Having a room full of reporters is a milestone and quite frankly, it is attention that getting a fewot campaigns ago. Jessica has spent most of her professional career working in the legislatives base and is a manager of resources. To quote a political piece, they wrote steering democratic strategy to win and operative who is little known outside of Democratic Campaign circles and has spent the last five years turning the once sleepy dlcc into a juggernaut. Without taking any more of your time, i will turn it over to jessica. Jessica thank you. I appreciate it. Should i on mute . Unmute . Thank you, everyone. The juggernaut is powered by a lot of hard work so i appreciate everyone coming here today. I am the president of the dlcc. Flipe announcing today our everything 2020 campaign. Redlipped 10 chambers from to blue. We have done that since donald trump selection. We are Donald Trumps election. And by state legislators matter. I will tell you a little more about the dlcc. On a are not just words page from a. It is personal. In the 2010 election cycle, i was the National Field director. A junior staffer. I some what happened in 2010 firsthand. In the last few days of the election, i was sent to harrisburg, pennsylvania where i was sent to help preserve the majority in the state house. We saw lot of late spending in states that we couldnt lose like wisconsin going into the election cycle. And it was really hard. I was there in harrisburg. And the news came out that we lost so many elections across the country. We lost one state to another. The republicans spent 30 million to our only 10 million that cycle. So the worst news of all came when we lost pennsylvania. And i got a call from another colleague that said we lost 21 others. Apparently you can still smoke in some bars in pennsylvania. In 2010, you certainly could. And so i walked out of the smoky bar covered in smoke and curled up on the cold harrisburg side walk. It was a cold, rainey night and i cried a few tears. Er popped up a budweiser while karl rove was presumably popping a bottle of champagne. If i had anything to do with that i would fight like hell to take back state legislatures around the country. I have the opportunity to do that now in the dlcc. Were better prepared and were ready to flip even more chambers going into the next election cycle. I also today want to recognize our chairwoman, new york majority leader Andrea Stewart cousins. This is one of the ones we flipped red to blue. She shares my vision and our vision at the dlrc for flipping state legislative chambers red to blue. She would be here with us today but one of the benefit of inning new majority is you can pass great policy including bail reform. So were excited to see that progress. Voting rights do excited when democrats win majorities and democratic governors sign those bills for us. But new york isnt alone. Since Donald Trumps election we flipped 10 chambers from trode blue. Here are those state legislative chambers. Weve also flipped 436 seats including victories in 425 districts that trump won. Across the board, we made gains in 45 out of 50 u. S. States. The 2018 election was a seat change that we continue into 2019. Heres what this looks like right now. Right now 42 of americans live in a state where democrats control at the very least the state legislature. In addition to that, state democrats govern nearly 50 of the nations total g. D. P. Gross domestic products. And there are 243 for chunal 500 Companies Head quartered in a state where democrats control the legislature. So its a significant footprint on the American Economy where democrats control these states. With the addition of virginia and the wins that were had at the gubernatorial level, we now ave 15 democratic trifectas. The combined democratic controlled legislatures is nearly 140 million, thats almost haffed of the u. S. Population. So this is significant. Lets talk about our favorite new democratic trifecta the one we won in 2019. Virginia. In virginia this november, we showed no signs of slowing down. We flipped two seats in the house and two seats in the state senate. This is the first democratic controlled assembly in 25 years in virginia. And its the first trifecta since 193. And were already seeing incredible progress just yesterday. And this is something that actually brought me to tears to be very honest when i was driving home. I listened to the wmau story where i heard eileens voice swlun who we worked so closely to flip the state luggetchure passing the vote to pass the equal rights amendment. Something that in my mothers generation thought stalled forever and now passed the irginia legislate chure legislature. Were excited. There have been bills filed moving gun safety, lgbtq protection and just a wide array of democratic priorities. This is a state where were going to see dra make it changes. The numbers are impressive. Wed like to show you what this actually likes like. These were the members serving in 2017. And now lets show you the members in the exact same districts that are serving after 2019. This is a remarkable change. Lets see that one more time. Before 2017. And now, after 2019. So this is a seat change in terms of representational democracy in virginia. This is the most diverse General Assembly in virginia history. This isnt just flew virginia. Were leading across the country in diversity. Theres no comparison between democrats and republicans. Since 2017 weve