ms. thompson: i left in 2014. brian: why did you do that? ms. ompson: i was really committed to investigative reporting. i really love the idea of pursuing investigative stories with the goal of impact, the goal of making change. i was interested in writing for -- writing in ways that went beyond newspaper journalism. i was interested in writing for magazines and potentially doing television and podcasts. the range of opportunities that were offered to me from propublica were appealing. brian: how does operate? ms. thompson: propublica is a nonprofit investigative news organization that is focused on stories in the public interest, meaning we look for stories that expose harm or wrongdoing that is being committed by public agencies, by corporations, or by any organization or institution that serves the public. so we write everything from stories about hospitals doing harm in their communities to and schools and educational programs that are not serving children as they should to civil rights litigations against school districts. and so criminal j

ms. thompson: i don't have to go through all the stats. the point is we knew that coming out of that, it would mean nothing if we did not have something set up to continue to build upon the work that was done in 2017. one of the things we have a concern about is that people only come into our communities at the last minute, a week or a day before the election cycle. there were no resources in place for systematic programming, for pipeline leadership building. to make sure that technology israelis to be, that the infrastructure is built. none of those things were happening. we said we could not do this work without building that in. you will see in the next slide that we created a moment and we started something called -- woke vote. how many of you have heard of that? [applause] out to all of them who are watching right now, who are incredible change agents in their own right. asking, is it something that could only be done and alabama? could it only be done in the moment that you had, with doug jones? what we said to them and what i will c

ms. thompson: those were -- ms.guyen: those virginians are actively voting and are among the most active folks in virginia fighting for police accountability and transparency. prisong against the pipeline. advocating on their behalf. medicaid expansion. may of this year, the governor signed into legislation, into virginia code, medicaid for nearly 400,000 virginians. elections matter. they have real-life consequences. engaging with the new american majority is the way to win. of only for communities color but for all of us collectively and that is our theory of power and way to win. [applause] >> excellent. i want to do a little commercial. if you love what you have heard so far, the successes in alabama and virginia -- give us some love on twitter. thatis the kind of story people need to hear. let us move from virginia down to texas. give a round of applause to crystal for her work there. [applause] crystal: here are some key things you need to know. demographic performance in 2016. we are big. most of our counties