i'm having a great debate already with republicans about what that means for our country. governor bush scrambled to explain his statement that americans need to work longer hours. he now says he just wants part-time workers to be able to find full-time jobs. well, so do i. there's just one problem. his policies and the policies of all these republican candidates would make that harder. giving more tax cuts to those at the top won't do anything for part-time workers. rolling back rules for wall street will not help families get ahead. getting rid of the affordable care act certainly won't help entrepreneurs. just ask the folks in the sharing economy. americans don't need lectures. they need raises.

[applause] so if republicans really want to help us, why don't they join us in breaking down the barriers so more americans can enter and succeed in the work force, especially women? [applause] now, i know that when i talk about this, some people think i can see it in their eyes, there she goes again with the women's issues. well, i'm not going to stop so get ready for a long campaign. [applause] you see, i have this old fashioned idea we can't afford

to leave anyone on the sidelines. and women who want to work should be able to do so without worrying every day about how they're going to take care of their child or what will happen if a family member gets sick. that's not a luxury. it's a growth strategy. paid leave. earned sick days. child care. wage. these are not women's issues. they're family issues. they're economic issues. [applause] so i will keep fighting for them and ask you to join, and i'm going to keep fighting for equal pay because when women get short changed families get short changed. when families get short changed, our economy and our country gets short changed. unlocking potential, though,

goes beyond dollars and cents. it really is about our values. how we treat each other. the kind of country we want to build. on that historic day, last month, when marriage equality became the law of the land, republican candidates were complaining, not cheering. we even heard a call for abolishing the supreme court itself. instead of trying to turn the clock back republicans should be joining us in saying loudly and clearly, no to discrimination once and for all. [applause] lgbt americans should be free, not just to marry, but to live,

learn, and work just like everybody else. [applause] and then there's immigration. we've heard a lot recently from the new republican front-runner. donald trump. finally, a candidate whose hair gets more attention than mine. [applause] but there is nothing funny about the hate he is spewing toward immigrants and their families. it really is shameful. and so is the fact that it took weeks for most of his fellow republican candidates to stand up to him.

the sad truth is, if you look at many of their policies, it is hard to tell the difference. just look across the border in wisconsin. governor walker kicked off his campaign by rolling back reproductive rights for women and stripping union workers of their rights. we don't knead any more politicians who shame and blame women for making our own reproductive health decisions or attacking unions for fighting for middle class jobs. [applause] and i know there are challenges

right here in iowa because you've been talking to me about them. just listen to this. iowa has fewer than 750 beds for more than 128,000 people in your state with serious mental illnesses. families worry about relatives who need help app can't get it. the iowans i've talked to don't understand why your governor would veto a bipartisan compromise without funding a viable alternative. and that's not all. the government also said no to investing in iowa students, teachers, and schools. so tonight i'm adding my voice to yours. governor bran stead put down

your veto pen. [cheering] iowa families don't need a stand off. they need solutions. that's why we can't let republicans take us back like they're trying to do. we are not going back to trickle down economics or the wild west on wall street. we're not going back to insurance companies charging women more for the same coverage. we're not going back to denying climate change. if you ask most of these republican candidates about that, they'll say, sorry. i'm not a scientist. well, then why don't they start listening to those who are scientists? look, i'm not a scientist

either. i'm just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain and i'm not going to let them take us backwards. so please. iowa democrats join me. let's build up our party in every corner of this state and country. elect democrats at every level. take back school boards and state houses all the way to the white house. i'm running to make our country work for you and for every american for the struggling, the striving and the successful, for the factory workers and the food servers who took care of us tonight. for the farmers who feed us and the small business owners who take a risk. for the nurses who work the night shift and the truckers who drive for hours. i am running for everyone who's

ever been knocked down but refused to be knocked out. i'm running for you. we're going to build an america where we don't leave anyone out or anyone behind. where if you work hard you will do your part and get ahead and where a father can tell his daughter yes. you can be anything you want to be, even president of the united states. thank you all very much. [cheering] [chanting] hillary! hillary! hillary!

