National captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indiscernible conversations] ok, you guys are going to miss the whole show if you dont take your seats right now. And we have a lot of great stuff coming up, for instance, our 2020 president ial candidates. So i need everyone to take their seats, please. Take your seat, please. I need everyones attention, please, so we can start the program. Please take your seats. Please take your seats. All right, these president ial candidates are waiting to talk to you. They are not going to wait long, either. They have got other places to be. It is my honor and my privilege veryht to present a very, special award. This award goes to a person who has exhibited the highest standards for what we consider leadership. This person motivates and inspires us every single day, they keep going when it seems impossible, they keep putting in 24 7 days, seven days a week, and quite honestly im not sure how this person does that. Thought, maybe it is clones, maybe this person has clones doing all this work, because no one person could do all this person does on a daily basis. Well, ofi thought, course she can. It is a woman. [applause] all right, democrats. How is it going out there . [applause] all right. Look around. You know, what happens in vegas only happens in vegas. In the beginning of what it means to be a Diverse Community that sets the stage for the president ial election happens ine, tonight, this week, this room. I think everyone in this room deserves a Leadership Award, because democrats in nevada have to turn a it takes state and not only blue, but pink. [applause] listen, we have an important week ahead of us. Early caucusing started today. The president ial candidates are here tonight. But most importantly, it is the people in this room who have only the country that not are we diverse, we are unified. And that is our power. [applause] honor are here tonight to a woman who honestly, whether it is a caucus kickoff, neighborhood party, the clark county dance, she is there every single time. And that is why we were able to 2018,ch a precedent in and i know that nevada will set a precedent in 2020 and take back not only the white house, but the senate, and we will get things done for families in our country. [applause] so i have the honor to reveal the envelope. So pay attention, guys. Drum roll here. Representative susie lee is presenting this very special Leadership Award. The clark county democrat the Clark County Democratic Party presents the Leadership Award to donna west. [applause] [crowd cheering] donna, weve got to show everyone our shoes. Are not in iowa anymore. You are in nevada. Ok, that is not what i thought was going to happen this evening. Thank you for this award. It means so much to me. It is an honor of a lifetime to serve as the Clark County Party chair. So without, hello clark county democrats [applause] wow. Our good friend nancy used to talk about there is Nothing Better than being in a room full of democrats. I know she is here in spirit with us tonight. Loving it like this. So good evening and welcome to the Clark County Democratic Partys kick off to caucus. And thank you so much for joining us to celebrate the third in the nation, but the first in the west nevada 2020 caucus. State Democratic Party has worked hard to create the most transparent, expansive, and accessible caucus yes. Part of the 2020 nevada caucus is the first early caucus voting anywhere in our country. Nevada leads the way yet again. As many of you know, early caucus voting began today and we have seen higherthanexpected turnout. For the spells trouble dangerous person occupying our oval office. [cheers and applause] if you cast your president ial preference card today, please raise your hand high. If you voted today, raise your hand high. Thank you. Thank you for participating. Thank you for voting early. That is what Nevada Democrats do. We could not hold this innovative caucus without the help of hundreds and hundreds of volunteers who have spent their Time Training and preparing. Today and the next three days, they are serving in early voting sites. Next saturday, they will be in. Heir precinct caucuses if you are a volunteer for the 23 nevada caucus, would you ,lease 2020 nevada caucus would you please stand . We would like to recognize our hardworking volunteers. [cheers and applause] thank you very much. We could not do this without you. We are so grateful for your to our party and to winning back the white house and bluer thanvada bluee its ever been before. I want to give a shout to my friend william. William is the chair of the nevada state Democratic Party. I want to say thank you for your leadership. He have kept us focused and fired up all the way through the 2018 midterms and through all the preparations for the first in the west caucus. You and your team have been sure that we have reached out and engaged every corner of our state, every community in our state. Neither are the first state of true diversity to participate in the democratic primary. What america looks like. And so when we cast our vote, we will show america what it means to participate in our primary and help select our candidate for president of the United States. I also want to recognize the executive board of the Clark County Democratic Party whom i am privileged to serve with. Will our Board Members please stand and be recognized . [applause] i especially want to thank our second vice chair, judith witmer, who chairs the committee for this amazing gala. Thank you, judith for organizing an incredible celebratory event for all of us. Ok. Want to thank our Nevada Democratic elected officials who are here tonight. Somebody said anybody who is an elected democrat is in this room and i believe it. We will be recognizing our elected officials throughout the night tonight, so stay tuned. I also want to thank all