 Yesterday we had a conversation, for those of you that didn't hear us say this or don't know about this, the Latino electorate cast their vote at the highest number in our record history, since we've been counting the process of the electoral vote. For one, 16 million Latinos were registered to vote at the national level. We know that about 13.4 million cast their vote, that may be higher, that may be lower, because we'll see what happens when they make the final count with everything going on with California. But, I can tell you that in Texas, we expected and projected that over 2 million Latinos were cast their vote compared to other cycles that would have broken any voter registration and turnout record. What we know is that in the last cycle, 2012, there were 2.6 million registered Latino voters in Texas, and we know that this cycle, there were 3.1 million voters that registered to vote. We know that more Latinos voted in Texas because there was some excitement, but we also know to the point that I think Judy was talking about, that there are 3 states that hold the majority of the 16 million registered voters. California with 4.2 million, Texas now with 3.1 million, Florida with 1.8 million, and the investment always has been in presidential cycles to only go to the competitive state, which is Colorado, which only has 350,000 voters that are registered to vote, Nevada, which I think is quito menos than 350, Arizona, which could have been competitive, and Arizona was very important because of the jar pile factor, and in spite of the restrictive registration laws that we saw, that we see here in Texas and similar in Arizona, and we have filed a lawsuit and went all the way up to the Supreme Court on the citizenship issue, I can tell you without reservation that Arizona is now the second largest number of share of the vote that turned out to vote voters with New Mexico being first at 36%, and Arizona now at 25% because they grew from 250,000 registered voters and a small state to 750,000 registered voters in 4 years as a result of the, what do we call that, our pile factor. So again, if we are part of the movement, we cannot be part of the status that says the Latinos do not vote. We vote. Do we vote in the numbers that we're expecting? Well, the investment is never there. Most parties and certainly the Democrats and the Republicans and everybody else, the candidates, they spend their money on either their mailers or the media. And what do we know with that? We know that by doing that, you're targeting high propensity voters. You're not expending the electorate to the new voters. So that's part of what is important that we say. To help this voter, we will continue to do three things of strategies. One is the actual on the ground voter registration, the turnout, the candidate training that we do that we've been doing for the longest time. We're going to do legislative efforts to make sure that we change any rules that delete or dilute the Latino votes power and influence not only in Texas but in the other states that we work in. And third, when need be, we will sue whatever we need to do, right, Selena? We sued on the voter ID. We sued on the redistricting. We're still waiting on those results. And we sued most recently in Bear County as a result of Bear County having, you would think that with county judges, the county judge and most of its court being Democrats and one Republican who is very favorable to voter turnout that they wouldn't have made the mistakes that they did on the voter ID. And what we found is that in fact, at every early vote site, there was confusion about the rules. And so we had to sue. I don't know yet. We can't measure how that implicated or had any negative impact on the turnout. But I can tell you that I'm sure that it did because people got in line. They were confused in the early vote and they went home. And that is another problem. So for Southwest voter, we will continue to work as one of the strategies also for the May 9th, Willy Velasquez Day, which is a Texas official day that we will encourage all the school districts to follow the election rule to register voters. Again, people ask us, and I said this yesterday, for those of you who weren't here today, I mean yesterday, people always argue why bother registering voters? Why investing in voters? Again, we know that depending on the cycle, local elections, if it's a competitive state or a blue state, we can expect that at local elections anywhere from 27 to 35% will turn out to vote. But in the state of Texas, it's three to six percentage points. Or if it's a true competitive election, like we might see a competitive election in May when the May is raised here, we can expect it to be an estimated maybe 12 percentage points. No is nada. At the local, at the midterm elections, the gubernatorial cycle, we can expect the state of Texas to vote at 37%. Si nos va bien. And at Basel, 29%. And in other places, it's just like it drops because there's no investment. And there's no competitive elections in the general election in those communities. In a presidential cycle, it drops. But even in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, which are competitive states, and I'm talking about white, black, Latino and other voters, they didn't vote at 100% with a billion dollars spent from one side. We don't know what the other side spent. They didn't vote at 100%. So why do we expect that in Texas? Those are the strategies that I have. With that, let me introduce our other keynote speaker. He is from at Basel, and I don't know if you know this, but I was born and raised in at Basel. So at Basel is dear to me. So it is our pleasure, it's my pleasure to introduce our state representative who came all the way from at Basel, César Blanco, to talk about not only what are possible