designed the way they are. they're designed to give the audience a chance to get specific about what you plan to do. so let's start off. we are several days into the trump administration, and he is swiftly implementing project 2025. there are a few schools of thoughts about how democrats should respond to trump. some believe we cannot get bogged down in responding to everything that trump and republicans do. others believe we cannot let

anything slide, and we must relentlessly push back. so i want to hear from each of you, starting with governor martin o'malley, what school of thought do you belong to, and can you explain what kind of resources and tactics you plan to employ to combat trump and the republicans? governor o'malley, you're first. >> sorry, there's two levels of this. one is we need to have a litigation strategy. we need to work with the attorney generals of the united states on that litigation strategy, as well as other partners. there will be so many things that he seeks to do. the birthright citizenship was, you know, just one of them. the other things contained in project 25. 2025. the things that he's looking to do to fire career civil servants, all of those are going to require a litigation strategy . when it comes to pushing back on

a on a larger front to the general public, a lot of those things can sound like ground clutter. we need to be focused on pushing back on the things that do harm to the economic security, health, and well-being of the hardest working people in our economy. those very people that were persuaded that he might actually help them because they weren't happy with the status quo. so we need to push back hard. third, i mean, in addition on the the larger message, there's also another very important thing, and that is the dignity of every person. this is a president who gives not one iota about the dignity of every person, whereas we are a party that actually does care. we are a party that fights for the dignity of every person, one of the most important values in our republic, which leads me to the third one. every day in the united states of america, kids still take a pledge of allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands.

when donald trump does things that undermine the very foundations of what it is to be a republic, i'm talking about rule of law or his new theory of divine right of dictators or divine right of kings, we need to hit him hard on that as well. we can't go after every shiny bright thing, but when it comes to his dismantling of our government, litigation strategy, when it comes to message, it's economic security, health, well-being, dignity of every person, and the republic. >> thank you. ms. williamson. same question. >> one of the first things i will do is to establish a dnc policy institute. we will be on it every single day, both with the news that's unfolding, as well as things that donald trump has done. what is our best thinking to provide for the american people, the alternative to that. people's fear will be lessened because they will know we have a better plan. this is what we are going to do. we have a project 2028. we will see everything he does in the context of what we plan to do.

then we will push out this. -- this information. we will push it out to every democratic leader. we will also take from the democratic leaders both on federal level, state levels, and local levels, the ideas that they have. we will make sure that every democrat, every democrat out there, everybody in the electorate has the information. we will use media. we will establish our own media, and we will do everything that is necessary to make sure that we, as the government in exile, are holding the space for a government that is based on our national creed, our declaration of independence and our constitution. we will also point out the large picture issues that are involved. he's very shrewd, donald trump, and he has a way of doing the worst things and making them sound to many, many people like it's a good thing. we'll make sure that people know. as governor o'malley said, we're not going to pick on every little thing. we're not going to deal with the noise. we're not going to deal with the distractions, but we're going to deal with the basic issues. what donald trump and the

republicans have done is they've created a cohesive story. we haven't done that in the past, and when i'm the chair of the dnc, we sure will. people will understand not only the policy, but the larger context, the larger values, and the larger american story that they are part of. no one will have to be afraid of donald trump because we will put them into action, and they will know we're getting ready for 2026 already. this is what we need to do. keep your eyes on the prize. the prize is we're going to win in 206. we're going to win in 2028, and their madness will be behind us. >> thank you. mr. martin, same question. >> well, thank you so much. i mean, look, we already know that trump will fail americans. he's already failing americans, right? you can think about this just in the last three days alone. the policies he's pushing are not going to help anyone in this country. i don't know how changing the name of the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america helps working people in this country. i don't know how it helps working people when you take

away birthright citizenship or when you're increasing the cost of prescription drugs in this country, and so we have to fight back. we have to stand up when the stakes are so high. if our democratic party is not willing to stand up and resist right now the excesses and extremes of this administration, how in the hell can anyone believe that we will fight for them when we're back in power? so it is absolutely critical at this moment when trump fails the american people that we stand up and fight back and push back hard. we have a new oligarchy that's controlling this government. you saw that on monday when he was inaugurated, sitting right behind him were the three rich est men in the world, and his cabinet, by the way, is worth a combined total of $460 billion. $460 billion. this is not the top 1%. this is the top. .001% now controlling our federal government. you think they give a damn about

working people in this country? you think they're going to stand up and help anyone actually put groceries on their table or bring down the cost of their lives? no, just the opposite. they propped up this guy, donald trump, so they could rob this country on the backs of working people, and we have to stand up and fight back against them, and we are going to do that by having a permanent campaign where were out there talking to people every day at their doors and we have a permanent communications infrastructure so we're not starting to define ourselves a few months before the election. this is critical. we have to be everywhere, organizing everywhere, and communicating everywhere to get our message out. we also, by the way, have to define ourselves and give people a sense of who we are and what we're fighting for as a democratic party. >> thank you. mr. snyder. >> well, i think unlike some of my colleagues here, i spent years at the department of homeland security fighting domestic terrorism, fighting domestic violent extremism, and taking on groups like the the proud boys, oath keepers, and three per centers that we've all seen in the news. they've made it abundantly clear

that they now are going to run for office, and they've now been emboldened by a narrative pushed by the president currently. i haven't heard really any new ideas. i've heard organizing. i've heard various other things. these are within our norms. if we are going to take this battle on and win it and dismantle this propaganda machine and really do some good work here, then we need to start thinking differently. the other side's been able to weaponize information in a way to where it's filling various spaces. they're throwing everything at the wall, and when things are sticking, they're double or quadrupling down on it. we need to think in this context. we need to think in a crisis mentality, and what that means is also improving our information sharing infrastructure. right now, we are not filling the space. we are not responding to what's happening on the border. we're not talking about the immigrant communities that are being targeted or the threats that our law enforcement officials are facing. look, you know, some of the survivors from the january 6th attack, i mean they're having their families swatted. so what we need to do is improve

our communication infrastructure. i have a proposal that would set up a new analytics center within the dnc that would share information with the states on a real-time basis to sift through the mis- and disinformation, but also provide actionable information. what they can do to push back, and this will go to our allies. these will go to our activists, and it needs to be two-way communication because as we've seen, we've seen things that can be very local become national at a split second. right now, we don't have the ability to do that. so all the talking points of organizing can't be calibrated at this moment because otherwise we'll be moving and going through plans blindly. this is critical to what we must do in order to move forward and to take on the hate and the fear that we're seeing right now. >> thank you, mr. snyder. dr. hathaway, same question, please. >> ms. rita, can you restate the question, please? i'm so far down the line. >> yes, i'm more than happy to restate it. so the question is, what kind of resources and tactics do you plan to employ to combat trump

and the republicans, and do you think that we should be responding to everything or should we pick and choose our battles? i'm paraphrasing that part. >> ok. even within this race, it is not reflective of the multiracial, multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-gender, sexual orientation, even within the chairship race. it is going to take all voices coming to the table, of listening, not just going on the speaking and listening tour, but have actionable steps in order to combat the current 47, 45th administration. what we do know is that women get up under his skin, especially strong, fearless women get under his skin. i'm just crazy enough to believe

because i am in this race and been doing politics for quite some time that if he were to come across a strong, confident, determined, well-spoken black woman like he did back during the recent election, there will be some problems, there will be radical change unlike he has never seen before. we're going to cover this thing on all fronts. i say within the first few days of being elected for this seat, we are going to go into every church and mosque and synagogue and crisscross across this country beginning in the south, which i am most familiar with in order to get our messaging out to project in such a way that there is a new vision, a new leader, a new executive leadership, a new dnc that has been breathed into the democratic party. i believe in us as a team.

