I worked as a Digital Field manager on the organizing team , brandnewer congress is not an old concept. We have been talking about it for quite some time. It was a good place for me to go next after bernie and just sort of a background, i am 21 years old and still in progress was going to school. Volunteers, has just consumed. Great. Yes state senator running for congress. I am maria, a state representative for three terms. I am in the second term of my time in the senate with the missouri senate. Endorse pleasure to bernie. I think i did that in may, a little bit later because i toted to have an opportunity really listen to the issues that impact the community that i represent, which is ferguson. Ms. Chappellenadal i heard the message loud and clear, and decided to endorse bernie because we needed to go in a new direction and people who have been voiceless for so long champions who are not only in congress, but also in the white house. Excellent. Thank you. We have a democratic candidate for u. S. Senate in utah. The first transgender candidate to win the democratic primary nomination. Misty. I am running for u. S. Senate in the state of utah. Have runfirst time i for office, so a lot of people were surprised. I entered the race late. He was really wrong on a lot of foreign issues, a selfdescribed democrat. Nominate need to people who are actually going to stand up like things that benefit things like womens rights and living wage. A disproportionately incarcerate people of color. About that was wrong. I challenge him for the just won the primary couple weeks ago on june 28 and i am happy to be here today. Thank you all for coming to see this panel and for those who helped organize. Thank you. Mr. Chamberlain excellent. Thank you. Finally, we have come with alan grayson, running for u. S. And it in florida and was reasonably early, a reasonably early bernie supporter. Alan . Mr. Grayson we invited people to come not only to vote for the two candidates, but also to explain why. The vote came in at 86 bernie, 40 secretary clinton. 14 secretary clinton. Bernie sanders supporters clearly want to see fundamental change in the country and understand that the system is rigged and we need some but he as a leader who is going to change that. Thank you. Mr. Chamberlain i am trust chamberlain, the executive director of democracy for america. We are an organization that started 12 years ago after governor howard dean ran for president. We started a longterm organization of which since then, we have elected over 846 candidates to congress, to office up and down the ballot across this country, raised over ,50 million for candidates and specifically, with the Bernie Sanders campaign, we endorsed very early, raised 1. 8 million for him, our members participated in phone banks. Helping,000 from banks, to make 75 million phone calls during the course of the campaign, which is an outrageously awesome number and is one of the reasons why the media was not capable of killing the campaign, and we played a very important part in that. We really appreciated being able to do that. It seems like a perfect way to continue on the work of what democracy for america is all about, which is fighting up and down the ballot across the entire country. Today isare here for what are the Political Revolution . We have got really great candidates. Candidateno longer a for the presidency, technically, that will be true in a few weeks. Since he has endorsed hillary, i think we can say that pretty confidently. We have Political Revolution candidates up and down the ballot who are in a position to make headway for the Political Revolution as soon as the Upcoming Elections that are happening right now. Aat said, this is definitely longterm movement. If you look at the work of what democracy for america has done, this is 12 years later, after a very similar, exciting grassroots president ial campaign that motivated and empowered the grassroots across this country. We are still around 12 years later, and bigger than ever, doing incredible work. Im excited to see what happens as the Political Revolution moves forward. I can only imagine. The only won one state, vermont. At only about 500,000 people our largest point, for example, on our email list. The Sanders Campaign 122 States Campaign won 22 states. They knocked on 5 million doors. That is pretty amazing. Just imagine what that is going to mean as we continue to move forward. I want to put some questions to our panelist here. It is pretty straight forward. You,ld like to start with what lesson you think we can than from the Sanders Campaign as we move forward right now, and maybe longterm . Ms. Rojas i would say the biggest lesson that i learned from both starting off as a volunteer and entering the have trust in grassroots organizing and your volunteers. This movement would not be possible without the millions of thate and volunteers stepped up and demand a change. Regardless of best demanded stepped up and demanded change. Burning was not able to become president , it shows that people are powerful. I want to emphasize the amount of trust we had within the relateSanders Campaign, on grassroots volunteers to do the bulk of the work. Mr. Chamberlain are you running for congress locally here against lacy clay . What are some of the lessons if you like you have learned from the Sanders Campaign that actually buy directly to the campaign you are running right now . Just be real. Talk to people. Have appellenadal relationship with people were on the ground. Translate. , something that happened, i think all of you know about it, it is called ferguson, the ferguson uprising. Our