 This is such a beautiful town. It's so great to be back. We've been traveling around the state. We were in Woodstock this morning. We were in St. Albans last night traveling around with a slate of candidates up and down the ballot. We've been registering people to vote, distributing lawn signs and connecting with Vermonters about the important issues that are going on in our state. We have a strong lineup of Bernie and Doris candidates to bring you this morning. We're only one month away from one of the most important midterm elections in history. We have to turn out the vote. We had a record-breaking turnout for our primary election, and I know we can do it again in November. There's never been a more important time to be involved. We all need to do our part and get out and vote and take part in our democracy. If you know anybody who isn't registered to vote or who wants a lawn sign or who can't get out of their house to vote on election day, please contact us and we can help with that. Vermont has some new ways to vote. You can actually go to your town clerk's office anytime between now and November and vote on your own time. You can pick up a ballot and bring it home and think it over. As you've all seen in the news, there's a very important fight going on down in DC right now. Senator Sanders will be down there fighting and casting a vote to represent our values for Vermont and DC today. He wouldn't miss this event though, and he will be joining us by phone later in the program. Thankfully, we have a great group of Bernie endorsed candidates, so let's get started. Our first candidate that Bernie is proud to endorse who you will hear from is Jeremy Hansen, who's running for house in Washington one. Jeremy? Thanks, Kristen. Thanks to everybody who's out here today. Yeah, it's pretty grim scene nationally, I think. And it's times like this where I think that we need to make sure we also keep focus on the things that are going on here in the state and locally in our towns. I first got involved in running for office and serving on the select board because I got a sense that people weren't really being heard, that democracy wasn't actually serving people. And for a lot of other reasons, I kept fighting and I kept going. And my three, if I'm gonna give you my campaign pitch here, my three main thrusts are education and infrastructure and universal healthcare. I don't think that, I don't think these things are unachievable. And furthermore, I think that most people are really interested in seeing us do the right thing. Which is why I'm going to ask all of you if you haven't gone and found your local progressive Bernie endorsed candidates and you haven't gone door knocking with them or if you haven't phone banked with them or if you haven't participated and get out the vote efforts with them, it's really, really imperative that you do so. Because the fights at the national level are important but the fights here in Vermont are important too. And looking at the national scene, it's really, really easy to get sad and get really angry. And I know, I use music myself. I use music to get through that. But then I get to look at Vermont and what we are capable of and what we are doing. And just the sensation of being with this push where we can do things like having an actual real livable wage and having actual medical care that serves people and getting people access to modern broadband. These are things that we can achieve but we have to do it together. And so in the interest of brevity, I'm going to hand it off to the rest of the wonderful candidates. Again, thank you for being here today. Enjoy the food if you haven't already. Thank you, Jeremy. Well, next up is an exciting candidate. I'm happy to introduce her list of important endorsements is growing exponentially. And according to a recent poll, she's within striking distance from taking the governor's office back from obstructionist Phil Scott. Next up, the next governor of Vermont, Christine Hallquist. Thank you. Thank you so much. And you know, when we look at the events that are happening as we speak, we are, you know, it's really important that we all get together and stick together and give each other hope. And I want to tell you, I am standing here as an example of hope. It's, I look at me standing here today as a miracle. And when I look at that miracle, I realized that miracle, it really wasn't a miracle. It was because of people like you who came out and fought for what is right and what is just. And the thousands of people before us that fought for what is right and what is just. I come from a big family in Northern New York State. A town would pretty much like the town I live in today, which is Morrisville, Vermont. And when I grew up, we didn't have a lot of money, but those were different times. You know, we didn't have a lot of money. We had free and reduced lunch, but we didn't know any better. And we worked hard. And I worked my way through college. I got a two year associate's degree. I didn't come out with debt. I worked at the local Radio Shack and I came to Vermont and I started on the factory floor. And I stand here today looking at this wonderful life that I've had and I realize our children don't have that same opportunity today. Our next generation doesn't have it as good as we did. And that hurts because I have three wonderful children. They're doing well, but they're struggling. So we're gonna make Vermont the place where we have opportunity for all. And when I talk about that opportunity and when I talk about economic growth, we'll measure our economic growth by how it impacts those people that are living on the lowest part of the economic ladder, not the top. Because you hear all the rhetoric that's happened in the past year about all the jobs that are created. But the reality is the working class still has not seen an increase in their purchasing power. And if you look at the minimum wage, if it were adjusted for inflation since the late 60s, it would be $22 an hour right now. And by the way, when I ask folks around the state who are in the housing partnerships, what does it cost to live in a two bedroom unit today? $22 an hour. So we're at this place where our young people and others can't even afford housing. So we have to provide housing. I'll also say that when I assume the role of governorship, I'm gonna ask the legislature to bring that bill back to me immediately so that we can get people up to $15 an hour. And then it's about building a plan to get to a living wage. And part of that plan will be connecting every home and business with fiber optic cable in Vermont. So Vermonters have the same opportunities at the big cities. And we'll rebuild our rural downtowns using these tax income and financing models that work so well in St. Albans and White River Junction. Because think about it. Think about how wonderful Vermont is. We're the safest state in the union. We're the healthiest state in the union. And we have the best educational performance. We are a wonderful state. We get connected and we rebuild those rural downtowns and people are gonna flock to come here. Entrepreneurs and young people will flock to come here. So my message to E.O. or