All right. Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for being here. I am jenna mali dillon, im joined by my great friend jerry cohen who is the vice chair of the commission, and i call the final meeting of the Unity Reform Commission to order. I would just like the members to join for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, i now ask Patrice Taylor to call the roll please. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Baker . Here. Ms. Bower . Here. Mr. Burns . Here. Ms. Flores . Congresswoman fudge . Yes. Ms. Harris . Here. Mr. Wentz. Yes. Mr. Coats. Here. Ms. Lewis. Here. Mr. Mnewport. Here. Ms. Turner . Here. Mr. Weaver . Here. Mr. Web. Here. Mrs. Omalley dillon . And mr. Cohen. Here. We are missing a few Commission Members but we certainly have a quorum. And i would like to start today by acknowledging chairman perez whos here, were very thankful for his participation. Good morning, everyone. I want to thank all of you for your hard work. It was labor intensive and everyone came to it with an open mind and with a remarkable set of ideas. So i want to say thank you to all of you. I want to say particular thanks to our cochairs, we have been meeting regularly, brainstorming regularly, and i cant say enough wonderful things about both of you. You have both entered the enterprise with a spirit of bold passion, a spirit of ingenuity, a spirit that understands that this is the most serious stress test on our nations democracy, perhaps in our history and the work of this Unity Commission is so critically important. Thank you so much larry and jen for the important work you have been doing. I come to you both with a sense of remarkable sobriety given whats happening in washington and around the country and in the era of this president , and also a sense of optimism born from what were seeing on the ground. We see chaos every day from this administration. The tax bill that the congresswoman fought against. Its an absolute abomination, it is a break for wealthy people, wealthy corporations at the expense of virtually everybody else. 13 Million People virtually losing health care, all in service of a tax cut for large corporations and wealthy people who dont need it. They tell us theres no money to reauthorize the state Insurance Health insurance, but they want to eliminate the estate tax, which is a boom for the 1 of the 1 . You see whats happening overseas, where we have become a laughing stock around the world, other countries have figured out how to handle this president. You roll out the red carpet, you appeal to his ego and then you take him to the cleaners and thats what happened in china and elsewhere. Yet our allies in europe and elsewhere, rather than having our back, this administration stabs them in the back, and thats why were a much less safe democracy and thats why this work is so incredibly important moving forward. We all understand the seriousness of the task at hand. But i also come to you with a sense of optimism because we saw in 2017 what we can do when were yuwe were united. The last time we won house of representatives races in 2006 and 2005. We saw what happened in new jersey and virginia, but in other places, we saw what happened when we are united, we saw what happens when we organize, we organize early, we oral everywhere. When we go into virginia and say health care is a right for all not a privilege for few. Health care was the number one issue in virginia by far and the Democratic Party led on a issue and that is a big reason why we won. In virginia and elsewhere. And so we have a lot to look back on in 20 subpoena and it wasnt simply new jersey and virginia, we have proven that we can win elections anywhere. The special election that took place this summer, three special elections in deep trump districts. We won all three elections, elections in new hampshire, a state senate seat that we hadnt gotten on the democratic side since 1984, a special election down in florida where the republican won last year by a 71 margin. We see what we do when we organize. We see what we do when we listen and when we take the term off year out of the lexicon of the Democratic Party. We have already gone to school on many of the lessons and mistakes of the past and one of the lessons that we learned from the past is the mission of the Democratic National committee must always be to elect democrats up and down the ticket from the school board to the oval office and we have done just that. And with the help of this commission, were going to be able to do that on an even better scale because the recommendations you have put forth today are remarkably important in moving forward as we turn the corner. I believe again that democrats can win everywhere, and in the motto of our partnership, we call it every zip code counts, because we understand we can win everywhere and we have demonstrated that in elections that have taken place this year. We also understand that we have got to spend money on infrastructure, we havent spent a dime on television at the dnc, our focus has been directly organizing and connecting with voters, through our summer program, led by deputy chair Keith Ellison, we knocked on over a million doors to invite americans of all walks of life to join us. We made those investments in virginia up to about 1. 5 million in virginia. Nothing went into television, the money went into organizing to help our friends in the progressive ecosystem. And the same thing in new jersey, our investments were able to help people up and down the ticket. It was an honor to campaign on behalf of house and delegates candidates. I told them early on, we dont want you to just win, we want you to govern. 