>> i am now excited to welcome to the stage our next keynote speaker martin o'malley. [cheering] throughout his 15 years of elected executive experience martin o'malley has established himself as a bold, progressive leader, eager to solve big problems facing commaunts. governor o'malley has served in nearly every level of government. first as a member of the baltimore city council then as the mayor of baltimore and finally, as the governor of maryland delivering results for

his constituents. as mayor of baltimore, he improved education, cracked down on crime, while improving police accountability and drove investments to the local community. and as governor, he signed marriage equality into law, passed the dream act, fought for environmental protections, and made maryland's public schools some of the best in the country for five years in a row. no matter the role governor o'malley has always put working families first and fought for the american dream. please join me in welcoming martin o'malley. [applause] [chanting] o'malley! o'malley! >> thank you all. i thank you.

thank you very very much. it is a great honor to be here tonight with all of you fine members of the iowa democratic party in the resilient city of cedar rapids. [applause] my name is martin o'malley. i am running for president. i need your help. and tonight i would like to talk with you about the american dream that we share. you and i are part of a living, self-creating mystery called the united states of america. we've been given a gift -- not an old car to be tossed aside or traded in when we're done with it, but a country -- and we must accept this gift with an open mind and an open heart if we are to give it to our children and grandchildren and

in a stronger and healthier condition than we received it ourselves. make no mistake about it. our ability to give our children a better future depends on the strength of our country. [applause] now, let me ask you all a question. how many of you firmly believe that you've enjoyed a better quality of life than your parents and grandparents? raise your hands. second question. how many of you believe just as firmly that your children and your grandchildren will enjoy a better quality of life? raise your hands. that my friends, is the question at the center of our table of democracy. whether we are still that

country where regardless of where you start through your own hard work and your own talent and your own love of family, you can still get ahead. whether we are still that nation that finds a way in every generation to include more and more of our people more fully in the social, economic, and political life of our nation. f.d.r. told my grandparents in their day not to be afraid. john kennedy told my parents that to govern is to choose. i say to you that progress is a choice. now, i am not the only candidate for president in the democratic party who holds progressive values, but i am the only candidate for president with 15 years of executive experience. [applause] as a big city mayor and as a governor turning those progressive values into actions. getting things done.

new leadership, action, not words. in baltimore, we took action to save lives by reducing record high violence to record lows. we increased drug treatment to free thousands of our courageous neighbors from the scourge of drug addiction. in maryland, in the face of the recession, we took action to raise the minimum wage to create jobs and to make our state number one in innovation and entrepreneurship. [applause] driver's licenses for new american immigrants, marriage equality, and a ban on assault weapons, and we didn't just talk about it. we actually got it done. [applause] we took greater action not less to make our public schools number one in the country. we took action to free college tuition four years -- freeze college tuition four years in a row in order to make college more affordable for more

families. we fought for the dream act, and we won. we expanded family leave, because when women succeed, america succeeds. [applause] as a nation, we have come a long way since the wall street crash and the bush recession of 2008. as our country teetered on the brink of the second great depression we elected a new president in barack obama to move us forward, and that is exactly what president obama has done. [applause] 64 months in a row of positive job creation. our country is clearly doing better, but most american families are not. the hard truth of our times is this.

70% of us are earning the same or less today than we were 12 years ago. and that is the first time that that has happened this side of world war ii. there is a growing injustice in our country and economic inequality that threatens to tear us apart. wealth and power have been so concentrated in the hands of so few that it is actually taking opportunity out of the homes and the neighborhoods of the many. and make no mistake about it. this did not happen by accident. powerful wealthy, special interests have used our government to create in our own country an economy that is leaving a majority of our people behind. the promise of the american dream is on the ropes. and most days you know this, dave, in this obstructionist

republican congress, it's not even a fair fight. 50 years ago, the nation's largest employer was g.m. and the average g.m. employee could send a kid to college with the equivalent then of two weeks' wages. my father, like so many of his generation, went to college only because of the g.i. bill. but today we are saddling our graduating kids with more college debt than any developed nation on the planet. meanwhile, as wages flat line or decline for most of us, family owned businesses and farms are finding it harder and harder to compete with ever larger concentrations of corporate power and monopolys. get this. last year wall street bonuses alone totaled twice what every american working at minimum wage earned combined. tell me how it is that not a

single wall street executive was convicted of a single crime related to the 2008 meltdown. not a single one. [applause] what have we come to as a nation that you can get pulled over for a broken tail light but if you wreck the nation's economy you're untouchable? main street struggles. main street struggles while wall street soars, and this is not the american dream. this is not how our economy is supposed to work. and this is not how our country is supposed to work. we can do better. we must return to our true selves.

