00:00When he says he wants to be Trump's favorite governor, it makes me think about whose favorite governor I want
00:07to be.
00:08Well, I want to be the favorite governor of that little girl who is going to visit her dad in
00:14prison tomorrow.
00:16And the favorite governor of that mother who's trying to figure out if she's going to be able to put
00:22enough gas in the car to get to work on Sunday.
00:27My friend, thank you so much for that.
00:32And Josh, you know, halfway through that story, I'm like, should I be concerned about being around Josh when, God
00:41willing, we win?
00:43I wasn't quite sure, Josh.
00:46But hopefully we won't have that problem anytime soon at least.
00:53And Nikki and Sean, and just thank you all.
00:57To all of you, the men and women in this room who have served us in our military, thank you.
01:03Let us give all of them a round of applause.
01:10And I have to congratulate Wendy on her award this evening as well.
01:20Floyd County, it is great to be here.
01:25I didn't start off like Sean doing pregnancy checks on cows.
01:30My day wasn't that exciting, Sean.
01:33But I did start off with some business leaders in Atlanta, and I happened to run into my opponent.
01:41If you want to be amused, check my Instagram page, and you can see how that went this morning.
01:46So it did start off a little spicy today.
01:49But I feel as if we have saved the best for last being here with you all this evening.
01:56Floyd County, as I was preparing to speak to you all today,
02:02I started wondering if maybe that guy in the White House got his F's mixed up.
02:11And I say that because I was looking at some stats here.
02:15In 2016, Floyd County produced 9,159 Democratic votes for president.
02:22And in 2020, that number jumped up to 11,917.
02:34Now, you all remember that guy was looking for some votes in Georgia, right?
02:4111,779.
02:43Now, he lost Fulton County by over 200,000 votes, so maybe he meant Floyd County.
02:49Do you all have those votes somewhere in Floyd County?
02:52But what we do know is the numbers won't even be that close in November,
02:58because I know that with you all voting and the numbers that you've been voting
03:05and the way that you have been driving people to the polls,
03:09that you are going to run it up even more.
03:12And I know we are going to be victorious up and down the ballot.
03:23This evening has almost been like an episode of This Is Your Life for Me.
03:29I met or I saw Pastor Allen.
03:32We got reacquainted.
03:34He lived directly across the street from me when I was a little girl on East Kildare.
03:41For those of you all who don't know my story, I was born and raised in Atlanta.
03:47My family goes back at least five generations in Georgia.
03:50We can trace our family to a plantation in Crawfordville, Georgia.
03:56And when I was a little girl, we lived on a street called East Kildare on the west side of
04:02Atlanta.
04:03And my dad was an entertainer named Major Lance.
04:06Somebody else in here said they were familiar with my dad's music.
04:10He was a wonderful human being.
04:14As he used to tell me, baby, I know you don't believe this, but I was a really big deal.
04:20This guy named Elton John got his professional start in music, playing piano or playing guitar behind my dad.
04:29He opened for the Beatles.
04:32And at some point, we moved from East Kildare.
04:37And I later learned it was because our house had gone into foreclosure.
04:42And we were losing our house.
04:44But I grew up at a time where you didn't get into adult business.
04:48Whatever mama and daddy had going on wasn't your business, and you dare not ask any questions.
04:54But I came home from school, and my mom said we were moving, and we were going to leave my
04:59dad at that house.
05:01And fast forward, my dad had a great way with words.
05:06He could talk his way in and out of just about everything.
05:10In fact, I've been told that's how he got his first hit record.
05:14Curtis Mayfield wrote all of his music, and he said my daddy would go through his bag and pick out
05:21songs that were good.
05:22And then he would go and sit in the lobby of the record office and ask for a music deal,
05:28and it worked out.
05:31I came home from school one day.
05:33My parents had gotten back together.
05:35And I came home from school, and I saw my dad being led away in handcuffs.
05:41And this was a guy who was the center of my life.
05:46He coached my brother's little league baseball team.
05:51When famous people came to our house, he would call the kids over to see them.
05:56He had a garden in the backyard.
05:58We were just talking about the good banana pudding, and that was some good banana pudding, Alicia.
06:04Thank you for that.
06:05The good banana pudding that he used to make for us.
06:09He made jelly cakes for us.
06:11All the things that you want in a father.
06:14My father was being led away in handcuffs.
06:18And what I later learned was that my dad struggled with addiction.
06:23And it was something that was beneath the surface.
06:29So everything on the outside looked okay, but everything underneath really was a mess.
06:37And in so many ways, our story has been the story of so many families across the state of Georgia.
06:44On the outside, you're holding it together.
06:46My daddy used to say, you don't ever let anybody see you sweat.
06:50You walk out that door, and you better look like you got it all together.
06:54But just beneath the surface, things are often falling apart.
07:00So that privileged life that I had when we lived on the East Kildare, where I would go to ballet
07:06lessons every weekend,
07:09were replaced with visiting my dad in prisons across the state of Georgia,
07:15where I would see little girls like me visiting fathers like him who were oftentimes great men
07:22who just sometimes made bad decisions because they didn't know they could make better decisions.
