Was running for president. Afterwards, she took questions from the audience. [cheers and applause] hey, good afternoon. Im chair of the Johnson County democrats. Im not here to make an endorsement im here to welcome you and i know the reason youre here. And that reason is you want to make the change in the way our state and our government in washington is being run. [applause] absolutely. And really whats the best way th do that . Get involved. You can get involved with the Johnson County democrats and what to do is go to jcdems. Org. Thats jcdems. Org, get out your phones right now and had their, and sign up for our weekly email. On the email there is a newsletter that will give you the latest of the important political events going on in our area as well as you can have details about the caucasus, where youre going to caucus, information about training on what, and also in person online. So please go to that site, join the Johnson County democrats and help us take back the state, the country, and support our local democrats. Thank you. [applause] next, please join me in welcoming state senator joe bolkcom to the stage. [applause] good afternoon. Happy holidays. Im state senator joe bolkcom. Thank you for coming to see Elizabeth Warren this afternoon. If you are already a committed war and supported, thank you for your support. We have a lot of work to do in the next 63 days. Are still undecided about who youre going to support in iowa caucus, thank you for taking time to come and hear senator warren share her patience for the country. The 2020 election is about three things. Stopping the crazy. [laughing] [applause] thats right. Breaking the grip of corporate special interests on our democracy. [applause] and bringing positive improvements to the American People. [applause] im here today because i enthusiastically support Elizabeth Warren forid president because she can win, and she best suited to transfer our politics once she is in office. [applause] she has the experience, the energy and the guts to take on powerful and special interests in washington to solve the daunting problems facing the American People and our planet. The 2016 election was a loud wakeup call driven by profound, unhappiness with business as usual, powerful special interest politics. People are tired of this corruption. Americans want our political leaders to Work Together to solve their problems. That is really what this election is about. Will we have government of, by, and for the people again . [applause] we all want a more hopeful unified country. The best way to unify the country is forme our leaders and our government to actually solve problems facing our families and improve their everyday lives. That is why we will thats what would unify us, solving problems that improve peoples lives. Sounds simple. Its not. Powerful special interest or stand in the way. Powerful special interest that vikings like things just the way they are. Our next president needs to have the guts to take on these powerful interests. Elizabeth warren has a proven record of taking on Washington Special interests and winning. Thats what will actually bring people together, winning for the American People. [applause] i have heard from some of my friends that say we need a moderate approach before going to beat trump. Now, i appreciate that viewpoint. I understand that people have added with theof chaos, the corruption, and the noise of the trump presidency. They just want calm and stability. Unfortunately, the world today is anything but call or stable. We face complex issues here at home and around the globe. What we need is a steady, thoughtful, smart leader that is going to set high but realistic and achievable goals. We need a leader whos going to tackle income inequality, Climate Change, college affordability, and are broken Healthcare System and on. [applause] headon. Elizabeth warren is going to challenge us to be the best we can be here that is what great leaders do. Did anyone see the hawks beat nebraska on friday fax go hawks. [applause] well, it came down to a 48yard field goal with one second left on the clock. The coach didnt tell the kicker keith duncan to get in there and get it close. Give it a good kick. No, the coach and the team wanted to win the game. Make the field goal. Expect a result, get results. That is what we need in our next president. Someone who will challenge us to be the best, someone that will expect and get results for the American People. Elizabeth warren is that leader. As ive watched the Iowa Caucuses unfold over the last several months, i have seen elizabeth organize a Grassroots Campaign rooted in big ideas and persontoperson connections. She is campaigning and smalls, towns, Rural Communities ande g cities across our country. That time she spent listening and learning about the lives of Everyday Americans makes her a better candidate and will make her a great president. Shes proving she knows how to win. She will campaign hard in every state. She will stand tough against trump. She can beat donald trump. [applause] i have been doing politics for almost 30 years. Thats a long time. Ive seen thank you for your support. [laughing] wouldnt be here without you. Ive seen a lot of candidates and a lot of politicians. The best ones have always set the bar high and encouraged us to be our best. [applause] ive also worked on many, many tough issues, health care, Climate Change, predatory lending, tax issues. Old school, business as usual politics hasnt fixed these problems. Only a courageous, relentless fighter like Elizabeth Warren wheel. [applause] will. Finally, a powerful woman president is our best hope for the positive change we need right now. [cheers and applause] please join me in caucus for Elizabeth Warren on february 3. Thank you very much. [applause] hi, everybody. So my name is page on the field organizer here, and before i give a little speech, some of you wanted to ask questions, and so what were going to do, im going to draw five tickets and edwin get your tickets now. Im going to read the last four digits, and that is how we will do it. Youll go up to stockton over here. Shes lovely. Shes holding up the sign. Okay, so the first number is hoops. We got two. 1019. Second number is, second number is 1020. Amazing. Yeah, i think im going to shop of them a bit more. With it. The next one is 1069. 