elected 3,262 dems to state legislatures of those more than 1,300 are women. And thats roughly 40 of the folks that were recently elected. More than 100 are openly lgbtq. So this is dramatic. Weve made significant changes in terms of the power in state legislatures. This is such an important pipeline as we develop folks that can run up ticket. The republicans, they know were on the offense. In fact, in an Interested Party memo that they sent to d. C. Lobbyist they said virginia is a harbinger of what they were up against. They were struck by the dramatic spending. Know significant spending is coming their way and theyre doing everything they can to warn their conservative donors and corporate alleys. The work hasnt been easy. And its been and truly ive been on this journey since 2016. Its been tough, right . Here are some of the things that weve done that have taken an unprecedented level of focus. Strengthening our caucuses. Building robust data and analytics. We have increased five Regional Directors and increased their capacity. We have done a lot of work with key allies working with other spend ners the state legislative space to make sure our priorities are aligned. Lets talk about candidates and instate partners. One thing that i knew we needed to do when i came back to the dlcc was improve the instate inl infrastructure making sure there are strong campaigns being run across the country that our dlcc counterparts be it in arizona, texas or pennsylvania were staffed with high Quality Campaign talent. Some of that capacity is atrophied as democrats have fall into the minority. And i knew we had to rebuild it. So were doing a lot of that and making early investments in states also allows a strong team in the state to part tpwher us to recruit great candidates that are diverse and really reflect theyre communities. Lets talk a little bit about what the changes that we made in data analytic. Ill tell you when i was near 2010, it was like comparing apples to oranges. We would look at one poll and compare it to another poll. We would try to personally wait for pollster bias and figure out where to make investments. That was the wrong way to do things. As a result when i came back i said we need to stan darppedize all of our data and analytics. We need to put them in one platform to figure out what is the best chamber, opportunity for us to flip. And what are the best races that are opportunitys . And what are races that we may be missing out on . So we part nes with this analytics. E used online panel Analytic Data and districts across at all evel of the ballots. The performance that secretary clinton received, the votes were past state legislative votes on their own. This tool is the most predictive tool in winning chambers in 2018 and 2019. And its part of our comparative advantage. We apply to that to the state party voter files instate and that allows us to target male, digital and other states in state. One great example is ross tyler seat out in virginia. We expected that seat initially to be safe. And we just werent polling in it. But as we look at our Analytics Platform we looked at the data and so we narrowly targeted in it. And with extra resources we won 5149. This is the way weve been able to select our investments and be strategic, ite fight challenges across the state. Earlier, i mentioned our five regional political director who are in our five targeted states in virginia we had an instate staffer. She was embedded working on richmond on political calls. Absolutely integrated into all of the campaigns decisionmaking processes. We will have a staffer in texas where we have a chance to win january 28. Beto orourke has been heavily involved. Its been great to flare him and his effort. Secretary castro will also be down motivating folks to come out for that race and mayor bloomberg has been down door knocking. That indicates the importance of legislative races that weve elevated across the country and weve engaged high profile allys that have their own followings to come down to highlight the opportunities in special elections. And the other thing weve done is unified commune caste communications. Weve had record spending on state in tv, mail, digital. In this case we were able to spend very closely with the Virginia HouseDemocratic Caucus our allies in the state. Every time we spend in a state, we want to see what is the existing plan to spend money to win elections. Chow we be supplemental and complimentary . We want to make sure we stay in alignment with these states. We have encouraged candidateer candidates to talk about the Kitchen Table top issues. Those are the issues that you should be reflecting an thinking about. You know this. You know that education may be challenging in your district. You know that people may be searching for jobs. So we dont we dont set down national messaging edicts here. We want to make sure that folks focus on local messengering and thats playing in the texas 28 special if you think about one great example of this is delegate danica. The first thing shell talk to you about is leaving the traffic en route 128. I once saw her on the red carpet. Demi lovato has brought her to the grammys. An an entertainment reporter said to danica, what are you most focused on . And she said route 28. The reporter who had never fwon virginia had no idea. But thats how focused she is. First transgender person elected to state legislature. But her focus has been