Good morning. I am linda feldman, Washington Bureau chief of the Christian Science monitor. Our guest today is tom perez, chairman of the Democratic National committee. Welcome and congratulations on last night. A bit of background. Chairman perez is from buffalo, new york. He earned his bachelor degree from Brown University and a law degree from harvard. After graduating he served a number of government positions, clerked for a federal judge, was a prosecutor for ted kennedy, worked in the office of civil rights for president clinton, and in 2002, became the first hispanic member of the Montgomery County council in maryland, then serves as marylands secretary of labor. In 2009, president obama named mr. Perez head of the Civil Rights Division at the u. S. Department of justice. In 2013, president obama made him secretary of labor, and in 2017, mr. Perez was elected chairman of the Democratic National committee, which brings us to today. Now for the ground rules. We are on the record here. Please no liveblogging or tweeting while the breakfast is underway. There is no embargo when the session ends at 12 00. We will email to reporters as soon as the breakfast and if you would like to ask me a question, please send a signal and we will allow for that if time permits. And now mr. Perez, if you would like to make some opening remarks. Tom perez thank you. It is an honor to be here with all of you. Two and a half years ago, february of 2017, i ran for chair of the dnc under the promise that we would Work Together with our partners in the democratic ecosystem to build a 50state party so that were competing everywhere, every year, in every zip code, and we are doing exactly that. 2017, virginia and new jersey, those elections taught us that democrats could win again. A month later, doug joness victory in alabama taught us we could win everywhere. 2017 was about scale. What can we do across the country at scale . We now have nancy pelosi as speaker of the house, even against the headwinds of gerrymandering where we not only had to win races but beat the spread in order to win so many seats. The last time we flipped this many governor seats from red to blue was 1982. The historic gains in state legislative seats. The work continues into 2019. When i say the ecosystem, i mean the ecosystem. Yesterdays victory was a victory for all democrats. It was a victory, i think, for our Democratic Values and i cannot say enough about the great work of all the partners in the ecosystem. The democratic governors association, a powerhouse, invested over 5 million alone in direct investments kentucky, not to mention other efforts they made. Made investments in mississippi as well. Let me say a bit about mississippi. We invested this year in jim hood. We are investing next year again because we are in it for the long haul. That is what a 50state party does. What i learned from last night was that we indeed can win everywhere and what is notable to me about the victory in kentucky is the similarities it has to our victory last year in wisconsin. Number one, it starts with candidate quality. In wisconsin, we had a spectacular candidate for governor, tony. In kentucky, a spectacular candidate for governor, steve bashear. Steve beshears son andy beshear. Andy is the attorney general, as you know. His father, when he was governor of kentucky, one of the most effective healthcare exchanges in the country, and when matt bevin got elected, he broke it. People saw that. I firmly believe you cannot govern effectively if you have to hate everybody you disagree with. Thats what matt bevins m. O. Was. Thats what scott walkers m. O. Was. What you saw yesterday was a great candidate, a Great Organization competing everywhere. In wisconsin, tony eberts not only did better in milwaukee and madison, but across the state. About a quarter of the gain was in milwaukee and madison. The rest was all across the state. We competed everywhere and when we were competitive everywhere. Same thing in kentucky. It wasnt only louisville and lexington, although we ran up the score there. We did well in areas where bevin had done well four years ago. In coal country, we won a number of counties, competing in rural parts of the state. When you are in every zip code candidate and your message resonates everywhere because he was talking about health care, he was talking about basic pocketbook issues, that is how he succeeded. Virginia, another example, and i cannot say enough good things about the great work of the Democratic Legislative Campaign committee, an important player in the ecosystem. At the beginning of this term, i spoke with jessica post, the remarkable leader of the dlcc and we talked about the fact that if we could flip roughly 4041 seats in the legislative chambers this cycle, we would flip those chambers. Thats on top of 8 chambers that we flipped in the 2018 cycle. We were talking about the two chambers in virginia. Mission accomplished last night. I spent the night in Prince William county. Prince William County embodies the challenges that donald trump and his politics of division are confronting in todays world. It is the quintessential suburb that democrats continue to win across the country, whether its in virginia or pennsylvania in 2018 or elsewhere. Corey stewart practiced the politics of division. Virginians overwhelmingly rejected the politics of division, and they now have a majority in the Prince William county board. Thats what we have as a Democratic Party. We believe diversity is our greatest strength, and mr. President , when you continually divide america, that is not only unamerican, that is going to be terrible politics for you. Thats not who we are. The voters of virginia