I worked as a Digital Field manager on the organizing team , brandnewer congress is not an old concept. We have been talking about it for quite some time. It was a good place for me to go next after bernie and just sort of a background, i am 21 years old and still in progress was going to school. Volunteers, has just consumed. Great. Yes state senator running for congress. I am maria, a state representative for three terms. I am in the second term of my time in the senate with the missouri senate. Endorse pleasure to bernie. I think i did that in may, a little bit later because i toted to have an opportunity really listen to the issues that impact the community that i represent, which is ferguson. Ms. Chappellenadal i heard the message loud and clear, and decided to endorse bernie because we needed to go in a new direction and people who have been voiceless for so long champions who are not only in congress, but also in the white house. Excellent. Thank you. We have a democratic candidate for u. S. Senate in utah. The first transgender candidate to win the democratic primary nomination. Misty. I am running for u. S. Senate in the state of utah. Have runfirst time i for office, so a lot of people were surprised. I entered the race late. He was really wrong on a lot of foreign issues, a selfdescribed democrat. Nominate need to people who are actually going to stand up like things that benefit things like womens rights and living wage. A disproportionately incarcerate people of color. About that was wrong. I challenge him for the just won the primary couple weeks ago on june 28 and i am happy to be here today. Thank you all for coming to see this panel and for those who helped organize. Thank you. Mr. Chamberlain excellent. Thank you. Finally, we have come with alan grayson, running for u. S. And it in florida and was reasonably early, a reasonably early bernie supporter. Alan . Mr. Grayson we invited people to come not only to vote for the two candidates, but also to explain why. The vote came in at 86 bernie, 40 secretary clinton. 14 secretary clinton. Bernie sanders supporters clearly want to see fundamental change in the country and understand that the system is rigged and we need some but he as a leader who is going to change that. Thank you. Mr. Chamberlain i am trust chamberlain, the executive director of democracy for america. We are an organization that started 12 years ago after governor howard dean ran for president. We started a longterm organization of which since then, we have elected over 846 candidates to congress, to office up and down the ballot across this country, raised over ,50 million for candidates and specifically, with the Bernie Sanders campaign, we endorsed very early, raised 1. 8 million for him, our members participated in phone banks. Helping,000 from banks, to make 75 million phone calls during the course of the campaign, which is an outrageously awesome number and is one of the reasons why the media was not capable of killing the campaign, and we played a very important part in that. We really appreciated being able to do that. It seems like a perfect way to continue on the work of what democracy for america is all about, which is fighting up and down the ballot across the entire country. Today isare here for what are the Political Revolution . We have got really great candidates. Candidateno longer a for the presidency, technically, that will be true in a few weeks. Since he has endorsed hillary, i think we can say that pretty confidently. We have Political Revolution candidates up and down the ballot who are in a position to make headway for the Political Revolution as soon as the Upcoming Elections that are happening right now. Aat said, this is definitely longterm movement. If you look at the work of what democracy for america has done, this is 12 years later, after a very similar, exciting grassroots president ial campaign that motivated and empowered the grassroots across this country. We are still around 12 years later, and bigger than ever, doing incredible work. Im excited to see what happens as the Political Revolution moves forward. I can only imagine. The only won one state, vermont. At only about 500,000 people our largest point, for example, on our email list. The Sanders Campaign 122 States Campaign won 22 states. They knocked on 5 million doors. That is pretty amazing. Just imagine what that is going to mean as we continue to move forward. I want to put some questions to our panelist here. It is pretty straight forward. You,ld like to start with what lesson you think we can than from the Sanders Campaign as we move forward right now, and maybe longterm . Ms. Rojas i would say the biggest lesson that i learned from both starting off as a volunteer and entering the have trust in grassroots organizing and your volunteers. This movement would not be possible without the millions of thate and volunteers stepped up and demand a change. Regardless of best demanded stepped up and demanded change. Burning was not able to become president , it shows that people are powerful. I want to emphasize the amount of trust we had within the relateSanders Campaign, on grassroots volunteers to do the bulk of the work. Mr. Chamberlain are you running for congress locally here against lacy clay . What are some of the lessons if you like you have learned from the Sanders Campaign that actually buy directly to the campaign you are running right now . Just be real. Talk to people. Have appellenadal relationship with people were on the ground. Translate. , something that happened, i think all of you know about it, it is called ferguson, the ferguson uprising. Our congressman did not show up 40s after. I think, two days after Congress Takes a fiveweek break everything august. I am dealing with a challenger who is riding on the coattails of his father. Between the two of them, they have served for 40 years in congress, one family that has served for 48 years. When things went down in our community, that was like one of my first wakeup calls that we have some serious, serious issues that are going on, and we need someone who is present, not only someone with president , but someone was willing to communicate the challenges that every single day and to be unafraid to communicate those challenges. When i said, at the very beginning, be real, people want to hear the truth. Despite youoff piss off [applause] ms. Chappellenadal thank you. Andot into another crisis, it is radioactive waste that has been in our community for seven generations, sorry, seven decades. Our congressman has not done anything. I was serving as a School Board Member and a state senator because i wanted to my community that i live in. I resigned from the school board when i found out the number of cancer clusters that we have in the area that i represented and he represents. All of a sudden, get this wakeup call. I should visit st. Louis. There is nothing more pitiful e, wasaving an absente member. He grew up in maryland. He went to Elementary School in maryland. To high school and