very much on the issues that are core to her constituents. She has use herd National Profile lift that up. In addition to that, weve made record amounts of Financial Investments in states we announced an early investment of 1 million in virginia. That was the earliest investment. We spent nearly 2 million between Campaign Services. Virginia has open finance laws so Unlimited Campaign contribution so that made us to be able to coordinate closely with the campaigns. Were on 50 celts of Campaign Finance laws. So often we have to examine the law to make sure were in complains. And make sure that our strategy follows the Campaign Finance laws and that were engaging in the right way. Weve been able to do all of this because of our unpress denlt fundraising. Since 2010 when i was on that cold harrisburg side walk, we only had a 7 million increase. Weve doubled down on fundraising. We grew from 17 million to 36 million last cycle. And now were on track to spend 50 million this cycle. This will make us the largest spender in the legislative space across the country. Were proud to announce that ve raised more than 17 million which is all of what we raised in the 2016 cycle. And for the first time we outraised our republican counterpart organization. We continue to be on a path with financial parity which is something that we couldnt say in the 2010 election cycle. So as i mentioned earlier, theres been unpress denlted attention on state legislative races from our ally institutional democratic organizations because of our work. Were also excited because many of these groups have committed to 2020 spending. Many of these groups hadnt have not spent at the state legislative level ever before. And theyre following our lead since we are raising and spending 50 million this cycle. So now thats an overview of the programs that weve developed. And i wanted to share now how well implement them in 2020. So for the first time the dlcc is publicly sharing our chamber tarts. Targets. Weve never released the real target list like you might see at other places and were excited to do this right now. So lets lets talk about lets move and talk about the targets. What will work in all 50 states to support caucus and elect more democrats. These dark red states are the targets that we believe question flip. Lets talk about kansas. Many of you may have heard the shoutout of democratic governor laura kelly. Incredible win. Our interest is to break the super majority in the kansas state house. We only need to flip one seat in order do that. That would allow laura kelly to veto more bad bills. It would allow her to veto redistricting maps which are drawn by the kansas city legislature. She was able to get a republican to cross over for the veto of the abortion ban. But she needs a stable of support in the state legislature. Were interested in providing that. Thats why kansas is on that list. Well be watching to move some of these states on to the main target list. So tate states like georgia and florida we want to move them on to the target list as time goes of course this is 19 chambers across 123 states. As you can see here were on complete offense. These are all republican chambers. We feel very confident about holding the chambers that democrats won in 2018. This election is a once in a Generation Opportunity to flip state legislatures. Only every 20 years do we have both a president ial election on the preredistricting election. So this is significant. As we know there will be record voter turnout this year. And so this is a 20year opportunity. The next time well have this opportunity, ill be 60. And ill likely be retired running a spin yoga studio. An ice cream studio. Spyastacone. Think about that. This is a 20year opportunity. Or targets align with the president ial battleground which is another key point were building early infrastructure by building strong legislative campaigns. These campaigns will ultimately benefit the nom neesm and this makes sfens you think about the 134 state legislative sneets a place like minnesota, folks running micro campaigns, smaller campaigns all across that state mobilizing their friends and neighbor to go out and vote that will surely benefit them at the top of the ticket. In addition to that we know we have the momentum to surpass our progress in the mid terms. 122 Million People voted in 2018. Based on some catalyst analysis, 156 Million People are expected to turn out in 2020. Thats a 28 increase in turnout. That would be a tidal wave since 2010. So we have this generational opportunity to change the composition of state legislatures while also building out great infrastructure across the country in order to help the president ial nominee from the bottom up, instead of the top down. Now, lets talk about our targets. These are on our list east to west. First North Carolina. Theres a democratic governor in North Carolina, roy cooper. In 2018, we both we broke republican supermajorities in both charities ants thats proven vital. And were now competing on more come pess active maps after a redistricting litigation. The governor in North Carolina doesnt have a veto over redistricting. So this makes it critical we flip one chamber red to blue. We only need six seats in the house and five to flip the senate. And there are so much in North Carolina. Governor coop ser back up for reelection hufpblgte u. S. Senate races and several Democratic Congressional pickups on these potentially redrawn map. We have a sense of what has happened. We made early investments to make shurel strong candidates were recruited. House democrats have filled 117 of the 120. And Senate Democrats filled 50 out of 50 seats on the ballot. We learned after republicans failed in recruitment that we were on a stronger path to flip the senate from red to blue. We knew that as soon as the filing deadline happened. Looking at this map, we know we have strong opportunities as republicans are not challenging as many seats as democrats are lets go to pennsylvania. Pennsylvania tuge state for redistricting. An opportunity to have the next democratic trifecta. After virginia theres another democratic governor there, tom wolf. We won a special election near april of 2019. This is a preview i think of whats to come out in pennsylvania. 