00:00All right. Good evening, Massachusetts Democrats.
00:08This is a great day.
00:10Y'all, earlier today, my husband Conan and our daughter Cora honored our Election Day tradition.
00:18We voted together.
00:19Only this time, y'all, our Cora was not a bystander to democracy or a civics cheerleader.
00:27She was an active and informed participant.
00:31Today, our Cora, a freshman poli-sci major at Howard University.
00:41Forever changed by her chance meetings with Congressman John Lewis and Ruby Bridges.
00:48Today, Cora cast her first ballot.
00:55All right. Now, I'd like to think, although she has yet to officially confirm, that I earned her vote for
01:05Congress, too.
01:07Now, y'all, let me just take you back.
01:10In 2018, I stood here at this exact spot and asked this ballroom,
01:17Can a congresswoman rock braids, a black leather jacket, and a bold red lip?
01:24You answered with a resounding yes to the tune of a decisive 17-point margin.
01:34Today, eight years later, the people of the Massachusetts 7th have once again humbled me with your trust, confidence, and
01:43partnership by way of your sacred vote,
01:46and affirmed that a congresswoman now can rock a bold crown, a bold red lip, and a black leather jacket.
02:00I'm humbled to be decisively re-elected as your congresswoman for a fifth term.
02:06It is the honor of my life to fight for your family like you are my own.
02:11The stakes could not be higher.
02:14Today in America, families are questioning what the future holds.
02:18In every corner of this commonwealth, our neighbors have held my hands tight,
02:23locked eyes with me, shared their biggest challenges and their deepest heartbreaks.
02:29A small business owner who depleted his savings to meet payroll, struggling to keep the doors open.
02:36A proud veteran whose only daughter was sent to war, her deployment extended again, with no end in sight.
02:44The father, whose baby isn't gaining weight, is too embarrassed to tell the pediatrician that he can't afford another can
02:52of formula before payday.
02:55If you listen closely, beneath each story, the questions ring through.
03:01Do you see me?
03:04Will you keep my family safe?
03:06Will this country ever love us back?
03:10The questions that echo through our prayers, the pleas we make in the quietest hours of the night, that is
03:19what is at stake in this election.
03:21Now y'all make no mistake.
03:24There is a coalition of harm that wants to drag us back to the darkest chapters of this nation's history.
03:32They deny our bodily autonomy.
03:34They attack our access to the ballot box.
03:37They come for black leadership, museums, and brilliance.
03:41They rip children away from their parents' arms.
03:44And they shoot black men with their hands raised in the air.
03:49The stuff of nightmares is the daily reality for too many.
03:53But y'all tonight, we prove what is possible when people of good conscience leak arms, organize, mobilize, fight and
04:04vote for our shared humanity.
04:09Now, if tonight goes our way, the pundits will call it a blue wave.
04:15But you and I both know that this is not about a trend or a wave.
04:21This is about thousands of hours of sweat equity poured into these campaigns.
04:28Personal sacrifices made in rebuke of Trump's rhetoric, policies, and vision for our world.
04:36I'm so grateful to my dedicated and indefatigable aid team, grateful to every candidate, every volunteer, every voter.
04:46Y'all, you see, from the corner of Dorchester Avenue to the halls of Congress, this nation does not belong
04:54to small, violent men.
04:59It never has and it never will.
05:05This nation, this nation belongs to the people.
05:10The dreamers, the strivers, the resistors, the persisters, the people who wake up and pull their work boots on day
05:20after day while their hearts ask those heavy questions.
05:24Do you see me? Will you keep my family safe? Will this country ever love us back?
05:32Those questions are not a specific life circumstance.
05:37They are about our capacity to hope.
05:41Not a brief and fleeting hope, but a deep and abiding one.
05:45The type of hope that kept our ancestors going through bondage, enslavement, incarceration, separation, famine, war, and genocide.
05:59Family, I know that we will get to the other side because we must.
06:06Our children are counting on it.
06:09Generations before us wrote a blueprint for our survival.
06:13The work we take on together is not about a two-year election cycle.
06:19It is about the next century of our nation.
06:23Y'all, a more just America is possible.
06:27Let me know if you believe in it.
06:29An America...
06:34An America where black boys can grow up.
06:38Where black mamas are supported as they birth.
06:43An America where immigrants are embraced and refugees are welcomed.
06:50An America where no one goes bankrupt due to medical or student debt.
06:57An America where you can afford to purchase a home in the community that raised you.
07:04An America where we fight for our neighbors like they are our family because you deserve that.
07:12All right, now as I close, I have a message for my colleagues in the House who are likely watching.
07:20Democrats, when we have the power, you have to use it.
07:29Democrats, can you hear me now?
07:35When we have the power, we have to use it.
07:43Now, please don't tell me about a majority.
07:47Show me a majority.
07:49Show me a people-powered majority with a mandate for justice,
07:54with a mandate for compassion, with a mandate for progress.
07:58Democrats, don't just talk about healthcare justice.
08:02Pass Medicare for all.
08:08Democrats, don't just talk about abortion justice.
08:11pass the EACH Act and repeal the Hyde Amendment.
08:18Democrats, don't just talk about black lives mattering.
08:22Enact reparations now.
08:26Democrats, don't just talk about ending ISIS terror.
08:31Take every last dollar from them and abolish ICE.
08:39Massachusetts, at our best, we are a pace setter.
08:42We are a beacon on a hill.
08:44We are a symbol of what is possible.
08:46A diverse community made stronger by every person who calls this place home.
08:51Massachusetts, as my mama used to say, never forget that we, the people, are powerful.
08:57And with Maura Healey as our governor, we will fight for healthcare like the human right it is.
09:04With Kim Driscoll as your lieutenant governor, we will keep our neighbor's house.
09:09With Andrea Campbell as your attorney general, we will protect immigrant families.
09:17And with Senator Markey, we will make sure this planet is livable.
09:23Massachusetts, I'm so proud to be in this fight with you.
09:26And I'll remain and stay in the fight with you because y'all change still can't wait.
09:32And I'm going to love you day in and day out until this country loves you back.
09:38Good night, Democrats.