spoke up. The first Muslim American elected last night in Prince William county. A sikh american elected last night in Prince William county. Thats what we are all about. We are competing everywhere. When i look at Youth Engagement in virginia, Youth Engagement when up Something Like 200 300 percent. Young people are responding. This is the third year in a row donald trump has been president for 2017, 2018, 2019. The common denominator in all of these has been democrats competing, winning, and leading with our values. Again, i am so appreciative of the partnership and the leadership of the dlcc, and in kentucky last night, we had a new entity in the democratic ecosystem. The Democratic Data Exchange, some of you may be aware, which was created earlier this year. The work done in kentucky last night was the first battle test for the Democratic Data Exchange. Thats a very important partner in the evergrowing democratic ecosystem, a partner that can enable everybody running for office to have more information. We were proud to be a partner in kentucky. We were proud to invest roughly 900,000 dollars in the coordinated campaign in addition to the work we did with the voter file and the partnership. The state party chair is one of the best in the country. You couldnt find a better candidate than andy beshear, and when you lead with your values, you can win. Theres nothing weak about kindness and compassion. Last night, andy beshear said i will truly be looking out for you, as opposed to the president the night before who said you need to vote for matt bevin, otherwise, it embarrasses me. Mr. President , elections are not about you. They are about the people we are trying to help. Thats why democrats are winning. We are focused on helping people across the country, and so i am excited, but i am absolutely sober about the task at hand and we are going to continue to compete early, everywhere, and together with our partners as we are now less than one year from the most important election in my lifetime. Thank you. Im sure we will have more questions about yesterdays results. I want to ask you about the 2020 race and the still huge, diverse, potentially divisive president ial field. On the question of party unity, i know you have a unity pledge that youve asked the candidates to adhere to, but you have also talked about an expanded unity pledge which is not just to have candidates serve as surrogates for the eventual nominee, but to have senior advisors work with the eventual nominee and also share data, which is critical and which Bernie Sanders did not do in 2016. Tell us where that stands, in your efforts to keep the party from flying apart as we get closer to the actual nomination. Our unity is our greatest strength as a party and its Donald Trumps nightmare. Our unity is what helped us win last night and in 2018 and 2017. And every candidate running for president understands this is not about them. This is about democracy at a critical inflection point. Thats why i asked every candidate to not only pledge to support the nominee but to pledge to actively campaign for the nominee, to have a surrogate, an ambassador, if and when they leave the race, because one thing we know is that if there are 20 some odd people running for president , all but one will not make it to the mountaintop, and every one of them has taken that pledge. They sign a document early on if they are running as a democrat, they made a clear commitment to us. I have absolute confidence that everyone will follow through on that. That doesnt mean we dont have disagreements in the primaries. Thats what primaries are for. That doesnt mean we wont have a tough primary. Thats what primaries are for. Whoever emerges will be battle tested. Have they all signed the document for the expanded pledge, the sharing of data . We havent made them sign a document. They have made a commitment and i am confident we are moving forward together. People understand this is different. Health care is on the ballot. Womens reproductive rights are on the ballot. Immigration is on the ballot. An economy that works for everything is on the ballot, Climate Change and all of those things are on the ballot. Our democracy as we know it is on the ballot the ballot, and everything will candidate understand this is bigger than them. We have to come together, we will come together, and over the last three years, we have come together in these races, and our unity has enabled us to win historic gains up and down the ballot. Are you concerned the democrats might nominate someone who is too leftwing for those gardenvariety of democrats and that unity pledge will not hold . I think the problem is that the Republican Party the party of lincoln is dead, and the real challenge is right now, the Republican Party is so off the rails to the far right. I mean, virginia yesterday, a big reason we won that race is that there was a special session a few months ago to deal with the issue of reducing gun violence in the aftermath of yet another horrific shooting. What happened in that special session . 