Transcripts For CSPAN3 Joy-Ann Reid Hosts DNC Chair Candidates Forum 20170124

They answered questions on expanding the committees reach and boosting effectiveness in the 2020 elections. Congressman Keith Ellison of minnesota and former labor secretary tom perez are among the speakers. Good evening. Good evening. Come on, lets clap. We made it through the storm. [ applause ] welcome to democracy in colors, Democratic National Committee Chair forum. Im amy allison. Were so thrilled that youre here and along with our partners and inclusive we want to welcome you warmly here today. Thanks so much for joining us here at George Washington university for this historic and important conversation about the future of the Democratic Party. We want to welcome our viewers on live stream who are joining us from across the country everywhere from ohio to florida to california to nevada and we look forward to your comments, your photos and your perspective, we can follow along the conversation. We also want to thank our partners jessica byrd and the raven group for making tonight happen. [ applause ] and another note we have some voting members of the Democratic National committee in the audience and we want to thank you for being here today for this conversation. [ applause ] we want to also thank you for your service. The words, the music and the message of the new america majority thats the multiracial progressives that located and reelected barack obama frame our conversation today, so to get us started id like to bring to the stage former Nevada State Assembly member and Vice President of Public Affairs for me too lucy flor res. Hello, hello. How is everyone feeling tonight . Yes this is fantastic. Look at this turnout and i know we are reaching hundreds of thousands of people on our live stream not only tonight but afterwards as well and thats really exciting. So thank you all for being here this evening. Me too is a proud, very proud media partner with democracy in color and inclusive because as a Digital Media company that strives to give voice to the 200 those who are 100 american and 100 latino we know how important it is to provide access to conversations that effect communities of color. We produce dont from a latino point of view that resonates across cultures, across jenders and across communities. And at a time when multicultural youth are on their way to becoming a majority in this country, conversations like these thats right numbers are numbers folks, we are on our way to becoming a majority. Conversations like these and access to conversations like these are more important than ever. In that spirit, me too is also very proud to bring to you raul a young man who has some powerful words to say about the power of words. [ applause ] in 1906 an earthquake ruptures the san ann dress fault killing an estimated 3,000 people. If vibrations can can break boulders and devastate lives then our words can split open minds and alter the geographical shape of its content because sound is vibration. Our verbs are its earthquakes, so lets break the ground our fallen heros are trapped underneath it. Leaders from being slaves. In 2010 an earthquake takes the lives of 300 thousands haitians. Do not underestimate the herk uleeion. But your silence is the reason this planet is dying. So lets cause a roucus. If earthquakes can destroy lives, our voices can rebuild them. In 2011, an earthquake devastates duke sheema japan. I have been to the mountain top and i looked over and i seen the promised land. But the only thing in our way is a mute mountain so we crumble mountains, we crack rock without need aig pipe, just give me one word, one sentence can make the ground move like a tsunami. You can hear the words crack in the concrete, cracking like the blacks of rebels from the past, cracking like the blast that malcolm x. s wrk. Believing earthquake will would cause prekugs, the future, the future belonged to those who prepare for it today. So today i have a dream but my dream wasnt heard. Today i have a dream, but my dream was deferred. Today i had a dream about a king but the king wasnt heard, the legends are angry, the world is violent while we stay for every action theres an equal opposite reaction. If the action is division then the reaction is multiple i have indication. Now this is just law. Voices react to vibrations. Vibrations react to earthquake so if sound is vibration, our verbs are its earthquakes so lets break the grounds our fallen heros are trapped underneath. Leaders from being slaves, react. Lets speak with talk like an earthquake, be like a rock and watch this Granite Planet shake. [ applause ] give him another round of applause. [ applause ] i can honestly say ive never come to a political event a forum like this opened so powerfully. We have such gratitude to our partners for bringing raul to this audience and again, our live audience, please, let us know youre there and shoutout from when youre joining the live stream. Now, given the outcome of the most recent election, its clearly a critical moment for the Democratic Party and our country and who leads us as chair of the dnc and the strategy of the party is going to be central to the success of gaining back power. So the road to tonights forum began in earnest from the poignant analysis articulated in democracy in colors founder Steve Phillips book, brown is the new white. It said among other things and it challenged us to look at the power and the potential of the new american majority to lead the Democratic Party forward. The current president made raw appeals to White Nationalism and steve is rightly stated unekwif caably the democrats lost because they did not know how to directly relate race. [ applause [ applause ] the fact is that people of color are 46 of the Democratic Party and those numbers will continue to go up and the reality calls for a new type of leadership and a new type of understanding of who the voters are and what they want in political leadership. Steven his wife have been working on this nonstop calling for solutions in this increasing racially polarized climate. So tonight, we have a very unique opportunity to have an open conversation about how race impacts the path forward, like the great dr. Reverend barber says, our task is to build a new language that pulls people together and explores new avenues to political strength, to save the heart of democracy. To hold race and class together as we not to cut across race but to cut through it as we find the solutions that perplex and challenge our nation. We have a deep belief that the next chair of the dnc must have the skills to lead and to organize a National Dialog on race, on Racial Justice and on a multiracial unity and this forum is going to help us to assess the readiness of each of the candidate youll meet tonight to participate and advance that effort. So, we invite fellow democrats to use this opportunity to take real ownership of the party and to contribute to its future direction. We invite a new era of transpar ren sill and democracy in the Democratic Party. We invite an opportunity to openly discuss the structural and strategic changes we need to make to start winning. And so now its my honor to introduce the first woman, first black woman ceo of the Democratic National committee who had some historical wins diversity in terms of staffing and contracting and i want to welcome to the stage leah dougherty. [ applause ] good evening. Good evening. My sisters and brothers, it is my pleasure to be with you this evening at the beheft of my good friend donna brew zel. And thank you allison for your introduction and thank you for democracy in color for presenting this gathering to us. In a month from now, the members of the dnc and i count myself among them will come together to elect our next chair and it is an exciting and pivotal time for us for our party, for our country. Weve just witnessed the inauguration of a president who most americans did not vote for. We also just witnessed the powerful gathering of millions of women from around the world and men come together in solidarity and common purpose to send a message that the hard won rights of women and girls must be protected and advanced. These two events won on the heels of the other, one filled with sorrow and anger and regret for us as democrats and the other with full of hope and possibility give our party an important opportunity to regroup, to retool and to remind ourselves of who we are as democrats that we have a mission, a mandate and a moral obligation to work, fight and speak on be half of those who cannot work, fight or speak for themselves. To be successful we must reach out to every segment of the electorate and we need our next chair to understand that as the mission, the mandate and the moral obligation that it is. Now o i dont like to talk about diversity because it seems to me that its hard to quantitify. Thats like taking a tea spoon of pepper and putting in a pound of salt and thinking youve made a difference. But you really havent changed the quality of the salt. I prefer to talk about when it comes to our party, representation. [ applause ] i believe that our partys apparatus must be representative of the communities who made our parties strong and vibrant as well as the communities that we are trying to reach. Top to bottom and bottom to top. Staffing, appointments consultants, pollsters, candidate recruitment and fundraising in every area [ applause ] in every area at every level. We need, we must have and we demand to be represented in the party to which we have been loyal and which has relied upon our votes year in and year out. [ applause ] it is a challenge, but it is not impossible. And i know, because as ceo of the 2016 and 2008 Democratic National conventions i achieved this goal. In 2016 my staff was 60 female and 54 people of color. [ applause ] and not only that, we set a goal of onethird of minority spending and we exceeded that reaching almost 50 my nort spending. [ applause ] so in front of the camera and behind the scenes, our staff was not our convention was not the best in spite of diversity but because of diversity, because we brought every voice, every community to the table. Our diversity is not our problem, it is our promise. [ applause ] and with commitment, with leadership and with intentional direction, we can achieve these results up and down the ballot, up and down our party, just by having the right tools. So tonight we will hear from seven of the now 11 i think candidates who are running for chair of the dnc and we want to know tonight and we look forward to them answering the questions, what are the steps and the strategies that they will take to engage the new american majority. On consultants, who drives the strategy, determines the outcome . How will they choose consultants and strategyist for the party . On recruitment of new candidates, how will they build the bench so that it is reflective of the electorate and what is the plan to recruit the next generation of progressive leaders and on fundraising how do we raise and spend dollars for minority communities . We look forward to hearing these answers. We are thrilled to have seven tonight who are qualified each of them to lead the Democratic Party into its next iteration, into its future and we look forward to pointed questions that gets to the heart of the matter, no busy footing around. We want real answers about how party will move forward under their leadership. Thank you and god bless you. [ applause ] and so without further ado we want an opportunity, i want an opportunity to invite our moderator to the stage, joy ann reed is host of a. M. Joy thats on nbc on weekends. Give her a round of applause. [ applause ] she is also shes also a columnist of the daily beast, an editor of the we are the change we speak. Speeches of barack obama that recently came out. Were so thrilled and thankful that youre here. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. [ applause ] thank you. All right. This is exciting. Thank you amy. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thats a d. C. Good evening. Its so polite. I want to thank George Washington for hosting this evening. My friend jessica byrd and gentleman malsimmons and steve phil lips this is an important debate. I think this is the central debate that the Democratic Party has to deal with Going Forward. Without further ado let me introduce those candidates for dnc chair who are with us tonight. So lets start with congressman Keith Ellison of minnesota. [ applause ] there he is. All right. Lets bring on mayor pete budachich [ applause ] raymond buckley. [ applause ] thats an easy one. Lets bring on Jamie Harrison [ applause ] and now jamu green. [ applause ] and lets bring on the honorable tom perez. [ applause ] and last but not least Sally Boynton brown. [ applause ] all right. Thank you all for being here. You guys can all have a seat. Youve got some water there. So tonight i think what im going to do my sort of plan here is to break this up into a few sections and i will want to start off with the elephant in the room, the obvious. We just had an election in which democrats won the popular vote but did not win the white house and one of the core questions that came out of this election is, who should democrats be targeting Going Forward . Pulled up some statistics here, we had africanamericans vote for the Democratic Party at a rate of 88 , 88 africanamericans voted for the democrats among white voters it was only 37 . Among latinos and this number is in dispute its 65 , or the trump got not 29 but some where closer to 20 . Asian American Voters 65 . One other piece of data about the election is that you had white voters with a College Degree still favor the republican party. And only white women with a College Degree favored Hillary Clinton but only really just barely. And despite the fact that Hillary Clinton actually improved on her numbers with white voters with a College Degree and spent a lot of time courting those voters and really focusing on them, she still didnt manage to win that group and yet you still have and of course white voters without a College Degree an overwhelming for donald trump more than 70 . Lets talk about this debate of whether or not democrats spents too much time frankly trying to win over particularly white women voters and really failing to do that at the end of the day and whether or not the Democratic Party wouldve done a better job and would have been wiser to focus more time and attention courting voters of color. Ill just go actually ill go in reverse order. Well start with Sally Boynton brown. I think its really point that we have a conversation of all the people. The idea of talking only to a specific group of people doesnt seem to work for us. We have one one thing in common, were human. Power is what will bring all of us forward. The Democratic Party needs to realize this more than anything else is that there are people out there who are not being heard and we need to make sure that were bringing all of those voices together and that we stop sieloing power conversations into specific groups of people. The reality is the folks in our country dont feel like theyre kids are going to have a better life than they had and thats an issue that we had to solve because if we dont solve it, nobody else is going to. Tom perez. Sure. I think its a false choice to have to say that were going to go to one community or another. What we have to do and what we did a poor job of in this election we didnt make house calls, we didnt get out there and persuade. You cant show up at a church every fourth october and call that an organizing strategy. And thats what we did as democrats. When we are there talking ted kennedy in 1980 at the Democratic Convention talked about the most important civil right for any person say job. And when we talk about jobs, when we talk about opportunity and the second pill ar of the Democratic Party has been that weve always taken care of folks who are in the shadows making sure that they get into the sunshine and when we Pay Attention to those two pillars thats how we succeed. And when we are organizing, whether its in milwaukee or whether its in rural wisconsin and talking about that message of hope and opportunity, thats when the Democratic Party is at its best. When hope is on the ballot we win and when fear is on the ballot we dont do so hot. Thats why we need an every zip code strategy thats married around that basic message of Economic Opportunity and a party that is all about everyone, inclusion is our strength, diversity is our greatest asset as a country and we can talk about that everywhere, because when you talk about opportunity, we need to talk about are you lifting people up, or are you dragging them down . We sometimes get too bent out of shape, are you on the left, the right, the center. Are you lifting people up or bringing them down . When we give people a job we give people that opportunity . When we make sure that communities have safe and constitutional policing, were expanding opportunity. When we make sure that immigrants have access to the American Dream were expanding opportunity. I think that works everywhere. I absolutely agree with sally and secretary perez. I think that we have to do a better job as democrats engaging americans of all hues, jenders, generations and backgrounds but i will be very blunt. The dnc did a piss poor pathetic job of engaging young people of color in the 2016 election and we have to own that. We also did a very bad job of communicating intersectionality. Sexism, racism, classism, homophobia all of this is connected and we did not make a better way of communicating to all of these communities that are effected by these issues. If we had then we wouldve turned out the white voters that are now getting the focus of the Media Attention and i think one of the things that compelled me to get into this race the possibility of overcompensating for those strategic mistakes. We cannot do that as a party. [ applause ] i have to agree with jamu. Something we do quite often as democrats we ask this question, i just dont understand, how do these people vote against their best interest, right . It is because it goes down to one thing, its about trust. Voters in this country dont vote here most of the time they vote here and here and the problem that we have as a derm party were always trying to focus on this and we dont focus on this. Its a question of trust. Do working class people trust that democrats are fighting for them. Do africanamericans feel like the Democratic Party has their best interest. Do latinos actually feel like were fighting for them . You can go on and on with all the various groups. I used to be a teacher. Taught ninth grade social studies, the most powerful way to persuade anybody is to show and not tell. The problem that weve had for the past decade in this party is that we do a lot of telling. And not enough showing. So if we really want to talk about how to we talk about millennials, we go to show and not tell. How do we talk to africanamericans, dont tell me that youre criminal Justice Reform when the opportunity comes and you dont vote right on it [ applause ] we have to get back to connecting where the voters where were showing them instead just telling it to them. [ applause ] i think youre going to hear a very similar story from all of us on this because we have spent so much time together this is our eighth or ninth time. We all understand what the challenge is. The reality is, though, how are we going to move forward . I think a lot of the millennials, a lot of americans were very upset and disappointed with the way the nominating process working out. Not believing it was fair. We have to address that and make sure the votes of the people in each state is respected and that everyone is welcome. They know that its a fair process. That their voices are heard. We need to completely revamp and reform the way the Democratic Party operates and is structured. We need to make sure that everyone feels welcome. Nothing nothing made me angrier reading that story about our u. S. Senators in the ridiculous percentage of africanamerican staff that they have. That is absolutely unacceptable. Im not going to allow that as our chair. I would go and meet with each one of those senators saying, this stuff stops now. We need to make sure that the dnc properly reflects the diversity of our party. We need to make sure that our staff properly