Democratic State Committee voting meeting at the Hilton Harrisburg.
01:05 - We are going to call the meeting to order at 104.
01:09 - The agenda had it between 1 and 103.
01:11 - So we're about a minute behind schedule.
01:13 - Let's do better folks.
01:16 - I know,
01:18 - and now I now call the fall 2026 meeting of the Pennsylvania
01:22 - Democratic State Committee to Order and the Veterans
01:26 - Caucus, who had the presentation of colors. To.
02:10 - Host.
02:33 - Next, I'd like to call up Christina Proctor, chair,
02:35 - Washington County, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
02:40 - Madam chair.
02:45 - I pledge allegiance
02:47 - to the flag of the United States of America
02:50 - and to the Republic for which it stands.
02:53 - One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
02:57 - and justice for all.
03:03 - Thank you, Madam Chair.
03:05 - Next, I'd like to call TJ
03:06 - DeLuca, Delaware County, to lead us in the national anthem.
03:14 - Please sing along.
03:18 - Oh, say, can you see.
03:23 - By the dawn's early light.
03:28 - What surprised the
03:30 - we had at the twilight's last gleaming?
03:37 - Whose, what stripes and bright stars.
03:42 - Through the perilous fight.
03:46 - O'er the ramparts we watched.
03:51 - Were so gallantly streaming.
03:56 - And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air.
04:06 - Gave proof through the night that our flag was still.
04:14 - There was a dies.
04:18 - That star spangled banner
04:23 - yet wave.
04:28 - Over the light of the free
04:33 - and the.
04:35 - On the brave.
04:50 - I am continually impressed
04:51 - by the bravery of people, the willingness
04:54 - to come up here and do that.
04:56 - Thank you TJ.
04:58 - Next for the invocation.
04:59 - Sierra Jared, Dauphin County, also mayor of Steelton.
05:19 - Good morning everyone.
05:22 - Everybody say former mayor still an
05:25 - I love that for me.
05:29 - So if you will bow your heads with me,
05:32 - we are going to take a moment of prayer.
05:36 - God of wisdom, justice and grace,
05:39 - we thank you for this opportunity to gather today,
05:42 - not simply because of the positions we hold
05:45 - or the organizations we represent,
05:47 - but because we have answered and our own way a call to serve
05:52 - as we come together.
05:53 - For from communities across this Commonwealth remind us
05:57 - that leadership is not about
05:59 - being the loudest in the room, but about making sure
06:02 - that we are coming together in unity
06:05 - and that the voices outside of this room are being heard.
06:09 - Give us wisdom and our decisions, courage in
06:12 - difficult moments and humility when we disagree.
06:16 - Remind us that our work is ultimately about people,
06:19 - the families working hard to make ends meet,
06:22 - the seniors who deserve dignity,
06:24 - the children whose futures are still
06:26 - being written, and every Pennsylvanian
06:28 - who simply wants to know that their government
06:31 - sees them, hears them, and is working for them.
06:34 - May we never become so focused on winning elections
06:38 - that we forget we seek to win them, help us
06:43 - build bridges where there has been division.
06:46 - Create understanding, where there has been disagreement.
06:49 - And remember that unity does not require uniformity.
06:53 - It requires a shared commitment to something
06:56 - greater than ourselves.
06:57 - And when the work becomes difficult, renew our strength.
07:00 - When the path is uncertain, order our steps
07:03 - and when we are given the privilege of entering rooms
07:07 - where decisions are made, give us the courage to remember
07:10 - those who are not yet in the room.
07:12 - Bless this Committee, bless this Commonwealth,
07:15 - and bless the people we have been entrusted to serve.
07:19 - Amen.
07:27 - So thank you to everyone
07:28 - and a couple quick welcome remarks here.
07:32 - First of all, I want to thank you
07:33 - for being here for our fall 2026 state Committee meeting.
07:37 - We are just 45 days away from possibly one
07:40 - of the most critical midterms in the history of our country.
07:43 - Before we continue, I'd like to ask each of you
07:46 - to take a moment of silence to honor and remember
07:50 - four incredible individuals who contributed so much to
07:54 - this party our state committee and their local parties
07:57 - who have passed away since we last gathered.
08:00 - Candy statesman, longtime member of state committee
08:03 - and long standing chair of the Women's Caucus,
08:06 - whose year of years of leadership
08:07 - and service left a lasting mark on state committee.
08:11 - Brad Kirsch, a longtime member of state committee
08:15 - and founding chair of the senior caucus, who dedicated
08:18 - many years of service to our party and its members.
08:23 - Tina Burgess,
08:24 - longtime state committee member representing Snyder County
08:27 - and a strong voice for rural Pennsylvania who mentored
08:31 - and supported many throughout her years of service.
08:35 - And Neil Cashman,
08:37 - former executive director of this party,
08:39 - whose long career in public service
08:42 - ultimately brought him to be
08:43 - the secretary of the Pennsylvania Department
08:46 - of Labor and Industry.
08:48 - Now, please
08:48 - join me in a moment of silence for these individuals.
09:05 - Before I bring Jeremy
09:06 - up for the Credentials committee,
09:07 - I do want to announce I want to thank everyone
09:09 - for the great work on this.
09:10 - For the food drive, we had 570
09:14 - food items and cash donation of $1,060.
09:19 - So I mean is for bottle bottle borne.
09:22 - So I just want to thank everyone.
09:25 - We're going to continue to try to do something
09:27 - for a local or regional charity at each of these meetings,
09:31 - and just
09:31 - want to commend everyone for the donations, both food and
09:35 - and cash wise. So thank you very much.
09:38 - And now with that please.
09:44 - And now with that,
09:45 - Jeremy Bryan, chair of the credentials Committee
09:48 - will read this meetings credentials report.
09:50 - Jeremy.
09:58 - Good afternoon from Center County.
10:01 - The credentials committee process credentials.
10:03 - Over the past two days, the Pennsylvania
10:06 - Democrats bylaws require a majority of members.
10:09 - We have 377 eligible members.
10:13 - We credentialed 251 voting members, 34
10:17 - proxies, for a total of 285.
10:21 - Pursuant to rule number three, section 13.
10:24 - We have reached the point. Thank you. Thank you. Jared.
10:31 - Is DNC vice chair Malcolm Kenyatta here.
10:37 - I know he is on the way.
10:39 - So I wanted to wanted to see if he was here.
10:41 - If not, we will move forward with some of our guest speakers.
10:45 - Malcolm was going to be one of them,
10:47 - but I had not seen him, so I wanted to double
10:50 - check on that.
10:51 - Our first speaker is our history
10:55 - making lieutenant government.
10:59 - Oh, okay.
11:00 - Okay.
11:02 - The schedule is being amended.
11:07 - So we are going to move to our standing committee reports.
11:12 - Chair of bylaws want to welcome Sherry
11:15 - Jacobson of Union County and chair of platform.
11:19 - Welcome back.
11:19 - Micah.
11:20 - I always apologize for the pronunciation.
11:24 - Majuba on.
11:25 - I'm joined by newly appointed
11:27 - Martell Covington of Allegheny County and co-chairs of rules.
11:31 - Also co-chairs rules and welcome Keir
11:33 - Bradford Gray, Philadelphia, as chair of Voter Outreach.
11:37 - So I want to welcome each of those
11:39 - for stepping up to doing what they're doing.
11:46 - With that.
11:47 - And again, thank you to each of them
11:49 - for willing to step up for their leadership on this.
11:52 - It is greatly appreciated.
11:53 - And with that, I want to hand it over
11:55 - to someone who is already in this position.
11:57 - I've asked him to stay on,
11:58 - and that is Tom Herman, to give a bylaws report.
12:02 - And then we're going to go into
12:04 - the other standing committee members.
12:05 - So with that, Tom Herman, Tom, please give us your report.
12:09 - Oh, there's Tom over there.
12:21 - Let's not.
12:24 - You hear me now?
12:25 - There you go.
12:26 - Tom Herbert, Berks County chair.
12:29 - The Bylaws committee.
12:30 - Bylaws committee did meet yesterday at 2:00.
12:34 - We had a majority of our members there.
12:37 - We spent our initial meeting introducing each other
12:41 - to ourselves and beginning to bond as a committee.
12:45 - We set some basic ground rules for the committee,
12:49 - primarily participation and attendance.
12:52 - And since you have pointed everyone at this committee,
12:57 - we understand there are no proxies in bylaws Committee.
13:00 - We did hear from our attorney and our caring and understand
13:06 - because of core issues that are moving through that,
13:11 - the committee
13:11 - is going to have its hands full of work for the next term.
13:15 - Oh, yeah. You're gonna have some task.
13:17 - Thank you. Chairman. That's the end of our.
14:01 - Testing.
14:01 - There we go, everybody.
14:05 - So I'm Sherri Jacobsen, I'm chair of the Union County
14:09 - Democratic Committee
14:10 - and also honored to be the chair of the platform committee.
14:13 - We are a brand new committee.
14:16 - I just thought I'd let you know what we're charged to do.
14:19 - We are supposed to draft a statement of principles
14:23 - and policies
14:24 - of the Democratic Party of the State of Pennsylvania.
14:27 - Along the way to this goal,
14:28 - we've been charged with conferring with the party's
14:30 - elected office holders at the state
14:32 - and federal level, and providing the initial airing
14:36 - and consideration of proposals relating to platform issues.
14:40 - We had our first meeting yesterday.
14:42 - We have 17 people on the committee.
14:45 - We have all the regional caucuses represented
14:49 - and all the constituency
14:50 - caucuses represented most by at least two people.
14:55 - As mentioned, we were 17 and all.
14:57 - We were all there except for three people.
14:59 - Yesterday we also introduced ourselves.
15:02 - We shared our superpower that we bring to the committee,
15:06 - and we started the work of thinking about how
15:09 - we are going to solicit input about the platform.
15:14 - Hopefully you were in a meeting
15:16 - today either with your regional caucus
15:18 - or you constituency caucus or both, where somebody
15:22 - from the platform committee talked to you about our work.
15:25 - I want to say we are looking to cast
15:29 - a very broad net for input.
15:30 - And to that end, you can email your suggestions to
15:37 - Dems platform committee at gmail.com.
15:42 - So we're eager to get as much input from people as possible.
15:45 - Also, we are trying to liaise with county chairs,
15:50 - so if you would like one of us to come to your meeting
15:54 - or zoom in to your county chair, your county committee meeting,
15:57 - we can speak directly to your membership.
16:00 - So please reach out to that PA
16:04 - Dems Platform committee at gmail.com.
16:08 - Address and you can request for us
16:10 - to come to either in person or zoom in to your county
16:13 - committee meeting.
16:15 - And we also started tossing around some ideas about what
16:19 - format the platform would take, how we would get
16:22 - the word out to people across the state about it.