congressman did not show up 40s after. I think, two days after Congress Takes a fiveweek break everything august. I am dealing with a challenger who is riding on the coattails of his father. Between the two of them, they have served for 40 years in congress, one family that has served for 48 years. When things went down in our community, that was like one of my first wakeup calls that we have some serious, serious issues that are going on, and we need someone who is present, not only someone with president , but someone was willing to communicate the challenges that every single day and to be unafraid to communicate those challenges. When i said, at the very beginning, be real, people want to hear the truth. Despite youoff piss off [applause] ms. Chappellenadal thank you. Andot into another crisis, it is radioactive waste that has been in our community for seven generations, sorry, seven decades. Our congressman has not done anything. I was serving as a School Board Member and a state senator because i wanted 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 represented and he represents. All of a sudden, get this wakeup call. I should visit st. Louis. There is nothing more pitiful e, wasaving an absente member. He grew up in maryland. He went to Elementary School in maryland. To high school and maryland. He went to college in maryland. Al of a sudden, there was seat that was open in 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 he ran for congress. He has been living in maryland for quite a long time. What is important, what bernie brought to the table is that you should always be among your people and speak the truth. If you make a mistake here and there, you know, 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 here in st. Louis and in missouri, and i thought at one point in time, there are a lot of white folks who were upset with me for translating the issues that my constituents were foundned with, but when i i was 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 had been dealing with when it came to radioactive waste contamination or children getting sick. Sorry. Mr. Chamberlain i was not trying to cut you off in the middle of your sentence. You are saying it is not just about truth, you are saying it is about action. When you have some who is an absentee not getting done what they need to get done, you need some of the to stand up and take action and do work, which makes a lot of sense. Mr. Chamberlain one of the things that is really barrier smashing about the Sanders Campaign manager way in which it repetitively, over and over again broke conventional wisdom. One of the big ways i think conventional wisdom was broken was the concept of, you have to run to the mill to get independence. What we really saw was that wanting, independents able, articulated vision, they are not looking for the middle. They are looking for somebody that inspires them. When you look at a 22 point victory in new hampshire, it was based entirely on that because it was the independence of give at 22 point victory. I think that is a really interesting way in which it smashes conventional wisdom. I think it is a great lead antieu, misty. There is the idea that a lead into you, misty. There is the idea that theres no way a democrat can win utah. , i have a guess as to where you are going ahead with this, what do you think you can learn from the Sanders Campaign and how is it going to impact your race as you move forward . You have to speak what you believe in, kind of be honest about your beliefs, do moderate, saying one thing and doing another thing. They want honesty. A lot of people are frustrated with politics as usual. He want to see change. The state of utah, theres a reputation of being conservative, but it is a really young state. If you look at the population it is thend over, youngest state in the nation. The problem with utah is that Voter Participation is really low. 2014 election, state of utah had about 28. 8 turnout rate, the Second Lowest after texas. A lot of democrats and democratic voters, they feel like there is not a choice because Utah Democratic Party for a long time has nominated these selfdescribed conservative democrat who are prolife, antilgbt, prowar, almost interesting was able from republicans. Then, they end up losing by 30 point margins because they do not appeal, they do not offer an alternative. Its important to offer a real alternative to republicans. Asare going to be a, democrats, we are going to stand up for a living wage, womens rights, the lgbt community, affordable college, try to address our racist criminal Justice System which leads to people of color being disproportionately stops, searched, arrested, charged, convicted, incarcerated. Look at the future instead of trying to think about these old saying the things people honestly, a lot of people want politicians to say. Against, am running mike lee, is not that popular in utah. He has a 38 approval rating. A lot of people think he is going to win the election. People have understated me. A lot of people thought i would never win the primary. I won the primary by 19 margin despite being outspent four to one. [applause] the won because you speak the truth. Ms. Snow the issues i was talking about really resonate with voters. Mike lee has like one million dollars, which is not a lot for a senate race, but a lot of people dont think it is competitive. There no donations coming in. I think, with pension, a lot of people are realizing that the Bernie Sanders movement, the next step in the Political Revolution is we have to start supporting candidates down the ballot, like the senator from utah has just as