01:00I am so excited to be in my amazing colleague
01:29in the district.
01:30Give it up again for the Incomparable!
01:36Listen, you guys 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.
01:50This woman gives her all for this district every single day that she shows up so we should
01:57all be proud.
01:59And the reason that she can go through those numbers so well is because she serves on the
02:06Powerful Appropriations Committee.
02:09Lena, 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.
02:20This t-shirt is from when we wrote for them in 2021.
02:24I wanted to stand in solidarity with those Texas House Dems that have decided that they were
02:33going to arouse the entire country and make them aware of the transgressions taking place
02:39right here in the state of Texas.
02:41So let's give it up for the Texas House Dems!
02:46So, if you've ever seen me speak, and you know that I usually don't repeat myself, number
02:58one.
02:59Number two, I always try to figure out what is the song of inspiration for me.
03:03And today, it was Michael Jackson.
03:05Now I'm an 80s baby.
03:07So, I grew up with MJ.
03:10But when I think about what the Texas Dems were able to do in what was just only two
03:16weeks, they were able to ignite change in this country.
03:21You see, before they decided to break forum, there was no conversation in California about
03:27whether or not they 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, we will not just
03:43sit here, idly, while you minimize our voices.
03:48Now, some want you to believe that this isn't about racism.
03:54Listen, I'mma just give y'all the facts and the numbers.
03:59Because this isn't personal for me.
04:01This is about making sure that Texans are represented in all our beautiful shapes and colors.
04:07So, unfortunately, we saw that this map passed today in the Texas House.
04:20Now, if for some reason the Texas Senate decides that they want to break forum, we could kill
04:26another 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, that your vote is basically one-third that of your Anglo neighbor?
04:51Listen, we're not looking for handouts.
05:03We're looking for representation.
05:04We're looking for people that will show up and represent for us, all of us in Texas.
05:10How dare they decide that only a certain group of people are allowed to be heard?
05:23We all are entitled in this country, in a democracy, to be heard and to have representation that represents us.
05:34So 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 in the rain.
05:41Give yourself a hand clap.
05:46Now, number two, Veronica went down an exhaustive list of organizations that you can get engaged in.
05:53But the question-
05:55She forgot what.
05:57Indivisible.
05:58But here is the thing.
05:59Right 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, I'm going to need you to look in the mirror.
06:22You are the ones that we have been waiting for.
06:25The 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, I absolutely understand.
06:38Well, they don't want to trust the politicians.
06:43I'm not going to have an issue.
06:46So 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.
06:54So that starts with doing things like making sure that they can't divide us.
06:59That has been my most frustrating thing.
07:02Because when you look at the agenda of this administration, there is something for everybody to hate.
07:08Whether you hate their immigration policies or really it's just immigration thuggery because it ain't policies.
07:16If you hate that, if you hate their anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion, also known as rolling back our civil rights and civil liberties.
07:27If 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.
07:49If 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.
07:59Listen, or you can look at the fact that they say we want to take healthcare away from 17 million people.
08:06Also, deleting one trillion dollars out of the healthcare economy.
08:11Raising premiums on every single one of you, no matter what type of healthcare 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.
08:24And so 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.
08:35And 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've 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. This is not a pro-life party. This is a pro-death party.
09:11There is something for each and every one of you to hate that they are doing if you have a soul.
09:21That's it. Anybody that has half a soul, it's over this administration.
09:28It didn't 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.
10:00They're not going to be able to afford housing. They're not going to be able to afford health care, education.
10:04We 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.
10:13So let me tell you something. I appreciate the flags that I see.
10:18I appreciate the fact that we opened this by singing our national anthem.
10:24Don'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 thy neighbor.
10:44It is time for us to rise instead of sitting there and saying, well, we live in Texas and it's deep breathing.
10:52It 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.
11:00They are specifically making sure that we cannot express ourselves.
11:06Because that is why they went as far as to incarcerate my former colleague who had not broken a law.
11:14This is not America.
11:16And if you are not mad, you are not paying attention.
11:27There's two amazing men coming after me.
11:30So I do not want to hold you, but I do want to motivate you.
11:35I do want you to believe in the power of change.
11:39I do want you to believe that you are the change makers that you have been waiting for.
11:44I want you to know that I am the girl that never was supposed to be.
11:50My parents weren't politicians.
11:53I didn't grow up in an extra political family.
11:56I never was supposed to go to law school.
11:59When I tell you that I wasn't supposed to win my state house race.
12:03And it was the closest state house race in the state of Texas.
12:06And I was a thank you body into the Texas house.
12:09By a whopping 90 votes after having been out since five to one.
12:14And the difference was the people.
12:17I'm not here to hype you up because that's what a politician is supposed to do.
12:27I'm here to testify and give you my testimony about what I know you can do.
12:32As I sat here with our amazing councilwoman, councilwoman Rosha, 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.
12:50And I mean this.
12:51And so that's why I want you to really pay attention and 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 and our children that are coming behind us and their children.
13:07What I didn't tell her as we were talking about volunteers and campaigning was that when I was running for the state house,
13:15I ended up with over 300 volunteers for a state house race.
13:20That is unheard of.
13:22And even though we did not have the money, we had the people.
13:27And the people believed.
13:28And when they showed up, they talked about the fact that 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, I got a call from the late, great Eddie Bernice 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.
13:53Never, 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 for every organization that Veronica told you to sign up for,
14:09at least once a week.
14:11How many of you have a group chat?
14:13Yeah, you are.
14:14That's the only place we can't invade as politicians.
14:17If y'all know what I'm saying, no ads come in the group chat.
14:20So I need y'all to be my answers.
14:23I need you to go in there and make sure you're sharing at least one truth.
14:28Don't be presumptuous that in your family group chat they 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 about what is taking place in our country.
14:42Because one of the reasons that we lost this election was because of disinformation, or as I like to say, just went 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 are telling people every single week that are 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 only communications are through the internet.
15:17In fact, as many of you are sitting in here in a crowded room with standing room only.
15:23How many of you took the time to introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you?
15:29That's my point.
15:32That's my point.
15:35So, I heard we got some preachers in here.
15:40And in black church, they usually tell you, turn to your neighbor.
15:52And at least say hi and introduce yourselves.
15:57You see, let me tell you what's crazy about that.
16:04This is a friendly room.
16:07We are so, yes, we are so disconnected.
16:17At some point in time, we used to know who our neighbors were.
16:21We used to absolutely be able to go over and borrow sugar.
16:25Or at a very minimum, when I was growing up, everybody knew that I belonged to my granny.
16:29So if I got out of line, I was getting reported on.
16:34Right?
16:35We 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.
16:53Y'all caught that?
16:55So, I'm begging you.
16:57I'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 and allowing us to see our commonality and hopefully unite against the only hater that we have right now, which is the one in the White House, y'all.
17:33All right.
17:34I appreciate y'all.
17:35So now.
17:36Listen.
17:37All right.
17:38I have to pinch myself.
17:43Because 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.
18:18I'm looking for one myself.
18:20If anybody's interested.
18:23This is someone who understands the importance of doing right at all times.
18:30You 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, he was a champion for health care.
18:50That is what public service looks like.
18:51And overall, these are the type of people that we have to make sure that we are sending into every single level of government.
19:00It's people that just want to do the right thing because it's just the right thing to do.
19:05So, 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 up.
19:27Thank you, Jennifer.
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