16:26 - And we are planning to
16:28 - have a follow up meeting on zoom within the next two weeks.
16:32 - Thank you. All right. Thank you. Sharon.
16:37 - Sherry was thrilled with the timeline I gave her.
16:44 - Next up, Mica and Martell for the Rules Committee.
16:51 - Is Martell over there?
16:52 - Where are you? Martell?
16:53 - I have not seen him, so I think it's you, mica.
16:55 - Okay, so my name is Mica Majuba, and it's Majuba in.
16:59 - When I pronounce my name Mike.
17:01 - Imagine people don't
17:02 - know where my first name ends and my last name begins.
17:05 - So you can just call me mica.
17:06 - I'm from Philadelphia County.
17:08 - I had the pleasure of serving
17:10 - as a chair of the Rules Committee in the last term,
17:13 - and I was extremely honored to be asked to sort of come back
17:17 - and serve with my my partner Martell from Allegheny County.
17:20 - I'd also like Lindsey Scott to stand up from
17:24 - from the northeast, who's our vice chair?
17:28 - And could the rest of this committee member stand up?
17:31 - There are there are 14 of us on the committee.
17:33 - We are also represent all of the all of the different
17:37 - regional caucuses.
17:38 - We had a meeting yesterday at 2:00 and had a quorum,
17:41 - and there was not a lot of official business.
17:45 - We we really used it as an opportunity
17:48 - to have an orientation about how state committee is set up,
17:53 - the processes we use, because
17:57 - you all are going to be looking to us
17:59 - as sort of being the nerds who understand
18:01 - sort of how things are supposed to run.
18:03 - The job of the Rules Committee for everyone to understand
18:06 - is to set the agenda at the request of the chair
18:09 - for each meeting.
18:10 - Now, that doesn't mean that we decide who the speakers are
18:14 - or what or what music is being played.
18:17 - It means that if there's any official business that's kind of
18:20 - come to you to have a vote on it, first needs to sort of
18:24 - be vetted through the rules Committee.
18:26 - And so I wanted to just give you guys
18:28 - a quick overview, as we did in the committee.
18:30 - So you have some sort of
18:31 - understanding about that process, the major way
18:35 - that we make decisions, we direct
18:39 - things to happen is through the process of a resolution,
18:43 - you know, and a resolution says, whereas this whereas that be
18:47 - it resolved and be it resolved, is
18:48 - the action that we're taking either
18:50 - in support of something or directing something.
18:52 - And so members can bring these resolutions to the floor.
18:56 - And there are a couple of there's
18:58 - a couple of new processes that are happening
19:01 - because of the way
19:02 - we created a new platform committee.
19:04 - I like to think that we have sort of
19:06 - two types of resolutions.
19:08 - There are resolutions that sort of direct, you know,
19:11 - that the party shall do something, whether it recognize
19:15 - LGBT Pride Month or whether it honor
19:20 - somebody who may have passed away.
19:22 - But there's also resolutions that we sometimes
19:25 - see that deal with legislation that we may want to support
19:28 - or uplift, or other policy proposals
19:31 - that are elected officials work on.
19:33 - And since we now have a platform committee,
19:37 - I'm going to ask you
19:38 - all if you sort of create these resolutions, I first ask
19:42 - that you give the platform committee
19:43 - some time to do their work to help pull all this together.
19:46 - But if a resolution comes to us
19:48 - that's like that, we've always had sort of a couple of of
19:54 - values that we would look at.
19:55 - Is it is it timely, and is there a broad consensus
19:59 - among the part amongst Democrats that we support this?
20:03 - And and if it is something
20:04 - that's very timely, like we had two meetings ago when the
20:08 - when the Trump administration took some, you know,
20:12 - blatantly illegal actions
20:13 - dealing with Ice, we all felt strongly
20:15 - that we needed to say something about that.
20:17 - So we had we had that that discussion, if it's not timely,
20:22 - what we are now going to do is we have the Rules Committee
20:25 - now has the authority to refer
20:27 - those resolutions to the platform committee
20:29 - so they can discuss it in the context
20:31 - of what they are working on, so they can make priorities
20:35 - about what issues
20:36 - they might want to raise up and other and others not.
20:40 - And if they feel that it is something
20:42 - that should be voted on at a meeting,
20:44 - they'll refer back to us with a recommendation
20:46 - to pass it on to you to vote.
20:48 - Does that sort of make a little bit of sense?
20:49 - And for all of you who are interested
20:51 - in, in passing any kind of resolution,
20:53 - there is a process that we need to do.
20:56 - It has to be put in a certain format.
20:58 - It has to be signed and data
21:00 - by an actual state committee member.
21:02 - It has to be submitted
21:03 - to the chair and the executive director 45 days
21:06 - before a meeting.
21:07 - All of this this process is outlined
21:10 - in the committee member handbook that we received.
21:14 - If you don't have a copy of it
21:16 - on the website, if you go to Pam's
21:19 - and click about and then State Committee on
21:22 - that page, you'll see the handbook.
21:24 - And in there there's there's
21:25 - lots of important resources like our bylaws,
21:29 - which I encourage you all to look at.
21:30 - And this process for doing resolutions.
21:34 - So we went through that and lots of other stuff.
21:37 - We did not have any official business.
21:38 - So I'm not going to make any emotions for anything
21:42 - to be brought to the floor.
21:43 - And that concludes the report of the Rules Committee.
21:46 - Thank you. Mica.
21:52 - Final standing committee report Keir
21:54 - Bradford Gray, Philadelphia voter outreach.
22:02 - Going after Mica.
22:03 - We don't have that much detail to give you,
22:04 - but I want to say this to you for the voter outreach,
22:07 - we're going to employ strategies from all across the country
22:10 - that work to make
22:11 - sure that we engage voters where they feel
22:13 - disengaged, not seen, and not heard.
22:16 - One of the things that our committee met
22:18 - was to explore ideas around mail in ballot chasing programs.
22:22 - And there are a number of people,
22:24 - a number of counties, that are doing it
22:25 - well and have an extreme turnout rate.
22:28 - I know for me, we all share one thing.
22:30 - No matter what county we are small, large.
22:32 - We all share a vulnerability to what's going on right now.
22:35 - And I cannot stand that feeling.
22:37 - And I know there's so many,
22:38 - so much energy in here that has the same feeling as me.
22:41 - So our committee is going to meet this week.
22:44 - We're going to have a zoom meeting.
22:46 - We are going to
22:46 - present different counties mail in ballot chase programs,
22:50 - and we're going to be reporting out
22:52 - what's going on across the state.
22:54 - That is our immediate objective.
22:55 - But beyond that, we're going to be able to learn what now?
22:59 - What didn't we get?
23:00 - What did we get right? What do we have to understand?
23:03 - And what do we need to do to make sure that people don't
23:06 - just feel recruited to vote and election time,
23:09 - and that they feel included throughout the entirety
23:13 - of the process of creating policies
23:15 - and platforms that match their needs.
23:18 - That is our task, and we have to be realistic.
23:20 - If we looked and fought for rights
23:23 - that we keep fighting for, and we keep fighting
23:25 - against a current administration for taking it away.
23:27 - Why aren't we fighting hard enough to make
23:29 - sure we turn out that vote beyond what it is?
23:32 - So one of the things thank you for that.
23:36 - I want to introduce my two vice chair,
23:39 - Tracy Batten from Allegheny County.
23:45 - And Tariq Khan here in Philadelphia County.
23:50 - And we have a host of committee members.
23:52 - If you can just stand, maybe someone will recognize you
23:55 - and want to give you some ideas.
23:56 - Anyone on the voter outreach Committee please stand.
24:01 - We have a very enthusiastic, enthusiastic committee,
24:05 - and I know the state party will give us some good
24:08 - technical assistance and good administrative assistance
24:11 - we need, because I'm going to need it.
24:13 - I have one last thing I want to do,
24:15 - because we are all together and we are all connected.
24:18 - And this is not just from the voter outreach committee.
24:20 - This is also from the Black Mayors Coalition, as well
24:23 - as PA Black Women's Coalition.
24:26 - And we want to present an award to people who exerted the grit
24:31 - and the tenacity to keep going, even when the odds were
24:34 - against them.
24:35 - We want to present an award to the Butler County Dems
24:38 - for what they did and turning out that vote.
24:44 - Butler County, someone please come get this.
24:48 - Someone please come get this award.
25:01 - Yeah, yeah.
25:13 - I know, I'll try to the ground, but hey, all good.
25:17 - Let me tell you,
25:20 - we thank you for everything you put in
25:23 - to what we needed
25:24 - to happen here in Pennsylvania, and we want to make sure
25:27 - we emulate that across the state.
25:28 - But your heart, your tenacity and your continuation
25:32 - of making sure that we get this trifecta
25:34 - and keep the majority that we have, hell, yeah, we appreciate.
25:52 - Is part of the black.
26:20 - Thank you.
26:23 - Congratulations, Butler.
26:31 - Congratulations.
26:32 - We're all proud of you.
26:36 - Okay everyone.
26:37 - We're now going to go back to the guest speakers.
26:39 - See, we're flexible here.
26:44 - Our first guest speaker
26:46 - is someone that made history as the first black
26:50 - lieutenant governor in Pennsylvania history.
26:52 - He is reshaping the role of lieutenant governor.
26:57 - He and Governor Shapiro are have
27:00 - not only had an incredibly successful
27:02 - first term, but I know that when we get them a trifecta,
27:08 - they will have a doubly good second term.
27:13 - Let's welcome up
27:14 - our lieutenant governor, my friend Austin Davis.
27:30 - Pennsylvania Democrats.
27:33 - Are you fired up?
27:36 - Are you ready to reelect John Shapiro and I?
27:40 - Are you ready to flip those four congressional seats
27:43 - and finally put a check on Donald Trump's chaos?
27:50 - Five, five.
27:53 - And are you ready for the first time in 30 years
27:58 - to flip the Pennsylvania State Senate and get a Democratic
28:01 - trifecta in Harrisburg?
28:07 - Look,
28:08 - I have been crisscrossing this Commonwealth from Erie
28:12 - to Bedford to Indiana counties to the Lehigh Valley
28:15 - to Montgomery County and Philadelphia.
28:18 - And I know that Democrats are fired up for this election
28:22 - and ready to put America on a new path forward.
28:29 - You know, as I've traveled this commonwealth, it's
28:32 - reminded me of how proud I am to be a Democrat.
28:36 - And I want us all to remember it was the Democratic Party
28:40 - that passed the civil rights and the Voting Rights Act.
28:44 - It was the Democratic Party that created Social
28:47 - Security and Medicare.
28:51 - It was the Democratic Party that passed the Affordable
28:54 - Care Act and gave millions of Americans health care.
29:01 - And it was the Democratic Party
29:03 - that took the son of a union bus driver and a hairdresser
29:06 - and helped him make history as Pennsylvania's first black
29:10 - lieutenant governor.