Phil, oh, we can't do anything, is we absolutely can do wonderful things. And if I think about, when I talk about connecting every home and business with fiber, I think about back in the 30s, when we were seeing some of the same similar problems in rural Vermont and rural America, we connected every home and business with electric wire and provided electricity. Those are the kind of things we can do when we pull together. So I also will tell you that we're gonna make higher education affordable and work to close the wage gap. Two weeks ago, we rolled out a plan which will carry out immediately, which is to allow everybody living below the poverty level in Vermont to go to college for free and into an in-state college. And by the way, we can do that without raising taxes, Phil. So when it, you know, when it talks, and the other thing we're gonna do is we're gonna, we're gonna continue to move towards Medicare for All. And we should not be making a profit off of people sick and dying. And the way we're gonna do that, and I've already started that process meeting with other governors, we're gonna form a union of states to form that pool to get to Medicare for All. And by the way, let me tell you what else we're gonna do with that union of states. And those states include states like California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts. These are bigger states. We're also gonna form a firewall to protect ourselves from what's coming out of Washington. And we're gonna protect the immigrants and the migrants that we have in our state. You know, I'm also gonna tell you something else I've experienced. You know, people have called me all kinds of things. You know, they call it a Republican, a liberal, a progressive. And my experience with labels is labels are used to divide us. They're used to oppress us. And when I think about what we're all here to do, when you think about providing a living wage, providing Medicare for All, ending homelessness, that's not a political issue, folks. That's called being a civilized society. And these opportunities shouldn't be limited to the few. Those who grow our food should not have to worry about healthcare. Those who provide service in our hotels and our restaurants should not have to worry about going hungry. No child should ever have to worry about going hungry. And no one should have to worry about losing their job due to an illness, which is why we'll bring that bill, the family leave bill back right away as well. So we, Vermont, can achieve these realities. And we're, and you're all here, and I'm here to make this happen. And I will tell you, our great leader, Bernie Sanders, has been fighting for this for decades. And I'm so proud that we have Bernie down there in Washington today fighting for what is right and what is just. This is the legacy of Vermont. We are leaders, we've been leaders. We are a beacon of hope for the rest of this country. So to achieve our reality, I know every single one of you in this room is gonna go out and vote because you're here today. But the key is go find everybody and get them out to vote. If there's a shut-in somewhere, they need a ride, give them a ride. If someone's not registered, get them registered. We are in very important times. But again, standing here before you, I know that we can make change. And I'm gonna tell you what I think I'm gonna be telling my children is children is first of all, never take democracy for granted. And number two, 2018 was the year we, a year that went down in history and we were all there. That was the year that we survived a despot. So I'm gonna also tell you that this running for governor is not the hardest thing I've ever done. And I am not the person that's gonna cower in fear over those headwinds from Washington. I'm gonna stand up and fight for the Vermont I love and that has loved me in return. I also am gonna make a promise to all of you right here. I promise that I will make Donald Trump feel very uncomfortable. Nothing is impossible when you're on the side of justice. All right, thank you, Christine. Ready to make history on November 6th? Yeah? All right, me too. It's my pleasure to invite our next speakers to the stage. Since being elected in 2016 with over 66% of the vote, he has had a huge impact on our state. He's taken aim at the opioid epidemic, criminal justice reform, and he stood up to the Trump administration on immigration. Let's hear it for our attorney general, T.J. Donovan. Thank you, Christa. Great to be in Randolph. And it was great to see the band Two Cents in the Till and an old friend of mine, Ed Sutton, who's hiding in the back of the room, who's a member of the band. I'm gonna embarrass Ed. He's a great musician, but he also served the state of Vermont for over 30 years. He started his career as a teacher and then he was a prosecutor. And I worked with Ed for a number of years and he did a tremendous job for our state. So thank you, Ed. Ed and I share something in common that I think we all share. That's why we're here today. When we worked as prosecutors, and I've done this as attorney general, we believed in helping people. And as attorney general, my role is to simply stand up for regular Vermonters, to give voice to the voiceless and truly be the people's lawyer. That's why I sued Purdue Pharma for starting the opiate crisis in this state. We've done a great job when it comes to the issues of treatment and prevention, but it's time to bring corporate accountability to this issue and we're gonna do it in the state of Vermont. And it's equally important when we talk about the heroin crisis, we talk about our criminal justice system. Because for far too long, we've dealt with the issues of addiction and mental illness and poverty with a jail cell. It is a failed approach. It needs to change. And just look at the numbers. We spend more money in this state today, locking people up than we do, spending money towards our institutions of higher education, sending Vermonters to UVM, Johnson and Castleton. This is a misplaced priority. We all have an obligation to speak up against this. Because here's the thing, being poor and being a person of color is not a crime. You go into any courthouse or any jail in this state and that is who you will see. We need to continue to invest in communities, in access to healthcare, in mental health counseling for children and their families, making sure we have affordable housing, making sure we have access to affordable higher education. And then a jobs in this state where everybody can achieve their dream. Yes, a job is the best form of public safety, but you have to do the foundational work and that's invest in communities like Randolph-Romont and that's what I'm gonna do as your attorney general. And it is great to be here, although you'll be hearing from him shortly, Senator Sanders, the work he's doing on behalf of all of us, Senator Leahy and of course, Congress and Welch who's here as well. And I know this, when Washington DC, when the federal government steps back, the state of Vermont will step up and protect everybody in this state, stand up for everybody's civil rights regardless of who you are, where you're from, what you look like, who