20yearold navy veteran flipped it. She won it by four points. A swing by nine points. So thats significant. Well hold that state senate seat as we go into the election in redistricting, winning the legislature will help us have a strong amount. Theres a Strong Supreme Court thats very helpful. We only need nine seats to flip the house. And many of the state senate seats that are the most favorable, pennsylvanias seat es are staggered. So we dont have the opportunity to take them out in 2018. This will be our first crack in pennsylvania since trump was elected. So weve got to go after it. There are also special lerkses coming up. We at dlcc we have a great track record of wing special. So well flip some of these Pennsylvania House seets. And folks know, pennsylvania is a major president ial battleground and theres a number of congressional tarkts across the state. So theres a lot of overland northeast nesting in our target at the legislative level and the congressional map. Lets talk about michigan. As chigan, their governor we flip the house from red to blue. The entire state senate was up in 2018. But we have an opportunity to flip the michigan house. We gained five seats last election cycle. So now we only need to flip four seats in order to flip michigan. We wanted a shot at the senate to give governor whitmore a level of power in the legislature. We know that republicans are fighting this predict gerrymandering. They passed a Nonpartisan Redistricting Commission michigan. So its possible thats how redistricting will be done. But scott walker had fought hard and brought a suit into federal dourt say that that initiative may not be eligible. Republicans in the state legislature values tried to do everything they can to take away the funding to take out this commission. Theres been a full assault on the independent commission. We want to do everything to flip it from red to blue. Michigan is a huge president ial battleground. In addition to that senator gary peters is back up. And theres a lot of congressional ghains were knead the last election cycle. Well be working look at the overlay between the legislative target and congressional gains. There are still seats we can win. So we have a great ability to do this and flip red to blue. Lets talk about minnesota. This is our next target. The Minnesota State is our target. We flipped the senate from red from rednte melissa to blue. Melissa hortman is working there. The last time i worked if the minnesota Democratic Caucus. So this one is really close to my heart. The legislature only needs two seats to flip from red to blue. The Minnesota State senate senat was not up. It was not up in 2018. And this gives us a great opportunity. Theres still a lot of battlegrounds that we can flip especially in the minnesota suburbs. And if you think about what happened in angies Congressional District minnesota two and minnesota three, all of them flipped from red to blue. And we still have battlegrounds nested underneath that opportunity. We have a great we can work easyly with the caucus. Theres Unlimited Campaign contributions here to the party. And of course, this has become more of president ial battleground. President has spent untold amounts in digital stakes. Lets talk about another favorite of mifpblete i worked years ago on gephardt for president in 2004. Ive been thinking about that a lot skins the cause cusses came back. Bry. Of it calleder red this is the first republican trifecta on our list. Kim reynolds is the republican governor of iowa. Were competing in the house. Make this a little more difficult. But i think well make gains. We only need four seats in part because of the longest serving republican andy mckeen decided to flip to become a democrat and join the Democratic Caucus. He was so disgusted with trumpism that he decided to change parties. Thats been encouraging for us as we go into the next cycle. The redistricting was drawn independently but it was sinltu subject to an independent vote. They call it the iowa model. As a result the legislature certainly could vote down these maps. Theyve had sort of an agreement in the Good Government tradition of iowa and democrats droll senate. But theres a possible that the legislate churem votes for these maps in this increasing partisan time. One thing that we saw that was a tea leif, the cycle republicans tried to change the independent nomination for state Supreme Court. And thats something that signaled to us that were in a more partisan time now in a state thats been pretty genial and partisan, iowa. Lets go to our next target, which is texas. This is very exciting for us to be