Joining the congress. This runs just over one hour. Rep. Jayapal alright, well, good afternoon everybody, it is great to see you all here. We are back, we have a lot of good stuff happening around the country, and most importantly, we have the most credible, beautiful, diverse, capable, talented, Progressive Group of new members coming into the 118 congress. And i am so proud of all of them and all of the work that we have collectively done as a movement to build this kind of talent that represents different communities across the country in both tough frontline districts where these candidates have won on bold, progressive, economic, populist ideas, as well as in districts where some of the best ideas, in my humble opinion, also come from, and you have heard me say, being a progressive means you are first to the best and most just idea. As of now we have had 15 of our 18 endorsed cpc host pac endorsed members that have won. We have one that i believe will be called very shortly. Only one member who ran an amazing or one candidate who ran an amazing race in texas, michelle, lost her race. And we thank her for stepping up and running such an amazing campaign. We have had incredible success and you will get to hear from them. With the success of our tremendous front liners, races we believe will be called in california and oregon and other places, the progressive caucus and be as big as 100 members that we had in the 117th congress, and we just have to wait to see what the final numbers are, potentially a couple of seats larger. No question this will be the most Progressive Democratic caucus in decades. How we accomplish that is worth spending a minute on. Democrats, there was no red wave, many of you heard me say that republicans lose elections and then insist that they have won. Mccright greene elections and before we even have the next election, people are saying that we will lose. That is not what happened, we have kept the senate and i believe will deliver another seat in georgia. Any of us will be out organizing over the next couple of weeks. He had still a slim path to keeping the house, still possible. And we havent had this happen since 1934, the president s party keeping every state legislature across the country as well as limping a couple. It has been an incredible night. We recognize the path forward is after client, but the reason we won is a couple of things. One, our candidates built amazing coalitions of voters. You dont need one or the other, you need everybody. Everybody needs to be a part of the Winning Coalition and that is what with these candidates. Second, guess what, we knew promised something and you put together a Diverse Coalition like we did in 2022 and then actually deliver on it in congress, from the white house, with a bold vision that lets folks of color up, people trust you underwent want you to come back and do more, and that message we delivered was incredibly important whether it was on Climate Change, student debt, infrastructure, ships, whatever it was. Third, democracy was on the ballot. The president s beach at the end and the work the groups did to frame the extreme maga agenda was important. Abortion was a fundamental freedom on the ballot. Our ability to vote was important. Secretary of state races are coming our way in kyiv race is because we had these extreme maga republicans and there was a real contrast to be had. All these candidates overcame the odds, they beat hundreds of millions of dollars in republican superpac attack ads, and they did it by speaking to the fundamental concerns of the working people, of labor unions, young people, people of color, immigrants, lgbtq people and more. They campaigned on progressive ideas like raising wages, combating corporate greed, defending abortion rights and protecting and expanding Social Security. As a result we have a stalwart incoming class and you are about to hear from them. It includes the first woman and the first member of the Lgbtq Community ever elected to represent vermont, it includes the first black woman elected to represent in sylvania, the first latina elected from the midwest, the first gen z member of congress, it includes immigrants, firstgeneration americans, veterans, community organizers, mayors, city members, state legislators and community members, a truly phenomenal class of people. Let me introduce the first and you will hear from each of them, they know to come to the podium as soon as the person before them is finished, and that is the incredible greg casar from texas. [applause] rep. Casar good morning. It means that rightwing republicans thought we would be talking about today was upper red wave, but instead, the news, very clearly from this election, is that progressive ideas at work for working people won and we will have more True Progressives in the u. S. Congress than at any other point in modern history. That is the news of the selection. It was the work of the progressive caucus and folks like representative jayapal fighting for reproductive rights that help desk than the day. We would never have gotten a president moving forward on things like student debt cancellation if it was not for the strong advocacy of folks like congresswoman omar, the whip of the progressive caucus. Those ideas excited and brought forward young voters, inspired people that were at disillusioned with the political process, and won as so many of these seats. Again we were told time and time again on the news that it was good to be a bad year for democrats. But instead, what we have got is maxwell frost, a gen z organizer , coming and joining the congress. We saw millions of dollars in rightwing money and attack ads, and what we got was summer lee and dario remainers joining us in congress. We were told we couldnt win as progressives all over the country, but we have morgan coming from kentucky, shri, from detroit, spanning the entire country. Jasmine crockett training we hear from texas broke quorum. Last time she was edc was breaking quorum to fight against gerrymandering. Now the two new democrats, from texas are the most progressive candidate in our race. I came from being a young labor organizer. We were told that we had no shot. But the fact is that a vast majority of people in texas and across the country believe that we should raise the minimum wage from a starvation 7. 