Inoculate from attack. What we have found time and again in our research is that voters are not inclined to believe that, but we do need to address that to make sure that they know that the facts on their side. And so this is actually good for hardworking families. This is also good for businesses. It saves money in terms of retraining and employee turnover. And that studies have proven that places where these pollicis in effect have seen no negative economic impact, so we need to take those attacks headon because we do have the facts on our side and we have the values on our side. And finally we want to explain why this matters for everyone. This is not just about the individuals who are going to see some benefit of this if these policies pass directly. But instead the workforce and the economy will be stronger so everyone will succeed. And it will also strengthen the future generation. This is going to set families up for a successful future not just now but for their children and for their grandchildren in this country. And so and ill wrap up the presentation there. Sorry. All right. I realize i didnt have a next slide on there. And at this time ill turn it over to deidra shipling from planned parenthood action fund. Hi. Thank you so much. And i feel like these presentations kind of build off of each other. So, very happy to be following that. So, my name is deidra shipling, im executive director of the planned parenthood action fund. That is the c4 entity that does political and advocacy work. And im going to be sharing with you today some research that weve done recently on the recent attacks on womens access to Reproductive Health care in this country as well as on planned parenthood as an organization. But first i wanted to just do a level set about what planned parenthood is. And now im talking about planned Parenthood Federation of america, planned parenthood affiliates that provide health care. As folks may know planned parenthood is a health care provider. Planned parenthood provides health care to 2. 7 million women and men around the country through 700 Health Centers around the country. And we provide a range of Reproductive Health care and education. Our doctors provide well woman exams, cancer screenings, breast exams, Birth Control, and abortion. 75 of our patients are low income, 150 of the Poverty Level or below. And additionally through our educators out in the community we provide comprehensive sex ed to more than a million young people every year. So thats who planned parenthood is. And our mission is and has always been to provide compassionate and Nonjudgmental Health Care and education to those who need it particularly in underserved areas across the country and within underserved populations. Since midjuly planned parenthood has been under an intense, unrelented and coordinated attack by some members of congress. Some members of State Governments, as you may have witnessed in your own states as well as antiabortion extremists. And the goal of this attack is to kick planned parenthood out of participating in medicaid and other Government Programs which reimburse planned parenthood for Health Services that are provided to lowincome people. So, im going to share some polling that we did on that. At the end of july and then some more recent polling on this issue from the last couple of weeks. But before i go to the first slide, i just want to say at heart this issue is not about planned parenthood providing well woman exams. Its not about the Birth Control. Its not about the sex ed. Its about whether or not abortion should be safe and legal in this country or not. And as a reminder, unfortunately the federal government does not cover Abortion Services through the medicaid program, except in extreme circumstances. So, this is not about that that money does not go to cover abortion unfortunately. We think that thats discriminatory against poor women, but thats the law of the land and we follow that. So this is really an attack on whether or not abortion will be legal. At the end of july and found that 63 to 28 voters across the spectrum favor continuing funding for the services that planned parenthood provides. Interesting independents in this slide and throughout the polling that we did are especially strong, 68 here. Many recent national polls, even as recent as this week, have confirmed this finding and also show strong support for abortion access. So, the wall street journal had a poll recently showing that 61 of americans oppose eliminating funding for planned parenthood. Quinnipiac, 69 oppose shutting the federal government down over funding planned parenthood. And a new poll released by bloomberg shows that the vast majority of the public agrees with the u. S. Supreme Court Decision in roe versus wade which made abortion safe and legal by 67 to 29 . And this has been a standard this twothirds majority support for that Court Decision is the same and unchanged year after year. Contrast that with folks views on the Marriage Equality ruling, only 54 to 42 and the recent Affordable Care act decision, 49 to 44 . So, strong support for abortion access. So, this has important electoral consequences to the detriment of candidates who would run on defunding the services that planned parenthood provides. So, we tested similarly to what molly was saying about folks can support something, but it doesnt mean they vote on it. They vote on this. 58 to 26 more likely to support a candidate who supports continuing funding. Voters views dont change even when presented with the case for defunding. So, 64 to 30 64 disagree with republicans call for a vote to defund planned parenthood. And interestingly, 72 of independents disagree with republicans call to defund planned parenthood. Im using republicans as a shorthand because thats the party in power in congress, but obviously we have a lot of republicans that support funding planned parenthood so i dont want to be too broad brushed there. Voters are skeptical about the Congressional Republicans proposed hearings and investigations. So, are now have been under investigation by congress four different committees are investigating planned parenthood. They have also recently set up because four was not enough. Recently set up a select committee, just completely dedicated to investigating planned parenthood, and i think probably a lot of folks saw that our president Cecille Richards testified before one of those committees for 5 1 2 hours on tuesday. So, in terms of how the public is absorbing this, what they think of all of this . They think its just as political as we know it is. So, 57 to 28 they have a political agenda theyre trying to push. 60 to 25 , the investigation into planned parenthood is designed to score political points. So, they see through it. Women voters in particular have a high regard for planned parenthood. Not surprising. Many of them have been planned parenthoods patients. A couple things to note, 61 believe that planned parenthood plays an Important Role in reducing the number of pregna y pregnancies which is at a 40year low right now. So, very Important Role there and 59 believe that planned parenthood is one of the few Affordable Health care options. So, just to summarize, the recent attacks the last two months, so we Health Care Access under state law like never before. Personal decision but not talking about what people said or not necessary, not helpful. Do be proactive and talking about these issues especially prevention and funding so that youre able to do it on your own terms. As elected officials you want to bring this up. You dont want to wait until you get asked about this, you want to be strong and proactive in talking about the attacks on access to Reproductive Health care. And then lastly, leverage voters, strong sentiment that restricting access to Reproductive Health services should not be a dominant priority for elected leaders especially given other urgent challenges. So, the fact that we have had 15 votes restricting access to Reproductive Health care in the congress in the last two months when you think about all the other stuff these guys havent gotten done, havent taken care of, i mean, its outrageous. So, lastly ill just leave you with a plea to be our vocal supporters and to be out front and be leaders on this issue. We are at a critical moment in this conversation across the country, around whether who is going to make these decisions, is it going to women or is it going to be politicians . I think as elected leaders, you guys have an Important Role, a Critical Role in standing up for womens ability to make their own Reproductive Health care. Great. Thank you so much. So, were going to take questions and we have about 15 minutes or so, and maybe a little bit more to answer some questions. Well start over here and then well go over on this end of the room over here. Phyllis khan from minnesota, terrific presentation, and i hope were going to be able to see it all somewhere for those of us who cant right fast enough. I want to bring in another aspect of planned parenthood and people started laughing or giving me dirty looks when i said this. But i went to the planned parenthood minnesota and i said, you know, i almost joined the demonstration against you because i was so irritated that you werent participating in this tissue exchange, because even though im a total supporter of Reproductive Health, i very actively worked legislatively on donor issues and facilitating donor requests. And so i think, you know, one of the things direction i thought we should go is to kind of remove official action of and i dont know anything about it. I dont know how it was going on and so forth, but remove official action of planned parenthood but make sure that women who are having abortions know that this is an option and facilitate the women being able to make the connections themselves without because, you know, im sorry, im a im a basic molecular biologist is what my training was, so im very concerned about those issues besides, you know, basic political concerns about Reproductive Health. Go right over here and then right back there. Hello, im chris taylor from wisconsin. I want to thank all the panelists, particularly i loved planned parenthood, i used to work for you all in wisconsin. We love you, hang in there. Two questions for planned parenthood, from my perspective this is about power, this is about taking away Health Services that women desperately need to be full citizens, to be able to work, to be able to go to graduate school, so im a little worried about making it about abortion. I actually think a lot of these extremists oppose Birth Control as well and theyre going after these services because they think they should be the ones to make these decisions and take away choices to women about our lives that are so important. So, i just want to kind of frame it maybe a little bigger, that abortion is a piece, i dont think its the only piece, i think its about who decides and women having the ability to make critical decisions about their lives. So, that was one thing. And then for the first presentation on the rules and regulations, im wondering does this motivate people to vote . Like, we have massive corruption right now in wisconsin, unfortunately scott walker is back in the state so we know its going to get worse, but do people vote on this . Thats the question, you know . Im just wondering, is this an important, critical thing to have, you know, to talk about these rules and safety stuff . Perhaps issues of crumbation a bit separate from that and maybe it is a motivator, but thats my second question. Thank you. Just to respond to your first comment. Hi, chris. Yeah, i totally agree, it is about a larger issue of control. The reason i was emphasizing the abortion piece is because instead of engaging in an actual debate about that issue, they are doing the sort of backhanded thing that doesnt actually directly address that, and makes it about something else. So, anyway. I was just trying to draw attention to that. But i totally agree, i think theres a