 Vermont summer day part of team Bernie but I am also excited to be here today on behalf of team Becca politics 20 years ago and in that had two opportunities for an open seat in Congress third time in my lifetime that that has been the case so it is so exciting that we have the opportunity to elect a new member of Congress to represent Vermont in Washington and I can't think of a better person to do that job than Becca Ballant speakers here for you who can tell you about Becca her the work she's done in the legislature her time as a teacher and working to represent Vermont as pro tem of the Vermont State Senate they're gonna do a great job telling you about why she can bring her courage her kindness and her ability to come together while staying strong in the fight for justice that work taking that work from here at the state house and bringing it to Washington DC so before I give the microphone over to Esther I'm just gonna tell you one more thing so in my day job part of my job is working for that guy over there senator Sanders of a member of Congress's job happens in DC another really important piece of what they do is right here in Vermont in a day but part of what a member of Congress does is make sure that Vermonters get the help they need here at home with the federal government and I know Becca is gonna commit the energy to make sure that every Vermonter regardless of who they vote for regardless of their political party gets the help they need with the federal government she is the right person to do that work so with that let me turn it over to Esther and thank you all for being here good afternoon all it's so good to see you so good to be here on behalf of Becca yes yes yes yes I am Esther Charleston a first-generation Haitian American working mom a member of the Middlebury select board and a Vermonter by choice Becca and I met when we were invited to be panelists for a class at Middlebury College we were paired to answer students questions about our journey to public service there we discussed the value of being seen and the importance of seeing others that day I felt seen by Becca we connected as mothers we connected as women striving to live into our values we connected as people who believe we can and will make a difference her willingness to engage with myself and students listen and respond to the needs give insight gave me insight into the leader she is and the leader she will be in Washington she is who I want to represent Vermont in Congress so if you're here today and you want to volunteer see the folks with the blue shirts if you want to give $5 $10 or $5,000 I don't know please please please let us all support the one and only Becca ballot thank you and now we have Chris wow everybody hear me yeah so my name is Chris do be I'm a professional firefighters Vermont president and I represent yeah approximately 200 250 full-time career firefighters in the state one of the questions I get asked quite often is how do I get the support of the professional firefighters how do I get your endorsement and I tell them our philosophy it's the IFF's philosophy and the PFFV's in a simple we support those who support us nothing more nothing less so going into this race we held a forum right up here in Montpelia invited all of the candidates we're not practicing that firefighters are not practicing we want those who support us so we had all the candidates in asked them all the same questions and there were two that stood out I'm not going to lie to you there was two that stood out and what it came down to was who is actually demonstrated that they legislate for us and that person's been Becca so she earned our the professional firefighters endorsement along with the IFF because she is going to go to DC and she's going to be representing our interests on the national level and when I say that a lot of the issues that she has fostered and fought for and supported that has helped our members in this state or some of the same issues that they're looking at on a national level collective bargaining rights there's members in our in our country and our firefighters down in the south for instance that are not allowed to recognition to bargain at the table so that's an issue and I know she supports that in the state she was instrumental in moving one of the better pieces of legislation that actually strengthened our ability to unionize in this state making us lead on that other issues that have been important to us have been behavioral health issues and I don't know if a lot of you are aware but Vermont was one of the first states in the country to initiate presumptive legislation related to behavioral health PTSD in fact yeah and Becca was there to support that all the way through and being that we are actually a model that is used nationally for other states to follow she's been great with chemicals you know chemicals we're exposed to chemicals and she just this last session worked on getting a piece of legislation through where if we're exposed to a chemical spill that the spill has to do annual checkups on us to prevent us from catching cancers number one killer firefighters is cancer 60% since 2002 so this is just a handful of the pieces that she's legislated so that's why we supported her when it came down to everybody says they support firefighters right you can say that we ask a politician I support firefighters okay so what have you done and that's where Becca stood out she has a record of supporting the issues that are important to us she understands the process gets them legislated and gets us what we need and I know that she will do that when she's down in DC there's no doubt in my mind okay so I'll leave you with this I'll leave you with this so of course we want you to volunteer help out any way you can but one of the great leaders of our international the third district vice president who was responsible for all of New England God rest his soul he passed away in 2016 but he always instilled in us this one motto when it comes to politics okay you're one election away from losing everything so what does that mean I think we know what that means you don't put the right people down in DC that we need all of these