29:16 - It is so hard to believe that it's been four years
29:20 - since I stood
29:21 - before you, since Josh Shapiro and I first ran for office.
29:24 - And I have to tell you, I am so proud of the work we've done to
29:28 - move this Commonwealth forward and to build a Pennsylvania
29:32 - that values each and every one of us to make
29:36 - the make historic investments in our public education systems,
29:39 - to make sure that no child has to limit their education
29:43 - opportunities because of their zip code.
29:46 - We you can apply for that.
29:52 - We've built an economy that works for all of us
29:54 - by creating 29,000 new jobs and getting $43 billion
29:59 - in private sector investment to the Commonwealth, despite
30:03 - the chaos that continues to come from Washington, D.C.,
30:07 - Pennsylvania is on the rise, brothers and sisters,
30:11 - but we still have so much more work to do.
30:15 - The contrast in this election could not be clear.
30:19 - We're running against an opponent
30:21 - that wants to push us further behind.
30:24 - Let's be clear
30:24 - Stacey Garrity was proud to accept an endorsement
30:27 - from an organization that wants to make Pennsylvania
30:30 - a right to work state.
30:34 - Well, I'm here to say loudly and proudly that Josh Shapiro
30:37 - and I believe that every worker should have a safe
30:40 - work environment, that every worker.
30:46 - Every worker should have
30:48 - the benefits and wages that they've bargained for.
30:51 - And every worker has the right to be represented by a union.
31:01 - And I want to be clear, brothers and sisters,
31:03 - as long as Josh Shapiro and I are in charge in Harrisburg,
31:07 - Pennsylvania, will never be a right to work state.
31:15 - The stakes of this election could not be higher.
31:18 - Not just for all of us, but for future generations.
31:22 - You know, when I was elected your lieutenant governor,
31:24 - it was one of the proudest moments of my life.
31:27 - But I have to tell you, the proudest moment of my life
31:30 - came a few months later, when my wife, Blair, and I
31:33 - welcomed our daughter, Harper, into the world.
31:39 - Being Harper's
31:41 - dad is my greatest joy and my greatest motivation.
31:45 - I want my daughter to have the same fundamental rights
31:48 - and freedoms that her grandmother fought for,
31:50 - and that her mother has enjoyed.
31:52 - I want my daughter to have the right to live the American dream
31:56 - right here in Pennsylvania,
31:57 - whatever that looks like for her.
32:00 - And I want to leave her a commonwealth that is brighter,
32:03 - more just, and fairer than the one that I received.
32:06 - And that's not just my promise to my daughter.
32:09 - That's my promise to every single
32:11 - one of Pennsylvania's young people.
32:14 - And I want to be clear as we fight
32:16 - for a Democratic trifecta.
32:18 - I want us to remember what that means.
32:21 - It doesn't just mean that
32:22 - we're going to get power in Harrisburg, it means that
32:25 - we're finally going to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour
32:29 - here in Pennsylvania.
32:35 - It means that we're finally going to make owning a home
32:38 - more attainable and affordable here in the Commonwealth.
32:45 - And it means we're finally going to give our LGBTQ
32:49 - plus brothers and sisters the protections they deserve.
32:58 - We've accomplished a lot
33:00 - in the last four years, and we still have so much to do.
33:03 - But I have to tell you, I have been so blessed to
33:07 - be on this journey to have a partner in Governor Shapiro
33:11 - who understands what's at stake, who understands
33:14 - what we're building every single day
33:17 - that we get up and go to work to have one of the best
33:20 - governors in the country who truly knows how to get shit
33:24 - done.
33:30 - Because of your help, I know we're going to win this election
33:34 - and we're going to win for Democrats.
33:37 - Up and down the ballot.
33:38 - But we've got 45 days left, brothers and sisters,
33:41 - to organize, to mobilize,
33:43 - to make sure that the day after the election, we know that
33:47 - Pennsylvania and this country is on a brighter path forward.
33:52 - The the world is literally watching Pennsylvania.
33:55 - And it's my pleasure to introduce to you
33:58 - the person who's leading our ticket,
34:00 - who's leading this Commonwealth,
34:02 - the 48th governor of the Commonwealth
34:04 - of Pennsylvania, our governor Josh Shapiro.
34:33 - How are we doing?
34:40 - Man, this room is full.
34:41 - This room is beautiful, and this room is ready to
34:45 - win, aren't you?
34:48 - Hey, let me just start.
34:50 - Let me just start by saying that I could not be more proud
34:55 - to serve alongside our history making lieutenant governor
35:00 - a guy who works his tail off across his commonwealth
35:04 - every single day.
35:06 - But always remember
35:07 - is the most important thing in his life is being Harper's dad.
35:11 - I have watched this man work.
35:13 - I've watched this man grow, and this man is a great leader.
35:18 - Thank you.
35:18 - Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, thank you.
35:26 - And I tell you,
35:27 - I'm excited to be back here with the Pennsylvania Democrats.
35:31 - I mean, this is a team that knows how to win,
35:34 - and this is a team that's been putting in the work.
35:38 - I've noticed
35:39 - this is a team that has rebuilt the Pennsylvania
35:42 - Democratic Party into a professional,
35:45 - effective organization that is playing every single day to win.
35:51 - And I must give a special thanks to your outstanding
35:55 - executive director, Larry Hailsham.
35:58 - Thank you. Larry.
36:00 - A trusted advisor to me and a guy who has been doing great.
36:05 - Couple shout outs for Larry.
36:06 - That was pretty nice.
36:09 - Now let's see if we can do even better for a guy
36:12 - I have served in public life with for more than two decades.
36:16 - A guy who devotes himself in his core to serving the public.
36:22 - A guy who literally spends more time on the road.
36:25 - Thank God he was okay after that accident a few weeks ago.
36:28 - More time on the road, crisscrossing this Commonwealth,
36:32 - fighting for Democrats, not just in a few counties,
36:36 - but in each of our 67 counties.
36:39 - Ladies and gentlemen, our outstanding chairman
36:42 - and a dear friend, Eugene de Pasquale.
36:54 - There you go.
36:55 - You got Aliquippa to stand up.
36:57 - That's a big deal, Eugene.
37:00 - Everybody's up.
37:02 - All right, there we go.
37:08 - Together.
37:09 - Together with their new vice chair.
37:12 - And I thank you for elevating her to this important position.
37:17 - Jamila wander and Montgomery County.
37:21 - Holy cow.
37:28 - Eugene, I would note down
37:29 - stood up quicker for Jamila than than for you.
37:34 - But no, listen.
37:36 - Listen, this isn't this isn't just feel good stuff.
37:40 - They're putting in the work
37:41 - and they're getting the results for 11 straight months.
37:45 - Democrats here in Pennsylvania have out registered Republicans,
37:50 - netting 41,000 New Democrats who are fired up
37:55 - and ready to vote in 45 days.
37:59 - That's real work.
38:02 - You may not see this work all the time,
38:04 - but they have built
38:05 - something that we have not had in Pennsylvania literally
38:09 - in decades.
38:10 - Never in my time in public office,
38:13 - they have built a coordinated campaign
38:17 - that is competing all across our Commonwealth.
38:20 - We have 35 field offices across Pennsylvania.
38:24 - We have done 13,000 volunteer shifts,
38:28 - and we've knocked on 300,000 doors so far.
38:33 - This coordinated campaign led by Maria is on fire.
38:37 - Thank you all for your incredible work.
38:42 - And this is also a group that knows how to win.
38:48 - We saw that in 2025 with our historic races for the court.
38:53 - But I'll tell you something.
38:54 - We've also seen it
38:56 - over and over again in a whole bunch of races.
38:59 - Folks never thought we could win anybody here from Lancaster.
39:03 - We're going to flip Lancaster this time.
39:05 - You all have a new senator named James Malone because we
39:10 - won an improbable victory, and we're going to reelect James
39:14 - in 45 days.
39:18 - Anybody here?
39:19 - Anybody here from Butler County?
39:22 - Yeah.
39:23 - By the way,
39:24 - I was in Butler County with y'all 3 or 4 nights ago.
39:27 - My ears are still ringing.
39:30 - Mr. chairman, from how busy it was there.
39:32 - But we've got a new state representative in a district.
39:37 - Donald Trump won by 18 points.
39:39 - That the Republican state rep, just a year and a half ago
39:42 - had won by 30 points.
39:44 - And State Representative Brandon Dukes is now
39:48 - serving in the House from Butler County.
39:51 - We know how to win Democrats.
39:56 - And I'm here
39:56 - to tell you that I'm investing not just my time,
40:00 - but millions and millions and millions of dollars,
40:04 - not just to win in 2026 up and down the ballot.
40:08 - But I want us to build something
40:11 - that is capable of us winning in years, in the future.
40:15 - I want my legacy to be a Democratic party that is strong,
40:19 - that is united and that knows how to win,
40:23 - and that is what you are a part of.
40:26 - And I could not be more thankful.
40:30 - This is a group that is organized and mobilized
40:33 - and working together, quite literally, the opposite of what
40:38 - we are seeing from our president and from the people he leads.
40:42 - On the other side,
40:44 - Donald Trump, as you heard from the LG,
40:46 - I think he can be defined by three words
40:49 - chaos and cruelty and corruption.
40:53 - Think about the chaos that we're feeling in our lives.
40:56 - It's not just what you see when you turn on TV
40:59 - and you scratch your head and you say,
41:00 - I can't believe he just said that.
41:03 - It's chaos that's hurting folks every single day.
41:07 - Think about it.
41:08 - You go fill up your car.
41:10 - You're spending over $4.50 a gallon
41:12 - because Donald Trump chaotically entered a war
41:16 - we should have never been in, and has no earthly idea
41:19 - how to get out of.
41:20 - That's chaos that's harming people.
41:23 - It's chaos that has claimed the lives of 18
41:27 - brave souls who put on a uniform to defend this nation.
41:31 - It's chaos that it's wreaking havoc on our allies abroad.
41:37 - More chaos every day in our lives that we are
41:40 - seeing, including when we go try and just buy groceries.
41:44 - The tariffs that he's put in place
41:46 - have made life harder for farmers, shut down
41:49 - markets for them and driven up prices for all of us,
41:53 - 50% more for the price of beef.
41:55 - And then he slapped in the face of our beef cattle ranchers
41:59 - here in Pennsylvania
42:00 - and beyond, and brings in beef from other countries.
42:03 - I mean, I got to tell you something.
42:05 - It is so offensive to Pennsylvania's way of life,
42:09 - the way he's
42:09 - treating our farmers, and we're all paying the price of that.
42:13 - Here's another thing that sadly, we're paying the price of
42:17 - in 2000, the year 2000, measles was completely eliminated
42:24 - from America, and today it's come roaring back.
