Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Kennedy-Clinton Dinner 20171130 :

new hampshire democrats, please welcome to the stage, chairman ray buckley. >> we have a message for christopher sun knew knew. 2018 is coming. yesterday we launched a project to keep sun knew knew accountable for his out of touch policies that are favoring his families, and his friends and corporate interests. we're tired of his double speak, and his policies are hurting new hampshire, education, the economy, health care, the environment and ethics. and we can't hold them accountable alone. we need your help. so follow @sununureality on twitter. like sununu reality.com to hold them accountable. chris sununu won by 2% in 2016. so let's get to work and make sure he loses by far more than 2% in 2018. so is everyone clear? everyone clear what our focus is? for the next 11 months. good afternoon democrats. we're joined by congressman delaney, tim ryan, and vice chair grace mann, congresswoman and our extraordinary senator maggie hassen. so tonight's dinner is a chance to pause and reflect on the year we have had. while we have plenty of work to do, new hampshire democrats have a lot to celebrate. this year, we celebrated and sworn in the first ever all democratic, all female congressional delegation in american history. congresswoman custer fight for us in washington every day, and they're winning, incredibly important battles to protect all the progress that we have made. this year we sent donald trump a message on his very first day in office by showing up in concord, across the state and around the country and throughout the world with the women's march. this year, we have won eight out of ten special elections. five in republican districts. and our first state senate special election victory since 1984. we have won house special elections across the state. in carol county, sullivan, county, hillsborough county and rockingham county, simply put, there is no district that a democratic candidate who works hard can't win in 2018. now that would be enough to celebrate, but it's not all we did. this november, we broke records across the state with our incredible municipal victories, joyce craig became the first woman elected mayor in manchester's 111-year history. her victory flipped the largest city from red to blue for the first time since 2003. and in nashua, sweet nashua, we pulled off a clean sweep of nashua's at large all democratic sweeps, thanks to joe tenza, joe kelly and brandon laws. the first woman of color elected to nashua's board of alderman. now think about this. two years ago today, nashua had a republican mayor and it had republican majorities of alderman and school board members, today we have mayor jim danches with an overwhelming win on both boards. let's hear it for the nashua city democrat. and jerry cannon became the first ever transgender school board member in all of new hampshire. congratulations to him.r[5z it's been a long time coming. and jeremy hutchinson became the first ever lgbgq city councilmember in rochester history. and dana helman was re-elected to his third term. and concord mayor jim bule was elected to a sixth term. women, persons of color, the lgbtq community. folks, we have a lot to accomplish, we need to make chris sununu a one-term governor. we need to hold on to the first and second congressional districts. we need to win majorities onm,te council and the senate and the house. democrats, with our success of 2017, we have the team, the energy and the attitude to win in 2018. so let's go do it. [ applause ] so there's another line here that they added in, since i last saw it, so i was reading it as -- i was thinking, there was another line, and so the line is, and for all of you wonderful yankees, this is going to be the best line of the night. and please don't forget to take the pumpkins at the conclusion of the program, the centerpieces are yours. we have got a full program tonight, but i want to start and take a moment to acknowledge our fantastic staff, our executive director amy kennedy. communications director wyatt roden. political director aaron germail. finance director dallas thompson, athletics director peter kramer. communications assistant sarah gutenhimmer, political director donald stokes. grass roots coordinator sue ford, deputy operations director ethan moorehouse, our phenomenal intern eric zip. and our conference distributor nick taylor, the house and senateé;,.! caucus director mik kennedy and the new hampshire executive director amelia king. we are so lucky and so proud to have the best damned party staff in the country. let's also take a moment to acknowledge our officers, our first vice chair senator martha fuller clark. our second vice chair mo baxley. our secretary michael kennedy, our treasure you arer brian rapp, legal counsel bill christy, finance chair katie wheeler. dnc woman kathy sullivan. dnc man bill shaheen. and dnc lr member joanne dolan. thank you, everyone. let's have a great night. >> new hampshire democrats, to lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please welcome to the stage the newly elected at large members of the national board of alderman. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> new hampshire democrats, please welcome to the stage, manchester's mayor elect, joyce craig. ♪ is there something we forgot to say to you ♪ >> the manchester folks are the loudest. good evening, new hampshire democrats. i'm honored to welcome you mayo manchester, and as the first woman elected to lead the queen city. it's so wonderful to be here with all of you. so many of you joined the hundreds of manchester residents in knocking thousands of doors, making phone calls, sharing our campaign's message with our friends, your neighbors, your colleag colleagues. your work over the many months really made the difference and i will forever be grateful for your support. i want to offer a special thank you to senators hassen and that reign a shaheen, new hampshire has led the way in demonstrating that we all do well when women serve in leadership roles and i am thankf thankful -- i am so thankful to have four outstanding role models. and thank you too to chairman buckley and the staff of nhdp for your support of our campaign and for organizing tonight's festivities. i would also like to thank congressman delaney and ryan and also congressman mann for being here tonight. i know that the real work begins now, i'll focus on making our streets safer, bringing businesses to our city and making real and lasting progress against the opiod crisis. manchester's best days are still ahead of us and i hope you all will join me in building a better future for the people of manchester. because we all know that when manchester prospers, so does the rests of our great state. so thank you all and i look forward to this wonderful evening. >> new hampshire democrats please welcome to the stage congresswoman carol shea porter ♪ ♪ you're still the one. ♪ we're still having fun ♪ and you're still the one >> it's i who really have to thank all of you. i am so grateful for the gift that you gave me to serve the of and all the help that came across acrothe state over and o again, and i want to thank all of you and say we're not done yet, we have a lot of work to do, you heard what the chairman had to say, i'm sitting here with some wonderful colleagues and i know that we're going to turn this around in 2018. i a full reckoning is coming and soon. very soon. so when i started to run in 2006, you know, i said i was running for the rest of us and throughout the time we have always had different slogans that we have used, keeping that of course, the rest of us, the bottom 99%, i'm sure you're all familiar with those phrases that we had. then it started to get kind of serious, i mean really serious since donald trump came. so i started running through some slogans in my head that would help me every single day. churchill, who said whenh6v1jv going through i?u7 &y9ñ%> just going. and he said a number of things like that, but then i started thinking of my own slogans, because we have to stick together. you all know that and we have shown what we do when we stick together. we have done great things and we will continue do do great things, but sometimes there are things that we don't like, little bits of this or somebody said this or somebody thinks that or somebody says manager in washington. so today in the morning, i wake up and i say to myself, shut up and row. that's our message, at least my message right now. we are definitely rouch watgh w nobody would have written a story about our current president, people would never have believed it. but we are confronted with an administration and a president that challenges all of us in our understanding about our great country. the wonderful thing is that we are a very good people. and we know what we need to do. and we're working on it. every day. on wednesday night, i had the great privilege of hearing tony bennett and he received and award, the gershwin award. 91 years old. he came out faster than joyce and i did. he just came bounding out on the stage, when it was time for him to give me the speech. when it came time to give his speech, he just stood there and he said, i wasn't really prepared. america is the greatest country in the world. and it was the best speech i ever heard. because that's who we are, that's what we are. and we will overcome this. so, yes, we're in turbulent seas, but if we row together, and then when we get to shore, and we will, when we get to shore, we can pull out our maps and say, shall we go left or right, i myself prefer to the left, some might prefer to go to the right. but we will get ourselves out of this. we are the people we have been waiting for. we're here, you can see the energy, you can feel the excitement. and joyce, i can't tell you, if i didn't have a wonderful mayor in rochester, i would be looking to move to manchester. so we know we have everything we need. we have the new hampshire young democrats, which has done tremendous work, we see this deep bench we have now, i love in my seat. i think it's awesome and i think it's going to help amplify our message and is rest of our state will be able to hear what we stand for, because we know what we stand against, we stand against the tyranny, we stand '# inst the deconstruction5 the administrative state, and we stand for human dignity and for economic security, we stand for advantages of everybody, we stand for business and supporting families and individuals. so we have something you can be very prude oud of, we have a mae that has all of our good stuff on it, now we just need to stand together and put this message out across our state. we will win and we will win because we have something they don't have. we are right, we are on the right side of history. no question about it