issues that we have fought so hard to gain can be wiped out in one election and I tell my members that every day why do I want to get involved why are you gonna do this I need your support because one election you lose everything you've had in the past so we know you're all here to support Becca let's get out and get her down to DC where she belongs thank you next up is Deb good afternoon everyone's staying cool enough I just told Becca you could have picked a little bit of a cooler day for this huh I was asked to speak today and honestly it was like a no-brainer for me to come out and support Becca Ballant Becca has proven her leadership at the State House supporting working Vermonters and because of this our union AFT Vermont are over 6,000 members representing health care and higher ed across the state overwhelmingly voted to endorse Becca it was easy for me and I just realized I never introduced myself and I apologize for that my name is Deb Snell and I am president of AFT Vermont and I'm president of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals and again I represent over 6,000 members in our state not only as a union member am I proud to endorse Becca on a personal note I'm very proud to endorse Becca Becca's concerns are my concerns and Becca's values are my values her worries about affordable housing are my worries her anxiety about student debt in higher education being achievable for anyone who wants it that's my anxiety to her interest in worker rights in the ability to organize those are my interests as well her concerns about the opioid epidemic as a nurse touch me her concerns about gun safety and keeping things safe for our children in our schools those are my values and as a woman knowing that we would have someone there that is going to fight to keep women's reproductive rights their own right not someone else's their choice is so important to me now out front there's some tables I'm sure you guys notice when you were coming in do you guys have two hours to spare in the next nine days do you guys have ten but a couple you have more than ten bucks I can tell that you can donate to Becca to get her to DC where she belongs please sign up volunteer donate what you can Vermont has always had an amazing amazing congressional delegates Leahy Sanders Welch we're gonna add Becca to that group Vermonters deserve the best and bringing her to DC is going to show them that our little state continues to have the best the best congressional delegates of any state in the country and now it is my distinct honor to introduce the upcoming senior senator from Vermont senator Bernie Sanders thank you love you too um let me thank Esther and Chris and Deb for their remarks but I want to say a special word about the nurses and that is I think that all of us are aware about what a horrible horrible two years we have had in terms of the pandemic nationally we have lost in this pandemic over 5,000 nurses who have been in the forefront of keeping us healthy and I just want to say a special thanks to Deb and all of the nurses and the other medical personnel in the state who are real heroes and heroines in keeping us alive and well thanks very much I'm here to ask you to support Becca for a very simple reason in normal times we could get away with tinkering around the edges maybe doing a little bit on health care a little bit on education a little bit on the environment a little bit on social justice but brothers and sisters these are not normal times we are living in an unprecedented moment in the modern history of this country where as a state and as a nation we face some of the worst challenges that have fallen to us in a very very long time so this is not a time for politics as usual it's not a time for people to be defending the status quo it is a time for bold action and courage and I'm very confident that your new congress woman is going to give that to us there was a poll that was released just a little while ago by the University of Chicago and what that poll showed is that a fairly strong majority of Americans believe that their government is quotes corrupt and rigged against them end of quote you know what they're right we are living now in a political system where big money interest dominates what goes on where to a large degree for many many decades government has turned its back on the needs of a struggling middle class and working class we are living at a time when we face the real threat of authoritarianism in this country when millions of people have given up on democracy because they look at their own lives maybe they're working longer hours for low wages maybe they're making $9 an hour maybe they don't have any health care maybe they can't afford to send their kids to college and they are saying what does this government do for me am I not as important as some bloody billionaire campaign contributor and that's what people all over this country are feeling so what we need right now are not only voices but we need courage in Congress to tell the billionaire class that our government and our economy belong to all of us and not just the 1% we are living in a moment when millions of Americans are working for starvation wages we're living in a moment where over the last 50 years real wages for working people have remained stagnant while there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the working families to the top 1% we're living in a moment where CEOs of large corporations make 350 times more than their workers you're living in a moment unbelievable but true where three people on top own more wealth than the bottom half of American society 160 million people where the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 92% now you don't hear about that very much from the corporate media because these guys own the media but we need a sense of outrage in this country to make it clear that our government belongs to all of us not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors so what we have got to do is elect people like Becca well prepared to think outside of the box who have the courage to take on the very powerful and big money it just I've been going all over this country campaigning for progress