larger world view clash happening. So, the second question probably deserves a much longer answer. But rules and regulations are not what get most people up in the morning. Theyre worried about making ends meet. Theyre worried about putting food on their table. And so addressing that concern is where you want to start. I think thats whats going to lead to peoples decisions about who they vote for, so thinking about raising incomes, making the economy grow and work for all. Not just the wealthy. And then, you know, part of the argument is weve got a system of government thats corrupt. The public perceives that, and we can address that by fairly enforcing the rules. I wouldnt necessarily put it on your campaign bumper sticker. Thank you. Over here and then well go over here. Thank you. Going back to the statement on what sells with the public or not. Can you explain why 70 75 i think you said favors i will be a voice for you and only 25 favors i will speak for you. Why is there that incredible difference between two words that seem to mean the same . So, thats a study from that you can actually find in public. You can read a little bit more detail online. Its on the global strategy groups website. Theyve just found that i think what im imagining the public response is, is about voice is something that people are willing to have their elected officials do, but actually taking the words and speaking for them is it triggers something that they dont like that as much. Jean colwell, state senator from washington. And about a month ago there was an attack at a planned parenthood clinic in pullman, washington, which is where Washington State university is located. Im wondering if youre seeing signs of this type of aggression occurring . I mean, we seem to not have as much of it for a while. But also its interesting to me it was in a town with a college campus. And what youre finding out about College Students views, are the republicans reaching more of them or the conservatives, rather . Weve had a lot of polling results, but i havent seen anything about young voters. Thank you. Yeah. There have been i think an increase on attacks on planned parenthood. Since the last two months when this attack began, there was another one in california. So, yeah, we are seeing increased attacks on planned Parenthood Health centers, and i think this kind of rhetoric and focus and hateful speech really lends itself to those kinds of violent attacks. In terms of polling on young people, i dont have something i can speak to this moment. I think molly may have some more information on that. I will say that our student organizing presence has skyrocketed in the last several years. We have these incredibly strong student chapters. Now on 260 College Campuses across the country called planned parenthood generation. And those folks are, like, you know, fired up, ready to go, you know, organizing their campuses, organizing their communities, sharing sex ed, like, just doing all kinds of stuff, and its beencredibly inspiring to see that outpouring of support. And ill speak a little bit to the information that we know in polling on younger people. And the college age set is often too small to look at within a poll in and of itself, but you can look at millennials. And one thing we do know is that, you know, as much as the sort of antiplanned parenthood right wing will try to say, oh, we have a movement of younger people who are moving against planned parenthood and against choice, that is simply not supported by any polling data. There is still enormous support among millennials as there is with all age groups for funding planned parenthood, for giving women access to health care and Birth Control, for keeping abortion safe and legal in this country. You just are not seeing any trend, among any age group, against that. And if anything, what youre seeing is that as these issues are being closer and closer tied to economic, family economic security, you actually are seeing younger men who are more engaged on this issue in a way that helps us. Not to say that older men are against it. But it is less motivating and sort of less of a rallying cry, but for younger men, millennial men, they do see the connection between womens access to health care and family economic security. So, if anything, i feel like the opposite is becoming more true. Going to go right over here and then well come right over here. Loretta weinberg, senator from new jersey. I have a slightly parochial view of your map. You left new jersey out in coloring it in. Yeah. A sixyear fight since this governor took over and was the first governor to red line out of our budget money for planned parenthood. We continue the fight, and we will win it when we get a democratic governor in two years. So, please give us color on that map. Thank you. Right over here. Hi. Susan fisher from north carolina. We have had an incredibly tough year, a brutal session, where in this last long session that ended about 4 15 a. M. Day before yesterday or was it two days ago. Two days ago. One of the final debates was a fetal tissue. And to me, you know, we talked about or someone mentioned about how men are young men are getting more involved and thank goodness for that, because i will tell you that the majority of the debate around this issue was coming from older men. The drama around this issue was coming from older republican men. And i was really alarmed in a way to see the women in our house who the republican women in our house, who would just take this up. One example that was just incredible to me was a woman who said that if they were to find a cure her husband has parkinsons disease. If they were to find a cure for parkinsons disease, she would not accept it for her husband if it had if it had come from experiments with fetal tissue. And i want to know, from any of you all, how do you turn that message around . Because her husband her husband wasnt there. And the fact that she and the fact that she could sort of take that on, you know, as her, you know, like, youre going to make your husbands medical decisions for him . And so, how do you turn that message around . I was really embarrassed to see red state north carolina. We were just defunded. And part of the problem was a real misunderstanding that its really Medicaid Eligibility that is at risk and not not specific funding. We lost 130,000 in our budget that went to two programs. One in wilmington, one in fayettevil fayetteville, that had to do with teaching scientifically medical accurate sex ed, and those programs will be gone now. So, theyre going to have to find donors. But message agaging is so impo around this and what not to talk about. So, thank you for all you do. All you do. Ill just ill say one thing to that. And thank you for all the work you do down there in north carolina. My goodness. Yep, you are you are right in the middle of it. One thing i will say to that, and more as a reassurance than a rebuttal. But you are really dealing with extremists who do not even represent the everyday voters within their party. And the slide after slide after slide, i mean, david had to show a slide where, you know, you have the most extreme republicans taken out, because they just are so its such a small, loud, loud vocal minority. And those who are representing them really do truly embody that. And so what we have found is that for your average republican voter, they much more align with comprehensive Sex Education and much more align with access to Family Planning funding and very commonsense solutions. And also pivoting off of these issues that are a distraction and actually getting back on track. So, keep up the good work. Know that those people do not represent a large constituency. Theyre sort of out there. And that Public Opinion truly is on your side. Right over here. Hi, Barbara Rachelson from vermont. And by training im a social worker. Vermont has a parttime legislature, so i still am the director of an organization that provides family and child services. I consider myself a lifelong child advocate. And ive got a couple of questions. One is, i find it fascinating that despite what the data shows, the support for children who are homeless, children who are waiting to be adopted in this country is so high. And i wondered about pivoting and juxtaposing those issues with you care so much about these unborn children, and yet youre defunding or doing nothing to make sure that these kids get a fair chance in life, get food to eat, have a house, et cetera. So, one, im just wondering about that. And id like to also say that, one, molly, i think that template and framework you presented is brilliant and looks like it will be really helpful for just thinking about issues. And one thing that doesnt come up with planned parenthood which i think is important, i work at an agency that does adoption work. And we get more referrals from planned parenthood right now than probably any other community organization. And so i just want to thank you both. And thanks. Great. Right over here, please. Yeah, thanks, bob hosogow from washington. A couple of quick tactical questions, i was wondering if planned parenthood along with any other social service or unemployment services, workers comp, any of these departments, do you actively promote Voter Registration at your facilities . Because it seems to me that those are the target demographic that we need to get registered to support that. Thats the first question. The second question is around business acting as a monolithic entity when you actually have corporations versus Small Businesses. And is there a way to message is there a tested message that puts that wedge between Small Businesses and corporations so that we can see the Small Businesses, they will understand that we are actually acting in their best interests rather than the corporations best interests . Because youve got, like, nfib which purports to be a voice for Small Business, yet they really arent. They are funded by the corporations and they really speak on the interest of these corporations. Thank you. Just to answer the Voter Registration question. Many of our Health Centers do have Voter Registration forms available and do do Voter Registration drives, nonpartisan, c3 appropriate, Voter Registration drives. And also out in the community, you know, do voter participate in Voter Registration efforts, and i agree its really important. On the question on businesses, you raise an excellent point and one that we have seen time and again. Voters absolutely draw a very important distinction between corporations and Small Business. And i could talk for days on the importance of differentiating. And i think on that slide that i showed at the end, you know, its not about proving its very important to assert that these protections for workers are not at the expense of the stability of Small Businesses. They are meant to support the workforce, which in turns help Small Businesses. And, in fact, we have found that arguments that address the fact that many of these policies actually level the playing field, because Small Businesses are currently feeling squeezed by the tax breaks that the corporations are getting, by the margins that they are able to claim, and they are having a harder time competing. So, if anything some of these policies along with, you know, some of the information that david shared on the ceo benefits and things like that, it makes it more difficult for Small Businesses in this economy. So, taking that on and making it very clear that these are to support middleclass families, worki ining families and Small Businesses, and youre asking just fairness with corporations, making them making sure that they are paying their fair share so that all can compete and so that all have an opportunity for success. Thats a great point and very important. Yeah. Ill echo everything there. And the polling and Research Shows how important that is. Two examples, one from your neighbors to the south in oregon in the middle of the recession, the worst part of it, they passed a couple different ballot measures that were Corporate Tax solutions, and they had a Small Business coalition that was absolutely crucial to the messaging that passed those. Mollys partner lisa grove worked on those projects. The other example is actually from my home state of colorado we passed a bill called the keep jobs in colorado act that basically tries to help instate businesses get an advantage in local government contracts so that tax dollars create jobs in your own state. So, two examples of really strong, powerful policy that come to that Small Business message. Great. Weve only got time for one more question over here. And its been exciting to have this discussion so i okay, well do two more and then well have to cut it off. Sorry. I okay. Im sorry. We just have time for one question, but why dont we have our panelists come to the sides and see if they can help answer a question while were done. Im sorry about that. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, thank you. John cavalato, state senator from ft. Collins, colorado. Two weeks ago the Census Bureau released its annual poverty data and one thing that was unique about this release was that they also at the same time released their percentages based on not just the federal poverty guidelines but also something referred to as the supplemental poverty measure. And so my question is, all of this you know, how we frame the issues about Economic Opportunity and middleclass economics and all of that, does the polling show that theres a way to couple that language with the idea of specific targets for Poverty Reduction . In the great state of oregon theres been some success at getting the Business Community more engaged in their Prosperity Initiative and their Oregon Business council even has something called they have a task force that works on Poverty Reduction. So, my two questions are how can we frame the conversation or reframe the conversation so we can also use the p word, Poverty Reduction . Because i think theres a disconnect there. And is any of the polling showing how to do that . And secondly, when you do the polling, are you targeting the Business Community in terms of getting a sense of how they can be more engaged in helping to address the fact that, you know, the povertys still not moving in this country and that theres a tremendous amount of families that are considered, quote, working poor, you know, the people, you know, playing by the rules, all of that kind of language, and yet still living paycheck to paycheck. So, embedded in that there are two questions and i hope you can extract them a little bit. Thank you. Theres a lot there, senator, but thank you for the questions. I did show the one slide, the incredibly powerful economic fact with the public was that one in four children born into poverty and thats something people know we can do better at. And theyre surprised to hear that. And i would also just recommend the more were using language thats inclusive, talking about ordinary americans, hardworking families, as opposed to trying to necessarily separate out poor, working poor, middleclass, the more you can kind of include more people in your description, the stronger it will be. And im not sure i can really answer the Business Community question as quickly as that, but i think a crucial part of that argument when we talk about Small Businesses and an economy that works for everyone, we can do that, too. And ill just echo everything that david just said. One thing that we have seen that is, again, asserting a shared value that everybody agrees with is that nobody who is willing to work hard should have to live in poverty. No one who is playing by the rules should have to live paycheck to paycheck. That is a fundamental problem that affects way too Many Americans right now, and so when we use that type of language, we do not have to sell anyone on it. We do not have to convince anyone. That is something that people almost universally agree with, and they recognize that there are too many families out there who are working hard and playing by the rules and struggling and so emphasizing the fairness and the hard work components of it. Those are things people see and acknowledge. And particularly when youre even starting with the minimum wage, but it goes up, you know, it goes up to affordable child care. It goes to longterm care. It goes access to Higher Education and job training, so it really does have a broad application here. [ inaudible ] im sorry, we got to keep moving, senator. And i apologize. We definitely need to keep the program moving. There are a lot of this is a really healthy discussion and i apologize that we do have to keep on moving. And so just can we have a quick round of applause for our panel . Thank you very much. If you can stay in your seats, were actually going to right on to the next panel if you dont mind. We know you had a lot of information. Well have an incredible panel next and well get you to the most important break which is lunch. But my name is raj goyle, and im otherwise known as nick laford with hair. There you go, nick. I am actually here in two roles. First and foremost i am here as the board chair of six. So i would like to well, thank you very much. And i would like to at this moment recognize our board. Manive yy vof you are involved nonprofit organizations, many of you are involved obviously in your own campaigns where you have had people who supported you. Obviously this organization wouldnt have been able to be created and thriving without its board. We have ken sunshine who is not here. Andre lopez who you met earlier this morning. Naomi aberly from asme and kim anderson from the aflcio, Richard Trumka and if i can have a special note for our founder joel roberts who is here at this table. If we can give a round of applause. You know, i think like a lot of folks who have been out in the vineyards, joel rogers have been fighting on these issues. Hes an academic at the university of wisconsin. Hes founded too Many Organizations to even list. This is i believe his third attempt at rallying state legislators. It will be the one that succeeds and we would not be here without joel, so one more round of applause for joel rogers. As i mentioned, im here in two roles, so some of you may know my other reason im here is that im actually former a kansas state legislator. There are Indian Americans in kansas. Theres about ten of us but thats and i now live in new york so now theres nine. But i actually see my friend gail finney from my old state rep colleague from wichita is here. And so one of the reasons why i am so passionate about six and one of the reasons im honored to be the board chair is im one of you. I have lived this life. I know what it is like. I was elected at age 31 with a just recently been married. I was actually working in washington, d. C. , nick and i were working together for john podesta at the center for american progress, and i decided that i needed to make a difference, and im sure, like some of you, i wondered, ive been through those conversations, can i actually run for office and win and put on top of it i happened to be from wichita, kansas, and as afore mentioned, i happen to be indianamerican. And i went back to wichita and a district that actually democrats were a third party. It was actually republican, unaffiliated, democrat, never elected a democrat in its history and we were able to beat a threeterm republican incumbent after knocking on 10,000 doors. Thank you very much. And we were able i was able to do that because of everything that you know but frankly the belt way doesnt understand, which is that at the Community Level and at the state legislative level you work across the aisle when its possible. You get issues done. And you work you work on things that matter to people. And i had never felt more connected to my community and actually making a difference than when i was serving in the statehouse. At the same time when i got to topeka, i dont know how many of you have discovered when you got to the legislature and you got your equipment and you got your, quote, staff assignments, and i got the brokendown chair in the in the always renovated part of the auxiliary building of the State Capitol were obviously in the minority caucus and certainly the minority of the resources of the State Capitol. And i and i remember people from washington would call and say hows it going, can i talk to your staff . Thank you. And i said, well, my wifes a little busy and you know that im her staff, you realize that . And so, you know, i think the daily sort of challenges of being a legislator, i just i want you to know are based into the dna of this organization. Because i know from a firsthand experience what its like. I remember i was telling a joke yesterday that if you remember in the 2008 campaign they criticized then senator obama saying we need your archives from your time in the state senate. And he goes, well, you can have my mcdonalds receipts from being on the highway and maybe you can get on my phone and actually he was elected before smartphones so, you know, i know firsthand these challenges of what we go through and how important it is. And frankly, lets just be honest how overlooked this is. You know, when i moved to new york, im a proud new yorker right now and we have senator gustavo from the bronx here, and he said, i fight for important things and gosh we need reform in albany and we can do much in the blue states to make them much more progressive. And he said to senator shaheen i respect you in the purple states and the red challenges, these challenges are national but these are fights on the front lines for those of you in really challenging areas and districts you know how tough it is and how important an Organization Six is. Im baffled by the notion i could be flown to washington, d. C. , and taken to the white house and been shown all the information. The Information Exchange is still going on here. This exactly what we wanted when nick was dreaming up six with joel, i think this is exactly what he would have liked this sort of intellectual, policy, social connections that are needed for the progressive movement. So, i just want to tell one very quick anecdote. We had on the floor the most one of the most Important Campaign finance reform bills sorry, excuse me, Voting Rights bills and it was important in a negative way. This would have banned doortodoor voterstrati regist. And i read it and i asked someone on my team in our caucus, and he said we usually let these things go and governor sebelius vetoes them. Oh, my, i understand were a little beaten down here but we can do better. And i started texting my friend at the Brennan Center who started giving me legislative analysis because at least the Kansas Legislature they hadnt banned the internet yet so justin could go on and read the bill and he was texting me talking points and telling me analysis of the bill. I, of course, read it myself and we had a little exchange. We were able to beat that bill by one vote. And i thought this shouldnt be because i happen to have a friend from law school whose cell phone number i have and that anecdote has stuck in my head of the stickiness we need of why you are all here today because i suspect you are all hungry for information when the bills are coming on the fly, what amendment was just passed . And what was that proposed . And who is voting on that . And youre busy and constituents are calling. That is the very essence of why six is there to give you that safety net and to give you that connectivity so that you can be a better legislatuor and we can get great ideas going around the country. We need to get to our panel. I will remind you of one factoid our great president , president obama, the longest hes served in the Public Office has been the state senate in illinois. He was in the senate for eight years. And luckily hell be president for eight years but now hes only served seven, so his time in the state legislature is actually a very formidable experience for our president right now which really validates all the work youre doing in your community. So, with that i want to introduce our incredible, dynamic moderator for this next panel. I dont think we could have anybody better than congressman Keith Ellison from minnesota. Come on up, keith. As you know Keith Ellison is not only a former member of the state legislature in minnesota, he is in his fifth term in congress. He is the chair of the progressive caucus. He is one righteous dude. He is a trail blazer, a path breaker, and he is going to introduce our great panel. Keith ellison. Good morning, my fellow state legislators how you guys doing . Man, you guys sound good. Awesome. Fantastic. Thank raj for the very nice intro. You know, heres the thing, we operate in silos way too much around here. You might be thinking to yourself, whats a member of congress doing at our state legislators meeting . Well, i dont know, maybe because you draw the districts that we run in. Or maybe another reason, maybe you set the qualifications for the voters who we ask to vote for us. Let me tell you how bad we depend on you. In 2012, Congressional Democrats actually won 1. 