able to talk about. Were only nine seats away from flipping the state house red to blue. And this is exciting. Of course, theres texas right now is another trifecta with governor greg abbott. But having the House Speaker be a democrat which is a real possibility with flipping nine seats could give us a seat at the table for redistricting. And texas obviously is the crown jewel of redistricting. So many more congressional seats coming into texas. This is something we have to think about. Were also competing as i mentioned earlier, theres a pecial election with elise marcowitz. Beto or rourke did not win that seat. But hes still working. Theres been a lot of National Attention on this race. Text active. Those republican open seats make it easier for us to win and flip seats from red to blufmente we only need nine seats as they said earlier. And beto orourke won every seat in the past. We have nine more great tarkts that we can go after. Democrats in texas made significant progress in this past flipping so many seats to put us in this position last cycle. The model that we used in virginia while every seat is different. A lot of what we learned about the finance laws we can apply in texas sket the state are similarly set up. So biel able to go in and engage there. Of course, now texas is being mentioned as a president ial battleground. And in aaddition to that the senate race and so many of testimony congressional targets are very high in cycle. Theres been a lot of talk about trying to win texas 22. Many of our legislative seatses are underneath those congressional tarkts. Our next target is arizona. In arizona theres a republican trifecta this time. But we made significant gains in the last election cycle this was once a republican the strong hold. This last time we controled the state senat here in 1992. The last time by controled the 2. Rest state house was 196 so long, long time ago. This is part of why were so competitive in the state. If democrats have their share amounts, we know question win. Were only two seatses away in the state house, three sites atpwhape the senate. This is in cressing a Battle Ground. The hottest u. S. Senate in the race. With mark kelly is on the ballot there as well some of certain lay very competitive electorial environment and it will allow us to run great campaigns get great candidates to flip it from red to blue. So i also want to announce that weve made our earliest offyear investments. Weve invested 1 million into all of these targets so far. Weve staggeringed that thinking about recruitment deadline from texas. The filing deadline for texas was closed. So making sure excellent candidates are recruited in North Carolina. Strong fundraising aloud us to do this even with critical tarkts on across the country like vfpblgt we spend significantfully virginia. We also spent significantly making sure that democrats stayed out of the super minority in the house. And so so many of these states were the only National Group giving to legislative caucuses to biled out this intrasfruckchure. Candidate recruits still happens. So many of our race still break very late. So a lot of the spend thing still happens post labor day in our races. Were trying to move that time ne um to make slureb sure theres exlen stuff. Were invest. Ing in dedgee digital fund racing. And making sure candidates are trained on how to secure the resources they need to win their campaigns and going out and knocking and talking to voters early. So why does all of this matter . Were not just here to put numbers up on a page. Were here because of the impact the legislative chambers had on folks lives. If you care about aca and the about the expansion of voter rights. You care about winning state legislatures and having democrats on state legislatures. In fact, in 35 states, state Legislature Still draw the lines for redistrictingtiality so they hold the pen in redistricting. Both the legislative maps and the congressional maps. And theres why there is so much power. The states are our first line of defense. With the gridlock thats in washington. Washington absolutely ground a stop. The state serve sss a fire wall against the administration policies. We will obviously beat donald trump in 2020. We have to do that. But theres been huge progress instate. As if you looks at the Supreme Court where we could lose rotections for roe and pre productive choice, the states have started to protect. The a. C. A. And some of them mental health. The Affordable Care about. The states have started to make sure that the controversial practice of lgbt conversion therapy has ended. In the statement. States like california, washington, oregon and states across the country join the paris climate accords. So the progress that were seing in the state california has said. The Trump Administration punches once and we know they will punch again. They will absolutely build this fire wham. Were confidence and strong. We are better positioned to win than weve ever been. Weve been competitor with the republicans. And now were on maps. So we know question win. I feel great about where we are. And im happy to take any questions. Thank you again for attending today. Im liz. Im with nbc news. I have a question. Bviously we, you saw the democratic debate were seeing huge diversity. Are you seeing that with the local leaders that are running for office and what are the thoters telling you . Yeah, i think theres quite a bit of ideological