Infrastructure. Live coverage on cspan. Watch at cspan. Org and listen on the cspan radio app. A number of the 2020 president ial candidates were added clark county Nevada Democratic party event last night in las vegas. The states caucus will be held on february 22. [applause] donna, we have got to show everyone our shoes. Dorothy, you are not in the iowa anymore. You are in nevada. Ok, that is not what i thought was going to happen this evening. Thank you so much for this award. It is in honor of a lifetime to serve as the Clark County Party chair. Hello, clark county democrats. Wow. How good friend nancy used to talk about, there is Nothing Better than being in a room full of democrats. Spiritnow she is here in with us tonight. She would love an event like this. So, good evening and welcome to the clark county Democratic Partys kick off to caucus. [applause] and thank you so much for joining us to celebrate the thirdinthenation, but the firstinthewest nevada 2020 caucus. The nevada state Democratic Party has worked hard to create the most transparent, expansive, and accessible caucus yes. Process yet. 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. And that spells trouble for the dangerous person occupying our oval office. [applause] if you cast a 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. And next saturday, they will be in their precinct caucuses. If you are a volunteer for the 2020 nevada caucus, would you please stand . We want to recognize our hardworking volunteers. [applause] thank you very much. We could not do this without you. We are so grateful for your commitment to our party and to winning back the white house and turning nevada bluer than its ever been before. I want to give a shout out to my friend william. William is the chair of the nevada state Democratic Party. Well, i want to say thank you will, i want to say thank you for your leadership. You have kept us focused and fired up all the way through the 2018 midterms and through all the preparations for the firstinthewest 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. We are the first state of true diversity to participate in the democratic primary. [applause] nevada is what america looks like. And so when we cast our vote, we are going to 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. Excuse me. I 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 this evening not be possible. And the funds raised tonight will help clark county throw our convention on april 18 at the rio and help us produce thousands of slate cards that list every democrat running for office in our county, including all of those nonpartisan offices such as our judges. 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. And of course, we are excited to hear from our president ial candidates tonight. But now, i have the privilege of introducing a woman who inspires me. Her passion, her fight, lifts us all up and keeps us moving forward. It is my pleasure to introduce my congresswoman from Congressional District 1, congresswoman dina titus. [applause] dina all right. [applause] lets get some energy going in his room. All right. I am dina titus and i have been a democrat since i was born. How about you . I am dina titus, and i have been a liberal sense it wasnt even popular and they didnt call them progressive. I am dina titus, and you are in my district, district one. Welcome and thank you for being here. [applause] it is been rough back there in washington. I can tell you it is 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 i will say it again, the bastards got to go. [applause] we were out there today attending a lot of events, by some of the early caucus setting, 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 two or 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 to stay home. So i know i am preaching to the choir, but we need you out there. We need you at the site registering voters, helping people turn out. Make this caucus a success. Lets show iowa what it needs to what it means to be nevada thats 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. Steve sisolak is dedicated to improving the lives of all nevadans. He signed legislation to provide early access to voting, and to protect voting rights. He further ensured a womans right to choose and provided for collective bargaining for our state employees. Please give a welcome to our governor, governor steve sisolak. [applause] gov. Sisolak thank you. [applause] good evening, democrats. We have got to live in this this party upven 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 and i want to give a shout out, something that is 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. If you are an educator, i want you to stand up and be acknowledged. [applause] thank you so much. [applause] thank you so much. We are so proud of everything of what you do every single day. We appreciate what you do for our kids in our classrooms. Thank you for being here this evening and helping us celebrate the kickoff of 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. We were two of almost 12,000 people that voted by 5 00 today. The turnout has been tremendous. As congresswoman titus said, the lines are long, you make a few new friends while you are waiting. Everybody is getting along and it is a great atmosphere. But we have an Incredible Group of volunteers. It has just been amazing. Alana to acknowledge shelby, who has worked very hard to pull this caucus together. 