Lets get started. I would to thank everyone for coming today. We will have a question and answer session as we move into the street i want to start off first by giving everybody a chance to introduce themselves, tell you and tiny bit about themselves and then we will get into some moderated questions and we will open it up for all of you. First, with the bank for much for being here. Especially at 9 00 a. M. If youre like me were out extremely late last night and this is super early. Thank you very much for taking the time to come here and participate. With that, i would like to give each panelist a chance to briefly introduce themselves. Startingith alexandra rojas. Hello, everyone. My name is alexandra. I used to work on the Burning Campaign as a Digital Field manager on the distributed organizer team. Shortly after, granted congress is not an old concept in women talking about it for quite some time. The founders, it is not shortly after, granted congress necessarily a new idea. A good place for me to go next after bernie. And just a bit background, im 21. Im still in progress with going to school. But bernie, as many volunteers have, has just consumed. Im into political organizing as well as activism. We have state senator maria the doll running for congress. By Marissa Palma doll and i was a state representative for three terms and in the second term of my time in the senate with the missouri senate, it was a pleasure to endorse bernie, i think i did that and perhaps may. I wanted to have an opportunity to really listen to the issues that impact the community that they represent, which is ferguson. I heard the message loud and clear and decided to endorse bernie because we needed to go in a new direction and the people who have been voiceless for so long deserve and need to have champions were not only in congress, but also the white house. Thank you. We also have misty snow who is a democratic candidate for u. S. Senate in utah. She is also one that the mechanic from her nomination. Democratic primary nomination. Im running for u. S. Senate in the state of utah. I wanted grandma credit primary 18 democratic primary. A lot of people were surprised. I entered the race kind of late. I started a guy started six months ahead of me and i thought it was wrong on a lot of issues. I felt that we democrats need to nominate people who are actually got to stand up for things like women reproductive rights, lgbt community, living wage, reforming the criminal Justice System which disproportionally and carpets or its people. It was silent on it. I thought he was wrong. I challenged him for the nomination and i just from the primary a couple weeks ago and im happy to be here today. Thank you all for coming. And you for inviting me and other people. Thank you. And we have cars and alan grayson running for u. S. Senate in florida. I was the fourth member of congress to endorse Bernie Sanders and i did so after we set up the website grace and invited people to come vote for the two candidates but also to ask when why. The vote came in at 86 bernie and 14 Hillary Clinton group always fascinating to make was to see all the explanations. Bernie sanders supporters really want to see change in the country, fundamental change. He understands t system is rigged and we need somebody as a leader who will change that. Im trusting going, the executive director of democracy for america. An organization that started 12 years ago after governor howard dean ran for president and we started a longterm organization of which we elected over 846 candidates to congress up and down the ballot across this country, raised over 59 for candidates and specifically with the Bernie Sanders campaign, we endorsed very early, our members participated in over 115,000th on banks phone banks helping to make 75 million phone calls which is an outrageously awesome number. Its one of the reasons why the media was not capable of killing that campaign. We appreciated being able to do that. It seemed like a perfect way to continue on the work of what democracy for america is about. It is fighting a 50 state strategy. What we are here for today is one of the next steps for the Political Revolution . We have some great candidates. Bernie is no longer a candidate for the presidency. I guess technically that will be few in a few weeks. We can say that he confidently. We have Political Revolution candidates up and down the ballot that are in position to make headway. That said it, this is a longterm movement. Democracy forat america has done, this is after another exciting grassroots president ial campaign that empowered the grassroots across the country. We are still around and effective and bigger than ever. Im excited to see what happens as the revolution moves forward. We only won one state. People atd 500,000 our largest point on our email list. The Sanders Campaign 122 states and ad 8 Million People 75 million calls. They knocked on 5 million doors. With all that, i want to put some questions to our panelists. They are pretty straightforward. Lets start with you. What lesson do you think we can learn from the Sanders Campaign as we move forward. I would say the biggest lesson i learned from both starting off as a volunteer and entering the campaign is to have trust in grassroots organizing and volunteers. This movement would not be possible without the millions of people and volunteers that stepped up and demanded change. Regardless, it bernie is not the president , is that the president that rasters organizing, at least in my lifetime in the generation that was able to watch bernie ancillary debate, shows that people are powerful. It is to make sure, im beside the amount of trust we had within the Bernie Sanders campaign and relied on grassroots volunteers to do the bulk of the work. You are running for congress, maria locally here against lacey kelly. One of the lessons you