marching band music
Downloaded from YTS.MX
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
- [Narrator] To this day, our normative leader
in the United States is a white man.
It's what we understand until very recently,
a Governor looks like a Senator,
looks like a Representative looks like.
That's what we understand.
The President looks like.
That's what our history has taught us.
It's what we read in the books.
Those who are not white or not male
or both, [laughing] not white and not male,
are presumed in some way to be marginal
to that fully human, fully realized,
fully comprehensible citizen, that is the white male.
[fireworks whistle and pop]
[crowd cheers]
- [Hillary Clinton] For too long, the history of women
has been a history of silence.
- [Narrator] Something we do in the United States
is we like to tell ourselves that our inequalities
are things of the past.
We fixed them.
- For all practical purposes, you think a woman
in the United States today, actually being
nominated as President.
- I stand before you today, as a candidate
for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency
of the United States of America.
[crowd clapping]
- [Narrator] This process of diversifying leadership,
of getting somewhere closer to actual
representative democracy, isn't gonna be fixed quickly.
- And we've heard it before.
This is the year of the woman in American politics.
[crowd cheering]
- [Narrator] We see these fits and starts.
- It took 150 years after the signing
to win the right to vote. Independence for women
- And 51 votes for the next President
of the United States of America,
Hillary Rodham Clinton! [crowd cheering]
- Even though we'd never had a major party
female nominee for the Presidency before,
we assumed that she was gonna win.
- [News Announcer] He is obviously
never going to be President.
- How could this person possibly win?
- [News Announcer] Trump is headed for a historic defeat.
- We'll win in November.
We'll elect Hillary Clinton the next
President of the United States.
- [Narrator] We have lost a sense of why
this was an improbable victory.
- [Woman] There's something about her I just don't like.
- I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue
and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?
- [News Announcer] With the race now
in the voters' hands, a top Clinton campaign official
telling me this morning they feel confident
about the race they've run and a chance to make history.
- We have a major projection right now.
Donald Trump will take Ohio.
- [News Announcer] Donald Trump, vastly
over-performing expectations.
- Let me tell you this.
It is Florida, Florida, Florida.
- [News Announcer] Florida is the entire
ball game for Donald Trump.
- [News Announcer] The scene here is so different
than it was a few hours ago.
- We have now confirmed that Secretary Clinton has conceded.
- [News Announcer] You're awake, by the way.
This is your life now, this is our election now.
This is us, this is our country.
lively classical music
- [Narrator] I think a lot of people realize
how fragile democracy is.
- [Protesters] My body my choice!
- For so many of us it was the real belief
that rights could be taken away.
- [Woman] It was the biggest single day
political protest in this country's history.
- [Woman] After that extraordinary outcry,
a lot of people felt like that was a moment,
and then we were all gonna forget about it.
- [Rebecca] When you hear it written off by so many
officially important people as just having
fundamentally been some party about pussy hats,
it's still very tempting to believe
an overarching narrative that says,
"Oh, but what are they gonna do really?"
- Right after the November election,
and really right after the Global Women's March,
we started getting an inordinate number of calls.
- We woke up the next day to tons of emails,
tons of phone calls, women from all walks of life
saying, "If not Hillary, then who?
"Then me, it has to be me."
- It's the right race, it's the right time,
and I'm the right candidate.
- [News Announcer] Seeing a surge of women
candidates across the country.
- [News Announcer] What's behind the surge of women?
- I see women waking up like I've
never seen them awakened before.
- Women who had taken for granted that
their interests were covered.
- We cannot have a government for and by the people,
if it is not represented by all of the people.
- If we want to live in this country,
we have to fight for it every day.
Put ourselves on the line, put ourselves out there,
and become those elected officials.
[rain pattering]
- [Female Candidate] I wanna thank you all
for coming out here.
I want to thank Indivisible DFW for putting on this rally
and giving us the opportunity to, most of us
for the first time, to come up, and as we run for office,
introduce ourselves and throw ourselves into the fray.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
- We're gonna keep the sneak peeks going.
We have Jana Sanchez, a Congressional candidate
for the Sixth District. [crowd cheering]
- I guess we're the true patriots,
willing to stand in this weather today
to work for democracy.
Thank you for coming out.
Many of us have been living in fear
and anxiety since November 8th.
Many of us are worried about what could happen
to our friends and family who could be swept up
in the anti-immigrant hysteria
that's sweeping the country.
Nonetheless, I'm here today to say one thing.
Do not be afraid.
[crowd cheering]
If there's ever been a time in the history
of our country that we need to be brave
in the pursuit of democracy, now is that time.
Do not be afraid.
- [Jana] I was so devastated by the election results
and so worried about our country.
I didn't sleep on November 8th,
but I sure as hell woke up on November 9th.
Hi, this is Jana Lynne Sanchez.
I'm running for U.S. Congress to South Dallas.
I felt I had to do something.
I felt I could do something.
I just had to run, I had to do it.
I'm running in a district that no one believes,
almost no one believes is winnable.
We're gonna have a lot of battles over immigration,
over guns and over healthcare.
There will be a lot of Republican money coming in.
This district is not a Republican area,
it's just a non-voting area.
We're cynical.
We don't believe that anyone's gonna do anything.
So we stay home.
There are 264,000 possible Democrats in this district.
They're registered to vote.
They've never been contacted.
Are you not a voter?
What has to happen is you have to engage them.
I'm running because I'm very concerned
about the future of our country,
about the state of democracy.
I'm running because my grandfather was an immigrant.
I'm running because we can do so much better.
And I'm running because I think I can win.
- Hey guys, it's Lauren.
I'm out canvassing for signatures
so that I can get on the ballot.
We have members of Team Underwood
at the Sycamore parade today and at other neighborhoods
across our great 14th District.
For some groups of people, their idea in their mind
of a member of Congress is not
someone in her early thirties.
Hi guys, it's Lauren.
I'm here in King County collecting signatures
to get on the ballot.
When the 2016 election happened, I was faced
with this America on TV that didn't look
anything like what I knew.
- [Protesters] This is what democracy looks like!
- We deserve better, particularly in the face
of this craziness coming out of the White House.
Hi, I'm Lauren Underwood.