diversity. Weve talked to candidates about focusing on the kiffin table issues, the day do day. As a result in many of our elections the key issues are like sup portion public education. Making sure theres access to health care. And many of the things bare out district by district. Traffic z a big issue. A quality of life and an economic independence cape torment so theres certain lay lot of divertity. These folks have to pass the budget every year. They have to agree on things. So i think theres a lot more collaborative work on nix like mental health. But we have seen an extremist. Following up up on that, you mentioned that they were targeting our own president ial battleground statement. How much of a difference will will the choice for the democratic nominee make for whether youre going to be able o speak more than that come. Even if you wont see which candidate ranked them based on who is more helpful to you than not. Were some inner helpful . 911 is doing a lot of political progress knost case prognosticating probably have too much. Confidence. We focused on our campaign on local issues for forever. Theyll continue to say that our candidates will focus on the die day work that theyre going to do for their stitch wents. Its hard to say if one candidate is going to be stronger in terms of securing the any thy that we need a strong win. A strong compelling economic message. We know that sort of moves the needle. You see people with strong nick stories. They can talk to that concern especially in many of our battlegrounds where pime are suffering. In addition to that having having voter turnout is another key peace for the president ial election. [inaudible] i think we do everything question to make sure that our candidates are differentiated from the democrats at the top of the tick. And remember some at the top of the ticket. So if youre asking who the candidate is really matters. And so often if a football coach or a Popular High School prince spal running in some of these really small geography. Theyre well known and they have their own identity. So they can do that differ entiation. Why did you choose that target . Its 20 years of power. We realize that with an increased interest in spending in the state legislative race, we wanted to be transparent. And make sure that they know where were headed. Yes. The special election to help out republicans for a little while. Talk about both the money youre putting in there and the message. Yeah. Absolutely. So we spent more than 100,000 in texas so far. And weapon sent an additional 345,000 down there. Well support the campaign with texas messages. So interested in doing everything we come to support the doctor. Compelsa really come compelson service. And so were really doing everything we can. Still focused on things that there is some testing in texas thats controversial. Theres a lot o thought about folks that theyre sort of a teaching to the test. And so shes drested in eliminating some of the testing to make sure that students are receiving a better education and thats not his past focus. So thats one thing that shes focused on on the depain. Are you mean viewed as a bellwether . I dont know. It would be earth shadowing if we were able to website. But theres the other night seats are able to win it. It says that our odds to flip texas were better than we thought they were. I believe they released their own list florida, new york. And theyve also raised 19 million last year. Yes. My question is does the dlcc have a specific plan for countering own efforts in campaign and list. You put it on record . Thats hilarious. You can take that on the record. Theres been a number of retirement in new york. Thats absolutelyry dick louk louis that they can take back the uths state senat. I think the democrats. Thank you for butting that on the target list. We realize they didnt release it real target less. Theres absolutely anything i would do for new york. He republican state leadership commin economy theyre responsible for everything. I mean, all down dollar race. Slr responsible for 70 million. Theyre reported 19 million. They only have twominute Million Dollars for us. Theres river i would say our performance with the narrower that we have theven then the rlmc. And we want to develop things that can build out to get it to a place that put it on our target list. We wanted to be really honest and trance parents. Yes. [inaudible] a very red state. Can you break down monday . Were still making many of these decisions. We were one of the biggest funder first the arizona legislative efforts. We spent 250,000 alone in arizona. We moved early resources in arizona. And im happy to get a specific number in terms of what weve moved so far. I dont know off the top of our head. Well continue to work with the adlcc. Hip of the one out our political staffers was there for the caucus retreat. I spoke to leader fernandez and assistant leader freese on the phone. Ill be in arizona right around february 15, and 16. I plan to talk about our shared plan of victory that our political director has laid out. But were in it to win in arizona. When we talk about voter enacted like redistricting reforms anls stuff like that, my brother friends are trying to weve roll backs on that do you guys have kind of a game plan for a happy time . What does that look like for you . You bring up an important point that even by petition, the legislature has the right to dismantle