you love, how you identify or who you worship because equality is a fundamental right, not in this state but in this country and it's time to defend it to all corners of our state and our country and that's what we're gonna do. And when we talk about civil rights, let's not forget the rights of women. Let's also understand that there is an attack on women going on because if I go to my doctor's office tomorrow and I say, doc, this is what ails me, what can you do for me? I'm gonna get a whole litany of options. My wife, my sisters and every woman, woman in this state should have the same opportunity. We're gonna protect a woman's right to choose. Let's also understand that science and facts matter. Absolutely. That this thing called climate change is real. That's why we fought to actually preserve and maintain the EPA because pollution doesn't know any state borders. We believe that everybody has a right to clean air and to clean water and to make sure that we hold big corporations that pollute us and make us six accountable. And it is about opportunity. It is about opportunity for everybody in this state. Any kid that grows up in this state should have a shoddick success. That is what the American dream is about. I got two boys and I look at them and I ask a simple question myself. Will they just have the opportunity, just the opportunity to do as well as me? I don't know the answer to that question yet. I know that many kids in this state, many kids in this country don't have that opportunity. This is what this election is about. This is what's at stake, truly the American dream. Not for us, for that next generation, because it always has been about paying it forward to that next generation. None of us would be in this room if there weren't folks who came before us who stood up for us, who fought for us, who fought for an opportunity for us. So let me close by doing something rare. Let me quote a Republican. Dave Zuckerman's favorite Republican. My favorite Republican, Teddy Roosevelt. The bull moose. It's time to get in the arena. There is no longer any space for those cold or timid souls that know neither victory or defeat. Too much is at stake. It is time to mobilize, to organize, and to galvanize. Everybody in this room, everybody in this county, everybody in this state, to go to the polls in November and elect Democrats of Christine Houghquist all the way down and send a message to the rest of this country that Vermont can lead with common sense, decency, and equality for all. That's what's at stake. It's time to get to work. Thanks for having me. Thank you, TJ. Very inspiring. As I mentioned, Senator Sanders is down in DC. He takes great pride in representing us down there. As I know, we all take great pride in him doing that for us, but he could not miss this today. So through the wonders of technology, we're gonna bring him in through the phone. Here's Senator Sanders. Good afternoon, Randolph. Needless to say, I am very sorry that I can't be with you this afternoon. But as the United States Senate, I'm gonna be in the nation's capital on the Senate floor in a few hours to cast a very, very strong vote against the nomination of Fred Kavanaugh to be a Supreme Court Justice. And given the fact that, you know, the, this nomination of Kavanaugh has been discussed for the last couple of weeks, I wanna very, very briefly tell you why I have opposed them and we'll be voting against them in a few hours. And there are three basic reasons. The first is that sadly, I think many Americans do not fully understand the very terrible role that the Supreme Court has been playing over the last number of years. There is a hard right that has been a hard right five to four majority. And over the years on issue after issue of concerns to working people, to our democracy, to the environment, time after time, this Supreme Court, by a five to four vote, has sided with the wealthy and the powerful against the needs of working people. And I have zero down. And I opposed Kavanaugh's nomination literally on the first day after Trump made it because I knew based on his work in the Bush administration, his work for President Bush, based on his rulings on the circuit court, that I had zero down, that he would be part of that five to four majority. And what we have seen in recent years from that majority is citizens is a decision on Citizens United, which allowed billionaires to spend as much money as they want to buy elections. That was a five to four decisions. And I think it is possible with Kavanaugh on the court, they may go even further in weakening any campaign finance law that exists right now. In an outrageous decision a couple of years ago, they gutted the Civil Rights Act of 1965. And immediately after their decision, we had Republican attorneys general all across this country working overtime to figure out ways that they could suppress the vote, make it harder for people of color, young people, poor people, to participate in our democracy. That was their decision, an outrageous decision, anti-democratic, an idea that in years to come, there will be more decisions like that if we have a five to four right wing Supreme Court. Right now, all of you know, we have the only country on earth, major country, doesn't guarantee healthcare to all. The Affordable Care Act was a step forward in providing health insurance to many millions of Americans who didn't have it. And yet again, by a five to four vote, what the Supreme Court said was that the expansion of Medicaid was optional, not mandatory. And the result of that was many, many states around this country with right wing leadership did not expand Medicaid to working people, to poor people who desperately needed it. Millions of people today do not have health insurance, who should have health insurance. As I was on the committee that helped write that bill and we did not believe in any shape, way shape or form that this was an optional decision for the state, it was mandatory. And what I worry about right now is that in the next couple of years, there will be decisions coming before the Supreme Court, which will have a huge impact with regard to a woman's right to control her own body. And it is very possible that a decision on Roe versus Wade will come before the Supreme Court. And I worry very much that Kavanaugh will join the four other conservatives on the court and make it that much harder for the women in this country to control their own bodies. And that would be an outrage. And on top of all of that, there are Republican attorneys general around the country who are trying to declare that large parts of the Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional. And what that would mean is that we would go back to the bad old days when if you had diabetes, cancer, heart disease, or any other life-threatening illness. And back before the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies could say to you, oh, you have cancer. Well, of course we're not going to ensure you because you may come down with, you know, another indication of cancer. We don't wanna lose money on you. We don't have to cover you. And with a Supreme Court decision on that issue, it may well be that they will