[ applause ] so, heres the reality. We have seen one of the most dramatic and inspiring upticks in progressive action that i can remember. I mean, right out of the gate, you know, on january 21st, a womens march kicked it off in a fine fashion. Literally millions of people organizing, marching all over the country, and how fitting it was for the womens march to kick off this moment of resistance, given the incalculable sexism and massageny trump ran on during the campaign. The women led us then, are leading us now. But the movement kept going. We saw the science march, we saw the tax day march. Help me out here this is audience participation. Are there any im leaving out . The Public Education march. We saw all kinds of stuff, activity. And i can tell you that in my own district in minnesota, we have a campus that were running where were literally knocking hundreds of doors every day, not every week, every day were knocking literally hundreds of doors, and were doing it all over the country. Weve got this thing called resistance summer with the dnc, and on that score, we are pushing out support and resources to state parties who are leading canvassing efforts all over the place. But all the demonstrating, all the grassroots organizing, all the town halls, as wonderful as they are, will not change the Political Landscape unless we convert this energy into the ballot box. And weve seen weve been coming close, and at the state level, weve actually been converting some. Weve seen electoral wins in deep red districts in oklahoma, in new hampshire, and in iowa just over the last several weeks. So, were seeing it happen. The thing is, is that if we want to see 15 in a union become a law, were going to have to take power to do it. In the cities where this happened, its happened because we had enough folks on the county board or the city council to do it. If we want to see, you know, medicare for all to be the law of the land, were going to have to defend what we have and were going to have to get the folks in office who are willing to vote that policy into office. So, the bottom line is that we are in a brandnew space, and it is fraught with peril in some ways, but its also full of opportunity, and we have the ability to make and reshape this whole country if we are willing to seize the moment and go to the grassroots in a whole new way. Now, i want to tell you that im really excited to introduce Sarah Johnson to you. Thank you for giving her a nice clap a moment ago. You can give her another one now. Come on, now. [ applause ] sarah is codirector of local progress. Local progress is a National Network that supports, connects and unites progressive local elected officials and allied organizations, and its run by the center for popular democracy. Prior to joining cpd, sarah served as managing director at working families, where she also ran an electoral candidate Recruitment Program that doubled the size of new york citys progressive caucus. And let me tell you, they are doing awesome things. I guess my question for you, sarah, is how important is it to win at the local level, and what can come from local Government Action on the big problems were facing today . Great. Thank you so much, congressman ellison. Were so grateful to be here with you today and just also for the tremendous partnership of having folks in d. C. Who are really committed to change at the local level and to supporting our members. So, i think before i answer the question, we just have a little inspirational video. Lets do it. So, it will be a lot cooler than me. Well just watch it real quick and then ill jump into it. All right. All across the country, people like you are rising up in resistance. To the trump administrations bigotry, corruption and incompetence. In the streets at airports in the halls of congress and in town halls across america. Our fightback is working. This is our moment in history, not the moment we wanted, but the moment we are called to. And its time to take this resistance to the next level. Its time to take back power. 2017, there will be elections all across the united states. For offices like city council, mayor, school board. These elections matter, a lot. Im a member of local progress. Im a member of local progress. [ speaking spanish ] i am a member of local progress. So i speak from personal experience when i say progressive elected officials can change this country and make a difference in peoples lives. These are profound times for people to see a different kind of politics. People should run for local office because change happens locally. We recently enacted a sanctuary city executive order to protect our immigrant communities in jersey city. To let people know that regardless of their status, their zip code, their ethnicity, their religion, that they should be able to feel safe in milwaukee. We passed a law creating an Inspector General for the nypd. I fought so that every child has access to a highquality Public Education. We push to make sure that our trans sisters and brothers had equal access to public facilities. I am fighting to raise the minimum wage. I was no Political Insider when i ran for local office. I just wanted someone to step up that really cared about the community. And as i was talking to everybody running for office, i thought, which of these guys was going to be strongest on education and strongest on Public Safety and strongest on Worker Rights and strongest on womens rights. And i realized that the strongest person was going to be me. But i cant do it alone. I cant do it alone. And thats where you come in. If were going to build a more just and equitable country. We need a National Movement of progressives running for local office across the united states. Will you join us . Will you join us . Will you join us . Youve heard the phrase think globally, act locally, right . That phrase means, if youre outraged by the