it. I can say as a missouri native. And yeah, so its the finance laws are very and the contribution of the legislative laws are very permissive. The right things were done. Part of our strategy in missouri is doing what we can to break the super majorities in both state legislative chambers and building out exabe capacity for the longterm. If clean missouri can hold, then missouri will become much more viable. The republicans really did this to us. Sfwarting with starting with the process. Well be able going to 2022. Well look at lot of these maps. And ultimately find a path to victory. Thank you. [inaudible] and lets talk about Fair Districts. Are these Fair Districts going to be one that are done right or ones drawn by democrats . In the case of its a simple question. Yeah, i think theres been very the democrats said this is the past. They have been very supportive. The democratic secretary of state tried to dom everything she can to make sure that this commission held. It was realy legislative republicans that tried to dismantle it in michigan. And they continue top do that. It was a Republican Organization that sat on it as well. The Michigan StateSupreme Court is a lot fairer than federal courts. Said they wont rule in redistricting cases. Yep. Im anna from national journal. Thank you. So as they were dropping out, eve seen them get involved. Active ones like biden and huber. As you said im looking at the landscape. People get involved in the president ial nomination. Other youre going to go to ones that stick out. Yeah, absolutely. Senator warren, last year called called me both last year and this year to thank us for the work at the legislative level. Senator booker did a video for us. Our flip everything 2018 video. He was very involved. Sabd and senator booker has done anything that weve asked. He stumped for hala yala out in virginia. He went all around virginia and campaigning. I think his infrastructure was still sort of developing in the 20178 cycle. As you glow biden, bloomberg, senator klobachar was very help nfl the effort to flip minnesota house state blufmente shes been working. They support state legislative candidates. Next gen climate, the organization that he founded and through his args. And we worked closely with every town. In virginia. Weve had great history with these great president ial candidates. I went over to the when i was the field infield director whenever the dnc in 20810 and people are like irks what are you going to talk about. I him part of the reason theyre doing this obviously, theyre they really get it. They get down they get the impact of the races. This is where democratic activists are. They have formed organizations like flip it iowa. I could flip the iowa state house. Theyre engaged at the state legislative level. As soon as they went into states like iowa, New Hampshire, a state where we flipped boldt state houses in 2018. Both state houses in 2018. Nevada. Nd we defended three members from the state snant. Those are states that people have a sense that the legislative is that pornl. I think they talk to activists. How can you hope win our state legislature back . Thats a big priority for us. Thats incredible for us going into 2020. I was curious where that falls on priority list . Obviously, flg is not up until the until 2021, right . So i think they have strong majorities, right in both state legislative chambers. Really the only thing. There was certainly a loss of a single seat. I think the democrats mapped their map out. Thats something well look at. Luke greenwald the majority leader son our board. Weve worked closely to the leader to figure out a strategy there. Yes . You said there are five original political directors. Where are they based . Theyre already here. All of them have already started. We have one based in den vemplet and then we have many of our regional we won based in minnesota. And the rest of our regional surveys are here in d. C. As the year goes on, we may expand with our team. We have to build out campaign infrastructure. One specific strategy that were doing is the Campaign Services department where we can share our video yog fehr. Talented eat, great vidyog officers. And things that are becoming more common. So well be able to share those resources as well. [inaudible [ the abrams organization looks at election security. Weve had a lot of great conversations with california secretary of state pa di pa di padilla. We can do more in states where immunity. Egislative we have train attorneys making sure that theyre good incident log logged on election day to make sure that tpwheer a good position on election day. The other thing too just to develop on Election Protection, in many of our stateses when people create a statewide Election Protection framework they have thought about the small towns. So were working with parties and fair fights to talk about what are the priorities for Election Protection efpbletrernl we may need additional staffing get places like lacrosse and wisconsin where maybe the statewide Election Protection isnt as interested. Maybe theyre more in milwaukee and racine. We know with what weve seen in wisconsin its likely that we will have to do some more work in these places. Obviously, its helpful to have National Figures out there campaigning. But these local candidates. But in places that are Battle Ground districts like trks even virginia, are you are some of the candidates at all weary about