5 million more votes than the republicans and yet were in the minority because they gerrymandered many of you guys from very important states. Thats how bad we need to be working together. The silos the silos have absolutely got to come down. The silos are dangerous. They are ruinous. Theyre literally killing us. And if we can find a way to Work Together more cohesively, we will do great things for the american people, no doubt about it. So, im really pleased to be here. Im honored to be here. And i want to tell you that i hear from very reliable sources that this is the largest gathering of progressive state legislators in history. Im good on that one . Yeah, yeah. And at this largest gathering of progressive state legislators, my minnesotans are the largest delegation. Im not bragging or anything like that. Im just saying, you know. But let me tell you, minnesota, weve had our own battles, have we not, guys . We had to live through governor p poelenity, we had to put up with him for a long time. Weve been in the minority and gone back to the majority and done a lot of things. But when progressives when progressives got together and said we have a set of ideas that we believe in and we want to help make a top, topflight agenda, frontburner thing, good things happen. Let me tell you, thanks to the work of these guys in minnesota, just going to if you dont mind me talking a little bit about my own state. You all all right with that . All right. When we got to Minnesota State when the minnesota progressive legislators got together and pushed the agenda, they raised taxes on the wealthy and balanced the state budget. They invented allday they didnt invent it. I wish we did. Like an internet moment. They invested in allday kindergarten and preschool. They froze tuition for public colleges and as you know tuition was galloping at double digits at some points. They got together and passed the minnesota dream act to allow dreamers to be eligible for state financial aid. And heres the thing, a year before they took over in 2012, what we were fighting for before that, a year before they were in the minority, we were fighting off a constitutional amendment which was going to be to try to a grown person who they should get married to or not. I mean, like an adult person cannot decide who they want to be married to because somebody else believes that its like their position to make that decision for someone else. They tried to put it on the ballot, right . And we beat them at the ballot box, but not thats worth an applause. [ applause ] and not only did my minnesota homies say, yeah, we beat you at the ballot box, but guess what . Well make love the law. And thats huge because one of the pressures that you guys had was oh, dont overreach. Dont overreach. Overreach . You mean to tell me two people who love each other, who are grown adults, thats overreach . To say they can marry if they want to . Its not my business, right . Right . And they did that and proving that when you win, you dont put your foot on the brake. You put it on the accelerator. Anyway, let me just say let me just say that today youre going to hear from some inspiring state legislators. People doing amazing, phenomenal things. Two of them are going to be from what we call blue states. Two are from red. And both are critically important because the folks from the blue state are going to tell you when you get your hands on the reins of power, do not punk out. Im sorry, yall gave me the mic. You know how i am. And when you are in the red, when you do have a red state, and youre fighting uphill battles and just so hard every day, there are things you can do. And as raj said, you dont start mailing it in because its tough. You figure out what youre gonna do. And there are folks up here to talk to you about that. Last word before we hit our panel, im cochair of the progressive caucus. We believe that were the congressional legislative wing of the progressive movement. Were trying to work with our Progressive Partners all across this country, so that we can help not just win elections but win the debate. Right . Win the debate. That we should have broadly shared prosperity in this country. That everybody no matter who you are, what color you are, who you love, no matter where you were born, you should be able to rise as high as your talents can lift you. You shouldnt be stopped by somebody because they dont like your kind. We better that the best days of this nation are ahead of us if we would just ban together band together and include everybody. Thats who the progressive caucus is. I wanted to share for a moment. And now, let me introduce you to majority leader Jennifer Williamson of the oregon house of representatives whos going to talk to you about some awesome things they have been doing. I must say, jennifer, that it is with a degree of sadness that, you know, were moving forward this morning and we and we all here are right with you, and sadly, so many of us have seen similar tragedies across the country. Like 261 times this year, there have been shooting deaths of four people or more across our nation. So, welcome to the panel. Let me also introduce representative jessica haak of north dakota, doing some great things. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for your great work. And then assistant majority leader gary holderwinfield of the connecticut senate. All right. I think youve got some friends around here. And they have been making the most of their majority. And senator Vincent Sheheen of South Carolina, state senate who did some really i want to say so very impressed with you guys yanking down that odious, nasty, ugly, traitor tous symbol. That takes guts. So why dont we start off with Jennifer Williamson of oregon, house of reps. Come on up here. Give her a hand, everybody. [ applause ] thank you, everyone. Im super excited to be here today to talk about what we have do enin oregon and thank you for all of your kind words and your support last night and this morning. Its been a tough 24 hours at home. So thank you for that. So its like a love fest for oregon this conference. Its been fantastic. Apparently people are watching our legislative work this session. And we all had our heads down doing some doing some things, talking about what we were doing. But apparently, people were watching and so once we adjourned in july and pulled our heads up, we made a laundry list of the things we did and its really long, actually. So im going to read it. Then im going tell you how we got there. Because i think thats the more important story about what happened in oregon. Because a lot of these laws that we passed were laws that we have been trying to pass for a long time. So we passed paid sick leave. Statewide. We passed a Retirement Program for every working oregonian. We banned the box. So that people who have criminal records have a chance at a job. We passed a statewide ban on police profiling, and set up a program to collect information on what kind of policing was happening in our communities. We passed a statewide ban or a statewide policy on body cameras for police which banned facial recognition technology. We expanded background checks for all private gun sales and we prohibited the sale of guns to domestic abusers. We now have Free Community college for Oregon High School graduates. We passed a Clean Fuels Program to lower our carbon emissions. And this was despite the oil industry coming in and giving our little state everything they had. It was really an epic battle. We passed a phaseout of toxic chemicals in kids products and representative kenny guyer who is here has blood, sweat and tears into this bill. She was the chief cosponsor, at least a couple four sessions. So for a very long time. Again, fierce lobbying by the chemical industry, the toy industry, the personal care product industry, every industry that puts chemicals into things that kids have showed up in salem, oregon. We had a major expansion for Birth Control. So now your insurance must cover 12 months of Birth Control at a time. [ applause ] and now pharmacists can prescribe Birth Control. We expanded our Justice Reinvestment Program and the unique thing about oregons justice investment programs it will save 6. 5 million over ten years. We wont have to build some prisons which is fantastic and we said that 10 of those saved funds will go to Community Based nonprofit victim services. We reformed our class action laws, so that when corporate wrongdoers injure oregonians they dont get to keep the funds they dont distribute. We were one of a handful of states where they got to keep the money that they werent able to pass out to the people that they injured. So we changed that. We had bills to address pay equity, giving our bureau of labor and industry more tools and as you heard earlier today a bill to prohibit retaliation when employees talk about their salaries with each other. We passed a ban on conversion therapy to protect kids. And we were the first [ applause ] yes. And i think the thing that we havent talked all that much about, but is the absolute game changer that we passed in oregon is automatic Voter Registration. [ applause ] so you may know that for a long, long time oregon oregonians have voted by mail. Im almost 42 years old and i have been to a polling place once. Thats it. I have only voted by mail since then. So we always said that we wanted a ballot in the hand of every registered voter but now we get to say there will be a ballot in the every registered voter, now it will in the hand of every eligible voter. So this law when you go to get your drivers license, 16 and older, you are automatically enrolled with the state as a voter. When you change your address it changes the voting rules. We think that 300,000 additional voters will be added to our voting rolls by the next election. I know i dont have to tell this crowd but women, people of color, People Living in poverty will be enrolled as voters and that is a big deal. So how did we do it . Thats what i think is the more Important Message from oregon. We have a really progressive table as we call it. Its all the organizations that are engaged in voter outreach and election work in oregon. We got together well before the election. And said, weve got to do this all together. If were going to be the only state to increase our majorities in both the house and the senate which we were, were going to have to stick together. So what you see up here, kind of, is a website and if you can scroll it down so we can see the logo. With our fair shot coalition. Our fair shot agenda. We had 27 partners from planned parenthood to seiu to the rural organizing project signed on and they said, we had poll tested messaging that all of our partners used in every candidate used. And so because of that, we told voters why they should vote for us. Our partners told voters why they should vote for us. And then we did what we said we were going to do. And