maryland. He went to college in maryland. Al of a sudden, there was seat that was open in st. Louis, and he ran for a special election. Then, there was another seat that was open, and he ran for a special election. Then, his dad resigned, and he ran for congress. He has been living in maryland for quite a long time. What is important, what bernie brought to the table is that you should always be among your people and speak the truth. If you make a mistake here and there, you know, you are speaking the language of the people. Never be afraid of speaking the language of the people. Someone will understand, and we deal with racial issues pretty badly here in st. Louis and in missouri, and i thought at one point in time, there are a lot of white folks who were upset with me for translating the issues that my constituents were foundned with, but when i i was that they were also grateful for me standing up because they saw that the silence that we had been living and breathing for quite a long time is the same type of silence that they had been dealing with when it came to radioactive waste contamination or children getting sick. Sorry. Mr. Chamberlain i was not trying to cut you off in the middle of your sentence. You are saying it is not just about truth, you are saying it is about action. When you have some who is an absentee not getting done what they need to get done, you need some of the to stand up and take action and do work, which makes a lot of sense. Mr. Chamberlain one of the things that is really barrier smashing about the Sanders Campaign manager way in which it repetitively, over and over again broke conventional wisdom. One of the big ways i think conventional wisdom was broken was the concept of, you have to run to the mill to get independence. What we really saw was that wanting, independents able, articulated vision, they are not looking for the middle. They are looking for somebody that inspires them. When you look at a 22 point victory in new hampshire, it was based entirely on that because it was the independence of give at 22 point victory. I think that is a really interesting way in which it smashes conventional wisdom. I think it is a great lead antieu, misty. There is the idea that a lead into you, misty. There is the idea that theres no way a democrat can win utah. , i have a guess as to where you are going ahead with this, what do you think you can learn from the Sanders Campaign and how is it going to impact your race as you move forward . You have to speak what you believe in, kind of be honest about your beliefs, do moderate, saying one thing and doing another thing. They want honesty. A lot of people are frustrated with politics as usual. He want to see change. The state of utah, theres a reputation of being conservative, but it is a really young state. If you look at the population it is thend over, youngest state in the nation. The problem with utah is that Voter Participation is really low. 2014 election, state of utah had about 28. 8 turnout rate, the Second Lowest after texas. A lot of democrats and democratic voters, they feel like there is not a choice because Utah Democratic Party for a long time has nominated these selfdescribed conservative democrat who are prolife, antilgbt, prowar, almost interesting was able from republicans. Then, they end up losing by 30 point margins because they do not appeal, they do not offer an alternative. Its important to offer a real alternative to republicans. Asare going to be a, democrats, we are going to stand up for a living wage, womens rights, the lgbt community, affordable college, try to address our racist criminal Justice System which leads to people of color being disproportionately stops, searched, arrested, charged, convicted, incarcerated. Look at the future instead of trying to think about these old saying the things people honestly, a lot of people want politicians to say. Against, am running mike lee, is not that popular in utah. He has a 38 approval rating. A lot of people think he is going to win the election. People have understated me. A lot of people thought i would never win the primary. I won the primary by 19 margin despite being outspent four to one. [applause] the won because you speak the truth. Ms. Snow the issues i was talking about really resonate with voters. Mike lee has like one million dollars, which is not a lot for a senate race, but a lot of people dont think it is competitive. There no donations coming in. I think, with pension, a lot of people are realizing that the Bernie Sanders movement, the next step in the Political Revolution is we have to start supporting candidates down the ballot, like the senator from utah has just as much power over your lives as a senator from florida or vermont. If we want to change our dialogue as a nation, we me to get more aggressive threat of country no matter where they are from. More progressives you have in congress, the easier it is to support a Progressive Agenda and to start fighting for the policies that Bernie Sanders talks about. We want to have a 15 minimum wage, affordable college, reform , and more progressives in congress. Every victory you get is another vote, and i think that is the lesson we need to learn and i think that is where we need to go forward. Mr. Chamberlain excellent, thank you. [applause] sort ofberlain continuing on this theme of this conventional wisdom of the idea that in red states or purple states, that somehow, im a craft win better by being more moderate or conservative, nobody on this panel has probably experienced that conventional wisdom more strongly than congressman alan grayson because he is somebody that is actually elected in bc and working with the establishment every day. We have seen [laughter] mr. Chamberlain we have seen the entire establishment is sort of working against you, much like with bernie from the president on down having endorsed your terrible opponent. Were not even talking about your general election opponent yet, were talking about your absolutely terrible opponent in the primary. I would love to hear, what do youfeel about, what have learned from the Sanders Campaign manager are taking and implementing in your senate race, and how are you commanding that mention a wisdom . To seeyson im pleased there is an audience for progressivism. The Senate Campaign is the most successful progressive president ial campaign in the last 50 years. If anything deserves applause, it is that. It gives us hope that the Democratic Party can still be the home of aggressive is him. Rep. Grayson there has been a lot of doubt home of progr essivism. Justice, equality, compassion, and peace. In a largesensus swath of the party that the system is rigged, and something needs to be done about it. Voters want elections to be about something. We have gotten into this right rut inica this america were political discourse consists entirely of ad hominem attacks. There no doubt that both candidates are evil because all we have seen as negative ads about them for literally weeks upon month. That is not what people