1069, anyone . Okay, cool. So that one. The next one is 1079. 1079 . Is that her . Do have 1079 is here. Do. Do we also have 1069 . No, cool. And then we have 1008. 1008. Anyone . Okay, so we are missing two. So then were going to do 1024. Persist. Yes. [applause] okay. And then the last round for this round is 1016. Yes. [applause] amazing. So my name is page, again. I am an organizer on thed northeast side of iowa city. Ei figured since were on a College Campus i would kill all a little bit about my experience in college. So there are going to be trigger warnings in your for gun violence and Sexual Assault, just for your awareness. So i went to a Small Liberal Arts College in allentown pennsylvania called Muhlenberg College and my time there was looking to buy the catalyst of two major social movements and protest. The first of many sleepless nights on my normal subdued campus happened during the fall of my freshman year. Michael brand was gunned down in ferguson, missouri, in august. In november of the grand jury decision to not contact the Police Officer who took his life came up the night before thanksgiving break. Throughout the course of that year as we fought with school administers to the black lights m Matter Movement emerged into the national spotlight. For three years. In 2017 i remember scrolling through facebook one day and seeing the words me too scrawled like happy birthday post alln over my timeline. I cant member if it took me three hours or three days but eventually i decided to. As for a couple of months again and it is valentines day. We got word that been yet another shooting a yet another high school and then we saw use clips of these incredible kids calling out elected officials for inaction and sharing their stories. Fastforward another couple months. Too much out of college working in cedar rapids to elect fred hubbell as governor and the great state of iowa. I wake up one day to a massive kidney stone, 12 on body mass and got saddled with 7200 in medical bills. 0. Had i not had insurance i wouldve owed upwards of 42,000. Yes, everyones decision to get involved in politics or Movement Comes from a deeply personal place. I was annoyed another campaign, and then Elizabeth Warren has been fighting for medicare for all four years, jumped into the president ial race. How could you say no to this queen . I joined this campaign for my friends up to work three jobs just to get food on the table to pay the rent and hope that money left over for their medication. I joined this campaign because when i started college my tuition was 42,000 and thousand dollars and when i graduated it was 66,000. I joined this can be because as a survivor of childhood Sexual Assault i cant sit idly by with some of the queues of Sexual Assault in the white house. I joined this campaign because as a nonbinary person im kind of tired of my i joined this campaign because the number one cause of death for black men between the ages of 1835 inse this country is gun violence. I joined this campaign because being a Student Activist has taught me anything, its taught me that the best leaders are the ones who listen to people affected most by the issues, give credit where credit is due and know how to get from point a to point b. Elizabeth warren embodies all of that and more. She does it rely on anticonsultants for policy plans to ask when she was writing her lgbtq policy she turned to work were endorsers and staff and asked what we want. She listens more than she speaks. She never shies away from a good idea, and that she ever have a plan for everything. This is a moment and we can elect it was with one at president of the United States but we need your help to do it. This is a movement, and a promise theres a place in it for you. Theres too much at stake for anyone to sit by the sidelines with 63 days left before the caucus. Find an organizer of volunteer at the event to find out how you can help elect the first president of the United States. Thank you. [applause] [cheers and applause] a lot of people here. Hello. My name is cesar perez and a student here at the university of iowa. Go hawks, right . [cheers and applause] so before even start to begin to tell you guys why its a ice were Elizabeth Warren and why she gives me hope, i want to start by telling you guys who i am and how did he get to this point in my life. As a mexican firstgeneration student i always saw college something reserved exclusively for my wealthy peers. Growing up it was a struggle to keep up with my grades and for a long time college did not even seem like an option for me. Both my parents came from mexico and never attended college. So was never mention in my home. But dont take this as a sob story because i dont really take it as a sob story. Im actually really proud where i came from and how i came from there. [applause] is bright guy wasnt always hopeful about anything and also i didnt think is going to college anything. So when i got accepted to the university of bible i knew this was a turning point for me. I seized it. This was my chance to make a difference in the world. And