i saw something that mr. paul put out earlier today, kind of put a little smile on my face. go ahead, mr. jason paul. we kind of probably talked the most among any of the other candidates. but i'm telling you all that something new, a new life, a new song will be injected into how we communicate and how we treat one another as a democrat. >> thank you, dr. hathaway. mr. wickler, same question, please. >> trump launched his presidency with what was intended to be a shock and awe campaign, and at this point, none of us should be shocked, and none of us should be awed. our job is to recognize that while lawmakers and elected officials have to do a lot of things at once, the democratic party has just one job. it's to defeat republicans and elect democrats so that we put people in office who can make a difference in people's lives, and that speaks to our job when it comes to communication. donald trump is already betraying every campaign promise he made. among his flurry of executive actions, his attacks on immigrant families, his attacks on americans across gender

identity, his rollback of half century old civil rights measures, his unleashing the january 6th insurrectionists, all of which we need to fight . amongst all that was his rollback of the biden executive order to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. and i can't think of a single person who voted for donald trump, except maybe someone who will personally profit from it, who wants prescription drugs to be more expensive. and in the wake of that, we have the opportunity to make sure that voters know that trump is already trying to rip them off. now, we do that by recognizing that people get news and information from a number of places and that pictures speak louder than words. that means that the photos of trump in his oligarch row, that shows whose side he's on, and we work with influencer networks and creator networks. we go on right wing media, we build up progressive independent media, we shape culture to make sure that people can see that, that they feel that. we know that elon musk shirt looked like he was throwing a

nazi salute in his announcement, and no matter what explanation his allies try to dream up, the reason why that hit home is because the policies of this administration are attacking and demonizing communities across this country. and while we tie the republicans up in knots by moving faster than them, by undermining their attempts to fool the public, to divide us, to rip us apart, we also build plans to elect democrats and contrast the republican wreckage with what democrats do to change people's lives. and when i say democrats, it's not just that the democrats in elective office, it's the local unions like the culinary workers in nevada. >> thank you. mr. paul, same question. >> i believe in being an opposition party. now what i mean by that is if donald trump in congress would like to offer us 90% of what we want, then we should take it. if he wants to offer us 80% of what we want, we should think about taking it. if he wants to offer us anything less than what we would do if we

were in charge, then our mission, our statement has to be very clear. it is his job to fix all of the problems in this country, because one of the things about a strong man that donald trump believes himself to be is that excuses for why you can't get the things you've done. the things you want done do not play at all. in his sort of strong man world. so it is incredibly important that sort of democrats not play the game of maybe we can, you know, for the good of the country, we should like, you know, save this thing or for the good of the country we should save this thing and for the good of this. no, at the end of the day, the american people expect donald trump to solve all their problems. he promised to solve all their problems, and it's incumbent upon us to sort of not let him accomplish anything by being a true opposition party.

i mean, this works in europe. in europe, when you're not in charge, they don't expect you to vote for anything. it's the government's government that has to pass things. no one in opposition in england is expected to vote for the government's plan. i know we have districts, but we are now so partisanly set that works for pretty much everyone in our caucus, and if it doesn't for a small number, you know, maybe they can get exceptions, but really just be in opposition because if they can't accomplish the things they say they're going to accomplish, then the failure itself will speak the entire tale, and i agree we need better messaging, and i think we need all the good stuff that a lot of my opponents, sorry, one of my fellow candidates said, but really to me it is about letting donald trump have all of the power to fail on his own. >> thank you, mr. paul. all right, moving on to the next question. i think many of us can agree that the natural disasters and climate crises are becoming increasingly politicized and weaponized by political opponents.

we've seen this happen with the disinformation that spread around the biden-harris administration's response to the hurricanes, and more recently against democrats like mayor karen bass and governor gavin newsom with the california wildfires that are still raging. what role, if any, should the dnc and/or the dnc chair play in the political response to these events? i'm gonna ask you all this question, and to keep it simple, i'm gonna keep it in the same order so that you know when to expect to speak. so again, governor martin o'malley. >> thank you. i'm the only candidate in this race so far, i believe, that unveiled a 100 day plan, and on day one, i'm going to announce the standing up of that information war room that you've heard a lot of us talk about. one of the really positive developments out of this debate is most everybody agrees we need to have better rapid response. we need to be online. and in an instance like this when we see karen bass being savage, when we see gavin newsom

being savage, we need to speak up as a party. when our candidates are attacked in these ways, we need to combat the disinformation. we need to push back on the things that they are aggressively pushing to try to take advantage of this suffering. and by the way, my heart goes out to all of you in california that have been dealing with this, the loss of life, the loss of property. it is just disgusting to see donald trump take off after this tragedy and then try to use it as a way to smear and attack the elected officials that are out there doing everything they can to address this emergency. so they have to stay focused on the emergency, but we have to stay focused on the emergency that is donald trump using his 24/7 disinformation, misinformation, and we have to be able to push back on it. to that end, i want to regionalize the directors and

put them out in the regions, and i also want to invest in digital communications experts in every state party so that as the dnc is doing the good work that we must at the centers and enterprise with the analytics that nate mentioned, with tested messaging that works, with the recruiting of influencers and people to organize online, we need to be able to link up with the states to do that too. that's the most important thing that we can -- it is the single biggest failing as a party is our inability to respond rapidly to disinformation and to be organized online. >> thank you. ms. williamson, same question. >> one of the most dangerous things that donald trump said in his inaugural address was drill baby drill, and he's even been successful at convincing people that somehow this will help them because this has to do with inflation. his entire argument makes no sense. his drill baby drill is a plan for the desecration of our planet.

we had last year alone 34 of these disasters, each one of them billions and billions of dollars wreaking havoc on people's lives, and in some cases, people lost their lives. we need to do more than win elections. we need to win minds and hearts, and the republican forces guided by all of that money from big oil has convinced people that climate change is a hoax. we need people to understand this is not the time to be revving up fossil fuel extraction. this is the time to be ramping down fossil fuel extraction. this is not a time to be withdrawing our resources from the development of clean energy. this is the time to be massively claiming and resourcing the development of green energy, but we have to be as audacious once again. we have to make it clear to the american people what we stand for. we need to tell the american people in ways that are very, very clear, you think that hurricane is bad? you think that fire is bad? according to every scientist,

climate scientist out there that's not paid for by big oil, more are coming. we must treat this as an emergency. we must see that this is something, this lack of reverence towards the earth, this lack of reverence towards animals, this lack of reverence towards ourselves and our own grandchildren is not only un-american, it has no reverence or caretaking for humanity itself. we must tell our story. we must connect our plans to mitigate climate change with the highest values of our democracy, the highest values of our humanity, and make it so clear that it's obvious that those oil execs and those oil billionaires that have taken this country from a government of the people, by the people, for the people of the corporations, by the corporations, of the corporations, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires will end as soon as we get back in office. help us get there. >> thank you. mr. martin. same question. >> thank you so much.