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 november general election is 262 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] we are one week in nevada from our firstinthewest caucus. Early voting started today. We have three more days to cast your preferences and i encourage everyone to get out and participate. I want to thank those organizers and volunteers who 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 sworn into the white house. A democrat. [applause] and to the nevada state Democratic Party, thank you. I know everyone there 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, go to work, and they get it done, and we have a successful caucus. Are going to have three more successful days. Over the course of this primary, with our candidates, differences have 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 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. As all of you know, nevada is 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 room. Look to your left, look 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 we move forward in this process. There is no denying that doing well in november 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 democrats. Increasing our renewable standard by 50 in 2020 thanks to our legislature, makes a difference. We have expanded access to the ballot box across the state and implemented automatic Voter Registration so everybody has the right to vote [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. [applause] yes [applause] we created the Patient Protection commission, which has the charge not just doing another study, but is coming back with specific recommendations for me and the legislature to move into the next legislative session and get 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 the signs 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 United States of america. [applause] before we get into this you are going to hear the candidates speak here i have got some advice for 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. We need a Firm Commitment from every candidate that that is not going to happen under their watch. Second, nevada is a strong union damn proud ofre 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 smarter, 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 golden west, where we do what no one else has done, where we dream where no one else has dreamt, and he accomplish those dreams by working together. Now, get out there. Those of you who havent voted, you have got three days to vote early before the caucus next saturday. Get out there early and vote. And to the volunteers and staff at the county 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 the 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 [applause] thank you. Give it up for the governor, everybody [applause] hi. My name is jason harris. I am a Las Vegasbased comedian and i will be emceeing tonight. But right now i know you want to hear from the candidates, am i right . Lets get the noise going, please. Let us welcome our first candidate, senator Bernie Sanders [cheers and applause] [chanting] sen. Sanders thank you. I would like to thank the clark county Democratic Party [shouting] we love you sen. Sanders thank you, i love you too let me thank the clark county Democratic Party for turning for sendingue and us excellent United States two 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 when and i 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] and 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] ive got a few minutes, and i 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 winner is needless to say, i hope it is me. [applause] but no matter who the winner will be, i have absolute confidence that we are all going to unite behind that candidate and defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. [cheers and applause] we all understand 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 are going to be a oneterm president. You are 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 why i think i am the strongest candidate to defeat trump. And that is, in order to win in november, we are going to need a multigenerational, multiracial campaign of energy and excitement that creates the highest voter turnout in american history. That is a 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. And that is what our campaign is about. And the recent caucus in iowa, where we won the popular vote by 6000 votes, entrance polls suggested that voter turnout with people under 29 was higher than in 2016. 33 higher than in 2016. That is what we are going to have to do in november. In the New Hampshire primary, our campaign won almost every workingclass community in that state, which is something we also are going to have to do in november. We are going to have to bring the working class of this country back into the Democratic Party. [applause] in order to win in november, we are going to have to have strong support from the africanamerican community, the latino community, the asian community, and the native american community. We cannot take these communities for granted anymore, in my campaign is successfully working to our and their support every single day. [applause] now, i have, and some of you know, been criticized by the corporate elites and the political establishment for bringing forth an agenda that they think is too radical and too extreme. I respectfully disagree. The agenda that we are bringing forth is exactly the agenda the working class of this country want. [applause] i am proud that my proposal for a 15 an hour minimum wage has already passed in seven states as well as the u. S. House of representatives. [applause] i am proud that states and communities all over this country are already moving forward to make public colleges and universities tuitionfree and support for counseling all student debt is extremely popular. Canceling all student debt is extremely popular. [applause] and i am very proud that just today, in a major article in lancet, one of the most influential medical journals in the world, of the case was made for why we must move toward medicare for all, singlepayer. The article states, and i quote, taking into account both the cost of coverage expansion and the savings that would be achieved through the medicare for all act, we calculate that a singlepayer universal