so it's delightful to be here in Vermont campaigning for progressive and the reason I've been going all over this country it's got a small number of people with incredible wealth putting money into these big super PACs trying to defeat candidates who are standing with working families so I know that Becca shares with me the need for real campaign finance reform the need to overturn this disastrous citizens united Supreme Court decision and the need to move to public funding of elections I'm tied a billionaires buying elections we need to restore and create a vigorous democracy in this country and if you go all over Vermont go all over Vermont you go all over the country what you find is that people are outraged that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world they cannot afford health care in this country right they understand that a hundred miles north of us here if you end up in a hospital for a month you know what the bill is zero because in Canada and in every other major country on earth health care is understood to be a right not a process to make billions for the insurance companies now in recent years we have made some progress in fighting for Medicare for all that's a system which says that when you are sick you go to the doctor you don't have to take out your wallet no deductibles no copayments and if you end up by chance in the hospital you don't have to worry about going bankrupt because we're gonna publicly fund a health care system that guarantees health care to every man woman and child in this country and Becker I know shares with me the outrage that at a time when pharmaceutical companies are making billions and billions in profit paying their CEOs outrageous compensation packages our people are paying in some cases ten times more for the same exact drug that people in Canada or Europe are paying and that is why we will continue the fight to make sure that Medicare is able to seriously negotiate prescription drug prices we can cut the cost of drugs in this country by half and that is what we've got to do and I'm glad that we have come have had at least two representatives of unions coming here to the podium because I believe that I know Becker believes that we're not gonna have a strong middle class unless we have a strong trade union movement in this country and I'm beginning to see all over the country all over this country at Starbucks Amazon elsewhere but beginning to see workers come together form unions and with Becca's help we're gonna pass legislation which makes it impossible for companies to intimidate those workers who want to join a union and Becca understands as all of you understand that we will not be a great nation unless we have the capability of providing quality education to all of our children right now in Vermont starting at the younger stage you have childcare workers earning substandard wages and despite that your parents working parents paying $15,000 to have a kid in childcare well if you're making 40 or 50,000 a year how do you afford 15,000 and that is why we have got to do again what other countries do understand that we want all of our kids to get off to a great start in life we want our childcare workers to be well trained well paid and we want to make sure that childcare for every working family in this country is quality and affordable and we want the best public education system in the world we want to attract the best and the brightest in college to go into teaching and therefore we're gonna fight for decent wages and benefits for our teachers and we are gonna make we understand hundreds of thousands of bright young kids in this country either do not go to college at all because they can't afford it or they're leaving school 50 a hundred thousand dollars in debt and Becker understands as you do as I do that we have got to make public colleges and universities tuition free and we got to cancel student debt just a few days ago and we are making progress it's slow a few days ago I was on the phone with the governor of New Mexico and in New Mexico they are making public colleges and universities tuition free they're moving to free childcare for their children and that is what we have got to do in Vermont and throughout this country and what Becker also understands is that when we talk about the enormous challenges that we face the movement toward authoritarianism the fact that so many have given up on democracy massive levels of income and wealth inequality the fact that you got three Wall Street firms people don't know this three Wall Street firms BlackRock anyone here ever hear of BlackRock State Street Vanguard these three companies alone control over 20 trillion dollars in assets throughout the world they have a major stockholders in virtually every company that you know that is what oligarchy is about that is what concentration of ownership is about that is what power is about and that is something that Becker understands and will help me deal with but when we talk about all of the issues out there maybe maybe the most important is the need for the United States to lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy and when we do that we can create millions of good-paying jobs and the scientists have been very clear there is no ambiguity on this issue if we do not act boldly if we do not have the courage to take on the greed of the fall of the fossil fuel industry then the planet we're going to be leaving to our kids not only here in Vermont but all over this world will be a planet increasingly uninhabitable and unhealthy right now as we speak Europe experiencing one of the worst heat waves it has ever seen you're seeing drought all over the world you're seeing extreme weather disturbances you're seeing people having to leave their own communities again all over the world and migrate because they cannot they don't have the water to grow their crops and provide the food that their family needs climate change is in fact the existential threat to our planet and I know that Rebecca becker will work with me to make sure that we transform this energy system and lead the world in combating climate change and as previous speakers here have noted it is beyond