25 at least 15 an hour. Everyone has a right to a decent union job. That we should tackle the abortion crisis. That is what people believe, what the progressive caucus believes and that is why despite the onslaught of dirty money, despite gerrymandering and despite being told time and time again that we could not do it, we not only delivered borders to the polls across the country, but we will have so many incredible members of congress here. One person that i missed in the groups mayor Robert Garcia who i am so inspired by, because he came from an immigrant ground, being under committed himself. And part of what this group will be fighting for in places like texas is fighting for the rights of folks. Whether they are politically powerful or not, whether they are immigrant or not, what they are white, black or brown. Matter how much folks may not see that it is the most politically expedient thing to do, this class has shown that americans actually believe in a broad vision of caring for one another. What this class will be able to show is that democracy is not made to oppress one another democracy is, to care for one another and we will do that every step of the way until we save this country. Thank you so much. [applause] hello, everyone. I am state representative Jasmine Crockett out of the great state of texas. I hail from dallas, and i can recall when i first ran for the statehouse and i wanted to tell everybody about a texas hero of mine where the name of beyonce. [applause] the point of talking about beyonce was the fact that i felt that we were at a moment to turn lemons into lemonade. Honestly, i believe that is what the congressional progressive caucus has done. The salt so many challenges, things that the majority of pundits had said we could not do , got done. I know a lot of you thought that the president probably was not going to do student loan forgiveness and republicans were praying that he did not, but he did. We saw who held the Democratic Party down, and that was young people. That is what it is about and that is what it will be about going forward, that is what progress looks like, people who care about our future, the fact that we have a future, whether it is Climate Change or making sure that we take care of everyone when it comes to health care. Because in the midst of a pandemic, for some reason, some didnt see that it was important to make sure that health care was an option available for every single person, even though the person at the Grocery Store had the ability to potentially kill you in this pandemic. But we knew before a pandemic that that was something we needed to look out for, that that should be a basic human right, so we will continue to fight for that. But there is another shero of mine that i talked about a lot when i initially ran for the statehouse, any new humor. She said, i am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Well, these results were the results of people that were sick and tired of being sick and tired. Matter how much dairy mentoring they came up with, especially in a state like texas, a state where we grew the population by 4 Million People of color. When we got those two new seats, somehow they figured out in their interesting math to create two new anglo seats. I dont know how they did it, i fought against it on the statehouse floor, but even in the crazy state of texas, do you know how many gangs they have got in the state how many gains they got . One seat. Unfortunately, they should not have got that, but at the end of the day, the people spoke up and said we are sick and tired of being sick and tired, sick and tired of not being part of the conversation, not being considered, sick and tired of working very hard every single day, only to have our rights trampled on, to not be considered when it comes to Social Security, to have a party that is so brazen to say, we are going after your Social Security. A party that says we want to make sure when it comes to reproductive rights that that will be up to the state and then to come back and say, you know what, if we get the majority, we will just go ahead and make sure that is not an option at any state. We have seen the hypocrisy and there are those who are tired. So instead of a red wave, i want the republicans to learn the name of any new and find out that the people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Thank you. [applause] hello everybody. So great to be here. My name is maxwell frost, 10th Congressional District in florida. I want to think the leadership of chair jayapal and whip omar. Despite all odds, you can fight with progressive values and win. It is also good to be here at the aflcio. I want to thank our brothers and sisters and siblings who live out progressive values every day in the workplace, fighting for poor and workingclass families. We heard all about the red wave, and when you look at the numbers, we see that what stopped the red wave were young voters who turned out in historic numbers, who voted for democrats over 63 . I have been asked a lot about what young voters care about. I dont think they care about anything different than anyone else, they want opportunity, they Want Health Care and the ability to live their lives and have the resources needed to tap into the opportunities this country has. The difference is the land in which they see those same issues. You talk about student debt, its not because we live beyond our means, its because we have been denied the means to live. We see this issues mystically, we see that in order to ed gunn violence, we need to raise the standard of living so that people dont feel the need to use a gun to solve their problems in the first place. You know that in order to build a world in an economy that works for everyone, everybody deserves health care as a human right by virtue of being alive and human and nothing else. Things excited young voters, not just young voters, but workingclass families. That is why we didnt see a red wave. I am excited to be here with my future colleagues, the progressive caucus, because we will be pushing for a world that works for every single person, i got in this fight 10 years ago because of the sandy hook shooting. I got involved because i did not want to get shot in school. Three years later i became a survivor of gun violence myself and learned firsthand how the