the races getting so nationalized and maybe where its having like, you know, a president or a president ial candidate Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders on the trail with them . We learn si seen the reverse be true. He won nia was one that because the republicans didnt want anymore stitt during the elections. They nly the certainly only wanted pence to come in and help. I think that in a special election like to one thats happening in texas, these special elections are tushout elections. So having castro, beto, Michael Bloomberg and realize the Democratic Base is a huge benefit. What are are some of the vulnerable chambers . We feel like were complete completely on the offense. Every cycle well make sure that were in minnesota and maine and the New Hampshire house where there are 400 seats. So obviously, thats a very volatile chamber. Well make sure that we keep a tie on with place. In fact, we defended the colorado senat earlier this year when we beat down some republican thralls were put out by an extreme gun group. And so we were able to beat a number of recall elections. Which we feel really good about. We have never lost colorado in a president ial year. So we feel good. You spoke about new data analytics. Do you have reason to believe in the the remember republican have the same technology or that you developed yours . Yeah, so this is the partisan company, right . And zwow a lot of work here toe make sure that at the zlcc are pretty accurate. The work of just simply getting the name of 7,000 state legislative candidates or 14,000 or 12,000 like however many there are on the ballot headtohead and figure out which one of these candidates will use. We think that weapon sorts offer started this earlier than the republicans. We feel like our data and an licts are stronger because our voter anled and some of the backing of the state legislative data. Ip we know the spluns outside resources. They got a rerush on their investments. Look at what theyre demoik the united states. And so we knee we have to zale vigilant and make sure that everything that we do is kitting edge and competitive. Can you elaborate on the importance or significance of having the overlap and the ones states are targeting beyond the instinct like voter turn out. Are there things that you can you talk about things that you coordinate or cant coordinate . Yeah. Can we go back to the president rnl battleground sign. So many in of these states the only state where theres a ban on the federal state is in colorado. So many in of these states well be able to look at robustly coordinate with stronger coordinating campaign, the president ial campaign to think about where do you see door knocking happen. And theres a zpail you think about it turning out democratic voters state to state. So if you think about doing social pressure ads like to talk to voters about making a plan to vote, if thats already been being fund across the state its very easy to say, hey, can you d that on to our tamplingt many, many states, it is in minnesota, and iowa and michigan because the exape and this hatched in the North Carolina. And they think about as they work statewide, how do we win the presidency. Theyre trying to figure out how to win. So that means well sit down at a table. And well see heres our key things for door knocking. Here is the key chamebemplet if some of these states where theres historic coordination and then our full field team will go in and help build that out in states where there isnt as strong of a history. In pennsylvaniale pennsylvania, we need to work with them to build out a legislative program. The Texas Democratic party is really to cud focused. On. Conversations with testimony boater. All of those things are great for us because we turn out very mechanical. And having those planning conversations with. Democratic voters e. And if its a president ialle ground. So were excited. And we had the opportunity to start and get volunteers early and na puts us in a great position to engage on these coordinated efforts. I noticed that West Virginia is stretched. So im curious to know what you guys see in the state right there. And how much youre investing in it going into 2020 and what you do think you mean expect out of it in the longterm. I think were team will suits afwrape flipping the state senat. Nd so as a result, were plooking at were looking at these three seats to see are they specifically involved. If so well work with them to make investments. They even had a West Virginia county democratic chair reach out to me. And say, how will you engage our state . Its definitely on our list to think about to try to figure out like can we go in and win some of these these seats in the state senate . Any other questions . All right. Thank you so much, everybody. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming. And and and matt is available for my followup questions. Thank you. [applause] thank you. House impeachment managers have released 111page legal brief in accordance to the deadline ahead of the senate trial. They will use the articles of impeachment and the case against the president. A passage from its final section reads, the senate should convict and remove President Trump to avoid serious and longterm dooge our Democratic Values and the nations security. The white house did not release a weekly address from the president. Senator tim kaine of virginia gave the democratic address talking