07:29Well, in so many ways, there are people across this state who are trying to figure out how we're going
07:36to hold it together
07:37when everything beneath the surface is falling apart.
07:42But my grandmother, who was a woman of tremendous faith, used to always say to me,
07:50all things will work for your good.
07:53And what I know now, standing here today, having had the opportunity to serve as a judge,
08:00as a member of the Atlanta City Council, as mayor of Atlanta, senior advisor to the president of the United
08:07States,
08:07and now democratic nominee for governor of Georgia,
08:11is that it has all worked out for my good.
08:20So when I think about this guy who I'm running against, and I'm using his words, I'm not paraphrasing,
08:28when he says he wants to be Trump with a southern tone,
08:33when he says there's not a single thing that he disagrees with Donald Trump about policy-wise,
08:40when he says he wants to be Trump's favorite governor,
08:44it makes me think about whose favorite governor I want to be.
08:49Well, I want to be the favorite governor of that little girl who is going to visit her dad in
08:55prison tomorrow,
08:57and the favorite governor of that mother who's trying to figure out
09:01if she's going to be able to put enough gas in the car to get to work on Sunday.
09:07I want to be the favorite governor of that young man who I met
09:12who said that he couldn't afford his insulin anymore because he had just turned 26
09:19and he had been kicked off his parents' health care insurance.
09:23I want to be his favorite governor.
09:25I want to be the favorite governor of that student who's saying,
09:29and I am trying to figure out if I buy food, if I pay rent, or if I pay my
09:36tuition this week.
09:38I want to be the favorite governor of that teacher who's saying,
09:43I'm doing everything I can to help educate your children.
09:48I'm making $43,000 a year.
09:52I'm having to buy school supplies, and I am having to work two and three jobs,
10:01but I love our children so much I want to help them learn.
10:06That's whose favorite governor I want to be.
10:09I want to be the favorite governor of that veteran like Sean
10:21and like Nikki and like so many of you all who have sacrificed for all of us,
10:26who's saying, I'm not okay, and I want access to some mental health services
10:33so that I can heal from all the trauma I have experienced protecting our country.
10:40Can you help me?
10:43Well, what I can say is this.
10:45The opportunity for this state to show what a favorite governor should look like,
10:50what a favorite labor commissioner should look like,
10:53what a favorite lieutenant governor should look like,
10:56what a favorite congressperson should look like,
10:58a school board member, commissioner, it's all in our hands.
11:03And it's very simple.
11:05We just got to show up and vote like our lives depend on us.
11:18My son, who I'm very glad that I'm watching C-SPAN,
11:21so he'll never hear me talk about him.
11:25When it was time for him to go and vote for the primary,
11:29I took the time to fill out his sample ballot
11:32because I wanted to make it really easy for him.
11:35And I followed him to the polls.
11:38I drove right behind he and his friends
11:41because I wanted to see him walk through the doors
11:44and I wanted to verify that he had voted.
11:47And they stood in the parking lot,
11:50and I was so proud because they gathered and they had a conversation.
11:54It was so impressive to see the amount of thought and consideration
11:58they were giving to the sample ballot I had given to them.
12:02And they walk in, and in about two minutes, they came back out.
12:08And I said, there is no way that you voted from the top of that ballot to the bottom.
12:14And he said, but I voted for you, Mom.
12:20So even in our own households, because it's always your own people,
12:26make sure that you remind people.
12:29Now, it was the primary, so we're going to say that was a test run.
12:33But make sure you remind everybody you come in contact with
12:37that it's not just enough to vote for Senator Ossoff.
12:41It's not just enough to vote for me, for Governor, and Josh, and Nikki,
12:46but you've got to vote from the top all the way to the bottom
12:50for us to truly make change in this state.
13:00So this is my life, Floyd County.
13:04I am running to be the governor of this state.
13:07But I can tell you I cannot do it alone.
13:11My daddy always taught me to dream big, to dream in the impossible,
13:17and he also always reminded me that the worst somebody can tell you is no.
13:22But I'll tell you like my daddy used to tell me, baby, did you ask?
13:27So did you ask somebody if they're registered to vote?
13:30Did you ask somebody if they've shown up to vote?
13:34Did you ask somebody did they check their voter registration?
13:37And then on October 13th, I want you to ask everybody that you know,
13:43did you vote, did you vote, did you vote, did you vote?
13:47Because we cannot have 11,700-plus votes make the difference in this state in November.
13:55We've got 74 days to go, Floyd County.
14:03And if Sean Harris can come super close to taking out that three-letter name woman
14:13and just because it hadn't happened doesn't mean it's not going to happen soon,
14:18then we know all things are possible in the state of Georgia.
14:22So God bless you all.
14:24Thank you for the work that you are doing.
14:2674 more days to go.
14:29And y'all all come to Atlanta because we're going to party like we ain't never partied before on election
14:36night.
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