strategies at the state level for voter registration, but he is a colleague and works for another nonprofit that also works on mobilizing the Latino vote. Please welcome César Chavez. I got a promotion. Well, thank you so much, Lydia, for the invitation to participate today. This is very important that you're having these types of seminars and gatherings so we can put together a strategy for 2017 and for 2018. My name is César Blanco, I'm a state representative here in Texas, but I also wear another hat on the, I was just recently this last election cycle, the interim director for Latino victory, and now that our president has come back to the organization, I am the political director. I want to talk a little bit about the goals and the mission of Latino victory because for too long there wasn't enough at the national level funding, support, infrastructure to help Latinos throughout the country raise money and play in electoral politics. Latino victory's mission is to build Latino power in this country. Now, how do we do that? We do that by helping Latino candidates run for office. We do that through our candidates and campaign program where we provide resources in terms of setting up a field program, setting up a digital program, a communications program, all the nuts and bolts and the basics to help candidates get up and started with their campaigns. The other piece is the independent expenditure, which is something that I manage in this election cycle. To the point to Dr. Jill Stein, we do have a problem with big money in politics, but Latino victory is going to play the white man's game and we're going to win. And I'm going to talk a little bit about how we won playing the white man's game with big money. We spent just short of $2 million in direct action and campaigns this election cycle to sell several candidates throughout the country. We helped elect seven in a Republican wave year where we lost the White House, where we lost the Senate, where we lost the House of Representatives. The silver lining in this election is that we have seven brand new Latinos and Latinas that are representing districts throughout this country into Congress. Very important because in a Republican wave year, all of these were Democrats. So that says we are continuing with our mission to build Latino power by making sure that Latinos have a seat at the table. When the policy debates are happening on the House floor or in the Senate or we have the first Latina in Catherine Cortez Masto, we made history this election representing us in the U.S. Senate from Nevada where we have Ruben Cuban from Nevada who's the first Latino to represent a Nevada congressional district who was born in Mexico, who's going to be fighting for immigrant rights in Congress for the first Dominican ever to serve in Congress with Ariano Espaya in New York City with the first Puerto Rican to represent a congressional district in Florida. These are the faces, these are the voices, these are the experiences that are important in that policy debate. And Latino Victory Fund's focus is to make sure that we get more of our handy in that policy debate. You know the saying goes that if you're not at the dinner table, you're on the menu. We need more of us from this skin color to be at that table, not only in the legislature, but all the way up to the White House. The vote to the White House is paved with 46% of the Latino vote. Republicans know this very well because George Bush did that, very smart. When Republicans decided after Romney they did the autopsy report and they demonstrated we need to do a lot better among Latinos, the Trump campaign threw that completely out the window and attacked our community and they won. So we have a very tough battle ahead of us. We also need to make sure that in the Supreme Court we have more of our voices. Right now we really have one, we only have one person, Soto Mayor, Justice Soto Mayor, who represents us. Now we have other justices and Selena knows this very well having argued in the Supreme Court that we need more people of our color in our background and our heritage representing us at that level of government. So Latino victory is proud of our success, but we've got a big fight ahead of us. We're going to make sure that we hold Trump accountable. I understand Dr. Jill Stein's idea about we need a third party, et cetera, but the reality is that Democrats have been fighting for Latino issues. We are more Latinos in the Democratic Party than any other party and Latino victory, a sole mission is to make sure that we're building Latino power. We did that through Democratic candidates this election cycle, so we're going to continue to do that. But we also have to diversify. We can't be pigeonholed as Latinos just care about immigration reform. We care about everything else such as LGBT rights, such as climate change, such as raising the minimum wage, all of those things. So we can't just be pigeonholed. Many times the Democratic Party does that to us. And me as a Democrat, I would admit that, and that's a huge problem for us. We need to, we are the future. We are the future of this country, just like the Italians became mainstream, just like the Irish became mainstream, and the Germans became mainstream. Now they're mainstream Americans, that's us. So we need to think and act in that fashion. With that, I'm going to just say that we are excited about building the pipeline and the bench of candidates. This election cycle, we're going to be focusing not just on protecting the gains that we made in Congress, but going deeper. We've got municipal elections. We've got a municipal election here in San Antonio, right? Majority Latino community. We've got one in El Paso. We've got an LA city council race. We've got council races in Boston, places all over the country where we need