42:29 - You can draw a straight line between the vaccine skepticism
42:34 - and the lies that have been spewed by RFK and Donald Trump
42:38 - over the last many years, and the declining vaccination rates
42:43 - for families in Pennsylvania are suffering
42:46 - because their loved ones passed because of measles, a passing
42:52 - that RFK, quite literally will not even acknowledge.
42:56 - Claims were lying about it
42:58 - because it doesn't fit his phony narrative.
43:01 - About 800 Pennsylvanians right now are battling this
43:05 - awful, awful illness, and we pray that they will be okay.
43:10 - This is another example of the chaos
43:13 - that they are bringing into our lives,
43:16 - kind of chaos that's making everyone worse off.
43:20 - And that chaos is matched by cruelty.
43:23 - The height of cruelty is saying to someone who's hungry,
43:28 - we're going to take away your food,
43:30 - saying to someone who is sick,
43:32 - we're going to take away your health care.
43:35 - But that's exactly what Donald Trump and his allies have done.
43:40 - 510,000 Pennsylvanians
43:43 - have either lost or will lose by January.
43:46 - Access to health care,
43:49 - 210,000 will lose access to Snap.
43:53 - Imagine all you want to do is feed your kids,
43:57 - and Donald Trump made it impossible
43:59 - for you to do that because he took away your snap.
44:01 - And then what's even more galling
44:04 - is when you think about the reason why.
44:07 - Because what they wanted to do was give their buddies
44:10 - at the very top a tax cut and paid for it
44:14 - with our neighbor's health care, paid for it
44:17 - with our neighbors food assistance.
44:21 - That is the height of cruelty.
44:24 - And when we in Pennsylvania elect,
44:27 - I heard you boo the LG before when he said four.
44:30 - So am I going to make the same mistake
44:32 - when we elect 4 or 5 six New Democrats
44:37 - here in Pennsylvania, the Congress,
44:39 - we will reverse those cuts and we will end that cruelty
44:44 - that we're seeing play out across our Commonwealth
44:48 - and our country.
44:50 - And how about corruption?
44:52 - This is a guy who's been president
44:54 - for two years and has pocketed
44:58 - $2 billion for him and his kids during that time.
45:03 - Now, I know that that's upsetting,
45:04 - and I know that pisses you off, but,
45:07 - you know, makes me more angry.
45:09 - It makes me more angry that when he's sitting behind the desk
45:14 - and he's supposed to be thinking about
45:16 - you and fighting for you,
45:20 - he's really making ethical compromises
45:24 - so he can put money in his pocket
45:27 - or a new airplane on his runway.
45:30 - This is a guy who doesn't have your interests in mind.
45:33 - And right now, we got a whole flock of
45:37 - candidates running here in Pennsylvania.
45:39 - One's even running against me who want to be a rubber stamp
45:42 - for that chaos and that cruelty and that corruption.
45:46 - People who, when you ask them.
45:48 - I couldn't believe this when they asked my opponent
45:51 - this the other day,
45:52 - name one thing you disagree with Donald Trump on
45:55 - and they can't even come up with one thing.
45:58 - How about ending the chaos and cruelty and corruption?
46:02 - How about
46:02 - electing public servants that are going to sit behind a desk
46:06 - fighting for you, not against you?
46:09 - That is what we need in Pennsylv
46:16 - And that, my friends,
46:19 - that my friends, is what Austin Davis and I have tried to do
46:23 - with all of your help over the last four years,
46:26 - fighting
46:27 - to make sure every child of God gets a great quality education.
46:31 - I couldn't be more proud that on our watch,
46:34 - after the court
46:34 - ruled that our education system was unconstitutional,
46:38 - that we went to work even in a divided legislature,
46:42 - and have increased funding for public education
46:45 - across the board by 35%, and driving those dollars out
46:51 - to the school districts that need it most.
46:55 - I'm proud of the fact that while the federal government
46:58 - has been cutting food assistance, we in Pennsylvania
47:02 - made it a priority.
47:03 - In fact, we made it the law to provide free breakfast
47:07 - to 1.7 million Pennsylvania students every morning.
47:13 - I'm proud of the fact that while the other side
47:16 - attacks our teachers, we've invested in our teachers.
47:19 - And for the first time in a decade,
47:21 - the number of teachers is growing again.
47:23 - In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, that's progress.
47:27 - That's GSD, good schools and safe communities.
47:32 - Violent crime on our watch
47:33 - is down nearly 20% because we've invested
47:36 - in hiring new police, but also making sure we invest
47:40 - $1 billion in church groups and community organizations
47:44 - and others in the area to make sure we give our kids
47:48 - an opportunity to stay off the streets and have real
47:51 - opportunities in their lives.
47:53 - I got to give a special thanks to
47:55 - our lieutenant governor, who has led
47:57 - the way on public safety, and we are seeing the results.
48:01 - Thank you for your leadership.
48:05 - Given kids and good education and a safe community,
48:09 - and then making sure
48:10 - they got a job in the community they love and the community
48:13 - they can afford to live in on our watch.
48:16 - We've done more economic development in the
48:18 - last three years than the prior 15 years combined.
48:23 - Think about that.
48:25 - Almost 40,000 new jobs created in Pennsylvania.
48:29 - Working with the private sector, we've seen a dramatic increase
48:33 - in just the amount of milk our farmers are producing.
48:36 - To keep up with the new Chobani factory
48:39 - that's coming here to Pennsylvania,
48:41 - Eli Lilly picked Pennsylvania out of 300
48:45 - different places across the country,
48:47 - employing more people in the Lehigh Valley.
48:49 - Anybody from the Lehigh Valley here, there you go.
48:54 - There you go.
48:55 - You stood up faster than dawn on that one.
48:57 - Good job.
48:59 - Our economy is growing.
49:00 - At the same time, we've cut taxes ten times,
49:04 - passing the most progressive tax plan
49:08 - in more than 50 years in Pennsylvania, saying
49:10 - to 940,000 Pennsylvanians, we're going to put 800
49:14 - bucks back in your pockets
49:16 - if you work and you need a little bit of extra help.
49:19 - I couldn't be more grateful to my partners in the legislature
49:23 - who stayed at the table and thought to get that done.
49:26 - I know folks were getting a little bit antsy
49:28 - last year when it took time, but here's the thing
49:31 - I could pass a budget the same day
49:34 - it's due, but it wouldn't reflect our values.
49:37 - We stay at the table, we fight for what we believe in,
49:41 - and the good people of Pennsylvania
49:43 - are better off because we're willing
49:45 - to engage in these fights and stand up for all
49:48 - Pennsylvanians, rural, urban, and suburban communities
49:53 - now. In terms of the table,
49:59 - I think a lot about what this table could look like next year.
50:03 - You know, we talked about this
50:04 - coordinated campaign competing everywhere in the state.
50:08 - My primary goal in this election
50:10 - is to make sure that Harper's dad gets reelected
50:13 - and I get reelected, but it is to deliver in Harrisburg
50:17 - for the first time since 1992,
50:21 - a trifle in the legislature where we can
50:25 - get a whole lot more stuff done.
50:29 - Clark knows.
50:33 - And here's the thing.
50:35 - When we do it in our first month and hear me on this,
50:40 - we will raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
50:45 - In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
50:48 - we will codify a woman's right
50:51 - to choose in the law here in our Commonwealth.
51:00 - We will fully
51:01 - fund mass transit all across Pennsylvania.
51:06 - We will build more affordable housing and ensure
51:10 - that we put more money back in people's pockets.
51:14 - That's the power of what we can do together.
51:19 - And make no mistake, while we keep making progress,
51:22 - you know in me you've got a governor
51:25 - who's always going to have your back.
51:27 - You got me a governor who's going to fight to
51:30 - protect your fundamental rights
51:32 - and to fight against the chaos and the cruelty and corruption.
51:36 - You know, when Trump tried to build those
51:39 - detention centers, as he called them, those Ice detention
51:43 - centers, anybody from Schuylkill or Berks County here?
51:46 - Yeah, we got a few. There you go.
51:48 - They wanted to build those in your neighborhoods, put 9000
51:52 - human beings in these big warehouses.
51:55 - I went to work.
51:57 - I fought them, and I won.
51:59 - And Ice is not building detentio
52:06 - That's right.
52:10 - And you don't.
52:11 - You don't have to be from Berks or Schuylkill County to know
52:15 - that our fundamental rights are under attack every day,
52:18 - including the most fundamental of them
52:20 - all, the right to vote, the right to vote.
52:25 - Donald Trump has been stoking all kinds of misinformation.
52:29 - He's trying to
52:30 - make it impossible for you to vote by mail,
52:32 - even though he does the same thing.
52:36 - And so the attorney general
52:40 - who fought Donald Trump back in 2020
52:43 - when he sued me 43 different times to
52:46 - stop your votes from being counted.
52:48 - And by the way, you'll remember he went 0 in 43.
52:50 - I went 43.
52:51 - And oh, and we defended your right to vote.
52:55 - I've never given up on that.
52:57 - And we went to court again to block his illegal
53:01 - executive order.
53:02 - That would stop Mail-In ballots from happening.
53:05 - We won.
53:06 - And you can vote by person.
53:09 - You can vote by mail.
53:10 - And your vote will be counted here in the Commonwealth
53:15 - of Pennsylvania.
53:16 - I will never, ever back down from a fight.
53:23 - Now I have I have used the power that you've given me
53:29 - as your governor,
53:30 - the 48th governor of this great Commonwealth,
53:32 - to fight for you, to do good, to get stuff done,
53:35 - to defend your rights and freedoms.
53:36 - But the truth is, even though the folks sitting up
53:39 - at this table here in the gentleman standing behind
53:42 - me, that truth is we've got titles next to our names,
53:46 - but you're the ones with the real power.
53:49 - And I want to talk just as we close here
53:52 - about the power you have
53:54 - and the way I hope you'll use it over the next 45 days.
53:57 - I see my friends from Philadelphia here.
54:01 - They.
54:05 - Oh, hold on.
54:07 - I don't know if the folks in Allegheny heard that.
54:09 - I heard some go birds, so there may be.
54:14 - They may.
54:15 - Oh, look at this.
54:16 - He got beat on there.
54:18 - Got that?
54:22 - But these guys, they get the privilege every day
54:27 - of walking the cobblestone streets outside of Independence
54:31 - Hall in Philadelphia, independence Hall, where
54:34 - 250 years ago, our founders came together
54:37 - and declared our independence from a king,
54:39 - and then returned about a decade later to draft,
54:43 - really the scaffolding of our democracy,
54:45 - the Constitution of the United States.
54:47 - As they walk over those cobblestone streets,
54:51 - they're walking on ground that I believe is hallowed ground
54:55 - that is historic and ground where I think
54:58 - the most important words in our democracy were ever uttered.