- Hi.
- [Lauren] We have the most signatures to get on the ballot.
2,080 is what we submitted on the first day.
That was enough to like blow our minds.
- I think my parents are stunned and surprised
and excited and overwhelmed.
It's one thing to encourage your children
to step forward and to serve.
It's another thing for a whole community
to rally behind them.
Thanks everybody.
[crowd cheering]
Yeah, we did it!
We are on the verge of a generational shift.
So many of our congressional leaders are 65 plus.
I'm 31.
I think it's great.
It also lets us, you know, run a race authentically.
So I say that we keep it real here and we do.
Hi, are you Noah?
- Yes, I am.
- Hi, I'm Lauren Underwood.
- Oh, hi. [muffled speaking]
[both laughing]
- [Lauren] It's so good to see you.
I'm running for Congress in this community.
- [Noah] Oh, absolutely, yeah I know about you.
- [Lauren] Here's some info. Okay, thank you.
- [Noah] Thank you.
- [Laren] No one invited us to this table.
No one invited us.
And I think that's also what makes it
so powerful is building something.
- [Lauren] Seven days in a week.
I am running for Congress all day, every day,
during those seven days.
I've missed so many birthdays,
you know, major life events.
I've never missed a wedding ever.
And I've just missed two back to back this month.
I've given up everything to do this.
Each day, there's probably two meals that I eat in the car.
If I don't have an hour that week,
my hair is not fabulous, right?
Reality.
This dress is machine washable.
That is why I have it on today, because I could
put it in the washer and the dryer.
Oh my god, right?
And that's just real life.
My car makes little noises now.
It has its own Lauren Underwood for Congress
growing pains. [laughs]
The barriers to running are so significant
that sometimes you have to just be real.
We're so focused on having this facade of perfection.
We are chasing towards the wrong thing.
Being perfect every day would make me lose this campaign.
- [Liz] I don't really like bringing my family into it.
Hi, Lila!
'Cause you know, not everybody is kind.
Are you practicing what you're gonna say?
- So much of this is about human connection,
showing that you're real and that you care.
[doorbell chimes]
This is my daughter Lila.
- [Harry] Hi Lila.
- [Liz] She wanted to come out door knocking.
Did you wanna shake Harry's hand?
- Hi.
Okay, good luck.
- Okay thank you, I appreciate it.
Okay, come on Lila. - Okay, all right then.
- Okay, have a good night.
You know, it's interesting.
I think that even people who have a hard time
picturing women in office, when you say,
"What would you want for your daughter?
"What would you want for your granddaughter?"
They'll say, "I want her to have the same
"opportunities that any guy has."
You know, they don't wanna think about anybody
shortchanging their daughter or granddaughter.
And it's a way to talk to people.
You know, again, it's just make it personal, you know.
My idea of a town hall, and I think what all of us
think a town hall is, is an opportunity for the public
to come in and engage with their representative.
I think we deserve that.
- [Supporter] Yeah.
- I got activated, I think in trying not to have
[laughing] the outcome of this
presidential election that we got.
I started out my legal career representing
working people who are threatened
with losing their benefits.
There is a level of neglect that is built
into our treatment of poor people
that is simply brutal and outrageous.
We've seen, you know, what it looks like
when somebody attacks the rights that we thought
were well-established.
And it's not just women's rights.
It's all civil rights that are under attack.
I'm the candidate to flip the seat
because I am the person who goes into
pancake breakfasts and asks people, you know,
"Tell me what's going on in your life."
- It's nice to meet you.
- And what I hear is that people have
a lot of struggles that have to do with
not having good-paying jobs.
That have to do with people whose kids
have ended up addicted to opioids.
I hear about people who are really,
really frustrated with a Washington
they feel has turned its back on them.
We can make sure that every single one of us
in the richest nation on earth has enough to thrive.
If your representative won't show up
and meet with you, I will, I will show up.
Those are things that I have fought for,
and those are fights that I have led.
And people want a leader and they want someone
who's gonna fight for them,
and they want someone who knows how.
And I'm that person.
- [Interviewer] Do you ever have any doubts?
- No.
- [Interviewer] What are the challenges
that women face running for office?
I mean, I--
- How much time do we have?
- [Interviewer] If you have a main challenge.
- Well, the main challenges, just by virtue
of being female, is that you think
you're gonna be treated fairly.
You're not.
Thanks so much NPR.
Like [laughing] what?
"Underwood is in good company.
"This year's unprecedented crop of women
"running for office includes a glut of women
"running in races that, to put it mildly,
"will be a challenge for them to win in November."
Like I would've never just done this interview.
You know?
And then, "For now Underwood has other things
"on her mind in the long game.
"She faces off against six other candidates,
"all of them men, for the Democratic nomination.
"She knows she's a strong candidate having out-raised
"all of her opponents combined,
"but she does know that if she wins
"she'll have a much tougher race to run.
"We're gonna need to raise $2 million
"in the general, she says.
"This will be a challenge.
"We're rising to that challenge."
Fine, I'm okay with that.
- [Reporter] Here for CPAC Chicago, Illinois Representative
Randy Hultgren is here with us.
Good to see you, sir.
- Good to see you, Cameron, thank you.
- Illinois 14, tell us about it.
- Yeah, just west of Chicago.
Starts in the western suburbs goes
straight west across to Iowa.
Great district, very diverse.
- [Driver] Is this the house you grew up in?
- Yeah, this is home.
The community is diverse.
There's a lot of southeast Asian, Indian
and Pakistani people in this part of Naperville.
When I was growing up, I was not
the only black person in my class.
So that was a good formative experience,
yet I never had a black teacher.
We're gonna turn in to the right.
It's interesting.
It's diverse, but it's not like capital D diverse.
[laughing] It's just not.
- [Jana] It's been 120 days since Trump took office
and 32 years since Joe Barton's been in office.
I'm dreaming of a world where I can sleep through the night.
- People like me don't deny that the climate is changing.
I would point out that if you're a believer in the Bible,
one would have to say the great flood
is an example of climate change.
- Hi, my name is Elizabeth and I'm volunteering
with the Jana Lynne Sanchez campaign.
For the first time in three decades,
a Democrat can fight toe to toe with a Republican
in our district, District Six.