our voices reflected in those policymaking arenas. We're going to make sure that we're playing not only at the congressional level and at the national level, but at the municipal level. We want to make sure that we hold the majority in New Mexico legislature. We want to make sure that we take another bite on the apple and go after the Senate in Colorado. In Colorado, we have the first Latina speaker of the House ever. Huge milestone for our community. We want to make sure that we continue to break those barriers. So Latino Victory is committed to doing that. We're committed to working with Southwest Voter. You all have been there from the very beginning over 30 years. We're only two years old or 42. Sorry. You all have blazed the trail for young organizations like ourselves. We share the vision. We share the mission. We are unapologetic about how our tactics will come after you if you're anti-immigrant. Whether you're Latino or not, if you're a Latino or Republican, you're coming out, we're going to come after you. We're going to put the money behind it. Two questions before we go into the questions. Do you have one or two strategy recommendations at the state level that you would recommend and that you might want to, since you're a member of the state elective office, to put some bills that might help to either expand the electorate or make sure that the vote is protected? Yes, very important. We're going to be coming up to a very hostile legislative session. We've already seen both Governor Greg Abbott as well as Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick put together their priorities. They're talking about sanctuary cities. They're talking about more border security. They're talking about, you know, restricting access to the polls with voter ID issues. We've seen several bills that have been prefiled. On the Democratic side, we've seen bills that have been introduced that increase access to the polls and make it less cumbersome for voters of all colors. I'm going to champion these with my fellow House members and senators that have introduced. Some of those are related to same-day voter registration. We also have automatic voter registration when applying to renew a driver's license. Instead of opting in to be able to register a vote, this would shift the registration burden to the state versus to the voter. You know, when you go in there, you're an adult. When you're getting your driver's license, you can opt to give an organ. Right? You should be able to automatically be registered to vote. And whether it's your decision or not to vote, that's your call, right? But you're an adult. You're operating a piece of machinery. You're able to make the adult decision to donate an organ. It should be no different with voting. We should be able to be opted in automatically and later on make that decision. So there's legislation that is focused on it, but those are the type of things that we're going to do to try to expand the vote. It's not going to be. So I have one recommendation based on what the representative has just said, and then we'll go into the questions to see what are the strategies. And remember, we want strategies because we have to come out with some ideas. I think, I don't know representative, you're interested in sponsoring it, or in championing it, but I think we need to push permanent absentee ballots. California has that. Not only does it make it easier on people who are, in fact, not able to go vote because they can't. But it also, I find, and I mentioned this yesterday, my family lives in California and we were on 17, we all moved to California. We all became, at that point, those of us who could vote, became permanent absentee ballot voters. And the ballot comes home. We all take it to mom's house. She makes it in Chiladas. We have a conversation about the ballots. Okay, I vote on the ballots and who else is going to vote. And then the whole family votes, and we have every single camarillo that can vote is a perfect voter. And I think that'll help a lot. So I'd like you to think about championing that and working with us on that. We want to help you with any other issues. I truly believe that we need to make greater investments in art because it's a different form of expression and political expression as well. And I think we, many of us, express ourselves through protest or march or through running for office or introducing legislation that reflects our values. Art is another way, another medium to do that. And we want to make sure that our children have access to that and understand that that's an important way to express, you know, in terms of the funding, Republicans have already said that it's, you know, it's going to be a tight year because of oil and gas. I disagree with them. We have 11 billion dollars in the rainy day account. They could be invested. And my hope is that when they're looking for more areas to cut that they don't cut into the yards. So I'd be happy and would love to work with you to make sure that we bring voice when those budget cuts are being proposed and that we work with the appropriations to make sure that that funding is either plus or early sustained. We're seeing the same thing with our school districts. El Paso was one of the school districts where they appointed a manager. And for about a year and a half, I believe, they were all appointed. And the community was frustrated that we didn't have our representation, our people that we wanted that reflected our values that we voted for serving on that school district and making huge decisions that impact the quality of education for our kids. I'm afraid that we're going to continue to see that in this climate. I think we're seeing an overreach. I think we're going to continue to see that. One of my first bills was vetoed by the governor because we