rule that insurance companies do not have to provide health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. And there are many other very important issues, obviously coming down the pipe, that I fear Kavanaugh would be part of a hard right by default majority. So that was the first reason that I indicated that I would vote against them, literally a few hours after Trump made that nomination. The second reason that I am deeply concerned about his appointment to the court has to do with the revelations that all of us have heard over the last month. We are living in a moment in American history where some 20 to 25% of women have been sexually abused. And that is a horror. And it's an issue that this country has got to deal with. We need a cultural change in this country. We need to educate boys about proper behavior, men about proper behavior. We need to make it easier for women to come forward and talk about what has happened, the pain that they have experienced. And then on top of all that, and this is the issue, got a president of the United States unbelievably. And it is always hard to describe Trump because every day there is another outrage coming from the White House. But I think he talked himself when last week he actually mocked Dr. Ford who came forward talking about the sexual assault that she experienced years ago. I don't know that you can go lower than that. So we have a nominee to the Supreme Court who has had at least two maybe more credible women making very, very serious allegations about sexual assault. And let me tell you this. As somebody who read this recent FBI investigation, in no way, shape or form was that a thorough investigation. It just wasn't. Among other things, the FBI did not even interview Kavanaugh or Dr. Ford or other witnesses who could have provided an important testimony. So this case, this nomination of Kavanaugh becomes a glimpse at how the United States Senate responds to the issue of sexual assault. And it is clear to me that we are failing that test. And then the third issue that has bothered me and Senator Leahy has played a very good role on this as a member of the Judiciary Committee is the veracity of Kavanaugh. No matter what somebody's political views may be, you kind of want to have somebody on the Supreme Court who at least as is honest tells you what happened. And yet in case after case after case, it appears that what Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee recently and in prior testimony when it came up for his judgeship, that he was not telling the truth. I mean, there are many, many examples of that. Some years ago, files from the Democratic staff of the Judiciary Committee were stolen by Republicans. Everybody acknowledged that. And Kavanaugh was asked about the time that he worked in the Bush administration, he worked for President Bush, whether or not he had seen those files. So he said, no, I never did. Evidence came out more recently that he actually had seen the files. And there are a number of other instances where it appears that he was not telling the truth in response to questions from members of the Judiciary Committee. So those are at least three reasons why, in my view, Kavanaugh should not be seated today. And that is the bad news. And there's no way I can sugarcoat it. This is bad news. I want to give you some news which is very good news, which I think actually is even more significant than what we're seeing today. And that is, and I want you all to appreciate this, because I get around, not only in the state of Vermont, I get around the country a bit. And I want you to know that the agenda, the ideas that many of you in that room in Randolph today, and I have been fighting for years, ideas that three years ago, five years ago, were thought to be extreme and crazy and out of touch with reality. Those ideas are being adopted in significant ways by majorities of the American people. And what we are seeing in this election are candidates running for the house, running for the Senate, running for governor's office. All across this country are adopting positions today with just a few years ago. People would not have been talking about it. Let me give you just a few examples of what I mean. I have believed for a long time that one of the great economic crises facing this country is that in Vermont and throughout this country today, you got people who are working two or three jobs, people that are trying to feed a family on 10, 11 bucks an hour or less, and they can't do it. So in the midst of massive income and wealth inequality when the people on top are doing unbelievably well, you know, Jeff Bezos now worth $155 billion. You got people coast to coast who are trying to put food on the table for their family. And that is why three years ago, I said that in America, if you work 40 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty, raise that minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, a living wage. Now the good news is that what we have seen in recent years is a growth and support for that idea. A few years ago when I introduced $15, $15 an hour minimum wage, only had a few coast classes. Now we have 30 coast classes. More importantly, all over this country, states and cities are moving toward a $15 an hour minimum wage. Some of you may have noticed that in the last week, on Amazon, one of the largest companies in this country declared, it will pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour. So we are making progress. And by the way, very importantly for Vermont, we want to see a governor who will sign the $15 an hour a minimum wage bill passed by the legislature and not veto it. But it's not just the idea of a living wage which is sweeping the country. The idea that we should make public colleges and universities tuition free and substantially reduce student debt is an idea whose time is coming. Significant majority of the American people now support that idea. They know that kids in Randolph, kids in Burlington, kids all over this country, regardless of the income of their family, if they have the ability and the desire, they should be able to get a higher education and they should not have to leave school with $50,000, $100,000 in debt. So that idea, that idea is gaining support all over the country. Let me tell you maybe the most important idea that we are winning on. It's gonna take a lot of work to carry us over the goal line but we are winning on this fight. Years ago, I think virtually everybody in the room in Randolph and I and others, what we said was that in America, healthcare must be a human right for all and not a privilege. And that we must end the international embarrassment of our great country being the only major nation on earth that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all people. Well, three years ago, weren't a whole lot of people talking about that. Today, what I wanna tell you is that the last poll that I saw on that issue has 70, Reuters poll, has 70% of the American people supporting Medicare for all. So it's gonna take a lot of work to take on the power of the insurance companies and the drug companies in Wall Street and all of those people who make hundreds