I'm really excited about the possibility of Jana
representing us in Washington.
Thank you.
- [Jana] I never thought I would run for office,
but I saw that I knew how to do it.
We're running the most comprehensive campaign
in this district for 30 years.
Nobody else has walked as many blocks
as we're walking and we're gonna do six pieces
of mail for a lot of our audiences.
Two rounds of phone calls.
From everything I hear, that's never happened before,
so this will be a first.
Voters are going to get sick of hearing from us
probably by the time election day comes.
Oh, hi.
Good, how are you?
I mean, we all know Republicans vote in Texas
and Democrats don't.
I mean, that's why we are where we are.
And you know, that hopefully is changing
at least a little bit this year.
All right, I hope you'll think about it.
It's your duty to vote.
It's your patriotic duty.
- [Homeowner] All right.
- Thank you.
- [Homeowner] You're welcome. - [Jana] All right, bye bye.
Nobody enjoys campaigning.
There's two, I'm going to four down here.
Hey Drew, did you get 2317?
We're done with the street then.
- [Drew] Yep. - Where are we going to now?
- [Drew] One street left, Taurus.
- Taurus.
It's a personal beating every single day.
It is an absolute beating, but we still have to do it.
We have to do it, we have to be there.
We have to be the agent of change.
You know, in my district no Democrat has
even run a competitive race here for 33 years.
It will be a miracle if we win on some level.
- [News Announcer] Right now at five o'clock,
some political experts believe a north Texas
Congressional District may now be up for grabs.
Long time Republican Congressman Joe Barton
apologizing today after a nude photo of himself
has been making the rounds on the internet.
- A spokeswoman for Congress and Joe Barton insists
he is not stepping down.
He has been in office since 1985 and he has
already filed to run for reelection.
It is still unclear who posted the nude photo
of Barton on the internet.
- You need to get the bottle of bleach out
before you look at it, 'cause you're gonna
need to pour in your eyes, yes.
[laughing] You can never unsee it.
My take on this has been that if you like Barton,
you see him as a victim.
And that's one of the reasons you'll notice
in all of my statements, in all of my media commentary,
I have not criticized him.
However, I have noticed an extremely distinctive
change in attitude in the district.
Now we're getting real contributions.
People don't understand that this district is,
it was always winnable, but it's now extremely winnable.
Either I'm gonna be running in an open seat
or I'm gonna be running against an incumbent
with a gaping hole in his head.
- [Supporter] Oh my god, here's my little buddy.
I'm so excited!
- We took in the Liz for Indiana frame.
- Can we get our, wait, my pictures of dogs
are my favorite.
A campaign isn't one person who gets up and goes,
I'm gonna run for Congress.
- This will be good for our promotion.
- [Liz] This is a really good picture.
You have these people who are just kind of a godsend,
you know, who just have your back a million times over.
- Okay ready, three, two, one.
- So hi, I'm Liz Watson running for Congress
in the 9th District, and who are you?
[Liz laughing] - I'm the candidate's mom.
- We've been working hard for Liz.
- Gave her our firstborn, he's working too.
- Yes, our son is working full-time.
- I should say lent our firstborn, so yeah.
- Since June, he's working full-time for her.
- [John] This is the first big election since 2016.
And you know, it's really important
what our country says in this election.
- The Republican party's working to suppress
the vote, actively and openly.
And so that, I think, is the big picture
that we're working against.
You know how hard it is we make it for people to vote.
- [News Announcer] Since the 2016 election,
nine states with Republican state legislatures
have passed laws restricting the vote.
- [John] Indiana has the shortest voting hours
in the country.
There's only 12 hours, 6:00 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- It closes 6:00 p.m.
You know, so people who want to come after work,
you know, that's ridiculous.
There's no good reason to end at 6:00 p.m.
- At this point, I'd like othto welcome to the floorer.
another freshmen of ours from Indiana, and yield
one minute to Mr. Hollingsworth from Indiana.
- Mr. Speaker, as a small business owner myself,
I understand how difficult it is
to build a business in today's economy.
- It's the time for her and for us.
We have a one term Congressman who won't
even appear publicly, literally,
to answer questions or talk to people.
Maybe that's part of the goal is to just try
to get people not to pay attention.
- [Liz] The worst thing is to have people
not contesting these races.
When you don't contest races, you know,
you start to lose people from the Democratic party.
And I've seen that here.
How was your day?
- Um, pretty good.
I worked on some speechy stuff,
Learned about writing speeches. [laughing]
- But you know, we've known each other for 16 years.
So we share a brain sometimes.
saxaphone music
- You gotta get Arturo in there.
I'm an unlikely candidate.
There are a lot of things wrong with my pedigree.
I love this.
I always say it's the only fun part
about running for office is parades.
[laughs]
- [Jana] Sí, se puede!
I think the best thing that I didn't expect
was the support I've had from other women candidates.
I'm in a group of 28 women candidates
and we provide a support network for each other.
And that's been amazing.
That's been an amazing experience.
[women laughing]
These women are so bright and so supportive.
[laughing] Oh my god!
I have said it and I will say it again.
I don't believe men should be running in this time.
[women laughing] No, I'm really honest.
I think if there's a qualified woman
in the primary, I don't believe men should be running.
- I think we are gonna absolutely surprise people.
- Blue wave.
- I really do.
- [Lauren] I'm licensed as a nurse.
I decided to become a nurse after having
an early diagnosis with a heart condition
after third grade.
And so I actually consider running for Congress
to be an extension of my nursing practice, right?
I am fighting for our community to have
the healthcare coverage that we need, that we need.
[supporters clapping]
Good evening everybody, good evening.
I am overjoyed and delighted to be here with you.
Standing room only in Woodstock.
[supporters cheering]
And they say there's no Democrats in McHenry County.
Give me a break.
37,000 people in the Illinois 14 have healthcare
coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
Randy Hultgren and the Congressional Republicans
are dead set on taking away healthcare,
eliminating all the protections that allow
so many of us with preexisting conditions
to be able to have affordable coverage.
I'm a nurse and I'm also someone
that has the preexisting condition.
So when folks make promises in that area,
it's personal to me.