more importantly to make my mom proud of me. To be completely honest, though it was hard when i i started ad it is still hard right now, its hard because exams are hard, its hard because studying until 4 a. M. Is hard. And also balancing 30 things on your plate is pretty hard. But its also hard because for low income students like me, every day can feel struggle just to afford tuition. Like so many others, i took out loans to afford iowa but in doing so i did know what is getting myself into. Right now like many students in the United States im thousands in debt. This is devlin a struggle and i stressed about it all the time and how im going to pay for it. College was in made for me to succeed, especially as a son f two immigrants but i know i will continue to work hard and will continue to have hope. I want every person of the opportunity to go to college, if you want to or not, and not havn to worry about this. No one should be defined on their past struggles. Edwin should have opportunities to live out their dreams. This is why i support Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth has appointed notches cancel Student Loan Debt but also to make tuition free college. This is what big structural change is. Her plan will a race every cent of my thousands of dollars of debt. It will help so may people like me to be successful in college but not even just in college but in life. Think about it Elizabeth Warren is giving every american the opportunity to attend aiv twoyear, a Fouryear College without paying a dime intuition. This is truly amazing and it will be transformational for our generation, our economy and our country. So something i really did learn about this through all of my Life Experience, is my Life Experience hasnt been easy but you cant choose your life. You could only choose how you respond to it. I will continue to work hard for me, my friends, my siblings and my parents. T elizabeth has genuinely give me hope aboutha the future and has inspired me more than she could ever know. W. She wants to fight for me and the people i love. So please help me in welcoming the next president of the United States, Elizabeth Warren. [cheers and applause] hello, iowa city. [cheers and applause] and great job, caesar. That was fabulous. Lets give caesar a hand. Way to go. Good to see you all here. Gosh, its good to be here. Just want you all to know, its good to be back in iowa city. This time i brought family. I brought my son, alex. Where are you . That guy in the blue shirt. [applause] now, actually you were here with me when we were here before at iowa city and you had on a blue shirt. And i told everybody in the crowd, alex has been my tech support since a second grade. [laughing] true story. He now runs his own business, small business, and ps picked u a new sideline, support your mother when she run for president of the United States. Way to go, al. [applause] i thought what we would doa to o is i would to give you just a kind of real short version of who iy am and why im in this fight. And then we just take as many questions as we can get in. So let me start by just saying, i was born and raised in oklahoma. One. [laughing] way to go. There are not that many of us. We have to stick together. Born and raised in oklahoma. I have threehe much older brothers. I am the baby in the family. I and what used to be called a late in life baby. Is my mother always just called me the surprise. Er [laughing] my three older brothers back in oklahoma now lived there. They are collectively referred to as the boys, even today. Thats to distinguish them from the surprise. Growing up, our daddy had a lot of different jobs. He sold paint. He sold hardware. He sold fencing. And all three of my brothers went off and joined the military. It was their path to the middle class, their chance to serve america. Me, i had a different dream. I have known what i wanted to be since second grade. You didnt decide to what, fourth grade . Fifthgrade . I can tell in the back, okay. Ive never wavered from it. Ol i want to be a Public School teacher. Can we hear it for americas Public School teachers . [applause] yeah, yeah. Oh, man. This is what i wanted. I want you to know, i invested early. I used to line my dollies up and teach school. Had a reputation for being tough but fair. I loved it. By the time i graduated from high school though, my family didnt have the money for college application, much less to send me off to a fouryear university. Like a lot of americans i did not have a Straight Path story. I have a lot of twists and turns in my story, and heres how it goes. So i was in high school debater and i got a scholarship to college. Go debaters. And then at 19 i fell in love, got married and dropped out of school. Woo hoo. [laughing] its what i picked. Good life, but i thought i lost the dream. I thought that it, i will never get to teach. And were living down in houston, and then i found it. A commuter college 45 minutes away that cost 50 a semester. And for for a price i could par on a parttime waitressing job, i finished my fouryear diploma. I became a special education teacher. I live my dreamit job. There it is. [applause] now, how we get any teachers in here or teachers to be . [cheers and applause] good, good. Im going to need you to back me up on this. It is not a job. It is a calling. I love this work. I had the truth is, i probably would still be doing that work today, but more twists and turns in the story. By the end of t the first year,i was visibly pregnant, and the principal did what principles did in those days. Wish to me like an hired someone else for the job. So here i am. I was home, had a baby. I cant get a job. Ive got to do something. What have i got to do . Ill g