and people are realizing that around the country. they're realizing that this agenda is the agenda that will help lift them and their families. so i just want to say thank you for your confidence and i do not plan to go away, i'm going to be very, very involved. we'll get through 2018 and we all have our 2020 presidential election and we'll get it done right here in new hampshire. i love all of you and i am so grateful. thank you. >> new hampshire democrats, please welcome to the stage for our nhdp chair kathy sullivan. ♪ this girl is on fire ♪ this girl is on fire >> i know, i came on stage before they did my walk on music. so anxious. so i want to say a few things about ms. porter, because she was my congressman. and i was always so proud to have csp as my congresswoman. every vote she took was always the right vote. and she was always there as she said fighting for the rest of us. she -- i remember the first time i really met carol, she came to my office to talk about running for congress and i was quite impressed. and at that point, she had stood up and protested the policies of george w. bush.ezxud she went to jeff bradley's town halls and knew his districtñói]h bae better than he did and she asked the questions that drove him crazy. but what i will always remember about carol porter is she made me cry once. some of you were there when this happened. it was the night of the election 2006, when she was running for congress the first time. and i was in manchester at the coordinated campaign headquarters and, you know, people say, well, you must have known you were going to have a good night. i always think we're going to lose. i had a good feeling about john lynch, okay? but other than that, and judy%> rearden and i were driving around and at one point i called in and said how is it looking and mike and rick said, you know, the turnout is not the way it should be in some of the districts. i was like, i knew it. i knew it. and then of nu1skimcourse, it w really the best night of my political life because we had came from losing badly in 2002 to coming back in 2004 and then in 2006, the results are coming in and we're all standing there, you know, the numbers are coming up and this town, that town, and yep, john lynch was winning, and things were looking good here, some senate races and we're all feeling really good. but things in the first;yba dist were real close and then epping came in and carol won epping and i started crying.as.ñ and i remember paul toomey was there, and he said i'm going to take a picture of you crying, an i said get that camera away from me. and i'm crying, because when carol won epping, i knew that she was now going to be our congresswoman and i knew we were winning everything that night. and that's the night that carol shea porter made me cry because she took epping. and she has been through her career, political career, one of the most courageous people you could ask for. when she -- i mean, this is someone who, no secret, when she ran for congress. a lot of people are like, i don't know, people in washington were not necessarily supportive, and -- but she came out and she surprised the heck out of everybody and she won that primary. and then, you know, won the general election, was re-elected and then lost a race in a republican wave year, but she came back, she came back, she didn't give up. she came back and she ran again. and then when we had another republican wave year and her opponent lied about her, and ran a tv ad, lying about her and unfortunately defeated her, she came back again. she didn't -- she never said i'm done. in the light of events where some people might have said, i've done enough. i've done enough. but she always came back and picked herself up. so it's not just because of the work she did in congress for veterans and for the middle class and working people, but also because she just always came back and she fought back and that's why i am so proud to give you, and i'm going to cry again because i'm going to miss you, the kathy sullivan courage award, because you deserve it, congresswoman. >> thank you. i wondered why you kept talking about me, right? thank you very much. and i'm so honored. and what kathy sullivan doesn't say about herself is that there might be a tougher irish woman around, but i don't think so. so, thank you, kathy, thank you, everybody. i'm so honored. >> new hampshire democrats please welcome to the stage congresswoman grace mang. ♪ this is the moment ♪ this is the moment >> thanks, ray. good evening, everyone. it's great to be in the granite state. thank you for dialing the temperature up 10 degrees for me. thank you chairman buckley for your wonderful welcome to this great state. and for your friendship, it truly means the world to me. ray is one of the reasons that i was elected to be a vice chair of the dnc. so on a good dnc news day, i'm so thankful to him. which means, on most days of the year, i'm not. but all in seriousness, it means the world to me to share the stage this evening with three of the four great women who represent the great state of new hampshire. you've heard lots already tonight about congresswoman carol shea porter who was my classmate as well going to congress. and she gives new meaning, as you know, more than anyone else to the phrase never give up and always keeps getting up. so thank you, carol for your service. to senator maggie hassen who has broken so many tm÷wbarriers, n just for women, but for all americans and no big deal, she only saved health care for the whole country. and to my good friend, one of my closest friends in congress, also my classmate, congresswoman annie custer. who really has no ego in the fights that she leads in congress. whether it's working on workforce development, or combatting opiod abuse, sexual harassment in the workplace, annie just gets it done and never cares about whether her name is on the bill or news conference. i'm also honored to be here with two of my colleagues and friends, congressman john delaney and congressman tim ryan right now, the national media is still focused on the democratic victories that occurred in virginia recently. but we know that the victories of 2017 began right here in new hampshire. and continued to happen. winning eight special elections in 10 tries, resulting in four red to blue flips, electing joyce craig as mayor of manchester after 12 years of republican rule. thank you and congrats, joyce. and averaging 53% of the vote in districts where republicans have a registration advantage is incredible no matter what state you're from. now i'll be honest, we know that the path to retaking congress in 2018 and the white house in 2020 will not be an easy one. just as the wins we have witnessed here in new hampshire and rooent lrecentlylqn/ in vi not easy. but those wins were the results of days, months and years worth of hard work, often unseen and under appreciated. and it is that same dedication that will make future victories possible. and frankly to each of you here tonight, i say now, more than ever, we need you to continue to fight, to fight on behalf of every single american. and that is part of our party's message that we do fight for everyone, no one gets left out. winning races is a great feeling, but ensuring that our fellow citizens' concerns are heard in the policy making process is a much better one. you see at this point in american history, we aren't just fighting for a new deal again, we're fighting for the basic right to a fair deal. when republicans in congress seek tax cuts for the ultrawealthy, and want to pay for these giveaways by slashing medicare and social security, we must say no. when corporations try to offshore even more american jobs, we must say no. when the president seeks to strip millions of americans of their health care, and separate dreamers from their the only home they have known, we must say -- >> no! >> and these issues are not debatable. they're about common decency and dignity. they are about our shared economic security. ever since the election of november 2016, every room we go into, and i'm sure my colleagues hear it, people keep asking what's our message? and sure, it's important to have a message. but there are many places in america, throughout the last election in the last few years where we might not have even had a messenger, we keep debating amongst ourselves, within our democratic family whether we should be talking to communities of color, whether we should be talking to people in rural communities or whether we should be talking to the white working class. whether you are a part of an emerging community of first generation americans, or whether you're part of a community that is emerging into a new era with new ideas and new industries that your parents and grandparents could never have dreamed of, it's the democratic party that fight to give you the fair deal that we need to succeed. we don't have to choose who we talk to. that's not what our party is about. we can do it all. we fight to make sure that every single voice is heard and valued. and it's not just the urgency of our fights, but it's the quality of our fights, it's our democratic party, as we just saw with the tax vote in congress, it's our party that fights for every american. you know, as a vice chair of the new dnc, that is our message, that we have learned the lesson that swooping in to a race a few weeks before election day isn't helpful, it's not effective and it's not even respectful. the work put in every day between today and election day is, whether it's fundraising, building better tools for our activists, crafting better messages, or ensuring that state and local parties have the resources they need to succeed, that's the task at hand and we do it so that we can talk and communicate with every american. i'm committed to ensuring that these things are happening at the dnc. and i need every person here to remain committed to the specific fights that you're fighting here at home. we need you. we cannot be successful without you. i am all in. i have two young boys at home ages 8 and 9, that i look forward to tucking into bed tomorrow night. but tonight, i stand here with you and our shared fight to build a better future for their better deal than the one that we were offered. it reminds me of a story. my husband and i always try to tell our boys to keep fighting never to give up, when they do bad on their math tests, when they miss that soccer goal during soccer, when they have trouble with a friend, just to keep trying, keep persisting and never give up. so one day i was putting my son to bed, he was 7 at the time. and he said he wanted to go to the toy store, it was dark out, it was late, i said you know what? i think it's close, i don't think it's going to happen. and he looked at me in all seriousness and said, but mom, you told me to never give up. as we mentioned our party needs you, we need you, we need more people, america needs you, we need to be there for that woman whose life was saved because her cancer was detected early byñt and we need to fights for a mericans. so a single mom with three jobs does not have to tell her kids that she still can't afford to get them a christmas gift. so our work has just begun. and in the words of the great poet, robert frost, we have miles to go before we sleep, miles to go before we sleep. thank you for your time tonight, thank you for fighting for america.