and look, you know, my niece is a firefighter for cal fire, and while her and her colleagues were literally trying to save people's lives, save people's homes, the republican misinformation campaign was out there trying to politicize a natural disaster. i mean, look, we've seen terrible natural disasters around this country. north carolina, florida, and california. you know, they don't differentiate between red states or blue states. the reality is we have a solemn obligation to help those communities, whatever state they're in, that's in crisis. yet the republicans continue to politicize. and, you know, one of the challenges for the democratic party, of course, is they're very sophisticated in how they do this. they start online in all of these information spaces conjuring up all these conspiracy theories, and over time and in a very quick time, they're able to get that into the mainstream media. within hours, mainstream media were repeating the same conspiracy theories targeting

elected officials who are trying to deal with the crisis. we have to do a better job in this moment of combating misinformation and disinformation in real time. i agree with governor o'malley, i love the idea he has about having an information war room. look, 40% of americans say they avoid the news at all costs, but we know that 90% of americans have smartphones, and they're getting barraged all the time with information, much of it disinformation, much of it misinformation. nate snyder on here is an expert in this, and he's brought up a lot of important ideas. that our party needs to adopt to make sure we are doing this in real time. we can't wait days to combat misinformation. we have to do it in real time because if we don't, it starts to bleed into the mainstream media in ways that it then these perceptions and conspiracy theories start to become real in the minds of voters and others throughout these communities. we've got to do better as a party. >> thank you. mr. snyder.

>> all right. thank you, ken. i appreciate that acknowledgement. i mean, look, i had to deal with this at dhs to where we had to protect our workers from fema and our first responders while they were getting attacked essentially by this mis- and disinformation. so yes, there's an incentive right now that we didn't really have as the democratic party because a lot of the institutions that we relied on right now, quite frankly, are rotting with the folks who are coming in within the trump administration. so we have an added responsibility not only to protect our communities but protect those first responders because the mis- and disinformation is affecting their ability to put fires out to make sure that people are safe. and so there's actually all the things that people are talking about from a digital space. yes, we need to do all those things, but even more so we need to do a better job educating not only the dnc members, but candidates, those in elected office, on the indicators, on the behaviors when it comes to this digital landscape, and also the various messaging that comes through it.

this is all from a big picture on the disruption. and so, yes, it's easy to get overwhelmed, but the easy place to really focus on is local. so that's really where my plan is going to look at is enabling, empowering those at the local level. because if we can make folks force multipliers -- yes, online, but more importantly off-line as well -- i mean, who better to interfere or interrupt like whether it's a trusted teacher or a parent or a coach or a first responder or things of that sort to where you can dispel these lies, this fear and this hate right then and there. but you've got to do it in both ways. so yes, i think youth is a clear, clear solution to this. i agree with governor o'malley. we need to empower youth, but they are also native users of this environment. we need to put them in leadership roles. we need to put them in leadership roles at the state level, and we need to unleash their creativity and their ability of knowing the space, not only to lead the party, but to lead the way with those who need to be protected. and that's something that we haven't done and is quite frankly easy to do.

and then last, i like i said, i would love to have a digital boot camp for folks so they can get up to speed on this and learn the threats as they're coming out. >> thank you. dr. hathaway. same question. >> as the dnc chair, whomever rises to that position will have a national and international megaphone to speak to the issues that are most pressing, not simply in the state of california as they experience the wildfires that are ravaging communities, tearing apart schools, separating communities, and i truly believe that some people will simply not return back to that area because of the traumatic experience that they are having. i say all those things, be calm. we collectively, individually. have a megaphone right now from the space in which we are sitting to use our voice, our time, our talent, our expertise. to craft a message around what

is happening right now in southern california. we have to use it. i actually tweeted, x, however we want to call the platform now, just the other day, about every governor in this country ought to use their firefighters, deploy them, as well as national guard all across this country because a natural disaster can have strike anywhere across the nation. and have them sent to southern california to be able to determine how can we be, how can they be as a party be of most uh effective manner. that could cut across even democratic ag's, lending their voice to those that would excuse me, those that would be victims of insurance fraud or housing insurance claims that would not be acknowledged, even among the

democratic governors association, have that pool of individuals speak directly with governor newsom and say, hey, how can we be of most service considering that we're all a part of the same party. what i'm saying is that we can do some intentional, methodical things in a new way, once we all unite and come with a regular season message. >> thank you. mr. wickler. >> thank you. this is a time of tragedy, and it's compounded by the most hideous gop assault, which i wish was something new, but it's what we're seeing over and over. and unfortunately, we've had to learn how to counter disinformation, which is to lead with the truth with trusted messengers, and a big part of our job is to build up that trust so we can break through the wall of lies in moments like this. the truth is that republicans are playing politics with people's lives as homes burn. they're putting strings on disaster aid. it's a betrayal of the idea of the united states, the ideals of our flag, and we can put republicans on defense by demonstrating that they're

opposed to values that the vast majority of americans share. i'm sure all of us running for chair now, probably most people watching here, are close to people who've seen their homes burn down, who've seen things that they've treasured throughout their lives disappear in the wreckage and in the flames, and the idea that the republican party thinks they can get away with these conspiracies and this character assassination and these attacks without suffering political consequences is a dream that republicans have that we need to puncture immediately. now, when we go on offense, it does mean working with creators and influencers and people who work in culture and don't think of themselves as working in politics, but who recognize the assault on our shared values that republicans are perpetuating. to be able to do that, we do have to be, as governor o'malley has said, we have to be on every platform. and i'm running for chair in part because at the democratic party of wisconsin, we've built the strongest digital communications infrastructure of any state party in the country. we worked on twitter to build a massive national network.

we worked with influencers and creators. now it's over on blue sky. we've built on tiktok. now it's on red note. whatever platform it is, we need to be able to be there and communicate to beat the truth, beat the lies with the truth. and when we do that, we'll defeat republicans and have the power to address the underlying issues of climate change and inequality and injustice to reduce the risk that people in red, blue, and purple states alike face in this warming world. >> thank you. mr. paul. >> so, cyberspace is mean. we need to compete there and everyone's ideas to do that are good, but we are going to win -- we aren't going to win there because a lot of disinformation is what people want to believe. birtherism, qanon, trump won in 2020, the flimsiness of all of these shows it's that's what people want to believe. they actively choose it. i agree we have to fight it, but it's a much harder thing for me. the way we fight it is not racing into those spaces that we

need to. the way we fight it is with my 10,000 organizers. it's one per county, so we show absolute respect to everyone. it's 10,000 because that's one per 50,000 voters. and i want to put them in blue counties, red counties, yellow counties. if donald trump succeeds in taking greenland, then we're going to put an organizer in greenland. every place has to be different, but we're needed everywhere. i think some people might say, well, we can't afford this, and i say we can't afford not to do it because if we don't have someone who's a permanent social presence in the communities, it is very clear that in a lot of red areas they don't know a democrat who they like. and if you don't know a democrat who you like, it is almost impossible for you to decide that you like democrats. it's much easier when sort of, you know, barack obama ascends the stage and everybody loves him and so people are like, i like that obama guy. i don't care what you say about

him, he's great. but when you don't have that sort of figure that has that deep rooted appeal, people don't want to -- you know, if people don't like both candidates, they're going to go with the way that their community is. and i think we've seen that over and over and over again that that we lost both elections because of people who didn't like either candidate choosing to vote for trump by 20 points, and that's because we're not there. and i want us to be there. and if we can't afford it, we have to afford it. >> thank you, mr. paul. all right, so this is the western region that we're focusing on, and so we've received some questions. i'm trying -- they're gonna be more so show of hands, but if you really feel like it's a gotcha and you want to elaborate, then feel free to pipe up and i will allow some time for particular responses. but these are not meant to be gotcha questions.

