00:05We just took back Texas.
00:16We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas.
00:28We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love.
00:40And we just sent a message to every billionaire megadonor, every trillionaire megadonor, every
00:51corrupt defender of this broken political system.
00:55In this state, in this country, power belongs to the people.
01:08I'm reminded of that story from scripture of a shepherd boy who goes up against a giant.
01:16For 40 days, Goliath teases and taunts.
01:21On the day of the fight, he shows up in full armor.
01:24He's carrying so many weapons, he needs someone else to carry his shield.
01:29In this race, we went up against our own Goliaths.
01:37The richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world, and the entire Washington,
01:44D.C. establishment.
01:47David wasn't as big or as strong as Goliath.
01:51He didn't have as many weapons, but he had hope, he had faith, and he had a slingshot.
01:58You were my slingshot.
02:06The people of Texas were my slingshot.
02:13And tonight, and tonight we defeated Goliath.
02:25Scripture has taught me, my own life has taught me, always bet on the underdog.
02:32Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher.
02:37I taught language arts at Rhodes Middle School on the west side of San Antonio.
02:41And as I always say, teaching middle school is the best preparation for politics.
02:48The west side is a beautiful, historic neighborhood.
02:53It's also one of the poorest zip codes in the entire state of Texas.
02:56Every day, my students struggled heroically to overcome a rigged system.
03:04My students weren't just kids, they were survivors, dreamers, fighters.
03:10I saw it in their eyes every day, this unshakable resolve, this unconquered spirit.
03:19Growing up, I saw that same fight in my mother.
03:23My mother, a preacher's daughter from Laredo who left home at 19, she moved up to Austin and
03:35met my birth father, a 21-year-old high school dropout whose drinking problem sometimes led
03:42to violence.
03:44One night, he became abusive again.
03:47But that night, that night, my mother's love rose to meet that abuse.
03:54She packed all our stuff into her little Ford Escort.
03:58She drove me to the hotel where she worked.
04:01She begged the manager to let us stay in one of the rooms until we found this little apartment
04:06in East Austin.
04:07There wasn't, there wasn't room for a nursery.
04:12So I slept in a crib in her closet.
04:15And she was so proud of that closet.
04:18She decorated it with pictures and toys.
04:21No one was going to tell her it wasn't a nursery.
04:28Always, always bet on the underdog.
04:38We were the underdogs in this race.
04:42We went up against nearly 40 years of doubt and disillusionment.
04:47We went up against more than $300 million, more than any Senate campaign in American history.
04:54We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots, and AI deep fakes
05:00that money can buy.
05:01Those attacks were the final howls of a dying establishment.
05:17The death rattle of a status quo that knows its days are numbered.
05:23They played dirty because they were desperate.
05:27But we never lost hope.
05:30We never lost faith.
05:32And against big money and long odds, we took our power back.
05:43Always, always bet on the underdog.
05:49We built a movement unlike any this state has ever seen.
05:53We united Texans from all backgrounds and beliefs onto one team to take on this broken,
05:59corrupt political system, corrupt political system.
06:02First time voters, three time Trump voters, working people from every corner of the state
06:08who are fed up and ready for change.
06:11This win, this win, this win is for every underdog who's been counted out and left behind.
06:20This win is for every teacher and every nurse, for every farmer and every rancher, for every
06:28young person who's trying to buy a home, for every parent who's trying to put food on the table.
06:37This win, this win, this win is for every Texan who's ever wondered if anyone is listening.
06:46I heard you.
06:48I heard you.
06:49We heard you.
06:50And tonight, the world hears you.
07:00To the Texans who supported this movement, I am humbled by your trust and I will work every day to
07:08be worthy of it.
07:09And to the Texans who didn't vote for me, I will be your senator too.
07:14I will always serve you.
07:22I will always fight for you.
07:25This win is not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.
07:29It's much bigger than that.
07:30There, there is something broken in America.
07:36Our economic system is broken.
07:39Our political system is broken.
07:41Even our relationships with each other feel broken.
07:45That's because, that's because the most powerful people in the world want it that way.
07:52My, my granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas.
07:58And when I was little, he told me that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave us two commandments, love
08:07God and love neighbor.
08:11Because, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor.
08:23Every, every single person bears the image of the sacred.
08:29Every single person is holy.
08:33Not just my neighbor who looks like me.
08:36Not just my neighbor who prays like me.
08:39Not just my neighbor who votes like me.
08:42I am called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself.
08:50Because, because, despite our differences, we all want the same things.
08:57A safe neighborhood.
08:59A good job.
09:00A high quality, well funded public school.
09:04And the ability to see a doctor when we need one.
09:12But the billionaires who own the social media algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own the politicians fighting
09:22on our screens, they want us at each other's throats.