55:02 - After the Constitutional Convention,
55:05 - one of the five people who had the privilege
55:06 - of both signing
55:07 - the Declaration of Independence and signing the Constitution,
55:11 - a guy named Ben Franklin, you may have heard of him.
55:13 - One of my predecessors walked out onto those
55:16 - cobblestone streets and a woman walked over to him.
55:20 - I want you to stop and think about this for a moment.
55:23 - A woman who did not even have the right to vote at that moment
55:28 - walks over to Ben Franklin and says, Doctor
55:31 - Franklin, what do we have here, a monarchy or a republic?
55:37 - And Franklin looked her in the eye and says, A republic,
55:41 - if you can keep it, if you can keep it,
55:45 - I believe has been the mantra of our nation,
55:49 - a mantra that instills in every citizen
55:52 - a power to do this work, a power to carry forward
55:57 - the work that was done by our ancestors, to perfect our union,
56:00 - to make it more, just to make it more inclusive,
56:04 - to ensure that that woman and those who followed
56:07 - had the right to vote,
56:08 - to make sure that all of our citizens
56:11 - here would be treated equally under the eyes of the law.
56:15 - And now, I believe, 250 years later,
56:19 - after those words were uttered, the responsibility falls to us.
56:24 - No one is coming to do this work for us and Pennsylvania
56:27 - Democrats.
56:28 - You've got a unique power to be able to do this work right now,
56:33 - to organize in your communities, to mobilize your neighbors,
56:37 - to let them know what really is at stake, not just about
56:41 - electing and reelecting candidates on the ballot,
56:45 - but to fight for the very soul of this nation
56:48 - that is being attacked from within.
56:51 - If we have a national referendum
56:54 - on Donald Trump's chaos and cruelty and corruption
56:57 - in 45 days, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot
57:01 - to be a check on that, to show that this is not
57:05 - who we are as a nation, to show that citizen participation
57:11 - can triumph and trump cruelty and chaos and corruption,
57:16 - then we will have done a job
57:19 - that our neighbors need us to do,
57:21 - and that our ancestors called on us to do.
57:26 - And so I'm here today to humbly ask you, yes, for your vote,
57:30 - but I'm also here today
57:32 - to ask you to dig deep and recognize
57:34 - your special responsibility
57:36 - as a Pennsylvanian to carry this work forward.
57:40 - As I said at the top, Pennsylvania Democrats
57:43 - know how to win.
57:44 - The stakes could not be higher.
57:46 - And you've got a grateful governor
57:48 - who knows you're about to get to work and deliver
57:51 - historic victories up and down the ballot.
57:54 - Thank you. Pennsylvania Democrats.
57:56 - God bless you all.
57:57 - I appreciate you very, very much.
57:59 - Thank you. Thank you.
58:03 - Thank you.
58:05 - Thank you everybody.
58:07 - Thank you.
58:40 - Thank you.
58:54 - Thank you.
58:55 - Give the governor, Lieutenant governor, a few minutes
58:57 - to shake some hands, and we'll keep rolling.
59:11 - It doesn't work that way.
59:17 - I play some music in.
59:25 - You got stand up.
59:28 - We could do the Treasury report.
59:29 - She wants to do that when no one's listing
59:32 - everyone while the governor is working the rope line.
59:34 - And before we get our next speaker up,
59:36 - we are going to do the treasures report.
59:39 - And I think she really wanted
59:40 - to do this when you weren't paying attention.
59:42 - But it's still going to be recorded.
59:44 - Ladies and gentlemen, I treasure Amanda Hammack.
59:48 - I think they might be listening.
59:52 - I mostly wanted to do it
59:53 - because I don't know how you follow that up.
59:56 - So I want to give you a quick snapshot
59:58 - 330 of where we are financially, because the numbers tell
01:00 - 04.166 a pretty strong story about the position of our party.
01:00 - 06.034 So this is why I wanted to do it.
01:00 - 11.174 Through September 7th, we have raised 12.8 million this year.
01:00 - 15.911 To put that in perspective,
01:00 - 19.682 our full year fundraising budget was 9.2 million.
01:00 - 24.654 We are already 139% of that goal,
01:00 - 27.657 with the final quarter of the year still ahead of us.
01:00 - 32.462 And compared with last year, the difference is significant.
01:00 - 36.399 We raised 8.4 million during all of 2025.
01:00 - 39.469 We surpassed that total back in June.
01:00 - 43.105 What I think is especially important, though, is
01:00 - 47.110 that this isn't simply money sitting on in the in an account.
01:00 - 48.877 It's being put to work.
01:00 - 53.649 We have invested 3.3 million in voter contact mail and 5.8
01:00 - 55.584 million in coordinated staff
01:00 - 58.588 working in districts across Pennsylvania.
01:00 - 01.957 We are also seeing a substantial support
01:01 - 05.662 from our partners and stakeholders, with 7.7 million,
01:01 - 10.233 compared with the 634,000 originally budgeted.
01:01 - 13.301 Our major donors in Finance committee have brought
01:01 - 18.775 in another 1.04 million against an 800,000 goal.
01:01 - 23.679 Still not done yet.
01:01 - 26.381 And after making those investments,
01:01 - 30.720 the party still has 1.96 million cash on hand.
01:01 - 33.790 Roughly two and a half times where we began this year.
01:01 - 36.458 So when you put all those numbers together,
01:01 - 38.593 the picture is pretty straightforward.
01:01 - 41.597 We are exceeding our fundraising goals.
01:01 - 44.466 We have strong support from our partners.
01:01 - 49.072 We are investing those resources directly into the campaign,
01:01 - 53.376 and we are maintaining a healthy cash position while doing it.
01:01 - 56.546 In short.
01:01 - 00.516 In short, because you all know I like being timely.
01:02 - 02.951 We are raising the resources.
01:02 - 07.022 We are responsibly putting them to work and financially.
01:02 - 08.690 The Pennsylvania Democratic Party
01:02 - 12.662 is in a strong position heading into the final stretch.
01:02 - 15.898 Thus ends my report.
01:02 - 34.951 Great job Amanda.
01:02 - 41.656 Got about two minutes before we get our next speaker up.
01:02 - 44.761 One of the governor Lieutenant governor, continue to
01:02 - 45.895 work the rope line.
01:02 - 54.136 In the middle of all this.
01:02 - 57.140 I might as well tell a funny story.
01:02 - 02.511 Our communication director, Jack Doyle, is the best,
01:03 - 05.882 but we all have a bone to pick with him tomorrow
01:03 - 08.517 as the Steelers play the Patriots.
01:03 - 11.521 He's a Patriot fan.
01:03 - 17.025 Although I think Drake Mays a better quarterback.
01:03 - 20.029 But you know.
01:03 - 21.664 That's right.
01:03 - 24.667 Mitch is a Patriots fan too.
01:03 - 41.750 Angie thank you for being here.
01:03 - 44.754 You're the best.
01:03 - 55.397 The last thing on people's minds right now.
01:03 - 58.401 The minutes.
01:04 - 19.188 It's been it's been a lot of work.
01:04 - 37.440 Even though.
01:04 - 50.353 I thought that was the first oh yeah.
01:04 - 53.189 I was registered in new Jersey.
01:04 - 54.689 I think he's a Republican.
01:04 - 56.291 He's a Democrat. Okay. Right.
01:04 - 57.893 You were like, saying he was like MAGA.
01:04 - 58.794 Not political at all.
01:04 - 01.329 He's not like a political guy, but he supports them.
01:05 - 03.298 Bob's known him since he was like 20 years old.
01:05 - 04.500 So it's like a familiar.
01:05 - 08.471 It's not like I know a bunch
01:05 - 11.908 of the Italians like it's awesome.
01:05 - 15.211 I was like, sorry,
01:05 - 18.580 shocking, shocking
01:05 - 21.651 like Jason Kelce, where I was running out of
01:05 - 25.453 his house was filled out.
01:05 - 28.457 Dutchie chicks in South Philly
01:05 - 30.959 spent 30 years in prison for murder.
01:05 - 33.963 Oh and like exactly came out
01:05 - 38.066 because he was good friends and that was
01:05 - 42.171 no no no that will occupy yourself and.
01:05 - 45.106 All right, everyone, let's bring it back together here.
01:05 - 46.708 Thank you very much.
01:05 - 48.710 Me bang! Something here.
01:05 - 51.714 Okay.
01:05 - 53.982 Our final guest speaker of the day.
01:05 - 58.019 But certainly not least, he is making us all
01:05 - 01.824 proud as our DNC vice chair.
01:06 - 05.627 He is not only someone that I've had the fortune
01:06 - 09.531 to travel all over this commonwealth with, but now he is
01:06 - 11.866 helping elect Democrats up and down the ballot,
01:06 - 15.171 not just in Pennsylvania, but all across the United States.
01:06 - 17.472 State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta.
01:06 - 18.473 Malcolm.
01:06 - 52.173 Good afternoon.
01:06 - 55.177 Good afternoon.
01:06 - 58.713 So, so grateful to listen
01:06 - 02.118 to our lieutenant governor and our governor, because
01:07 - 05.854 really put into my mind a conversation
01:07 - 08.858 I had last week in Somerset County.
01:07 - 12.427 It's in the great Somerset County.
01:07 - 15.631 And a woman pulled me in real close and she said,
01:07 - 16.532 you know, I'm happy you're here.
01:07 - 19.334 I'm happy Democrats are working. That's all good.
01:07 - 21.069 We know about the election.
01:07 - 24.073 And she said, you know, believe it or not,
01:07 - 27.443 I'm not worried that we're going to lose.
01:07 - 30.578 She said, I think we're I think we're going to win.
01:07 - 33.582 I said, okay.
01:07 - 34.717 She said, I'm worried
01:07 - 37.720 what's going to happen if we win,
01:07 - 39.754 and then we don't
01:07 - 43.359 deliver for the people who are in desperate
01:07 - 46.829 need for us to win this election.
01:07 - 54.335 We in this room understand.
01:07 - 55.737 I can look around this room and
01:07 - 59.541 see people who, for a living, know how to win campaigns.
01:07 - 00.909 You've got it down to a science.
01:08 - 03.078 You know what you're doing.
01:08 - 05.480 I see people in this room who've run for office
01:08 - 06.282 because there was something
01:08 - 09.919 that you cared about, enough to get you off the couch.
01:08 - 12.821 Each and every one of you has run for office in one.
01:08 - 15.557 That's how you got in the room.
01:08 - 19.561 But I think it's always critical for us to be reminded, like,
01:08 - 23.832 I was reminded, that winning the election is nice,
01:08 - 26.134 but for the people who can't afford
01:08 - 27.735 to fill up their gas tank,
01:08 - 30.105 they don't necessarily care who wins.
01:08 - 32.140 They care who's going to transform
01:08 - 33.676 what's happening in their life.