want. One thing we remember from the campaign is him saying, another about the emails. People want to hear about what we want to do to make our lives better collectively and how the law can publish that. That is a message that is fundamentally a progressive message. En the system is broken, we need to take it over to make things better. The other thing we have learned from the Sanders Campaign is this, a democracy is not quite dead yet, were not quite at the point where the oligarchy gets everything will thing it wants. The Sanders Campaign established a new paradigm in the wake of Citizens United regarding Campaign Finance and that turned out to be very important. Before he ran for president , senator sanders was the only member of the senate who raised most of his Campaign Funds from small donors. For two cycles in a row now, i was the only house member out of 435 of us to raise most of my Campaign Funds from small donors. Now, we saw that happen at the president ial level. While the campaign was actually going on, senator sanders outraised everyone else. What we see is that there is an alternative way to run for president for senate. Im the only Senate Candidate in the entire country raising most donors,oney from small to my you want to go website and make a donation, i will not stop you. This is what we need. I look around the chamber of the house and i see 434 other members who are largely bought and lost by special engine by specialbossed interests. Democracy just cannot survive that way. After the Citizens United decision, i was in the courtroom when it was rendered and i was on msnbc that night and i said that if we do nothing, you can kiss this country goodbye. The Sanders Campaign is a sign that we are doing something, that there is a possibility that we can have a functional democracy in this country, and i find that very encouraging. Thank you. [applause] so, continuing on that theme, alan, what do we need to do to get the party to to theand to catch on critical aspects of the policy fight, the vision for america . So often the Democratic Party makes the decision to say, look at the other guy, he is terrible, we are not quite as bad, so vote for us. Midterm elections, often running as republicanlite instead of real values. Losing battles, we have lost over and over again with that. You look at 2014, we won races where it was a bloodbath across the board for democrats. They talked about a vision for america, jeff merkley, al franken, brian schatz, those of the people who won. How do we do it . How do we convince them, if winning is not enough to convince them, how do we break through and make that happen . Rep. Grayson i think there is little to no hope of that happening. It is appalling to me to see how corporate bought and paid for democrats completely control the process. You are right that i have been attacked mainly because i am a progressive and they want to see a right wing bought and paid for wall street democrats running against marco rubio instead of someone like me. He cannot possibly win on the issues come as a what they do is attack me personally. They are not very good at all at defeating republicans. They do have a certain flair for getting under the skin of democrats. And finding ways to try to undermine progressive democrats when we run for office and we have seen that all around the country. Donna Edwards Campaign is a good example of that. I could give you other examples as well. I do not think you people are ever going to wake up and realize what they are doing is foolish and will cost us 900 legislative seats around the country just in the past six years alone. I think it is time for a new generation, somebody like elizabeth moran, who has the , who knows then public is with us. A bill to expand medicare to eyes, ears and teeth. The party adopted platform to extend the xm bank. That theme way Democratic Party is now in the process of adopting a platform and thank goodness for bernie fighting as hard as he did, and withholding his endorsement until he was satisfied with the inult, we have a platform the house of representatives, and the number one item on that platform is defeating isis. Im sorry, but in my district, where the average wages are 12 an hour, people are way more interested in the 15 minimum wage than they are in defeating isis. Way it is. T the the entire leadership, nancy pelosi aside, the entire leadership of the party has now been corrupted by money, it is to its own failures time after time. It is not interested in polling. When you actually ask the public, where you stand on issues, on solid, specific progressive proposals . Overwhelmingly, the public is with us, the leadership is not with us. My only hope is to have the leadership replaced. Mr. Chamberlain we just need a complete and total overhaul. We have got to elect new candidates across the board. Mistys fantastic example of taking on republicans i feel like, i feel you want to say coming else. Rep. Grayson in my lifetime, i think the most progress that the party ever made was when howard dean was in charge of it. We need an outsider [applause] rep. Grayson we needed an outsider could come into the party and to recognize that it is the rest of values that propelled the victory. Mr. Chamberlain we have got to bring candidate talking about ashing that in new ways and third candidate whos doing it in an open primary, but we also have Brand New Congress where your actual mission is to replace everybody. Right . Can you tell us a little bit about how you are you planning to do that . Yeah. A Brandnew Congress is an idea that former staffers and volunteers came together with. Ms. Rojas it has been in the making for at least a decade. If you guys are familiar with zac, its a unified National Campaign to elect 400 plus candidates. The reason we say 400 plus is, and this is for the 2018 elections, we have some existing members that i think we should stay in there, as well as others that will jump on board if we give them a reason to. We are aiming to generate the same amount of volunteerism, small dollar donations by funding people through the Online Fundraising with one website, and get people excited about running those 400 for 2018, and sweeping congress that way. Mr. Chamberlain is there anybody who is going to qualify as already being good enough . Alan want to know the answer to that question. I thinkberlain well, theres public senator sanders and Elizabeth Warren who have consistently shown that they fight very hard for progressive values, and what their constituents really want, what the American People want. That is why we say 400 plus, in addition to the fact that it is with the way that different cycles work on that sort of thing. Mr. Chamberlain i want to open it up for you all to ask questions. We have microphone to her and would like you to come up to the microphones. So you know in advance, the microphone actually will not be ample time you internally. Those microphones are for amplifying you internally. They are for the recording. Anybody who would like to