Finally we found our way here. It is a great location for our series. We will be moving around the state as we can. Banners ofhave our our sponsors up. Different rooms, says as you will see on your tables, you will see the list of our sponsors and the list here. Without them, we cannot do this great series that has taken place for so many years and inrted by our own fred coker 1997. [applause] i know that many of you are saying the same thing as the man with perfect attendance, jim brett, ive never gone to any event he was supposed to be that and was not at. Every new England Council event, he is always there. Today he is unfortunately at a funeral. He is not here today, so larry will do the q a part. We have been training him on this for days on end. [laughter] he is very good. Next week we are back at the institute of politics. A whole series of things coming up in the future. Very excited. We have a very special governor who has come quite a long way this morning. Governor Steve Bullock, montanas former attorney general and was elected montanas 24th governor in 2012. Just to put that into perspective, our own governor sununu is the 82nd governor and he is the 24th of montana. Just a little bit different. Bullock, 53 years old, is a proven leader who has successfully brought people together to get things done in the state of montana. He has spent his career fighting on behalf of workers, students and families. To makenor, works montana stronger for future generations, ensuring his three children are able to enjoy the same opportunities afforded to all of us who grew up there. Working with Republican Legislatures, the expanded medicaid passed in earned income , tax credit, established the prek, andt public passed one of the most aggressive antidark money bills in the country. He was the first governor in the country to protect Net Neutrality through executive order, and every day steve heads to work at the capital, committed to ensuring that montana remains the second best state in the nation to live, work, and raise a family. [laughter] without further ado, governor bullock. [laughter] [applause] governor bullock i appreciate the opportunity to be here, you didnt note that you can fit 14. 7 New Hampshires in the state of montana. There is a reason why we only have 24 governors, because we serve a full term which would be four years, not every two years. I did something last night and somebody said congress, when they set it up, the thought was it would always grow with population, so isnt it time we have more members of the house. The whole crowd in New Hampshire was just like, no, do not do that, whatever you do. It is great to be here. I will talk about where i think things are and where this world is and really do look forward to answering any questions and engaging in a conversation with you. From my perspective, in so many respects, for the state of the country and its standing in the world, what we are going to pass on to the xt generation, i think it is important to make donald trump a one term president. [applause] to me, it really is more about just beating him. It is soundly rejecting this behavior that he is normalizing. Think about when you set this up in 1995. What the norms were and what we expected out of a president and an overall system. Now we are at a time of lies, misstatements, and abuse of power dividing this nation by race, gender, geography, nationality. No exaggeration to say we now expect more out of our preschoolers than we do the president of the United States. It is more than that. Trying tol around, say how do we get to this point and how do we fix it, we have to recognize there a lot of people in this country working harder and making less. Real termsicans in have not had a pay increase in 40 years. If you think about us raised in the early 70s, at that time 90 of 30yearolds were doing better than their parents. Today it is only two thirds of half. The counties lost businesses over the last decade. Folks saying i shouldnt have to leave my church or school or community to make a decent living. When the economy is not working, they look to the political system for relief. It is captured by dark money and outside spending. There is a little case called Citizens United i will talk about. Before that case 2 of all , outside spending was from groups that didnt disclose where the donors came from. These midterms, it was over half. You see regulations being gutted because that is what the donors are asking for. There should not be any surprise that folks are frustrated and anxious and angry. Instead of doing something about it, this president has poured gasoline on that fire. We are more divided than any ,ime, certainly, as a nation more divided than any time in my lifetime. Forget about cable news or twitter, think about conversations throughout thanksgiving dinner. Think about conversations at the coffee hall or where you are grabbing a beer. Politics has divided our community and our country. That is not the promise of this country. We are better than that. Background briefly, race and singleparent household. Paychecktopaycheck. I only knew there was a governor house in town because i deliver newspaper. I made it four blocks in life from where i began. I worked my way through college and borrowed my way through law school. I will never forget the day that my wife and i paid off what would be 175,000 in todays terms and debt. It caused challenges, but when you go from delivering newspapers to the governors house as a kid, you had that shot at the american dream. For far too many people, that no longer exists and for far too many it never has. I do think this is election about beating donald trump, but it is about making people believe the economy and the political system can work for us, can make a difference on actually having that fair shot at a better life. The has always been baseline promise and hope of this country. First things first. In many respects, this is a single issue election. That is beating donald trump. In 2016i was the only democrat in the country to win in a state where trump won. He took montana by 20. I won by four. 25 to 30 of my voters voted for donald trump. The path to victory doesnt just run through the coasts and the urban areas. We have to be able to win back places that we lost. 14. 