01:08 - 42.183 So you know how many days we have left?
01:08 - 42.785 You're counting.
01:08 - 46.222 You have a timer like I do on my phone to the election,
01:08 - 51.460 but the bell is going to ring after the election is over.
01:08 - 57.733 Because when we have a trifecta in Harrisburg.
01:09 - 02.036 We have an opportunity to deliver.
01:09 - 03.972 And I love that. The governor's traveling a lot.
01:09 - 05.306 But when we have that
01:09 - 07.642 trifecta, he's going to be so busy
01:09 - 09.978 sitting at his desk signing bills
01:09 - 12.982 that he'll have nothing else to do.
01:09 - 17.952 Because we have some bills that we need to send
01:09 - 21.991 to our governor's desk that can transform people's lives.
01:09 - 23.491 We can transform
01:09 - 26.662 people's lives by ensuring that in Pennsylvania,
01:09 - 30.498 every single family has paid family leave.
01:09 - 33.502 Every single one.
01:09 - 36.771 We can transform people's lives
01:09 - 41.042 by actually raising the minimum wage from a starvation level
01:09 - 45.080 wage to a thriving wage where you can care for your family.
01:09 - 48.817 We can
01:09 - 52.655 transform people's lives so we don't have to pull teeth
01:09 - 53.355 to say that
01:09 - 57.258 we want to fund every single one of our public schools
01:09 - 00.262 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
01:10 - 05.466 We can transform people's lives by saying it's
01:10 - 07.802 none of the government's damn business
01:10 - 10.773 what happens in your doctor's office.
01:10 - 17.078 And we haven't seen to be
01:10 - 20.181 talking about it a lot recently, but I think still, in the
01:10 - 23.251 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we can transform people's lives
01:10 - 26.821 by finally legalizing cannabis in the Commonwealth
01:10 - 29.825 of Pennsylvania.
01:10 - 35.130 So you all know we have some work to do.
01:10 - 37.131 We have work to do.
01:10 - 40.468 And you all also know that I'm very superstitious.
01:10 - 42.237 So before I leave, I want to tell the story
01:10 - 43.871 that many of you have heard a thousand times,
01:10 - 46.709 but I don't want to screw nothing up.
01:10 - 50.511 So many of you have heard the story,
01:10 - 53.281 but when I ran for state rep the first time,
01:10 - 54.549 this was in a Democratic primary.
01:10 - 55.317 But it doesn't matter.
01:10 - 57.919 The point stands.
01:10 - 00.556 A couple of days before the election, folks put these
01:11 - 02.857 homophobic fliers about me all around the districts.
01:11 - 04.392 And North Philly won't vote for this gig.
01:11 - 05.593 Okay.
01:11 - 09.431 Now, two big problems with these, with these fliers.
01:11 - 13.001 The first is on the attack ad they spelled my name wrong.
01:11 - 14.869 And even on the attack ad, you know,
01:11 - 16.337 you want both of the elves and Malcolm.
01:11 - 18.039 It's all good.
01:11 - 20.908 But the bigger issue was they used a picture of me and my ex,
01:11 - 23.911 and Doctor Matt was like, who the hell is that?
01:11 - 24.280 Huda?
01:11 - 25.580 Who is.
01:11 - 28.049 Who is that? You're real close.
01:11 - 30.051 So these people wanted me to lose the election.
01:11 - 31.953 But more to the point, they wanted me to lose my life.
01:11 - 33.055 These are tough people.
01:11 - 37.592 Now the election.
01:11 - 40.061 Spoiler alert I won. It all worked out.
01:11 - 41.829 I'm walking my little dog, okay?
01:11 - 43.731 And I have my hoodie on, and it's tight.
01:11 - 46.634 Like, tight, because I might have had a few people.
01:11 - 49.537 You don't have to count how many PBR I had. I had a few.
01:11 - 52.541 I won an election, I was excited and I was feeling good.
01:11 - 55.343 And so I'm walking and I have this moment
01:11 - 58.346 where, like I see my neighbor, but I'm trying to act
01:11 - 59.181 like I don't see her.
01:11 - 00.915 And she's like, you see me seeing you?
01:12 - 03.785 You can't act like you know you don't see me.
01:12 - 05.253 And so Miss Debbie says to me,
01:12 - 06.587 she says, Malcolm, I don't know if you know,
01:12 - 09.490 but people put these awful fliers out about you.
01:12 - 10.625 I go upstairs and get you on.
01:12 - 13.094 I said, Miss Debbie, I promise I saw him.
01:12 - 14.362 Don't worry, I saw him.
01:12 - 17.733 And she said, well, I'm only telling you because
01:12 - 20.101 I was so upset about it
01:12 - 22.470 that I went and got three more people to vote for you
01:12 - 23.571 who said they weren't even going to vote
01:12 - 25.040 in the primary election?
01:12 - 28.344 Now, I
01:12 - 32.147 tell you that because I won me and Miss Debbie's
01:12 - 35.184 ward on election night by one vote.
01:12 - 42.256 That is a perennial reminder of me, of something that I hope
01:12 - 44.225 you take home with you in your pocket
01:12 - 46.194 and don't leave it in your pocket.
01:12 - 49.198 There is somebody in this election
01:12 - 52.601 who is only going to vote because you
01:12 - 56.537 you ask them to, they're not going to vote
01:12 - 59.541 because they saw a great ad on TV.
01:12 - 01.709 They are not going to be moved
01:13 - 04.713 because the president tweeted something crazy.
01:13 - 08.950 They're not going to show up and get that mail in ballot in
01:13 - 11.252 because they're so concerned about what's happening.
01:13 - 15.190 Their only going to do it because you you asked them to,
01:13 - 16.191 not your friend
01:13 - 20.229 who you think is more gregarious than you, you you.
01:13 - 24.065 And if you could really sit with for a second that the work
01:13 - 27.034 that you choose to do could be the difference
01:13 - 30.138 between all the stuff that we know is possible.
01:13 - 32.840 If we have a trifecta between all the things
01:13 - 36.278 that we could do in Congress, when Pennsylvania
01:13 - 40.082 by ourself flips the control of the US Congress.
01:13 - 45.988 We got enough votes to just do it right here.
01:13 - 49.424 Doing such things as ending Citizens
01:13 - 52.428 United in our lifetime.
01:13 - 57.232 But it does require you to do something
01:13 - 59.601 with this last thing.
01:13 - 02.838 I read this incredible piece from NPR.
01:14 - 07.074 This woman wrote a little letter in about her dad
01:14 - 09.610 and something he said that transformed her life.
01:14 - 15.650 And she says in this piece, most days,
01:14 - 20.456 the struggle in my life is not between good and evil.
01:14 - 24.358 The struggle is between doing something good
01:14 - 27.362 and doing nothing.
01:14 - 29.397 Now you've come all this way to this meeting,
01:14 - 30.832 and so you could go home and say,
01:14 - 33.836 well, polls say we're looking good.
01:14 - 37.105 Coordinated campaign is working their butts off.
01:14 - 39.707 Mailers are out in the doors.
01:14 - 44.413 So, you know, we're just coast and celebrate at the big parties
01:14 - 48.549 every single day after you leave this room.
01:14 - 50.351 The question is, what are you going to do?
01:14 - 52.720 Something awful, your great people.
01:14 - 55.623 The question is between doing something
01:14 - 58.660 good or doing nothing.
01:14 - 03.931 All of us have to commit that on our shift
01:15 - 08.036 and our great part of the American story.
01:15 - 12.073 We are not going to be the generation that let America
01:15 - 15.077 die on our shift, on our watch.
01:15 - 20.147 We are going to win
01:15 - 23.150 and then we're going to transform people's lives.
01:15 - 24.752 Is that okay?
01:15 - 26.254 Is that all right?
01:15 - 28.422 Are you ready to go win some elections?
01:15 - 30.992 You ready to go transform people's lives?
01:15 - 32.260 God bless you. Let's get to work.
01:15 - 35.264 Thank you.
01:15 - 57.051 For the record.
01:15 - 59.020 And this is for the record.
01:15 - 00.655 Mark it down.
01:16 - 04.760 My remarks were scheduled to start at 230 and it is 220.
01:16 - 08.297 We are running a tight operation.
01:16 - 12.934 Everyone got in their seats or only one minute
01:16 - 14.468 30s behind on that.
01:16 - 15.903 We'll get even better.
01:16 - 18.873 We're going to be in those seats at 103 next week.
01:16 - 21.944 Next meeting, not 104 and 30s.
01:16 - 24.178 That's my prediction.
01:16 - 25.580 First of all, thank you to the governor,
01:16 - 28.249 lieutenant governor, and for our DNC vice chair
01:16 - 29.350 for coming here.
01:16 - 31.620 Please give them again, a round of applause.
01:16 - 42.230 We are about 45 days away from this critical midterm.
01:16 - 46.467 It was a little over a year ago that you elected me
01:16 - 50.271 chair of this party, obviously for the remainder of the term,
01:16 - 54.876 and then reelected this past June.
01:16 - 58.112 It's a responsibility that, just like everyone in
01:16 - 01.350 this room, takes very seriously.
01:17 - 04.018 And I took it seriously from day one
01:17 - 07.789 because I knew how important the work was going to be
01:17 - 11.592 from our Supreme Court retention to our state
01:17 - 14.763 legislative and governor elections this year.
01:17 - 19.267 And I was not naive to the job that lay in front of us,
01:17 - 22.371 because 2024 was year where Democrats
01:17 - 26.040 lost big both in Pennsylvania and across the country.
01:17 - 30.311 And we used to have this joke on our college football team
01:17 - 34.282 that the eye in the sky don't lie while you watch film.
01:17 - 38.419 You had to learn from your mistakes and work to get better.
01:17 - 42.390 And I and some of the people on this dais
01:17 - 45.961 and out there have watched some of that film,
01:17 - 50.398 and so we knew we had to build an organization
01:17 - 54.436 that could not just compete from September to November,
01:17 - 58.039 but try to pass the test of time where it would not just be
01:17 - 01.943 a September to November thing, but a year long operation.
01:18 - 04.612 So we had to rebuild our infrastructure.
01:18 - 06.614 When I say infrastructure in today's day and age,
01:18 - 09.183 that doesn't just mean people knocking doors.
01:18 - 11.852 That means a communications infrastructure.
01:18 - 12.120 You know,
01:18 - 14.622 we had a period of time where I think there was maybe
01:18 - 17.291 one press release in ten months or something like that.
01:18 - 18.659 We have got to be hammering away
01:18 - 20.661 at these things every single day.
01:18 - 24.599 Social media, whether that's Instagram threads.
01:18 - 27.101 Now I got to be on threads
01:18 - 30.639 TikTok, which I I'll just say TikTok.
01:18 - 31.839 You got to do it.
01:18 - 34.375 It is what it is.