so, the first one comes from michael capp. he is a california dnc member and he's asked the question, have you always been registered a democrat? so show of hands, have you always been registered a democrat? >> wisconsin doesn't have partisan voter registration, but i've always been a democrat and i've always been registered. >> all right, sounds good. and ms. williamson, looks like you are muted. >> i'm sorry, i was an independent for about six months. >> ok, all right, that's great. so you've explained it. we can move on to the next question. the next question comes from joseph salas, who is also a california dnc member, and he wants to know, do you support the formation of a muslim caucus at the dnc? show of hands if you support that. >> and i would just say in minnesota we're proud to be the first state to establish a muslim caucus, and we want more state parties to do the same. >> ours is in right now. >> that is a point where i also agree with chair martin. >> they should have their space

at the table equivalent to all other caucuses. >> ok, and miss williamson you wanted to make a quick comment. >> i'd ask the muslims if that's what they want, and if that's what they want, then i'd say yes. >> ok, sounds good. all right, and then the last question, there are a lot of questions and concerns around transparency, around potential conflicts of interest, so i whittled it down to the the most common denominator of those questions, which is, will you exclusively serve the dnc as our chair, and resign, withdraw from all existing employment, self-employment relationships? if not, then i would give you time to respond to that. but if that is an easy yes, show of hands. can i see those hands? ok, it looks like everybody raised their hand. if anybody didn't and i missed it, then please feel free to unmute yourself and i will give you 30 seconds.

ok. all righty, so let's move on to the next round. there were more questions, but like i said, i whittled it down as to the common themes that we weren't redundant and long-winded. all right, so let's talk a little bit more about tactics. it's been mentioned several times throughout this forum about fundraising. and i have a little beef with fundraising in the sense that we are constantly bombarded with text messages and emails, and i know that many of them do not come directly from the dnc, but i'm curious to hear from each of you. what do you plan to do to ensure that the party reaches people beyond just asking for money, and for people to feel like they're getting a value for their contributions? so each of you are going to answer this, and we're going to stick with the same order with governor o'malley coming first. >> yeah, there is a crying need for greater openness and transparency at the dnc. not only how we spend our money,

how we raise our money. and i am the first candidate in this race, and i challenge all the other candidates to follow suit, to publish all of the people that have that have given money to my campaign. i know we don't need to do that for another whatever 30 days, but the reason i did it is because i've heard on all of these calls that we've been making, i've heard from people that they feel like they cannot trust us. they feel like there's some other forces that work on the democratic party to possibly silence us or to have their own way. so, i have released all of my contributions. we set a goal of what we needed in order to make our case to the 440 some members of the dnc. we raised our money to do that, and i would hope that the other candidates would show who is funding their campaigns. i think that's kind of a top line thing that we should expect because our party needs to be more open. we need to be more transparent.

we can't -- every time somebody opens the dnc email, it shouldn't be like we're a vacuum cleaner saying, give us more money, give us more money, give us more money. we're a party that stands for the economic security, health and well-being of every man, woman, and child in our country. but in this new era with declining trust in government and institutions, including parties, the only way for us to regain the trust that we need to regain in terms of our party's ability to fight for people. is to be open and transparent about our own finances, about our own contributions, and i think that in this race we could set a really good tone for this next era of change, of openness , of transparency. i wrote the book on openness and transparency. it is the only way to turn an organization around to get people back in the game. we have to be open and transparent, and i believe that begins with this race. >> thank you. ms. williamson. same question. >> the democratic party's relationship to money has

poisoned our relationship with the american people. it was only in the late 1970's that the dnc even started taking corporate money, and from that point forward, our hypocrisy became so obvious. now, this is the deal. hillary clinton had a lot more money than donald trump. she lost. we all know about the absurd expenditures that were made during the kamala harris campaign. the goal of the 21st century is not money, it's human relationships. our relationship with people in which we just show up during election season, give me money, give me money, give me money, when every donor to the democratic party now realizes what a low return on investment they got anyway. so we have to be talking to people every day of the year. what do you need from us? not what they need to give to us in order to win. bernie sanders and his campaigns have already proven what we can do with low dollar donations, low dollar donations, not the

billionaires that are funding so much of what has happened, so much of what has happened during the primary, and even influencing this particular race. it's got to stop. we need to make a commitment. the american people need to see this, and until -- because what has happened now. is that the perception on the part of americans is that we're more about corporate donations than the republicans are. now you and i know that on a certain level that's absolutely absurd, but on another level it's not. the american people don't trust us right now, and cleaning up our relationship to money is a large part of the repair work that we have to do. if we can't get the job done without huge corporate donations, if we can't get the job done without huge billionaire funders, then shame on us. we're not doing it right. we need to be based on our values. we need to be based on our word. we need to be based on our policies, and that doesn't take a dime. and when we start doing it that way, people will send us their dimes, their dollars, their appropriate donations, and that's what's going to make us win.

the money has poisoned things for us. it hasn't ultimately helped. >> thank you. mr. martin. >> well, thank you so much. and let me just start by saying i'm really proud of governor o'malley for taking the lead on this, and our campaign will be releasing a list of our donors and how much they've given to the campaign. if we are going to talk about our values as a party, we have to live them. my old boss paul wellstone used to say that you should never separate the life you lead from the words you speak. there's too many hypocrites in politics who say one thing and do another. and i'm proud of governor o'malley for taking the lead on this, and we plan to release our donors and that list within a couple of days here. but let me get to the specific point that you made. the reality is how all of us are sick and tired of the emails, the doom emails, the sky is falling. if you don't give us $5 today within 24 hours, we won't meet our deadline and we won't win, right? what about an email asking folks to volunteer, to go out and door knock? what about an update email

saying, hey, here's what we're doing to get our message out? here's what your contribution has allowed us to do on the campaign. what about just, you know, maybe an email asking folks for their ideas and giving them a sense of ownership and agency within our campaigns? no, we're all sick and tired of these doom emails saying that if you don't give, we're going to lose an election. and i know why we do it. we all do it because it raises a lot of money. but at some point, at what cost? we're turning people off from the party. we're turning people off and away from politics. there's already a low trust in institutions. there's a low trust in politics generally, and the more that we engage in these behaviors, whether they're successful or not, the more they're turning off some of the most loyal people who have always been there supporting us with small dollar contributions, right? most of the people who give to us are giving five dollars, 10 dollars, $15, $20 a month on a regular basis because they believe in our party and our party values, and sure they want us to win. we don't have to beat them, beat that into them, right? they know that they share our