answer question, get up and get in line at one of the two mics. You want to ask, maria, have taken on the mantle of being a sanders democrat in your race. What has that meant . Before i say that, i love your breakfast of champions right ofe with the red can mountain dew. That is a sign of a candidate that is definitely working hard, when youre starting at 9 00 a. M. With a mountain dew. Ms. Chappellenadal this is my second one. [laughter] mr. Chamberlain what does it mean to be a sanders democrat in your campaign so far . Ms. Chappellenadal there are so many people who are on the ground, running, who have been inspired either by ferguson or by Bernie Sanders. What i have chosen to do in my senate life is to support many of the candidates who are running on a progressive platform. This movementwas for congress. Im doing a movement here in st. Louis for progressives so we can take out some of these establishment democrats do nothing and dont show up. Sen. Chappellenadal that is what i am doing. I have my own Bernie Movement right here and i happened to be the legacy i want to leave here in st. Louis because we need younger people in inspired people, and people who are willing to roll up their sleeves. What it means is challenging your party as often as possible, as a senator, i do that. If there is enough room for a prolife democrat in the senate, there is enough room for a ferguson democrat in the senate. And in congress. [applause] misty, anything to add on that, what it means to be a sanders democrat running in utah . The issue is about fighting for things like living wage and affordable college. Utah is the youngest the in the nation. We have more millennials per capita. Ofot of people make a lot media deal about me being the first trans person elected in the senate, but i would also be the first millennial, and the first woman i fro utah. There would be a couple other firsts that are more important than the fact that i am trans. I happen to be trans. I just happened to be that way. I wanted to put this issues these issues out there. I wanted to give a voice to important issues that were not voiced in the utah democrat because nobody was having about the 15 per our minimum wage or reproductive rights. Some people told me that they voted for me at the convention because im the only candidate even talking about issues affecting peoples color, theres a huge silence in utah and a Democratic Party in utah. I got a lot of respect for that because i know there are important issues, but there is 79 white, but we do have a prison population that is this proportionately minority. Ortionately minority. He did not die, but he was severely injured. Hes not ever going to be the same because of the injury. It happened in my own city installing city. We need to really adjust the way we do our policing in this country. We need to reform our courts and our entire system. Its a huge problem. I want to give a voice to a lot of these issues because what i find is that these issues really resonate even in utah because in utah there is a lot of people who care about these issues, young people who have not really got involved in the political process but are getting excited, they got excited in march. A lot of people i think are getting excited about me because im talking about a lot of the same issues. Im hoping to get a lot to support me in the fall because i nk we can i wind the primary. Won the primary. I got 30 of the vote. 2006, 30 1 of the vote. Getting 37 in the june poll is really good in utah. I feel like we can close the gap especially if i continue to get name recognition. Hopefully, that will continue. Mr. Chamberlain great. Mike lee a lot of money from wall street. I would like to not have to do that. Bernie sanders has the right idea. You can do it from small donations. He dont need to take bribes from corporations. Thats another great pitch heading to someones website. Ms. Snow mistyksnow. Com mr. Chamberlain talk into the mic. Make sure you talk loud. Good morning. How are you ladies and gentlemen doing this morning . I would like to wish you well on your campaigns. This is my question. How do you propose to make sure Health Care Workers get health care within the state if you work 10 hours a week and a minimum wage here is seven 7. 65, you . 55 dont qualify for benefits. Mr. Chamberlain ms. Rojas let me address one of the differences with the Establishment Party that i am a member of. It was suggested by our caucus that we file a minimum wage bill of 10. 10. I refused to sign onto that bill. Sen. Chappellenadal i would be recalled if i filed that. I filed the 15 minimum wage increase this year and i said i cannot hold my head up and go back home knowing that i signed onto a minimum wage increase of only 10. 10. The second thing, i am looking at her tshirt. For the last 12 years, i have been a huge proponent of home care workers, and let me tell you why. I used to work for the lieutenant governor, we did an assessment on Nursing Homes and people who are in their homes. More people of color stay in their homes as they age. We are looking at that population of people, the folks who are serving those individuals as well in those pockets. It is absolutely true that you do not, and are, do not, get paid a livable wage whatsoever for the work that you do. I am guessing you are a member of sei you. Feiu. Theyre one of the unions that have stood up for immigrants and Refugee Rights before any other union. Encourage and also try to do my best and have done and work towards is ensuring you do have coverage. I also have to tell you that we have not passed Medicaid Expansion in the state of missouri and it is costing, this is money that should come back to the state to benefit you. Having to deal with the challenges that are presented to her because she is depending on the aca. I get it. Think that you do, and i will work towards, i think you. Eserve more i want to major you have your own health care benefits. What you do and what your allies do and the other folks who are iu is the work that people are unwilling to do. It is absolutely remarkable of how you give of yourself to help the people have stood up for us for so long. I want you to have your health care and you deserve to have your health care and when you see those advertisements of the increase of the minimum wage, ask them, is it 15 or 10 . Just because him and he says lets increase the minimum wage, you asked them, are you talking about 15, are you talking about 10 . Excellent. Thank you very much for your question. Good morning. Someestion is about tactics we can use to make especially state legislatures more progressive. Right has done really well and the past years is taking big money and putting it in small districts where it can have a really large footprint. One of the most inspiring things to me about the Bernie Sanders campaign was that they send money to 21 other candidates by doing tandem fundraising, and that includes some state Legislature Candidates who with one email sent of small dollar donors from the Bernie