5 newat i could fit hampshires in montana. I dont have the luxury to do i do not have the luxury just to go to the bright blue places. I have to listen and engage and give people a reason to think that government can work. I know you are a seasoned group, a little skeptical group. You should be, because all of us, here. Youre used to politicians making promises and then seeing whether they deliver. Here is promise i will make you. If i will denominate, i will win in massachusetts. I will win california. I will win vermont. Any democrat with a pulse will win massachusetts, california, and vermont. This is about math. This is about 270 electoral votes. If we cant win black places like michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, we are not going to win this election. You look at so many places that went obama to trump. Why is it that folks are voting their economic, education, they ought to be with democrats but we are losing them along the way. I refused to see the votes of who voters, as if people work the land will forever be embedded to this guy with orange hair and a toilet. We need to make that connection to them. I am the only governor left in this race. In some respects it seems like maybe i got in too late. I got in in may. Lets forget about the fact that bill clinton did not announce until october. I also had a job to do. My legislature is 60 republican, the best it has been the whole time i have served in office. I had to get Medicaid Expansion reauthorized. I signed my last bill on a monday and announced on a tuesday and was off to the races thereafter. I needed to get that job done. In part, what has happened is a lot of these debate rules are about the individual donors and folk spending 60 online to get the one dollar donor. I have not been at all the debates, but i know it is folks like you all, the early states that take a big field and narrow it down. That is what im counting on. Even in that divided time without legislature, as was noted, we expanded health care for 100,000 people through Medicaid Expansion, we got physical and Mental Health parity, record investments in the k12 system. Firsttime investments in prek. We kicked dark money out of our elections. We have the fourth lowest tuition and fees in the nation by freezing College Tuition and investing more into higher education, not decreasing it. I have also recognized that not everyone is going to go to college. We have to recognize that when 67 of people do not even have a twoyear degree we have made our twoyear college and Tribal College about recognized certificates and apprenticeships so people can climb that ladder into the middle class. They have been climbing at a rate higher than any other state in the country. Weve been able to do that i look for common ground, but that does not mean compromising the values i hold. I begin with the assumption that everybody, at times, is focused on politics. Not everybody is, but the values most people have come everybody wants to Save Community everybody wants a safe community. Everybody wants a decent job, a roof over their head, clean air, clean water, good public schools, the belief you can do better for the next generation then yourself. If those are the values we unite on, we can get things done in ways that have not been done in the past. When we were trying to get Medicaid Expansion through in 2015, this was the heart of the antiobama care time. I went to account in montana. 1700 people on the Rocky Mountain front. Everybody in town knew why i was coming because americans for prosperity, the coke brothers, were kind enough to mail everybody pictures with barack obama and Steve Bullock and our cheeks were touching. Steve bullock and barack obama come and your health care. And insteadanyway of saying im from the government, heres everything you need. Heres what you need. Listened. Person i the Hospital Administrator said 43 of people who walk that the doors dont have health insurance. A couple people got up afterwards and called me obama loving this or a communist. It was probably the fourth or fifth speaker who was the chair of the county commission. He was a rancher, he was not even from the town, he was from a town with a population of 50. A suburb. He got up and he says, i was born in this hospital. This hospital save my life when i had a heart attack two years ago, if we lose this hospital, this town is gone. Of me saying this is what you need out of government, them saying to me as a leader, this is what i expect and need out of my government. That is what gave that Republican Legislature the courage to defy the coke brothers and vote when every vote matter. That is what made us go from 20 uninsured to about 7 . We have 20 of rural hospitals at risk of closing right now, that is how government should work from my perspective. Montana could teach washington a few things. I know many of you think montana is just a small populated state somewhere over there, greater population then states like vermont or delaware, just think about that for a minute. I also think unless we are going to address what is holding d. C. Back in so many respects, and that is the corrupting influence of money in the system, Everything Else the democrats are talking about throughout this election cycle is that much harder to attain. Think about Lindsey Graham literally said we have to get these tax cuts through to make our donors happy. The same time that 44 of americans had 400 in their pockets if they faced an emergency, their car broke down or medical emergency. We pay more for Prescription Drugs than any country in the world. We have very little to show for it. How is it that cosco to negotiate