much power over your lives as a senator from florida or vermont. If we want to change our dialogue as a nation, we me to get more aggressive threat of country no matter where they are from. More progressives you have in congress, the easier it is to support a Progressive Agenda and to start fighting for the policies that Bernie Sanders talks about. We want to have a 15 minimum wage, affordable college, reform , and more progressives in congress. Every victory you get is another vote, and i think that is the lesson we need to learn and i think that is where we need to go forward. Mr. Chamberlain excellent, thank you. [applause] sort ofberlain continuing on this theme of this conventional wisdom of the idea that in red states or purple states, that somehow, im a craft win better by being more moderate or conservative, nobody on this panel has probably experienced that conventional wisdom more strongly than congressman alan grayson because he is somebody that is actually elected in bc and working with the establishment every day. We have seen [laughter] mr. Chamberlain we have seen the entire establishment is sort of working against you, much like with bernie from the president on down having endorsed your terrible opponent. Were not even talking about your general election opponent yet, were talking about your absolutely terrible opponent in the primary. I would love to hear, what do youfeel about, what have learned from the Sanders Campaign manager are taking and implementing in your senate race, and how are you commanding that mention a wisdom . To seeyson im pleased there is an audience for progressivism. The Senate Campaign is the most successful progressive president ial campaign in the last 50 years. If anything deserves applause, it is that. It gives us hope that the Democratic Party can still be the home of aggressive is him. Rep. Grayson there has been a lot of doubt home of progr essivism. Justice, equality, compassion, and peace. In a largesensus swath of the party that the system is rigged, and something needs to be done about it. Voters want elections to be about something. We have gotten into this right rut inica this america were political discourse consists entirely of ad hominem attacks. There no doubt that both candidates are evil because all we have seen as negative ads about them for literally weeks upon month. That is not what people want. One thing we remember from the campaign is him saying, another about the emails. People want to hear about what we want to do to make our lives better collectively and how the law can publish that. That is a message that is fundamentally a progressive message. En the system is broken, we need to take it over to make things better. The other thing we have learned from the Sanders Campaign is this, a democracy is not quite dead yet, were not quite at the point where the oligarchy gets everything will thing it wants. The Sanders Campaign established a new paradigm in the wake of Citizens United regarding Campaign Finance and that turned out to 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 now, i was the only house member out of 435 of us to raise most of my Campaign Funds from small donors. Now, we saw that happen at the president ial level. While the campaign was actually going on, senator sanders outraised everyone else. What we see is that there is an alternative way to run for president for senate. Im the only Senate Candidate in the entire country raising most donors,oney from small to my you want to go website and make a donation, i will not stop you. This is what we need. I look around the chamber of the house and i see 434 other members who are largely bought and lost by special engine by specialbossed interests. Democracy just cannot survive that way. After the Citizens United decision, i was in the courtroom when it was rendered and i was on msnbc that night and i said that if we do nothing, you can kiss this country goodbye. The 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, and i find that very encouraging. Thank you. [applause] so, continuing on that theme, alan, what do we need to do to get the party to to theand to catch on critical aspects of the policy fight, the vision for america . So often the Democratic Party makes the decision to say, look at the other guy, he is terrible, we are not quite as bad, so vote for us. Midterm elections, often running as republicanlite instead of real values. Losing battles, we have lost over and over again with that. You look at 2014, we won races where it was a bloodbath across the board for democrats. They talked about a vision for america, jeff merkley, al franken, brian schatz, those of the people who won. How do we do it . How do we convince them, if winning is not enough to convince them, how do we break through and make that happen . Rep. Grayson i think there is little to no hope of that happening. It is appalling to me to see how corporate bought and paid for democrats completely control the process. You are right that i have been attacked mainly because i am a progressive and they want to see a right wing bought and paid for wall street democrats running against marco rubio instead of someone like me. He cannot possibly win on the issues come as a what they do is attack me personally. They are not very good at all at defeating republicans. They do have a certain flair for getting under the skin of democrats. And finding ways to try to undermine progressive democrats when we run for office and we have seen that all around the country. Donna Edwards Campaign is a good example of that. I could give you other examples as well. I do not think you people are ever goi