Randy Hultgren broke his word, and I
couldn't stand by and let that happen.
I knew I needed to run for Congress against him.
Because this chaos and confusion
isn't working for us, is it?
- No. - No.
Together, together, we will be able to flip the 14.
Thank you all.
[supporters clapping]
As a nurse, we were trained to walk into
a patient's room to build that level of trust.
And it's the same thing.
Hi, how are you?
I introduce myself on the campaign trail.
I say who I am, and I wanna know about your life.
We're gonna do it.
- We are, we're gonna do it.
- We have to.
Hi, nice to see you, Jay.
Hi Mary, how's it going?
Good, thank you for coming tonight.
- Glad we could make it.
- Thank you for being here.
- Good luck.
- We're gonna do it.
We have to do it.
Thank you so much. - We will get our ballots.
Okay, great, thanks.
- See ya. - Bye.
- [Team Member] It's in your text messages.
They're holding a parking spot
for you in the front.
- [Lauren] I think that our country would be
a far different place if we had more nurses
and teachers, police officers, right?
More regular people involved in our government.
- If somebody had told me four years ago
I'd be running for U.S. Congress,
I would have told them they were on drugs.
- [News Announcer] They're calling this a pink wave.
Do you see Texas turning blue?
- Texas would not be the first state you would
point to to think that Democrats would swing it.
But what you do see is the Democrats contesting places
where they haven't normally even tried.
- [Jana] I'm feeling nervous.
I'm feeling good.
We've accomplished something really phenomenal
by being here where we are.
- Have you been able to make it out
to the polls today to vote for Miss Watson?
- I'm just calling to remind you
that today is primary day, and if you
haven't voted for Liz.
- Please remember to do so today,.
- The polling stops at 6:00 p.m. tonight.
- Nice to meet you.
You think I'll have your vote?
- Absolutely. - Thank you!
It takes a lot of hard work and it's building a movement.
Something that's built to last.
It's going good today.
Nice to see you, too.
- I voted for you.
- Oh, I really appreciate that.
Thank you so much.
- Yeah, I saw you at the forum at Wittenberg
and I really liked what you had to say.
- Thanks!
- You had like a bulldog spirit.
- [laughs] I do.
- You were gonna grab on and you weren't
gonna let it go. - I don't let up.
I hope you told lots of your friends.
- Yes I did.
- Okay, good job, much appreciated.
I'm really different from a lot of candidates.
I'm a labor candidate, but because I'm a woman,
sometimes that gets obscured.
Hi, Liz Watson Democrat for Congress.
It's a double-edged sword to talk a lot
about being a woman in this district,
because I will lose five to 10% of votes
over this issue, I guarantee it.
It's very frustrating.
- The polls are closed.
Get outta here.
- What am I talking about, Brian?
Is it just absentee plus early vote, or...
For my daughter, I think it's important for her
to see that women can run and hopefully
she'll see that women can win.
[supporters cheering]
- Did we tell you yet that she's running for Congress?
- [Woman] We need a woman in this world, girl!
- Thank you. - Yes!
Are you gonna vote today?
- I did. - You did?
- [Supporter] Right before we got here.
- At every place, there was one person
who knew who I was when I walked in,
which is pretty awesome.
- I saw you on my Facebook.
- Definitely on Facebook.
We were talking to the digital ad people last night.
We were like, yeah, we're trying to spend
the whole budget that you gave us.
We were like bumping against Facebook's spamming limits.
They think that we're spamming people, we're like, okay.
- This has been like weeks of anxiety dreams,
animals chasing me, running to catch a plane.
The train has left the station.
I'm like, wait!
Right, like all of that.
And then last night I was out.
So maybe I'll get nervous later on today,
but I don't think so.
I'm feeling-- - Your body's telling you,
look you've done the work.
- We've done it.
- You know, I think back to November 2016,
which I just still think couldn't even think
about at that time, but it comes down to,
this is about not only daughter, but also my son.
- [Lauren] Mm-hmm.
[sighs]
- I am so excited.
This is the oddest feeling, but just, we did it.
I saved my position for last to fill in the bubbles.
I made sure I did everything else.
And then I took a deep breath and filled in my own name.
I feel really good.
Thank you. - Yep.
- Bye!
[laughing]
- 'Kay, see you later.
- [Liz] I think Katie is getting me a pen.
- Maybe I'll put this back here.
- I'm so thrilled to be the Democratic nominee
for Congress from our district.
This might not happen.
We all know this, but you just have to get ready.
We did this together.
Thank you.
Uh, what am I doing right now?
Okay.
It's so wonderful that we had so many Democrats
running strong, robust campaigns.
It shows that we have the strength to come together,
come together and beat Trey in November.
No, I can't drink before I talk.
It's always a bad idea.
I've learned that.
- It only happened once. [laughing]
- No, I've done it on three occasions
and every single time it did not work out.
[guests chattering loudly]
[supporters cheering]
- You know you did a lot of the work
that's gonna make this possible in November.
So I mean all credit to you and thank you.
I think you and I stand for the same thing.
We're just in this for the right reasons
and all right, yeah.
Thanks Dan.
Okay, thanks for calling.
Okay, bye bye.
So are we?
- Yeah, I'm gonna have more for you later, but--
- So am I gonna, I'm gonna okay.
- Yeah, yeah.
[supporters clapping]
- [Supporters] Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz!
[supporters cheering]
- I am so thrilled and honored to be the Democratic
nominee to take on Trey Hollingsworth.
[supporters cheering]
I know I just introduced my family,
but you know, I really, Craig, I gotta hand it to you.
You believed and you got behind me,
I mean, a thousand percent.
[supporters cheering]
But I want to be really clear about the fact
that we all did this together.
It's because of each and every one of you
who are here in this room, who knocked on doors.
And I know a lot of people are probably thinking
finally, I get to sit down.
There is a crew of people here who
I don't think slept last night.
Thank you, thank you for what you did.
So this is a really exciting moment.
And it's a really important moment,
because everything we care about
right now is at stake.
Everything is on the line.
[supporters cheering]
- [Supporters] Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, Lauren!
Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, Lauren!
[supporters clapping]
[supporters cheering]
Thank you.
- We earned every single vote we got tonight.
