 You ready for a sound check, Dan? Okay. He's all set. Hi, this is Howard Wooden. This is a sound check for Dan. If there's any problems, he's going to text us. So, I believe we'll know here very shortly. Sound check, test one, two, three. Ready? Okay, here we go. On your tinio in five, four, three. Anya, thank you so much for joining us here tonight. Your first candidacy, U.S. House of Representatives. Thank you so much for serving as an inspiration for young people today. Well, thank you very much. I certainly hope they gathered inspiration from it. Your first candidacy, your first time running for office. Were there any... There's no audio right now. Again? Listen, you guys got to get this fixed. This is not good. Okay, here we go. We're going to start again. Okay, sorry about that. Here we go in five, four, three, two. Anya Tinio, thank you so much for joining us here this evening. Your first candidacy, your first time running for office. Thank you so much for serving as an inspiration for young people throughout this... Thank you. I certainly hope they were inspired by it. I've enjoyed the run and I think that it's important for the younger generation to become involved because eventually we're going to have to be, so we might as well get started. Your first candidacy, were there any surprises to you or for you running in a statewide office like this? Well, definitely something like this is a learning curve, but I was well prepared. I had a lot of people that talked to me about it ahead of time and pretty much was what I expected it to be, so I'm happy with that. Some of the issues that you raised are on candidates' minds. Can you talk about the issues that were specific to you and that are of concern for you going forward and for the state? Well, definitely what I talked about was a second amendment, constitutional rights, economy, agriculture. Those are still the issues that I feel the strongest about. I started out with those issues and those issues are still pressing to me. If I am elected, those will be the focus that I have in Washington, D.C. and I would hope that if that is not the case that the person that is elected, Mr. Walsh, would have the same focus and would try and work towards the betterment of the state in those areas as well. The numbers, poll numbers unfortunately aren't, you know, that favorable for you coming out on top tonight. Should that be the case? What's next for Anyatinia? Well, definitely I'm going to work tomorrow morning and I will continue in politics. I'll have to look at how that looks for me, but it's something that I have a passion for and I want to continue with it. Your final thoughts on your race for the 28 U.S. Congress seat here for the state of Vermont? I have no regrets. I did everything that I wanted to do. I said everything that I wanted to say and it's ultimately up to the voters. That's the American way, so I'm looking forward to finding out the result. No regrets here in South Burlington from Anyatinia, candidate for U.S. House of Representatives for the state of Vermont. For all of us here in South Burlington at the GOP headquarters, I'm Matt Kelly, back to you in the studio. And we're good. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. Thank you. Congratulations. Right over here, sir. Yep. Now I'm going to invade your body space. So come close to me. All right. Come close. Yep, just like that. Great. A little too close. Yeah, and so we'll go like that. Oh, we're on this one. It'll be on this one right here. Yeah, right. Don't look there. Too much red, I can close it up. No, that's good. It adds some color. I'm in black and white. So that's great. Matt Kelly. Yep. Here we go. Brook Page in five, four, three. Brook Page, I'm so excited to speak to you here today. We're not in a setting where I have to give equal time to another candidate. So I really want to have a little bit of a discussion with you that I wasn't able to have earlier. You ran a rather unconventional campaign in the primaries by putting your name in for a number of different positions. In fact, getting the nomination. Can you speak to about your unorthodox approach? Well, the approach was that we have an unorthodox primary process here in Vermont, open primaries, where any candidate can get on any ballot and any voter can vote on any ballot. And in the past year, since 2002, the Republicans have not owned their own ballot after the primary. Democrats have kind of snuck over and written their published candidates onto the primary ballot for the Republicans, preventing the Republicans from being able to place candidates on the ballot in the general election because the Democrats have won the primary. And so my plan was, my effort was to try to keep the Democrats from doing so, a published candidate on the ballot pretty much has a good job of meeting out a writing campaign. And even though I didn't did this, about 1900 Democrats did come over and wrote in Jim Kondo's and TJ Donovan and the other candidates there. And so we precluded doing that. And then the party was able to do through a process called nomination by committee, was able to after I withdrew from the races that I had not intended to run for in the general. And so that was my next question. Why the Secretary of State, if I may? Well, the whole point of all of this was elections. And the Secretary of State's office are the ones that run the elections. Now they don't make all the choices as to the laws, but the Secretary of State, if you see significant changes that need to be made, the Secretary of State is the ideal person to go to the legislature and change not only our primary process, but also get us voter ID and try to rein in the same-day registration, which we currently have. It's crazy that we have same-day registration, yet we don't have provisional ballots. So somebody comes in, signs up, says, oh, I'm qualified to vote, and we don't have any process of checking that immediately. They then get to fill out a ballot and it gets voted. If they're found out later or not to be qualified, there's no way of reeling that back. So there's a lot of different things that need some tending to in elections. Do you think that your approach