01:18 - 38.012 We I have chosen this so I can't complain about it,
01:18 - 40.781 Facebook etc. but this is when I say infrastructure.
01:18 - 42.349 It's about building up that.
01:18 - 43.151 And there's Tarek.
01:18 - 46.620 He's much better at the TikTok videos than I am.
01:18 - 47.456 But this is
01:18 - 50.558 part of doing this year round because we have got to be
01:18 - 51.826 competing year round.
01:18 - 54.295 And in the years since, I'm proud to report
01:18 - 56.097 that the Pennsylvania Democratic Party
01:18 - 59.634 has taken on those challenges with a passion.
01:18 - 03.104 And as a result, I believe our party is stronger
01:19 - 06.841 than it was a year ago in my first years chair again
01:19 - 10.611 with the great team of staff and each of you out there,
01:19 - 14.916 we won three state Supreme Court retention races and.
01:19 - 20.054 Also important to note
01:19 - 22.289 that not only did they pump in millions
01:19 - 25.459 to try to beat it, but we won those by 2 to 1 margins,
01:19 - 28.463 so we want it by a mile.
01:19 - 31.732 We also
01:19 - 35.971 one historic local elections all across the Commonwealth.
01:19 - 36.772 In Bucks County.
01:19 - 39.908 We swept every row office, including flipping.
01:19 - 46.347 Including flipping the sheriff's office
01:19 - 48.949 and winning the district attorney's race
01:19 - 51.953 for the first time in our history.
01:19 - 58.159 And just like you know,
01:19 - 01.028 Danny and Joe one those by ten points.
01:20 - 03.597 So that was like we're not dealing with recounts there.
01:20 - 07.602 We won those things by a healthy margin in Luzerne County.
01:20 - 11.973 We flipped four county council seats to regain the majority.
01:20 - 14.975 People forget it wasn't that long ago was county
01:20 - 16.210 was a Democratic county.
01:20 - 19.481 We can make it a Democratic county again.
01:20 - 26.921 In Clearfield County, a place
01:20 - 31.192 where Donald Trump by more won by more than 50 points in 2024.
01:20 - 33.160 And in case anyone has never been on the bow
01:20 - 36.698 before, when you win by more than 50 points, that's a lot.
01:20 - 39.800 Sometimes I got to remind people,
01:20 - 44.573 if you win something 75, 25, that's a landslide.
01:20 - 49.476 We defeated the Republican incumbent district attorney
01:20 - 53.114 in a judicial race in Clearfield County last year.
01:20 - 56.151 We now have a Democrat on the bench.
01:20 - 59.420 Just across the river
01:20 - 02.022 in Susquehanna, just across the river
01:21 - 03.824 Susquehanna River in Cumberland County.
01:21 - 07.796 We won a judicial race for the first time since 1955,
01:21 - 11.099 after Trump carried the county by ten points.
01:21 - 15.936 Here in Dauphin County,
01:21 - 18.772 we put the first woman of color on the bench,
01:21 - 22.477 defeating the Republican incumbent district attorney
01:21 - 25.679 who spent over a quarter million dollars, and she
01:21 - 28.650 beat him by 10,000 votes.
01:21 - 34.556 And I'm a little
01:21 - 37.692 biased on this stat, but in Allegheny County,
01:21 - 40.762 sometimes I got to say this out loud,
01:21 - 43.864 understand that this is not a typo.
01:21 - 46.033 It's not me reading
01:21 - 49.371 the words wrong jackets on me when I do that. Dan.
01:21 - 51.372 They get on me when I do that every.
01:21 - 53.073 Sometimes I do make that mistake.
01:21 - 55.042 That's not this time.
01:21 - 59.314 Allegheny County had 496 races
01:21 - 03.218 where there was a Republican and Democrat on the ballot,
01:22 - 06.988 and the Republicans won 11 of them.
01:22 - 16.230 For those of you that were not math majors
01:22 - 20.535 in college, 485 to 11
01:22 - 23.571 is a butt whoopin.
01:22 - 26.675 But these historic wins did not come out of nowhere.
01:22 - 31.278 We refocused on our Partizan voter registration efforts,
01:22 - 33.714 and I'm proud to report, as the governor who stole
01:22 - 36.383 my thunder is a lie to you as a governor.
01:22 - 37.918 It is what it is, right?
01:22 - 41.456 We have now won the Partizan voter registration battle
01:22 - 46.593 for 12 straight months, and now we have increased our voter
01:22 - 51.299 registration advantage by 46,000 voters in Pennsylvania.
01:22 - 57.838 And I'm not saying this is
01:22 - 00.341 apples to apples, but it's important to know
01:23 - 02.076 because this is the enthusiasm out there,
01:23 - 03.110 because sometimes, sometimes
01:23 - 04.712 the Democrats, we worry about everything.
01:23 - 07.949 Eugene, I saw somebody in Thailand was mad at me.
01:23 - 12.754 Okay, folks, let's stay focused here in the primary.
01:23 - 19.394 Governor Shapiro beat Stacey Garrity by 450,000 votes.
01:23 - 22.062 Now, I understand
01:23 - 24.465 you say they weren't running against each other. I get it.
01:23 - 26.300 That's because of our turnout.
01:23 - 30.270 Pennsylvania is usually about 100 within 100,000.
01:23 - 32.139 Either way, in the primary, depending
01:23 - 34.541 on which races are more competitive,
01:23 - 37.579 the fact that we were not having a competitive
01:23 - 38.679 gubernatorial primary
01:23 - 42.617 in either party, and we got 450,000 more votes,
01:23 - 43.551 let you know that
01:23 - 46.920 Democrats out there in Pennsylvania are fired up
01:23 - 49.424 the ready to get Democrats up and down the ballot.
01:23 - 54.261 In another area where the
01:23 - 56.530 governor stole my thunder, we flipped a states.
01:23 - 57.664 And again, he's allowed
01:23 - 00.267 we flipped a state Senate seat in Lancaster County.
01:24 - 03.538 And just about a month ago, a little less than a month ago,
01:24 - 07.876 we shocked the world by flipping a cranberry.
01:24 - 09.877 Butler County State House seat.
01:24 - 13.348 Brandon Dukes, now a state House member. And.
01:24 - 18.219 The governor.
01:24 - 20.120 I had the look
01:24 - 22.389 and I valued my time in the state House.
01:24 - 24.858 It was one of the most fascinating
01:24 - 25.627 six years of my life.
01:24 - 29.397 And I mean, that governor was in about the same time line.
01:24 - 31.665 We both had the misfortune.
01:24 - 32.733 There's only one person.
01:24 - 34.535 I really had the opportunity to say this, but
01:24 - 37.504 I had friends across the aisle who loved every second of it.
01:24 - 40.775 There's only one person I ever said I had the misfortune
01:24 - 43.510 of serving with. Only one I'm talking about.
01:24 - 44.778 There were Republicans.
01:24 - 46.613 I would have titanic struggles.
01:24 - 48.816 Then we laugh about the Steelers or the Eagles or something,
01:24 - 50.584 and we were friends.
01:24 - 52.420 There is one exception to that.
01:24 - 56.424 Darrell Metcalfe.
01:24 - 01.863 The idea that Darrell Metcalf's seat is now held by a Democrat.
01:25 - 04.064 Let me tell you, the governor and I
01:25 - 07.068 have had a couple extra smiles about that one.
01:25 - 13.373 But just to let you know,
01:25 - 17.011 there's real reasons why this is happening.
01:25 - 19.580 Gasoline, diesel prices are now skyrocketing.
01:25 - 20.614 The new highs,
01:25 - 23.618 the Labor Day weekend, it was the most expensive
01:25 - 26.720 because this lot of families drive for weekends away
01:25 - 30.390 was the most expensive gas prices in our nation's history.
01:25 - 32.793 And that has increased the cost of everything
01:25 - 34.862 from fertilizer to grocery.
01:25 - 38.433 Grocery increases because of Donald Trump's war,
01:25 - 41.135 a war of choice in Iran.
01:25 - 44.438 We've now paid 11,000,000,011
01:25 - 49.109 billion in higher costs because of Republicans,
01:25 - 50.811 reckless terrorists that have heard
01:25 - 53.915 Pennsylvania's working families, farmers and small businesses.
01:25 - 55.215 And I want to repeat, you may say,
01:25 - 56.517 oh, they're Trump's tariffs.
01:25 - 00.522 They've all gone along with them, including Stacy Geraghty.
01:26 - 02.489 They are the Republican tariff.
01:26 - 05.793 And this November we are going to hold them accountable.
01:26 - 13.867 And more than 200,000 Pennsylvanians
01:26 - 16.637 have already been stripped of their health insurance coverage
01:26 - 21.142 because of the Republicans one big, ugly, beautiful bill,
01:26 - 23.177 while others struggle
01:26 - 25.412 to keep up with their premiums for the people
01:26 - 28.148 that are fortunate enough to keep their health insurance.
01:26 - 31.919 But the Republican chaos and cruelty doesn't just stop in
01:26 - 32.920 Washington, DC.
01:26 - 34.354 In Harrisburg,
01:26 - 38.493 Republicans have blocked efforts to raise the minimum wage.
01:26 - 40.360 They've prevented a woman's right
01:26 - 43.397 to choose from being enshrined in our state constitution,
01:26 - 46.733 and are even challenging to the Pennsylvania Supreme
01:26 - 51.372 Court, the ability for women who are of lower income
01:26 - 54.908 to have Medicaid cover their abortion, despite
01:26 - 59.080 the Pennsylvania Constitution being of equal protection.
01:26 - 02.015 When Governor Shapiro was the attorney general,
01:27 - 04.384 he made sure and Governor Wolf was in.
01:27 - 06.386 He made sure that that protection
01:27 - 08.222 from Medicaid recipients was there.
01:27 - 10.857 They're now challenging that in Harrisburg
01:27 - 14.696 to try to overturn that decision and make sure that
01:27 - 19.299 women that are poor or working class don't have the same rights
01:27 - 20.001 as everyone else.
01:27 - 23.638 And we are going to stop that with a Democratic trifecta.
01:27 - 29.309 They also refused to
01:27 - 32.713 fully fund mass transit systems that our economy relies on,
01:27 - 33.780 and now forcing
01:27 - 38.018 so many people to drive more, thus paying higher gas prices.
01:27 - 40.354 And it doesn't have to be that way.
01:27 - 45.260 And in 2026, we have the power to do something about it.
01:27 - 47.794 But it is no small task.
01:27 - 49.296 As I've traveled across the Commonwealth
01:27 - 52.499 for the past year, I've met with working Pennsylvanians, union
01:27 - 56.470 leaders, volunteers, organizers, and community leaders.
01:27 - 59.640 Like many of you in this room, and I've seen the work
01:27 - 02.877 being put in on the ground to make sure that 2026
01:28 - 06.713 is a resounding success for Democrats, thus will make it
01:28 - 10.318 a resounding success for the people of this state.