of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions for our dysfunctional healthcare system. But we can do it and we must do it and we will do it. And we are also making progress on other issues. We're also making progress on other issues that a few years ago hardly anybody was talking about. Some people were, but not many. And that is the fact that we have a broken racist, criminal justice system. And that it is an insult to everything that we stand for. That in America today, we have more people in jail than any other country on earth, mostly disproportionately African-American, Latino and Native Americans. And that is why, again, all over this country, there is a strong movement toward criminal justice reform and understanding that the war on drugs has been an unmitigated failure, costing us millions of lives in terms of people who have police records and whose lives have been significantly altered by possession of marijuana. So what you're seeing again all across the country, including Vermont, is legislation to decriminalize or legalize marijuana. Some states and communities are moving to expunge the records of people arrested for possession of marijuana. That's a significant step forward. Second of all, what we're seeing is heightened consciousness about another injustice within the criminal justice system. Many of you don't know that. Today we have about 2 million people in jail as we sleep. About 20% of those people, 400,000, are in jail today for the crime of being poor. That's their crime. They are in jail because they cannot afford cash bail. They've been arrested, but they can't afford the $500,000, the $2,000 that they need for bail to get out of jail. So they're sitting in bail, not able to work, losing their homes, developing, losing their homes, losing their jobs, and suffering even more than they were before they were arrested. And now you're seeing communities all over this country moving to eliminate cash bail. Make it easier for people not to be in jail after they were arrested but not convicted. Immigration reform, despite Trump's xenophobia and hatred of immigrants, overwhelming support exists now for comprehensive immigration reform outrage at Trump's border policies where little kids, babies being separated from their parents. And here's another area where we're making some progress. And maybe this is an issue just of unbelievable importance because it has to do with the future of our planet. Tragically, we have a president of the United States who not only does not believe that climate change is real, but he is working with the fossil fuel industry to put more carbon into the atmosphere. And that means that if we do not effectively take him on and if we do not transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, then we are gonna be leaving our kids with a planet that will be uninhabitable and extremely unhealthy. So all over the world, you got California burning, you got forest fires in Sweden, you got the oceans rising, you got droughts all across the country, you have extreme flooding, you have extreme weather disturbances which have been intensified by the warm air. And we have a president who refuses to acknowledge that reality. So on that issue, the good news is that we are making progress. Solar is becoming a lot cheaper the country is moving more to sustainable energy. In Vermont, we have been a leader in the country in terms of energy efficiency. But we have a long, long, long way to go to make sure that we do justice to our kids and our grandchildren. And my hope in that regard is that Vermont will lead this country in terms of energy efficiency and sustainable energy, solar wind and others. And when we do that, three things happen. Number one, we will save people money on their fuel bills. Solar is now the cheapest form of new electricity production. And if we can make sure that we have, if we can make sure, and that's definitely in solar, the cost is only gonna go down. It will also obviously clean up our air and our water as well. So number one, it will lower fuel rates for people in this country. Number two, it will create millions of good-paying jobs. Think about what happens when we go on a massive national weatherization program for our homes and our buildings and our schools. We will save people money and we're gonna put a heck of a lot of people to work in good-paying jobs producing the solar that we need, the wind that we need. Thirdly, obviously, it is morally imperative that we do these things because the future of the planet is at stake. And my hope is that for months can become more aggressive in these areas and that for months can be the model for the country. And that after we get rid of Trump, the United States becomes the leader throughout the world. And I think when we look at a world today, when we look at a world today in which Trump's leadership in terms of authoritarianism, in terms of the business, I mean, how horrible, how horrible. You know, when I think about Trump, I think not only if a president who gives tax breaks to billionaires runs up the deficit by over a trillion dollars, then wants to cut Medicaid by a trillion, Medicare by 500 billion, social security disability fund by 72 billion, wants to cut education, wants to cut the programs that working families need in order to get tax breaks to billionaires, that's pathetic. And when I think about a president here who came within one vote on the Senate floor of throwing 32 million people off of the health insurance they have. Think about that for a minute. Think about all of the people in Vermont around this country dealing with diabetes, heart disease, cancer, life-threatening illnesses, they will one vote away of throwing 32 million people off the health insurance they have. But then on top of all that, what is perhaps even uglier. And something that really bothers me to my core is that all of you are aware of the extraordinary struggles that have gone on in this country from the inception, from the day that settlers came to North America. And that is the attacks against the Native Americans, the horrors of slavery, the fact that women were second-class citizens, the discrimination against all of the religious groups, the Italians, the Irish, the Jews, you name it. The attacks against the gay community, the attacks against workers and so forth and so on. And in over hundreds of years, what the growth of democracy has meant is that people have come together, good people have come together, sometimes putting their lives on line in the civil rights movement, in the women's movement, in the gay movement. But their lives on line to say that in America, we're gonna judge people, look at people, based on who they are as human beings, not the color of their skin, not where they came from, not their sexual orientation, not their religion. That has been the struggle of this country for hundreds of years. And in many ways, up until a few years ago, we were winning that battle. We were becoming a less discriminatory society, and I can tell you, without the shadow of it now, that the young generation of today is the least racist, least sexist, least homophobic, least prejudice generation in the history of this country. But