get right to it. Thank adam. D to adam, where are you . Netroots the board of and used to be the chair. Hes a big booster of this panel so i am very grateful to you. Bys panel is organized alliance for justice as well as the center for american progress. And again, we are just privileged to be here with such an Amazing Group of panelists. With a vacancy on the Supreme Court and we all know there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court, we are really at a Tipping Point in our history and the coming years will swing the Court Dramatically in one direction or another. Nextct, during the resident term, three justices will be in their 80s, ginsburg, breyer, kennedy. So that no matter who wins this bection, we will not only going to vote for a president , we will also be going to vote for a Supreme Court. Given the number of vacancies that we expect to see. Nixons firstard term after the 1990 1968 election has the president appointed for justices in a fouryear term. That could very well be the next president s charge. Said after joe biden a vacancy appeared a con the court. That is that he says he picked up the phone and called president obama and he said, hey, if we really want to change the composition of the court lets nominate ted cruz. Before you know it, we will not have one of vacancy, we will have a vacancies. Eight vacancies. [laughter] we have Merrick Garland and the other thing we know is that no matter to his elected, this court will be hearing cases of critical importance to all of us for years to come whether it is environmental protection, unions,rights, choice, the court and what the court does affects every aspect of our lives. In todays discussion, you will hear more about the fight over this current vacancy and the future of the court, how the next Supreme Court will set the Nations Court for the generation and how progressive activists can get involved and take action. I would also encourage you to s new micro site on the future of the Supreme Court rg to is tippingpoint. O learn more. And to keep the conversation going, try posting on your app, tweeting and using other social media. Now for the panelists. I am absolutely delighted to introduce congressman Keith Ellison who represents the fifth Congressional District of n the United States house of representatives. He has done since 2007. s philosophyllison of generosity and inclusiveness is evident in his top congressional produce promoting peace, prosperity for working families, environmental sustainability and civil and human rights. Keith ellison is one of americas leading progressive voices. We will hear from him now. [applause] ots . Ow are you doing netro [applause] i like it. This is a family conversation so let me be very candid with you. Some of us who have been supporting Bernie Sanders, im supporting Hillary Clinton now. We spent a lot of time and energy working her for Bernie Sanders. People might debate what that uses of integrity is. I will type in a word. The issues. If we can come together around the issues come to certain extent it doesnt matter who is carrying the standard. It is the issues. If we can come together on the issue. What issue is more important than the Supreme Court appointment . That is a topflight thing. Believeguys who really that people ought to be a real to america they want, that the Supreme Court ought to let the electorate decide who will be president and i will get into that a little bit more, all of you who believe those things, really need to put on your organizer and or neck issues not because of his name again the ballot, but because of the Supreme Court appointment. It is a core organizing grassroots mobilization issue. It is an issue that will make you get up in the morning until late at night. It will make you wear out your knuckles. An issue that ought to make you visit every hair shop and coffee shop and the district you live in. This is a very big deal and im so pleased we have jeff merkley it will be making the decision. He will be voting on this on whoever will be confirmed and i think it would be better to have him in the majority when the decision is made. What do you think . [applause] put jeff in the majority. Point, from anis activist in point, the Supreme Court seems kind of lawyerly. I happen to live the life of a lawyer and activist so i can relate to both. I just want to say that it is important for us to understand buttery, bread and qualityoflife issues the Supreme Court does weigh in on. Just think about lily ledbetter. Them,ng men, training coming in, coming out and some of them end up supervising her even though she got better worker bees that they got. At the end of 30 is, she applied for her pension and out of her pension was life and her male counterparts had been a shorter times that her were bigger. See soon she sued and won. Theyther side appealed and appealed and said they do not discriminate. But she did not stoop after that. Sue fast enough. They chopped her money. Illegal miscarriage and a moral failure. To get to the Supreme Court. They said the fact she had been discriminated against did not matter. Now the union, or yeah, i dont want to be part of the union but when you negotiate an awesome contract i want to be part of the money. You want a free ride and not pay anything . Scalia passed away that was under decision. I do not know too many unions that were not real worried about the outcome of that decision. And you know how it is, if someone tells you that some of your money is optional, you you the Supreme Court. If that happens, you and i both know Public Employee unions will suffer. Safety will suffer. People will suffer. Suffer. S a people will what about michigan . Roberts court said breaking the fourth amendment, knocking before entry. Andection against search seizure. Altone it in a time of sterling. We live in a time if you do not on policens practices, bad things will happen. So we will allow it to happen even more . This is an invitation to lawlessness. Having this today. I do believe that as activists who are online at and on the ground, we have got to be very plugged in to what happens on the Supreme Court and we have to absolutely demand right now that ,he republicans do their job they will either do their job or be exposed for failing to do their job. So, are you guys ready to go get after them a little bit . [was] all right. Nan thank you. What a great segue to our panel. Thank you congressman ellison. You were great. Let me introduce our panels and were going to start with senator merkley and talk about this vacancy and senate structuralism. Let me first introduce United States senator jeff merkley. Of oregon. The son of a millwright and the first in his family to attend college. Born in the timber town in oregon, senator merkley has spent his career fighting to increase opportunities for working families and i should also add at a time when Senate Republicans were blocking nominees to some of our important circuit courts around the country. It was senator buckley who championed the rules reform andh broke the blockade allowed some really great judges to go on the circuit courts. So, what a great man we have got here today. Amber pink to. Pinkton. Bolivia, moved to the United States at the age of 12 and is a passionate advocate for undocumented youth. Amber is a cofounder of dreamers in virginia, a former board member and a deportation leader. [applause] n our next panelist is a reproduction activist committed to people who have had abortions, particularly people of color. Renees work on abortion storytelling has been featured on bbc, the guardian, washington post, and many other outlets. [applause] and last but not least, our next panelist has helped organize this panel. She is Campaign Manager for legal progress at the center for american progress. She manages Grassroots Organization efforts to educate americans on the need to fill judicial vacancies. She carries more then nine years of experience in social justice working and a strong grassroots organizing background. [applause] what a team we have got. I will start with senator merkley. Senator, i would say that there is a difficult time in the senate these days. What impact has the senate unprecedented objection of them had on the senate, court, and Democratic Institutions . As you all know, even before the scalia family publicly released the news of his death Mitch Mcconnell was on the floor saying he would get no hearing or no vote. And fortunately, we have senator merkley or to explain what is happening and what the implications are for the future. the implication is profound. How are you all doing . [applause] sen. Merkley thank you for coming. This is such an important issue. It plays directly into the challenge we face in the president ial campaign but think about the situation. Our founders wrote a constitution and they wanted three coequal branches. They said, had we put various checks and balances into place . Your essay executive branch, they will have to be appointed. Judicial branch, there will have to be appointments. Where did the appointments come from . Maybe they will come from the assembly they said. The house or the senate. If that happens there will be a lot of horsetrading back and forth. My friend for your friend. No accountability to the public. It will not be transparent. So no, we want the best responsibility in a single person. That will be the president. And they said, what happens if you have a president who goes abstract. Who appoints folks are unqualified either by experience or bike character . We have to have some way of making sure that does not happen. Cyrus hamilton related, the conversation was about the on ae would be a check nominee of unfilled character. That was the term. Unfit character. To do that, you have to have the senate that the record and vote. That and vote vet