reflects the diversity of our party. We have to make sure nat contracts and all of those millions that we dole out reflect the diversity of the party. Now were all talking about how were going to reconnect with the people in the communities and i believe it is going back to what worked. It worked when howard dean had the majority and he stood up to washington and said we are going to fund it and the people at the said no, no. We want the money. And he said no. And we won in 2006 and we won in 2008. They will won in 2009 when the fight came. And they took the money away. And we have lost, we have lost, and weve lost again. How we going to afford that . You add up about 300,000 that would give you five or six staffers for every state party that could build a ground operation all across their state. We transferred 15 million last year to the ds and the dcc and there is. All right. [ applause ] so ill try not to repeat so many things that have been said that are so right. Id like to add a couple things. One is this conversation happens about how do we reach out to White Working Class voters. I think now is the time all of us have to stand up and say, that cannot, must not and will not have anything to do with abandoning the core of racial and social justice that gives our party its moral foundation p. Were a world where i fear that i call it the salad bar problem. We think the only way to speak to somebody is one group at a time. Intersectionality. Im a walking intersection altd american. I dont know exactly which caucus im supposed to go to first, second or third. If we only talk to one group at a time about only the issues that we think theyll only care about, if we only talk to the africanamerican about africanamerican issues, if we only talk to Lgbt Community about lbgt stuff, latinos im not [ speaking Foreign Language ] if were only talking to people one at a time were missing that we have universal val thoouz bind us all together. When the reality is africanamericans pay for equal pay for equal work and people in the lgbt care about vote rights and the best answer ive seen to the salad bar problem is what i saw on saturday. When i was in south bend marching with the women of south bend in solidarity with the women of this country and around the world. That was a womens march. But it was a march for all of us. There were old people and young people and people of all colors. And i suspect some people from different political parties. We were all united. And i think solidarity not isolation is the way that we can move forward as a party. [ applause ] joy, you asked the question, you know, which group should we target and then you identified the percentages who voted for our candidate. The truth is theres a whole lot of people who should have been voting for us who dont show up in those statistics because they didnt vote at all and the truth is we have a very serious turnout problem in the Democratic Party. In detroit where i was born and raised. I represent minnesota now, 100,000 fewer people voted this time than in 2012. Because were not going to the doors and knocking on people and talking to them about their basic core needs. Now in the fifth Congressional District of minnesota even though people might say were say safe seat, we campaigned like were ten points behind every single election and as a result we had i would average about 150,000 votes in 2006 and now we got 250,000 in the last election and because we got people out to vote who havent been voting, we were able to keep minnesota blue in a year when a wave swept over wisconsin and michigan. So the thing is instead of just saying what percentage voted for which category which voted for the democratic, lets go get some people who have been ignored by the Democratic Party by knocking on their door. This really let me tell you this really is the key. Steve phillips wrote a great book, brown is the new white. Id recommend you all read that book and let me just tell you, he identified my district about page 129, some where around there about how in 2014 the state of minnesota we had a 3 dip in turnout but my district had a 5 increase in turnout and because of it we were able to see our governor stay democrat, attorney general, governors. I got some minnesotaens here. So this is really the truth heres the simple fact the Democratic Party ignores the blue states and ignores the red states and goes to the swing states. So you start so who feels left out . Everybody. And so theres no excuse with all that money that were not putting money into black media. Latino media, native american media. Theres no excuse to not running ads or latino, black radio. Theres no excuse for all the money that we spend that were not taking it and deploying it out of washington to the people. We got to take it from the consultant and give it to the people of this country and thats how were going to win. [ applause ] thank you very much. Now while you all spurned my statistics. I do love a number. The reality is that that sounds really good and you all sound very good and i think thats important but racially polarizing voting is the reality in the united states. And that just a fact, right . And that democrats have invested heavily in trying to win over in the Clinton Campaign invested in trying to win over particularly White College educated women. They invested their resources there and my question, which all of you very skillfully evaded, was whether they made a mistake in not devoting more resourc resources so ill come to you, i think they said, yes they made a mistake. But im going to come back sally to you again because the question is, whether or not the dnc, ccc and the Clinton Campaign were in error in devoting so Many Television commercials to our kids our watching, not enough Television Commercials to africanamerican radio as Keith Ellison said. So many resources to try to win over, you know, white voters in arizona and based on donald trumps, you know, poor standing among americans and not enough in jeo tv in cleveland. Whether that was an error. I think definitely think the way that those resorgss twargtsed didnt work. We didnt win the election at the end of the day. We need to make sure that were reaching out and lifting up the voices of people who dont traditionally. White people we hear from all the time. And they get targeted all the time. We need to make sure were targeting those resources when they need to be targeted. I will say that they needed to spend all the of the money on television that they did. When you knock on a door. I dont pick certain doors to knock on. I knock on all the doors on that block. And i pick those neighborhoods out based on the places we need to go. We need to spending more time in rural america. More time in our communities of color where we can lift people up and get them involved in the process. We cant just say that were diverse and leave huge swaths of people out of our communities. Ill make the question more specific for you one of the other complaints that you hear from voters of color was that the Democratic Party, the Clinton Campaign, the dnc were not focused enough on the issue of Voter Suppression and there was not a in places like north dakota and wisconsin where the dnc was essentially absent do you feel that was the case. Voter suppression is the civil rights issue of our time. We have to understand, folks, that this is and always will be part of the playbook. Why is it part of the playbook because it works and part the secretary of state of ohio is a full employment act for civil rights lawyers. They purge voters and then by the time you win the suit its too late. In North Carolina by the time we won the suit, it was too late. And as a result you look at africanamerican turnout, it wasnt as good as it was in 2004. It wasnt as good when the president was on the ballot but even lower than it was when john kerry was on the ballot in 2004. The list goes on. Thats why and we have some really good folks at the dnc who are working on this but its a group of three or four people. You cant go to a knife fight way spoon. And thats what were currently doing right now. And thats why what i call for in my platform is we need to establish an office of Voter Protection and engagement. Both offense and defense. Youve got voter purges. Americans abroad are victims of voter purjz and these are wrong and theyre illegal. And then the whole voter i. D. Law in the state of texas. If youre at the ut austin that i. D. Doesnt count. If you got your concealed carry license that counts. That is wrong. The voter i. D. Law in texas was simply put there to make it harder for africanamericans and latinos to vote, period. End of story. And so what we have to do is play offense and play defense. And that is exactly what i am calling for. Organize played offense. Vote by mail. We should have same day registration, universal Voter Registration when you turn 18 years old thats what we should be doing day in and day out and we must make sure in addition to that to get back to your original question, i couldnt agree more and i think theres among this group if we take that 10 million tv budget and cut it to six and put that four into organizing and make sure its a 12 month enterprise, we wouldve won arizona but instead there was a 3 million late ad by in october that didnt move the needle at all and if they had been spending that for a year in florida, the republicans invested for four years in organizing. They turned out about 120, 130,000 more voters because of that and what was their margin of victory for them, 110 or 115,000. That was a difference maker folks and when we do that we succeed. Im going to jump around. Im going to go to the congressman because i think you were more in the camp of saying it was a mistake but the statistics show that 23 right now of all eligible voters are progressive voters of color, progressive whites are about 28 of the electorate so together that adds up to 51 of the electoral ats. Not able to carry toefr the finish line. You came to the 2016 election as a supporter of Bernie Sanders who was very popular among some of this audience and among these younger progressive voters. Did the sanders team, did senator sanders do enough to activate those young voters of color and