was effective? Well, we have a full slate of Republican candidates, and I may not be totally pleased with all the choices that the party made, but it wasn't my place to choose my replacements merely. And so in a sense, I was a placeholder for all of those offices that I didn't intend to run for in the general. So you're often referred to as a perennial candidate, which I actually think is a derogatory term. It means to imply that you're not serious. Is that the case? The word perennial kind of means eternal, and we've had other eternal candidates here in the state, and I certainly don't take it as being an insult to be compared to Peter Diamondstone or Bernie Sanders, who for years was a perennial candidate and never, you know, always the bridesmaid never the bride. You know, but Chris Erickson, Emily Payton, I mean, we have a tradition of having independent, spirited folks get involved in the process, not necessarily to win the election, but to get their important messages out there. And so at the very least, that's what I've been doing. And we'll see maybe I become Vermont Secretary of State here at the end of the night. Very good. Best of luck to you, Brooke. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your candidacy and for willing to run. It takes a lot. One little thing I'd like to say, I don't need luck. I need divine intervention. God bless and have a good evening. Brooke Page, divine intervention, looking for that here tonight at Vermont GOP headquarters in South Burlington. I'm Matt Kelley reporting live back to you, Diane, in the studio. All right. Especially if you don't have the eye tray of minions. I mean, when I went out, I'm getting thousands of signatures on my own. And actually, I prefer to do it on my own because I learn a whole lot of things when I'm doing it. Like one thing I have, and I think it was on BPR, I costed condos with the factory fit here. By not trying to prevent us from having the jury pools on the voter registration, though, it doesn't do that. A lot of people do not register to vote. Right. Because the soul providers and the soul friends. And look at that. I'm going to. They have to have someone to get the voting. The voting is right. Exactly. Driving is a privilege. My point is that if you come from the embassy, that's a great point. Condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn, condemn. How about the fact that condoms with this devil bank here, you know, where everything goes, a lot of people don't trust election process anymore. A lot of people have become disenfranchised. Right, right. And just don't vote anymore. And that's not one or two percent. That's 10, 15 percent or more. A lot of that. Because they think that. Now, there's. I think two, three. Right. They proceed. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Because they don't want us filming. Thank you for that. Thank you. And that's great work. Anybody else you see here? We need to take theÉ You can see somebody wanting me to approach them. We're here for you. What's that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes. I don't want to take my camera off. Okay. Okay. Yeah, no, I'm not going to move. Yeah, exactly. If I can get B-roll from my driver on the new one. Okay. How many of these have you done? Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. It's so bad. The Wi-Fi is probably going to run out. You're stupid. That's what it is. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. I am not. Press the button, you dial, release the button, push the button. Okay. I wish I had. See you guys. Good. Nice for you. It'll fine. I missed the photo. Really? That's part of the game now. Yeah, right? Very fresh. Did you get that catered? I don't think it's going to happen, but there's a possibility. First of all, if they weren't milled boys, if they were like islanders, if they were milled guys, and the island folks will never send them up. What's interesting is the long-term... I don't think she loses, but... You'd rather have the consistency of that in the terminal. Chill, right? There's a lot of people in the caucus that hate her when she's texting them, right? There is your argument. True. You know, there's a lot of frenzy. Well, he's working so hard. So we're good until the next time they want us to act? Right. So you actually haven't offended him? Yeah. The guy's got the own side of it. It's an upset, but I think one of the agents will check up to see that. That would be good. I think he's more vulnerable than I already am. He waits for me while I'm driving. That's not right. Yeah, I don't know if that's what you're saying. Well, it's going to come at least. That's possible. Well, he's number one. I think he's going to turn after me. Yeah. He's talking, he's talking, he's right next to Stuart. He's talking, he's talking. He's talking, he's talking, he's talking. He's talking, he's talking, he's talking. He's talking, he's talking, he's talking, he's talking. Now my wife and I are sitting there Friday night and they think they teased it in for nine and ten and eleven. Ten to eleven. It's like two teased in each second. It can't be good. I'm going to send this to the guy. I'm going to send this to the guy. Hopefully it will be here eventually. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to send this to the guy. I'm going to send this to the guy. Easy. That's a great deal. That's like two percent in. Yeah. Abram has to be braiding in Atlanta. Who? Oh yeah. She's got to be braiding in Atlanta. I hope so. The other cities, you know, the bigger cities. Are you hearing all the election problems down there? Oh god, apparently. Boating machines that have long lines. That's all planned. Oh yeah. That's all planned. Okay. A talk to the Supreme Court. I turn around and say yeah, you're going to get a do-over. A talk. I do it. I do it. I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay. Yes, it is. Maybe we want to get that entrance. Just to show that he's coming in. He said they're shooting just seeing a bird coming in, coming in. Yeah. I mean, if the governor comes in, he'll let Dan know maybe he just wants to, you know, maybe we can just, you know, show him coming in on a response. I mean, I mean, if he does, there'll be a lot of fun. Anyway, yeah, we're on channel seven here. And channel seven is, uh, news channel seven is the Clifton Access Channel. Oh, okay. I think that's why I'm talking about you. Yeah, we're good. Okay, thanks. My name's Heroic. I'm here, yes. So, uh, yeah, so we're just gonna be bringing that up really quick. So, uh, we're gonna help. So, we are here with Mr. A.H. Belfay, the Secretary of State, first of all, how are you doing? I'm doing just fine. We're hoping for a little bit of a divine intervention here, and it's exceptional, and you're quite candid. We'll see how it goes. Very nice. And how are you feeling? I don't know. We'll see if I can help you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. There's... Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We are meeting after one just in time. As soon as we have come in, I will- I don't need to- I don't need- I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I don't need to- Do you guys have marks on? Is there- I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You want to turn on the light or hey Lawrence, it's Matt Kelly. How are you again? Nice to see you again. How are you again? Yes. Yes. Come. I'm so excited for you. Thank you. So excited to talk to you. I'm just so excited that you're here and that you did this. Really? Thank you. I'm so excited. Come, come, come. All right. I'm going to invade your body space so I apologize about that. That's no problem. Come just a little bit closer to this side. Is that good? We good? Okay. Here we go. Lawrence Zupin in five, four, three. Lawrence, thank you so much for joining us here this evening. A statewide race for you, what's the takeaway from the campaign? The takeaway from the campaign is that Bernie Sanders' momentum in projecting the false ideas of collectivism and socialism and persuading a large amount of Americans that that system is superior to the system of free enterprise that that era is over and the momentum is shifting. Whatever win, lose, or draw tonight is almost secondary. Of course, it's very important. But what's important is that people have begun to understand that the emperor Sanders has no clothes. If clothes are defined by ideas that work, he's got no clothes on because socialist ideas have failed everywhere they've been tried. He's sputtered to try to throw out the notion that, well, they've succeeded in Scandinavia, but I said, my dear Senator Sanders, Scandinavian countries are arch-capitalist countries that have gotten all their wealth through private enterprise and private property. And because they have a 50 to 60 percent tax rate and minuscule little populations of five to eight million, sure, they can have a bigger welfare system. But we have 326 million people. And besides, our free enterprise system and all of the incredible biomedical advances today are going to give us a golden era of health care independence for all of Vermonters and all of America. And I can't wait to share some more of these ideas with the people of Vermont in America. Was there any surprise for you going around the state and speaking to Vermonters? Was there any surprise on the campaign trail? I was surprised that so many people came up to me and said, well, Mr. Zupan, I haven't heard what's going to come out of your mouth yet, but I'm so glad that we're finally seeing someone with senatorial aspirations who's showing up. I mean, that was amazing because it was so consistent in every corner of the state because everybody knows at this point that Senator Sanders missed 38 out of 39 votes in the first quarter of 16 and missed 115 out of 163 the rest of the year. If you did that with your TV show, you could get a pink slip real fast. As we move forward here, I want to ask particularly about ideas and excuse me, I lost my train of thought here for a second. The particular question that I wanted to ask you was about geography, actually. Your hometown is Manchester, Vermont. That's a little bit of ways from the population centers of the state. Do you think that that presented its unique set of challenges or can you speak to about that? Because even several weeks into the campaign, the people in the northern part of the state hadn't heard my name. And unlike Senator Sanders, I didn't have an eight million dollar war chest to broadcast my name out, but more and more people started giving me money, so I was able to get somewhat of a TV presence and I spent every day reversing the whole state and speaking to groups as small as two and as high as 200, anybody who wanted to hear my message, I'd speak to them. Geographically, I had a challenge. So I apologize. The governor looks like he's about to come in or there's an announcement. We'll wrap it up here. It's Lauren Zupen live at GOP headquarters in South Burlington. I'm Matt Kelly. Back to you, Diane. All of us here, be not afraid to be a Republican. Be not afraid to go door to door to your neighbors and friends and talk about our values. Our values within the party shift a little bit back and forth, but we are still the party of moral values. We're still the party of doing what's right, even when it's difficult to do. So it's not a time for us to back down. It's not a time for us to water down our image, our views, our point of view on anything. Be not afraid. Be not afraid to go out and speak on life issues. Be not afraid to go out and speak on the Constitution. These are values that make us Republicans, and be not afraid to be who you are. Let's not look to our neighbors and say they might not agree with us. Let's convince them that what we're talking about and what we're doing is right. So folks, be not afraid. Let's talk about tonight. We've worked very, very hard, and I'm going to be introducing Deb Billidoo, who is chair of the party, and Jack Moulton, her executive director. They've worked very, very hard, working for everyone in the party, and it's real important that we not give up. It's real important that we dominate the politics in this state one person at a time. So be not afraid, folks. We are going to rise, if not tonight, in two years from now, if not in two years because our values are right, and