our economy isn't money. our economy is people. all of our people. a stronger middle class is not the consequence of economic growth. a stronger middle class is the cause of economic growth. [applause] therefore, we must take actions that actually lift incomes and wages again for all americans. can we all agree that no american family who works hard and plays by the rules should have to raise their children in poverty? so let's take action to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour wherever and however we can. let us return to the economic justice of paying overtime pay for overtime work and expanding

social security. and let's make it easier and not harder for any worker to join a labor union and collectively bargain for better wages. can we all agree that every american family should have the option of sending their kids to earn a college degree debt free? then let's take the action to make debt free college a reality and an option for every american family. a new era of american progress calls for a new agenda to rebuild our cities as places of justice and opportunity. it calls for a new national

security strategy and new alliances that are more forward seeing and forward acting to reduce threats and, what's more, a new american era of progress calls for a cleaner greener, renewable energy future. [applause] and i am the first candidate but let's hope i am not the last to call for moving america forward by 2050 to a 100% clean powered electric grid for the good of our country, creating good jobs and creating more opportunity. [applause] none of these things happen by chance. they do not happen by accident. to get wages to go up there's another thing we need to do, and that is to get 11 million of our neighbors out of the

underground economy and into the open light bypassing comprehensive immigration reform. [applause] but there are also a couple of things we need to stop doing. as a party, and as a country. among them, giving a free pass to the bullies of wall street. we must reinstitute glass/steagall and reinstitute it today. we must prosecute financial crimes, and if a bank is too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to manage then it's too damn big and it needs to be broken up before it breaks us up. and we must stop sending american jobs and profits overseas with bad trade deals like the trans pacific

partnership. many of you remember the return on nafta. it was nada. we traded away good manufacturing jobs in return getting back empty promises and empty pockets. i am fundamentally opposed as an american to secret trade deals that our congress is forced to vote on before we're even allowed to read them. your republican governor has shown us the direction their party would take us, cutting taxes for big corporations, and then telling you that iowa doesn't have the money to invest in your own children's education.

welcome to today's republican party. they once had leaders and visionaries -- lincoln, eisenhower -- now they create traffic jams and dismiss science. and now the leading candidate for president is donald trump. after his racist, hate-filled comments, true story "the los angeles times" ran a headline, and i quote "republicans feel divided on donald trump's comments about mexican immigrants." divided? as in not sure he's wrong? if donald trump wants to run on a platform of demonizing immigrants, he should go back to the 1840's and run for the presidential nomination of the know nothing party. [applause] my friends, i leave you with

these final thoughts. in this summer of anger and frustration and discontent, if you become doubtful about our country's better future, just talk to her young people. you will seldom find among them climate change denier, someone who wants to des crim nate against gay couples, or someone who wants to bash immigrants. the poet laureate of the american dream, bruce springsteen, asked once, is the dream alive but don't come true or is it something worse? whether that dream is made true again for all american families or not, is not up to the big banks. it's not even about big money trying to take over our elections. it's really up to you and me. it is about whether we still have the ability as a people to move our country forward. you have a vital choice to make

and i need your help. after this election is over when a child with a world of learning in front of him asks you who you voted for, i want you to be able to tell that child, i voted for you. when you see a dad sweating through another long shift in order to give his daughter a better future, i want you to be able to tell him, i voted for you. when you see a mom working long hours at two jobs for the dream of sending her son to college, i want you to be able to tell her, i voted for you. and when you see a young father who hungers for a job to feed his family, i want you to be able to tell him, i voted for you. we are democrats for good reasons, because ours is the party of the people. ours is the party of action. ours is the party of our country's better future. ours is the party that will rebuild the american dream and make the promise real for all americans again.