Sanders campaign were able to fill up their budgets probably for the next few cycles. How can we encourage more campaigns that do have large fundraising lists that are able to mobilize the National Progressive small dollar donors thatsmall races where money can make a huge difference . How do we make that common . Mr. Chamberlain i think thats a great question. Let me just add to a 13 go together. That shed of mentioned might shoot me for saying, but i filed my nec report yesterday, so it is Public Knowledge now. [laughter] one thing that is happening here in missouri, just to talk bit, sheia a little directorthe executive of prochoice missouri, and im running for Committee Woman here in the city of st. Louis, and so, since maria cannot spend the general her state assembly campaign, she has been getting it about 25 different candidates giving it to about 25 different candidates my age, but most of them younger, running for Committee Positions to take that our party at the , where missouri beef uses to talk about abortion, to talk missouri refuses to talk about abortion, or other issues progressives care about. Maria has taken the money she cannot than on her race, and given it to us. We not only help her against an incumbent, but really do that about. Maria has taken the money she cannot than on hergrassroots wot basic level to change our party and to change our state. It would not only have 25 young people Running Party positions, but we have bernie Campaign Manager is running for state rep. Another young man who introduced me at oreilly is also running for state rep. There is a lot of us. Bernie us, we are all supporters, but we were all black lives matter activists before we were ernie supporters. Erniet really supporters. How are the rest of you taking that kind of leadership . Mr. Chamberlain thank you very much for your leadership and for running for an office in the party. That is critical. I would argue its one of the most important things that we can do as a Political Revolution is to recognize that our job is not just to get elected to congress or to the u. S. Senate. Our job is to get elected to districts,ds, water offices across, up and down the ballot. They have huge impact. If you think about it, sometimes, they had a bigger impact on peoples lives than a member of congress can have. Often, congress is just that men and things do not actually move forward. Constantly, corporations and win inrporate democrats the smalltown races. Its not just that they are having a direct impact on your life, but they are also building themselves into a position to make it easier to run again for Higher Office as well. It has a really negative triple effect that is not great. Instead, we have great people like maria who can come from state senate and run up for member of congress or for a member of the house of representatives like allen, who can run for the senate. Thats why we need the support from within. This seems like it to a question for you, alex, to expand upon what else you have to say. Mr. Chamberlain ms. Rojas i completely agree with what you said, which is why a brandnew singles is running that National Unified campaign to generate that same amount of small dollar contributions on a Massive National scale and get actuallycited about taking over the primaries and actually getting people, progresses into office. I think it is grassroots organizing and small dollar contributions. Getting to work part and organizing is super important in addition to the money that is being spent because we will actually be able to allocate a good amount of resources to that. Reallyhink that is important and crucial as we expand. I think also, right now, Brandnew Congress is focusing on congress. Right . Bernie has really created local organizing groups in every part of this country. And so, what Brandnew Congress is about is, yes, we are aiming for congress, but through doing this, we are igniting the flame of people getting involved at a local level, at a state level, at a regional level, and a federal level. Whatbelieve that that is Brandnew Congress is trying to accomplish and we will continue the smalldo that by dollar contributions and electing people like maria, to representlan the American People and the demographic nature of the united states. Mr. Chamberlain anything you want to add to what she said . Maria2016. Com. [laughter] in eugene, oregon. There was a strong bernie group their organizing a march on the same day as your kick off event there. Getting much response to try to coordinate to make sure we dont step on each others toes. I wanted you to know that in general. Im sure you are overwhelmed with stuff. As a lot of us out here who would love to help. You have a huge volunteer army in waiting to help. Mr. Chamberlain headon, we are sort of building our internal infrastructure and we are almost completely grassroots powered. The reason we have not gone back to you is that i am the point person for that, and to give you a taste of something that we are working on is building an epicenter within the campaign called the Ground Support team that we are going to be hopefully expanding. It is actually going to be able organizingthe local that is going to take place in washington as well as six other teams not only in california but in other states already. To yoube reaching out hopefully right after this panel, if you stay around to talk about it. Thank you. Kickoff in philadelphia is july 28. I will be there. A lot of activists will be. It seems like a fantastic ending event to go to. Somebodycebook event, commented that this is a local event. Would you all be willing to consider making that a more general event since there will be so many people all across the country who will be there . Have two events going on. One on the other on the 20 is. The 20th, one on and the other on the 28th. We will be meeting up in philadelphia to answer questions. We will be there pretty much prior to the convention and all the way through. Maybe we can talk a little bit after to make sure you can make it to one of those events or we can do about other strategies on how to get a general meeting. I think one of the lasting and maybe one of the impacts that i am not sure that is really resonated across the board for a lot of people, and in parts of the Senate Campaign, which is the incredible amount of grassroots support that is actually be on the kind of metrics that are often reported on. Mr. Chamberlain what gets reported on is things like 220 million raised from small donors, and stuff like that. Thats what the d. C. Class is assessed with. Ms. Rojas and the email list. Mr. Chamberlain the reality is, impactful,incredibly the most impactful aspect of the Sanders Campaign was the way in which it mobilized and engaged and empowered volunteers to work for them and work for themselves in excellent ways. Exciting about Brandnew Congress, and what i imagine it will ultimately be a new sanders a spinoff as well, i assume will happen, and of course longstanding organizations have extremely similar