we need to do what's right in the face of any adversity. So there's much that is expected of us because there's so much that has been given to us. And we've been very, very fortunate of the party to have a leader like Phil Scott, Republican leader in the House, Don Turner, and hopefully our Lieutenant Governor. These are men that are not afraid. These are men that go out every day and speak the truth, speak their values. We might not agree 100% with everything, but we do agree that these are the best two men running for governor, Lieutenant Governor, and statewide positions in this state. We've got great people. We've got Anya, who's making a big difference as a 25-year-old. We've got Lauren Zupan, who took down Bernie Sanders in a debate. The future here is great. So be not afraid to challenge, be not afraid to do what's right, and be not afraid to welcome Deb Billidoo, our wonderful state chair. And sometimes, be not afraid. That's a very difficult act to follow, I must say, and what a fantastic crowd we have here tonight. Thank you all for coming out tonight and supporting your party. I'd like to thank Jay, our National Committee man, and Suzanne Butterfield, our National Committee woman who's not here tonight. She's celebrating in her district, and I've had the pleasure of working with the both of them over the last year, and it's been a real pleasure. I'll keep my remarks brief so that we can get back to enjoying the food in the great company that's in the room here tonight. I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you to everyone in the room here, and those that are not in the room here tonight that have been supporting your candidates over the last six to ten months. You've given so much. You've given so much. Thank you, and you all deserve a thank you and congratulations. About your help, those of us that, those of the candidates that will get over the, can make it over the finish line, probably couldn't have done it without your help. So thank you for your time, your financial support, and anything else that you could do to help the candidates along. We also need to thank our candidates, and I'm sure we have a handful of them in the room right now. No matter the outcome tonight, you've stepped up to serve for the good of our state and the good of your community. You've given your time, your personal time, your family time, time away from probably other things that you could be doing and enjoying, and we are so very proud of you. And please stay engaged. Let's give them a hand, please. Thank you. So tonight, enjoy, celebrate, get to know your fellow Vermont Republicans that are in the room here. I like to think I know everyone by name, but that's not the case tonight. As the results come in, we will have special guests up here speaking. And of course, the highlight will be Governor Scott, and hopefully Lieutenant Governor Don Turner. Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Patty. I can always count on you. So I wish all of our candidates the best of luck tonight, and enjoy the party, and we'll be back at you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. This is Matt. Hi, Deb. I'll be doing the interview. Matt, right? Yep. And so we're just looking for an overview of what Republicans can expect today, okay? What races that you're particularly focused on, you know, and then, you know, you might want to talk about the house and trying to keep the house so that I don't get it. Okay. Yeah, so however. Yeah. I can't be specific. I have a few races that I'm watching. Perfect. Great. Whenever he'll give us the cue. Right. Here we go. Deb Biladu in five, four, three. Deb Biladu, Vermont Party Chair for the Republican Party. Thank you so much for joining us here this evening. Election 2018, give us an overview on behalf of the Republicans. What are we expecting here tonight? Well, we're watching some races that are very important to us. Obviously, the governor's race, the Lieutenant Governor's race is also very important to us, and we have high hopes on that. We do have a few senatorial seats that we're looking at, but it's, we also have some house seats, Grand Isle being one of them that I'm very interested in. And other than that, we're going to have to wait and see what the data is at the end of the night. Earlier this year around the primaries, State Senate President Pro Tem of the Vermont Senate, Tim Ash, indicated that he wants, if he returns to the Senate this year, he wants to bring to the floor an initiative to make the governor a four-year term. What do you think about a four-year term for the governorship of Vermont? Well, I'll be honest with you. First of all, I believe in term limits for all candidates. But I think a four-year term would actually be a good thing. I find it very difficult that candidates win a seat, and then within a year, they're campaigning again. They really spend more time, too much time campaigning and less time attending to the duties that they're charged with. So I like the idea of a four-year governor. Do you think that that also should kind of apply for less political position statewide, maybe, you know, like the treasurer or the auditor of accounts or things like that, or is it just a governor, do you think? I think for the time being, I would support the governor having a four-year term. And I say that for either party, not just saying it for the Republican Party, I say that for either party. I'd like to see them have their seat a little bit longer than two years before they're out there doing this again. Your final thoughts on election 2018? Let's go. Let's do it. Deb Villadue, Party Chair for the Vermont Republican statewide here in Vermont, live at South Burlington GOP headquarters. I'm Matt Kelly, back to you in the studio. Great. We're all set. Thank you so much. You did great. Thank you. I don't know who she is. She ran against Peter Welch for Congress. Anya Tenio. First time candidate. First time candidate. And we're so honored and so proud to have her. And she's from Orleans County. And Anya, please come up. Thank you. I appreciate it. Throughout this campaign, I'm famous for no notes and no planned speeches. So tonight's no different. First and