that list is the list that we told voters if you elect us, we will deliver on this and we did. I think this is the lesson for this organization and and all yof you as leaders making sure that the voters understand what theyll get. When they elect progressive legislators their livens are better. So everybody has to be saying the same thing. When we did that in oregon we now have 18 Democratic Senators out of 30. And 35 state reps out of 60. So we increased our majority in an election where most people didnt. Thank you. Representative jessica, you ready . Lets give her a hand, everybody. [ applause ] i dont know how north dakota is going to follow oregon. But well give it a try here. So when you think of progressive politics, generally, you dont think of the state of north dakota. Fair to say. Were a deep red state, its a wonderful state to live in. But we have had our challenges and we have had a couple successes and im very excited to tell you about them. So in the 2013 legislative session, we were disappointed when a personhood ballot was passed an sent to the people. It took away end of life decisions and womens rights. They was spear headed by a state representative in fargo. So going into the 2014 election, we had to defeat this measure, and try to make gains in the legislature. The work we do in between sessions is very critical in north dakota because we meet for every day, every other year. So we organized and found a couple of amazing candidates who worked incredibly hard. And we won. Senator oband who is here please stand, erin. She actually picked up a seat in the north Dakota Senate in 2014. So in north dakota in 2014, we made legislative gains. It was one in each house, but we made them. This led into the very proactive agenda around family and womens issues in north dakota. Not only did we have a stronger bench, but we decided as a caucus working together with several organizations and constituents to provide a proactive agenda around these issues. Senator oband and representative bo shea who is also here, he was elected as the first openly gay legislator in north dakota. Representative bo shea. So we worked on a maternity paternity leave policy. Senator oband started with a much more progressive bill and we worked on a less progressive, but still steps forward. We ended up with six weeks of paid leave for mothers and fathers of birth or adopted children and up to 12 weeks to care for a child, parent or a spouse for state employees. All paid. Big step. Up it was a big step forward considering only mothers who had given birth were allowed paid leave prior to the session. We passed a host of proactive legislative, updating the equal pay statute, pregnancy workplace accommodations, funding for sexuals a examiners that ensure that rape victims got the care we need and we changed the conversation around progressive issues. Making it proactive rather than reactive. We passed the antidiscrimination bill in the senate. This provided protections for the lgbt communities so they couldnt be fired or evicted for who they love and north dakota was the first state in 2009 to pass that out of a chamber, then it died and changed the conversation. And when we elected a couple more progressives and changed the conversation back, we actually got it out of the senate again in 2015. Another success we had in 2013 was believe it or not, inned has medicaid north dakota has medicaid expansion. Yes, we do. And sometimes they a strategy that we have is we let them fight with themselves. So in the north dakota house, not a democrat got up and said anything on it and it passed. So thats how we did that. Also, we had a Corporate Corporation measure. North dakota doesnt allow corporations to come in and purchase land for farming and that did pass the legislature, however, its important the know your tools. And it was referred back to the ballot, so now the people will get a chance to vote on it in june. So its important to know your tools and what you have accessible to you even if the legislature isnt it. Maybe theres another avenue you can take. I encourage you to go the training at 1 30 for the breakout governing as a progressive. Theyll go over those tools a little bit more. So o even in north dakota w can do it. Find the great candidates who can work hard to change the conversation and being proactive is very important. Even in deep red north dakota things can be done. So keep your chin up and keep fighting. Thank you. Senator Gary Winfield . Well, good morning. So im here to talk about connecticut. Connecticut is a blue state, that doesnt always operate like its a blue state. You know, i originally was supposed to be talking about what we did with our budget. The governor presented a budget that eviscerated social services and the legislature put the stuff we want to see back in the budget. Were still having that fight right now. Because we have some deficit issues and the governor made some cuts but what i want to talk about are two bills that we did some work on this year. And it was a bill about excessive use of force and a bill about second chances. I want to talk about them for a very particular reason. When i first showed up, i showed up at progressive states. When i showed up at progressive states we were having a conversation about education. And anyone who knows me knows im somewhat of a contrarian. So the way the conversation was going didnt sit right with me. It seemed no to actually talk about what we were going to do, it talked about what the other side was doing. I thought that was the wrong approach. That fight i had with some of my friends on the Progressive Side somehow got me on the board of progressive states. And got me involved in helping to do something about this organization that we sit in now. As i sit here, i hear about the economy and how it affects people. I hear about a lot of issues, but theres something missing in the conversation. And it is a group of people that i dont think connect to this conversation were having that it is about them. So i want to talk about that. Before i do that, like any person who understands that they dont do anything alone, i have a delegation here as well. The delegation from connecticut sitting at the back table over there. Kevin ryan. [ applause ] senator flexor who came in with me in 2008 and i want to mention something that i think is important to being able to push progressive policies. We came in as the first class when there was the Public Financing of campaigns. I think that changed the way that the conversation happened in connecticut. So i want to mention before i finish talking about the rest of my delegation, there are a group of people here trying to meet all of us and theyre from every voice. If you dont know every voice, john, are you in the room . Stand up. So the people can see you. Theyre important because theyre talking about something that can change our politics. So get to know them. Im going to walk john around to everybody i know. So we have greg adad, robin porter. Ralinda moore and jeff curry. These are about peoples existence. The interaction we have with police. Connecticut did something about that. But you would imagine it in a blue state like connecticut we wouldnt have had the war. We didnt have a fight, you wouldnt have had the war that we had, but with ehad a war. So we had a war to say when Police Interact with people and they pull out their gun and they use deadly force, maybe the police shouldnt be investigating themselves. Maybe the prosecutor who is in the direct that those police are in shouldnt be investigating. We had a warden say that in communities that a majority minority, meaning that over 50 of the community is black and brown, maybe we should do something about what the police force looks like. And give some weighting to people who are exactly qualified or at least equally qualified. To get the job. That wasnt acceptable. We did get it passed but that wasnt acceptable. We went on and on. How did we do this . I should mention a second chance, that was important as well. Second chance act says this. Parole and pardons should be expedited. I think thats a progress way of thinking. It also says that we have this thing called school drug zones, many of us have them. And school drug zones if youre in possession of narcotics or if youre selling them, you get an enhanced penalty. Usually it doesnt actually apply. It is used to get you to plea bargain. But it affects communities differently. So for years i have been working on along with some of my colleagues trying to get rid of the school drug zones. I dont think they work. We have another statute in connecticut that says if you deal to a minor, you get the enhanced penalty which actually would work a lot better than the drug zones. Some of other more densely populated communities, but its not just republicans that are opposed to it. Its a lot of us who are opposed to it. Some people who use the title progressive, so we have been fighting that for years. This year our governor decided he was going to jump on board for us or kind of full force. What we talk about the part of possession he was there. And i applaud the governor for that, because if you have possession, you go through that a process. The first time is a misdemeanor, the second time you can be referred to drug treatment and the third time you get a class e felony and i dont remember what that means. But this is because we have a conversation going on in this country that we didnt have going on before which is the heroin conversation. Right . Because for a long time the marijuana, the crack, the things that are associated with certain communities werent dealt with the way that we just decided to deal with it. Im going to wrap up. And the one thing i want to say is that we did not deal with the problem though. The problem isnt people with the health issue. We should have been there the whole time. The problem is that the people who we dont imagine to be the good people. The people who are dealing, who still devastate communities by putting them in jail and ripping up the economy. But as progressives we have to somewhat change the lens we have. We have done positive things. We need those voices in a conversation and because of every campaign, every voice, and Public Financing we have some of the choices, so thank you. Great job. Thank you. Vincent sheheen. Lets hear it for vincent, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. I am from the incredibly wonderful, historically rich, friendly and often very troubled state of South Carolina. A place that im intensely proud of. As those of you spend time in the south know, change is very difficult. I sometimes say that inertia is the most powerful force in my state. The year of 2015 has been a very emotional year for those of us in South Carolina. I serve in the South Carolina state senate where it was especially so. Im going to share with you observations about a couple of changes that we saw and understand that change in the south is often coupled with tragedy. Its often coupled with tragedy. In the winter of 2015, our sessions run from january to june. My senate seat mate senator pinckney and other democrats decided to make body camera legislation a priority. We met with serious resistance. Little action. And then the bills dwelled in committee. In april of 2015, a man by the name of walter scott was shot and killed in north charleston, South Carolina. The reaction initially was that there had been some resistance and the officer had had to shoot mr. Scott. But a video came out very shortly that showed that mr. Scott while disobeying the Police Officer was attempting to flee and frankly fleeing in a not very quick manner and was shot in the back and shot multiple times. It was a tragedy. It was a horrific incident in our state. Before that had happened, we would often hear that that is not what happened in South Carolina. And maybe i think that people said to themselves, well, maybe that happens, but not to people like us. But once that video came out, there were many new people sitting at the