comprehension that we have a Supreme Court that in the year 2022 this is not 1922 it's not 1822 in the year 2022 they have said to every woman in America that you do not have the right to control your own body how outrageous is that and I know that Becca will be one of the leaders in the Congress in taking on this outrageous effort to destroy Roe v. Wade she will fight to codify put it into law and the day will come when we're going to win that fight because that's what the American people want and Becca understands I know she has worked on this here in the state Senate the horror that we experience when we turn on the TV and we see another mass shooting and it really is almost to me unspeakable and I don't even like to talk about it because it brings up images that are so horrible that I just you know have a hard time dealing with it of people walking into schools and doing terrible terrible things and Becca understands that the time is now that we need common sense gun safety legislation that we make sure that people who should not own guns do not own guns and that they are 15s are weapons of mass killing not something that civilians should be having so I want to thank all of you for coming out on this nice cool day and I know I do know that there is a lot of the moralization in our country and people are wondering you know what if anything can happen and I would simply say that if you look back at the history of this country there have been a number of moments number of times when we have had very very difficult situations I mean going back to the slavery and the abolitionist the fought against slavery going back to the depression where unemployment was 25% going back to the struggle for women's basic women's right the right to vote the right to get property if you get divorced this country has struggled through many many difficult times and these are one of those times but the answer is not to despair the answer is not to put your head into the sand the answer is to stand up the answer is to fight back and the answer right now in the next week is to make sure that Becca Ballant is elected to the US Congress thank you all very much and now it gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce you to you the next congresswoman from the state of Vermont Becca Ballant senator Bernie Sanders everyone senator Bernie Sanders thank you thank you so much for coming out here today I know you could be anywhere on a beautiful Vermont day and I'm so grateful that you're here engaged in the political process it's so important I want to thank all the volunteers who help set up this amazing event I want to thank Western terrestrials thank you to Esther and to Chris and to dev for coming and letting me know what they see in me as a leader it means a lot to me thank you so much and I know you all know this but I just have to name it senator Sanders has had incredible moral clarity for so long for so very long and that is why he's beloved in this state but also across the nation because he reminds us that we always have to be fighting for equity and justice thank you senator and those are things I care deeply about and I hope I sincerely hope I can fight for those things alongside him and hopefully senator Welch in the upcoming legislative session so I know I know many of you know me but some of you don't so I will say for those of you don't know me my name is Becca Ballant I'm running for Congress and I'm a mom to my kids Abe and Sarah who are here today and I'm a spouse to my wife Elizabeth who's here today and I couldn't do it without them I fundamentally could not do it without them and that's true for all the years that I've served in this building behind me they have carried a lot of the slack back home so thank you thank you for believing in me so I'm a mom I'm a legislator but if you really want to understand what makes me tick I am a middle school teacher at heart that is who I am and you know if you can teach middle school you can do anything you can do anything and and you can't be a middle school teacher unless you believe in the possibility of change and I believe that I was drawn to teaching middle school because those were actually some of the hardest hardest years of my life it was a time when I felt very disconnected from my school in my community there's a lot of homophobia then I felt disconnected from my family and really tried to figure out how I was going to chart a path through in this life and so I set out as a middle school teacher to make sure that every student felt comfortable in my classroom that they felt supported and that their families felt supported and that's what I've tried to do also here in the legislature is bring those stories of those families and those kids with me and have that guide me in my work to have them in mind as we're passing minimum wage increases to have them in mind that we're investing in housing and childcare and affordable housing in all the communities not just in the largest cities and making sure that they can see themselves represented in this building and in Congress I went into politics to represent them and that's still what drives me today and I don't have to tell you that although Senator Sanders and soon-to-be Senator Welch and I we have a lot of work that we want to do on behalf of working families we want to continue the work that we've done here in Vermont but we're at a very very scary moment right now in this democracy our democracy is fundamentally being attacked we have right-wing extremists across the country who are attacking the right to vote especially if you're a person of color in this country we have insurrectionists who storm the Capitol attacking democracy itself and we have Republicans who make excuses for all those people that did not certify the election oh yeah they were standing they were standing with democracy on the day of the insurrection in a couple days later they were all backtracking on what they'd said a hand full of people saved us from a coup that's where we're at I wish that weren't true but that's where we're at that's the fight ahead of us is to save this democracy and for me I know this is a time of courage I know this is a time when