values and our desire to win, but we don't need to scare them into giving. and if that's our tactic, we shouldn't be doing it anymore. so, thank you for raising that. >> thank you. mr. snyder. >> i think it comes down to reimagining on how we fundraise period, and also repair our relationship with donors. look, i've talked about being a national security expert for some time. i also come from seiu, and being the national political coordinator over there, i revamped and re-led and redeveloped a whole entire plan, focusing on building political power through memberships through direct donations. the big thing here is it was sustainable. it wasn't always every two to four years, or every election cycle when these ebbs and flows. so we hear all these things about, you know, permanent organizing or even some of the things that i mentioned. none of those are going to be possible unless we have a steady revenue stream that's sustainable. and so, i think in order to get those things done, we can learn from labor. we can learn from their models on how they're building political power through

reoccurring donations. we also learn from programs like, say for instance, with the steelworkers. i was an affiliate steelworker member and a great program of that. they told you what you were buying into. they also told you what the benefits were of doing so. we need to improve that visibility and transparency with the 6 million donors that we're working with. and even further, we need to ask more. in so many ways with the 6 million donors, we are asking them for their money, but it's only transactional. then the conversation. stops -- then the conversation stops. and it also goes down to our values. look, also working for labor, also understanding too that when you get a check from labor, that's coming from hundreds of thousands of people, not just billionaires and not just corporates. and so, i think we need to take that into heart too, because the one lesson i learned through all that organizing and working through members and those who are giving the most, it boiled down to this. it was those who made the less gave the most. and so i think there needs to be a reemphasis on small dollar donations, building a culture of

transparency, and rethinking entirely how we're building a new relationship with our donors and how we go about tactically on how we raise money in the future. >> thank you. dr. hathaway. >> in industry, there is a concept called outcome-based contract awards. we must begin to do the work seriously, to guarantee that our dollars are connected to outcomes and actually winning elections, local, state, and federal. we have to use those dollars to support candidates in each and every state, as well as have a serious presence at the county, state, and dnc level. i know we keep talking about this 448 membership. but as the leader, the chair of the dnc, that individual is a spokesman for the entire party

and that spokespersonship expands when we are out of power, which we are there at a trifecta level in the courts, the legislature, and the presidency. i took a couple of notes, you all. y'all know i'm a teacher. i can't help myself. but i also wrote that personally, my expenditures, my revenue, comes directly from my personal salary. as i've talked about and is able to be found, i'm a school teacher. i use my teaching salary in order to pay for all of our travels, all of my travel and my food and lodging and all those things that i've been on this campaign trail. so i'll speak to that piece in response to governor o'malley. but when i tell you i understand, even as a former candidate for congress, the majority of my campaign even came out of my own personal expenditure, my own personal coffer. that happens to many candidates

that put themselves on the line when they run for office and the dnc, and oftentimes not even the state party has the revenue to reimburse them after they have put their all on the line for a campaign. so, when i tell you i hear you , that our budgets are a reflection of our value system, they are a reflection of our priorities as a party, under new leadership, those things will change. >> thank you. mr. wickler. >> we have a lot of great ideas in this race about what we need to do. making them real will take funds, and there's a real question in this race of who can raise the funds to fight everywhere year round and live out our values to make a difference in people's lives without burning out the people that we're asking to donate to that work. if we want to raise this money, it's going to take engaging with people, as jason paul says, as human beings and not as atm's, and it will require showing that we can be stewards of people's resources. i've built a record as the strongest fundraiser in this

race. we've raised more in the democratic party of wisconsin in 5.5 years than other candidates have raised in 14 years, leading state parties or as heads of national committees. we've raised more than any other democratic state party in the country. and we've done that because we show what we're going to do and then we do it and we show our work. we lean into fights that make a difference in the lives of working people. when we're organizing a year out from an election, we're explaining why we're going out to listen, to ask people at their door what issue matters most to them, because that's how we build the trust that we can then use to win elections the next spring for local office and to win statewide races the next november. we lean into those fights. we do this work, and we engage with people knowing that they only donate to democrats because we know the values that we're fighting for, the people that we're fighting for, working people across race and ethnicity across all of our communities. this is a moment when democrats don't have the white house. we don't have a senate majority. we don't have a house majority. what we have is our values and

our determination to win elections so we can make a difference in the lives of working people. and if we're going to be able to work with the union movement, with grassroots organizations, with our allies and partners, and be able to look ourselves in the mirror and look to our donors, millions of people chipping in at all levels, they need to know that we'll use those funds to be able to deliver victories and to make change. that has been my record as the democratic party of wisconsin chair. that's what i'll bring to the dnc race. this will take funds to be able to win. we need to raise them and use them to make a difference. >> thank you. mr. paul. >> so the first thing i said in this campaign is stop the damn texts. and a cultural icon as powerful as "the simpsons" focused on this as a problem in their halloween episode. the monster, the blue monster was going to destroy a gun factory, and then instead the blue monster sent all the blue people a text telling them to give in the nevada senate race. so when it's become that level of cultural takeover, we know

it's a serious problem. the texts now use horrible practices. 500% matches. they're promising laws after we lost control of congress and the white house. they said, if you just give, we're going to get the no kings act. if you just give, we're going to get for more -- four more supreme court justices. $5 can fix everything to a vulnerable, angry, scared population. they then sent one that was a non-senator had proposed a new law. and i will say that one of the things i did, you know, when figuring this out, i was like, well, who's responsible for this? and unfortunately there is one company that sends about 80% of the texts i get and 95% of the ones that are bad. and we need to figure out a way to, you know, if we have to go to actblue and tell them you can't treat our donors like this anymore. they don't exist without us. we don't exist without them. we might have to do that because experts are telling me it's not

just annoying, but it's destructive and destabilizing to our entire ecosystem of wanting to be involved in this. you know, it's a joke. it's a meme joke, and i would say we need to get into the entire ecosystem and not throw up our hands and say, well, this isn't us, this isn't the dnc, . you know, i will say that char whickler's emails from the democratic party of wisconsin are all, i don't find there are a lot of them, but i don't find them to be at that level. but you know, when people think that it's us doing it, if it says democrat, that's us whether we want it to be us or not. so stop the damn texts. >> thank you. all very good answers. i appreciate the, the dialogue on that. now i've watched prior forums, so i have a good sense of everybody's philosophy on how the democratic party presidential nominating process should be handled. that is one of the major responsibilities of the dnc

chair. but i want to hear specifics beyond holding listening sessions on your position as of today. so, i understand that you all want to take the pulse of a lot of people, but your instincts, your position short of what people will then tell you and form a new position, what is your position today about what the process should look like for 2028? and i'll start again with governor o'malley. >> you're talking about the order of the states and what order they go in? >> yes, it could be that. it could also be the participation, the eligibility, all of those things. of debates and all those things. >> let me say with regard to the actual order that there has to be an open and transparent process within the dnc to debate the pros and cons of which state should go first, and i would hope that's guided by a desire to make sure that those earliest states are small enough so that as many candidates who can

afford to can compete in those states, and i also hope that it is diverse in terms of its geography, the regions of the country. i feel like, you know, the people of south carolina really stepped up in recent years. they helped us in their own discernment process and their own vote. i think have four good years between these two trump administrations. and certainly if we're going to have, as dr. hathaway often reminds us, if we're going to have a new strategy for the south, i believe that there's nothing wrong with having south carolina be the earliest contest. now, that'll have to be a decision made by the dnc, but it would certainly mean that our candidates have to be tried out and they have to compete in a southern state. and the future of this party and the future of our country depends on our party becoming better in southern states. let me address a little bit another very important thing.