÷fns >> new hampshire democrats please welcome to the stage, congresswoman annie custer. ♪ come along if you feel like happiness is the truth ♪ >> good evening, new hampshire democrats and welcome to the resistance. so what do you think of my dear friend grace meng? thank you for making the trip and spending the day with me here in new hampshire. thank you carol shea porter for hanging in there when times get tough and never taking no for an answer. i'm really grateful to have you as my colleague, thank you. and i'm excited to welcome my colleagues john delaney and tim ryan. this is how we choose the next president of the united states. so welcome to new hampshire. i am so excited to be here with billy shaheen, thank you, i hear jeany is on some awesome trip and we're missing here tonight, but i'm glad she's keeping the world safe for democracy and maggie#+ti hassen whokrm/tl li you all elected her by 1,000 votes out of 700,000 votes cast and without her, tens of÷z/ millions of people,çkvy includi 110,000 people right here in new hampshire would have lost their health insurance, so giv;ñ8xcáme !néwubf3÷t >> while you're standing here, give yourselves a big cheer, if you knocked on doors, if you made phone calls, if you wrote a check, if you madedalf a differ, you turned this country around last tuesday. thank you. joyce craig, and every candidate, thank you, thank you. people keep asking me how i'm holding up, and i said much better since last tuesday, much better, i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. so because of you, i'm hopeful tonight. it's your voice, it's your calls, it's your letters that have made the difference and helped maggie and jeanne and everyone else hold the line on health care for the united states of america. it's your voice that's making the difference, and we're going to need you again on this -- we have press in the room. god damned tax bill. this past week. republicans in the house and in the senate %tz&rátee advanced a deal for hard working new hampshire families. and don't be fooled when republicans talk about tax reform. hell, no, this is nothing more than a tax scam for millionaires and billionaires and corporate special interests and you are paying for it. so let me walk you through it and i'll try to be quick, it's 429 pages. i won'tbm÷aw every single one. but here's what happens. the republican tax scam eliminates the deduction for interests on student loans. seriously? that's just plain cruel. their tax scam eliminates the deducti deduction, listen to this one, designed to encourage employers to hire veterans, people with disabilities and very low income people that cannot find a job and are unable to obtain work and that is just plain cruel. and their tax scam, even eliminates the deduction for teachers to buy paper and pens for their students. and that is just plain cruel. eliminates the home mortgage deduction, and the real estate tax deduction for individuals, but, maintains all those deductions for big corporations. that's even more cruel. so when mitt romney said corporations are people, my friends, i don't think so. congressional republicans think corporations are much better than people. but, new hampshire democrats know people are people. and we need to stand up for every single last one of them. so keep your calls and letters coming. now people ask us all the time, should you call us? the answer is yes, we're going to vote right, but we can then tell our colleagues, i just got 1,000, or 2,000, or 3,000 phone calls. but the other thing you need to do, as you did with health care, and you did this, and thank you. you need to call your friends in maine, you need to call your friends in alaska, you need to call your friends in arizona and every other state, and if they're lazy, you can write the email for them and have them forward it. but we have got to put the pressure on and stop this tax bill in the united states senate. and here's why. the bill that was passed in the house over our dead bodies is a terrible bill. i've convinced you that. the senate bill is worse. and the reason is that the senate bill slipped in, eliminating the mandate for health insurance. so all of us will pay more. now i've lost track of the exact number, maybe my colleagues remember, i have voted over 55 times, i have only been there for five years, not to repeal the affordable care act. and i still don't think we should repeal the affordable care act. we can repair it, we can fix it, i have a good plan for that. we can lower the rates and we can make it sustainable in the long run. but while republicans in washington are giving us a raw deal, i think that democrats are fighting for a much better deal. we need better wages and better jobs and a better future for all the american people. grace was with me today, we had an amazing tour at nashua community college, they have got a fantastic program for advanced manufacturing and microelectr microelectron microelectronics, we have great jobs in new hampshire, 2.4% unemployment, we have tremendous opportunity, you do a two-year program at nashua community college, there is a job waiting for you with $55,000 in income, that's real money where i come from. we can do better for young people, for people that are changing careers, for people that just want opportunity. and we had an amazing day talking about fighting the opiod epidemic. this morning and i hope jim daunches is in the house. we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the state stations program in nashua. 1,200 people getting their help. and this afternoon with grace, we had the opportunity to sit down with people in recovery and let me tell you, there is nothing like sitting and talking to somebody who's turning their life around, getting the help that they need, getting the treatment and the recovery, but this is a long term lifelong chronic disease. this is not a 28-day one and done program. so we were excited to meet the folks at revive recovery in nashua, and i know there are great recovery programs going on all over the state. we have to increase the number of beds, we have to focus on education and prevention and law enforcement, get people into treatment, get them lifelong recovery, new hampshire maybe hit the hardest in the country by this epidemic, but we're going to be the first out of this and we are going to lead the way teaching communities all across this country how to do this right. that's why i was very proud to help create the bipartisan heroin task force. we now have 100 members of congress, republicans and democrats actually working together. you won't hear about it in the press, they don't write about it when we work together. but it's happening, we passed 14 bills last year, and at the end of the year, president obama signed into law a billion dollars in funding. but guess what? it's not enough. so now we're coming back with a new agenda. we're calling it cara 2.0, the comprehensive addiction and recovery act, and we're going to make sure that the funding that new hampshire deserves comes to communities all across the state. we have innovative solutions and we're going to get this done. now times do change. i say to young people in my office, i remember ashtrays in restaurants and smoking on airplanes. i remember the deathjr& from highway accidents for cars without seat belts. and i remember the tragic deaths and the collective fear that we all felt from hiv/aids. but here's the deal. ordinary people living ordinary lives can make extraordinary change. and in the last week, in the last month, i have had a chance to witness this and be a part of this, with the #metoo campaign, thank you for all of you for standing up for survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment. we're drawing the line right here, right now. and whether it's the united states congress or wall street or hollywood, we have had enough. it's not funny, we are not amused. because guess what? every single person in the workplace deserves to be treated with dignity. we deserve to be treated with respect. we are going to make a difference. very young people in this room that deserve a chance and i am going to stand up and fight for them every single day. thank you for all you're doing, thank you, new hampshire. let's go out and change the world! new hampshire democrats, new hampshire democrats, please welcome to the stage, mr. william shaheen. [ applause ] ♪ >> i don't get any respect. [ laughter ] you know, i was in washington on wednesday, and jeanne said to me, you know, i can't come friday night, would you give my speech. i said yeah i'll give your speech. look what she gives me. one page. i guarantee you if she was here she would have a book up here. she gives me one page. no respect. now, for those of you who know me, i had three sisters and no brothers. i have three daughters and no sons. god thought it would be a good idea to make my wife the governor and a u.s. senator. [ laughter ] it's tough. tough. [ applause ] now, i got to tell you, for the men in the audience, i'm holding out for you. you understand? i love the fact that we have an all female delegation. i love the fact that joyce won the mayor's race. i love those things, but i still represent some of the men. so i've made three things that i'm never ever going to do. you are never going the hear me say, hey, honey, i think we are lost. we need to stop and ask for directions. not gonna do it. you are never going the hear me say, jeanne let's not watch the football game. let's try to find a true romantic story on tv. [ laughter ] you are never going to hear me say, hey, hoppy, let's go shopping and let me watch you try on clothes while i hold your purse. [ laughter ] not gonna happen. although, since she's been in washington i have had to make some changes, or else, you know, i have got learn how to make my bed, which is a difficult thing. got to learn how to do the dishes and put the dishes in the dishwasher. a gave a shot at trying to do laundry. that's a difficult thing for p7 guys. i'm telling you right now. so i asked her to help me with this situation. so i decided i'm going to do the laundry. and i said, you know, honey, i said, what setting should i put on the washing machine? and she says, well what does it say on your shirt? i said, it says "university of new hampshire". [ laughter ] no respect. no respect. i to1d going the make her the happiest she says "i'll miss you". [ laughter ] don't laugh too hard. that's not that funny. okay. so she's not here tonight, and i do miss her. i wish she was here and i know she wishes she were here. she was asked to stand in for john mccain leading the halifax security forum. she is the only senator that went up to halifax to meet with the leaders from around the world to represent the united states of america and i'm very proud of her. [ applause ] she wanted me to thank raymond for doing such a great job and all the people of the democratic party. she wanted me to thank you carol and annie for their tireless effort that they fight all the time. she told me, of course, one of my newest and biggest u.s. senators, maggie hassan. maggie.neñ but then she writes to me but i'm partial to the senior senator. oh, i'm not supposed to say that. [ laughter ] and she wanted me to welcome -- give a warm welcome to the three -- the could congressmen and the congresswoman that have come to join us here in new hampshire. congresswoman meng, and congressman delaney. did i get them all right? i grabbed a quote from john adams when he was writing to his son john quincy adams as to why he should run for office. he was thinking about not running. he sent this letter to his son and he said public business my son must always be done. and it will be done by somebody. if it's not done by good people, it will be done by bad people. if it's not done by honest people, it will be done by dishonest people. if it's not done by the wise, it will be done by the unwise. that's why we all have to continue this fight. if jeanne was here tonight, she would say, don't hate. there is no room for hate, even though you could clearly justify it. no. you need to be focused. you need to be determined. and you need to be together. because we have got to do stuff both inside new hampshire and outside new hampshire. we need to take back the house of representatives. we need to take the u.s. senate. god bless you. [ applause ] so wednesday night i got a call from stephanie shaheen because she got a call from her mom, and says, stephanie, you have got to be there with daddy to make sure he stays on script. and she said, i can't, because i've got something at m.i.t. i'll call raymond. raymond will watch daddy. i'm so dead. [ laughter ] thanks, billy. so we have a number of great v.i.p.s i want to acknowledge. our former congressman paul hodes. [ applause ] former house speaker terry norreli. former attorney general, joe foster. [ applause ] our former democratic nominee for governor, twice, paul mceachern. former executive counsellor, deb pignatelli. collin serrano certain. executive counsellor andy ballinski. executive counsellor chris papis. senate democratic leader, jeff wood burn. deputy leader, donna soucy. senator lou del sandro. senator clark. senator betty laskey. senator danphyte feltis. senator jake haughn. and senator kevin cavanaugh. [ applause ] house democratic leader, steve cher live. would all of the house democrats please stand up. let's give them a big round of applause. [ applause ] and our first district congressional candidate, degland mceasternern. mark mckenzie. mindy messmer. terrance o'roark, chris papis, lincoln solidati. maura sullivan. carol's shoes are so big, it takes seven of them to fill it. so franklin roosevelt's words, vision, and strength of character healed the nation and saved the world. fdr was determined to use his position to improve the lives of others. each year we present a deserving democratic the fdr award for his commitment to justice, social and economic. this year's fdr award recipient's entire life has been about justice, justice in the courtroom as a trial lawyer, in the new hampshire house and the new hampshire senator senate and at the department of justice. 22 since 22 years ago he consistently used his position to support progressive causes here in new hampshire and nationally. as house democratic whip, senate majority leader, attorney general of new hampshire, he has more than deserves the fdr award. i'm honored to present the 2017 fdr award to former attorney general joe foster. [ applause ] boy, i am really honored to have this award. it's a total surprise to me. there are some people from my law firm who are not democrats, and i guess maybe i should have realized when i saw them here. [ laughter ] some of us aren't that quick. so i just want to say thank you to all. it's been an honor to serve the great people of new hampshire and in the roles that raymond enumerated of the it really has been a love of my life. thank you very much. [ applause ] new hampshire democrats, please welcome to the stage congressman john delaney. ♪ >> this walkout music is a new concept for me. we don't do it in maryland. i'm a big bruce springsteen fan. when ray asked what music would you want?ho+1o i said one of my favorite bruce springsteen songs. and he said well, it's taken. by the great senator from new hampshire. and i said well i'm not going to pick youngstown, because i knowb tim ryan will come out with youngstown. so i had to go down the list and come up with another song. but it is a good tradition. thank you all for having me. it is a great privilege to be here with you all and to share an even that is full of such affection and love towards each otherø you can really feel it as someone who is not part of this community for a long time it is an impressive thing to peel. it is a great privilege to be here with the amazing federal delegation that you have here in new hampshire. a friend of mine wrote a book a few years ago, dee dee meyers, called "why women should rule the world". you have read that book here in new hampshire, haven't you. [ applause ] . so we gave you another book tonight because you have already read that one, obviously. it's great to be here with grace. we do have four members of the class of 2012 at our table there. and she's doing a great job with the dnc. prior to people like grace your instincts were we should sell the building move the place out of d.c. and get new people. but we have great leadership there. and it is a blessing that we have you grace. it's great to be here with my good friend tim who we'll hear from in a few minutes. and i don't want to get started until i thank the chairman, mr. buckley. he as best i can tell is a real singular talent for the democratic party. no, seriously. he runs a tight ship. as someone new to the scene, he runs a tight ship. he represents you well and we are blessed to have you as a democrat around this country. you make us all feel very welcome. thank you. so two weeks ago, almost two weeks ago we started taking our country back. we started taking our country back. and we did it with terrific candidates like joyce craig and like so many other people. like the governor-elect of virginia. and these people ran by doing two things. they tapped into the energy that exists in our party right now. but they also talked to people about what they care about. they didn't just run a campaign saying how bad the republicans were and how bad the president is. and there's a real lesson to be learned from these campaigns that i really hope we don't forget. because we are in a tough spot right now as a nation. not across the long term. i am a huge optimist about the long term prospects of this amazing country. if you think about how the world is going to unfold across the next 100 years you couldn't think of a country better positioned to succeed for itself and importantly for its people in the next century. but right now we are in a really tough spot. and i'm not just talking about the wrecking ball in the white house. it's really deeper than that. in many ways, he's a punctuation of everything that's wrong with our politics. hyper partisan politics is tearing our country apart. it's dividing communities. next week we are all going to sit at thanksgiving tables. all around this country people are going to sit at this uniquely american holiday. instead of talking about new ways to took the turkey and theç nfl game on television they are going to be divided over politics. how did we let this happen in our country? how did we let this happen? and maybe the biggest problem with it is it has prevented us from doing anything. we have had such huge opportunities, such large-scale opportunities in this nation across the last several decades, and some very significant challenges we should have dealt with, but we didn't do it. why? because hyper partisan politics prevents us from getting anything done. if you go around this country, you see huge parts of this country that have been left behind by rapid change that's occurred in our economy. and last election, we blamed our decision to become part of a global economy for what happened. clearly that was the right thing to do. how could we not have become part of a global economy? but the fact that we knew this would happen to so many communities around this country and we did nothing about it and we still to this day, since i have been in congress, five years, i have never voted on anything that's actually going to help the communities that have been left behind by the pace of rapid economic change cha we experienced in this country. and it's going to happen again. et cetera a not going happen again. it's not going to be because of globalization. it's going to be because of technology. because of automation, because of artificial intelligence. whatever you want to call it if you go outside of politics and you talk to people in business, academia, in the non-profit world, they are obsessed with how these changes are fundamentally changing everything. they are changing our society. our economy. the jobs of the future. what our security risks are. the demographics of this country. and are we doing anything to prepare our country and our citizens for these changes? no. i left a book as a gesture of my thanks for having he. >> it's by thomas friedman. it's how technology and climate change and global change are fundamentally effecting everything and global leaders are doing nothing about it. because of our inability right now to deal with the changes that are about to happen, we are putting at risk one of the most sake credited fundamental ideals of this country, the american dream. the notion that if you work hard and you play by the rules you and your family can live a better life. this is very personal to me like it is for many of you. my parents didn't go to college. my dad was a construction worker. he was an electrician. when he worked which was most of the time life was good. he got paid enough to support our family. and when he didn't work, we had health care. why? because he was in a labor union and they gave him health care. [ applause ] i was an entrepreneur before i ran for office. 