foremost, I want to say this has been a pleasure and an honor for me. And I want to thank each and every one of you who has supported me in any way. If you put out a yard sign, if you talked to your friends, if you went out and voted for me, if you did all three, I appreciate it. If you donated, I especially appreciate it. It was very helpful. And thank you. Thank you all very much. This is one of the most important nights that we will have in quite a few years. We need to be sure to take care of our nation, protect our Constitution, and fight for our rights at every step of the way. And that is why I ran. And I am proud to say I am a conservative Republican, even in a blue state, I am proud to say that. To every single one of the great candidates that have been running on the Republican ticket, I want to say way to go. You all had the guts to stand up for what you believe in, and good luck to every one of you. We appreciate it, and we thank you for stepping up. Personally, I believe that we have made great strides in the state of Vermont over this course of campaigning that we can take with us into 2020. We can't let the momentum die. We have to keep going. We have to keep fighting, and we have to make sure that we continue to have our message spread, not just tonight, but throughout the next two years, leading up to the next election night. It's important not to be passive at this point, because we've gained ground, and we have to keep... You don't quit while you're ahead, and we're ahead right now. Whether we win or lose, we've all done very well, and we've all fought very hard, and I am proud to say that I know you, and I am proud to say that the state of Vermont is finally showing they have a backbone and are willing to stand up against the socialist agenda that has taken over this state. We are disappointed in that, and we fought it, and we should be very proud of that. Personally, this is the beginning... Thank you. Personally, this is the beginning of what I will consider my political career. I'm not going to be giving up win or lose tonight, because I know that this is what I'm supposed to do to serve my country. It's lifelong for that opportunity, and this is what I'm going to be doing. How that looks for me in the future, we will see, but I want to thank each and every one of you who supported me in this, and it's been an honor. That's all I can say. I will thank several people personally at this moment. One of them, Chet Greenwood from Orleans County, the chair of chairs, was one of my earliest supporters, and he went out on a limb for me, and so if this is televised, thank you, Chet. Whenever you're watching somewhere, I want to thank the Republican Party. I want to thank the Republican Party and all of the people and members of it that have supported me throughout. I want to thank each and every one of you who was a supporter to me. I want to thank my family, who I've really put through it with this. They barely know what I look like. I've been gone so much, so thank you to them for picking up the slack for me and doing what needed to be done at home. I appreciate it. I love you and you know who I'm talking about, so I love you guys. And I want to thank God right here and now in front of everybody because without him I would not be who I am. I would not have had the courage to stand up here and do what I did, and he has been good to me, and I just want to thank him publicly. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Win or lose, we made a good show, and I appreciate the opportunity that I have living in America to do that. People don't have the freedom to go vote. I got to vote today. Many of the people in other countries don't have the freedom to run for office and try to make a positive difference in their country, and I got to do that over the past six months. And we are blessed to have this nation and we must preserve it for our future generations. We can and we will. Whether that happens tonight or not, we can and will in the future. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for your support. Thank you for being a Republican. Turner in five, four, three. Don Turner, thank you so much for joining us here today. Your first statewide race, what's the takeaway for you from this effort? It's been a great experience for me, honestly. I've met a lot of great people around Vermont. Our team has performed very well. We've worked in the last four and a half months. We've started with nothing and we've got an incredible team. We raised a lot of money that we're willing to invest in this race. I think we've done a lot of good things. It's going to be a very close race, which we've been predicting for quite a while. I just don't know. It's just got wrenching right now to not know where it's going to turn out. But it's been positive. We won towns that we thought we would win and we knew we had it to win. So that's been positive so far. But overall, I want to thank Vermonters for coming out to vote. We did everything we could to get people to come out to vote. We've got to figure, when you get to this point, there's such a relief because all the anxiety of all the countless hours of campaigning are over. But actually, this is probably the most nerve-wracking because this is when the results actually come in. Absolutely. I mean, I've been working hard and I've not been distracted by any reports or any polls or anything like that. So it's good. But right now, we're going to know. So it's good. It's good. Was there anything that you heard on the campaign trail that maybe isn't getting a lot of press, that isn't being heard out there in the public? Yeah, I think a lot of it is people, I think that there is an affordability crisis. I've heard it over and over, wherever I went. So I think that we got to focus on that whether I win or not. And I'm positive. I'm very hopeful that the governor wins, which looks like it will be a win. So I'm very proud of what the governor's done so far and I'm proud of this campaign. So, Don, if things don't go your way here tonight, what's next for Don Turner? Well, you know, I've got a great job in Milton and I plan to go back and focus my efforts on my manager's job in Milton. We've got a lot of exciting things planned for Milton. So I'm going to go back and do that, which is what I was planning on anyway. You know, I'm hopeful I'm going to win and I think it's close. It's going to come down. It's going to be a late night, I think. But at the end of the day, I'm very proud. What we've accomplished as a team, proud of my family for the support they've given me and proud of everything that we put into this to show to my honors that I had a real choice for Lieutenant Governor and that will be a positive takeaway for me forever. A lot of pride here tonight and that's the takeaway from the GOP election headquarters in South Burlington with Don Turner. I'm Matt Kelly, back to you in the studio. Very good, sir. Thank you. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, live from Republican election night headquarters in South Burlington. I'm Matt Kelly in the Juniper Room of the Double Tree Hotel. Election 2018. It's a great night here. Lots of people milling about awaiting the arrival of the governor. Check 1, 2, check other, feet is down. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, test, test, test. We're in our party. And so, what Lawrence has ran against Bernie Sanders and did a fantastic job, I might say. And I'm going to allow his son to introduce him. Thank you. Thank you. It has been an honor and a privilege to travel Vermont with my father, Bennington to Newport, watching Vermonters get to know him as I've had the privilege to do all my life. I've watched my father in times of ease and times of hardship and through both his sterling character has shown through. The good times have not made him weak, and the times of adversity have not destroyed him. He has this strength because he does not depend upon his own. He relies on the strength of his creator. And that remains crucial because this is not the final battle. What lies in our power, ladies and gentlemen. What lies in our power is not the results of our actions. It is our actions themselves over which we have control. There is nobody who will address you tonight, victorious or not, who has achieved heroic results. But there are men and who have exerted themselves heroically in service to the people of Vermont, who saw an opportunity to stand for the principles that have set America apart from the nations and took it and fought for those principles to their utmost. My father is such a man and it is an honor to be his son. How does a man become worthy of such an introduction? I don't know that I am but thank you, Zachary. Thank you very much. A few minutes ago I spoke with Senator Sanders and I thanked him for the campaign and I I'll acknowledge that the numbers seem to be in his favor and I wished him a long, peaceful, happy and healthy life and he thanked me for a campaign well run. But first and foremost to pick up on what my son Zachary said tonight I thank my God and my Heavenly Father for bringing me to this time and place. In my face-to-face debate last week with Bernie Sanders moderator Jane Lindholm asked me Mr. Zupan, what do you see as the biggest challenge facing America today? I was almost astounded at the question did you ever play softball and one is lobbed right down the middle and it's slow and easy and the ball looks ten times the size and you know when you bring the bat around you're going to hit it out of the park it's just because it was the exact same the exact question I needed to say what needed to be said I said the answer is simply this the reason why I entered the race for the U.S. Senate against Bernie Sanders and the answer to your question are exactly the same the biggest challenge facing America today I said while looking at Senator Sanders is the success that he has had in persuading millions of Americans that America is not the greatest country in the history of the world that is what impelled me to stand up to race against him. My friends I've taken as my personal mission in running against Bernie Sanders or draw to reinvigorate restate reaffirm what most of us from my generation have always known the United States of America is was and likely will remain the greatest country in the history of the world and by inference by standing on our principles and revving the same engines of success which have brought us this far I've got good news for you our greatest days are still ahead. As I am so fond of saying and as I reminded Bernie Sanders face-to-face the United States of America and its free enterprise system has fed, housed and clothed with freedom more people in the shortest time than any other country or system in the history of the world I'm so happy to say that and conversely Senator Sanders stale and tired of socialism has caused more want, lack, suffering despair, stifling of the human spirit and death in the shortest amount of time than any other misbegotten system in the history of the world. So what are we going to choose? So the rest of the reason is simply this why I got in the race it was time that somebody stood up and said wait a minute like that child did in the story Senator Sanders is not wearing any clothes if, with older respect if by clothes one means ideas that work he was not wearing any clothes of ideas that work he's wearing ideas that have failed every place that they have been tried in our debate Senator Sanders when he was sputtering out of a response to what I said then which was very much what I just said now and when I compared his ideas to the suffering of Venezuela where people were dumpster diving for dinner he said why do you compare my ideas to Venezuela well of course the same ideas Bernie but why don't you compare them to the Scandinavian system? and I don't know why no other politician because he said that so many times why no other politician has responded to that before or has been cowed into silence by the Scandinavian response but it was my pleasure privilege and honor to say well Senator Sanders the Scandinavian countries are arch capitalist systems that have accumulated the wealth for their welfare state to the extent they have one by capitalist private property free enterprise principles the same ones which for their tiny little five million person