god bless you, iowa. god bless the united states of america. [applause] chanting o'malley! o'malley! o'malley! o'malley! >> and now, for our next keynote speaker, senator bernie sanders. [cheering]

bernie sanders is in his second term in the u.s. senate as the endorsed candidate of the vermont democratic party. prior to that, he served 16 years in the house of representatives. senator sanders was appointed by the democratic senate leaders as the chairman of the committee on veterans affairs, and is now the ranking democrat on the budget committee. in 1981, he was elected to his first of four terms as mayor of burlington vermont. during which time u.s. news named him as one of the 20 best mayors in america. as a

>> as a student and civil rights activist, he was a frontline activist for equality. he marched on washington with dr. martin luther king jr.. [applause] senator sanders was consistently defending working and middle-class families and stood up against the excesses of corporate america. please join me in welcoming senator bernie sanders. [applause] senator sanders: thank you for that generous introduction. my wife jane and i are so

delighted to be in the great state of iowa with you tonight. i am also delighted to be here following other remarks from great democrats who have dedicated their lives to public service. i think them all -- tahhank them all. let me begin by suggesting something to you that i think very few candidates ever say. given the reality of economics and politics in america today, no president not the best, can bring about the changes we need in this country unless there is a political revolution. [applause] senator sanders: what that

means, in all honesty is the powers that be in washington. the billionaire class, the koch brothers. the corporate interests are so powerful that nothing will get done unless millions of people stand up and loudly proclaim enough is enough. this country belongs to all of us and not a handful of billionaires. [applause] senator sanders: my point is that no president does it alone. we need a mass movement from coast to coast. so that republicans understand.

when they give tax breaks to their billionaire friends when they try to cut social security or medicare, we know what is going on and that vote will be their last term in congress. [applause] senator sanders: here is something else that all of us should know. today in our great country we are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. today, in the history of the world. but most americans don't know that because almost all of the wealth rests in the hands of the few. america now has more wealth and

income inequality than any major country on earth and it is worse today than at any time since 1928. the issue of income and wealth inequality is a great moral issue of our time. the great economic issue of our time. the great political issue of our time. together, that is an issue we will address. [applause] senator sanders: let me be as clear as i can be. there is something profoundly wrong when the top 1/10 of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. there is something profoundly wrong when one family, the

owners of volvo own as much wealth as the bottom 40% of the american people. there's something profoundly wrong when millions of workers are working longer hours below wages. when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. and almost all new wealth and income goes into the hands of the few. enough is enough. that has got to end. together, we will end it. [applause] senator sanders: this campaign is sending a profound message to the billionaire class. you can't have it all. you can get huge tax breaks when children in america go hungry.

you cannot continue to send our jobs to china when millions of americans are looking for work. you cannot hide your profits in the cayman islands and other tax havens. when there are massive unmet needs in this country. the greed of the billionaire class has got to end. we are going to end it for them. [applause] senator sanders: but it is not just income and wealth inequality. it is the fact that we have millions of people working longer hours below wages. that is why we have to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. nobody in america works 40 hours a week should be living in

poverty. and that is why i have led the effort in the united states senate not only against nafta and permanent normal trade relations with china, but i am leaving it against this disastrous tpp agreement. [applause] senator sanders: when 33% of white kids between the ages of 17-20 two graduate high school are unemployed. when 36% of hispanic kids are unemployed who graduated high school. when 51% of african-american kids who graduated high school are unemployed, we need a massive job program to put people back to work.

and when our infrastructure, our roads and bridges there is more than enough work to do. let's rebuild the infrastructure. and create millions of decent paid jobs. today, the united states of america embarrassingly remains the only major nation on earth that does not guarantee health care as a right for all people. i voted for the affordable care act and it has done a lot of good. but there are still 35 million americans with no health insurance and many more who are underinsured. now is the time for us to say,

loudly and proudly, america will join the rest of the industrialized world with medicare for all single-payer insurance. [applause] senator sanders: and when my republican colleagues, at they s they have done for years tell us they have to cut social security despite the fact that millions of seniors are trying to survive on $13,000 a year we say, we are not going to cut social security. we are going to expand it i lifting the cap -- by lifting the cap for taxable income. my republican colleagues in the senate talk about family values.