encourage them to vote because i think that the exit polls showed that they were some of the least attached when it came to the electorate. Many of them voted third party. Did the sanders team err . Theres a lot of that who didnt do what, who should have done more. Clearly the i shouldve done more, everybody should have done more, right . I will say this, you know, when Bernie Sanders came to minnesota, i had some young people in my district say to me we want to talk to the candidates and i said, well ill see what i can do. And i asked senator sanders would you come to a high school in the heart of the communities of color and talk to people. He said, i dont know. When would it be . It would be this time. Are you inviting both candidates . Yeah we are. So happened he did show up. Packed out Patrick Henry high school and i think that at least in minnesota which went for senator sanders that was an important message. The young people there asked him some very tough questions. Got in his face a little bit. He answered those questions in a forthright way and the fact is the outcome was that we did have an excellent outcome in that particular state. There is no one we have to work harder to talk directly to young people of color to turn them out. The mill len ideal community, the millennial generation is as big if not bigger than baby boomers right now. The Millennial Community of color is the winning combination and steve has said in his book this rising american electorate are enough to win the election if we we have to be knocking on every door, we have to spend money on community of color media, we have to spend money on social media so we talk directly to the needs of young people and young people of color. It is a matter of investment and its a matter of time, but heres the deal. The reality is we havent been doing much of that for anyone. If we want to win elections those investments have got to happen and theyve got to happen now. So im happy that everyone is committed whether its Hillary Clinton or whether its Bernie Sanders and everyone that we have got to get involved and really prevamp the Democratic Party to make sure we are investing in young people and people of communities of color because thats how were going to win. Thats how were going to win michigan and wisconsin, pennsylvania but also ohio, california and districts within there and thats the path forward. So thank you. Thank you. I want to go to ray buckley on the question of as dnc chair, how would you, you hail from a state New Hampshire which doesnt have a lot of people of color, what would be your plan to increase turnout and attachment among voters of color if you were dnc chair . I wanted to just reiterate something that weve all said but just want to make sure, there is not a word that any one of us is saying that we dont all agree with. And so what were not doing is repeating the same lines over and over because theres so much that we really want to bring for it. In 1985 in the midst of the aids crisis i felt i had to do something for my community. So many of my friends were going to a funeral a week for over a couple years so i was one of the original found rsz of the citizens alliances for gay and less bion rights in New Hampshire. All we were doing is talking and thats not what im about. Im not about talking, im about doing. So i ran for the legislature in 1984 and became one of the openly gay legislatures in. 2014 when republicans were winning across in New Hampshire, our turnout for democrats went up 3 when it was down 3 countrywide. We reelected our governors and cut all our losses in half. This year, this year, where they talk about Millennial Vote being down it was up in New Hampshire. It was up because we have that grassroots operation that every single state, every single congressional should have. We have that, we have an entire female congressional delegation. Now that is an important thing as were fighting against donald trump. But we barely won because it wasnt of any help what was happening from coming from washington. And so what we need to do is take what were doing, statewide in the state of New Hampshire where turnout is up and people are included and people are involved and make sure that that happens everywhere. When it comes to people of color, im absolutely going to reject and i think everyone that we need to do either or. It is about having a conversation, every community, every community. Mill threatenials, africanamericans, White Working Class, lgbt, latino. Everyone believes that the Democratic Party is not talking to them. Because theyre not. Because were not. Because its the washington insiders that are spending millions, hundreds of millions over a billion dollars in tv ads and sending nothing back to the states. And whats happening is nobodys having interaction. Can you imagine if we literally hired hundreds if not thousands of organizers to go across in every Congressional District, doesnt matter deep blue or deep red, everywhere, were having a conversation with people so that we know what theyre talking about, and were hearing. We need to flip the dnc upside down. The grassroots should be on top and it should be about the people deciding what the party should be about and we need to make sure mentioned a little bit making sure the staff isdiv the membership of the dnc and state party is diversified, and our contacts, it is absolutely essential. Its absolutely essential we do that because there are so many young people of color that are not being offered the opportunities they deserve because they are the future of the Democratic Party and if we ignore them and do not bring them in or train them and empower them, they will go elsewhere and we cant afford to do that if we want to have a progressive majority in the future. [ applause ] mayor, what would be your plan to increase turnout among voters of color . As dnc chair . First i think the solutions arent going to come from washington. They are going to come from our communities. Let me tell you what we did in south bend. My experience day to day governing and also politically is that the progressive mayor from a blueish city in a purple county in a very very red state, mike pence is indiana, and we have been able to succeed not just my own reelection getting 80 , which is not something we achieved through idealogical centrism or triangulation, its a priority and goal to make sure we won in every district, including the majority districts, which is a diverse city. We did it through Old Fashioned organizing, making sure we were reaching out to people where they were and making sure we were speaking to them with a message that spoke to their needs but spoke to higher values and our organizing success since then is based on the same ideas its how we made sure the first African American city clerk, the second highest city office in south bend got elected after we worked really hard to support her through the same tactics and how we made sure in the last election as we were facing the wave that came our way in 2016 that we were able to get the first africanamerican representative to represent our area in the state house in a long time. Uaw leader, by the way. In a district that was far from strongly democratic. How did we do it . Strong message tied to our values and strong organizing tactics rooted in the needs of the local community, not driven by a cookie cutter approach or applied from the top down. Talking how these things would affect peoples actual lives. It doesnt matter where you put media spending if youre not talking about values. People vote their values. They turn out for what they believe in. I believe we need to get back to the values that make us democrats, including values we havent been as comfortable talking about on our side of the aisle like freedom. But who can say youre free if youre not able to exercise your right to vote . Who can say youre free if youre living with crushing student debt . We cant be the party when they say the system is rigged, we say the system is perfectly fine. We have to be the ones to point out they are the ones that rigged it. [ applause ] same when we talk about the things we always talk about like fairness and families and talking about the future. We cant just assume the new american majority will be for us just because. If we assume that people of color are going to vote for us because we have a d next to our name, that is the definition of taking people for granted. Absolutely. We need to not only win but deserve to win and only with that message in the right place will the tactics and organizing and all those other pieces come into place, too. [ applause ] all right. I want to give jamie and jamu a chance to answer how they would increase turnout among voters of color. Jamie, youre in a state with a very large africanamerican population that is essentially a frustrated vote because percentagewise there are more africanamericans in South Carolina than michigan but they are not able to affect statewide elections in the same way. What would be your plan to improve turnout among voters of color, all voters of color. Thank you, joy, for that. So the Democratic Party has to transform itself. We have become a Political Organization that basically goes out and begs for votes every two or four years and we do that through tv and we do it through mail and radio. But what we need to do is go back to what we used to be which was a Grassroots Organization that was in the communities helping people solve the issues that they are facing on a day to day basis. So, you know, when i grew up in rural South Carolina, my mom was 15 years old when she had me. 15, 16 years old. She had to drop out of high school in order to take care of me. She had to find a job. Jobs are hard to come by. And so it used to be one of those things back in the day where you could reach out to your city councilman or your congressman or your senator and say i need your help. I need your help because ive lost my home. I need your help because ive lost my job. My mom did that. She reached out to both of our senators at that time. It was hollins and thurmond. Well, we laugh about Strom Thurman but it was his office who made some calls and my mom got a job shortly thereafter. My mom never forgot