issues you can fight for, they are always very close to home. It came close to home we lost 49 lives at pulse nightclub because of armed bigotry, hate, and white supremacy. It is an honor to stand here with folks who have that lived experience as well. We have labor organizers going to congress, we have legislators going to congress, we have mothers to congress, we have been people who have been fighting for their whole lives going to congress. And it gives me so much hope because it would be hard out here sometimes. We know that. But when i look at my future colleagues im going in with, that quote, i come as one but i stand as 10,000. That is the way i feel here right now. I feel i am standing with 10,000 people, 10,000 workers, 10,000 organizers, 10,000 people, poor and workingclass families who need this representation in congress. It is great to be here, excited to fight, and thank you so much. [applause] repelect garcia good morning. My name is Robert Garcia. It is an honor to be with everyone here, the beautiful diversity of this caucus. I want to thank congresswoman jay appalled with omar. If you look at the agenda last few years in relation to democrats, the progressive caucus has been a leader in every piece of legislation adopted. I have been a teacher for 10 years prior to being mayor. I am really honored to be in a group of all these really progressive and diverse people. What defines me the most is im an immigrant. I came to the u. S. When i was five years old. Becoming a citizen at 21 is the greatest honor of my life. When i became a citizen ive made a pledge to this country i would try to be the best possible citizen as possible. The one thing i will say is progressives are patriots. Progressives love this country. Unlike folks and those on the extreme right that believe in individualism, the only thing they care about is themselves. We know that being a progressive, being a patriot, actually means that you love your country so much, that you actually want to help the people were in your country. I hope that for the first time in 30 years we pass immigration reform. That is important to every single person. I what every single kid to have the same shot that i had to become a u. S. Citizen. So thank you very much and it is an honor to be with all of you. Thank you. [applause] repelect lee good morning. I am summer lee and i am currently a state representative and i am proud to come to you from pittsburgh where i will be representing the 12 Congressional Districts. A lot of folks may know, we had a whirlwind of a psycho. And i think that when we think about what the storyline is around progressives and oftentimes at the end of our races is every single election cycle we hear tell about whether progressives fell short, or whether the movement is ebbing. But what we know is every single cycle we have to come up against tremendous odds and barriers. My race was no different. In my primary we had a hardfought race where we had millions of dollars come in from outside sources and dark money and it was no different in the general peer pittsburgh in western pennsylvania where i come from is a workingclass area. Bluecollar. It is also not the most diverse. It is typically a blue area. But because i was running to blake break barriers and become the first black woman, we saw people get excited and throw their hat into a race where they might not have bothered. Joining my colleagues, future colleague maxwell frost, when we talk about the storyline of young voters, i also want to lift up that black women are the enduring storyline in every race. I would say the heartbeat of our Democratic Party and the moral center of the United States of america. That is the reason why we run and continue to work to make sure we are lifting up those voices. In pittsburgh where we had never seen representation and in pennsylvania where black women had never seen representation. Recognizing the moment that right now in the midst of the direction of the extreme right wing, in the midst of our Labor Movement being broken up and facing unprecedented hurdles, it is important that we have courageous fighters who are going to stand in their values even when the flood of dark money comes in. I am proud to have stood in concert with our coalitions, whether the cpc, the asl cio, many unions who stood with us. What we are going to see is our Progressive Movement is going to continue to endure because we are doing the work to bring in new people and expand the electorate every single election cycle. But also to do the work and to lay that groundwork even in districts where we are not supposed to have, or do not usually have progressives. So our work continues. We are going to keep on fighting but i think this election cycle shows when we stand in our values, when we center workingclass people, a multiracial, multigenerational movement, we will continue to get the job done. Thank you. [applause] repelect thanedar hi. My name is shri thanedar. I represent detroit. We just flipped the Michigan House, we flipped the michigan senate, and we have a democratic trifecta for the first time in 40 years. I serve in the Michigan House and i am proud to stand here with my progressive colleagues, leader jayapal, leader omar. Sometimes people ask me, shri, you are financially successful, what are you doing in cpc . [laughter] so, im an immigrant. I was 24 years old when i came to the United States as an immigrant. And i had 20 in my pocket. Actually that is not true, i had 16 because i had a couple beers on the plane. But i came here to lift my family from poverty. I would send 75 home so my mother could put food on the table. So my passion to be a progressive comes from the life that i have lived. The property, the stigma of poverty, dealing with Mental Health issues of family members. I understand firsthand the stigma of Mental Health. That is why i am here and that is what brings me the passion to work for people. My district is 30 people at or below poverty. And we need to close this wealth gap. I was fortunate to be to achieve my American Dream but that American Dream is not accessible. It is especially not accessible to brown and black communities. I want to help close that wealth gap with the help of my progressive colleagues here. We need to create a rich nation like ours, no child should ever go hundred, and we need