countries have made our 326 million person country the greatest and most successful living enterprise on planet earth so tonight my friends though I don't have the honor of standing before you as your senator elect my head is unbowed knowing that I have performed my mission to declare that which has always been so obvious to me it's being denigrated by Bernie Sanders you know I also asked Bernie Sanders you might enjoy hearing this again if you didn't hear the debate I asked him in our debate what advice he would have now that he is a millionaire selling his books on Amazon what advice he would have to young folks who would also like to be millionaires like him I think the irony might have been lost on him as he proceeded to give millionaire advice I listened after all this is the man who has made a career by railing against the millionaires and the billionaires of American society so there he was and I felt this was sort of a precious moment in my life that I always cherish even though I was in the heat of the moment in the debate and I was intent and I was in the field of battle of ideas I said oh yeah I'm going to have grandchildren to tell this one because what came next he said he took the opportunity in answer to my question about how to be a millionaire to talk about his book our revolution now who would have known that Bernie Sanders could have a career in capitalist marketing and hawking his book on you can't make this stuff up on vpr no less you know that bastion of free enterprise on vpr he's talking about how to he's hawking his book he's selling his book I said wow he's you know he's being a free marketeer for this moment you can't write a script like that one anyway here is the message I gave him that day which I would like to share with you all again now when he was talking about his book our revolution I asked all of those who had bought his book while they were in the middle of reading things to go back and read something else the founding principles of our two documents the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution which were birthed out of the first revolution you know the American one I informed Bernie that contained in that history in those documents is everything we needed then and everything we needed now and everything we will ever need to retain our status as the greatest country in the history of the world sorry if I keep repeating that phrase I kind of like it why because thank you these documents enshrine now listen this is the key point that doesn't get taught that much anymore since 1965 it seems here's the key point these documents enshrine the right of the individual above the government revolutionary never before in history in the age of monarchy in the age of feudalism in the age of serfdom in the age of slavery now all of a sudden the rights of individuals above their government they could be protected from their government this is the heart of the revolution and this is the heart and the very germ and the essence of what is given rise to the greatness of our country the freedom we have because we don't have to live under the thumb of an uncontrolled government and the reason we don't is because of the brilliance of the founders who codified it in the united states constitution any teachers here who teach civics have you taught that to your students lately so I further stated that senator sanders appropriation of the word revolution was actually a regression to a primitive form of feudal government which steals liberty and stifles life and livelihood I believe that my campaign was a first major pushback against the extreme socialist trend and says to vermont that the socialist emperor sanders indeed has no clothes if clothes are defined as ideas that work my experience in running for office is also a great reaffirmation that win or lose one must stand firm on one's principles respecting the constitution as the law of the land protecting our national sovereignty promoting and protecting the rights of the individual from the incursions of big government local control as much as possible more money left in the pockets of those who earn it the primacy of human life the family as the primary building block of our whole civilization and revering American exceptionalism as a proven reality if we were to capitulate to the forces of moral relativism where there is no such thing as right or wrong and no standard for right or wrong or allow the boundaries of right or wrong to be blurred how are we then different from those whom we oppose and why would we deserve the support of our fellow republicans or anyone else had I been elected I thought you might like to know what we're doing I'm going to tell you I would be laying the groundwork for our initiatives for the people of Vermont wide pipe broadband internet for the whole state healthcare breakthroughs digital economy pathways for Vermont including for education education funding ideas which would actually listen to this and make sure you're not hallucinating education funding ideas which would lower the level of awareness send me an email meeting with the many great companies who would have wanted to move or extend the business here coordinating with the governor's office to see how we can work together for the people of Vermont but instead I will reflect upon how I can use the experience and the knowledge I've gained to be a further service to the people of Vermont I still believe that with inspired leadership we'll come to Vermont we will need to make a long-term investment in developing center right candidates cultivating competent campaign management developing a bench of candidates to move our ideas forward my friends my heart is filled with gratitude excitement and exuberance gratitude for the high honor I've had of being the Republican standard bearer for the Vermont Republican party for the U.S. Senate thank you for this opportunity excitement because by study and dialogue with so many Vermonters I have new ideas about how our state and country can move forward exuberance because I've made so many new friends who have placed their trust and confidence in me with their vote and their support allow me to thank some of the many