United states. I intend to win and i need your help. [applause] gov. Omalley as i was driving down here, to des moines, i could not help but to think about the first time i came to iowa and it was some 20 i was 20 years old, and there is a president ial campaign coming. Me and my buddies, about five of us, piled into a car and we wanted to come out here to work for our underdog, upstart candidate, because we knew that this is where it starts, here in iowa, and we wanted to change the world. They dropped me off at 6 00 a. M. At the Greyhound Bus terminal in davenport, iowa. [applause] gov. Omalley i had nothing but my parka, my guitar, and a duffel bag full of winter clothes. But it was over this next several months that i fell in love with iowa and the people of iowa, and i thank you all for what you do for our country every president ial election. [applause] gov. Omalley what i have found to be the most enjoyable part of running for president is this, that i get to meet young people who also want to change this world of ours, with the same idealism and the same believe ef that all things are possible. I know it is easy, especially in these times, to become discouraged by our Gridlocked Congress and by polarization international politics. I want to urge you to do what i do, and if you want to know where our country is headed, talk to her young people under 30. [applause] gov. Omalley because you will rarely find among been anyone among them anyone who denies that Climate Change is real or thinks their government should not do something about it. You will rarely find young people under 30 who want to bash american immigrants or who want to deny rights to gay couples or to their children. And all of this tells me that we are moving to a much more connected, generous, and compassionate place. On thursday, Vice President joe biden spoke so powerfully about the values that we share. Didnt he . [applause] gov. Omalley the belief we share in the dignity of every individual. Respect for one another. Truth about ourselves. Our commitment to advance the common good that we share. He also spoke about something else. He spoke about the growing income inequality in our country. A growing injustice that threatens to tear our country apart. And he called on us, not just as democrats, but as americans, not to run away from the obama biden record of progress, but to build upon what we have achieved together. [applause] gov. Omalley and to be fearless about our progressive values, our ability to solve this problem, and our ability to make our economy work again for all of us. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley all of us here tonight agreed that we cannot allow donald trump or any of the donald trump wannabes and the Republican Party to take over our white house, can we agree on that . [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley but as candidates, we do have some differences on issues, and we do differ on who we believe is best prepared to lead America Forward, especially in these new times. Who gives our party the best chance to win in november . In three months, the people of iowa will make a critical decision. It is not about yesterday, it is not just about today, it is about our country, it is about our future, and it is about our children and the future that they will share. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and while all of the candidates here tonight share progressive values, not all of us have a record of actually getting things done. [applause] gov. Omalley i do. With 15 years of executive experience as mayor and as governor, i have learned how to be a very effective leader. I have learned how to get things done. I am clear about my principles, and i know where i stand. We passed the living wage and we raised the minimum wage, we froze College Tuition for four years in a row, and these were actions, not words. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley as governor, i made it easier and not harder for workers to bargain collectively for better wages for all americans. Actions, not words. And instead of cutting Public Education funding as governor, i actually increased funding for Public Education by 37 and memo to Governor Terry branstad, we made the Public Schools the best books goals and america for five years in a row. Actions, not words. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and along the way, i brought people together to pass the dream act. To pass marriage equality, and to pass the most comprehensive gun safety legislation and the United States. With universal background checks and a ban on combat assault weapons sales. Actions, not words. [applause] gov. Omalley my wife and i have four great kids. And like you, there is nothing that we would not do to give them a better life, with a better future, and more opportunity than we have had. True story. My oldest daughter, grace, is a Public School teacher. Any teachers in the audience here tonight . [applause] gov. Omalley there we go. Grace omalley teachers Public School in the heart of baltimore city. Land of the free, home of the brave. And about a little over 100 days ago when her dad announced for president , she returned to her first grade class, and adorable africanamerican class, and there was a buzz in the room. A little girl came up to her, tapped her on the sleeve, and she said, im not so sure about this idea of your father running for president , because quite frankly, i kind of like barack obama. [laughter] [applause] gov. Omalley well, a lot of us like barack obama, right . [laughter] [applause] gov. Omalley our country has come a long way since the wall street crash of 2008, when millions of American Families lost their jobs and lost their homes and things to president obamas leadership, when we elected new leadership, our country is doing better. We are grading jobs. 67 months in a row of positive job creation. America is doing