of our generous sponsors. Without you come at this evening would not be possible. The funds raised tonight will help clark county draw our r and helpat the us for just thousands of slate riosio convention at the and produc help us produce thouf slate cards. It is vital, and clark county is committed that we encourage our voters to vote blue all the way down the ballot. [applause] we want to win every seat. It is important. Course cover we are excited to hear from our president ial candidates tonight. But now, i have the privilege of introducing a woman who inspired s me. Her passion, her fight lifts us all up and keeps us moving forward. It is my pleasure to introduce my congresswoman from congressional dist 1, titus. Swoman dita titudina [applause] all right. Lets get some energy going in his room. All right. Titus and i have been a democrat since i was born. How about you . I have been a liberal since ther it wasnt even popular and they didnt call them progressive. Ina titus, and you are in my district, district one. Thank you for being here. It is been rough back there in washington. Much better to be home in nevada with a bunch of democrats. Every day i am reminded, and i said this before and got a little grief for it, but also yet again, the bests got to go bastards got to go. We were out there today attending some events, and people were lined up out the door. And they say democrats arent enthusiastic for this election . They are very enthusiastic. So nice that when they had to wait three hours, they were being polite and buying each other doughnuts, saying, take your time, it is too important not to do this. There is too much at stake not t to stay home. I know i am preaching to the choir, but we need you out there. Would need you registering voters, helping people turn out. Make this caucus is success. Lets show ir what it means to make nevada lets show ir what iiowa why it needs to be nevada that number one, not number three. [applause] i am back. Now let me introduce a man who has dedicated his life to Public Service from serving as a regent for our Nevada University system, to his time on the Clark County Commission including his leadership as a chair of the commission, to being the first democratic governor elected in 20 years. Sisselack is dedicated to improving the lives of all nevadans. Provided legislation to voting,cess to protecting voting rights, ensuring a womans right to choose and protecting collective bargaining to employees. Please give a welcome to our governor, governor steve sisselak. Thank you. [applause] [applause] good evening, democrats. We have to live in this party up just a little bit, folks. Before i get into my remarks, i will ask you to join me in thanking the tremendous culinary staff we have here who are serving our food today. [applause] nobody does it better than culinary 226, so thank you all for doing that out, want to give a shout something extremely important to my wife, the first lady who is here with me in this evening . Do we have the best first lady in the country or what . [applause] our educators. I wantare an educator, you to stand up and be acknowledged. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you so much. We are so proud of everything that you do every single day. We appreciate what you do for our kids in their classrooms. Thank you for being here this evening and helping us celebrate the kick off to caucus 2020, which has been a tremendous kickoff. We had early voting started today. My wife and i went to the center and cast our votes. Two over most of all people that voted by 4 00 today we were two of almost 12,000 people who voted by 4 00 today. You are making friends in the line while you are waiting. Everybody is getting along and it is a great atmosphere. But we have Incredible Group of volunteers. Just amazing. I want to acknowledge alanna and hardy who have worked very to pull this caucus together from lets give them a round of applause. [applause] we have so many volunteers working so hard every single day , and it is making a tremendous difference. It is hard to believe that the 262ember general election is 6 days away. That is just 37 weeks. We have a lot of work to do because we are going to put a new man or woman in the white house come november [applause] are one week in nevada from our first in the west caucus. Early voting started today. You have three days to cast your preferences and i encourage everyone to get out and participate. I want to thank the organizers and volunteers will have dedicated countless hours to knocking on doors, making phone calls and supporting democrats. Ultimately, that is what it is all about, ensuring that on inauguration day, it is a democrat that is being warned sworn into the white house, a democrat. [applause] and to the nevada state Democratic Party, thank you. I know everyone has been working around the clock to make sure we have a successful caucus. It is easy to point fingers, and we know there is a lot of fingerpointing, but it is not easy to just do the work every day, and they do, they get out, they strap on their boots, total work and get it done, and we have a successful caucus. We are one day into early voting and we will have three more successful days. Over the course of this primary, with our candidates, differences of obviously emerged. They have expressed their vision for our country. Differences make us stronger as a party and ready to fight come november. It is important to remember that differences are not have to equal division. We are going to be united going into november. [applause] we cannot afford to have fractures, we need to stay united. Isall of you know, nevada the First Western state and the most diverse state in the country thus far to have their voices heard. I ask you to look around this itm look to your looked to your right, that is what nevada looks like. That is what this country looks