90 minutes into it, the republicans gaveled it down. Notwithstanding the fact that 90 of the American People believe we ought to do something to reduce gun violence, and we can do so consistently with the Second Amendment. When you look at roe v. Wade, two thirds, 70 of the American People believe that roe v. Wade should be the law of the land and its the republicans are trying to overturn it. You look at Gun Violence Reduction, people with preexisting conditions, people think you have to have your coverage, and it is the republicans that are trying to take away coverage. I think the extreme party in america right now is the Republican Party, and thats why we have been winning elections, because independent and moderate voters and lincoln republicans have been voting for democrats. Look what happened in 2018. You saw suburban women across this country, you saw young people voting in abundance. We saw it again last night in virginia and elsewhere, and so im very confident that whoever wins our nominations, their values are going to command the respect and support of the majority of the American People. One more from me, where you stand on the issue of a corporatefunded super pac helping the democrats retake the presidency . Well, that is going to be up to candidates, you know . What about money for the dnc . You are way behind the republicans in money. If you look at the Third Quarter of this year, to be clear, if you look at what the Democratic Candidates and the rnc and the Trump Campaign manager, it was 311 million dollars. The democratic ecosystem, especially in the small dollar space, is raising record numbers of money, record amounts of money. If you talk to they had more new donors in 2019 than they did in 2017 and 2018 combined. Their biggest single hour of fundraising in the Third Quarter of this year was the second hour of our september debate. What that tells me is that people are excited by our candidates, they are voting with their smartphone, and they are investing in candidates, so donald trump you know, they raised more money than the dnc last year. They raised more money than the dnc in 2006. We won at scale last year. Theyre morally bankrupt and that is the problem. They have to spend a lot of money on their Legal Defense fund, because their legal bills are mounting. And so we have to raise enough money to get our message out out, to build the infrastructure of success, and thats what we are doing. Are you ok with a corporatefunded super pac helping the dnc . Again, we dont have a corporatefunded super pac helping the dnc, and we have been very clear that we dont take money from organizations that are inconsistent with our values. Thats been a very clear rule of engagement for us at the dnc, and that will continue to be. And you are ok with biden backing down on his rejection it will be up to the each individual candidate, and the voters will accept that. Each candidate have to run a campaign they believe that is best for them. Paul bedard from the Washington Examiner . Hi, paul. The president backed away from his promises after recent shootings. Nationally it was not big but in your races, it was a big thing, especially in virginia around the nra. How do you see this issue playing out in 2020 and would it be safe to say that the nra is surrounded by proguncontrol counties and legislators . The issue of reducing gun violence is an issue of national importance. This president has broken his promises repeatedly to the American People. He said the day after a shooting, yeah, weve got to do something about background checks, and the following day he meets with the nra, and voters in virginia spoke and communicated very clearly about this. The majority of nra members believe that we can have commonsense Gun Violence Reduction measures and Second Amendment freedoms, and i think this is going to be a really important issue to the American People. I applaud the young people not simply from parkland, but from across the country. The mothers of the movement. We need to stop going to funerals and we need to stop kowtowing to the nra. People have spoken. This is an example of so many issues where this president makes promises and breaks promises. He said, i am not going to mess with your health care and now he wants to do away with coverage for preexisting condition. He said there will never be a plant closure to workers in ohio, in michigan, in wisconsin, in pennsylvania, and you see we are now in a manufacturing recession, the worst for the Auto Industry since the great recession. Barack obama saved the Auto Industry and this president continues to break his promise. He has a record now and people will ask, can we trust him to keep his promise . I think the answer is a resounding no. Good morning, jonathan. Big municipal victories last night. A year ago last month, the democrats came and ran at the congressional races, but you lost legislative seats in new jersey this year. How does that bode for 2020 . Is there a concern that you cannot keep your gains . As you undoubtedly know, we won a lot of very critical races in new jersey. Did we win 100 of the ones out there, no, but did we win a majority . Absolutely. Phil murphy is one of the most effective governors in the country and fighting for issues that new jersey voters care about, making sure that the new jersey economy works for everyone, making sure that if you work a fulltime job, you can feed your family. I think new jerseys going to continue to be a great model of how we succeed as democrats, and theyve built a remarkablyeffective, every zip code organization, and that is what enables them to win. Some turn on these local issues, but when you look at the aggregate data in new jersey, we did pretty darn well. You won five seats in trump districts in 2020. I am actually focused on taking the remaining house seats in new jersey. We now have all but one and i know if phil murphy were here, he would say, i want all the house seats. The remarkable candidates, whether it is andy kim or mikey cheryl or others, one of the big lessons i learned from this 2017, 2018, and 2019 cycle is that candidate quality matters. They continue to field candidates like matt bevin. Ive known you had your hands full, but i wonder how you feel about the u. K. General election, where you have a very leftwing candidate hoping to be Prime