goals like democracy for volunteers, wet have got a lot of people really engaged out there that want to do actual things. We have a Democratic Party that for decades said it down and shut up, we do not want to hear from you, we do not trust you to do the right thing. This campaign has empowered volunteers to drive that change externally. That is white you can have a media for six months tell you your campaign is over, and you can continue to go on and win plenty more states. That is a really important lesson. Ms. Rojas i want to emphasize, i said i was a Digital Field member on the distributed organizing team, and i just want to emphasize that point that he just made. Almost the entire campaign was not onlyy volunteers, in their individual states when it came down to it, but the distributed Team Coordinated nationally online through slack, through other digital platforms, and thousands of volunteers, 75 million phone calls, that is significant. It is the backbone in what we are trying to do and expand in Brandnew Congress, it is not only people that have been involved in politics forever, it is people that are ready to get to work and fight for the change that they want. It can be anyone, as long as they are willing to step up and get to work. Brandnew congress has that you can do. Mr. Chamberlain next question. I have a question for congressman grayson about Debbie Wasserman schultz and what the bernie revolution has done to hopefully decrease her status trump,the party, and for you seem to want to downplay the list, and the treasure that is that list. Does dfa get access to that list . How would Brandnew Congress get access to that list . How would brandnew electoral groups get access to this treasure trove . Its interesting that Hillary Clintons name has not come up yet. Mr. Chamberlain who . 1 mr. Chamberlain just kidding. Rep. Grayson theres a new executive director at the dnc now. Debbie still has the title. Im not sure how much she is involved in daytoday decisionmaking. I will say that people tend to overstate her own personal authority all along, and up the decisions that tended to infuriate certain parts of the party during the past couple of years were not hers alone. , it is not ais not sophisticated view of how these things actually happen. Thee are powers behind front that are not visible. Since she was in charge of the party, she is the person people see. But to personalize the way that it has been done because of decisions made regarding debate theso on is to oversimplify actual process by which those decisions are made. I think that a totally right. I want to push back a little bit and sate you look at somebody like governor dean who constantly fought with a party and did excise real power when he disagreed with them. You look at the 50 state strategy when he had been he walks out of the room. And says fuck you. Howard deans response was i dont care. Theres something to be said for the leadership in that role, even if there is no question it is hard. Rep. Grayson the party under howard been was not the same as the party under Debbie Wasserman schultz. Howard dean was more willing to assert himself on that as a principle. Its a complete different file in a sense of what the position really means. Debbie has decided to excel and fundraising for the party. Some people think that is a good idea. Some people think it is pointless because we have no message. [laughter] wantgrayson that people to hear. You buy a lot of ads and they are just drivel. The answer is, absolutely. Party,ward dean ran a running the party meant something very important. None of us can forget the principle involved. When you run a real republican against a fake republican, the real republican will win every time. I am watching that race in florida very closely. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has something in common with my opponent. Ms. Rojas she supports the payday loan industry. I dont know if you read that New York Times article recently, but in missouri, we have more payday loan operations than walmart, starbucks, and mcdonalds put together. That is because of people like and others like Debbie Wasserman schultz. The other thing is, neither one of them won a debate in front of the people they represent. Especially, i dont know how many years she has been in, when u. S. Have had an incumbent family for 48 years, the people do deserve to have an open debate. [applause] just to address the much more enough list, i think it is obviously, it is crucial that we know that. At the same time, the way that i view it, Brandnew Congress does not have that list. We have to earn every supporter we get. We actually have to go out. The reason why we are going to be in washington and philadelphia is because we are doing a 100 city tour to go out and talk to people. And to find out what they are saying. It obviously would be nice if we had such a big email list already. It would help with our fundraising right now. To work i am excited with grassroots and to work with local organizers to find out new ways to talk to voters and really understand and get to know everyone. Perspective, imy think something that regularly happens among the political professional class is that we literally talk about it like it is a list. Mr. Chamberlain it is not. That it literally is, but it is people. There are people attached to those email addresses. [laughter] [applause] mr. Chamberlain the fact that vendors have a Million People on his list, that is fantastic. Those people are out there. Were getting able to envision and leadership and doing the real work. People will help find you, find us, and come to us. It helps, the more that sanders can highlight people. We hope to continue to partner with sanders as we move ahead. My hope is that some of that means we get the exposure that helps bring those people to our door. The bottom line is that there are people,eoif you are dng tho, they are going to come to you. Thats why Bernie Sanders has gotten over 12 million votes even as he was being fought at every step of the weight by the establishment in every possible way they could. Next question. State2014, 60 of legislature states were opposed and 40 of them were completely uncontested. I live in springfield, oregon. In the past three races, there were 26 races. 