now we got a president. Now we have a president who for cheap political reasons is trying to divide us up. You think he can get a vote here? Think he can get men to vote against women, straight people to vote against gay people, people born in this country to vote against Latinos, whites to vote against blacks. How pathetic is that? How pathetic is that? So my friends, we have, right now, in this midterm election, clearly to my mind, the most important election in the modern history of this country. And the good news is, is that all over this country, we've been working with these folks, you are seeing young people, working people, women, people of color, beginning to be involved in the political process in a way we have never seen before. And we're seeing these people running for office, often as first-time candidates, never ran before. You know, they weren't involved in the party machine, they didn't work up the ladder. They just understood that now is the time they have to get involved. We're seeing great candidates running and winning. And we're seeing people who are getting actively involved in campaigns, knocking on doors, doing social media, making their small contributions. So here we are right now, early October, got a month ago before the election. And here is my hope. My hope is that if we remember four years ago, we had in Vermont and throughout this country, the lowest voter turnout in 70 years with a visible, like 36%. My hope is that we significantly reverse that and that a month from now, we end up with the highest voter turnout in the modern history of the state of Vermont. And the way we do that, brothers and sisters, is not only by getting involved in the campaigns of the folks who are up there in the room with you now, you know, Peter's campaign and TJ's campaign and Christine's campaign and David Zuckerman's campaign and your local candidates, is that we make sure that we bring out our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers, make sure they understand how important this election is. So I look forward to joining you in Randolph in the not too distant future. But in the meantime, let's go forward and let's win a great, great victory in November. Thank you all very much. Right, we hope you'll stick around. We do have two more speakers, but we'll move right along to, we have two more speakers to come up who have served our state with respect. And I'm honored to be able to announce them to come up to the stage. The first one is David Zuckerman who's worked tirelessly as a organic farmer and has served as our lieutenant governor. Let's hear it from David. Thank you, Krista, and thank you to our interpreter. Appreciate it. You know, I think we're all here really with sort of three fundamental values. There's many, many more. But democracy is something I think a lot of us have reflected on deeply over these last couple of years and frankly, even deeper this last week or so. Our children and the next seven generations, if I can borrow from our indigenous leaders and beyond, and a better future for our communities, for our families, for our state, and for the people that we don't even know and for the animals and the plants, a better future. Is that fairly fair statement? And when I got elected a couple of years ago, I came in thinking, fight for the rural economy, farmers, broadband, universal health care. I think things that everyone in this room values, many, many other issues. But that same night as our Senator Bernie just spoke to, we ended up with this pariah as a president. And that really shifted the ground for all of us. That night was my first time winning statewide office. I should have been bouncing off the walls and jumping up and down screaming, but I was looking at my 10-year-old daughter. And I was thinking about climate change and the Supreme Court. And we're seeing those realities on a daily basis. As a farmer, these last two growing seasons have been pretty remarkable. Tremendous rains last year, early and mid-season, and quite a drought for much of our state in the North and West and phenomenal rains in the South again this year. It is not normal. We are in climate change. And we have to take radical and aggressive measures now, not keep putting it off into the future. And of course, sadly, all of our thoughts about the Supreme Court, we certainly knew the one seat was stolen by a breakdown of our democracy, by those in power in the Republican Party. And now we're seeing the second seat, which is really the major shift in that future for all of our children and ourselves, but really I think about our children and grandchildren. It's devastating. And I want to address that. It's real. I think we all feel it. I was in the barn packing bags of lettuce mix and spinach yesterday, helping the crew get ready for today because I couldn't be at farmer's market, listening to the Senator from Maine, as she explained her pathetic reasoning for voting the way she's going to vote. And what got me more than anything, I'm going back to the democracy part. As she talked about the breakdown over these last couple of weeks, and what a horrible show, for lack of a better term, our leaders in Washington presented. And I wasn't mad because of that truth. I was mad because for the last number of years as a moderate New England Republican, the kind that know the town meetings we know, we know the foundation of democracy that we know in New England, that Senator has been a complicit participant in that breakdown by supporting the Republican leadership under Mitch McConnell for the last many years. I do not believe her in her statements because fundamentally she threw democracy out the window and she's throwing it out the window today. Now, we have some actual real opportunities here. I think Bernie touched on the fact very, very cogently that young people today, all across this country, feel much more about the future of our country and the way we should treat each other and the values of economic justice as the people in this room. We do have a bright and positive future. People are waking up all over. In fact, I just saw on my little screen that Texas has just been moved from lean Republican to a toss up. Right, okay. We're seeing in Florida, Andrew Gillum with a lead against a racist candidate for governor. We're seeing Stacey Abrams in Georgia. We are seeing victories coming both in the primaries in the past with Ocasio-Cortez and so many across the country motivating to engage. Now here's the challenge for us. We are one of those few beacons for those activists and those citizens who are engaging in democracy which is now called activism. I call it sort of fundamental citizenship, right? They are engaging in that process in part because of the amazing inspiration from two years ago, three years ago, that we get to call our US Senator Bernie Sanders. Is that not true? Was that not a huge wake up? And Bernie Sanders did that for me back in 1992. I was that young student at college who was pissed off about corporate money controlling our political system and both political parties. It's a necessary evil supposedly. Bernie showed that it's maybe not so necessary but that corporate money was controlling