learned from the Sanders Campaign that apply to the campaign you are running. I love this question. Heres what i would say, be real. Talk to people. Have a relationship with people who are on the ground. Communicate and translate. Something that happened, all of you know, it is called ferguson. The ferguson uprising. Our congressman did not show up until day seven. Thats like four days after teargas and and two days after buildings were bernie. Were burning. Congress was on a fiveweek break. They take a fiveweek break everything august. Im dealing with a challenger who is riding on the coattails of his father, between the two of them to have served for 48 years. That is one family that is served for 40 years. When things went down in our community, that was like one of my first wakeup calls that we have some serious issues that are going on and we need someone who is present. Not only someone who is present, but someone who is willing to communicate the challenges that people live every single day and to be unafraid to communicate those challenges. When i said at the beginning, be real, people want to hear the truth. Despite you is off, people will be thinkable for that. You can tell me what to shut up. 39 hour filibuster this year on lgbt writes. [applause] we got into another crisis. It is radioactive waste that has been in our community for about seven generations, excusing, seven decades. Our congressman has not done anything. I was surveying as a School Board Member and state senator because i wanted to give extra time to my community that i live in. I resigned from the school board when i found out the number of cancer clusters that we have in the area that i represent. All of a sudden, that this wakeup call, i can go visit st. Louis. There is nothing more pitiful that having an Absentee Congress member. He grew up in maryland. He went to Elementary School in maryland. He went to middle school in maryland. He went to high school in maryland. He went to college in maryland. All of a sudden, theres a seat that was open and st. Louis and he ran for a special election. Then there was another seat that was open and he ran for a special election. Then his dad resigned and that he ran for congress. He has been living in maryland for quite some time. I think what is important, what bernie brought to the table is that you should always be among the people and always speak the truth. If you make a mistake here and there, you are speaking the language of the people. Never be afraid of speaking the language of the people. Someone will understand and we deal with racial issues pretty badly and st. Louis and missouri. I thought at one point there were a lot of white folks who are upset with me. Translating the issues that my constituents were concerned with, but what i found out is that they were also grateful for me standing up because they saw that the silence that we had been living and breathing for quite a long time is the same type of silence that they have been dealing with when it came to radioactive waste contamination. Where children are getting sick. I think one of the things that youre saying, it is not just about truth, you are also saying its about action. When have somebody who is an absentee that is not in what they need to get done, this time to have some of someone stand up and take action. That makes a lot of sense. I think one of the things that, barrier smashing about the Sanders Campaign is the way in which it broke conventional wisdom. One of the big waste i think conventional wisdom was broken was this concept of that you have to run to the middle. We saw that independents want to hear a bold articulated vision. They are not looking for the middle, they are looking for some of that inspires them. When you look at a 22 point victory in new hampshire, it was based on that. It was the independence that gave the 22 point victory. I think the interesting way in which is massive conventional wisdom. When you think about utah, there is often the idea that this is a red state, no way a liberal could win, no way to sanders democrat can win utah. The conservative democrat should be up to walk away with the race. What do you think you can learn from the Sanders Campaign and how will impact the race . What ive learned is you just have to speak what you believe in. Be honest about your beliefs. Dont try to do this moderate, just, they want honesty from the politicians. A lot of people are trying to frustrate politics as well. They want to see anger. The state of Utah Business reputation of being conservative but also really young estate could you look at the population, 18 and over, 41st six 46 are millennial. The program you ties that but a participation is really low. 2014 election, state of utah had about 28. 8 you tolerate. The Second Lowest aside from texas. We are forfeiting our government to conservatives because a lot of times, a love democrats, democratic voters, they feel like theres not a choice because utah Democratic Party, they were these selfdescribed conservative democrats. Almost indistinguishable from republicans. Not quite as extreme. The band of losing by 30 point margins because they dont offer an alternative. I think its important to offer a real or tentative. Alternative. We will stand up for a living wage. We will stand up for women rights in the us to be teaching energy. We will give you affordable college. We will try to address the racist criminal Justice System. The people of color being treated unfairly. We will fight to offer a new vision for the country and look at the future instead of the old ideas. The things that people want politicians to say, saying those things. The guy i run against, mike lee, not that popular. He only has about a 38 approval rating. A lot of people think he is a lock for reelection. I think we will suppress them. Every step of the way, people have underestimated me. He a