18 out of the 26 were unopposed. Dont act too surprised. In ferguson, mayor james noble nobody ran against him. I work for nation builder. I came in because i started a roffice. Org. Ed runfo i was sick and tired of the elites in the democratic and Republican Party holding on to that information from a to get on school board, how to get into the special districts. Democracy for america, where were you . Notut of 26 races, you are running, you are not developing the race. The entire county is now on our website. Four out of five of your municipalities do not have a website. Publicly elected sheriff, you guys dont run for those positions either. We have got a lot of work to do down ballot. Im a big proponent of open data. Not going to give this to any specific group. It should be for everyone. Im not comfortable that you guys get to pick these candidates for congress. Whats up with that . What are your metrics for that . Mr. Chamberlain ms. Rojas in terms of the vetting process and what an ideal candidate will fight, we are going into the community. If we are looking at Congressional Districts, we are going to the people that actually they represent. It is more sort of like a nomination than vetting process. Ands after long vetting talking with the Community Members that identify those people. It is not only career politicians, its actually members of the community that we dont even know of yet. Im more concerned with how you make the choice and who is going to get the money in the backing of your group. It happens in each and everyone of your districts. All i do all day long is look at Election Results and developed lists of elected positions. The same goes for you, cant was meant grayson. This table you neglect to get on the ballot, those are your voters. Extran probably count an 50 votes for those. The bottom carries the top. Every four years is a new astroturf operation for the democrats that has got to stop. Greatamberlain questions. I want to be of the give other people attempt to ask questions. Thanks for sitting down now. Lets give people a chance to answer. Ms. Rojas let me tell you quick stats. 36 of thellenadal people who live in the first Congressional District live in poverty. The Africanamerican Community is currently experiencing an employment rate of 17 . When you run for office, let me tell you about the color eyes asian of campaigning colori zation of campaigning. You do not get support of the party. Here is the other thing. When you look at how people are doing things, im not accountable to mayor knowles. Let me tell you, it is my turn. Here is what is about to go down. There are people after ferguson who have woken up, for challenging the system, and the people who i am supporting for running for lower ballot, it is because they have been inspired musso instead of yelling at us inspired, so instead of yelling at us and several deaths and women, we men are inspired and engaged and waking up and saying that we are not going to tolerate this anymore and it is our responsibility to help those who want to work from the grassroots and go online and support every other person who is out there, who does not have an opportunity. I do want to push back. Here is our problem. It is still my turn. Here is our problem. We have five people who want to run for mayor in ferguson. That is a beautiful thing. We have people who are running against each other who have both been inspired in the same seat, multiple feeds. Im try to figure out who am i going to support or am i supporting both . In a couple races, im supporting both people because they are all inspired. This is not going to be perfect. It you are not perfect. We are all children of god. What we should be doing is to help people who have no voice and take the energy and passion that you have and look at those numbers as you do and help build a strong party and opposed the oppose the establishment at every single turn you have. We do have our problems, just like you all do. Speaking for dfa, the bottom line is that we have worked hard across the board to elect candidates up and down the ballot. We cant support everyone all the time, we cant force people to run in district and we can t require somebody, we can say we cant say you have to run. If you dont run, we can budget and we try to empower people. Weve been very successful at it. Think about the scale of what you are asking. When you think about state legislative races, there over 3000 state legislative races in a year. We have a cycle budget of 10 million. Theres only so much we can actually do for each and every candidate. We encourage people to run as much as possible. We look for candidates who are running for real and fighting hard. We very much encourage people to run for lower levels of office. We have been very successful of it. One of the things that has set us apart is that as a national organization, we do things like supporting her as one of the first candidates way back in 2004 in her race for state representative of missouri. Nobody else was supporting her. We did it and we worked our absolute butts off and we continue to support her year after year. Reality is that while there are not enough stories like that, as i would love to give you 3000 stories like that, i was not to i would love to be evil to tell you we convinced someone to run for mayor and i would love to tell you that we can fill every School Board Race and state senate race and the reality is that that is extremely that is a big lift. Its one of the exciting rings that we recognize that that is what we are pushing for, it is way more likely to happen. It also takes a lot more that than just a few people, the staff in burlington other burlington or other resources we have to make it happen i in happen. To make it it is bigger than one organization. People having to get up in the local communities. Brandnew congress, it is to inspire people that dont have those resources to get up, start organizing and filling the seats instead of waiting for someone to do it. We recognized it is more than one organization. We know there is room to be involved in a lot of places. You have asked a lot of questions. I would like to move on to the next person. My name is cheryl from new york. Have place where we trouble with democrats. We have many democrats. But if you talk about the more versus better, we have more. We need better. Im actually [applause] god help me, im a member of the kings county democratic committee, i have that much power, an iota over zero. One of the things that incumbent democrats who are not necessarily friends of progress use very much to hold onto their power is the gerrymander and i was wondering if you guys could address the structural obstacles that we face insurgency. Allen, do you want to take that . Are you referring to gerrymandering specifically or, what do you mean by structural challenges . There are certainly structural challenges within the party, but im referring specifically to gerrymandering. Both parties love it. It helps them keep their incumbents. Right. That is correct. We are the last primary and in the entire country and that is because it wavers favors incumbents. I hope at some point there will be some new supreme case that will end it once for all. I think gerrymandering is unconstitutional and i think it was the equal protection clause and the clause that requires the federal government to guarantee the democratic government in every state. There is a separate clause that does that. Im very committed to this. We had a tremendous success in florida that took years to get through litigation. We have something called for fair district florida. [laughter] [applause] youll see that the first five figure checks they got for the effort was for me. I was committed to see that happen, even though i