we can't be timid in my own family I understand what happens when democracies fail so my grandfather my dad's dad his name was Leopold Ballant he was killed in the last few weeks of the Holocaust he was in a concentration camp that was the last camp liberated by the allies and in my family we learned that democracies fail little by little as rights are eroded as people are scapegoated as norms are upended as the press is attacked that's where we're at right now so the stakes are incredibly high and I want you to know that that will be a main focus of the work that I do in Congress is making sure we have a healthy functioning democracy that is representing all of us and not just the wealthy few and I know I'm just gonna echo a lot of the themes that the senator has touched down because I know we're very much in alignment on the work that we know is ahead of us it's time for regular Vermonters to be able to go to college and not be rattled with crippling debt the 20s some things and 30 some things in this country are struggling so hard they can't start families they can't buy housing because they're being saddled with crippling debt we need to take care of them it's time for housing so that all Vermonters feel safe I was a teacher for many years I know what happens when kids don't have safe safe housing it affects their ability to learn we have to make sure that the work that we've done here in the legislature continues in Congress because right now housing is not affordable for most average Vermonters it's time for Medicare for all absolutely and it's time for Medicare for all that also supports mental health care for all and it's time long past time to codify our right to make decisions about our own bodies it is a time for courage and for vision and it's a time for tested leaders leaders who have had to face the voters for the decisions that we've made I am a tested leader I have been here year after year fighting on behalf of Vermonters and I want to take that experience with me to Congress to continue to fight on your behalf our congressional delegation has been the conscience of this nation for so long truly yes give it up for senator Sanders Peter Welch and senator Leahy I know that I will be relying on senator Welch and senator Sanders to help me be the most effective congressperson that I can be and make a difference on your behalf and I will be following them in their long line of service to regular people here back home and I want to tell you when senator Sanders and I first met about whether he would decide to endorse in this race the very first thing he said to me was I want to know that you're going to be back here in Vermont on a regular basis talking to regular people and not doing your work from inside the DC bubble and I made that promise to him we have built an incredible coalition not of special interests of thousands and thousands of individual donors for our campaign farmers and teachers restaurant workers friends and neighbors and just regular people across Vermont who have given five bucks ten bucks or have volunteered on the campaign if they don't have the money to give I'm so proud of this coalition that we built in all of the union support I have behind me and they're standing here in the hot sun with me and I appreciate it so much and I can't do it myself and you know Bernie can't do it himself it's going to take all of us it's going to take all of us to make progress and I hope I sincerely hope that you see yourself reflected in this campaign because that's what we've desperately tried to do is create a campaign where everyone regardless of political affiliation or no political affiliation regardless of your geographic location in Vermont no matter your income no matter your background that you have a place in this campaign we want you and we need you please join us you can tell the folks on my campaign both the volunteers and the field staff they're wearing Becca balance shirts you can sign up for a shift if you can you can go to becaballant.com if that's easier for you but we've only got nine days left nine days before the primary a lot of people don't vote in primaries and in Vermont almost always the primary is the main event you've got to vote in the primary please I need you to vote I need to get your friends to vote I need you get your family to vote please show up vote for change in Washington and what I mean by that is people who are going to stand up to the insurrectionist people who are going to represent regular people and bring this democracy back in line bring it back from the edge that's what we need to do I'm so in awe of all of the support that I've had on this campaign and I'm grateful for the faith that folks have had in me and in my team and if you had told me a year ago that I would be standing on a stage with Senator Sanders nine days away from a primary election in which I seem to have the lead I would not believe it I couldn't imagine it I could not imagine it but we have done this together and I promise you if you send me to Washington I will fight for you every minute of every day this this is the fight of our lives it is a fight for the planet it is a fight for justice for regular people for Vermont and we can do this we will do this we must do this together thank you all for coming and this is my phenomenal campaign manager Natalie Silver who is who is the great and powerful Oz behind the curtain so we're about to hear from the western terrestrials and there's two things I have to say to you before we do that the first is that we need you we need a little bit of your money and we need a little bit of your time so if you have two hours in the next nine days and I know that you guys have two hours I need you to find somebody in a Becca Ballant t-shirt get signed up races are won and lost in Vermont by hundreds of votes that is a one-call shift that is one door knock shift we need you the second thing chip in five bucks chip in ten dollars the majority of our donations are small dollar donations that's how we're going to win this race so thank you so much let's hear it one more time for senator sanders and our speakers and enjoy the food and enjoy the western terrestrials