you know what they are talking about. their family values say a woman does not have the right to control her body. i disagree. [applause] senator sanders: they say a woman should not be able to get a contraceptive. i disagree. they say that our brothers and sisters who are gay should not be able to enjoy the same marriage rights that heterosexual couples enjoy. we disagree. but we also have family values. not based on hatred but based on love and compassion. our family values say when a woman has a baby, she should get

12 weeks of family and medical leave to stay home. there was another issue out there that must be addressed. perhaps it is the most important issue of all. that is to understand that the supreme court's decision on citizens united is moving this country toward an oligarchic form of society because it is allowing billionaires to buy elections with super pac's and unlimited sums of money. [applause] senator sanders: it should not be acceptable to any american conservative, moderate progressive, that the koch brothers alone and extreme

right-wing family, will spend more money in this cycle than either the democratic or republican party. when one family spends more money than either political parties, brothers and sisters that is not democracy. that is the path of oligarchy. that is why citizens united must be overturned. [applause] senator sanders: i have not made many promises. he was one i have made -- here is one i have made. no nominee of mine to the supreme court will be made unless that man or woman is clear that they will vote to overturn citizens united.

and furthermore, we have to go further. we have to, in my view, movie funding of elections -- move the o public funding of elections so any person can run for office without being dependent on the wealthy and powerful. at my table this evening i have seven or eight wonderful young people. the reason i asked them to join me as to highlight a tragedy in this country. these people collectively over more than $1 million in student debt. i have introduced legislation and will fight as president of the u.s. to make certain every public college and university in

america is tuition free. [applause] senator sanders: we must also significantly reduce student debt. it is in saying that people in this room are paying 8%, 9%, 10% interest rates when you can refinance your home for 2-3%. we are going to do that. when we talk about our responsibility what that means is we have the moral obligation to make certain we leave this planet for our kids and grandchildren in a way that is habitable. [applause] senator sanders: it is an international embarrassment that my republican colleagues refuse

to evening knowledge the reality of climate change, let alone are prepared to do anything about it. [applause] senator sanders: in my view, this nation must and can lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy like wind, solar, and geothermal. [applause] senator sanders: and like everybody in this room, i want to see in america where when young black men walked down the street they will not be harassed by police officers. they will not be killed, they will not be shot. [applause]

senator sanders: to his credit, to his credit, president obama did something extraordinary the other day. he had the courage to go to a federal jail and talk about the absurdity of a criminal justice system if if we don't change it, one out of four male african-americans born today will end up behind ours. that is not the america we believe in. that is why we believe it makes more sense to invest in jobs and education, not jails and incarceration. [applause]

unto our 11 million brothers and sisters living in the shadows today, we say loudly and clearly , we are going to bring you out of the shadows and pass broad citizenship. we are not going to divide families up. brothers and sisters we are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. there is nothing you cannot accomplish. please do not think small think big. think about a future where our kids get the best education in the world. where our young people did the jobs and education they need. where women's rights are protected. that is what we can become if we

stand together and not at them divide us by race, gender, sexual orientation. let us band together. let us remake america together. thank you very much. [applause] >> bernie. bernie. bernie. bernie. [applause] >> and now i am honored to welcome our final keynote speaker, jim webb. [applause]

>> jim webb's career is defined by a lifetime of public service. he started out serving as a marine in vietnam, where he was awarded the navy cross and two purple hearts. [applause] >> he then served as assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs becausefore becoming secretary of the navy in 1987. he became the first naval academy graduate to serve as the civilian head of the navy. in 2006, he was elected to the senate where he passed the post-9/11 g.i. bill. jim has always stood up for those in need.

we are so honored to have his passion in the democratic party. please welcome me e join me in welcoming jim webb. senator webb: thank you very much. i have to say i had the pleasure of serving with bernie. we were elected in the same campaign cycle. bernie, you always fire me up. i appreciate the opportunity to be here. this is the center of where we need to change america. right here in the democratic party. it is amazing to see the energy here tonight. after what was just said, i would like to ask of those who

have served our country to stand and be recognized, if we might. [applause] senator webb: one of the great moments in my life, my professional life, when we were able to pass the post-9/11 g.i. bill. i wrote it with legislative council. i introduced it the first day i was a senator. there were a lot of people who thought we could not pass this most comprehensivee veterans legislation since world war ii. we built a prototype, and i would like you to consider this, a leadership prototype in the senate of a bipartisan commission.