most people don't know, there is no equal time in american party. primary debates. there's equal time when you get to the general, and people can see it. you divide the time equally between candidates. harris, candidate trump, but in the primaries, the rating agencies in the entertainment industry have taken over who we hear from and who we hear from the most. and if i am the chair of the dnc and i need your support, i am going to make sure that we have a backbone again when it comes to people covering or broadcasting our own primaries. there needs to be equal time, not a foot on the scale to see which candidate agitates and sells the most soap. >> thank you. thank you, governor. mrs. williamson. >> isn't this about, didn't you ask about specific plans? this that in general? specific plans? >> yes. >> first of all, in defense of this entire group, i've heard

specific plans from everybody here. i think everybody here has a lot of really great specific plans. you can see mine at maryannfordnc.com. you can see my plan, but this is the issue. there is so much the dnc can do to up level our candidates. candidates have to spend too much time raising money in order to do things that we can help them with, ok? and that's leaders as well. so first of all, i talked about the policy institute. we should be putting out policy papers all the time that democratic candidates can use. also, we should be getting a lot of our technical capacities in bulk. why should every candidate in this country who is a democrat have to raise the money for their own ngp van, for their own websites and so forth? the dnc should exist to help candidates, to stand behind until the people have decided who that candidate is, and the part of our planning should be to actually help people up level. this goes back to the issue of what a cohesive message the republicans have. we need to be continuing to give not just democratic talking points, but democratic policies,

democratic values a way to our candidates. too much of the democratic, the dnc operates from a you give to me. everything having to do with candidates and having to do with states, whether it has to do with money, whether it has to do with data. my plan has to do with pushing out not only as much of the money that we can, but also through the policy institute , through buying some of this in bulk. this is such a money game and at this point we have a money game that's high and it is at the expense of our ground game. it's paradoxical. the money's not helping us. that money, it should be less about asking for money and more about giving out information. it's mental power that we need to use. it's heart that we need to use. all of us have plans. my plans for the project 2028, but it's going to have to do with enrolling people, the imagination, the inspiration that enrolls people in effectuating the plan. >> thank you, ms. williamson, and i did not mean, i was not trying to insinuate that you all were being evasive. i was just setting the stage for

hoping to hear specifics about preferences and the order of things that you all plan to help navigate as dnc chair. so, moving on to mr. martin. >> thank you so much. and this is really important because our party has to make sure that we do not have our thumb on the scale in any way, shape, or form. that our process has to be, of course, open and transparent as we're setting the calendar that anyone who wants to participate in that process can. any state that wants to be heard and make a bid can. and at the end of the day, when we then set the rules and bylaws committee sets the calendar, we have to have one guiding principle that guides that, right? not having a thumb on the scale for a particular candidate, a particular state, a particular region, but realizing that the process of setting the calendar has to be as transparent as possible, and we do have to seek input from not just people on the dnc, but our larger democratic ecosystem.

second, when we set the calendar, it has the guiding principle has to be that it's both rigorous, efficient, and fair, that it battle tests our nominee in a way that helps us win the general election, and this is critical, i think, for us. we really have to guard against any perception at all that the dnc chair or people within the party are putting their thumb on the scale to favor any particular campaign. this is critical as we go into this next primary conversation. and let me say, we don't know whether or not the party itself writ large is going to revisit this question of the primary calendar. that will be up to the rbc and members on the dnc to make that decision. but i can tell you as the next dnc chair, as someone who's pushed for reforms in this party, as i've said, i'm here to democratize the democratic party. i will tell you this. ken martin will not have his thumb on the scale for any state, any region. we will have a fair conversation that honors both the traditions and the diversity of this party

while making sure that everyone has a shot to be heard. and then again, putting forward a calendar that makes sure we win the general election by battle testing our nominee the right way. >> thank you. mr. snyder. >> i think one of the tenets of my campaign, this also comes from my national security background, that you always want mission to drive process. you don't want it going the other way around. so, i do respect and i do know the various traditions when it comes to early states, and i think i have an additional perspective here. as probably i think the only person here, non-candidate, but as the only person who's organized and set up and led plans in all the early states south carolina, iowa, nevada, and new hampshire. and so one of the things that i think ken brought up very specifically here, which we need to really think about and that i would examine, every early state brings in the notoriety.

it brings in the media. it brings in the money. it brings the attention. it brings in the organizers. and during these early state contests, it really sets the groundwork and infrastructure for that of the general election. so i think we need to take that into strong consideration when looking at the map further because the mission is to win, ok? and if we are not doing that and we are hindered by potential tradition, then we need to relook at that. so i would definitely engage in that conversation, and it would be a tough one, but it's one that we need to have. additionally, if we're going to work to our values of supporting working families, then i know this is a break with tradition. i apologize to iowa and nevada, but look, we need to have primaries across the board. working people do not have time to participate in caucuses, period. i've been there. there's been concessions made

>> there's been concessions made with nevada at their conferences, but look, if we want workers and people to participate widely in this democratic process, we need to make it more accessible as well as. i know some states have done that and they have seen increased turnout and it has benefited things along the way. >> thank you. dr. hathaway? >> we are going to have to litigate our way back to power. we are going to have to break the bonds of racial and partisan gerrymandering in this country. we are going to have to have qualified candidates to run across this nation in every zip code, local, state, and federal elections. i will continue to hone in on the fact that we must use with all intentionality a southern strategy to win back the south and no longer concede that region to the opposition.

i will bring one point in that the chair brought up on a form that we had. he talked about the growth of the south. newcomers to the midwest, but i am a southern woman born and bred in my heart so i feel as if i can speak more directly to the issues with you all. when we invent in the south, we aren't investing not only in the most loyal constituency of the democratic party, the african-american vote, but we are maximizing our presence. we are showing that we care about issues that are not just central to the african-american community but that cuts across race and ethnicity and economic and social status and that cuts across linguist six because still, the majority of people that support the democratic party live in the south.

also, i want to give everybody my number. i want to reach out to every democrat across this country and that you know that i'm here to support you. my number is 615-473-4213. my name is spelled just the way it sounds. i am here to support the democratic party holistically. >> thank you, dr. hathaway. >> thank you. dr. hathaway, we have to invest in the south. in the western states, we need to invest in the west as well to pick up noxious now -- we are going to have early states when they need investment in every state needs investment no matter how red and blue purple. there are fights we need to invest and win in and we need to plan for every state. i think we should put that on one side and at the same time, recognize. i agree with chair markey and

very strongly on this that when we choose the calendar for 2028, the thumb should not be on the scale. it is their job to ensure there is a fair process in which we do what the rbc and d&c voted today which is to carry forward an inclusive process as we go forward that honors our coalition, the honors our tradition, that gives every candidate a fair shot and that chooses a winning nominee. about testing our candidates in ways that include people. this is on my website. also in spanish. i am proud to be the only candidate with a spanish-language website and i think it should be a commitment that all of us make that d&c members will get to decide with the calendar will be. the specifics of the process are pretty clear. it is up to states if they want to bid to be one of the early states to make their case. i said this in private and in public and i want to say it again tonight that we should have a fair hearing where states