that. Because the most important thing to her was her little baby boy. And this politician helped her be able to take care of him. That is what we have to get back to in the Democratic Party. So when i became chair understanding that connection, again, its all about trust. Understanding that connection, i decided to launch a program. We call it South Carolina democrats care. So on inauguration day, instead of just rallies and protests, what did we do . We went out all across the state of South Carolina doing service efforts. Service activities across the state. From blankets for the homeless to tutoring of young kids, homeowner workshops, resume building skills. When we are able to prove to People Democrats arent in power in South Carolina but when people see that were in their communities helping them address the issues that are pressing and in front of them, that is how you change the minds. That is how you change the hearts of people. So when we talk about what we need to do in order to get folks out, we have to once again prove to people that we are fighting for them. That were on their side and have their back and until we do that, well continue to talk and have these forums, scrapping scratching our heads, why arent these people voting for us . They arent voting for us because they dont believe were for them and until we do that, until we transform this and transform the function to what the dnc does, were going to continue to have these academic conversations. Thank you, guys. [ applause ] jamu, same thing, what would you do . What would be your plan to increase turnout among voters of color . I definitely agree with jamie this is a transformational moment were facing in the Democratic National committee and a lot of people have asked why did i get into this race about 11 days ago . One of the reasons i got in was as i watched the race develop and i watched the dncs rules and Bylaws Committee put together how this process would be decided, i was really disappointed that the Democratic Party did not take the opportunity after our losses in 2016 and give yall a voice in this election. And that is what needs to happen. We need to revolutionize how we elect our leadership at the dnc and revolutionize how we engage with millennials. I think it was secretary perez talked about 2004 and john kerry, on top of the ticket. Not necessarily a charismatic candidate. Do you know how that increase happened in 2004 . Im sorry, at the risk of sounding trumponian, it was because under my leadership at rock the vote, we engaged with millenials in ways using technology and innovating our communications with them where we saw an 11 increase in turnout of young voters. Thats what the Democratic Party needs to do and thats why in this transformational moment, we need an organizer leading the dnc. That is what we need to tap into in 2004 it wasnt the Democratic Party, it wasnt john kerrys campaign who rolled their eyes at me at the beginning when i said young people were going to be mobilized in ways that they had never seen before, and then days before the election, they came back and said were counting on young people. They went from rolling their eyes to im counting on you. You know why . Outside groups spent 40 million engaging young people. Rock the vote implemented online Voter Registration and gave away the free for allies. The Democratic National committee needs to spend 40 million a year engaging millenial voters and this is what i would do as dnc chair. We also need to invest in state parties. There is a lot of conversation about the 50 state strategy. They need to have the technology, the staffing, the training, the resources, the shared services, all of those things are important but we also need to revolutionize state parties so they become hubs of innovation for young people to go in, learn concepts about disruption, learn the concept of failing up. Try a lot of things. Throw a lot of efforts at them and fail up. This is what happens with the entrepreneurial spirit that the Millenial Generation can bring to the Democratic Party. We need to make sure state parties are those hubs of innovation. We also need to make sure we are training an army of messengers. An army. We put forward so many of our Elections Officials in front of the camera, at the microphone, on the podium, on the stages. Guess what . The republicans what they do is train young people and give them resources and provide a foundation for them and they release them on to the world. And we need to do the same thing. It cannot be the same faces talking about the values and principles and policies that are life or death issues for our generation. So it is time that we said its great politicians, yalls faces look real nice but were going to put young people in front of that camera. They will be at the mic, podium and stage. The Democratic Party has an opportunity in this process. I do think that we have to acknowledge that if we dont take advantage of this opportunity as an organizer, i hate the opportunity costs of not tapping into an organizing moment. If we do not take advantage of this opportunity to transform the party, we may never get it again. Thats going to take someone that understands brand management, which i have done in ways as an organizer at rock the vote and in the private sector. This is the time we can do something new. I look to the young people in this audience and it saddens me you dont have a vote in this process. Maybe there are some dnc members here. I see my old roommate from the aflcio, you have a vote. Maria, you have a vote. How many people in this room do not have a vote in this process . We can change that. We should have changed that. Those are the types of ideas i would bring to the dnc. [ applause ] i think sally raised her hand. You raised your hand, as well. Very interesting. Another fun statistic on speaking of Millennial Voters millenial voters have officially surpassed baby boomers as the largest voting bloc in the country. So they are now the largest voting bloc. My generation, generation x, will pass boomers by 2028. This is increasingly a conversation not just about africanamerican and hispanic and asian American Voters but about young voters of color because they are so numerous in those younger generations. Lets talk about some of the issues that Younger Voters really care a lot about. Obviously, we have a new Justice Department coming that could make black lives matter protests a lot more charged and a lot more difficult. I described it as john lewis with no rfk from the 60s. What should the dncs messaging strategy be regarding black lives matter . Ill start at the other end. How should the dnc message black lives matter. The dnc has to acknowledge black lives matter are responding to urgent social and justice problems in our country. Black lives matter cropped up because of mass incarceration, you know, Trayvon Martins execution, all these sort of social problems that ive worked on as a lawyer and young activist my whole life. And what i would say the dnc needs to do is offer itself and make itself into the kind of place that black lives matter feels it can channel its Electoral Energy. So for example, demonstration is absolutely key, i believe in it, ive done it my whole life and ill do it some more. I also know you have got to have some legislation to go with that demonstration that youre seeking that will ultimately result in a change of law. Just like john lewis was fighting for the 1965 Voting Rights act, the 1964 civil rights act. You got to have the demonstration has to result in legislation or you end up with a whole lot of frustration. So thats the real key. How can we get black lives matter but also fight for 15 in the union, the immigration struggle, the 350. Org, all of this great energy that is out there and say look, well prove ourselves worthy of your vote. Your Electoral Energy and do it by including you in leadership. Well do it by work helping you form our platform and writing our platform and well do it by making sure you know if you put your time, your energy into helping democrats get elected, you will see the reforms that you are protesting for. That is the way that we engage. All right. Mayor. Again, when i speak about the values that make us democrats one of the core values i talk about is fairness. Fairness is justice and we have a crisis of confidence right now, a crisis of trust between the communities of color in places like south bend and every other city in the country and the Law Enforcement officers who are sworn and trusted to protect their lives and thats a matter of moral urgency. Its not a partisan issue but lets be real about this. One party is a little more attentive to those concerns than the others. Especially at a moment like this. The scary thing is up until now confronting these issues head on in south bend and i can tell you as a mayor, this is a real challenge. I was pleased today to get the numbers in from my Police Department and see the uses of force were down and citizen complaints were down, partly because my police chief understands we dont measure success by how many arrests are made. Part of how we measure success is by whether we are driving use of force down, even when calls of service went up, and citizen complaints. That shows that were doing the right thing but up until now, we had friends in washington to help give us the frame work to do it. Were doing it at home. Again, the work has to be done from the ground up. Organizingwise or politically. Or in the government, too. It sure does help when you know that washington cares. The task force on 21st Century Policing that this president convened and i sent my police chief to, changed the entire conversation about what it means to authentically build relationships of trust between communities of color and the Law Enforcement community. Right now, im afraid we cant count on washington caring one bit. That is an emergency. That makes the job of every mayor whose most important function is to hold the Community Together so much harder. And never mind the mayors view, it makes life harder because our communities cant be held together the way they ought to be. All of us need to be engaging. Movements, not for the perspective only how its going to benefit