trump agenda, then you should run for local office. It means that if you reject White Supremacy if you care about protecting workers rights. If you want to save our planet. If you want to guarantee health care for all. If you want to get money out of politics. Then you should help your coworker, your neighbor, your friend win an election for local office. The local and state fights of today become the national fights of tomorrow, and the local and state leaders of today become the National Leaders of tomorrow. I realize that sometimes people think, like, what skills do i have to offer . And heres what i would say, youre probably more qualified than you think. We have faith in you. [ speaking spanish ] and we need you. If you have the passion or want to be a voice for those that are voiceless, i would say do it. If we want to build a better future, its time for progressives to start running for office. One city at a time, one county at a time, one state at a time, were making our nation a much better place to live. Theres no better place to start than at the local level. And theres no better time than now. And no better person than you. So join us. Join us. Join us. Join us. [ applause ] that was great. So, i think you had a little bit of a picture all across the country, people like you are watching again it was that good. Sorry. Actually, im going to ask a question first. How many saw someone in that video who they recognized or have heard of before . Thats pretty incredible. I sort of wonder if, like, at this conference, you know, five or six years ago, that would have been the same thing. So, i have a really awesome job, because every day i get to work with local elected officials. We have over 600 members who are really trying to live out strong progressive values of shared economic prosperity, equal justice under the law, sustainable and Livable Communities and Good Government through their offices. And you know, i think a lot of folks have, i, like many people, have suffered many depressive episodes since november, but i have had also more inspiration from our members than i think many others have had, and im super lucky to have that and want to share some of it with you today. So, i just came from about two weeks ago from the local Progress National convening, where about 150 local elected officials came together to really plot, how are our cities going to Work Together to not just resist trump but also to continue to make policy progress where we can at the local level and kind of in deep partnership with Community Organizations, and here are a few things that im feeling particularly inspired by from that event. Our members, along with the Texas Organizing project and the workers Defense Project, two amazing grassroots organizing groups doing amazing work in texas, brought 100 colleagues from across the country to protest Governor Abbott in a rousing first of i think ive never seen Something Like this, like 100 officials having a protest, right . Usually theyre the ones getting protested. And standing up against sb4, which is, i think as many of you probably know, one of the worst and most discriminatory antiimmigrant bills thats passed at the state level since november, all really led by Council Members from texas who are organizing together, who have gotten all the major metropolitan areas of the state to sue the government to try to stop sb4 from being implemented on september 1st. Thats one. Two, charlottesville vice mayor wes bellamy who stood up at our convening and shared i think something that really shows the relationship between resistance and progress, where he was able to use momentum from organizing around the removal of confederate statues in charlottesville, something you guys might have been reading in the news about a really big and kind of terrifying event happening there tomorrow thats a protest against this, into winning a 4 million Reparations Fund for africanamerican communities in the city. So, making sure that as were fighting and as were resisting, that were also enacting local policies, programs that were winning funding that improve our communities and help folks, you know, connect to those victories in the places that they live. Our great minneapolis members sharing with everybody the 15 minimum wage in minneapolis, the first city in the midwest. They said it could only be done in the coastal cities, but its happening in other places, too. And at the same time, getting to meet andrea jenkins, an inspiring transgender activist who has been instrumental in guiding the citys adoptions and trans policies and whos running for city council in 2017. So, those are just a few of our incredible members that make me feel pretty fortunate every day to be able to do this, you know, work of just trying to figure out how to keep pushing forward at a local level, and maybe, ill just say a little bit of what i think is working, kind of drawn from that experience and also my experience in new york city electing great progressive leaders and growing the progressive caucus in the city. So, one is that we have more and more leaders who are from our movement, who are organizers and campaigners and who are coming out of our base building and movement organization. So, i talked a little bit about the work organizing against sb4 in texas, and that is really primarily being led by a Council Member named greg kazar, who is, i think hes 27 years old. Hes been in council for two years. He was an organizer for the workers Defense Project before coming into council, and so really comes into elected office from organizing lowwage workers, from fighting for immigrant rights, from doing direct interventions in our communities. So, when sb4 started to advance, you know, there were lots of folks who were against it, but greg really approached it like an organizer. He called all the other Council Members from his neighboring cities in texas