everything and I saw Bernie get up there and say, here's what I believe in. If you believe in those same things, get involved. Go out and doorknock, make democracy happen. And 26 years later, he was this close and frankly would have won if he won the primary, let's get real, to being our president. And his inspiring me to get involved led me to this podium that I never thought I'd be standing at as your lieutenant governor. And he's doing that with people all across the country. Now, I'm gonna try to tell two quick stories. One is when I got inaugurated as lieutenant governor, it's actually the one time you speak from the podium with anything other than parliamentary rules. You're the town moderator of the Senate. So if you think your local town meeting has a couple of big egos, no, just kidding. They're good people. They're very good people. But that's really the job, is to be that town moderator of that 30-person meeting, making decisions that are gonna impact every single from honor. And the job as lieutenant governor is to interpret and implement the rules with impartiality. And I'm thankful that I've heard from many senators across the spectrum who imagined when I got in there that I was gonna be some kind of crazy whack job lieutenant governor, that in fact I value democracy as the foundation. Because if you mess with that, every other ruling or decision made is tainted. And we will win and we do win because of those common values that we hold with the vast majority of Vermonters. Is that not true? If you have faith in that, you don't break the system to get your way through. You work within it and you let people decide what they think is right with full information and not fake news. And so I opened up that session with a little story. I gave every single senator a dry bean, an heirloom dried bean from a seed-saving company. Each one was different. There were big beans and little beans. There were white beans, black beans, spotted beans, red beans, funny shaped beans, not funny shaped beans. They all got a different bean. And then there was another energy. And I said to that group of senators, I said each one of you has a bean in front of you. Each one of those beans has the genetic potential. Can we turn this down just a little bit? Each bean has that genetic potential to be a thriving plant, to produce abundantly. No matter what, that potential is inside. But as a farmer I can tell you, if that bean is in sandy desert soil, or muddy swamp soil, or good soil with good water to germinate, but then it gets dry, the bottom line is the environment that bean is in is gonna drastically affect its ability to be the successful plant that it can be. Think about these beans as our children. Each child is born with all that potential. But the circumstances and the environment around them, whether it be family, community, the other factor, and we can name them all, gender, race, religion, economic circumstance, any one of those things and so many more can affect the outcome for that bean or that child. Our job is to make it so that every single bean has the best environment to thrive in. And that's a public education that welcomes everybody, which is not true of the private schools. That means supporting clean water and not punting that issue down the road. That means supporting activity towards renewable energy and public transportation and higher education and opportunities for everyone because when they grow up in a household, not even visioning those opportunities, they already are stunted from when they even enter school. Our job as elected leaders is to take this amazing society we have, the goodwill of everybody in this room and across the state, many with different political ideologies than we have. Vermonters across the board do believe in our children and believe in a better future. Sometimes they have different ways of getting there, but if we can't sit down with them and listen and discuss civilly how we're gonna get there, then we will not have a successful democracy. And we can show that here in Vermont. We do show that in Vermont. We're one of the only states with majority party that give minority party chairs of committees. Okay, I've asked around. Nobody else knows of any other state that does that. We truly respect civil conversation and that's how we need to act, whether it's through social media, whether it's through public meetings and everything else. We are better than that. As Michelle Obama said, when they aim low, we aim high. Right? And finally, because I know our congressman has been very patient and thank you, Congressman Welsh, you're a phenomenal leader in all of these regards in Washington. Thank you for your service. It's truly amazing in this time. I was at a rally a couple of years ago around organic agriculture and soilless organic agriculture. The corporate organic world is changing the rules, okay? They're changing the rules even against the majority of the organic farmers and against the majority of the board to say you can have organic food grown in a soilless medium. Now, maybe you sit there and go, what's that all mean? I'm not a farmer, I don't know. But it basically means coconut husks and water filled with nutrients that are all okay nutrients under organic standards but completely outside of the holistic value of what organic farming is. And I can tell you that as an organic farmer, it's about the health of the soil. If you have healthy soil, you're building your organic matter. You know what that means? You're pulling carbon out of the air and you're helping with climate change. Healthy soil means microorganisms and nematodes and critters that are alive in the soil, which in non-organic soil often don't exist because they've been killed by the different synthetic chemicals that are in the soil. Healthy soil is the foundation of organic agriculture. And when I was speaking at that rally, something came to me. And I thought that I could equate democracy and organic agriculture. Because fundamentally, organic agriculture, okay, and without soil is like democracy without people, right? It does not work without people. And so what I'm gonna close with is the request of all of you. We have one month to go. We have the opportunity in Vermont to set that example I talked about earlier, to have record turnout, as Bernie talked about. You all are gonna vote. You're the converted, right? Each of you, and this is something I've said for the last two years as a Lieutenant Governor, as sort of an ambassador of democracy around the state. Each of you has the opportunity. You have the time. You make time to go jogging. You make time to go garden. You make time for your book group or your weekly dinner. Make time for democracy. And I'm gonna ask you a couple questions. Are you going to get someone to vote? To protect a woman's right to reproductive freedom? Yes? Right? Next 30 days, someone who wasn't gonna vote. Are you gonna get someone to vote for clean water? Are you gonna get someone to vote for public education? Are you gonna get someone to vote for healthy food? Are you gonna get someone to vote for universal healthcare? Are you gonna get someone to vote? Who's gonna support everybody's right