us politically. People can see through that quickly but at the level of our shared values so that the leaders in these movements understand that we are authentically delivering solutions to make sense for them and if there is ever a question about that, look no further than the new attorney general of the united states. Ray buckley. Yes, black lives matter. Im not sure there is an issue that makes me more angry then when you have news media and right wing folks somehow changing the subject. If you are supportive of black lives matter, it doesnt mean you dont believe that other lives matter less or more. It is ridiculous for how it has been spun. And why i am so passionate is let me just tell you a little bit about what happened to me on election morning. We were all grieving and i was shocked that america elected donald trump. I could not believe i got home around 4 00 in the morning. But at 6 00 in the morning i was woken up. I saw that it was my niece tanesha. What had not even processed in my mind when i was so upset about what the results were, how she was going to as a young African American 20yearold, how she processed what happened the night before and she was sobbing so hard i couldnt understand at first what she was saying and i kept saying, what is wrong, what is wrong . She goes, uncle raymond, you have to get me out of here. She feared for her safety by what happened on election day. Now, until all of america understands the fear that is out there, the justified fear because of what were seeing happen across the country, to African American lives, were never going to be able to move this country forward. It is important. I never again want to ever get a call from the today show like that. It was a soul crushing experience for me because when tanesha was saying get me out of this country because my life is in danger because she had that overwhelming fear, that is something that it is not just certain cities. Its not just certain parts of the country. That fear is all across the country. Its even in rural New Hampshire. So when people say black lives matter, you are damn right they matter. Jamie harrison. Im going to ask everybody to be mindful of time. We got a lot to get through. You know, sometimes, you know, we get a little pc in this party. A little . Folks started talking about identity politics and all this and all that. Ive been a black man my entire life, and my experience as a black man that grew up in South Carolina. Few miles down the road where walter scott was shot. You know guys, for a lot of folks, all this is new. Let me tell you, if youre a black person, particularly a black person and most of us all got family in the south, this stuff has been going on for generations. [ applause ] juries where the evidence is plain and clear but yet, the people get off not guilty. Going on for decades, this is not new. Where i am taught as a little kid to be wary of Certain Police officers. When im in my car driving and the blue light comes behind me, maybe not pulling me over but to see it, fear goes through my body, goose bumps on my arm. And to have folks dismiss that. Dismiss that fear. Dismiss the feeling and to say oh, thats just only in your mind, but you see it time and time and time again. I remember the first time i learned about emmet till and i remember going home and looking in the mirror and this round face reminded me of his. My friends, this party, this party, it should be no question this party embraces, acknowledges and fights to say that black lives matter. [ applause ] a party in which Hillary Clinton got 88 of the vote from that community. Barack obama 95 of the vote. The most loyal constituency in the Democratic Party. So we got to stand up and ask this party, you want us . You got to fight for us, too. But yes, if i am chair, we know black lives will matter. [ applause ] can i steal that line from jamie . Look, black period, lives period, matter, period. As dnc chair what can any of the candidates up here do to support this movement . As someone who has spent the last six and a half years on pox news debating and fighting with conservatives that dont know anything other than to lie for a living, ive been able to win with the truth. We have a serious communications and messaging problem in the Democratic Party. We need to start by making sure that our party, our activists, our elected officials, our leaders, understand what implicit bias is. We need to have a real conversation about implicit and explicit bias and institute that in our training programs, institute that into how we recruit candidates, institute that within the framework of the staff and the teams and the dnc members who will be deciding this election. Thats something that the dnc chair can do. The other thing the dnc chair has to do is hold the media accountable. Because implicit bias comes from the media images that make not just people out watching fox news, but all over the world, scared of when they see Jamie Harrison and that has to be called out. The media is not always our friend and that is something that i bring to this debate where i understand the games they play, and im not going to play them anymore. As a democrat, this is our opportunity to say you, as media elites, as these cable news networks, profited off of the 2016 election and delivered us this nightmare in the white house. Were not taking it anymore. Training not just democrats on implicit bias, training not just our elected officials on implicit bias, but holding the media accountable so that this is a longterm strategy that we can shift the conversation, change the conversation around how black people are reflected in this country, and that is something the dnc chair can do. [ applause ] tom perez . Of all the questions you have asked tonight, this is the one thats most personal for me. Because i spent the bulk of my career working on issues of Police Reform. I prosecuted an lapd officer prerodney king. I had hair and no Replacement Parts and i saw a toxic culture in that department. When i had the privilege of coming back to the department of justice, we ended up negotiating more Consent Decrees in my three and a half years there than had been done in the previous 15 years or so that that law existed. Consent decrees in seattle, Consent Decrees in portland, new orleans, albuquerque, cleveland, so many other cities. And i learned a few things from those experiences, folks. The first thing ive learned is we live in a world of false choices. You either have respect for the constitution, or we have law and order. That, my friends, is a false choice. We ask the wrong questions. In the aftermath of the unrest we saw earlier this year, youd see donald trump and Jeff Sessions saying, you know, what side are you on . Are you on the polices side or are you on the communitys side . Thats the wrong question. I have spoken to hundreds of Law Enforcement officers. They tell me if you dont have the trust of the community as a Police Officer, you aint got shit. Thats what they tell me. You know what, folks . Those Consent Decrees were hard. I had democrats, frankly, who at times didnt want us to do this. Okay . So it wasnt just republican opposition. I had democrats who didnt want us to do this. We were able to succeed because we had the Community Behind us. People causing what john lewis calls good trouble whether its the black lives Matter Movement. Whether it was the naa in arizona. With joe aur pie arpaio, the former sheriff of arizona maricopa county. We had the Community Behind us. Without the community, you cant do anything in this space and i learned a lot from that. That is true in the voting context, as well and that is why whether its the black lives Matter Movement or whether a remarkable coalition in phoenix, the remarkable coalition in los angeles that brought about Police Reform including Law Enforcement, we cannot paint with an unduly broad brush. I met so many Courageous Police chiefs who said its a pox on our house when we are not taking care of this issue and when we dont have a Police Department that reflects the community. [speaking Foreign Language]. How can you help the Latino Community when you dont have latino officers . Kind of hard to communicate in my experience. Thats why we need a police force, Law Enforcement that reflects the community. Thats why we need a Business Community that reflects america. Thats why we need as Sandra Day Oconnor said, we need all pathways of leadership to be visibly available. This is the Unfinished Business of america. Civil rights, thats what ted kennedy said and he was right and the dnc needs to reflect that. We need to reflect that in everything we do. I heard from time to time people say this aint a policy job. This is absolutely an organizing job, this is absolutely a change management job and i think it is important for the dnc to understand policy and Voting Rights, policy and policing because if we want to be a player in this, we need to have a little bit of depth in this substance so that we can be a meaningful player. And my entire career has been about civil rights and labor rights and been about what they did, the march on washington. It was a march for jobs and justice and a march that said sanitation workers just because you pick up trash doesnt mean you can be treated like garbage. I have worked on the back of a trash truck and folks on the back of a trash truck should treated with dignity. Everyone should be treated with dignity. As jamie and others so eloquently point out, we aint there yet as a nation. And we have to do this. And the dnc needs to lead the charge. Side by side with the black lives Matter Movement. Side by side with nclr and side by side with progressive leaders in Law Enforcement that tell me time and time again im glad you were there. Im scared to death of a Justice Department under Jeff Sessions. Because you know what . He doesnt believe in these Consent Decrees and these Consent Decrees change lives. I got a call from a person, a Police Officer in portland. They had they had a series of incidents involving fatal shootings of people with mental illness. Thats what brought us in there. I got a call after our Consent Decree that said we saved a life today because they were properly trained and equipped