lot of people thought it would never win the primary and i won by 90 margin disobeying 19 margin despite being outspent 41. [applause] 19 outspent and won by speaking the truth. He had like a million dollars, which is not a lot for a senate race. A lot of people dont think it is competitive, no donations coming in. I think a lot of people have realized, as a Bernie Sanders movement, the next step in the local revolution is we have to start supporting down the ballot. The senator from utah has just as much power over your life as a senator from texas or florida, if we want to change out dialogue as a nation, we need to get my progressive throughout the country know matter where they are from. The more progressive you have in congress, the better the Progressive Agenda and harding to fight for the policies that Bernie Sanders talked about. He was to have 15 minimum wage. Affordable college. We need more progressive in college congress. Every victory get is another boat. That is where we need to go. Thank you. [applause] continuing on this theme of this conventional wisdom is the idea that in red states or purple states that somehow democrats win that about a more moderate or conservative, nobody on this panel has probably experienced that conventional wisdom or stronger than congressman alan grayson because he is someone who was elected and is working with the establishment every day. Or against them. What we have seen as being tired establishment is sort of working against you like ernie. Bernie. Real talk about your general election opponent yet, were talking about your absolute terrible opponent in the primary. What do you feel about your learned from the Sanders Campaign that he taking in implementing into your senate race . Im pleased to see that theres an audience for progressivism. The Sanders Campaign is the most successful progressive president ial campaign in the last many years. If anything deserves applause, it is that. [applause] it gives us hope that the Democratic Party can so be the home of progressivism. It seems that there is definitely an audience within the party for progressive values of justice, equality and peace. Theres also consensus within the swath of the party that the system is rigged and something needs to be done to change that. The second thing i learned from the Sanders Campaign is this, voters want elections to be about something. Theyve got into this rut in america were political discourse consists also kind of ad hominem attacks and we end up choosing between the lesser of two evils. No doubt that both candidates are both evil is always seen are negative ads about them for literally weeks upon month before the election takes place. That is something not what people want. One people think will remember is that sanders saying enough about the emails. People want to hear about what we need to do to make our lives better collectively and how the locking a cop was that. That is a message that is fundamentally progressive. When the system is broken, we need to take the system over and change the laws and make things better. Thing we learned is this, a democracy is not quite dead yet. We are not quite at the point where the oligarchy gets every single thing at once. What happened with the Sanders Campaign established a new paradigm in the wake of Citizens United regarding campaignfinance and that turned us be very important. Before he ran for president , senator sanders was the only member of the senate who raised most of his Campaign Funds from small donors. For two cycles in a row, i was the only house member out of 435 us to raise most my Campaign Money from small donors. We summit happened at the president ial level. While the campaign was actually going on, senator sanders out raised everybody else. He out raised donald trump by 71. That was just trump reach into his pocket so does not count. There is an alternative way to run for president , senate, im the only Senate Candidate whos racing with his money from small donors. 150,000 contributions already. If you want to go to and make it contribution, i will not stop you. [laughter] this is what we need. I look along around the timber and i see 434 members were largely taught by special interest. Lobbyists, multinational corporations, billionaires. People who want something for themselves. Democracy cant survive that way. After the Citizens United decision, when it was rendered, i said that if we do nothing, then you can kiss this country goodbye. Sanders campaign is a sign that we are doing something, that there is a possibility that we can have a functional democracy in this country. I find that encouraging. [applause] continuing on the theme, what do we need to do to get the party to get the into caps on to the chemical aspects of the policy fight, the vision for america that so often the Democratic Party make the decision that im not as bad, look at the other guy, he is terrible. Vote for us. Midterm elections running on toning down the values. Those are losing battles we have lost over and over again. 2014, we won races where it was a bloodbath across the board but the races we won the ones where we talked about a vision for america. Jeff merkley, al franken, brian schatz. Those of the people who one. How do we do a . It . Hadley breakthrough and make it happen . I think there is little or no hope of that happening. It is appalling meet to me to see how corporate bought and paid for democrats to control the process. In the because im a progressive and i want they want to see a rightwing democrat running for marco rubio. He cant possibly win on the issues so what they do is they attacked a personal. They are not good at defeating republicans. They do have a certain flair for getting under the skin of democrats. In finding ways to undermine progressive democrats finally run for office and we have seen all along the country. Donna Edwards Campaign