to run without racial intimidation, right? And harassment and death threats. Are you gonna get someone to vote so that women who come forward, having suffered the worst evil possible, do not get shamed and attacked and ridiculed as our president has done? Are you gonna get someone to vote to protect that woman? Yes you are. Are you gonna get someone to vote who supports changing our criminal injustice system as our incredible attorney general was talking about? I think you are. Are you gonna get someone to vote thinking about climate change? This list goes on. Oil out of politics, oil money. Restore civility to democracy. Livable wages, paid family leave, affordable housing. You've got plenty of reasons to get someone to vote. And the key to getting them to do that is to ask them what's important to them and help them realize that whatever aspect and issue on that list is what's important to them, they need to get out and vote. And they need to send Peter Welsh back to Congress. And they need to send Bernie and support Leahy in the U.S. Senate. And Christine Hallquist as our governor and TJ Donovan as our attorney general. I hope you will support me as well. Thank you so much for listening. Now one month left, get some people to vote. Thank you very much. All right, that was a wonderful speech. Thank you so much, David. Now moving right along to our last speaker and then we're gonna hear some more from the band. Our next speaker has served our state for many years. First in the state house as a state senator, minority leader and president pro tem. And since 2007, he's been representing us in DC. Let's hear it for our U.S. Congressman Peter Welch. Patient and listen to wonderful office holders and wonderful speeches. I'm gonna be brief. And I'm just gonna make a couple of remarks. First of all, preliminary. I wanna introduce Larry Satkowitz, who's a candidate. Stand up, Larry. Second, Christine, your comment about judging the economy on the basis of how the bottom 20%. It reminds me of Martin Luther King, who said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. In an economy that doesn't have as its goal, lifting up everybody is an economy that's gonna crush our aspiration to maintain, strengthen and build a middle class. So that is really a solid piece of your agenda. Thank you, Christine. And I am gonna be brief, but I wanna say, I wanna just talking around. There was one person who asked me a question and another person who made a comment. Where's Dave? He might've gone, but anyway, he asked me a question. Do they know, not this Dave. He said, do they know what they're doing in Washington? Here's the bad news. The answer is yes. The answer is yes. I said, you mean the Republicans. They're in charge of everything, right? The President, Senator Mitch. Who is this guy, McConnell? I mean, literally what planet is he from? And Paul, what a disappointment, Ryan, okay? But they do know what they're doing. What they're doing is using the United States Congress to transfer wealth from the poorest people in this country, from the middle class to the wealthiest people. And policy, decision after decision, policy after policy is facilitating this wealth transfer that's taking place in an absolute assault on what has been the bedrock of our economy, and that is a commitment to policies that build a middle class. You know, we believe in work, but work's gotta pay. Work has got to pay. Otherwise, what are you gonna do? And this tax bill is an example of the links they will go to to have that wealth transfer. Corporations have never been more profitable. They got a huge tax cut. The top one percent has more wealth than basically 50 or 60% of the rest of the country. They got a tax cut. And then what happened with that tax cut? It was used to buy back stock, which all economists say is the least productive way to invest money that's on the table, the least productive way. Now, how do they pay for it? They didn't pay it for it. The party of fiscal responsibility said no problem. Your kids and your grandchildren will pay for it. That's who will pay for it. And where all of us here, we're used to thinking that we sacrifice for our kids and our grandkids. And we take satisfaction in it. And you know, it's true, some folks in the middle class, not in Vermont particularly, because we've got the property tax deduction we lost and the mortgage interest deduction we lost, got a few bucks. But I have not met a single Vermonter who thinks that they should get through government policy a few bucks in their pocket that their kids and their grandkids are gonna have to pay for generations. So that's right. And it's one thing after another. And it's an exact contradiction to what this building that we're in stands for. People who ran off did something nearly impossible. This Chandler Hall, they're renovating it. It took enormous effort and sacrifice, but it was because they believe in community. They believe that we should have an economy where somebody makes progress is about all of us making progress. Now the second thing, Judy McDonald from Braintree. You know, you said something to me that we were in Woodstock earlier that a man who served six years in the Marine said the same thing. It was identical. And Judy expressed support for all of the issues Bernie spoke about, that David spoke about, that Christine spoke about. All of them, but said, you know what? It's our democracy that's imperiled. We are seeing the guardrails of our democracy under attack by that man in the White House and by that man who's Senate Majority Leader and by that man who is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. And it is something that is the biggest threat because politics is about us resolving our differences, but understanding there's gotta be some restraint, which by the way is a quality in leadership that's the most hard to come by. Bombast, ridicule, that's pretty easy to do. And always destructive and always has a bad ending. So what we face in this state and in this country is a challenge to the basic proposition that free people can govern themselves and resolve differences. That's what's at stake. Now, Washington has lost its way, but folks in Vermont and in communities around this country have not. They're putting a stake in the ground. And they believe that doing what they can where they are is gonna make a difference. And let me tell you, the reason we have two year elections in the House of Representatives is so that the people of this country, two years after a president is elected, can send a signal throughout the land to Washington that it's time for a mid-course correction. And that is gonna happen on election day. We're gonna have a democratic House of Representatives. We're gonna hold a president accountable, but more importantly, we're gonna return to our roots for a middle-class agenda that brings all of us forward into the future. So let's go and get it done. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Congressman. And thank you to all of the candidates who have come out today, Jeremy Hansen, Christine Hallquist, TJ Dunham and Peter Welch, David Zuckerman, and to all the staff and volunteers from all the different campaigns.