We did not need name ID in order to win.
We won one vote at a time.
We are releasing a press release as well.
What is your deadline?
- Everybody, can I have your attention?
Just real quick!
Jana would like to say a few words.
- We started from nowhere.
We had zero name ID.
We just had an idea, which is that
Democrats could win this district.
- Absolutely. - Yeah!
[clapping] - And we have proved tonight
that we are on our way.
[supporters clapping]
A lady on Facebook messaged me and said,
"I'm gonna make you a sash."
I think it's like this.
And I love it, but I've never worn it
because I feel a little bit like
I'm pretending to be a beauty pageant contestant.
I don't, votes for.
Maybe it should say vote for Jana Lynne?
But it says votes for Jana Lynne.
I'm gonna wear it tonight.
So I'm gonna wear it tonight
for the victory party or the watch party
as we're calling it.
[laughing] I hope it's a victory party.
- [Woman] How many more hours until the polls close?
- Uh, what time is it now, it's 4:30?
So, um two and a half.
I'm feeling nervous.
I have no idea how it's gonna go tonight.
I think it's gonna be close.
Data is really helpful.
The more data I have, the more I calm down.
I just always want to know how we're doing
based on empirical evidence.
- I'm Shelly Poplar from the "Fort Worth Star Telegram."
The polls have been closed now for a little over an hour.
And in Congressional District Six,
this is Joe Barton's seat, Jana Lynne Sanchez
has taken an early lead.
Let's look at the numbers here.
I know they're fluid.
- So far, we're four points ahead.
It's 52 to 48.
We were expecting to be a bit behind right now,
but it's only about 250 votes.
So we can't get too excited.
So we could still lose.
That could still happen.
I feel good.
I feel really relieved and optimistic.
- [Woman] The last time you were here.
- [Jana] And how many Tarrant County precincts was that?
- [Woman] That was 50.
- 50 out of a 100. - 50?
- [Woman] We got 182, yeah.
- I'm winning.
[campaign team chattering loudly]
- [Jana] We've already counted most of the--
- They called it! - They called it!
[campaign team cheering]
[cheering]
- We won! [laughing]
We won!
- Female candidates for office
are featured on "Time's" latest cover.
The magazine calls them the Avengers.
Joining me now is Lauren Underwood.
She's running for a congressional seat in Illinois
against Republican incumbent, Randy Hultgren.
So Lauren, I have to ask, what made you want to run?
- [Lauren] In our district, we have 37,000 people who currently
are insured through the Obamacare marketplaces.
And so they're looking for some stability,
but also to make sure that it's affordable
for middle-class families.
- In politics now, you can tell it's an election
that's tight as can be because the allegations
are heating up in the 14th Congressional District.
Congressman Randy Hultgren is facing a stiff challenge
from political newcomer, Lauren Underwood.
- [Lauren] Our district, the Illinois 14th, has not had
a competitive Congressional race in 10 years.
My opponent has not had a primary challenger ever.
- There's been so much about healthcare.
Where do you stand on preexisting conditions?
Because that seems to be--
- Yeah, somehow is must have been
like a nationwide poll that they did
and they picked this out, 'cause it's just not true.
- [Lauren] We have special interest dollars that are
getting ready to flood in that want to drown out my voice.
They are so threatened by my candidacy.
The battleground, if you will,
is in suburban Midwestern districts like mine.
- We are in a red, red, red part of Illinois.
Yeah, this is not an area that Democrats
have usually thought we could play in.
And yet here is this
fantastic African American
vibrant young leader, who's I think
caught the imagination of everybody up here,
- [Lauren] Such an opportunity.
We've had tens of thousands of people
invest in this race and say, "I have your back."
Hi everyone, it's Lauren Underwood.
I'm so thrilled to be here with my friend,
Mayor Pete from South Bend, Indiana.
We're here to talk early voting.
I'm here on our 100th day until the election.
So excited about this group, this team.
We know that we're gonna be victorious
come November 6th.
[supporters cheering]
We can win but we're not winning yet.
We can't shirk away, we've gotta dig in.
- For our Democracy 2018 coverage
focused on bringing you all of Indiana's
most pivotal races in the upcoming midterm election.
Today we travel to the 9th Congressional District.
Incumbent Republican Trey Hollingsworth
is being challenged by Democrat, Liz Watson.
- [News Announcer] Watson is from Bloomington where she
resides with her husband and two children.
- [Interviewer] What's it been like, Lila,
to see your mom running for this office?
- Well, at first I was like, oh my god,
like I have never done anything so brave before.
And the day that we won the primary, I was like,
oh my god, we could actually win this.
[Liz laughs]
- Lila tells it like it is.
- [Interviewer] What's been hard about this year,
having your mom run?
- It's mostly that I always have something on my mind.
Oh my god, what if we don't win this?
Or--
- I mean, we wanna win.
But we we talked about that, we said
we'd made peace with every outcome
before we started running, right?
- Yep. - Yeah.
And that it's gonna be important that we
ran a campaign that was based on actually trying
to fight for people, right?
- [Lila] Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, so whatever happens we've done a pretty good thing.
So we've elected a Congress full of millionaires
who have no idea what real people face
and no idea how hard people work,
and how close to the edge so many people here are living.
- Yeah. [laughs]
I think that one of the reasons that I've
kind of taken to being able to run a strong campaign
is that I can have this really singular focus.
You know, when you sort of go 150 miles an hour
for a year and that's just what it takes.
I mean, I had no idea about the fundraising.
It is nuts.
I mean, we've raised over $2 million in this campaign.
Like how does one do that?
The hard part about that, right,
is my opponent has a $58 million net worth.
I do not.
In a district where your opponent spent
$4 1/2 million putting his name out there
in paid advertising to win the seat the first time.
Getting out there so that people know who I am
is really important.
I mean, we all wish we could run campaigns
without money, but you can't.
So I've had to spend a stupid amount of time
raising money, I mean, just a stupid amount of time.
You know, we have a system where someone like me,
that isn't gonna take corporate PAC money,
and doesn't have their own fat bank account,
is just gonna be on the phone all the time,
you know, trying to raise money.
So when you go up against somebody that doesn't
have to spend any time raising money,
it's just an unequal playing field.