09:25They want us focused on how we're different instead of on how we're the same.
09:30They want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them.
09:36The real fight in this country is not left versus right.
09:41It is top versus bottom.
09:49The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided because our unity is a threat
09:59to their wealth and their power.
10:02We, we saw it in this race.
10:05We saw it in every billionaire funded attack ad.
10:08The people at the top divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture.
10:16So we don't notice that they are picking our pockets.
10:19That they are defunding our schools.
10:21That they are gutting our health care.
10:23That they are raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves.
10:28It is the oldest strategy in the world.
10:31Divide and conquer.
10:33But tonight, we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top.
10:39We will not be conquered.
10:51It, I think it's safe to say that we are tired of being pitted against each other.
10:57We are tired of being told to hate each other.
11:00It has been 10 years of this kind of politics.
11:05Politics as blood sport.
11:08Politics as trolling and owning.
11:11Politics as professional wrestling.
11:14It tears families apart.
11:16It ends friendships.
11:17And it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time.
11:21People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics.
11:27Not a politics of hate.
11:30Not a politics of fear.
11:32Not a politics of division.
11:35But a politics of love.
11:43My faith teaches me that love is the strongest force in the universe.
11:51Love, love is not passive.
11:55Love is not neutral.
11:57Love is not weak.
11:59Love requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied.
12:04Love requires that we look evil in the eye and not blink.
12:09That kind of love has always been a threat to the powers that be.
12:14That kind of love is revolutionary.
12:17That kind of love is creative.
12:21Hate is predictable.
12:23Hate is boring.
12:26Hate can't lower our energy bills.
12:29Hate can't teach a child to read.
12:32Hate can't build a future.
12:35But what hate can't do, love can.
12:38Love, love, love can turn a student into a scholar.
12:49Love can turn a closet into a nursery.
12:53Love can turn an enemy into a friend.
12:57Love can turn a campaign into a movement.
13:03Love, love can heal what's broken in America.
13:10We can't defeat the politics of division with more division.
13:14We can't win that game.
13:16We have to change the game.
13:18In my experience, when you extend an open hand rather than a closed fist, you'll be surprised by who takes
13:26that hand.
13:28We didn't win this race by alienating our neighbors or shaming our neighbors or ridiculing our neighbors.
13:35We embodied a new kind of politics.
13:39A politics rooted in a deep love for our state, for our country, and most importantly, for all of our
13:47neighbors.
13:54We mobilized our 60,000 volunteers in every corner of the state.
14:01And together, we delivered bottled water to Sand Branch, a community south of Dallas with no running water.
14:08We donated school supplies to an elementary school in El Ceniso, a small town on the border.
14:15We collected more than 20,000 pounds of groceries for families in Fort Worth who are struggling under the high
14:22cost of living.
14:23Before the world changes in ways you see on TV or read about in newspapers, the world changes person to
14:33person, neighbor to neighbor.
14:35In each moment when you choose to be kind, in each neighbor we choose to love, in each prayer that
14:43we say for someone who would not pray for us in return.
14:47This, this is how we won Texas.
14:50This is a win the size of Texas.
15:12This, this election was about chasing a vision of what this state can be.
15:19Texas public schools that are the envy of the nation.
15:24A Texas economy that is second to none and Texas families that are stronger and healthier than they've ever been
15:32before.
15:32It won't, it won't happen overnight, but a giant state deserves giant dreams.
15:44And we know how to get there.
15:46We must get big money out of our politics.
15:50So no billionaire or trillionaire can buy our elections.
15:58We must unrig this economic system that only benefits the top 1%.
16:04We must pass universal health care so no one goes bankrupt just because they get sick.
16:16We must invest in our teachers and our students so every underdog has a fighting chance.
16:26We must end these corrupt forever wars that are driving up prices and killing our brave men and women in
16:34uniform.
16:38And we must heal the deep spiritual corruption at the root of all of these crises.
16:47We must bridge the divides between us and repair the ties that bind us.
16:54We forged a new kind of politics here in the Lone Star State, an answer to this decade of division.
17:03We showed that when working people come together across every dividing line, we can do extraordinary things.
17:11We won this race because people who are desperate for change now are going to get change.
17:25That old politics is dying and a new politics is being born through each of us, through every underdog, through
17:36every David against every Goliath,
17:38through every Texan who believed in our state and believed in this movement.
17:43Now the real work begins.
17:44It's 2,000 years ago when the people at the top hurt his neighbors.
17:50That barefoot rabbi didn't stay in his room and pray.
17:54He walked into the seat of power and he flipped over the tables of injustice.
18:07As this movement heads to the seat of power, as we head to the United States Senate,
18:14we know what this moment requires of us.
18:17Texas, it's time to start flipping tables.
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