get to make their case and d&c members get to have their say because this is a significant decision that will shape the path to the presidency. in a moment when the presidency will be wide open, trump doesn't get to go for a third term. this is a chance to build the future and we need to get this right as a party in a way that inspires trust so that once our nominee is chosen, this entire party can you rent -- unite around this person and make sure they win and we win in the house , in the senate, governor's races, and down ticket state-level races so we can make real change in working people's lives. >> thank you. mr. paul. >> one of the advantages of not being one of the leading candidates is i get to answer this question entirely honestly. i don't think our war with new hampshire is going to work. i know that the rbc did that, tried it, and they want to make it work. i don't think it is going to work because i believe at the end of the day, new hampshire state law and the secretary of

state in new hampshire is going to force them to be first no matter what we do and people have said we can take away their delegates, we can try and punish them. we can sort of wrap our knuckles at them and say you should not do that. we have a process. but at the end of the day, i think their state law is going to win and i think it is not a fight worth picking so the way that i would get -- the way i would compensate for that is you don't get to go first but you have to go really early. you have to go sir early -- so early that we get four weeks between new hampshire and the next state so it is possible that some candidates will choose to skip the new hampshire primary were the results of that. the way to make the process work is we need to do four smallish states that go one week after another after another because one of the major problems we

have in our nominating process was a decision was rendered on saturday. it was reaffirmed on tuesday and there was not any real profitability for deliberation when it came to respect to that. it was done. it was cooked. either because of covid, it was either going to be cooked -- it was cooked. the concerns that the early state primary voters have, except for south carolina, were basically dismissed, you know, and then that was an issue that carried through without the entire process so i want to give the opportunity for small candidates to get their names out there. and then i can see it. >> we are nearing the end. i have one final question and i know you all get two minutes but you're more than welcome to leave 5, 6, 10 seconds on the clock. so that you can end on time and

you get to do your closing statements about this one is kind of an easy one. every election cycle, people run for a position in both parties and third parties. and they pop up every four years and disappear until it is time to run again. i would love to hear from each of you one thing or more if you choose to say that that you pledge to do, whether or not you become the dnc chair in support of the democratic party, starting with you, governor o'malley. >> what i would like to pledge to do is exactly what i did. in 2016, you know, the last time we did this to ourselves, i continued to travel the country and the name of my pac, as i asked my closest friends to continue to give money to me to keep going out there and highlighting local candidates, the name of that leadership effort was called win back your state. we had some amazing people running in all sorts of really

important districts and i think we realize now that we had to snap out of this notion that there's seven battleground states and instead realized that the united states is our battleground so what i will continue to do is to encourage the next generation of candidates to go out there and to run for office, especially in state offices, state legislators -- legislative chambers, senates, house. in 2018, you know, we actually flipped 17 legislative chambers all across the country. that way we win back our country is to first win back our states and we have an enormous opportunity to do that now with 36 governors offices up, treasurers, secretaries of state , and all of those courthouse offices, so i am going to continue to encourage the next generation of people to go out there and run. there is nothing more important that our country needs right now and that our party needs, for people to run everywhere, all across america, including

so-called red states. those were some of the most courageous and exciting candidates i got to campaign with in oklahoma and colorado and other places, so with that, i will yield back. >> thank you so much. governor. >> no matter what happens, i will continue to tell the truth as i understand it. in the past, i made it clear, hosting conferences, thousands of women brought together and supported in running for office. my progressive candidates -- where i support candidates. the issue is to call the democratic party to its highest ideals and i will be very honest about where i think we need to rise and places i think we have fallen down. the conversation that we were just having about the primaries, i can assure you, the problem was lack of ethics and lack of alignment with our own bylaws. in the bylaws of the d&c, it

says that the party will not weigh in on who a candidate should be, who the nominee should be until the people have chosen and that did not happen in several cases, several states this last election. if this were to happen under my watch, if i -- i am chair of the d&c and any state party chair is messing with that is kicking people off balance, is telling the secretary of state, it's just our candidate as opposed to the others running. that state party chair will receive a phone call from me. i will firmly but gently make it very clear that these are not the ethics of the democratic party that we wanted people to see. these are not our bylaws. these are not our ethics. i will come as i was saying before, we need to do more than win elections. we need to win the hearts in the minds of the american people and realign with our own values and that is the conversation i will be having with the american people. as chair of the d&c, i get to

make it real. in terms of the functioning of the dmc, that is why i would like to be chair. i would be saying it. if the democratic party does not get back to its own moral calling, to its own prophetic voice, unequivocal advocacy for the working people of the united states with the deepest moral values, donald trump will continue with his power. we cannot afford for the democratic party to fail. i am clear about that and i will do everything i can to make sure that it does not. >> thank you. mr. martin. >> the most important title i ever had was organizer and i started 34 years ago in this work with paul, as many of you know by now. if i am not elected chair, i will continue to do what i have always done which is to engage people in conversations, on the doors, neighbor to neighbor, person-to-person, giving people a sense of who we are as a party and what we are fighting for. most importantly, listening to people about their hopes, dreams, aspirations, and making

sure that at the end of the day, we give people a sense of hope. you know, so many years ago when i started in this work, i got the sense that government can be a catalyst for change and make a difference in people's lives like my family's life. the oldest son of a single mom who had me when she was 15 years old, i know that politics matters so regardless of whether or not i am sure, i will still be in this fight. i have been in this fight my whole life and i am not giving up now. i would be honored to continue this work but i will do this work whether i am dnc chair or not. i am the only candidate in this race that door knocked in all seven battleground states multiple times. i traveled to 40 states in the last year alone. no one on this call can say that. i show up in places like fairbanks, spokane, central oregon, boise, doing a 17 county tour throughout nevada, in sierra vista and no, arizona. in roswell, new mexico.

i go wherever people asked me to go. as long as there's two or more democrats, i will show up. you need a chair right now who is going to go out there and give people hope, who is going to be the organizer in chief and i will tell you what, if i am not chair of this party, i will still be an organizer but i would like to be the organizer in chief to model the type of, you know, behavior we want from the rest of our party which is to get back to basics, to get back to organizing, to get back to giving people a sense that we are listening to them and we are going to lift up their values. >> thank you. mr. snyder. >> thank you. for the 25 years of my professional career, i served democratic causes, whether it was working on campaign throughout the country, presidential cycles, or joining the labor movement as an organizer in upstate new york. i also served in two democratic

administrations in national security proudly. so i am not going anywhere. i will make a promise now that i am going to be in this fight, whether the other side likes it or not. you know, look, i have a weird combination of national security and politics but now, we are seeing a convergence of that and it is needed and i think i have hopefully proven that through my experience, i am a crisis manager and we need that in this fight because one thing i want to make abundantly clear is the other side is normalizing nationalist white supremacy in the narratives that they are using, ok? we see it mimicked in their executive orders right now, seeking to go after immigrant communities. this is unfortunately the new normal we need to work with now and so one of the main things that i want to do, working with people here, working with democrats and those in national security, first responders and

even just regular citizens, not only to win elections, because that is how we win back and push back against this narratives but the one goal that i have is to disrupt, dismantle, and take on this machine of propaganda that is spewing hate, fear, and seeking to divide us. that is their game and the way we push back and we win is not only uniting but staying to our ideals and fighting for working families here. that is how we win. that is our center of gravity and how we push back. >> thank you. >> i'm going to keep on talking, keep on walking, marching for freedom. i have been marching since i was 15 years old. i marched this past monday in my hometown of nashville,

tennessee. i also received a message today regarding the upcoming march at the tennessee legislature regarding the incidents that happened in metropolitan nashville, davidson county, just yesterday. i will tell you all -- to know what happened again. in the county in which i was raised. this is personal on so many levels because i have family and friends and church members that are directly connected to the antioch community just outside of nashville in southeast davidson county. i am tired of hearing about these things that are happening to our young people as well as victims of violence across this country. i will continue to write and speak out on the things i am most passionate about, most specifically politics and education. i sent out thousands of emails over the years. even when i had a blog -- walks

of life across this country as well as internationally. i will continue to do voter registration as often as possible and held myself even today when i woke up and meditated and prayed that i want to use every opportunity to be of greater service to all people . even in this capacity, i'm going to use it, maximize it, and give my talent, my time, everywhere i go to expand not for my own sake but i know that this work is much greater than me as well as my family. >> thank you. mr. brickley. >> this fight is bigger than any of us and i think it should be a point of pride for our whole party for all seven of us candidates. we will do this work whether or not we are elected chair. it is on all of us.