table to discuss the need for body cameras. And my seat mate and friend, senator Clem Pinckney spoke from the floor of the senate after that tragedy, and he spoke about thomas and jesus. And that thomas didnt believe until he put his fingers in the wounds. I would encourage you do look at that speech if you want to youtube it and look at it some time. Its a magnificent speech. Clem didnt speak very often from the floor, but he felt compelled to speak and the bill passed and real change occurred in South Carolina and we have funded body cameras in South Carolina. We have a regime in place to dictate how theyll be used and the appropriate manner theyll be used. We have a committee thats meeting over the year to help us implement that legislation. Real change occurred. Real change occurred. [ applause ] i want you to flash back with me to 2014. I was actually the democratic candidate for governor in a difficult year, but proud to carry the banner in South Carolina for the democratic party. We knew it was a tough year as it was across the country and in the fall of that year, myself and me and my Lieutenant Governor candidate sellers decided we wanted to take on the third rail of politics in South Carolina. We wanted to speak to an issue that no one would speak about, that haunted our state and as you walk down main street in columbia, South Carolina, approaching the state house, you could not avoid. And so we stood underneath the confederate battle flag a month and a half before my Gubernatorial Election and said its time to bring it down. Its time to bring it down. We knew that politically, it was still the third rail of South Carolina politics, but let me leave you with this idea. That is when you have the bully pulpit, when you have the eyes of state or a nation on you use it. Because you dont know when youll have it again. Our current governor, my opponent in that election belittled our attempts, mocked us, said it wasnt an important issue and stood to continue to fly the confederate battle flag on the front lawn of the South Carolina state house. June 17th of 2015, we were called back into a special session of the senate, because our State Government was about to shut down. Sound familiar . Because a budget had not been passed by the republican majority. I was there that day and was in finance committee, helping to negotiate with moderate republicans an outcome that would be good for South Carolina. We adjourned the Senate Finance committee and i went to our Democratic Caucus luncheon, there are 18 of us. Proud democrats in a state that is pretty red. And i remember that luncheon very well. And i remember that my friend who i told you about who stood tall for the body camera legislation, senator Clem Pinckney was asked to give the prayer, because he was also an ame pastor in charleston, South Carolina, at mother emanuel church. He gave a short prayer. Im catholic, and i always kidded clem that he gave an even shorter prayer than we catholics do. And i was sure glad he wasnt baptist. And we took up a little collection for our custodial staff who had helped us all year. Clem had been late in contributing to that. He asked me how much is it, i said its 15. He said, well, heres a 20. Thats my last memory of Clem Pinckney. I think you know the story unfortunately that occurred. Suffice it to say that that night after session, clem left early to go back to his church. And those of us in the senate who served with him learned about what had happened very shortly thereafter. Out of crisis, out of this can come some good. Its important for us to use that and embrace it. The day after the massacres at mother emanuel, the day after Clem Pinckney was killed, the day after eight other people were killed because they were black, we met in the senate again the next morning. We had to decide would we go forward, would we pass the state budget and i urged us, a small group of us to continue. And to eulogize and tell the story of this great man and our friend and we did. And the next day, we learned that the killer had driven up with confederate battle flag license plates. Actually that day we learned it. We had a decision to make and decisions matter. Our decision was do we mourn our friend, do we bury our friend or do we try to change the state . And our governor did an interview and said it was too early to talk about things like that. Our congressman said the same thing. The typical stuff you hear. And myself and ba carry and others decided to speak up. We went on cnn and msnbc and every channel we could go on and through tears and mourning we said it was time for the confederate battle flag to come down and within two days there was a massive humanity marching on state house and within three days the entire elected hierarchy in South Carolina had come to that position finally. Theyve come to the right decision. And i wrap up by saying this. Even in tragedy its not easy. Its not its difficult. And so we came up with a strategy immediately that we wanted to bring the flag down, that we didnt want to have compromise of whatever type. We knew that was coming and that we democrats in South Carolina needed to drive this narrative. We needed to work with republicans who were open. But it was important for us to maintain control of this issue because we knew what needed to happen and so we found in the senate a republican supporter on our side. Ironically and appropriately the son of senator strom thurmond. His name is Paul Thurmond who was willing to stand in front of republicans and say we dont need to raise a different Confederate Flag that was the plan. We dont need to fly one every few months. Its time to do the right thing and we had a monitor and it was time for the confederate battle flag to come down. Its time to pass a clean bill to do that and we drove that narrative for 30 days until it happened and it did happen. And were a better state for it. Were a better state for it. Were a better country for it. And so let me leave you with this, which is i have shared with you what are for me very personal stories. I have shared those with you as legislators for a reason. Its because voters and people react not to statistics, not to policy papers. They react to stories. They react to your personal stories. We would not have body camera legislation in South Carolina, but for those like senator pinckney who were willing to tell the story of his constituent who was killed. We would not have brought the battle flag of the confederacy down but for me who told the personal stories of senator pinckney and of the eight family members who were killed in that awful, awful massacre on that terrible day. So share your stories and change the state, change the nation and i say, change the world. Thank you. So you have heard from four extraordinary progressive state legislators, two of whom who are fighting up here uphill battles and still winning. And two of whom did some great stuff, sometimes you have to fight some of your friends. And convince them and other times, you know, when you got when youve got the Steering Wheel you have to drive the car, right . But you all have your own thoughts, your own questions. And we its time to hear from you. We have about 20 minutes, and so lets start hearing from folks. Can i ask yall for a little bit of indulgence . Can everybody try to get their question out in 60 seconds . If you agree with 60 seconds, clap your hands. [ applause ] and would you all empower me to enforce the 60 second rule . [ applause ] so that peoples were going to hear from at least 20 people and if people are quick, even more than that. Lets get started. There you go. You just had to implement a new rule right when i came up. It was democratically arrived at. Right. My name is vivian flowers. I am serving in my first term. This doesnt count my introduction. Oh, yes, it does. Vivian flowers, state rep, arkansas. Awesome. I think that the question i was going to ask before applies here. We heard a lot about data. We know that a lot of the positions we take as progressives make sense and are backed by science. And many of us oftentimes are shocked when we see outcomes in elections, when we see outcomes in votes that are taken in the state legislatures. Theres a silent and coded undergirding narrative around race and religion and not just in the south. We have heard a lot of questions about reframing and messaging. So whether were talking about any of the things we heard on this panel or the previous panel, what is the reframing and the messaging that we can take as progressives as well as have some of our own testimonials not just politicians, how do we do that so that we can impact have impact on these other issues and i think im under a minute. Thats actually an extraordinarily good question. How do progressives talk about race in an authentic, real way . And religion. And religion. And i got my own reasons for wanting to see that happen. You know what . Can our panelists write down notes on how you want to respond and well take about four at a time. And that might help us get through as much as we can. Who else is next . Got one over there . Go for it. Come on now. Times awasting. Im representative Carla Cunningham out of north carolina. And my question is is im hearing a lot about criminal justice reform. And my concern is 12 population inside the prison in the United States that has Mental Illness, but it seems to me that we want to do reform without preparation, reform when they get out, that they have a Mental Illness component once they come back into the community. Because right now, our Mental Health reform needs reforming on the outside for people on the outside that are not being taken care of now. So what about a system to take care of them and the ones already on the outside . Thank you. Another great question. Thank you. This is for actually for senator sheheen. Im stacy newman from missouri, state representative. I agree with you in terms of taking advantage of not just tragedies, but in terms of the momentum. From your situation, we have discovered in our state that we actually fund our state our state funds a confederate state park. I am completely im getting ready to jump into that issue. Im a little reluctant because i know its going to destroy Everything Else that im working on in terms of, you know, abortion and guns and Voting Rights. And thats what i need to know is where can i find my level of support besides local community . Thats what were doing here, right . Sharing good information. Thank you. Well take one more and then let our panel react. Thank you. Im aaron reggen beck, we have a lot of democrats but our leadership is very much not progressive. Id like to ask if you have tips for organizing a progressive caucus. Id be happy to. Why dont we have our panel respond . We have some awesome questions. Who wants to react . Are these things on . Its on. All right. So the race and religion question. I think for our work in oregon the most important thing we did was expand the table. So the coalition changed. So traditional progressive organizations, labor unions and the like who have been doing this work for a long time, mentored Smaller Community organizations around how to lobby, how to be involved in electoral work. We have a great organization, the center for intercenter organizing who pulled together communities of colors to sit at the same table again as planned parenthood and seiu. Because to tell authentic stories you have to have people who can tell authentic stories. They need to be empowered to tell their own story and to learn how to do this work. I think for too long we have relied on the same organizations and the same partners to fuel the Progressive Agenda and it needs to expand. And the people at the table need to change. Great. Good advice. Lets keep rolling. You want me to do the prison question . Yes. One of the ways we dealt with Mental Illness, people coming out of the prison center, department of corrections, are signed up for Health Insurance before they leave. Were working with our providers to require that they have a