Prescription Drug prices but it is against the law for the federal government to do it . There are a lot of Oil Companies doing pretty well. The Republican Party is now the only Major Political party in the world that doesnt acknowledge Climate Change is real. Unless we are going to turn around and say how is it that washington cant get things done anymore, how is it that we cannot break some of these divides, i think anything else will be that much more challenging. I think it can be done. I have seen it done. We did it in montana. I was attorney general in part with your former general mike delaney, who is always nice to see. When Citizens United came up. Citizens united was the case that said money is speech and corporations have the same rights as people. When that case came down, every single state in the countries that came over. There is absently nothing we can do. Democrats controlled both houses of congress and the presidency. They gave speeches about it. They raised money off of it but they did not do a thing. Montana had this dark history of barons, these copper kings who controlled every local state and federal election. It was even recognized outside of montana. Mark twain talked about William Clark and said, clark buys politicians like most people buy food. Corruption smells sweet now in montana. And it was. It was a completely captured state. Regular folks said enough is sed theand pas corruption act of 1912. It said corporations do not spend or contribute in our elections. We have some of the lowest contribution limits in the nation. I will be darned if elections for 100 years is not about this. People talking to people, not how much money is going to be spent on the outside. Up, iitizens united came said i knew i had to do something. The first case went to the supreme court. We had testimony from former Republican Office holders. What the threat of all the spending could do to our system. We lost on a 54 vote which taught me a few things. Do not ever doubt, especially what one justice can do on the u. S. Supreme court. It also taught me this is at the core of so many of the challenges we have. You have to find another way. I went back to my legislature, and it was about two thirds republican. We passed a law that said 90 days out from an election, i do not care if you call yourself americans for america for america, wherever it is, you have to disclose all of the money you are spending. In 2016,or reelection 90 days out, americans for prosperity the koch funded sent they did such a good job sending blanket mailers that even wound up at the governors residence. My kids were looking at this saying dad, are you that much of a creep . On day 90 it stopped. If we can stop them there, we can stop them in New Hampshire and across this country. We have to figure out away way peoples voices are heard. We rolled out something a couple weeks ago. This crazy idea. Lets imagine you elect someone to the u. S. Senate. How about having him or her do the job half the time . Meaning for the first three years of their term, they cant be focused on raising money or they cant be focused on reelection. Congressudy came out, the average congressman spent 1. 5 million hours raising money. Spent . Ld that time be maybe listening to constituents. May doing committee work. Maybe building relationships, and sometimes relationships on the others if the aisle with other members. We have to get to a point where people do believe d. C. Can work. Y i willselfservingl acknowledge that maybe the way to do it is to get somebody from outside of d. C. , because d. C. Has become a place where talking has become a substitute for doing, or wasnt that a great speech along the way. Theyce where in 20 years have not balance the budget on time. Budget. Alanced a passing a budget, even. I think this is everybody says it. The most important election of my lifetime. Anybody that has ever run for office, you heard them say that. I think this one is true. It is bigger than just one election. To me it is a 243 year experiment called Representative Democracy that is being challenged and tested. Democrats, if we cannot win back places we lost, if we cannot give people a reason to vote for us and not just against him, donald trump could win again. I see those places time and time again. I am an optimist that it can be done. You have to be optimistic when you have teenage daughters and a 13yearold son. More than that, i think that is at the core of who we are as americans. We know we are at our best when all voices can be heard, not when we are divided into warring camps, or when this ability can replace the hostility. Even after this election, we will have a deeply divided nation. We have to figure out ways to make that nation recognize that what we share in common is so much greater than what divides us politically. Think back i was living in d. C. At the time of 9 11. Think about shortly after that. How unified we were as a nation. We need that same purpose. Compassion and unity to bridge some of the divides and challenge deal with what i think is the greatest challenge facing us. That is the belief that everybody has their fair shot at a fair life, the american dream. We have to figure out that way to get there. I think we can do it. That is who we are. You doingte not only this, but how you take this seriously along the way. It has always been the early states that take a large field and make it small. With over four months before any voter actually expresses a preference, your active engagement all the way along matters a lot. Thanks much for having me. I will be happy to answer almost any question. [applause] karen from aarp. Thank you, governor. Can you hear me . Gov. Bullock i sure can, karen. Thank you for joining us in our beautiful state at this great time. I want to tell you about a 62yearold New Hampshire resident who has a 30yearold son. On the same week these two people discovered they had two types of cancer. The son was in the process of changing care