He has been running digital attack ads.
He's found all my bad hair days.
I have so many to choose from,
so many bad hair days.
And then he kind of paints my hair blue.
[laughing] It's very interesting.
- [Announcer] Liberal lobbyist, Liz Watson,
spent a decade in Washington.
She'd raise taxes, open our borders,
take over your healthcare.
She won't fix the problem.
Liberal lobbyist Liz is the problem.
- I'm Trey Hollingsworth and I approve this message.
- Liberal Liz thinks people should have healthcare.
[gasps] [laughs]
All the things that are in every campaign,
the name calling and the lying and the whatever,
it's all fear-mongering, I mean, you know.
I really appreciate it.
- Yeah, I hope you--
- It's all based on fear.
You just have to stay on your message
and just don't give it any airtime.
Just stay on your message.
orchestral string music
- I'm so happy to be back here in my hometown
and particularly happy to be surrounded
by so many amazing, active,
powerful Democratic women.
[crowd cheering]
So you know we've all heard, we've been hearing it,
this is the year of the woman.
How many of y'all have heard that?
[crowd cheering]
You watched us on the Women's March.
They've taken note of the fact that we have
more women running than ever before.
But sometimes I worry about those labels,
the year of the woman.
Because I want this to be more than a year.
[crowd clapping]
I want this to be the beginning of us
making sure that we are no longer on the menu
because we are at the table.
[crowd clapping]
It's with great pride and pleasure that I
introduce to you, our Texas Congressional candidates.
[crowd clapping]
With us today, Jana Lynne Sanchez running
in Congressional District Six. [crowd cheering]
- Hi, how are you doing?
- I'm doing well, I'm doing well.
- [Jana] Oh, good to see you.
Are you out walking?
Are you knocking on doors, oh yeah.
- Love your emails.
- Thank you.
Thank you. [laughing]
I think people thought we were in the way,
but we're in the way wherever we are.
- I's not the first time we've stopped traffic.
[both laughing]
- Okay, can we find a place to sit down?
'Cause my feet are killing me. - Absolutely.
- My girls would be so disappointed.
They were so excited when they saw I wore a suit today.
[laughing] - You can go back.
You can go back, just taking a break.
- [Lauren] Am I nervous?
Not right now.
- [Interviewer] Have you been nervous
throughout the campaign?
- I've been nervous for sure.
Debates?
The first debate I did with Randy,
well the first forum editorial board meeting
at the "Chicago Tribune," I could barely
string together a coherent sentence.
I'm serious.
I don't know what came over my body.
- [Journalist] All right, Mr. Hultgren, what's an issue
that you agree with your opponent on?
- Well, I think we agree, for example,
on the threat that Russia poses.
And it also means that we need to make sure that,
just as citizens ourselves, consumers of information,
we need to not only vote, not only participate,
but make sure that we're getting information
from a lot of different sources.
All of those things are important
to make our elections meaningful.
There could be nothing more important than that.
- I'm very concerned with the threat
that foreign interference will play
in our upcoming midterm election.
We know that in 2018, candidates have already
experienced foreign hacking and infiltration
of their internal campaign systems, and so--
- Is your campaign one of those?
- My campaign is not one of those.
- We do agree there is nothing more important
and nothing more sacred.
Let's just make sure that we do it
in a measured way and make sure that we
do it in a prudent way.
- We have children in cages at the border.
We need to investigate that.
If we are going to be serious about healthcare reform,
we need to bring in the voices
of patients and families.
If we have, like we saw earlier this year,
every other day a mass shooting in this country,
we need to put forward common sense
gun reform solutions that would allow
for the safety and security of our communities.
This Congress has been unwilling to do that
and has been unwilling to offer that much needed
check and balance over President Trump.
This is high stakes.
We are literally one of the must win seats.
This is a tier one race.
Doesn't get more competitive than what we're doing now.
- We're honored to be joined tonight
by Congressman Randy Hultgren.
[supporters clapping]
Come on up.
[supporters cheering]
- Thank you, Mr. President.
God bless you all.
This is amazing.
We need your vote.
My name is Randy Hultgren.
I represent the northern suburbs.
We've got a tough battle running against
a very liberal who absolutely is dying
to support Nancy Pelosi for Speaker.
We've gotta stop that.
We gotta hold the House.
We gotta continue to fight for this great country.
God bless you all.
Get out and vote, vote early.
Thank you. [supporters cheering]
- I have 49 days to what feels like
take down an institution.
- Now Indiana, I heard a rumor that I
don't wanna believe is true.
But I heard you guys ranked 50th
when it comes to voting.
So we gotta change that, and that change starts today.
[supporters cheering]
- In case you haven't noticed,
there are a lot of people here today.
[supporters cheering]
And we are here for the very important purpose
of electing Liz Watson as the next Congressperson
from this district. [supporters cheering]
Thank you all.
Okay, kid, all yours.
- The election in just a couple of short weeks
on November 6th is the most important
election of our lifetime.
Let's get to work.
Let's take our place in history, let's vote.
Thank you. [supporters cheering]
- My name is Joe Biden.
[supporters cheering]
And I'm here for my friend, Lauren.
[supporters cheering]
When we listened to Lauren speak.
I was of reminded a couple things.
We have more women running for high public office
in any time in American history.
[supporters cheering]
- We deserve a representative who will be
transparent and really listen.
And Randy Hultgren does not do that for us.
[crowd boos]
Now, now, don't boo, don't!
[supporters cheering]
[Lauren drowned out by crowd]
- 28 days out.
We have four weeks exactly to win this election,
and we have a lot of work to do.
The fact that the Democrat party has not
supported us is very upsetting,
because I think with even a little bit of support
from the DCCC, we could have raised
twice as much money as we've raised.
But we're just plugging away.
We have so much left to do.
We've had some big breaks.
We got the endorsement of the "Dallas Morning News."
That is the first time in 35 years
that the paper has endorsed a Democrat.
People start saying, "When you win."
And I can't accept that.
I feel like you can't assume that you're gonna
win anything, especially in a district like this.
We just have to make it happen, really through hard work.
- A thing that I've always enjoyed doing,
and that I just kinda let myself do,
is I love to talk to people and hear their stories.