doctors appointment scheduled before they leave within the first 30 days. And because so often, people leave with 30 days of worth medication and they drop off the medication, they dont know how to pay for it, or how to connect with the system. So those primary points of contact are taken care of before they leave the system. Good points. For me, in some ways the public part of my session began with me making a statement which was im tired as a 41yearold man of having white people tell me that what i see with my own eyes is not true. And it ended thank you. [ applause ] and it ended with me telling a story that comes out of the shooting that we were just talking about which is about having to tell my son that the reason why people think that he might rape white women and hes 9 years old. I think the way you get peoples attention is to tell them things they dont know, always thinking about the answer to the question why. Why this is important. Because in the blue state of connecticut, we had people telling people of color who have had the experience that the experience they have had is not real. We passed a body cam bill. We passed it because people told it in a different way. We passed it because those stories impact people when you say you dont understand me, you can say whatever you want, you can have your experience. But you dont know what it is to look at your 9yearold and have to explain things that no parent should have to explain. We have to get real about the conversations that those who dont understand experience. Okay. Thank you. Im going to dwell on this issue of that was brought up about race and politics and the question that you gave me about the confederacy and the confederate state park, because i think that gets at the core of whats going on in the south and in politics right now. So let me share with you this. I represent an area in my district, my state, that is overwhelmingly rural, small town, 70 white. Votes for National Republicans in every race. And there used to be a lot of people like me elected in the Southern States and theyre not anymore. When i was first elected a gentleman who was a republican, older senator, got in the elevator with me and he said, now youre a democrat. I said, thats right. He said, you know youre an anomaly. I said what do you mean . He said in ten years republicans will be represented by white elected officials generally. And with an exception here and there, and democrats will be elected represented by black elected officials with an exception here and there. So i dont want you to think that what has happened just kind of happened accidentally because it hasnt. When democrats completely controlled the south, their economic message was pretty similar to what it is now. It was a roosevelt new deal message. Democrats owned the south. Every single office. There was one key difference and that key difference was they were the white peoples party. And to democrats credit even in the south, in the 60s, 70s and 80s they realized that was morally wrong and they changed that position. Since that time, you have seen the electorate as the Republican Party embraced the other position. This is incredibly destructive to our country, to our politics, to our government. We have basically created a political apartheid in much of our country. In redistricting, its been an extension of that effort. And it is wrong. It is simply wrong. So i think a big part of what we need to do all over the country and certainly in our neck of the woods is to embrace and to make sure that everyone understands were embracing all people. That include pss includes black people, hispanic, all people. Thats important for us as democrats to remember and gets to the core of your question, which is so many folks in the south believe that their history and their heritage is important and it is important. So my approach to dealing with confederate monuments and confederate relics and parks is to say, you know what . It is a part of our history. It is an important part of our history. Its important that we tell the truth about our history. The good and the bad. And so we say we face the same issues as you do. We have a vicious racist murderer statue on the front of our state house grounds, ben tillman. And, you know, ben tillman was an important figure in South Carolina history. But we should tell the whole story about ben tillman so that people go to the state house grounds and see that statue they understand he helped expand Higher Education and led a populist movement that broadened for some people and he also lynched people and we lived with that for so long. When we move forward its important that we regain the trust of all people in the state regardless of their color, regardless of their creed. Regardless of where they come from and we have to always think about that. We dont want to be the party of any one group like we were in the 30s and 40s and 50s. We want to be a party for everybody. Great. Awesome. Can i im going to hand it over to jessica. I want to offer a couple of quick points. One is on the issue of race it is very important that you you think about the local community youre in. Theres no prophylactic way to always do it. There are some ways that are universal. One is, its okay for anyone of any color to talk about racial injustice. Its okay. We need i mean, look, straight people need to speak up about lgbt rights and we cannot just say that if im not in that group i dont have authorization to speak. And so weve this is an important thing. So dont dont say, well, im not black so maybe i shouldnt say anything. No, its important for you to say, you know what, i want to live in a fair country. I dont think thats fair. The second thing is, i like to hear people say in a full throated way the words white. Black. Dont be afraid to say it. Well, you know, black what are you people calling yourself these days . You know what i mean . Just say it. Its all right. Its okay. Its okay, you know . Say black. Say white. Its all right. Its fine. You know what i mean . And then understand that progressives on this issue of everybody counts, everybody matters, inclusion, we can own this thing, man. Because people are thirsting for it. Ill tell you this, my district is only about 12 africanamerican. Only about 12 africanamerican, and theres nobody in my district of 700,000 people whos not real clear on me being black. Im also muslim. And so heres the thing about it. People do not mind me white people in my district dont get feel bad about me talking about black issues and black stuff if i speak inclusively. If i say, look the criminal Justice System is not working right for a whole lot of people, and in particular for africanamericans, you see you see how i did that . You speak you talk about everybody. Then you talk you could do it with any group. You know, this economy working people experience a certain kind think of how women experience it, you know what i mean . You can do that as long as you dont as long as you act like you are a representative of the whole community. Then you can go in to how different groups are experiencing the situation. Those are just some ideas. S i know i know youve got some better ones. But we should try to own the issue. Jessica . Ill be very brief because theres not a whole lot i can add. I can say in north dakota we have a large native American Population and quite often we have [ applause ] we have tribal members come and testify in front of bills. I think an important thing whether youre white or black or native american is calling out that behavior. So in some Committee Hearings when the chairman or someone on the committee is addressing someone of a different race in a different way, having the guts to go over to that Committee Member and say i noticed that, you cant treat people differently. Thats one of the ways and building relationships with the native american tribes and trying to see where they come from. I never lived on a reservation. They would know a whole lot more about those things than i would. Knowing it from their perspective is important as well. I think thats very important. Going to the res. Connecting with your fellow americans. What a concept. Let me just say very quickly about progressive caucus because that question was raised. First of all, one of the reasons we have a progressive caucus in congress is that we want to have value stability. We do not want to hook our cart to whoever happens to be in leadership. Let me just tell you, on most things i agree with the president and im very proud of president obama. But, you know on the trade thing he and i are on different pages. Big time. And so so heres the thing. We dont fall out because of it. We just work on what we can work on. So the progressive base helps us avoid personality base. So you have a progressive caucus, if you start one in your state which i strongly urge you to do, you know, okay, how are we going to engage the leadership . Well, on some things youre with leadership, on other things youre not. Youd be surprised how often leadership is looking for leadership. And if you if you say, hey, look, our caucus believes that we need to do this on same day, heres our plan for it, then you might say, okay. Well, we can get behind that. But you have to somebody propose that concept. Its a more extensive conversation. We dont have time now, but im telling you, progressive caucus in your state legislature will help you replicate progressive ideas and actually help the progressive caucus offer leadership to the party that you happen to be in, because that was told this a nonpartisan event. Anyway, lets take four more. Thank you. Representative james byrd from wyoming. I am the minority caucus in my state. Wyoming, all right. Hey, thats worth a hand right there. [ applause ] wyoming, yall. Now, the problem that we face in wyoming is a little too much a. M. Radio and a little too much cable which theyre basing most of their opinion on. Some suggestions from the panel. All right. All right. Write them down. Lets get a few more so we c can i guess im next here. Art handy from rhode island. Im aarons colleague and i have been there for some time. I wanted to frame that progressive caucus piece too because i think one of the challenges is that the democrats in our house and to a degree maybe the senate as well, their center is to me maybe at the center of the whole state along the way. So as a result, a lot of the tail wagging the dog thing is the much more conservative than most democrats in a lot of states on the right side of the party, and our caucus. Basically causing the speaker who is a conservative democrat as well, but to pull in that direction, id be curious about insights around that equation as well. Absolutely. Good question. Phyllis con from colorado. Im concerned about young peoples participate ails. You talked about the wonderful ones we defeated, 200 people came in and voted no on the two amendments and left without even voting for obama. The we lost not not mine where i had good student participation in the last election, but we lost legislative seats because we couldnt get students activated in other campuses. So just that thats thats a high issue of interest. A very, very important issue. Engaging the millennials, young people. Good morning. Congressman paul booth from afsme. There are other people in the u. S. Congress and the house and in the senate who served in state legislatures understand what state legislation is saul about and what its like to be a state legislator. My question for you, will you recruit a committee of people like yourself who get what the importance of state Innovation Exchange and what six is all about to be a an Advisory Committee or a support committee to support the work of this organization . Well, the answer is this this six doesnt need our advice, you know . But we will engage and partner with six and as a matter of fact, nick has been hes presented at the progressive caucus. Nick you know, we have done a lot of stuff, but your question is, how do we build on this relationship and the answer