00:00I
00:30It's the reason we're listening to this song.
00:39All right, the marathon!
01:00All right now, I am so excited to be in my amazing colleague.
01:29Give it up again for the Incomparable, Veronica and Sarada.
01:38Listen, we both in leadership last Congress together.
01:43You have no idea of how hard this woman works.
01:46There's only so much you can put on social media and TV.
01:51This woman gives her all for this district every single day that she shows up, so you should all be proud.
01:59And the reason that she can go through those numbers so well is because she serves on the Powerful Appropriations Committee.
02:11Lena, it is so good to see you, my friend.
02:15So good to see you, my friend.
02:17I decided that I wanted to wear a growback T-shirt.
02:21This T-shirt is from when we broke for them in 2021.
02:28I wanted to stand in solidarity with those Texas House Dems that have decided that they were going to arouse the entire country
02:36and make them aware of the transgressions taking place right here in the state of Texas.
02:42So let's give it up for the Texas House Dems!
02:44So, if you've ever seen me speak, and you know that I usually don't repeat myself, number one.
02:58Number two, I always try to figure out what is the song of inspiration for me, and today it was Michael Jackson.
03:05Now I'm an 80s baby.
03:06So, I grew up with MJ.
03:11But when I think about what the Texas Dems were able to do in what was just only two weeks,
03:18they were able to ignite change in this country.
03:22You see, before they decided to break forum, there was no conversation in California about whether or not
03:28they were trying to counter what was taking place in Texas.
03:31There were no conversations going on in Illinois.
03:36These conversations weren't taking place until they had the audacity to say,
03:42we will not just sit here, idly, while you minimize our voices.
03:48Now, some want you to believe that this isn't about racism.
03:55Listen, I'm going to just give y'all the facts and the numbers.
03:59Because this isn't personal for me.
04:02This is about making sure that Texans are represented in all our beautiful shapes and colors.
04:11So, unfortunately, we saw that this not passed today in the Texas House.
04:20Now, if for some reason the Texas Senate decides that they want to break forum,
04:26we could kill another special session.
04:28I just want to put it out there.
04:32But if for some reason, this map ends up becoming law.
04:39Do you understand that if you are, say, Latino in the state of Texas,
04:46that your vote is basically one-third that of your Anglo neighbor?
04:51If you are an African-American in the state of Texas,
04:56then your vote is one-fifth that of your Anglo neighbor.
05:00Listen, we're not looking for handouts.
05:04We're looking for representation.
05:05We're looking for people that will show up and represent for us all of our convictions.
05:10That 30 million people in the state have here made the sign that only a certain group of people are allowed to be heard.
05:22We all are entitled in this country, in a democracy, to be heard and to have representation that represents us.
05:32So here it is.
05:35People say, what can we do?
05:36Well, number one, you started off real well.
05:38You showed up today, even at the rate.
05:41Give yourself a hand clap.
05:45Now, number two, Veronica went down an exhaustive list of organizations that you can get engaged in.
05:53But the question...
05:56She forgot what.
05:58Indivisible.
05:58But here is the thing.
06:03Right now, people keep asking a couple of questions if they associate themselves with Democrats.
06:09One of the questions is, who is our leader?
06:12That's one of the questions.
06:14I am here to tell you that as Michael Jackson told us a long time ago,
06:20I'm going to need you to look in the mirror.
06:22You are the ones that we have been waiting for.
06:24The reality is that most people don't want to listen to a politician because most people don't trust politicians.
06:31And after all the things that we've seen, whether we're talking about the pedophiles or otherwise,
06:36I absolutely understand.
06:40Well, they don't want to trust the politicians.
06:43I'm not going to let you.
06:45So if you're not going to trust the politicians, then it's up to you to be the change that you want to see in this country.
06:52So that starts with doing things like making sure that they can't divide us.
06:59That has been the most frustrating thing.
07:02Because when you look at the agenda of this administration, there is something for everybody to hate.
07:07Whether you hate their immigration policies or really it's just immigration stuttering because it ain't policies.
07:16If you hate that, if you hate their anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion,
07:22also known as rolling back our civil rights and civil liberties.
07:26If you hate the fact that every time you look up, it seems like they're going after a political enemy instead of going after actual criminals.
