00:00Hey there, it, it makes me, it makes me so happy to see so many of us here together today
00:16because at this very moment they are trying to break us.
00:21The lawsuits, the intimidation, the threats to imprison us, to remove lawmakers duly elected freely and fairly
00:30by their constituents from these positions of public trust that they are using right now
00:36not just to fight for their constituents, not just the people of Texas,
00:40but each and every single one of us as Americans who continue to want to live in a country of, by, and for the people.
00:48They are doing this, they are doing this not because they are strong, those who seek to intimidate us and break us.
00:57They do this because they are afraid.
01:00They fear this power that they see here today.
01:04They panic because they realize if they are unsuccessful in this theft of the election of 2026 right now in the summer of 2025,
01:14if they cannot maintain their purchase on power in the House of Representatives,
01:19then there will be a check on their lawlessness.
01:23There will be accountability for their crimes and corruption.
01:28There will be the ability, if Democrats hold the majority, to begin to move forward on an ambitious agenda,
01:35no longer transferring this country's wealth to the richest 1%,
01:40but returning it to the people who generated that wealth in the first place,
01:44working Americans and working Texans.
01:49No longer talking, but moving forward on rewriting this country's immigration laws
01:54to reflect our values, our lived reality, to legalize every dreamer,
02:00the parents of every dreamer, every hard-working American doing back-breaking work across this country,
02:07a future where we are no longer complicit in the bombing and the starving
02:12and the slaughtering of innocent children in Gaza,
02:15but instead, use the awesome power of this country
02:20to convene the other nations of this planet
02:23to establish a free, independent, sovereign Palestinian state
02:28and to work for the safety of those who live there,
02:32of those who live in Israel, of those who live in the region,
02:36and a future where Texas women can make their own decisions about their own bodies,
02:42their own future, and their own health care.
02:45Lest anybody think that this is impossible, I ask you to remember,
02:51in 1973, abortion was just as illegal in the state of Texas as it is today,
02:58but no one from outside this state rode to our rescue.
03:03Three young Texas women prevailed upon an all-male United States Supreme Court
03:09to render one of the most important decisions in American history.
03:13Our message to Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, and Ken Paxton,
03:21do not fuck with the women of Texas or you will find out.
03:24And if they lose their purchase on power,
03:34they realize that we have the opportunity to hold free and fair elections in this country once again.
03:42We can do things like passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
03:45so that you can actually cast a ballot in Texas, register to vote, and get on to the rolls.
03:51That is why they are so afraid right now.
03:55And they will do everything they can to seek to stop us, including trying to divide us.
04:02To my fellow Democrats, do not allow them to do this.
04:07Whatever it costs, let's maintain our unity.
04:10It is our greatest leverage.
04:12When and if these state legislators return here, let's make sure that we thank them for the fight,
04:19for the courage that they have shown, for the conversation that they have brought to this country.
04:25And when they seek to divide us from one another based on our differences,
04:30you stand next to that transgender Texan and make sure that they know they are not alone.
04:35You stand next to that immigrant, make sure that they know they are not alone.
04:41Do not allow them to divide us.
04:44Because if we fail, if we allow this division to take place and to grow,
04:50if we lose the election of 2026 and the last best hope to win political power
04:58and to ensure that we can assert the rights of every single American,
05:01I am afraid that the consolidation of authoritarian power in the hands of this president
05:08will be nearly unstoppable.
05:10And what that means is more masked, plainclothes, federal agents without warrants or badges,
05:16sweeping our fellow Americans off the streets.
05:18What that means, what that means, is more of Trump and Abbott's and Paxton's political opponents
05:27targeted for vengeance, for retribution, and yes, even for political violence.
05:32And what that means, if we are unsuccessful,
05:35is that a Republican-controlled Congress will roll out the royal red carpet for a third Trump term.
05:43So we must stand together and we must stand and fight.
05:47They want us to bend the knee because they have seen the wealthiest, the most powerful,
05:53the elite institutions in this country who actually have the resources to fight back.
05:58They are the ones bending the knee right now.
06:00Harvard, Columbia Brown, the Ivy Leagues, the big law firms on the East Coast,
06:06Paramount, CBS, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Elon Musk, all of them.
06:11They, they expect us to do the same, but it's up to you and me to show them that in Texas,
06:19our knees do not bend.
06:27In fact, thanks to everyone who has joined this fight,
06:31we were able to make more than $1 million donation to the House Democratic Caucus,
06:37the Black Caucus, the Mexican-American Caucus,
06:41and we are going to continue to fight, to raise, to organize, to register, to mobilize.
06:48We will fight, we will fight on the floor of this House.
06:51We will fight in the courtroom.
06:52We will fight in the streets, door to door, meeting and registering and churning out those voters
06:58who are going to decide the outcome of 2026, whatever the fucking maps are.
07:03We are going to win them in this state.
07:09We are going to fight in Texas, and thanks to your fight, we are now fighting in California.
07:16Thank you, Governor Newsom and the Democrats in this state for keeping it up.
07:22Lastly, for those in our lives who doubt us and the power that we have as a people in a free nation,
07:32let us remember who we are at the end of the day, where we come from, and what we're made of.
07:39I know that the odds look intimidating today in Texas,
07:43but over the course of these last 249 years, whatever they have thrown at us, we have overcome it.
07:51We freed ourselves from the mightiest, most powerful empire on the planet to secure our independence
07:58and ensure that we are free from ever being ruled by tyrants or kings.
08:03We defeated the armies of the Confederacy to ensure that never again could one American own another.
08:11We defeated the divisions of Hitler's Third Reich to destroy fascism abroad and defend democracy here at home.
08:21And the generation that followed theirs, not even 20 years later,
08:26they marched, they stood, they fought for the full civil and political rights of every single American
08:34against the armed and elected thugs of the Jim Crow South.
08:38And they won.
08:39They won here in Texas.
08:40They won in Alabama.
08:41They won in Mississippi.
08:43They won across the country.
08:45That is who we are at the end of the day.
08:47And all of that service and all of that struggle and all of that sacrifice flows through those 249 years
08:56to us here today in Austin in the year of our Lord, 2025.
09:02And what we do with this great inheritance is going to define us in the eyes of history
09:09and it will determine what is possible going forward.
09:13So I ask you, do not allow this moment to pass without a fight.
09:18Do what you can with what you have wherever you are today and every single day going forward.
09:25Are we together on this?
09:27Are we going to fight?
09:30Are we going to win?
09:33Let's make it so.
09:35Thank you, Austin, Texas, for coming out.
09:37Thank you, Drew and the team here.
09:39Nos vemos.
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