is resoundingly yes, im all in it. Were trying to build it now. In fact, were were working on dates and times when nick and six can present to the dem caucus. Hes presented to the progressive caucus. Did you know theres no table that combines state legislators, national governors, dnc, d triple c and you know what im talking about . There is no National Coordinated campaign. Minnesota we have a coordinated campaign. Theres no national one. And were trying to win. Ill tell you this, they never stopped begging me for more money which is fine. I dont mind doing my part fundraising, but what about some smart work, which coordinating team work makes the dream work, does it not . So i mean, youre spot on. But progressive caucus is looking for partnership and were so proud to be working with six and we want to do nothing but work more and more with six. On the progressive caucus front, let me tell you guys. The thing is, when you have like nancy pelosi is a progressive, so right now, you know, we basically go to nancy and say, nancy, if you want to push on this issue, we got you. Shes like, awesome. Now, we what if we had a conservative leadership . Well, then we would still have to say, look, you know, youve got 72 people in this caucus who dont think that what we need to do you know, we dont believe that rich people dont have enough money and poor people have too much. You know . So were not going to help you cut food stamps, all right . So you create i mean, at the end of the day, every leader of every caucus that you all are in is trying to build a consensus and if you are if were organized within your caucus, you create a gravitational pull in the other direction. Dont yall remember the days when, you know, there was sort of even if you were as progression as you could be, you didnt want to use the word poor people. You didnt want to use the word welfare. Thats alienating. To who . Right . The point is, weve got to create a gravitational pull in favor of progressive values. Now, were not always going to agree. Im 100 against doctrinaire behavior. We dont have litmus tests in the u. S. Progressive caucus. The closest thing to the litmus test is the peoples budget, which we form and get a vote on and we all vote for our budget, but we vote for the black caucus vote and vote for the democrat caucus budget. But our ideas have migrated into the democrat caucus budget on a pretty and regular basis. You cannot migrate your progressive items into the Democratic Caucus but idea box if you dont have any ideas to start with. Right . So thats the key. So again, its more extensive than we have time for now. But we would really love to be in a conversation about how you can start a progressive caucus. I have talked too much. Let me go back to the panel. Senator . Yeah. I wanted to go back to representative burks question. I dont have the a. M. Radio and the cable issue. But one of the first things i worked on was some with some of the people at the table was the death penalty. And people didnt see the world the way i did. The way we moved the bill in a way in my freshman year was to sit down with people and recognize that they have a different perspective and actually listen to them and one of things i did was actually sit down, listen to people who i knew disagreed with me and then walk away. I didnt assert what i wanted to do. Then i thought about if i had that perspective, how could i how could i hear somebody else, and i came back to them in a way much different than i would have. Then ill just quickly say this, to put a period on the conversation before. Although my session started with the comment about what white people tell me about what i see, i think they are some of the most critical voices because when i cant be heard, they can be heard because theyre not seen as vested in this as the way i am. Other folks want the dive in . I want to dive into the idea about how can we get more young people to turn out to vote . My answer to that is i dont know. Im being real. But i think that were making a fundamental mistake and we fall into this trap all the time when we say if we could get more young people to vote, to get more of a certain minority to turn out and vote, to win elections consistently you have to appeal to the broad swath of the electorate. Maybe in president ial races when its close anyway, you can get over the top with a targeted turnout effort. We should work to turn people we should work to turn people out, but youre surely going to lose. Even if you turn people out. If you dont appeal to a broad swath of the electorate with issues that matter to them and more importantly that they believe you care about them. If they believe you care about them, if they believe that youre on their side and on their team, then that ill vote for you. Theyre so divorced generally from specific issues and minutia that we get engaged in. We need to swing that bat really for the stands and try to get everybody into the fold that we can and thats how you build lasting majorities. Thats what we need to do on the state level. Awesome. So i want to address the same issue. From a much more tactical perspective. In oregon one of the things we did in our house races is i went to individual donors in the tech world and said, will you invest in us testing this tool . So will you give us the money to do pandora targeting and then collect data on it and figure out whether or not it works . Because for young people, women, targeted voters, the ability to know what works you have to collect the data and then be disciplined enough to have a data driven campaign. So we you know, we have a large Tech Community near portland, so going to some of those folks who really believe in data generally was really helpful. Because then we werent also taking money out of traditional mail and calling and that. It was much easier to say id love to put this your mail program, but the donor wants it in targeted new media. You could do a whole panel on how to employ technology and be a more effective campaigner. So thanks for raising that issue. Jessica, you want to say ill be really brief. I would just say be sure to incorporate social media. We moved mountains among young people by just doing the free things like facebook and twitter and instagram and that fun stuff and having that as pa rt of your part of your plan, its easy and free most of the time and the people around the table who are helping you try to move the bill or testifying or organizational partners having them share and reaches a larger audience. Yeah. So look, everybody, i think we have pretty much reached the end of our time. I mean, havent we had some truly Brilliant Ideas emerge in this session . What do you think . And i just want to say, you know, everything everybody said, i agree with it 100 . I think that we do have to appeal to the broad swath of the electorate. But young people are part of that broad swath of the electorate. Young people experience the economy in a particular way and in a way that me at 52 years old didnt experience. When i graduated from law school back when i was 25 years old, i had 12,000 in student debt. 12,000 per semester are what a lot of the kids have. So my point is, you know, appeal to the broad swath of the economy. Talk to those bread and butter issues. Dont be afraid to talk about race. I think progressives can own this issue of Racial Inclusion if were not afraid to talk authentically, in our heart, about our neighbors. Our friends. Our people. And we have had i think what is an awesome morning. I want to say, weve got to just get closer and closer together and work more and more together. I can tell you 72 members of the progressive caucus want to do that with you. God bless and have a great session. John kasich talked about gun violence and gun control laws. Heres a portion of his remarks at the u. S. Hispanic chamber of commerce. Does government have a role in preventing gun violence and what would that be . Well, look, part of the reason i expanded medicaid is so that people could get help. So that the mentally ill can get some help, both at the Community Level. Yeah, i think its very, very tried to run programs on mentoring, on fighting drug addiction, i expanded medicaid to have Mental Health community at the level, so we have expanded the beds for the people in the crisis situation. Specifically out of the problem in where creigh deed was stabbed by his son, you remember that . And we can have the database be effective. I think we need to recognize the deeper issue here. It takes a lot more complicated and comprehensive answer than just a simple law. Ladies and gentlemen, i have to get the governor rolling. I apologize. Is there somebody also on guns, do you think more lives would be saved if there are more people armed at colleges and in schools, as some others have suggested . Armed guards, armed teachers or i think you need more hard schools. There are absolutely School Districts that have submitted safety plans, security plans that are inadequate. So what i think people need to understand is it can happen anywhere. I have talked to the principal at my Daughters School about the nature of how they have hardened the school. Now, everybody can do it in their own way. And whatever they feel the most comfortable with, but you cant sit there and hope or assume its never going to come in your neighborhood. Thank you all. Coming u more now from the Foreign Policy initiative coming up a former Bush Administration attorney general Michael Mukasey as part of a discussion on intelligence and national security. This is an hour. Ticuri good morning, again. Chris griffin with the Foreign Policy initiative. Ses its a pleasure to well come you back to our second welcome you back to our second session of the day, with judge Michael Mukasey and representative mike pompeo. Before introducing the speakers i want to take a brief moment to speak to a programr that our Government Relations team at i fpi, Elaine Wilson and lindsey markal, run each summer between june and august. We had 30 congressional staffers from both sides of the aisle and then from both the house and the senate who had weekly briefings and discussions. Just looking at understanding the global face of terrorism. They discussed new threats that we face, old challenges, policy tools available. And what we can do about this emerging threat. This next session is a great continuation from the conversations that our congressional scholars had. We couldnt have two better speakers to help us understand and what policy is available in it. Michael mukasey is the attorney general from 2007 to 2009. Before that, he was a district judge and chief judge in the u. S. District court for the Southern District of new york. Before joining the bench, judge mukasey was an assistant u. S. District for the Southern District of new york and chief of the corruption unit between 1972 and 1976. Mpeo congressman Michael Pompeo represents the Fourth District of kansas. He sits on themien house perman select committee on intelligence. The committee on energy and commerce and the House Select Committee on frorebenghazi. Ause he served as cavalry office in the army. Before his election in congress, aerospace and hehe energy sectors. Moderating the conversation is moderator eker edelman who is a distinguished fellow at the center for strategic and budgetary m assessments. He retired as a career minister in 2009. W after serving in such roles as u. S. Ambassador to turkey and as undersecretary of defense foror] policy. Thank you, ambassador edelman, for moderating this conversation and i ask you to join me in welcoming the guests today. Thank you, chris, and let me say i completely agree that we couldnt have two better people to discuss terror intelligence and s safety of the homeland today. I had the privilege of serving ad bush 43 administration with attorney general mukasey. And had occasion to sit in the situation room with him on a occasions and i have i always found him to be incredibly thoughtful and wise on
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