wanted to give a local taxing authority in the county the ability to increase a bid as long as the bid went to a local contractor keeping jobs here. Governor vetoed it because he was against the county having that kind of local control. So we're seeing them talking from both sides of their mouth, right? And saying that now we need more control in the states and the community. But it's across the board, not just in education, but in all kinds of other areas as well. I think we have the responsibility to make sure that we push back on that. Okay, we have to go to the next session. I promise you this is not the last time that we're going to meet and we're going to have this is a long-time conversation because the fight is on. So Linda, Linda's got the hardest job, I think, with her and Joey. Oh, let's give him a thank you. The next session is the hardest session, I think, because we have a little bit of time, but I want to make sure that the different subject areas that we discussed and we come out with at least two to three strategies, the plus and the minus. In other words, what can we gain and what do we need to defend our area. And then we'll record later from those of you that were in the room, the rest. So Linda, it's all you. First of all, Lydia, I'm going to hand you the commitment of hope. And this is four strategies that we're going to be working on from now on so that these can be discussed at our next meeting with Senator Rodriguez. And we believe in hope that politics start at the local level. At the local level from the grassroots. That's what we believe. So we want to encourage local communities. Lydia, let me borrow the paper. Yes. Hope is made, is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that has board members from across the state. We have board members from Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Lava, Odessa, San Antonio, San Angelo, San Marcos, Seguin, Temple and Victoria. That's where our board members are located. As you can tell, it's an array and it encompasses all our state. So what we want to do with hope is town hall meetings where we go into the community and we put our board members to work and they identify all the activists, all the political junkies in their community and ask them to come in where we talk and encourage and educate the Latino community on what is going on and how the issues that are being passed at the state legislature, how it's affecting and impacting their lives on a daily basis. So we want to encourage the local community to be precinct chairs, to run for county chairs, and we're not prophets, so Republican or Democrat, sorry, Joey. And we want to encourage them to run for the school boards, the city councils, the county commissions, and that's how you get, when you start adding these people to your ballot, that's how you get more voter participation at the local level. If you have somebody you can identify with, he's running for city council, he's running for school board, I need to get out and vote, I need to get my family to go out and vote and support that candidate. Anyway, that's one strategy, but what we discussed in our session is, number one, continue to organize at the local community level, bottom, regardless of election day or grassroots. Number two, encourage people to run for office for city council, school board, county commission, state level, river authority, federal level, precinct chair level, et cetera. Number three, target certain forgotten communities and host town hall meetings to educate and encourage all the above. Use all local media at our disposal to communicate our message. Sometimes we have a lot of Latino newspapers out there, a lot of Latino radio stations. We never communicate through them, and that's a way to get our message out. Do the right now to go into our neighborhood. He was my type, so do the right now go into our neighborhoods, listen and communities survey the needs and ask why people are not voting. Early voting mail in ballots process is secured by voters. Follow up the three-step process. Request the ballot from county election departments. Vote or have family over for tacos, breakfast, lunch and listen. Discuss and go vote. Return complete ballot to county election departments. Celebrate early voting and encourage transport voters to voting. Open voting locations statewide. Consolidate all elections in November which is something that Austin did. All our elections are held in the month of November. And that way there's no confusion with a voter that you have to vote in April, you have to vote in May. We do all our voting in November. Organize and unify organizers to change the language to reach out to an organized communities. Anyway, I still believe in the way Velazquez wave and that's grassroots organizing and doing community work block to block to block. That's the way he trained me personally and that's what I believe in. Anyway, any questions? Good. No questions? Any comments? Any recommendations? Suggestions? Yes, ma'am. You know, I thought that two years ago it'll be two years in March. I retired, okay? I retired and I thought, and I'm gonna say this, my partisanship comes out even though I represent a 501C through your organization, but I thought when Hillary wins I can now relax, enjoy my golden years, right? And just travel and do nothing. But now, with this election over, it's like we have to start all over again. And we have to, it's like we're fighting, we went back 50 years. So we're having to start from scratch all over again to start working at the grassroots level all travest, fighting for the same things we were fighting for 30 years ago. Anyway, so I've been, I've been plaintiff for single-member districts. I've been state director of LULAC. I've been everywhere. And so I thought I could enjoy my golden years, like I said.