07:37If for some reason you feel a way about the fact that they have fired hardworking federal workers in every single agency that you can think of.
07:48If you look at the fact that they are trying to defund education in this country, so that only a select group can afford to be educated.
08:00Listen, or you can look at the fact that they say we want to take health care away from 17 million people.
08:06Also, deleting $1 trillion out of the health care economy.
08:12Raising premiums on every single one of you, no matter what type of health care you have.
08:17Or let's just say that you actually care about your neighbor that unfortunately cannot afford to put food on their table until you say I am against the fact that they want to shut down SNAP benefits to our most vulnerable when they're only getting $6 a day to eat in the first place.
08:34And by doing so, our farmers and our ranchers, which we have a lot of them in Texas, they are going to suffer.
08:45When they decided to cut off USAID, it was our farmers and our ranchers that suffered because they lost their contract.
08:53Now they decided that children that go to school and are entitled to a free lunch, they are not going to be able to eat.
09:00Let me tell you something.
09:02This is not a pro-life party.
09:03This is a pro-death party.
09:05There is something for each and every one of you to hate that they are doing if you have a soul.
09:21That's it.
09:22Anybody that has half a soul, it's over this administration.
09:28It didn't even take seven or eight months for us to realize that we were in some big trouble.
09:34We knew that in the first few days, unfortunately.
09:40Or the fact that we had an economy that was recovering as one of the strongest to recover out of the pandemic in the world.
09:48And now, all of those games, we are losing them.
09:56Besides the fact that people are losing their jobs, they're not going to be able to afford their food, they're not going to be able to afford housing, they're not going to be able to afford health care, education.
10:05We are talking about the very basics.
10:07And maybe this sounds normal for some place other than the United States of America, but that's not who we are.
10:14So let me tell you something.
10:16I appreciate the flags that I see.
10:18I appreciate the fact that we opened this by singing our national anthem.
10:25Don't let them take patriotism away from us because we are the real patriots in this country.
10:34Don't let them corrupt Christianity because we know what it means to love that neighbor.
10:43It is time for us to rise instead of sitting there and saying, well, we live in Texas and it's deep breathing.
10:51It ain't.
10:52It ain't.
10:53It ain't.
10:54If it was, they wouldn't go through so much to try to minimize our ability to get to the ballot box.
10:59They are specifically making sure that we cannot express ourselves.
11:04That is why they went as far as to incarcerate my former colleague who had not broken a law.
11:12This is not America.
11:13This is not America.
11:14And if you are not mad, you are not paying attention.
11:19This is not America!
11:22She's making sure that we've been measuring our movements.
11:23Corinthians.
11:24Julie, mission.
11:24Jeremy dare sum up to me.
11:25There are just two amazing men coming after me.
11:30So I do not want to hold you.
11:33But I do want to motivate you.
11:36I do want you to believe in the power of change.
11:39I do want you to believe that you are the change makers
11:42that you have been waiting for.
11:44I want you to know that I am the girl that never
11:49was supposed to be.
11:51My parents weren't politicians.
11:54I didn't grow up in an extra political family.
11:57I never was supposed to go to law school.
12:00When I tell you that I wasn't supposed
12:02to win my state house race, and it
12:04was the closest state house race in the state of Texas,
12:06and I was a thank you body in the Texas House,
12:10by a whopping 90 votes after having been outspent 5 to 1,
12:15and the difference was the people.
12:22I'm not here to hype you up because that's
12:25what a politician is supposed to do.
12:27I'm here to testify and give you my testimony about what
12:31I know you can do.
12:37As I sat here with our amazing councilwoman, Councilwoman
12:41Rocha, we were talking about volunteers.
12:44And we were talking about how hard it is to find them.
12:48But I didn't tell her.
12:51And I mean this.
12:52And so that's why I want you to really pay attention
12:54and decide today that you are going to do something.
12:58You are going to do at least one thing to save this country.
13:01Because this country belongs to all of us,
13:03and our children that are coming behind us,
13:05and their children.
13:07What I didn't tell her as we were talking about volunteers
13:11and campaigning was that when I was running for the statehouse,
13:15I ended up with over 300 volunteers for a statehouse race.
13:20That is unheard of.