to ever go hungry. We need to close that gap and fight racism and that is what i am doing here representing the detroit and michigan area. Thank you. [applause] repelect mcgarvey good morning. I am morgan mcgarvey, member elect for kentuckys third Congressional District. I will admit, i am not used to feeling like one of the older people in the room. I guess i am a geriatric millennial, so that puts me here. You might wonder what is a guy from kentucky doing up here talking about progressive values. For us, they are more than just talking points. It is what we live. Kentucky benefited more than almost every other state with the implementation of the Affordable Care act. 440,000 kentuckians get health care for the first time. 300,000 since then have qualified. We cannot stop there. Everyone in our country deserves to have health care, so your zip code in your race stops determining your life expectancy. I get bullish about this, when talking about Climate Change, my state powered the last energy revolution, and we paid for it. We paid for it with the majesty of our mountains, the cleanliness of our drinking water, and the lives of our miners. We need to transition away from fossil fuels and go towards a green economy, a green energy economy, where we are creating good paying union jobs in the clean energy sector. And i want kentucky to be at the forefront of that. I do have young kids. I dropped my for your i dropped my fouryearold off at school. She should not be special. Every child in this country deserves to have a public preschool option so we are training lifelong earners and easing the burden of affordable childcare on young parents. This is what we are pushing for. We are pushing for progress. We are pushing for everyone. And we are pushing together for a better america, and i could not be happier to be part of it. [applause] repelect ramirez good afternoon. My name is delia ramirez. I am currently the state rep resented in illinois and now the first latina in the entire midwest to go to congress. First of many to come. I want you to look. We are what america is. We are youngish, we are younger, we are black, brown, latino, south asian. We represent people who every single day are working so hard just to make it. This election cycle is a testament of the american people. And those who are not citizens yet but have worked so hard that we can be here, my Campaign Manager and unapologetic daca recipient worked her butt off so that i could be here today. Yet, she cannot not work for me in congress. We have to change that. I am the wife of a daca recipient. So when i walk in here and we are talking about immigration, it is not a hashtag. It has to become a reality and we had a responsibility to deliver to the 2 millionplus Daca Recipients who give their life every single day so that you and i can have a better life. My expectation is that we will do that during lameduck. And if not, that this progressive caucus will make sure it finally happens. Im also the daughter of guatemalan immigrants and a woman who is on medicaid because she works minimum wage taken care of a 93yearold woman. When i think about why we are here, i am reminded that for us, this is not a story that we heard or a poll that told us focus on this group of people, highlight that. Inflation, the challenges for workingclass people, are the reality of our everyday people. Its our mothers, fathers, neighbors. And here is why i know that the most progressive slate thats coming in to congress in this particular moment is no accident. Our communities, and on november 8, the people resound lisette it resoundly said, it is time for us to be in congress. It is time for people who understand what it is like to be import to be in congress. It is time for people to understand what it is like to be in a mixed family to be in Congress Pretty it is time for someone who understands what it is like to live paychecktopaycheck to be in congress. And we want progressives and more so than anything if you remove the terms, we need people who are going to stop talking about getting work done for us and delivering on the things we expect them to do if we can vote regardless of our voting status. I am just incredibly grateful to our leaders. I look at everyone here from every corner of this country. We made it, yall. And now it is time to work and make the progression of progressive caucus delivered in ways we have not, because we have not had the numbers we have now. So get ready. [applause] rep. Tokuda aloha. Something she said maybe stop and think about a memory i had. The first time i ever came to the mainland i am from hawaii i actually came here to d. C. And i remember standing on the floor of congress and whispering, i will be back at some point. I also remember looking around on the one thing i noticed was they did not look like me at all. And yet when you take a look around this dyess and you take a look at the congressional progressive caucus, heres the thing. We look like america. This is the United States of america, right here. Representation matters. I know this just as well as anybody else here. Four generations ago my family immigrated from okinawa to have a better life for themselves, working the plantation in hawaii. We lived on four of the six islands that i will now be so humbled and honored to represent. I can tell you that when i ran from office going from island to island by boat, by plane, in some places i could drive to our district, it was about sitting down at Kitchen Tables. Anywhere they would have me, sitting down and talking story with them. I ran on a set of Kitchen Table issues as a priority but listening to all of this today, knowing what we know about the Kitchen Table caucus, Kitchen Table issues are progressive issues. They are about people. Progressive issues care about people and put them at the center. I was running because if i sat in a park they would tell me it is really hard to be born here or to die here because health care, Mental Health, it is not a right, it is a privilege. And that is absolutely not acceptable. It is because i would go and sit on the beach with an uncle and tell me i dont matter, i am nobody, because decisions are made out there and they dont look like me. I am here to change that narrative and that mindset to let him know, absolutely not. You matter. Everyone matters. And we