to do their work and that was because of the work so many people did. This stuff is way personal for me. And the reason im so excited about what happened this weekend is this stuff is way personal for everyone across america. They are waking up and we got to turn this moment into a movement and we cant do that unless the dnc is firing on all cylinders. It aint right now. But im confident it will be. Black lives matter and it makes me sad that were even having that conversation and that tells me that white leaders in our party have failed. We have to accept there is prejudice that exists within our own party and we have to be able to have that conversation. We cannot sweep that under the rug. We cannot continue to hide it. We cannot smash voices down when they are trying to scream, listen to me, you dont get it. Im a white woman. I dont get it. I am pleased and honored to be here today to have the conversation. I am so excited that were here. And im listening. Because thats my job. My job is to listen to the issues. [ applause ] my job is to listen and be a voice and shut other white people down when they want to interrupt. My job is to shut other white people down when they want to say oh, no, im not prejudiced, im a democrat, im accepting. My job is to make sure that they get, that they have privilege and until we shut our mouths and we listen to those people who dont and we lift our people up so that we all have equity in this country, so that we are all fighting alongside each other, so that we are all on the same page and we clearly get where were going, were not going to break through this. This is not just rhetoric. This is life or death. This moment in our country, the Democratic Party has the opportunity to do something different. We have the opportunity to really confront the fact that we have not been in alignment with our values. Weve been talking a lot of smack. We need to make sure that our actions and our words and our values all match and around the issue of race we are so far out of alignment, i dont even know the way back, but i am listening and asking and talking to people. I am talking to people of color because you have the answers, you can tell me as a leader what i need to do and thats exactly what im going to do. Is continue to have those conversations and continue to talk to people and make sure that every single system in our party is designed to give power back to the people. All people but especially those people who have been disenfranchised in our country since our country started. So please, please, please, please this is a conversation i want to have and i am from idaho. We are so white. [ laughter ] so white. Right . Ive been reaching out and trying to connect to anybody of color i can find to be honest with me. [ laughter ] i am not a politician. I am a human being trying to do good work and i cant do it without yall. So please, please, please, get ahold of me. Sally at we the dnc. Org. I need schooling and i depend on you and the people around our community to do that so that i can go school the other white people. We need it. [ laughter ] thank you. All right. I wanted to say very quickly. Jamu hit this right on. The thing were missing in this party is training. We pulled people in that are volunteers. They dont know anything and we send them out to have conversations with people, hard conversations. We promote them to chair of a party where they have power and they have no clue what they are doing. We have to at the dnc provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate. How to be sensitive and how to shut their mouths if they are white. So i think i made my point. I think so. Im going to just let you guys know were running short on time so now im going to have to really have economy of time on the answers. Im going to make these really simple. Lets do a show of hands question. I love show of hands question. No, no. We do, too. Show of hands question. One of the big debates in the way the party opens is open or closed primaries. Ill ask each of you not to talk but raise your hand if you believe democratic primaries philosophically should be open. Oh. Open primaries. She said philosophically. Open to what . Open as opposed to independents being able to vote in open primaries or closed, where only registered democrats vote in them. So open primaries raise your hand again. Closed primaries. I think its up to the states. Philosophically. Philosophically. Philosophically, i dont think you can have a one size fits all approach. Does anybody believe it should be closed . Very quickly. Joy, in South Carolina we have open primaries but what happens sometimes is republicans cross over into our primaries, particularly in majority African American counties. They will pop up somebody and that person is the clone when we all know that they are republican. Thats why im hesitant yes or no question. Let me ask something very quickly. The idea of the fear behind not having open primaries is because the Democratic Party has not done a good enough job of making young people and all people connected to this party, a d by your name and that is why we have to rebuild this party not just from the grassroots up but also under why stand the damage thats been done to our brand. If we fix the brand of the Democratic Party, the fear of open primaries would go away but these are the steps we have to take very strategically and in the sense of bringing an organizing mind to this problem. Very quick. We dont have a ton of time. Is there anyone who believes that Democratic Party has fallen down on voting registration without closed primaries theres no incentive to register more democrats . Anybody believe that . We want to register people who are going to vote democrat whether they are in a closed system or not. Lets go on to the next one. Is there a question about the philosophical bent of the party and which direction it will take, without a president in the white house the dnc chair will be the most visible National Democrat in the country. The question of whether or not the posture should be to work with donald trump where we can or fight him all the way. Work with donald trump, raise your hand. That question is ridiculous. The chair of the Democratic National committee doesnt work with the president. We are about building a strong party. Were not about taking positions and taking the role away of legislators. The rnc chair michael steele, he spent a large part of his time messaging against the democratic president. The party chair does message against the president. You saw the millions of people who marched in the streets this weekend they are looking to the Democratic Party whe have an opportunity to be that place of resistance. So we have to form a solid resistance as a party. No, its not about working with donald trump. No, its not about working with his bigotry. No its not working with somebody who takes our health care away. We will miss opportunity if we do not provide a platform for those millions of people, millions of women i have to shorten you. Quickly, tom perez. I think we should accord donald trump the same courtesy that mech mcconnell accorded barack obama which wasnt a damn bit of courtesy. The issue of i want to get to staffing and contracting. Very quickly, this is literally three things. Three bullet of how you can make come true the prediction there would be a surge of latino voters. The latino vote rose from 10 to about 11 of the electorate. We didnt see that surge. Daca is on the table. Theres a lot of fear running through the hispanic community. Three bullet points how to increase latino turnout. You have to have latino candidates first and foremost. We have to recruit candidates. We need to make sure we are reaching into communities and recruiting from the communities when were hiring people or investing any kind of money into communities. We need to get away from paying white workers to go out into communities of color where they dont belong and make sure that were actually lifting people up in those communities. Tom perez. Organize, organize, organize. When we organize we succeed. We organized around issues, organize making sure you have people from the Community Organizing within the community. We saw it in yuma, arizona. Border town. When they organized in 16 they won. When we do that and reflect our community, we succeed. Joe arpaio is no longer the sheriff because we organized. We have to invest within the states where our base is growing, particularly the latino base. When even electoral impact victories are not going to be immediate. We absolutely have to have more latino candidates and replicate the type of work i have done through vote run lead to create a surge of candidates, specifically women, low income households, women of color, to create that surge and create the pipeline so that we are bringing those candidates in. Not just lawyers, not just politicians. The third thing we have to do is we have to invest within latino media, latino consultants. Not a little bitty on the side to make sure we checked off the box. They need to get the same resources that the white consultants have gotten and been able to push their agenda. Jamie . I agree on the pipeline. We have, in South Carolina, we created a clyburn fellowship where we are training the next generation of young people to run for office. My goal in recruiting this year is to make sure for the first time that i can think of in the Democratic Party in South Carolina is to have a latino candidate on the ballot running statewide in that state bus we have to do that. The second thing is the states where democrats control everything, the governorship and the legislature, use those as laboratories to fight back against the Justice Department and what donald trump and Homeland Security department are going to try to do to the Latino Community in the coming years. . Raymond . The latino caucus of the Democratic National committee does not even have a fulltime staff person. Two, the state party received money but are not required to have latino outreach program. If we stop spending money on Corporate Media we will have the ability to hire thousands of young latinos to work in their own communities and organize them, get them to register. Mayor . Register, organize, and recruit. When it comes to registration, if you go to pete for dnc. Com, see what is in my biased opinion the most thorough and detailed platform for dnc chair, you can see some ideas how we drive better results on registration. Organize. That means making sure we actually show up in every part of every community and organize around the issues that are going to affect people and recruit. This is something im surprised hasnt come up yet. Im not just talking about candidate recruitment. You got to do that. For us we started with school board. Then we had the latino nominee for attorney general in indiana this last year. We have to do that for recruiting. At the operative level, not everybody can afford to take a summer or semester for an unpaid internship. So if we want to be a party that looks like the people we are trying to turn out we better make sure we are providing the resources to do that. Thats part of what i mean by recruiting. Congressman . We need to invest in latino media all over the country. We need to train and recruit in advance latino candidates and Staff Members all over the country and of course, we absolutely need to i think we should identify states where we know if we take that state it would make a profound statement. We need a very powerful dnc driven texas project, for example, flip texas and that will send a profound statement but not just only texas, but that state alone would send a signal to the trumps of this world and to the Latino Community and everyone that the Democratic Party is on the side of inclusion, reform, comprehensive Immigration Reform and empowerment. He want to get aimee to make sure we are not going over time. I want you to end your closing talk about how to diversify the staffing, and contracting. You have touched on it a little bit. What could dnc do differently as chair . One of the things i talked about in my blueprint is a concept of multiplicity. We need to get out of the idea of affirmative action where youre checking boxes. I think thats really really important. We need to open up to people who are actually making the decisions. I recommend having a hiring committee that has the different groups of people we need on to in our party so they are making decisions on how we go through and hire staff. Things that are worth doing are sometimes cumbersome but if we are going to give power back to people we need to start doing things that take a little more time because theyre the right thing to do. I do what ive done at the department of labor, department of justice before that, and that is making sure you are hiring the best and the brightest. Take a look at my track record everywhere i have gone. Make sure before you buy things you know you have a diverse cadre of folks who are out there to purchase them. This job is a turnaround job at scale. It requires someone who can take the fight to donald trump, it requires someone who can help organize, it requires someone who knows how to turn around a complex organization at scale. The 45 billion, 17,000 Employee Department of labor was one such example. Thats what we need here, folks. We have a lot of agreement on what we need to do here. What i have been able to do in the jobs that i have had the privilege of doing is make sure we implement and make sure those turnarounds actually occur. Thats why im out here asking for folks support. Just to clarify, is this our closing . It appears to be. Look, i have been saying throughout this process that im the only candidate that understands the dnc from the inside out. I worked as a staffer at the dnc. I understand the barriers put in front of young people of color who have magically found their way within that institution. I invite each of you to go to my website, jamu for dnc. Org where we put up a video of me in 2006 at the africanamerican leader summit where we speak truth to power within the dnc itself. That is the type of person we need in the chair because there entrenched forces within state parties and our National Party that stop the power from being shared amongst young people. Not only do we have to make sure we are recruiting from a talented diverse work force but that when they come within our party, they arent given basically meaningless position, not access to the power tables, and given the chance to rise up through leadership. It is going to take someone who understands the dnc and state parties from the inside out to really tap into this transformational opportunity. Thats what i bring to the table not taking the bs that even ourselves as democrats have put and the barriers we put in front of young people. My staff will kill me if i dont say this. Jamie for dnc chair. Com. Listen, at age 29 i was the first africanamerican and the youngest person to be executive director for the house democr democratic caucus. At age 30 i was the first africanamerican to be whip director for the whip operation. Bottom line is this, we have to stop particularly with the consultants. You cannot come to the dnc and get a contract and the only minority face that you have is the person that answers your phone. Fp you want a contract you need to have an operation where you train the next generation of folks so they can do the media, they can do everything else. we have to transform the entire party from the contractors to internal and im the person that can do that. Ray for dnc. Com. read what i want to do as dnc chair but look what ive done. As state chair in New Hampshire we always had a senior staff person, nearly 30 were africanamericans last year. One of our dnc members from New Hampshire is africanamerican. As head of the state chairs association i hired the first africanamerican woman to be the executive director of the association and our first director of training africanamerican woman. The leadership of the state chairs association are filled with africanamerican, latino and people of color and young people as well. Thats what my record is thats what i will fill the dnc chair as well. I would make sure more Diverse Talent is recruited. Theres framework reproducing activities and framework transforming activities. Everyone on this stage pretty much wants the same thing. If you want to see why i believe im the right person, look at south bend. We have worked with the vendor base. And assumed responsibility by the way for how diverse the vendor base is in the first place. Part of the solution is in this room. We have a lot of work to do. The party has to assume responsibility for that. If we are not living our values and walking the walk we will not be fataken seriously as a party for the next generation. Congressman . You know friends, when democrats dont win elections, people get hurt. In ohio theyre trying to take away a womans right to choose. They are getting toward take away the Affordable Care act. Every day the paper opens up and we see more harm that people are inflicting upon our people because we did not win elections. The chair of the Democratic Party supposed to get democrats elected and this means we have to increase turnout and win elections by reaching out to all people, especially including the black community, the brown community, young people, native communities, that means stand in solidarity with people, that means black lives matter, that means standing with the people and fighting to include the people, that includes the vendor base. Im going to tell you, one of the big fights we have, i actually agree with jamu on this, we are battling the corporateocray. What do you think this money is spent on . Its not spent on grassroots organizing knocking on doors. We have gotten democrats elected not only in my own district but all over this country. We dont have any statewide republicans in minnesota, not any. Let me just tell you, theres no republicans in the fifth Congressional District at all. We have chased them all out. If the job of the Democratic Party chair is to get democrats elected, that is what i have done. I am the organizer who has done it and i have raised money all over this country, 50 states i have raised money from, over 1 million to my state party and multi millions to the Democratic Congressional campaign committee. Keith ellison for chair. Thank you. Lets thank everyone. You can go to their websites and talk to them after. Thank you very much. Sorry we went a little over time. Thank you all. Wait. Stay your seats for one second. We have one more thing to listen to. Stay in your seats for one second. Jessica burke, the floor is yours. [ cheers and applause ] i want to say thank you all so very much for being here. What cant we do together. Nothing. My name is jessica bird. I have been privileged to be the Campaign Director for democracy in color campaign. This honestly started as an idea, as a call to action as what could be possible if we asked all the right questions and brought this conversation into the light. The only way this happened is because the willingness of you but also your passion and your excitement and dedication so this is the beginning of this conversation. This is the beginning of building our democracy in color brick by brick. We want you to stay with us, get louder, tell people how this conversation made you feel. We deserve to have leaders that we believe in. At democracy in color we believe this forum was really a love letter to you. Was a love letter to your families. Was a love letter to open and honest dialogue that says that your voices matter and we deserve to have the answers about the solutions that we need. So thank you, so much. Please go to democracy in color. Org. Continue to tweet and we hope to see you in the resistance. [ applause ] cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, hannah northie will discuss the executive orders signed by President Trump to advance the keystone, and Dakota Access pipe lines. Then we discuss trumps plans to lower taxes, increase jobs and grow the economy. Also, katrina vanderhoovle will discuss key priorities in a republican government and how journalists should cover President Trump in a changing meade why environment. Watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern wednesday morning. Join the discussion. C span spoke to some of the incoming members of the 115th congress. He