11 years after i graduated from college, i was taking my first company public on the new york stock exchange. i was the youngest ceo in the new york stock exchange. and i remember walking into that building in lower manhattan, that kind of monument to american industry. and i looked over my shoulder at jersey city, new jersey, custom is where i'm from. and i thought of the union hall for local 164, which was my dad's union. and i thought about how every year in college i would go to that union and i would thank those electricians. you know what i was thanking them for? they paid for me to go to college. right? i was thanking them -- [ applause ] i was not really thanking them for giving me the scholarship. i was thanking them for giving me an opportunity that none of them had. when i looked -- gazed to the left, i could see ellis island, where my grandfather came in 1924 with his seven brothers and sisters. but they were all let in. but he was detained. he was a little boy. and the reason they detained him is because he had one arm. and back then we didn't let people into this country who were disabled because we didn't think they could contribute to our economy. after a while, he had an appeal. he was sitting in a big room full of hundreds of people speaking dozens of languages. and the judge came in. my grandfather is sitting there, a one armed boy. and he notices that when the judge walks in and puts on his robe the judge had one arm. and he used to tell the story over thanksgiving. that's when he knew he would be an american. but these are the stories of this great country. [ applause ] and these stories are not unique to me. you have these in our own families. right? these are the stories of this great country, of people coming to this country with hope, dreaming of opportunity, settling in, building their communities, building their country. people work hard, play by the rules, and they are not asking for riches. they are just asking for a fair deal. people dream about their children and make sacrifices so they can live a better life. and again, there is no guarantee. but they want institutions that can support them in doing that. these are the stories the american dream. these are the fiber of the american dream. but it's fraying now. right now, 60% of the kids in this country live in a county where there's absolutely no evidence of any economic upward mobility. so we are basically writing off two thirds of the children in this great country from the american dream. they don't have that shot. and what that means is this is becoming not a country of opportunity, but a country of birth right where you have to be born into the right part of the country or go to the right school to have a shot. we know how those stories end. we need a president who cares about this, like you do, like i do. because you've lived the american dream. member of your family lived the american dream, and this country is built on these kind of stories. we need a president who will go to the parts of the country that have been left behind by this rapid change and not future forth a tax plan that will cement in wealth in this country. we need a president who will look at the tax code and say i'm going to reframe it so we can spend $1 trillion on infrastructure rebuilding our country. and guess what, that is a bipartisan idea. that is a bipartisan idea. we need a president who will look at the tax code, and instead of creating incentives for companies to move their jobs overseas by going to a territorial tax system we want a president who will change the tax code to create incentives for people to invest in communities that have been left behind. that is a bipartisan idea. we want a president -- we want a president who will change how the government contracts so that it only does business in places that have been left behind economically. that is a bipartisan idea. instead of ramming down the throat of the american people a tax bill that is based on people lying and selling out, we need a president who will actually use a tax code to take care of places that have been left behind because that's our obligation of the we need a president who is going to look into the future, who understands what thomas friedman is talking about in his book. he understand that is the world is changing and we need to do something about it. we need to make our country more entrepreneurial because that's how you succeed in the future. we need to make our country more competitive. and importantly, we need a new social contract. the social contract that i succeeded under needs to change. we need to be preparing our kids for a totally new world. people are going to need to be trained across their lives. they are not going to have one job anymore. they are going to have four or five. health care and retirement can no longer be linked to employment because as long as it is people won't leave their jobs and pursue opportunities. that's the kind of president and that's the kind of leadership we need. we need a president who doesn't want to repeal the estate tax but who wants to expand the earned income tax credit. a bipartisan idea. but if we are going to do any of these things, if we are going to do any of these things, what we really need a president to do is to bring us together. to restore civility to politics, to restore respect for the profession of public service. [ applause ] to actually begin a dialogue about the things we agree on instead of always always talking about the thing we don't agree on. president kennedy said it well in baltimore, maryland, in 1958. he said we shouldn't seek the democratic answer or the republican answer. we should seek the right answer. that's the kind of president we need. [ applause ] and it is not only as a matter of substance the right answer for this country. but it is as a matter of politics the right position for the democratic party to take. we believe government can and should do transformative things to lift up our people, take care of those that are left behind, and prepare us for the future. so how can we not become the party that wants government to work, that wants government to be civil, that wants there to be competence in government? this is what the american people are craving for. the kind of principle leadership that's put country ahead of party. that doesn't mean you stop fighting for your values. that doesn't mean you stop trying to advance the causes where there ant broad agreement but what it does mean is you take things where there is agreement, where there is broad agreement and you get them done and you lead the country. that's the kind of president we need. because if we don't start doing that, then the grandson of the one armed immigrant who worked on the floor of the joseph dixon pencil factory for 50 years, right, the son of the electricity whose parents didn't go to college whose union paid for him to go and had the privilege of getting a great education which changed my life, paid for by other people, by the way. anyone who thinks you get it alone in this world isn't following stories carefully. goes on to list two stocks exchanges before i was 40. has the opportunity to work in the congress of the united states, with amazing people and has the opportunity to stand before you and ask for your support -- it's not going to become and stay that country unless we actually bring that country together. and the democratic party can do it. it can never happen while donald trump is in the white house. he can never make the republican party a party that can bring us together. but we can. and this is our moment. donald trump became the president of this amazing country because two of things. one, democrats didn't turn out. and two, for some reason, we stopped talking to people about what they care about. i think the first part is going to take care of itself. the energy that you are showing, the enthusiasm that this party is showing is extraordinary. but we have to remember, we have to talk to people about what they care about, not what we care about. we as democrats have so many issues we care about, and i believe in the fullness of time we'll be proven right on just about every one of them. but that doesn't mean it moves people's hearts and minds. what moves people's hearts and minds is their job, their pay, and the opportunity for their kids. and every time we are not talking about that and every time we are talking about how bad the republicans are, it's a missed opportunity for us. that's how we take this country back in my opinion. so you saw it last week here in new hampshire and we saw i will all around this country. if we outwork them, if we outsmart them, and if we outvalue them, we can win. we can outwork them with the sense of urgency that we are losing our country, we are losing representative democracy. and people know it. we can outsmart them by talking to the american people about policies that they care about, that's based on what is happening in the world. and we can outvalue them by talking about what this country wants. they want us to be brought together. they want civility back in politics. they want a president who will spend the first 100 days only doing bipartisan things. they want leaders who don't talk about half of the country as if they are entirely wrong about everything they beliefle they want the truth. they want transparent see. they want competence. they want civility. and if we do that, we'll restore some of their lost faith in our government. the american people have an extraordinary connection with their government. we're proud of it. we're proud of the good and noble things we've done around this world. we haven't been perfect. we haven't been perfect. but we fundamentally change the trajectory of human kind and we're prout of it. and when our government is failing, we're failing. if we can restore faith and trust in government, we'll restore people's faith in themselves. and then we can actually take advantage of the extraordinary blessings we have as a nation, put ourselves on the right trajectory, take care of those we left hyped for the last several decades and prepare this amazing country for a future that can and will be brighter. god bless you. thank you. [ applause ] there is no cause of the democratic party that's more important than organized labor. so please join me in recognizing our brothers and sisters in labor, new hampshire afl-cio president glen bracket. new hampshire firefighters president bill mcwillan. scasiu president, rich gulla. aft new hampshire president, representative doug ley. andre jean from the air traffic controllers. roger brunel from the painters. george cardoza. terry -- from the letter carriers. beverly brakeman from the auw. our friends from auw 490 and 2320. could all members of organized labor please stand up. let's give them a big round of applause. [ applause ] after years of conversation, we changed our dinner's name from jefferson/jackson to kennedy/clinton and we decided to create an award that represented the generational change of both president sees. last year the award was presented to senator dan felt he is. this year's recipient is already so accomplished and she's only 26. an army medic in the u.s. army reserves. graduating this year from unh with a degree in biology a. freshman state representative serving on the state veteran affairs committee all at the same time while being the executive director of the new hampshire young democrats, working with a great team of officers she is creating such a success that she is naturally recognized for her skills and talent. i'm so pleased to present the 2017 ken lee/clinton emerging leader award to amelia keys of nashua. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you, everyone. and thank you chairman buckley and amy and nhtp for presenting me with this award. i must say i'm very surprised. i'm shocked. it's actually the second surprise i have gotten tonight. the officers juan was having a whole table full with my family and friends. now i know why. this is very exciting. i just started in politics. i'm going on to my second year. i literally filed to run for office, and started working as the executive director for the oi young dems in the same week. and that was my intro to politics and it's been great ever since. ive i'm really proud of everything we have done over the past year, everything we accomplished but it certainly couldn't be done without lucas myer, the president and the rest of the young dems board. [ applause ] so thank you again to everybody who has helped along the way. and i very much look forward to 2018 and what's to come. so thank you. and if your young dem in the room, we'll be taking a photo after the speaking program. so just come onto the stage and we'll get that done. [ applause ] new hampshire democrats, please welcome to the stage senator maggie hassan. ♪ thank you. have a seat. well, good evening new hampshire democrats. and thank you to chairman ray buckley and the great nhdp staff for this wonderful event this full room. thank you all. and it is truly great to be here with congresswoman carol shea-porter and kangwoman annie kuster. carol, it has been an honor to serve alongside you. i want to thank you for your tireless efforts on behalf of the people of the first district and our wonderful state. thank you so much. [ applause ] and to the incomparable billy shaheen, you told a fib or two. you said you didn't know how to make a bed but you were a captain in the united states army. so i know that is not true. [ laughter ] and i'll tell jeanne. but what a pleasure it is to serve with the incomparable jeanne shaheen, and to be able to be mentored by her, and to learn from her. she does extraordinary service for this state and this country. and we should all be so incredibly grateful to her. [ applause ] i also want to recognize all of the elected officials here, local and state, particularly partly because i had the privilege of serving in our state legislature, but particularly our great democratic leaders in the house and the senate in new hampshire. thank you all. [ applause ] and just a word on that. we are all talking about the critical importance of making sure that we work each and every day to protect our opportunities and our state and our country and work for the change that we know is so essential to our future. to every single person here, please do not take your eye off the ball of the importance of our state legislative seats. whether you are talking about voting rights. whether you are talking about voting rights, whether you are talking about a women's right to reproductive health care, whether you are talking about the right to form a union and collectively bargain, it starts here at the state level. [ applause ] and for those of you who, as we move into 2018 and look at how you can make a difference -- if there aren't enough people run forth the state house or the state senate in our district, sign up and run.>gki we need you. and it is also the importance of state service and what we do here in the state that also makes me so glad that amelia won her award. amelia where did you go. but thank you, thank you, thank you. and i also just want to congratulate and say a special word about my dear friend joe foster. somewhere -- what's today? 2017. so somewhere almost 15 years ago i was knocking on doors in stratham, new hampshire, the night before the 2002 election. and my phone rang. and it was joe on the other end of the phone. and joe was wishing me well and hoping for my success. a call he didn't need to make at a very busy time for all of us. i lost that election, but joe continued to encourage me to run, as so many of you in this room did. and then i had the pleasure of serving with joe. and there has never been a more dedicated public servant to doing what's right. but also finding the right way to do it. and when it was my great privilege and honor to serve as your governor and decide who i wanted to nominate to be attorney general, there was no question in my mind who it should be. there is nobody with more integrity, no one who understands the need and cause of justice better than joe foster. and we are incredibly grateful, joe, for everything you have done for our state. [ applause ] and i also want to thank our special guests tonight, grace meng, tim ryan and john delaney for joining us all. thank you so much. we are so glad you are here. most of all, though, i just want to thank everybody here, new hampshire democrats. with the odds against us, you have shown up, spoken out, and fought for our values. and i am incredibly incredibly grateful. and you fought for the wonderful joyce craig, who i am also so pleased to see tonight. [ applause ] as we head into something, we have so much to be grateful for this year as new hampshire democrats. we have joyce's success. and in our said house and senate we flipped four seats from red to blue with eight victories. and that's just the start. and there is nothing with joyce's success, with the special elections we won, there is nothing more inspiring than watching the next generation step forward and take charge. and i want to particularly commend the new hampshire young democrats for your work to elect young leaders in every corner of our state. [ applause ] now, as your senator, i am focusing on the work you sent me to washington to do. fighting for a future where everyone who works hard has the opportunity to get ahead and stay ahead, where middle class is growing and thriving, where each generation is better off than the last, and where we are unleashing innovative economic growth. and i am committed to working with anyone who is focused on solving problems for our people, our businesses, our economy. unfortunately, too many republicans in washington are focused on an agenda that rewards corporate special interests and the wealthiestview few while leaving middle class families and small businesses behind. just take a look at the republican tax plan. new hampshire democrats, do you think it's right to raise taxes on millions of hard working americans while corporate special interests get a permanent tax break? >> no! >> do you believe that we should risk a $25 billion yearly cut to medicare all to give the wealthiest few a tax break? >> no! >> and do you think a tax bill should be used to sabotage our health care system? >> no! >> me neither. but that is exactly what the republicans want to do. it's no wonder that president trump's top economic adviser admitted that it is big corporate ceos who are -- his words -- the most excited about this plan. and my republican colleague, senator ron johnson, has voiced his opposition, saying that under this proposal and here's his quote "there will be a real incentive to keep manufacturing overseas". we need our help to fight against these proposals to make your voices heard loud and clear, as they were in the fight against trump care. together, we have to keep up our momentum, harness the energy and success we've seen this year, and carry it into 2018 and beyond. next year, we will have the opportunity to keep our congressional delegation blue and to turn the state house from the house and senate all the way to the governor's office blue. [ applause ] that is why we must continue to stay organized. to congressman delaney's point, to engage with our fellow citizens. and to stand up for the values that make us strong. i'm confident in the dedication and ability of everyone here to truly make a difference because i witnessed it firsthand. we've proven that we have what it takes to remain strong and determined to fight for the people and our state and our economy and to build a better future. carol quoted winston churchill in her remarks. robert frost said that quote a little bit differently. he said "the only way out is through". our job as citizens, and our job as democrats is to love and protect our country, our state, our communities, and each other. that is what americans have always done. in america -- [ applause ] and in america, the way we love each other is we fight for justice for each other. [ applause ] we understand the value of inclusion because we were founded by people who said that every single one of us matters and counts. and many of you have heard me say this before, our founders didn't count everybody at first, right? but they had the confidence that every generation of americans would work to bring more and more people in from the margins into the heart and soul of our democracy and our economy because they understood when you do that you unleash talent and energy that's really important of course for the cause of individual freedom and dignity. but you unleash talent and energy that helps us all compete and grow and thrive. that more than anything is what this moment in time is about. there are rough patches throughout american history. go back and look at any of the periods in which things were the most fraught, including right after this country won the revolutionary war. we continue in the face of incredible difficult challenges. and sometimes intensely partisan differences, to fine our way forward and find our way through. that's what makes us the resilient granite staters we are, that's what makes us the resilient americans we are. we fight for each other. we love each other. and as we do that, we continue to form a more perfect unit with liberty and justice for all. thank you all. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> let's give it up for senator maggie hassan. [ applause ] you know, you go over the lists, you go over the lists, you spend hours with the staff saying does this one buy a ticket? no. did this one? is everyone here? just so you don't miss anybody. and then you get a text from rentee curbing, former senate president, executive counsellor bev hollingworth is in the house. [ applause ] perfection still eludes me, billy. i want to thank our sponsors. our first of the nation sponsors dr. jeffrey clark and senator martha fuller clark. [ applause ] painters district council number 35. [ applause ] bridge communications. [ applause ] these are the guys that pay the big bucks that make the profits so we can have lower price. so you might wanted to be more enthusiastic. [ applause ] >> professor firefighters of new hampshire. american federation of teachers, the uaw. congressman john and april delaney. congressman tim ryan. congresswoman grace meng. the human rights campaign. larry drake and joan jacobs. our granite champions sharks halloween and goran professional association. senator donna soucy. lincoln sodady. paul mantroe. representative shannon chandly. the national air traffic controllers association. congresswoman annie kuster. counsellor chris papis. our primary victory sponsor senator jeanne shaheen. senator maggie hassan. congresswoman carol shay porter. new hampshire afl-cio, the salem town democrats, the honorable catherine wells wheeler, ibew 490. senator dan feltis. senator betty laskey, and dr. elliot laskey. represent mini bessmer. paul carey and larry guard. represent andi.zhe÷ the honorable judy reardon, and the national association of letter carriers. let's give them all a big round of applause. [ applause ] eleanor roosevelt was a fearless fighter for justice. her entire life was spent working to make the world a better place for all. for more than a quarter of a century, the new hampshire democratic party has been honoring an outstanding woman who fought hard and succeeded in providing an opportunity for life success regardless of their circumstances. this year's recipient of the eleanor roosevelt award embodies eleanor's spirit. during her decades of service in our community in the house and in the senate her record is exemplary, extraordinary and she's always fighting on the side of righteousness. eight years ago in a closed door senate caucus, she implored her colleagues to support marriage equality because being jewish she grew up nothing what it was like to be treated less than. she's always worked towards the goal of nobody ever feeling less than. i am honored to present the 2017 eleanor roosevelt award to senator betty laskey. [ cheers and applause ] wow. thank you all. i couldn't be more surprised or more honored. but in this season of thanksgiving i just want to tell you all how grateful i am and have been for the last almost 30 years to have served all of you and the people of new hampshire and the people of our great country. so i thank you so much. and i will treasure this always. thank you. [ applause ] new hampshire democrats, please welcome to the stage, congressman tim ryan. ♪ >> thank you. all right. we've got a few ohio guys here. i want to just say i wish i would have brought our 13-year-old daughter here tonight to hear these amazing democratic women that we had speak to us tonight. [ applause ] but i did bring my beautiful wife. so everybody say hello to andrea ryan. [ applause ] and maggie, and i know jeanne is not here, thank you for your amazing leadership on the senate side. it's been an incredible battle over the past few weeks and months, and you guys have been there. carol and annie, you guys are the best. always -- i just want to say, in ohio we have a heroin epidemic of equal proportions as new hampshire. and there's not a day that goes by when we are not in session where carol and annie aren't grabbing people around the house saying we have got to stay organized, we have got to keep doing it. thank you for your amazing national leadership on this. [ applause ] and grace and john, thank you so much for your leadership. john, i enjoyed your words tonight. i think you are right on the money, buddy. so thank you for contributing your message here tonight. and our old buddy paul hodes is here. my man from way back. [ applause ] and i just want to say -- >> way way back. >> way back. has it been that long? >> not that long. >> i just want to say something real quick. you know, you get into politics to make a difference. and when you see people presented with the opportunity after being in an place like the united states congress when you can clearly sometimes make the easy decision and cling to your job and your staff and your title -- when push came to shove and there was an opportunity to give every single american access to health care, it was representatives from places like new hampshire, like carol and like paul who literally put their jobs on the line to make that happen. and we want to thank you for doing that. [ applause ] those are the heros. ray buckley, my old beauty from way back. and i mean old, ray. i mean old. that wasn't a slip of the tongue. i worked in congress for a couple of years. anybody who was in the first year of law school knows that you are looking for distraction strax frs anything but law school so i wandered down and conquered to the democratic party headquarters and i met someone who was running for the state senate. and we had a great campaign. we almost pulled it off. my old buddy, steve, is here, who ran a while back. and his wife, ellen and kimberly are here and they took me in when i didn't have any family in new hampshire, so god bless you guys. thank you so much, steve, for that. so for most of my career in congress, i was single. not married. it's late. i just want to make sure you know i'm coming. and so that's a certain lifestyle as you all know. and then about four and a half years ago, i got married and i met my wife, andrea, fell in love and we got married. and so, i went to being single, being married. change in lifestyle. i married a woman who had two children. mason and bella. so i went from being single to being married with two kids. definite change in lifestyle. so when we first got married, she got rid of her place and i got ride of my place and we went to get some neutral territory. and what's the first thing you do after you get married and you have two kids and you got a new house? you got to go out and get a dog, right? so i go from being single to being married to two kids and now we're out to get a dog. we take the kids out, go to the shelter to pick up some rescue pups. what happen whence you go out to get a puppy with two kid sns you get two puppies. so i go from being single to being married, two kids, two dogs and then three and a half years married, two kids, three dogs and two half years ago we had brady. so single, married, two kids, three dogs. just one wife. just one wife. so something happened a few years back. i was in the family room, and i noticed something i hadn't noticed for a while. silence. the house was completely silent. i looked around and everybody was upstairs in bed. probably in the same bed, but that's a whole other story. so what's a guy from northeast ohio do when he's alone and used to watching "paw patrol" and nick at nigh and all the kids' shows. you get the remote control, right? you say i can't believe i get the remote control. so what's a guy from youngstown ohio do when he's flipping through the stations? you find some sports. so i find a sports station that has a documentary from an old basketball coach, remember jimmy v.? he's giving this speech. it's great, i got the tv, he's one of my favorite coaches, this is my guy. he starts giving this speech. and he says, god must have loved ordinary people. because he made so much of us. but he said, every day ordinary people do extraordinary things. every day, in so many different ways, ordinary people do extraordinary things. and as i'm listening to that, as someone involved in the work that we're involved in, i thought to myself, that -- when we are at our best as a party, that's what it means to be a democrat. everything we do is about giving ordinary people an opportunity to do something extraordinary. and i -- and all of the speakers tonight touched upon this in one fashion or another. whether you're in youngstown, ohio or somewhere in new hampshire, or somewhere in the deep south, or you're black or white, you're gay or straight, you should have an opportunity to do something extraordinary if you're willing to put the work in to be able to do it. and that's what this whole game is about. this is about us being able to give ordinary people an opportunity to do something extraordinary. and the problem we have now is that the systems in which we are trying to allow our kids and our fellow workers and entrepreneurs and innovators is that we're stuck in these broken systems that won't allow people to do something extraordinary. make it so difficult. look at the broken health care system. we spent two and a half times more money than anyone else in the industrialized world, we get worse juoutcomes. our education system isn't where it's supposed to be. we rank 30 in science, 19th in math in international studies. look at our food system. we have half the country that has die bee tees or pre die bee tees. you look at our agriculture system that's causing algae blooms in the great lakes. dead zones at the mouth of the mississippi river. in the next 70 years we're going to have a six degree increase in the temperature of the plant if we don't do anything. these systems are broken. and here's the problem. my wife's dad from back home was a steelworker. and we celebrated in our community an anniversary a few weeks back. september 19, 1977 in the mahoning valley in youngstown, we have an anniversary called black monday. and that's when the united states sheet and tube closed one of its local factories, 5,000 workers one day gone. there was no notice now, you get 90 days you have to tell them and then 90 days then we're going to close it down. you just showed up and there were locks on the gate. and my father-in-law worked at sheet and tube. and i remember i saw this, the new york post did a story -- you have different text chains with your families. so we have a text chain on our side of the family. so i sent this article to my wife's side of the family. and i'll never forget what her mom -- andrea's mom sent back. she said, you know, i'll never forget that day. never forget it. bobby -- bobby came home, dirty faced, lunch bucket in hand and we had no idea what we were going to do. we had just borrowed $4,000 from his parents for a downpayment on the house. and we got a loan out for the house. and now everyone around him lost their job. no idea what they were going to do. and what's frustrating is these -- this broken economic system that we have, that was 40 years ago. that was 40 years, and we have still failed to fix an economic system that has thrown millions of americans under the bus. and that -- that, my friends is what this is all about here tonight and the