and he said, what are we going to do about this together . He didnt just wait for austin to be completely vilified. He, you know, organized a Broad Coalition of elected officials and Community Organizations to fight back together. And so, that makes a big difference, right, having folks that not just share our values but really share kind of an organizing perspective to the work. And second and related to that i think is the sort of growth of inside and outside collaboration. Its a kind of catch phrase ive heard here a few times as a way to think about how were making change. And i think this is particularly important at the local level, because the local level is where we can begin to practice the kinds of communities and relationships that can advance policy change that can then grow to the state level, that can then grow to the national level, but you cant build those kinds of trusting relationships, right . Theyve got to start grounded in kind of peoples communities and in the issues that theyre working on. So, you know, local progress is a project of the center for popular democracy, which is a National Organization of 43 basebuilding Community Organizations, groups like workers defense and t. O. P. , in states all across the country. And local progress is founded out of cpd because we fundamentally believe, you know, that change requires both, right . Really great elected officials on the inside who are valuesdriven and who are pushing as hard as they possibly can to advance policy, and outside organizing that is escalating public demand for the policies that we need. And i think most importantly that those two things have to be connected, that they have to relate to each other, be done strategically together, and that when were kind of working together inside and outside, that we can have greater kind of policy outcomes and change that we want to see. Im just time checking myself. Well be able to get back and forth, but lets hear it for sarah, everybody. That was fantastic. [ applause ] so, let me introduce annie weinberg, as ive done already. Annie joined democracy for america in 2014 after serving as a chief of staff for progressive congress, the foundation for the congressional progressive caucus, and she is previously the National Field organizer for moveon and served in a senior role in a variety of congressional races from connecticut to minnesota to michigan. And so, annie, share with us a little bit about you know, how do we get in this position where we lost so many seats at the state level over the last eight years, and whats the way back . Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you, congressman. Thanks, everybody. Hows it going . Yeah, we lost a lot in the past eight years. Its true. Over 1,000 seats at the state and local level in just recent cycles. That means that right now, as of last week, thanks to jm justice, shoutout to him, now 34 republican governors are holding seats. 38 governor seats are up in 2018 that were going to have to fight. That means 34 of these governors and their attorneys general are out there helping enact some of the most violent, white supremacist policies from this administration right now that were going to have to fight, and were also seeing this in voter turnout with devastating lows in terms of folks that are not showing up at the polls in terms of historic lows in a lot of places for voter turnout, which we know really matters, right . If we had had the turnout that matched 2012 in just milwaukee and philadelphia and detroit this past cycle, we would have a different president. So, devastating lows in voter turnout. So, its true, the problem that were facing is really deep. And i have a few things to name for why we got to where we are. One is voter targeting models that are cyclically disenfranchising, where we are constantly the idea of a best Practices Campaign for a long time in Democratic Party politics and in consultant culture was to center a very tiny pool of white, mostly republicanlight swing voters, but a lot of folks that didnt necessarily share values that motivate a lot of us to the polls or worry us and make us wake up in the morning and want to fight around Regional Economic justice. So, focusing on a very tiny pool of people and funneling all the campaign resources, time, energy, campaign ads, consultant wisdom to reaching out to a very tiny pool of people and ignoring or divesting from the programs that speak to everybody else, that speak to the overwhelming majority of folks in this country who want to see their leaders stand up and fight for a living wage, for racial and economic justice, for reproductive rights. So, those voter targeting models are a big problem. Number two is candidates that often were afraid to run on those values. You know, about we run authentically on our values with courage and conviction, thats how we win. We dont win by parcelling out our values and making deep compromises or pretending to be like republicans. If you want to vote for a republican, you just vote for one. And then i think the other big thing that i just want to name as a challenge is divestment in organizing. So, we know that voter conversations work, that meaningful relationships are born from of the most transformative campaigns, right . How many folks have worked on campaigns here that changed their life and found relationships from those campaigns, that changed their life, right . Organizing works, and its resilient. It works over the long haul. It means that we can win victories in the short term and it means that we can win victories over time. So, divesting from organizing and meaningful conversations with voters has really harmed us, and to fix it, weve got to reinvest in that, weve got to talk to people on the doors, on the phones, in their living rooms, about things they care about and then track those conversations and do it again and again, and thats how