13:23And even though we did not have the money,
13:25we had the people.
13:27And the people believed.
13:28And when they showed up, they talked about the fact
13:31that they took off work just to volunteer for me.
13:34That they were missing money because they believed in my ability.
13:38And somehow, after just one term in the Texas house,
13:42I got a call from the late, great Eddie Renish Johnson.
13:46And she said, it's time for you to move on up, kid.
13:50Let me tell you something.
13:51Never, ever doubt yourselves.
13:54Never, ever doubt your power.
13:56You are the most influential person in your circle.
14:00Make sure you use that influence, and you use it for good.
14:03So my challenge to you is, after you sign up
14:06for every organization that Veronica told you to sign up for,
14:10at least once a week.
14:12How many of you have a group chat?
14:14Yeah, you are.
14:14That's the only place we can't invade as politicians.
14:17No ass come in the group chat.
14:21So I need y'all to be my assers.
14:24I need you to go in there and make sure you're sharing
14:26at least one truth.
14:28Don't be presumptuous that in your family group chat,
14:31they all know what's going on.
14:33Or if it's your soccer mom group chat.
14:35Whatever it is, make sure you are sharing at least one fact
14:39about what is taking place in our country.
14:43Because one of the reasons that we lost this election
14:46was because of disinformation, or as I like to say,
14:49just flat-out lies.
14:51We need to be truth-tellers.
14:53That is my charge to each and every one of you.
14:56Find one truth to make sure that you
14:59are telling people every single week that
15:02are within your circle.
15:03And then I'm going to piggyback off of Veronica.
15:06I am so tired of us being divided.
15:09I said that earlier.
15:10And I think it's easy to be divided if our own communications
15:14are through the internet.
15:16In fact, as many of you are sitting in here in a crowded room
15:20with standing room only, how many of you took the time to introduce
15:24yourself to the person sitting next to you?
15:29That's my point.
15:31That's my point.
15:35So, I heard we got some preachers in here.
15:40And in black church, they usually tell you,
15:43turn to your neighbor and at least say hi and introduce yourselves.
15:57You see, let me tell you what's crazy about that.
16:06This is a friendly room.
16:13We are so, yes, we are so disconnected.
16:18At some point in time, we used to know who our neighbors were.
16:22We used to absolutely be able to go over and borrow sugar,
16:26or at a very minimum, when I was growing up,
16:28everybody knew that I belonged to my granny.
16:30So, if I got out of line, I was getting reported on.
16:34Right?
16:36We have to get back to that sense of community.
16:39It is harder to hate someone that you know.
16:42It is so much easier to listen to them and to hear them pass an ugly red hat.
16:49Y'all caught that?
16:55Stop.
16:56Stop.
16:57I'm dating you.
16:58I'm charging you to push yourself past what our current norm is.
17:02To start to introduce yourself to people as you're out.
17:06You don't have to be a politician to talk to people.
17:09I just want you to go up and talk to people and start to have real human connection.
17:15I personally believe that that is going to be the solution to stopping all the hate
17:22and allowing us to see our commonality and hopefully unite against the only hater that we have right now,
17:31which is the one in the White House, y'all.
17:33All right.
17:34I appreciate y'all.
17:35So now, I have to pinch myself because every day I wake up with real life superheroes that surround me.
18:04And one of the superheroes that you're about to hear from is a superhero in every single way.
18:11Besides the fact that technically he kind of has like a body double.
18:17I'm looking for one myself.
18:20If anybody's interested.
18:23This is someone who understands the importance of doing right at all times.
18:29You know, it's interesting because a lot of politicians become real invested in something once it becomes personal.
18:36And then there's some people that just see good legislation and say it's what we need to do.
18:40Well, let me tell you, way before Congressman Hasbro was going through his own health battles.
18:48He was a champion for health care.
18:51That is what public service looks like.
18:54And overall, these are the type of people that we have to make sure that we are sending into every single level of government.
19:02It's people that just want to do the right thing because it's just the right thing to do.
19:06So I've never met his mom, but she raised two amazing public servants.
19:16And so I am so thankful to be able to serve with him, to be able to learn from him, and honestly just be able to admire him in all that he does.
19:25So please join him, my friend.
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