I get to talk to people about the most
serious and sometimes crushing things in their lives.
- Healthcare is a major, major,
major league concern for us.
- Okay, okay, tell me about that.
- Especially preexisting conditions.
- [Liz] Yeah. I'm a breast cancer survivor,
and that really worries me that right now I'm covered,
you know, but who knows about next year or the year after.
So that's kind of frightening.
- [Liz] Every time there's an election
somebody says it's the most important election
of our lifetime, but this is a time
when nobody disagrees with you when you say that.
- This administration that's in office right now
and the rhetoric, there's just hate.
It's breeding this, fueling this hate,
this underlying hate, I guess, that's been there.
It's not doing anything to mitigate it.
- People don't want you to dig in
on a complicated policy answer.
They want you to dig in on what's real.
You know.
The most important conversations come from
those kinds of connections.
One of the things that I worry about
is that our party affiliation right now,
it's almost like a religion.
So regardless of whether the person in office
is clearly ripping you off,
you're willing to vote for that person
just because they have an R behind their name.
Here in Indiana, yes, we need to bring
Democrats to the polls.
But we only win if we also win
Independent and Republican votes.
And I hope that we'll have enough people
who see through and see that actually, you know,
you ought to vote for the person,
the person who's actually gonna fight for you.
And that's what we'll see in this election.
- [News Announcer] A record number of women
are running for office this year, including nearly 500
who have their sights set on the nation's Capitol.
- Good morning!
Okay.
- Oh, hold on.
Thank you!
gentle piano music
- [Lauren] Good, how are you?
Good, sorry, I know it's raining.
[laughing] Whoo!
- People that look around their community
and see a need can take action and do something tremendous.
My grandmother, when she was 95,
she was telling me the story about the school house
that she went to as a little girl,
and how that school house was purchased by
three African American men three years
after the end of slavery.
And I said, how could that be, just three years
after the end of slavery, that those men
had the resources and the wherewithal to buy land,
build a school house and have the gall
to put on the side of it that they
were educating black children there.
My grandmother stopped me short and she said,
"Jason, those black children didn't have a school.
"They needed a school house."
The people of that community looked around
and they saw that need,
and they were doers, and doers do.
So I'm so happy that Lauren has been a spark
and that you've been the fire.
So please join me as we're about to
take on these doors, let's clap it up for each other,
to be those doers that are gonna bring the change.
Okay, let's do it!
[supporters cheering]
Today's the day!
- Today's the day!
[bus horn blowing]
Welcome to our office!
We're on an Airstream tour.
I decided that, you know, let's take it old school,
go around the district in a way that
brings people to us or at least can welcome them in.
You wanna come in?
- Let's check it out.
- Yeah, check it out.
Had like big Lauren Underwood for Congress signs,
we take pictures in front, invite people in.
We've been going to every County in the District
over the course of the final three days
of get out the vote, and having pop-up events.
- We're going to breakfast now.
- Going to breakfast.
To remind people that the representative
is supposed to show up.
- You ready to roll?
- [Lauren] Ready.
- Let's do it.
acoustic guitar music
- Hi. - Hello!
Yes!
[restaurant patrons chattering loudly]
Thank you so much.
- [Jason] Next Congresswoman.
- Hi, Lauren.
I'm so happy.
- Nice to meet you!
- There I go. - Thank you.
I love that, thank you for your support.
Okay, we have to fist bump.
Fist bump, thank you.
- [Supporters] Underwood, Underwood, Underwood.
- Okay.
- Good job, guys. - Thank you.
- Thank you! - Good to meet you!
- Good to meet you too.
- So Mitch, you have to make me a promise.
- Yes.
- When you grow up and you see something
happen in your community and you know it's not right,
then you step up on day two.
- Yes. - You promise?
- Yes.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, it was very nice to meet you.
- Of course, nice to meet you.
- God, we thank you for today,
we thank you for the food.
We thank you for the opportunity to be here.
We ask for you to continue to watch over us
as you remind us to serve the least of these.
You have called us for a time such as this.
And you have called your daughter, Lauren Underwood,
right now to serve the people.
We know that she is ready for this moment.
So we reflect and we say, thank you in advance.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you for family, thank you for friends.
Today shall be the ultimate victory.
In the name of the Father who created
the heaven, the moon, the sun, and the stars.
In the name of the Son that went up on Mt. Calvary
to give us chance for life everlasting.
In the name of the Holy Spirit, we say amen.
- [Supporters] Amen!
- Amen! - Okay!
[clapping]
- [Lauren] I have all my friends here from just life.
Not just D.C.
It's really special to be able to share my home,
my community with people.
Thanks for coming, how are you doing?
Very rarely do you get to see where someone's from.
[restaurant patrons chattering loudly]
- I'm just so excited for you.
- Thank you for being here, seriously.
- Thank you for having me here.
- Seriously, I love you so much.
- I love you.
- My friends know the true desires of my heart,
which is to serve.
And they know that I really care.
And they have been literally supportive
in every way that they could along this whole journey.
- All right, oh this is, oh, this is good!
- [Lauren] They're here because they care,
and because we're real friends
and I love them and they love me.
- [Friend] Oh, this is the other friends!
D.C. folks.
D.C. Delegation!
[friends chattering excitedly]
- [Friends] D.C. Delegation!
Whoo!
- Underwood! Underwood!
- [Lauren] When you have friends that believe in you
and what you're doing, and will literally
do all that they can, including non political people,
do everything that they can to help you achieve your goals.
I mean, that's like the best gift.
- [Friend] How did you feel after Sunday?
- Sunday was crazy.
So I walked out, you know, we were there early.
And I heard everybody's cheering.
- The next representatives from Illinois,
Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood.
[crowd cheering]
- I'd never experienced anything like it before.
You walk out and it just hits you.
[crowd cheering]
Let me just say, if you get invited to the cookout
at the house, girl, I will lose my mind.
[friend laughing]
ominus music
- [Jana] Good girl.
Good girl, are you having fun?
Are you having fun?
Fundamentally, people have to want change
and they have to want to go out and vote.
Hi ladies, are y'all voting today?
- Are ya'll voting? - You guys voted yet?
- Have ya'll voted?