over the objection of the bush administration to the last day of our vote. we passed the bill. since that time, more than one million 9/11 veterans have been able to ta have the kind of education bernie sanders talked about. a first class shot at the future. i also noticed the supporters mentioned on the back page about 10 of them are from organized labor. i know there are a lot of people from organized labor. i would like to say i am very proud of the fact i believe i'm the only statewide candidate in the history of virginia walked a union picket line during a campaign. those of you who know virginia know the risk involved in that. i am also the only statewide

candidate elected with a union card two purple hearts and three tattoos. we see so much demonizing of organized labor these days. when i look at what we would probably consider the most successful economic system in the world. if you want to look at the balance of trade, it is germany. if you look at their corporate boards they have for many years have organized labor as members of their corporate boards. we need to get the message out to america that organized labor is not the enemy. it is the friend of the working people. it is the voice, the way to start turning economic fairness issues around.

[applause] senator webb: we have a lot of problems in our country. we have heard a liquid remarks about those problems. -- we have heard eloquent remarks about those problems. what would you want in a president to turn these issues around? i would suggest, we should have a president who can articulate values of the democratic party and work at the same time across party lines. achieving bipartisan solutions and moving the country forward in a way we can govern. we have had it in the past, we can have it again. i believe i can do that. bernie sanders mentioned criminal justice. the fact that the president visited a federal prison and had an amnesty program for some people who had convicted

unfairly in terms of sentencing, long sentences. i would like to say, when i ran for the senate, i started talking about the need for this country to solve our broken criminal justice system. i had political advisers saying, i was committing lyrical suicide in virginia. we stuck on those issues. we held a two years of hearings in the senate on how to fix the system. we put a piece of legislation forward. creating a commission that would examine all of the different intersecting issues affecting our criminal justice system. we got a buy-in from 100 different stakeholders across the country and supporting this, including supreme court justice center kennedy and the american

bar association. everyone from the national sheriffs association to the aclu and the marijuana project. it is the only bill in the senate with both the marijuana association and sheriff association. we lost in the senate floor, it was full busted. i also raised the issue with our president. i suggested he could put that in an executive order and we could bring the best minds together to create the kind of solutions the president and bernie sanders were talking to i would say tonight, it has now been nine years since we started working on this issue. i would ask that the president consider taking one day, writing

this executive order, getting the commission together, and fixing the whole criminal justice system. not just part of it. also, i hope you will consider this of all the responsibilities of the president, none is greater than that of being your commander in chief. i spent my entire life in and around the u.s. military. i served in vietnam as a marine. i spent five years in the pentagon, four of them as executive. i have served as a journalist around the world covering the u.s. military including in beirut in 1983 when the marines were in beirut. some will remember the horrible explosion in ebay route airport that killed more than 200 -- in

the beirut airport that killed more than 200. i was in afghanistan as a journalist. i understand how our military works. i understand foreign-policy issues. if i were your president i would have never urged an invasion of iraq. as a senator, i would have never voted to authorize that proposal. five months before the invasion, i wrote a piece in the washington post warning this would be a disastrous strategic failure of historic proportions that we do not belong as an occupying power in that part of the world. that would in power iran and china. that would unleash sectarian violence and turn our soldiers into terrorist targets.

if i were your president i would not have authorized the use of military force in libya during what was called the arab spring. i warned repeatedly the use of military force in libya did not meet the test of a grave national security danger. it would have negative impacts in the entire region. i have to say, i'm still looking with some concern, great concern, about the agreement just signed with respect to iran. i would not as president sign any executive agreement long-term relationship with iran if it in any way tips the balance of power in that vital region of our world. particularly if it accepts

iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons. i will say that again. i will never accept directly or indirectly iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons. at the same time, i make it clear we have strong national security interests and we need to address them. we have talked a lot about these other issues that everyone is in strong agreement about tonight. let me speak about my view of what the american dream means. i call it the american trifecta. when our system works right we have a safety net under people who need it. who have fallen into hard times or retired. we have fairness in the middle. if you can truly make it, you