are fighting for those issues. Two weeks ago i was standing on a side of the road that is crumbling into the ocean right now 45 minute from my house. In my lifetime that road will be gone. I see Climate Change every single day on our Little Island right in the middle of the pacific. To anyone who thinks Climate Change is not real should come to hawaii and take a look, because we are on the front lines of Climate Change and we are going to be the first to defend it because we are not just progressive, we are about people. We care about the Kitchen Tables that sit around all of our homes every night and we are going to fight for those features. I have two little boys. Not so little anymore, they are getting older. But they are why i ran. Because every one of our children, every one of our families deserves a shot and an opportunity. When i sit down at the Kitchen Table and worry about if they will have access to health care, can they afford to put a roof over their head, will they had Educational Opportunities that should not be denied to them based on where they live or how much their parents make, but everyone deserves that right and it should not come at a cost that will put them under at the end of the day. Are we making sure they have something that we leave behind . The clean water, land we all deserve. When i sit and look at my boys, i can tell you, not nearly enough. The people you see around here though give me hope. If we make sure their actions we take so families have a future and a shot, it will be these champions you see around a dyess and i am so humbled and honored to now be joining them standing sidebyside because at the moment i can tell you the urgency i feel every day when we wake up israel. We have to do it now and i cannot think of a Greater Group to do it with. I look forward to joining you in the 118th congress. [applause] good morning, all. I made it. I just got off the flight from vermont. I was not actually supposed to be here with all of these amazing people. The conventional wisdom in my state was that i did not have a shot. I was a scrappy little queer lady. I did not have powerful connections. I did not have a clear path to victory when we started. 7 name recognition. What i did have was an amazing team that believed that i could do this if i got in front of enough vermonters and spread and message of courage and strength and hope and organize working people and brought so many regular people into this movement who did not believe that they had a voice. And i am the current president of the senate in vermont, first woman to ever do that, first queer person to ever do that. And i cannot tell you how many times hearing my colleagues here , i have been so choked up. All of us have similar narratives. I am the child of an immigrant and a workingclass mom. I am someone who never imagined as an openly gay person that i could do this. My only role model was a man named harvey milk who had been assassinated. And when you see that when you are growing up you say, that is not for me. I am not going to be able to do this. But we did it. And we did it so powerfully and we did it because we tapped into the courage of working people across vermont. Regular people who want to have a voice again. That is who i am and that is who i will be in congress. I could not be more honored to stand here with all of these fantastic incoming legislators. Thank you so much, congresswoman jayapal, congresswoman omar. We are going to do great things. [applause] repelect jackson hi, there. My name is Jonathan Jackson from the first Congressional District of illinois. I would like to say a very special thank you. There are many important people in here, but we go back 100 years. I would like to thank the congressional progressive caucus for their endorsement, their support, for their work. My parents come by way of florida, by way of south carolina, by way of virginia, and finally settled in chicago. We can trace back our family ancestry to the 1700s in south carolina. We are fighting for economic, racial, and social justice. I have been a business professor, i have taught community college, at state university, i have practiced business. And as a progressive and part of this congress, i know we can talk about Balance Sheets as well as bullets that are killing our children. We can talk about cash flow statements as well as how do we eradicate covid, cancer, and find a cure for diseases. I know we can talk about income statements as well as fully funding education to destroy ignorance. So i am a proud member and i am so delighted to work with this upcoming class, to serve with them. And i hear so many great things about them every day. I cannot read enough about them. Thank you all for coming out and thank you all for letting me be a part. [applause] rep. Jayapal wonderful. This is really to highlight our new members i just have to say a huge thank you to our whip, ilhan omar, who has been such an important leader in the 117th and will be again in the 118th. Congresswoman jan schakowsky, who has been such an important mentor and guide and leader in the progressive caucus on the executive board as well. With that, i think we have time for a couple of questions if we have them for anybody here. Would you and your members support Speaker Pelosi . Rep. Jayapal we always consider all the people who are running very carefully and we usually have a set of things that we ask for at the progressive caucus as part of those negotiations so we are looking forward to seeing what that looks like. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal i am so basking in the power of the Progressive Movement and delivery georgia and continuing to get more progressive wins. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal yes. Were having an executive Board Meeting tomorrow where we will be talking about lameduck. There are important pieces we talked about, the debt ceiling is one that we have a letter with Brendan Boyle around making sure the debt ceiling is not a tool used to pass other bad social or economic policy. We will need to get that done. If there is going to be a tax extenders bill and there is a Corporate Tax in there, we want to make sure that the ctc is put back in place because we know the Child Tax Credit cut poverty by 40 , cut hunger by 32 . That is the kind of relief that families want. If there is the possibility, i heard some discussion of a reconciliation bill potentially including limited medicaid expansion, really important in our Southern States for black and brown folks in particular, poor folks across those states where extreme republican governors have not expended medicaid. We need a way to bring those folks in, and that is obviously something we would want to work on as well. We also hope there is antitrust reform legislation. You heard the mention of immigration. I think we really need to get the dream and promise act across the finish line. So there are a number of things, but we will put together our full agenda over the next week or so as we go into this lameduck session. Obviously [inaudible] rep. Jayapal first of all, i dont accept the premise that we will not have the majority, so i just need to say that. Everyone has heard me say that for months now. But i think we still have a path. A narrow path, but a path. I looked at those five tossup seats, and it is possible. Nobody thought it is possible, we made it possible. Lets not give up our hopes he could still be in the majority. I came in in 2016 with donald trump. It was not a celebratory moment. We had a very small class in 2016, it was painful. We had to do a lot of work not only to be an Opposition Party in the minority. We did not have anything, we didnt have the white house, we didnt have the senate, we didnt have the house. It was painful, it was hard work. We were the last line of defense for working people, for black and brown folks, indigenous people, poor people across the country, to push back on what we thought at the time was an extreme agenda. It has become even more extreme. And it was tough. But what i said all the time in those moments was, we cant just be an Opposition Party. We also have to be a proposition party. And i believe with the results that we have had in the selection, the way we have defied history, and thank you President Biden, let me just say, thank you President Biden for the incredible leadership he has shown from the white house. This was the president s agenda we were building on with build back better, with all of the work we have done around the infrastructure bill, chips, everything. The progressive caucus has been a governing partner for the president. And so we will continue to be a proposition party. And if, god forbid, we are in the minority, then we will also focus on regulatory action, things the white house can do. We have a great slate of regulatory action and we will continue to do all the work we can. Dont forget that because of the senate being a democratic hands, hopefully with 51, not just 50, we will also democrats will be able to confirm a whole slate of judges across the country who will be really important to justice going forward. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal i will start and ilhan can finish. When i came in in 2016, the cpc pac had about 300,000 per cycle. Were nore more than 4 million per cycle. We raised and contributed millions of dollars for candidates across the country and we intend to continue to do that. We will continue to build the cpcpac. Marka nd jamie raskin served as cochairs of the pac with me, and i think we have finetuned and evan brown is somewhere here weve really finetuned the work of the cpcpac and we will continue to do that, along with when i came in, the three stools of the triangle that i wanted to really help build were, one, the caucus, the work we do inside congress, the cpc itself. The second was the cpcpac. And the third was the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center and congressional progressive caucus action fund, which are resources for organizing and policy and research. And also sent about seven or eight fellows to the hill to be in our offices to work on policy. That organization is also now a 4 million organization we have built in the last four years, with a whole group of people. So we are really building all the tools of the triangle. Rep. Omar no, nothing to add. You have done, and the progressive caucus, have pooled their resources together and have done an incredible job in supporting our slate of candidates. Many of us have utilize our old pacs as well to support. I look forward to when we have 25, 35, 50 folks that we can endorse and support and get elected to congress. I think of the fact that every single cycle theres a growth in the quality of candidates, in the quantity of candidates, is a testament of the incredible work the progressive members before i got here were doing, and what progressive members have been doing since we have been here. I think that there is an inspirational position that you all will serve for future candidates who will see the work that you are doing, who will use the challenges that you have all overcome as an example, to say that if they were able to do what, i can do it to do it, i can do it. And i think were just going to keep seeing an Enormous Growth in the number of candidates we will have in the future. Do you plan to remain chair of the progression of caucus . Rep. Jayapal everything is we will announce elections coming up and lets see. But like i said, i am basking in but the Progressive Movement has done and what we can do. And no matter what, i am absolutely i believe this is the caucus where real growth and real possibility and change happens. You talked a lot about how everyone expected a red wave. What part of you thinks this class you think the level of people not taking the issue of abortion as seriously. Rep. Jayapal i invite anyone who wants to speak to this to come on up. Look, i think that there was this conversation going on, oh, you have to focus on this and we are spending too much time on this. I think it was a whole set of issues that drove people to the polls. For young people, it was a lot of our freedoms on the line, but it was also that we give them something to be hopeful about. We give them student debt and Climate Change and action on Climate Change, things that they cared about. And we did not tell them that they were naive and should not want so much. We actually had candidates who inspired them, who spoke to them, who talked about why it is important to be part of the political process. We had black women. Summer is so right when she talks about this, because we have not had enough. There were, i was one of 86 women of color. We are going to add to that. But ilhan and i were two of only 86 women of color who have ever served in congress. If we want to mobilize people across the country, we need to so black women and abortion absolutely was key for all women and for families. But so were the economic policies that we were talking about. Because people understood that the two biggest inflationary costs are housing and childcare. And we showed them that we could deliver on a significant part of the president s agenda and that we have more to do. Give us a chance to do it. And we can get it done. So i really think it was all of those pieces. Anybody want to add . Yes. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal the bylaws actually say no one can serve for two consecutive terms in the same position, so that as it was when the case. That will continue to be the case that was always the case. That will continue to be the case. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal well, only one republican who voted for impeachment of donald trump made it back. Hes in my state, dan newhouse. A lot of the more sane republicans have either stepped down or lost other races. It depends which rip a book and party we are working with. Are we working with the extreme Republican Party of Marjorie Taylor greene, and hopefully not lauren boebert, or are we working with a Republican Party where there are some interests that the progressive caucus has worked closely actually with members of the Republican Party . Are they interested in delivering anything for people or are they interested in stripping things away . Are we going to work with them on tax breaks for the wealthiest . No way. Are we going to work with them on stripping medicare and Social Security . Uh uh. It depends on what it is. Do they see the light now that they have touted the benefits of the infrastructure bill and all the money that came into the district even though they never voted for it . Do they want to bring more resources back into their communities . Democrats will always do things that make sense for lifting people up and creating opportunity. If that is a Republican Party that comes out in congress, then maybe, but forgive me for being dubious that that is what we are going to see. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal i think it was a big factor. If you look at the exit polls, the one i saw yesterday, 71 of democrats and a significant percentage of independents see violence and the threat to democracy as critical factors. And i think that the horrific attack on mr. Pelosi was just hard for any of us to even understand not only how that could happen, but then how republicans could make light of it, or mock, or joke about it. It was so disgusting. It embarrasses me as somebody who represents this country, and all of us who represent this country in congress. And so i think ilhan and i and others, alexandria, barbara lee, particularly folks of color frankly, women of color, have been facing these extreme violent attacks. And lets just be clear that they are not isolated. Right, john . They are directly connected to donald trump, his xenophobia and racism. It is not that racism is new in this country, nobody on the state believes in that. But the fueling of and using the white house to do that, to dehumanize people, the attacks ilhan has been under for just being a muslim woman here in congress. It is to dehumanize to the point where violence than becomes acceptable to some group of people. And that is what has led to this and the violence we saw on january 6 directly tied to then an armed man showing up at my door with a gun. And it is unbelievable to me that that is the place we are in is a country, and we cant have it be ok. We cannot just accept it as normal. It is not normal. It is why i spoke out about what happened to me and about why ilhan spoke out about what happened to her. We just have to recognize that this group of people is also the antidote to that hate. This group of people is about love, is about diversity and the strength of diversity, its about representation, its about hope, its about generosity and abundance instead of scarcity and fear, which are the only two things republicans seem to know how to run on. Ok, lets do these last two, because i was about to call on lisa. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal we always use every tactic in the book, and we will continue to do that. We have an amazing staff team that also helps us to think about, what are the best ways to do things. The most important thing is the power of the collective and that is what i have said to everybody here. It has been what we are trying to instill in the percussive caucus. When we act together, we can get a lot done. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal i promise we will have more discussions about it. You get the last question. [inaudible] rep. Jayapal which move . [inaudible] rep. Jayapal anybody from texas want to . Repelect casar michelle ran an incredible race and she deserves more resources from every part of the Democratic Party. I hope she does choose to run again because i hope and expect to be at the same press conference you nee in two years. In the final weeks of the election, i visited and talked with voters in 10 different Congressional Districts between central texas, south texas, and the border. There were tens of millions of rightwing dollars being spent to try and move the latino vote to the right. And that did not happen. That simply did not happen. When i talked with thousands of voters across all 10 of those Congressional Districts, what voters brought up time and time again is the work progressives were doing in the u. S. Congress and the way that President Biden was working for workingclass people. They were talking about student get cancellation, talking about folks standing up for people against abusive employers, about the Democratic Party trying to stand up for basic rights like abortion rights. No matter how much people try to paint latino voters about being against abortion rights, the vast majority of latino voters in texas support abortion rights and economic justice. We did not lose a single congressional race that district that voted for President Biden in this election. Michelles district was redrawn to