have a blue district. Downstrict got watered when it went into effect. What we need is the government to reflect the values. We reached a point in florida where even though florida is the ultimate purple state, we had 19 members of congress who are republicans and only six after the 2010 election who were democrats, but thats probably a function of money but it was always entirely a function of gerrymandering. They packed huge numbers of democrats into a tiny number of districts and they got away with it. The same thing is true in pennsylvania where the current delegation is 12 republicans and five democrats in a state that nas not gone republican in a election and more than a quartercentury. In ohio, 10 are republicans and four democrats. They created a situation where the whole country is so gerrymandered that we have to win nationwide by eight points before we get to even in congress. That is almost entirely a function of gerrymandering. It is a horrible situation. It needs to end. One of the things that has been done, in florida we put it on , the ballot. A constitutional effort to amend our constitution to prohibit gerrymandering. It took roughly 8 million from accomplishnish to that and we needed one million signatures to get on the ballot. There are other states were the same effort can be made. Not every state has referendum like florida does. Where you do, do something that needs to be done. The power structure will never ever reform itself. The result of that is we have a situation where the voters dont pick the elected officials, the elected officials are picking their voters. Thats right. The point i was trying to make is that democrats where i come from, democrats love the gerrymander. We have a cozy arrangement between our state assembly in and our state senate that the democrats get the assembly and republicans get the senate and everybodys happy. Yes. Thats definitely a problem. Thank you for the question. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Im afraid we will not take any more questions. I want to encourage those of you that still have questions, even followups from others, we are all going to be here for a a few more minutes. Dont hesitate to chat with us. I do want to give each of our panelists a chance to say a closing statement. 30 seconds or less. One burning thought you would leave us with. Lets do it. Go team blue [applause] you dont want to at least say your website name again . My website is senatorwithguts. Com. I want to thank everybody for coming. I was thinking for the i thank you for the opportunity to come be a part of this and for the chance to speak. I encourage all of you to check out my website at mistyksnow. Com. If anyone would like to donate, i would appreciate it. Dont underestimate the power of small donations in large numbers. [applause] dont be silent. Speak up. There are often times people want to put us in a box as progressives and they want to label us and want to say that we can do this, we can do that, when and where and how. Reject that. You have an obligaon as a progressive to speak up, stand up and fight as hard as you can with every single tool that you possibly have in your corner. Use it. I am running for congress. I am running against an establishment opponent who takes money from the payday loans. And also is someone who does not champion the same kind of policies that Elizabeth Warren does. My website is maria2016. Com and im asking you for your help. [applause] i echo everyones sentiments on stage so far and im humbled to be on stage with so many great senators and people that are running for congress right now. The message that i want to leave is to believe in yourself and never give up. And anyone, including a 21yearold from connecticut, including a 16yearold from missouri, anybody can get up, stand up, whether running for office. If anyone wants to get to work, you can go to www. Brandnewcongress. Org. To sign up and contribute to our website, you can go to www. Brandnewcongress. Org. Find out about our plan. There is an orientation to talk to volunteers. Thank you so much again. We look forward to hearing from anyone who has questions. [applause] before we go, i think if theres one thing i want to say about what we are learning today, the Political Revolution is, it existed before Bernie Sanders. He helped bring it together in a way that was really strong and powerful and helped prove to the country that there are at least 46 of the Democratic Party, 12 million votes, 22 states that absolutely understand how critically important it is to stand up for blood values and bold values and bold issues. The key to this not going away is to not let them take it from us. There is no question that we have a political establishment and a corporate establishment, a country that wants to tell us and keep us down and tell us that this campaign is over, this revolution is over and they will say it every single time we lose over the next year, next five years, next 10 years. They will say it every single time. But they will look for is they will look to ill just say that we move ahead, we need to be counting up our victories because the victors are what victories are what matters and if were going to fight everywhere, that is how we can win everywhere. That means we will not always win. We had three fantastic candidates on the stage and i hope every one of them wins and i think everyone of them has a every single one of them has a chance. [applause] but if they dont, it is not over because we have candidates and people running across the country on our values, on our issues, on our vision and they need to be supported and that will be true tomorrow, true a year from now. If theres anything i can say as being executive director of democracy for america, they will be there 12 years from now. Lets make sure we keep the Political Revolution going. Fight as hard as we can. With that, thank you for being here. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indistinct crowd noise] tomorrow, political strategist hold a conference to launch a new campaign in mobilizing latino voters. Watch it at 11 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Now, a look at whats described as the new american majority. A group of political strategists and consultants spoke at the net roots nation conference about engaging minority voters and encouraging progressives to run for office. The Panel Includes the bernies anders campaign advisor, who explains why they won with people of color under 35. This is about an hour and 15 minutes. Aimee good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today at netroots nation, new politics of the new american majority. We have such an amazing panel of experts in conversation coming up for you today. There are two things we need to be thinking about in the middle of this important election year. We have a president ial campaign thats being settled with next week being the Republican National convention and the week following the Democratic National convention. We have a Senate Campaign