organizing and everything else. because you know why? this old system, these old systems that are broken, the republican party is doubling down on the old system. in every way. the tax system that the senator talked about and the congressional delegation talked about, they're doubling down on that. like john said, you're going to lock this in just the way it is right now. double down. you know why? because there's a lot of people that have a lot of money that like it just the way it is. and for kickers, to pass this tax bill, they're going to go to the chinese banks and the chinese government and they're going to borrow $2.3 trillion, and they're going to bring that money back into the united states. we're not going to invest it back into our people, back into our country. we're going to give it away to the wealthiest people of the country. that's insanity. that's insanity. especially when you look at the fact -- when you look at the fact that over the last 30 years, since we did tax reform the last time, 96% of income growth, 96%, went to the top 10%. the top 1% own 90% of the wealth of the country. and we're going to give that group a tax cut and borrow the money from china to give it to them? they're doubling down on the old system. we see what's happening with climate, and they put a global warming denier as head of the epa? we know we're unhealthy as a country -- a young boy, a young child, a young baby in youngstown, ohio, has less of a chance of survival than a baby born in iran. and we have the republican party saying, we're going to throw 20 more million people off of the health care roles. we're going to disinvest and try to undermine the very program that provides health care for our citizens. this is not right. this is why we're here. this is why we've come together. this is the job before us. is that the democratic party has got to be the party that builds the new system. we've got to be the party that builds the new system. there's been a concentration of we. and as congressman delaney said, there's a concentration of opportunity depending on your zip code. we have continued to prioritize capital over labor, and it must stop. so the challenges are great preponderance -- so the challenges are great. let me tell you a quick story. those of you who were in manchester a couple weeks ago for joyce -- i love joyce. she's absolutely phenomenal. there was an old basketball coach named john wooden. i know the celtics are on a role so you had to get kyrie irving here. you had to steal a cleveland cavalier to make it happen, but that's okay. in fact, if you want to send tom brady to the browns, we would take him. be happy to take him. the browns may even make tom brady a loser. i just want to tell you that. it's like a disease we have in the cleveland browns organization. i just threw myself all off of my whole -- so there was this great basketball coach at u cla named john wooden. arguably one of the best ncaa basketball coaches at the time. he was coaching a young kid, a really tall kid from new york city. he could dunk the basketball. they dominated because he dunked the basketball. they kept winning. and it was so good that the ncaa had to come in and say, no one's allowed to dunk anymore. they like banned the dunk. imagine. so al cinder was out of his mind. he had no idea what he was going to do. john wooden came up to him, he said, no, i don't know what i'm doing. i was going to the pros, now my life is junk. he said, lou, this ban on the dunk is going to be your greatest opportunity. he thought he was insane, right? he said, this is going to be your greatest opportunity. he went on and in order to survive learned the sky hook and went on to the nba and became kareem abdul-jabbar and won many, many championships at the los angeles lakers because of the sky hook. that challenge -- you're celtics fans you don't mean that. i was a celtic fan growing up, i don't like the lakers. that man took that challenge and he turned it into an opportunity. and the lesson for us as we look at the staggering challenges that we have is that we've got to take these challenges and we've got to -- we've got to turn them into opportunities. and the opportunities are there. they are there. when we need to address climate change, we are looking at industries like wind and solar that are growing at 25% a year. this country needs to double down on wind and solar and renewable energy. we have the health care system is broken. this is an opportunity for us to come in and say, you know what, there's a link between global warming, our food, our health care and our education system. and if we start growing our food right, use regenerative agriculture we'll pull carbon out of the air and put it back in the ground where it belongs and by the way we can get rid of our food desserts make sure people have healthy food and changing the cost curve in the united states by seeing all of this stuff is connected. because we need to build systems. think about how revolutionary this can be. we need to start building systems that put the people first and then build the system around the people. not have the people continually feed into the system. and that's what we have now. people paying in to health care and not getting coverage -- i mean, if it weren't for some of the changes we made it would be a lot worse, right? people working and working and working and just can't get ahead. they just can't get ahead. no matter how hard they work. that's not right. you should be able, in the united states, if you put an honest day's work in, an honest day's week worth of work, you should be able to have a good and happy and successful life here in this country. and that's what hangs in the balance. and so, let me just wrap up by saying that we have done this before. and we just gave awards away that recognized the power of the roosevelts, the power of the new deal. think about the changes in the economy now and think about the changes in the economy when we moved into the industrial age. there were all kinds of changes. and the government wasn't keeping up. and so, people came together, led by our brothers and sisters in the union movement here in the united states of america. those manufacturing jobs weren't good jobs. they were tough. we have a museum of labor and industry into downtown youngstown. if you're ever in youngstown come on by. better chance of ohio people coming to new hampshire. i got it. but go see what's happening. go see what happened in this place. how people lived. how workers died. how they lost limbs. how they didn't make any money. how the company screwed them over at every turn. and then we all came together and said we're not going to live that way anymore. there were fights, people died. there were battles. i don't mind, it's the old irish, it's the old irish saying, i'm irish, is this a private fight or can anyone get into it? i see we have a few other irish people. i'm in the right room then. but we had to fight for it. no one's going to give this to us. no one's going to give it to us. it's like my old football coaches say, you got to go take it. you got to go get it. we didn't have 40 hour work week. we went and got it. we didn't have an eight-hour work day, pensions, social security, medicare, medicaid, we went and got it. we didn't have civil rights, we went and got it. we went and got it. and so, building america 2.0 is going to take a strong democratic party. the other team isn't going to do it. and we're only a country of 330 million people completing in a globe of over 7 billion. we're competing with 1.3 people in china, 1.3 or 4 billion people in india. we need every american citizen on the field playing for us with team usa jersey ready to go out there and kick some butt. i never once -- played a lot of sports in my days. long, long, long time ago. played a lot of sports in my days. never once was i on a successful team that didn't absolutely love each other. just so knitted together by love and respect and appreciation for what everyone on the team had to do, whether it was in the weight room or the training room or doing sprints or what position you played, even if you didn't get in the game, because you practiced hard to make us better. you contributed. and that's what we need to get back to in the united states. the attitude that everybody matters. union, nonunion. professional, worker. whatever you do, you matter in this country. you make our economy work. if you're a health care worker or if you're a hospice worker or if you're a waitress trying to make ends meet, you matter in this country and you belong in the democratic party and we're going to go out and make sure you belong in this party. so we've got to love each other, we've got to respect each other, we've got to continue to work hard as we move forward. and i will just leave you with what bobby kennedy used to end a lot of his campaign speeches with in that very brief, energetic and passionate campaign. i do not promise you ease. i do not promise you comfort. but i do promise you these, we are weariness, hardship and sacrifi sacrifice. and with these i promise you victory. thank you so much. >> thank you everybody. and on your way out, don't forget to take your pumpkin. >> new hampshire democrats as the chairman said, take your pumpkin, tip your bartenders and there is only one way out of the parking lot. please drive safely and have a great night. coal that americans are getting. one in three american taxpayers utilizes this deduction. and as should anyone who pays state and local taxes. how fair is it that on the money you have the senate is in session now, working on the g.o.p. tax plan, which includes a repeal of the health care mandate and repeal of oil alaska. watch the senate live on c span 2. >> hoover institution john koe began on u.s. federal entitlement programs. >> programs stem from a desire to help someone who is in need of assistance. it's just common. all of us have it in us for politicians it's a little bit easier to do it with somebody else's money. but they still have that same basic desire that you and i do. they also have this desire to be re-elected. so once that entitlement is put in place, then the game has changed. interest groups form around protecting that entitlement, pressing for more assistance, money starts flowing to politicians who protect those benefits and the game changes. >> john cogan on u.s. federal entitlement programs sunday eight night at 8:00 eastern. the c-span bus is heading to the all the state's capitals. we kicked off in delaware and have visited 50 state capitals. our next stop issal florida. >> earlier today fema administrator brock long testified before the house appropriations sub committee on the request of $40 billion to help areas impacted by hurricanes. this is an hour and 40 minutes.

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