become less latino and to become a trumpleading district. But the most latino parts of her district along the border if you walk along those places, there were tons and tons of lies and republican ads. They had 18 wheelers parked on the side of the highway with banners. They threw everything at us, and we showed that if we stand for workingclass people, then not only will latino votes stay with us, we can grow. That is why i think progressive candidates who showed they are on the side of working people are our path to not not just holding latino votes but expanding that majority, and that is how we are going to put the entire state of texas. It will be through authentic candidates who really care about the people. And so i expect, or hope for her to be able to take that seatback, and it is going to be we are going to continue to hear more and more lies about how latinos are moving to the right and we will keep pointing back to this election as proof that that does not have to be the case and that that is not the case. I am just going to add to that. Lord have mercy, texas. One of the things we need in texas is investment. Everyone looks at texas and everyone gives up on us. But you know what . There was a time when everyone gave up on georgia. And right now no one is saying that we are not going to get that seat because guess what . Georgia showed this country what they can do when the investment was put there, when the people went out there. Whether it was people power or money. When we invested, we won. So the thing is in the state of texas and i went down to the border too. But as someone who stood on the house floor and fought against these ridiculous maps that we got out of the state of texas, they specifically decided that because texas was becoming a lot more black and brown that they were going to have to do Something Different if they were going to maintain control. As greg has already said, that district as it was drawn was a trump district. It was a plus one for a trump, but they drew that district to give them the opportunity. And republicans are consistently investing down in south texas. They are setting up these Community Centers and trying to build relationships so that they can naturally bring latinos over. Now, latinos did not go, thank god, hallelujah. But at the end of the day we still have more work to do because we have way too many texans who did not vote. We have talked about this for a long time. Texas is a Voter Suppression state, number one. Obviously they decided they wanted to take it to the next level as you all saw when we broke a quorum. So it was even more suppressed. But she was starved of resources. Period. If you look around this country nobody thought we were going to get washington three. Please tell me the last time yall were talking about that seat, because you are not. It was not on your radar. But when you invest in resources and you have great candidates, there is nothing democrats cannot do, specifically progressives, because we have seen it happen. The only reason we are only on the edge of our seat wondering whether or not we are going to hold the house is because we have the talent. We always have the talent. Guess who has always had the money . The other side. But guess what . People are starting to figure out, i think we want talent, forget the money. Rep. Jayapal let me just add one thing to that. Jasmine mentioned washington 3. I did a threat on my Campaign Twitter yesterday about this race, because i have been trying to get people to invest in this race. 10 years ago when i was running an immigrant rights organization, we started organizing in southwest washington. Our strongest base group was in southwest washington. We spent an enormous amount of time this last decade organizing immigrant voters in southwest washington, and when america votes, the organization i started and used to lead, has continued to do that work. And they made tens of thousands of calls and door knocks in that district for marie. We reached out to more Perfect Union right after the primary and said this is an incredible workingclass union candidate. Also the donor of mexican immigrants. And she can win. She can win this district. They put out a fantastic video i hope you looked at. We reached out to Michelle Goldberg got the new york times. She helped elevate the race and bring money in. And weve been raising money for her. This is a seat we knew we could win despite what everybody was saying that we could not. And that is really important. Also, on organizing, mark kelly, amazing job in arizona. I do want to point out that 10 years ago, we went down there on buses and slept in Church Basements after fb1070, the antiimmigrant initiative. We started organizing then with immigrants in arizona, when actually even our own party was saying, oh no, they are never going to vote. It has been years, and in some cases decades. It is Stacey Abrams verified, black voters matter, all the groups in georgia that have made the states places where our folks can feel represented with our labor partners, with all of the coalition. So i just think this is an important point. I was in pennsylvania twice before the election. The last time was with south Asian American voters. Shes apparently the most popular figure in the Southeast Asian community, doorknocking, turning out tens of thousands of voters. It is really important to realize we are not saying you do not need independent voters or swing voters, but dont forget that the biggest swing voter category is our base of young people, of folks of color, who are not going to swing republican, but they wing swing right out to the couch if they think nobody cares about them or they will not have a seat at the table or their policies will not matter. So that is what this Incredible Group of new members represents, is the ability to expand electorate, to talk to people in a different way, to bring everybody in and to say this is a governing coalition of bold, progressive ideas. It is what the president i know once to continue to do. We are going to be right there backing him up and pushing for the best, most opportunity for people to not just survive, but to thrive. Thank you all so much. Folks, were going to take a picture here. Do you want us to stay here, or without the podium . [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]