like. [applause] it is so important that your voices are heard as you move forward in this process. There is no denying that doing well in nevada is a clear trend to doing well in november. As democrats, we have so much to be proud of in the state of nevada. We have made tremendous progress on issues that are important to increasing our renewable standard by 50 in 2020 thanks to our legislature, makes a difference. To the expanded access ballot boxes across the state and implemented automatic Voter Registration so everybody has the right to vote [cheers and applause] we have increased the minimum wage, and i am so proud that we have finally given our hardworking teachers a raise that they have deserved. yes [cheers and applause] we created the Patient Protection commission, which has the charge not just doing another study, we are coming back with specific recommendations for meat and the legislature to move into the get legislative session and a handle on the spiraling cost of health care and Prescription Drugs. [applause] i would not be standing here before you as the first democratic governor in 20 years without your help. You knocked on the doors, you made the phone calls, you pounded and talked to your neighbors, and it is because of you i am the governor, and because of you have the first femalemajority legislature in the u. S. Of america [cheers and applause] before we get into this, he will hear the candidates speak here. I have got some advice to the candidates, three things i want to pass on. You can pull out a pencil and take a couple of notes. Nevada is not, will not and will never be the Nuclear Waste dump in this country. [applause] it is not going to happen. Fromed a Firm Commitment every candidate that that is not going to happen under their watch. Nevada is a strong union state and we are proud of the fact that we are a strong union state. Unions built this state and continue to build this state, and we are proud of the working men and women who go to work every single day, taking care of our communities. [applause] and third and finally, diversity is what we are about in nevada. Diversity makes as stronger, diversity makes us stronger, and diversity makes us better. We reflect the population in this country. That is why nevada is so important. And we are proud of the diversity we bring forward. [applause] the pioneer spirit can only be found deep in the heart of the we do west, where we know what no one else has done, where we dream where no one else has dreamt, and he accomplish those dreams by working together. There. T out those of you who havent voted, you got 30 days to vote early before the caucus next saturday. Get out there early and vote. And to the volunteers and staff democratic parties and the state party, we cannot begin to thank you enough for how hard you are working. You are putting in the hours and you are making a difference in the lives of our citizens and in a nominee that is going to be our candidate for president , and who will ultimately become the next president of the United States of america [applause] thats how we win. That is how we organize. When we vote, we win. We vote, we win. Thank you very much. It is the honor of my lifetime to serve as your governor. God bless you all and have a great evening. Thank you nevada [cheers and applause] thank you. Give it up for the governor, everybody [applause] is jason harris. I am a Las Vegasbased comedian and i will be emceeing tonight. But i know you want to hear a lot from our candidates. Lets get the noise going, please. Let us welcome our first candidate, senator Bernie Sanders [cheers and applause] sen. Sanders thank you. I would like to thank the Clark County Democratic Party you houting] we love sen. Sanders thank you, i love you too i would like to find the Clark County Democratic Party for turning this state blue and helping send excellent United States senators to the senate. [applause] i was delighted to be here in 2018 to campaign for your great senator jacky rosen, and to help her win, and they look forward to returning to help elect more members of congress and state officials here in nevada. I am also delighted to be in the home state of my good friend harry reid. [applause] harry, i believe, will go down in history as one of the great Democratic Leaders of the United States senate. Harry, thank you very much for all that you do. [applause] , and it a few minutes want to make just a couple of points. First, while there is in a hotly contested democratic nomination process, i am absolutely confident that no matter who the is, r winner to say, i hope it is me but no matter who the winner will be, i have absolute confidence that we are all going to unite behind that candidate and the feet the most dangerous theident dust defeat of most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. [cheers and applause] we all understand the us i know we are supporting different candidates here, but we all understand that we cannot continue to have in office a president who is a pathological liar, who is running a corrupt administration, who has contempt for the constitution and the rule of law, and who is undermining american democracy. Donald trump, you will be a oneterm president. Get out of here. [applause] now, i am sure that all of my friends who are going to speak to you tonight are going to tell you why they think they are the strongest candidate to defeat trump, so let me start off by telling you what i think. Why i think i am the strongest candidate to defeat in order tohat is, win in november, we are going to need a multi generational, multiracial campaign of energy and excitement that creates the highest voter turnout in American History. [applause] campaign that brings out millions of nontraditional voters of all races, including those who have given up on the political process, and younger people who have never voted. Campaign