115 republicans who are about to become former members of the Virginia House of delegates are all men, replaced by 11 women. Remarkable. History made, including the first two latinas in the history of the Virginia House of delegates, the first Asian American in the house of delegat delegates. We can win elections when we are organized, when were running candidates everywhere and were leading with our values. So thats what we have learned. Thats the progress we have made. Thats the momentum. We need to scale that, and we need to make sure were doing that everywhere in 2018. We can win back governor ships and state legislatures. I was with the democratic reiterating the message that the new Democratic Party is focused up and down the ticket and were working to organize everywhere. So i believe we can win everywhere. And i believe that we can win everywhere. As long as were continuing to organize and continuing to put in place the recommendations of this remarkable commission, so as we shift into this next phase of the commission, i want to take just a moment to tell you some of the things that we have already put in place, because i think its really important. And theyre inspired by many conversations i have had with people in this room because we recognize that we need to be looking toward 2017, which we have been doing, but we also need to have an eye on the future, but we need to build a party that can win today and sustain those victories tomorrow. We need to make sure that were preparing now for the 2018 elections, but were also preparing ahead for the 2020 elections, and as we think about 2020, there are many more things that are very important. We spent a lot of time learning from the lessons of the past, and learning from our mistakes, places where the dnc fell short. I think its very important going into 2020, and that starts no that the dnc does not put its thumb on the scale, either in fact or in perception. Nothing that any democratic candidate does should do anything to give anyone an unfair advantage. We announced one measure that will im were going to announce our debate schedule so we know well in advance who all the candidates are. So theres not a thumb on the scale for any one candidate. I know there are other things we can do. And im committed to making sure that all of our fundraising agreements are trance parsparen available to all of the candidates. We need to make sure that we give voters opportunities to participate in our primaries, and were doing just that. The recommendations on the primaries are some of the most important things we can do, it makes absolutely no sense to me to have a Voter Registration deadline, thats on one day, and a deadline to change your Party Affiliation thats 60 or 90or 100 days earlier, or even earlier for that matter. That makes no sense to me, i dont think it makes sense to anybody on this commission and i look forward not only to adopting with this commission but to implementing, because its one thing to adopt, its another thing to make sure that we move forward with our recommendations. We also meet to make sure that we remain vigilant in making sure we expand opportunities for eligible people to vote, not contract them. My work has a civil rights lawyer has given me a front row seat to the fact that Voter Suppression is the biggest play in the dncs playbook. They have been talking about this for decades, not only for months. And they have been making it harder for eligible people to vote rather than easier. Thats why we need to make sure that Voter Protection and Voter Empowerment are part of our playbook, and these recommendations of the commission, and i kmepd tcommen chair and the cochair for the work they have done in this area, because there are too many working people who cant vote in this. We have had a robust dialogue and i want to thank everybody who has been working on the interest of caucus. We want to make sure that if youre a shift worker you can vote in the caucus, or if youre a member of the military, or someone else who has been left out of the process, that they can vote, that you can make sure that your franchise is exercised. And there are remarkable conversations taking place here. I applaud all the work of the commission and i applaud all the effort youve done in the area of delegates. In 2001, superdelegates made up almost all of the delegates. And at that time when you were negotiating the Unity Commission, both secretary clinton and senator sanders agreed on the mandate passed there to provide for a significant reduction in the number of unpledged delegates and im excited about the fact that the recommendations here are going to reduce that by over 50 . And that is so critically importa important. Finally, if we want democrats to win and stay in power, we have to reform our party in the ways that rebuild it and build it up. The effort of grass roots organizing, now well rise and organize. And well continue that. Want to thank my friend and colleague Keith Ellison whos been a part of that conversation. We have been making investments in our parties, investments in downballot races. Some of these organizations dont have a chief Technology Officer but what they do have is tremendous energy. We all succeed when we all succeed. And we do our best when were united and we have our oars in the water and we have sin chron necessarity. Im proud of the fact that were now providing onethird more every month to state parties. And its not a blank check, its accompanied by accountability measures, were working together with state parties and critical stake holders in each state to develop that Strategic Plan for success that enables us to win not only this year, but many years to come. Im proud of the Technology Structure were using at the dnc. All of those things that enable us to work across states to make sure that were empowering folks, and so we need to continue to empower our diverse grass roots democrats at every level and make sure that they have a seat at the leadership table. Lets build on our recent small dollar fundraising success. And lets stand by our pledge. We have come a long way, but i am i was born at night, but i wasnt born last night. We still got a long way to go and this commission is still, i think, a critical part of that process moving forward. And i am confident, senator kennedy once taught me, he taught me many things, but he said, you know, tom, we are at our best when we are united