better. [applause] gov. Omalley and there is no progress without jobs. But we elected a president , we did not elect a magician. And there is urgent work that needs to be done. Yes, there is in fact, in our country today, a growing economic injustice, a middleclass is shrinking. Our poorest families are becoming more. And 70 of us today are earning the same or less than we were 12 years ago. And that is the first time that has happened this side of world war ii. This is not how our country is supposed to work. This is not how our economy is supposed to work. And injustice does not solve itself. We must solve it and we must solve it with new leadership and with action. Actions to make wages go up again for all americans. [applause] gov. Omalley actions to invest, again, and our own countrys longterm potential. To make college a gateway to opportunity and not a trap door to a lifetime of crushing debt. Actions that actually square our shoulders to the great challenge of Climate Change and make this challenge our opportunity. We are americans. We make our own future. And we need to start doing it again today. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and this begins anew. As we returned to our true selves, and we remember, that our economy is not money. Our economy is people. It is all of our people. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley a stronger middle class is not the consequence of economic growth. A stronger middle class is the cause of economic growth. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and no American Family who works hard and plays by the rules, should ever have to raise their children in poverty and therefore we must raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour however we can, wherever we can. [applause] gov. Omalley we must advance the cause of paid family leave so that all women can participate more fully in the Economic Life of our country, because when women succeed, america succeeds. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley that is why, and that is why over the course of the summer i have laid out my 15 strategic goals to rebuild the American Dream that we share. Making the option of Debt Free College a reality within five years. Instead of cutting Social Security, like the republican candidates want to do, i say we need to expand Social Security. [applause] gov. Omalley and i am the first candidate in this race, and let us hope not the last, to put forward a plan to move America Forward to a 100 clean, electric grid by 2050, and create 5 million jobs along the way. [applause] gov. Omalley here is one for you. Do we want wages to actually go up and not down . [applause] gov. Omalley then how about this how about we get 11 million of our neighbors out of the books shadow economy and onto the open books of an American Economy by passing comprehensive Immigration Reform now with a path for citizenship for all. [cheers and applause] [chanting omalley] gov. Omalley i want to introduce you to someone who is with us tonight. There is a person with us tonight, her name is kenya calderon. [applause] gov. Omalley and she is a dreamer here with us tonight. She was born in el salvador, and is now a student at drake. And along the way, she has become a fearless advocate for Citizenship Rights for herself and millions of americans like her. And therefore, to that immigrant bashing, carnival barker, donald trump, let us stand together and say that the enduring symbol of our nation is not the barbed wire fence, it is the statue of liberty. [cheers and applause] [chanting omalley] gov. Omalley donald, you want to make America Great . How about starting by passing comprehensive Immigration Reform, like our grandparents and parents did. They know what made America Great, and so do we. Nothing that we care about, nothing that we care about can be accomplished by words alone. We must take action. As democrats, we have to cast aside the wornout politics of the past. The choices that no longer serve our nation. And we have to find our backbone again, to stand up for what is best for our country and what is best for all of america. What does that mean . That means we have to stop giving a free pass to the bullies of wall street whenever they try to run roughshod all over our National Economy. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley i have never represented wall street, and i will not be taking economic orders from wall street when i am working for you and your white house. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and as you are re president , i will have the independence and i will have the backbone to fight for you. And if a bank is too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to manage, then it is to dampen and he needs to broken up before it breaks our National Economy again. That is just common sense. Tell me how it is. Tell me how it is, but not a single wall street ceo was ever convicted of a single crime related to the 2008 economic meltdown. Not a single one. What do we come to . What have we come to as a country that you can get pulled over for having a broken till light, but if you wreck the nations economy you are totally untouchable . President ial leadership is about the good of the many, not the greed of the few. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and that is why i also say that we have to stop sending american jobs and american profits overseas with bad trade deals like the transpacific partnership. [applause] gov. Omalley many of us in this room remember nafta. Whatever its intentions, we traded away good manufacturing jobs, like maytags in towns like newton, and in return, we got back into promises and empty pockets. I am fundamentally, adamantly opposed, as an american, to secret trade deals that our congress has forced to vote on before the rest of us even have a chance to read them. What have we come to as a nation . [applause] gov. Omalley and it is not what the other countries are doing to us, we can trade and we should trade. It is not what the other countries are doing to us, it is what we are not doing ourselves. We need to build up our own American Economy again, dont we . [applause] gov. Omalley and finally, we must have the courage to put our childrens safety, each and every day ahead of the morally bankrupt interests of the National Rifle association. [cheers and applause] [chanting omalley] gov. Omalley the nra has one goal. The nra has one goal. It is one goal only. And it is selling as many guns as possible, no matter the cost in american lives. Well, that might be their interest, but that is not what is in the best interest of the United States of america, is it . [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley for 40 years, the nra and its muscle has dictated to our congress what laws they can write, what laws they can pass, and what laws they can reject. I think it is time that we find our backbone and stand up and say no to the National Rifle association and start saving lives. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley i am passionate about this because i have been to a lot of funerals, and as president obama said, if terrorists had killed 400,000 americans since 9 11, we would be moving heaven and earth to stop them, wouldnt we . But americans have killed 400,000 americans with guns and we cower in the political power of the National Rifle association. Enough is enough. It does not have to be this way. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley there is a couple with us here tonight, and they are sandy and lonnie phillips. And they lost their daughter, jessie, in the incident in aurora, colorado. They are here with us tonight. Your they have in have endured is unfathomable. So, too, is there courage and their resolve, because they set out to transform the grief of their daughters off into real action and they went to court. True story. They wanted to hold accountable those who recklessly armed a mass murderer by selling him 4000 rounds of ammunition. No questions asked. They sued the man that sold that ammunition in the attack, and what happened when they went to court . Not only did the case thrown out of court, then they were slapped with 200,000 in court costs. Why . Because of the special immunity to lawsuits that the nra managed to muscle out of our own congress. It does not have to be this way. Congress should work for us, not for the nra. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley to save lives, we know what to do. Common sense tells us what to do. To save lives we must require universal background checks. We must ban the sale of combat assault weapons. We must use the buying power of our own federal government, the biggest customer gun have, to refuse to buy guns from any company that does not use the latest and the best safety technology. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and to save lives, we have to stop giving immunity to gun manufacturers and gun dealers who sell weapons of mass murder to criminals and psychopaths. It is only common sense. [cheers and applause] and so, senator sanders, join me now, secretary clinton, join me now, and together in this campaign we can forge a new consensus for change. We can save lives, because one American Life is worth more than all of the gun sales in america. [cheers and applause] gov. Omalley and so it is. And so it is. In 100 days, the people of iowa will decide, new leadership, or the same battles of our past. Actions or words . Doing want to get things done or do we want to keep shouting past each other . It is not about polls and pundits. It is about you. You decide whether we move forward or whether we move back. Thomas jefferson once said, in matters of fashion, swim with the current. But in matters of principle, stand like a rock. [applause] gov. Omalley in these fast, and rapidly changing times, America Needs a president who will stand like a rock. A weathervane shifts positions every time the wind changes. Effective leaders, do not. I know who i am. I know what i believe. And i am willing to fight for it. [applause] gov. Omalley think about it yourselves. Think about it yourselves. We cannot move beyond todays gridlock politics by returning to the divisions of our past. I am not about that. I believe that we are all in this together. I believe that to solve our problems, we must face tomorrow. We need new leadership and new ideas. Someone with the courage to stand up for what is right, even when is not yet popular. None of us have all of the answers to all of the problems that we face. None of us can predict the future. But i can promise you this, i can govern. I can lead. And i can do so with heart and with skill. A lot of people tell me in this race, they say you are up against tough odds. This is a tough fight. And there are also a lot of people who would look you in the eyes, and would tell you that you have a tough fight. You have a tough fight being able to pass on to your children a better quality of life and what you have enjoyed. You know what . I kind of like the tough fights. I have always been drawn to the tough fights. And perhaps, it is the toughness of the fight that is the way the hidden god has of telling us that we are actually fighting for something worth saving. The American Dream is worth saving. Our childrens future is worth saving. Our country is worth saving. Our planet is worth saving. It is time to stand up, it is time to join the fight, i am in is to win this, i need your help, and together we can, and together we will rebuild the American Dream. May god bless iowa. And may god bless the United States of america, on this journey we take forward, together. Thank you much. [cheers and applause] [cahnting omalley] thank you governor omalley. [applause] you know, i know these candidates. They are firing you up, so make sure you fill out those caucus c