everyone who believes in democracy and decency and the idea that everyone deserves a life of freedom and dignity and opportunity, to contain the damage of the strong administration is on all of us to work with our state parties in this national party, grassroots allies, with elected officials and democrats of all levels to fight and make a difference in the lives of working people everywhere and to build something better. whether or not i win the chair's race, i know that on april 1 in wisconsin, there is a supreme court election that will determine the majority on the wisconsin supreme court either with judge susan crawford who believes in a court ruled by the rule of law or an extremist politician who wants to take wisconsin back to the days when voters had no say. these elections matter. if republicans had not grabbed the majority and rigged that state, leader jeffries would be speaker hakeem jeffries right now. we need to lean into these fights and they happen every

tuesday in the state or territory, every week, week over week, fighting and winning these elections is all of our job. we need to build a strategy for each of these fights and work across our coalition, cross race and ethnicity, across language to lift up everyone. i am honored that the seiu have endorsed me and elected officials endorsed me because we worked together in these fights throughout our lives no matter what hats we wear. in my state, republicans gerrymandered maps and we fought back year-over-year and faced down the biggest attacks the gop could levy and now we have to un rig the country. we will be in that fight and i will give you back the last five seconds. >> thank you. mr. paul. >> never gives the politician the open microphone but basically just starting off, my personal email is democrat jason paul and i think i had it for 15 years so i am clearly not going anywhere. i believe firmly that this party

is the best way to help people live better lives through better government policy and because i believe that, i'm going to keep fighting for it no matter what comes my way. i do, as i said, open mic. i did not want to talk a little bit about sort of the principles and the plans i am bringing into this race. i think the five core principles our party needs to adopt his being human and empathetic. we need to have a moneyball mindset and we need to be locally grounded and culturally attuned and proud of the party. in terms of plans, i already talked about stopping the texts and i will say we need a subscription model party wind so if you give us $10 a month, that is all that we ask of you. i talked about my 10,000 organizers and our college plan, has go plan. i think we need to jump into doing nominee funds this cycle because i think if we can raise money early, we can win with candidates and not cash. i want to do a shark tank like

idea to have the best ideas across the party. i need -- we need to provide services. i need an uber like app so you can 1-click and get that done. i want a research and development department because as i think about such matters, in question that is bugging me is which college campus had the highest turnout in this cycle and what did they do differently than everyone else and how can we do that across all of the campuses? i don't think we know the answer to that and that is the kind of thing we need to learn the answer to. but clearly, if i am elected chair, i would like to bring all of my opponents along for the ride. if they were so willing. >> we do have time for a 30 second closing remark as mentioned at the top of the program. so each of you will get 30 seconds to say whatever it is

that you have left on your mind and as i said at the beginning, we are reversing the order and so, mr. paul, you have another 30 seconds. >> fantastic. a lot of this for me is the voices i have heard on this campaign so i heard from vince, putnam county, indiana. he doesn't think we can afford it. we have to get it to him. i think the democrats abroad who i spoke to are needlessly getting peanuts as they try and chase 5 million voters abroad. idaho just wants people to know what is going on and how bad it is. in about a dnc member told me that everything can't be great if we lost in minnesota -- a minnesota dnc member told me we need to have pride in our party again. >> thank you. mr. wicker. >> this is a frightening moment. this is a moment when we are under attack across all of our communities in a nation of indigenous people, descendants of immigrants, this is an

administration that is trying to divide us and undermine us and us all all of our communities and we need a democratic party that inspires people to know that they have the power to fight back. we need a democratic party that is ready to dig into this work to communicate and organize everywhere and i would be honored to have your vote, dnc members, to be your next chair to build that party. >> thank you. dr. hathaway? >> what that looks like, in order for us to get young people activated across this country on their college and university campuses, we have to reach wrigley out to the board of elections, county election commission, in each of those areas, and they will have to do an application process in order to get campuses that have precinct and polling places. i am here to be the next chair because i believe in the power and strength of the united states of america and given the

opportunity from the 448, we are going to do amazing work together and build upon the successes of the previous administration. >> thank you. mr. snyder? >> thank you. this has been a great conversation. i hope i have proven that i am a crisis manager and that is exactly what we are in but i also want to point out that we need not give into fear and anxiety and the exhaustion we are all experiencing. we need to shift this into a movement and we need to do it in a new way to where we are not operating in shades of status quo. we need to reimagine things because the op -- the other side is operating without consequences so we need to unlock our full potential so i hope i can earn your vote and lead the charge doing so. >> thank you. mr. martin. >> thank you so much and thanks to the western region for this forum tonight. i'm honored to have received so much support over the past few months including from over 200 dnc members but i know everyone

in this forum wants the best for our party and our country. donald trump does not care if people end up worse when he leaves office. our party is needed more now than ever so we have to get off the map and get back in the fight. i am a workhorse, not a show horse. i promise you, i will work my tail off every single day to help people, to help our party, and to help our country. thank you so much, dnc members. i look forward to your vote next week. >> thank you. miss williamson. >> donald trump as well as elon musk are doing everything possible to send dog whistles to white supremacists. that is a mindset and policy position based on hate. we will defeat that with a party based on love. people hear us on the level that we speak to them from and that is what i will do. there is so much intelligence in this group of candidates. i would be homage to hold the space for a team of rivals here. everybody who is on this forum tonight, every candidate has

such great ideas. let me take them in. all these ideas are needed. that may give a message of love because what we can do on the level of minds and hearts is what will pave the way to the electoral victories that we need now. >> thank you. governor o'malley? you are on mute. >> the purpose of our party is the economic security, health, and well-being of every man, woman, and child in america and with that as our purpose, there is nothing that i fear, but our party is needed right now more than ever in our country's history. in order to fulfill our role, we need to change our tactics and strategies with openness, with transparency, with truth about ourselves, so in this changemaker election, i asked for your support to change our party, to change our country, to fight for the hardest working people in america and save our republic. thanks. >> thank you.

thank you to all the candidates for a wonderful evening. it was a very robust conversation and i am sure that people are a lot more enlightened and probably more confused about who to pick because there are so many great ideas coming from all of you so thank you for your participation. there will be another form next week and just a reminder, the elections for the dnc chair will take place at the dnc winter meeting on january 30 through february 1. thank you all for participating tonight and