01:28 - 12.419 We're proving that when Democrats
01:28 - 16.157 organize everywhere, we can compete and win everywhere.
01:28 - 20.027 And that's exactly what we're going to do for the next 45 days
01:28 - 23.130 to reelect the governor and the lieutenant governor,
01:28 - 27.001 flip control of the state Senate and expand our House majority,
01:28 - 27.735 giving us
01:28 - 31.705 the Democratic trifecta for the first time in 30 years.
01:28 - 33.674 And we have a historic opportunity
01:28 - 35.275 to not just change the balance
01:28 - 38.479 of power in Harrisburg, but we can single handedly flip
01:28 - 39.613 enough US House
01:28 - 43.351 seats here in Pennsylvania to swing control of Congress
01:28 - 47.220 to end, to make sure Donald Trump is a lame duck president.
01:28 - 48.388 And then his chaotic,
01:28 - 51.993 corrupt and cost raising agenda in Washington.
01:28 - 53.061 That's why,
01:28 - 56.064 in order to capitalize on this historic opportunity,
01:28 - 57.931 the Pennsylvania Democratic Party,
01:28 - 00.534 with the leadership and support of Governor Shapiro,
01:29 - 02.002 Lieutenant Governor Davis,
01:29 - 05.239 we created the Rise Up Pennsylvania Initiative.
01:29 - 08.241 This unprecedented midterm coordinated campaign
01:29 - 09.343 will make sure our candidates
01:29 - 13.014 running up and down the ballot in every corner of our state,
01:29 - 16.049 have the resources they need to organize and ensure
01:29 - 17.584 every voters choice is heard
01:29 - 21.421 at the polls this November, because winning high in
01:29 - 25.059 Harrisburg is going to be an all hands on deck effort.
01:29 - 28.061 Since we began the Rise Up Pennsylvania initiative,
01:29 - 29.196 we have already knocked
01:29 - 33.234 on more than 350,000 doors across the state.
01:29 - 36.938 Those efforts are being led by more than 115 members
01:29 - 40.974 of our Rise Up staff, focused on making sure Democrats across
01:29 - 44.545 Pennsylvania are organizing in every community.
01:29 - 48.515 And through Rise Up, we've built an unprecedented voter
01:29 - 51.218 protection team, and I am incredibly proud of the work
01:29 - 53.420 our voter protection team is doing.
01:29 - 54.188 We are well
01:29 - 57.291 ahead of where we even were in the presidential election,
01:29 - 59.226 to make sure that every Pennsylvanian
01:29 - 02.597 can make their voice heard at the polls
01:30 - 06.234 this fall, we've opened up 35 offices across the state
01:30 - 08.302 to make sure we have rise up staff
01:30 - 10.103 across these battleground districts,
01:30 - 11.938 because that's the kind of commitment
01:30 - 15.910 it takes our party to compete and win everywhere.
01:30 - 18.812 We're laser focused on the task at hand,
01:30 - 24.385 and we are ready to win for the next 46 days.
01:30 - 27.755 We're going to be giving these midterms everything we've got
01:30 - 29.456 and I mean everything.
01:30 - 31.224 We're going to be knocking on doors,
01:30 - 34.395 tax banking, phone banking, doing social.
01:30 - 36.329 We're going to be doing it all.
01:30 - 37.898 We're going to be spreading the word
01:30 - 39.866 about our incredible slate of candidates
01:30 - 41.501 in every corner of Pennsylvania,
01:30 - 45.506 so we can keep our Commonwealth moving forward and put a check
01:30 - 47.040 on Donald Trump's chaotic,
01:30 - 50.812 corrupt and cost raising policies in Washington.
01:30 - 52.145 We've got a lot of work
01:30 - 55.015 ahead of us, and I look forward to doing that alongside
01:30 - 56.450 not only the great team here,
01:30 - 59.453 but with each of you across our state.
01:30 - 02.990 We are going to reject the chaos and cruelty and corruption
01:31 - 06.761 of Donald Trump and leaders who have who are going
01:31 - 08.195 and we are going to make sure that we elect
01:31 - 11.833 leaders who put the people of this Commonwealth first.
01:31 - 14.267 Thank you all for that great work.
01:31 - 16.736 Now I want to welcome our vice chair,
01:31 - 19.307 Jamila Winder, who's going to say a few words.
01:31 - 25.713 Good.
01:31 - 27.614 Good afternoon. How's everybody feeling?
01:31 - 30.317 Are we ready to go home? We're ready to go home right.
01:31 - 31.118 So am I.
01:31 - 33.987 So I was going to do about 45 minutes here.
01:31 - 38.159 But but I will I will spare you all of that.
01:31 - 41.094 I just want to start by saying thank you.
01:31 - 44.098 All of you in this room
01:31 - 47.400 are where the rubber meets the of the road.
01:31 - 49.302 You all are making
01:31 - 53.073 what's happened over the last 11 months possible.
01:31 - 57.010 And I want to thank you for trusting me to serve
01:31 - 01.681 alongside our chairman, to serve as your vice chair
01:32 - 04.117 of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
01:32 - 07.154 It's an honor that I do not take lightly.
01:32 - 10.657 Over the past several months, I've had the honor of traveling
01:32 - 14.027 across the Commonwealth, and I've had the honor to work
01:32 - 18.732 alongside this great state party team and to meet Democrats
01:32 - 23.303 in communities from one quarter of Pennsylvania to another.
01:32 - 27.675 And what I've seen is something that gives me a lot of hope.
01:32 - 32.280 I've seen people who care deeply about their communities.
01:32 - 37.552 I've met volunteers who are giving up evenings and weekends.
01:32 - 39.252 I've met candidates who are
01:32 - 43.189 knocking on doors, making calls, showing up at events,
01:32 - 46.359 and putting themselves out there because
01:32 - 50.231 they believe in something bigger than themselves.
01:32 - 53.601 And I've seen this team come together.
01:32 - 56.169 We may come from different counties.
01:32 - 57.637 I'm sorry, Montgomery County.
01:32 - 00.040 It can't always be about you.
01:33 - 02.542 Sorry. Yes it can.
01:33 - 04.511 Okay, I love I love Montgomery, okay.
01:33 - 06.780 I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
01:33 - 10.785 We may have different experiences
01:33 - 13.386 and different priorities, but
01:33 - 17.223 when we are focused on the work, when we are organized,
01:33 - 20.627 and when we are moving in the same direction,
01:33 - 24.264 there is nothing that we can't accomplish together.
01:33 - 26.600 Now, I know people are tired.
01:33 - 27.834 I know I am.
01:33 - 30.938 I know people at times feel weary.
01:33 - 35.977 Many of us have been doing this hard work for a very long time,
01:33 - 39.379 and the last few months have demanded
01:33 - 42.716 so much of our time and our resources.
01:33 - 46.554 But I want you to remember why we started,
01:33 - 49.389 because there is something brighter
01:33 - 51.491 on the other side of this.
01:33 - 54.495 So I want you to imagine something with me.
01:33 - 57.131 Close your eyes for a second.
01:33 - 03.070 Imagine waking up on November after.
01:34 - 06.273 Imagine waking up on November 4th.
01:34 - 10.543 Imagine knowing that you gave everything
01:34 - 14.582 you had, that you made that extra phone call.
01:34 - 17.450 You knocked another door.
01:34 - 20.521 You had that difficult conversation,
01:34 - 24.258 brought one more person into this movement,
01:34 - 28.629 made sure your neighbor knew where and when to vote.
01:34 - 31.866 Imagine waking up and you can open your eyes,
01:34 - 35.902 realizing that you left nothing.
01:34 - 38.538 I mean nothing on the table.
01:34 - 43.144 That is the feeling I want us to carry in these final weeks.
01:34 - 48.282 Not fear, not exhaustion, not division, but purpose.
01:34 - 52.652 We have had an opportunity right now to meet people
01:34 - 56.390 where they are, listen to what matters to them
01:34 - 01.061 and remind them what's at stake, and give them a reason
01:35 - 05.299 to believe that their voice and their vote matter.
01:35 - 09.036 And we cannot do this from the sidelines.
01:35 - 12.072 So to every county chair, every committee
01:35 - 15.443 member, every candidate, every volunteer,
01:35 - 18.779 every person making calls, knocking on doors,
01:35 - 22.283 sending texts, putting up signs, the list goes on.
01:35 - 24.417 I just want to say thank you.
01:35 - 25.585 Keep going.
01:35 - 26.953 Keep showing up.
01:35 - 29.889 Keep believing in the possibilities of what
01:35 - 31.424 we can build together.
01:35 - 35.395 The finish line, I promise you, is in sight.
01:35 - 39.467 And whatever happens between now and November 3rd,
01:35 - 42.068 let's make sure that when we get there,
01:35 - 46.107 we can look back and say, we gave it everything we had.
01:35 - 50.110 Pennsylvania deserves nothing less, and I want to thank you
01:35 - 52.780 for showing up and doing the work. Thank you.
01:36 - 03.457 Jamila.
01:36 - 04.225 Making us proud.
01:36 - 05.792 Not just your work here at the party,
01:36 - 08.428 but your work in Montgomery County. Thank you so much.
01:36 - 11.432 Please another round for our vice chair.
01:36 - 20.640 There is no new business to come before the committee today.
01:36 - 23.543 So with that, I do want to let everyone know
01:36 - 26.547 because several have asked this question.
01:36 - 31.018 And so we are going to answer this question right now.
01:36 - 33.787 Everybody ready?
01:36 - 37.758 The next meeting is January 22nd 23rd.
01:36 - 40.460 Let me repeat.
01:36 - 46.700 The next meeting is January 22nd, 2020 third of 2027.
01:36 - 49.636 I don't want somebody coming up to me in five years.
01:36 - 51.938 You told me it was on the 22nd.
01:36 - 56.210 I was like, it's next January and that will be the week
01:36 - 59.747 that that it's going to be here in Harrisburg.
01:36 - 03.017 Yeah, hopefully we're working through the contract now.
01:37 - 05.351 So it's hopefully going to be here.
01:37 - 07.253 But we got to work through the contract here.
01:37 - 09.122 And we are.
01:37 - 10.623 The gubernatorial and lieutenant
01:37 - 14.194 governor swearing in will be that week on the 19th.
01:37 - 17.897 So hopefully we'll be having a lot to celebrate
01:37 - 21.035 that weekend at State Committee.
01:37 - 25.071 So with that, there being no further business to come
01:37 - 28.843 before the committee, I will take a motion to adjourn.
01:37 - 31.778 Is there a second?
01:37 - 33.913 All in favor?
01:37 - 36.115 Any negative votes?
01:37 - 38.852 We finished five minutes ahead of schedule.
01:37 - 40.221 Thank you everybody.
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