people who have given this effort so much my beloved wife Sherry at an earlier campaign event my wife got in and sat down behind our local veterinarian and I threw her a kiss and the veterinarian went like this anyway my beloved son and campaign manager Zachary Zupan whom you met my beloved children Zoe Zupan and Zane Zupan Jay Shepherd my campaign chairman and great advisor and friend the VTGOP chair and wonderful friend and the rest of these people may not be here so I'll just read their names quickly Meg Hanson of Vermonters for Health Care Freedom Rick Morton campaign treasurer Chris McDonald scheduling coordinator Hannah Mathems deputy campaign manager who is here my many fellow Republican candidates with whom I've had the pleasure to campaign particularly the rising star whom you heard from a little earlier a rising star in the Vermon GOP Anya Tinio then there was Terry Burke Tony and Carol Dupont, Mike Donahue John Cristiano Suzanne Butterfield, Chet Greenwood Charlie Pizzo, Bob and Carol Frenier Maurice Dunbar Jerry Lamb, Leonard Gleisch the whole Meyer family of Manchester Ben Kinsley of Imperium and I do mean thousands the thousands of donors supporters and friends and all the many people who have stood in prayer for me to all I say with an overflowing heart along with a thank you to my God and Heavenly Father thank you my heart is overflowing God bless Vermont and God bless America thank you the next person that we'd like at the podium is everyone knows his name is Brooke Page Brooke Rand is running against the Secretary of State's office Brooke is from Washington and they're good Washington thank you Brooke it's never a good thing when they give me the mic trust me when I tell you this hi I'm Brooke Page come on we can do better than that let's try it when we're done hi I'm Brooke Page and I'm a recovering Democrat it's been oh my gosh nearly 30 months since I went to a Democratic state convention in 2016 as some of you may be aware I was running for Governor and Attorney General to make the same point that I was making this time around that we have a broken election system especially as it relates to the primary but it was interesting I got to go one night to the Republican convention they had invited me to come and the next day I went to the Democratic convention and they weren't quite so happy to see me there but to go to both within 24 hours was a distinct contrast I came to the Republican convention we had the American flag and the state flag we had invocation we had the Pledge of Allegiance we had the National Anthem I went to the Democratic convention no flags no national anthem no invocation no Pledge of Allegiance matter of fact while I'm mentioning that we seem to have neglected that this evening so I'm hoping you'll join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all I'll keep the hat off here for a little bit and I guess Jay gave us a little piece of an invocation and the only thing I would add to that if God is with us who can be against us okay thank you I ran for Secretary of State in the end as you know I ran for six offices and somehow won them all which was part of the plan I guess and gave five of them back for other worthy Republicans to take on the various challengers and kept the Secretary of State's office and everybody said why on earth would you give away U.S. Senate and U.S. House and all these important offices because Secretary of State's office is where the election problems are and while I'm not quite sure I've got this this evening I promise you if I don't you may consider this my announcement that I ran for Secretary of State in 2020 Jim Condos needs to be retired and I hope I'm the fellow that gets to do it actually you know Jim would be really happy if he lost his time because then he would be able to pursue his heart's desire which is to become governor of the state of Vermont God forbid so I'm not going to take up a lot of time here I do want to thank all of the folks who have supported me so strongly especially my wife who's my financier my campaign manager my cook my laundress and we were kind of a two-person show here and that's all well and good I'm kind of a self-financing person I have a real hard time going out asking other people for money so I don't do that and so we did pretty good tonight I think we'll do better next time if we don't win it this time and I thank the GOP for giving me the opportunity to run to be able to run for a full slate hopefully we'll have a full slate of candidates without my having to kind of work things massage things along next time but anyway thank you ever so much and God bless the great state of Vermont and God bless America thank you hello we're back again I'd like to take a moment and introduce our current sitting senator soon to be re-elected senator from Franklin County our friend everyone knows him Randy Brock well thank you very much and thank all of you for coming out to this great event this evening in which we hope to celebrate victory after victory going forward but you know I'm not here to talk about tonight I just want you to remember that if you think that while you are outstanding in the rain waving at cars today that that was the end it's not you can be out there tomorrow waving at cars too because we're thinking forward right now and believe it or not the next election cycle starts tomorrow morning and as of right now there's only 728 days till the next election so this is a continuing act by all of us and for that to work in progress as a party all of you are the key elements and we really want to thank each and every one of you who participated who helped in waving signs who helped in going door to door who helped in crafting messages and who did all of the things that make what we do as candidates makes it work and thank you again we very much appreciate all of you thanks great to have you it's pretty safe it's a nice one also it's like it's like well if you left the hat whatever whatever it's between should be they did or yes I would call Rachel to if she can retweet the volume or or or I would like to I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 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