and unity doesnt mean unanimity. We may not agree on everything, but when we are united, our moving the ball down the field, for working families. Making sure that if we protected the right to organize, making sure we protected womens rights, making sure we protected immigrants rights, when we move forward in this spirit, and im confident that we agree on many, many things here, and im equally confident that we still may have some disagreements, but what we have in common far exceeds what our differences are. Im going to work with all of you to make sure that this report doesnt gather dust. Because today and the work you do today and tomorrow is the end of one chapter, but its the beginning of an equally important chapter, the chapter of implementation. I want to make sure that when history looks back an your work, our work, that history records this as a moment in which democrats came together around an opportunity for everyone, around empowerment for grass roots communities, construction of a pathway, not only for victory in 2018, but for longterm sustained success. Thats when were at our best. So i look forward to listening to all of you and hearing the final results, i know with have a long way to go today, but i have a lot of optimism going forward. This is a terrific group of folks bringing back the north star arktnd the north star is bringing back an america for every munt. Thank you to everyone on this commission for your great work. Thank you so much mr. Chairman for being here today and for your remarks and for someone who has spent a good amount of time during my career at the dnc and working on the party, i just want to commend you and the hard work you have undergone and the adjustments and the new evolution of the work youre doing across the country and i think, you know, seeing the amazing wins in virginia and the downballot victories that were seeing is no small part your leadership and the leadership of your team so thank you for that so much. All right, so we are here at the final meeting of the Unity Reform Commission. And i want to just first start by saying thank you to the Commission Members. As you can imagine, this is not exactly the sexiest jobs that we all could do and i was explaining to someone the other day that we are a workers commission, that everybody here is putting in time, to speak with their peers here, to reach out to the grass roots, to really think about some hard, sticky topics and come up with really thoughtful ideas and solutions. I think you will see that throughout today and tomorrow, but i just want to commend the on behalf of the party and the work here and i am really confident that what were going to end up with after today and tomorrow is going to be a report that will help unify the party, but will also bring major reform, greater reform than i have seen during my time doing political work which is 100 on the mark with what to the commission mandated. I am confident that we are going to have a good two days, but i want to make sure that everyone thats here understands the work behind the Commission Members that have put that together. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has come today and many of you have been here for many meetings, thank you for your participation and being here but thank you for caring about this. Not just the folks that are here in person, we have received thousand of outreach from people in the party, across the party, across the country, on thoughts and ideas people have, input that they have sharedthrou thro the website and this is something we have taken very seriously and this is something thats obviously very important to all of us. As we have started each of these meetings thinking about whats happening in the world, to make sure that what were doing here is concrete to the reality here facing, unfortunately, for every single meeting, i have had see many things, that the chair has mentioned as well, that we can point to that the Trump Administration and the republicans are doing that are taking away and hurting the people we care about and the standar standards and values that we share. As we go through this process through time, let us just remember, that we have sat here and gone through in the last 10 days, everything from the republican tax bill to more discussion on the muslim ban to the conceal and carry gun law, you know, to whats going on with dreamers. The list goes on and on. And i say that to say that while we are we know that on many things were going to disagree, but on many things we are going to agree. So let us not forget about the responsibility that this party has to open its doors wide, so people understand who this party is and the values we share and how we go into elections. We have done a good job doing that so far and we need to continue doing it because i dont think any of us could have imagine we would be in this situation. With that, im going to hand it over to someone i have known for very long but someone i feel like i have known my whole life, my great friend and forever friend in this commission, the vice chair larry cohen. Thanks, jen and jens sitting here between two chairs, i dont know what that would feel like personally. Great to be here with everyone, and i also want to echo the thanks that have been given here and i think we need to stay rooted in that in these times. I know everybody in the room, whether youre on this commission on not feels deeply that we need to fight for change harder than ever before. I think its in that spirit that we have spent the last six months as a group, a little more than that for jen and i, okay, given this resolution, the resolution that was passed was anonymously passed, 4,500 delegates, didnt matter if you got there as a sanders delegate or a clinton delegate, it was unanimously passed. It sets a lot of boundaries and lays out four directions that well be talking about today. The four buckets that we called them in the opening session. But at the same time that this is really a call for all of us to engage in what i call party buildings, n