- Um, we haven't voted yet.
- What are you waiting on?
Hi, are you voting today?
Have you ladies voted?
Have y'all voted yet?
- [Voters] No.
- If you don't go vote, you're letting
80 year old privileged white men decide your future.
- [Voter] Oh, okay, okay.
- Do you think they have your interests at heart?
- No. - No they don't.
- The turnout isn't great today in Tarrant county.
Which is, I was hoping for some great turnout,
so it's not looking good.
That was my consultant.
He said we've run a good campaign and he's optimistic.
And he thinks all those new voters
in Ellis County are my voters.
I had a text on my way and saying,
"You're the first Democrat I've voted for
"since Bill Clinton, I hope you're happy."
Hi, can I ask ya'll to vote for me please?
I'm Jana Lynne Sanchez running for U.S. Congress.
I'd really appreciate your vote.
- Yes, I'm a Democrat.
But I also have a lot of people who are
really right wing Republicans who are
friends of mine and family members who have said,
"I just couldn't vote for you
"because you're just too liberal."
I think we'll know at seven o'clock how likely it is.
It was always a very tough race.
People literally thought we were insane
when we started this campaign.
I'm getting very emotional now. [laughs]
- [Liz] I am a very realistic person.
On Nate Silver it says we have a one in four chance.
So, that means one in four times you win,
and three in four times you don't.
We talked about what are the sort of hallmarks
of where you could see an upset.
And it's a great candidate who's working
their tail off, who's raising the money
and meeting the voters and connecting.
And it's an incumbent who's asleep at the wheel.
And I think we do have those two situations here.
The only way we take the House is if
we have some upsets in races like mine.
- [Voter] Yeah, I gotta go inside.
We are seeing an elevated turnout, even in early vote.
I think these are the right conditions for an upset.
But it would be an upset, right?
And upsets are hard.
- [Man] Tell them we were here, that we said hi,
and go back in.
- [Man] All right, good.
- Hi folks.
- [Friend] So my mom called me very upset this morning.
- Why?
- She's like, well, 'cause she saw the ad.
She's like, "What do you think?"
And I was like, "I think that means he thinks he's losing."
- But also like, can you fact check?
[laughing] Like just a little bit.
- Oh, I don't think that she really is
who she says she is.
I'm gonna call a press conference
the day before the election.
I don't wanna just win, I wanna whup him.
- Posturing as a practicing nurse,
when in reality that's not what you are
or what you've done is a real concern.
- [News Announcer] Hultgren doesn't dispute
that Underwood is a licensed nurse.
He claims that her time working in Washington
makes her nursing claims disingenuous.
- It's really unfortunate that he can't even
tun on his record, and he wants to try
to discredit me in this way.
- Of the two candidates, I'm the only one
who owns property in the 14th.
I've lived here, been here,
been a part of the community.
My family is here and I'm back and forth
every single week.
We've been incredibly accessible.
- I was so angry and I couldn't identify why
or what it was about it that made me mad.
And then I saw Kamara from CBC posted
this picture.
And obviously I'm very familiar with this photo,
and I think it's very powerful photo.
But it just like hit me.
That is what yesterday was.
And it's painful and difficult and unpleasant.
What they were saying is that I am
not who I claim to be.
And it had nothing to do with the qualifications
to be a member of Congress.
Nothing.
It is not equivalent, but it's from the same place
as Barack Obama birther, birth certificate stuff.
It's from the same place as, like you are an outsider,
you don't belong here, you couldn't possibly be
who you say you are, because I don't believe you,
and I am an entitled, privileged
white person.
- [Interviewer] Have you thought of what happens next?
- Yup, if I win, I'm gonna get a whole lot
of phone calls tonight.
And not entirely sure I want to answer them all.
Um,
and if I lose,
probably won't get a lot of phone calls tonight.
It starts tonight if I win.
There's a lot of work to do.
And if I lose, we have to begin to shut
this whole thing down.
My staff gets paid through the end of the month.
I'm gonna have to find a job
and I'm gonna sleep a lot.
That's okay.
It's okay.
You know, I used to carry the campaign
on my back in my backpack every day--
- I know, but now I'm here
- Oh thanks. - Okay.
- [Lauren] When it mattered, we stepped up,
we mobilized a community.
We created space for so much hope and joy
among people who have been absent
from our political endeavors for so long.
Hi. - Hi, oh you're here!
[team cheering]
- We did it!
Thank you, everybody so much.
Thank you so much, seriously.
Thank you, thank you.
- [Team] Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, Lauren!
Lauren, Lauren-- - Thank you, thank you.
[muffled speaking]
- [Lauren] Cute, rignt?
- Hi Tina. - Hey!
- I didn't really get to say hi yesterday.
- Oh, honey you don't have to worry about me.
Are you kidding? - [Lauren] No, seriously.
This is so huge, I really appreciate your help.
Thank you for physically being here, too.
- [Tina] No, no, you've got a great team.
How are you feeling?
- I'm excited.
- You look great, I mean you look rested.
- Oh really?
I'm like ready to-- - You do!
You look like much better than most candidates
do at this stage, so you're looking good.
- I couldn't sleep last night.
- Yeah, I know.
- Yesterday was just like intense.
It was like the worst day on the campaign.
- Yeah, but that's--
- This is what they do,
at the end. - No, this is what they do.
Well that should tell you something,
that they're doing this.
I mean, that's really what this is about.
- Yeah, yeah. - You know.
They're scared because you're doing something here.
- Yeah, what happened to Stacy Smith?
Oh, they've got like, oh, election machines
that don't have power cords.
So the batteries are running out, you know?
And so there's long lines, you know,
people are waiting for hours,
and having to leave the lines.
And the election judges didn't show up on time.
It's all like the little dirty tricks just to make
voting really hard today.
- Yeah, that's right.
It's awful, it's awful.
Thank you.
We're gonna do it.
Hope to make you proud.
- You already have, hon.
- Thank you, Tina.
- You already have.
inspirational music
- [News Announcer] Voting is still underway
tonight in most of these United States
in the much-awaited midterm elections.
But soon enough, results will begin to come in,
as the nation has its say about these candidates
and about the past two years and looks ahead.
- [Reporter] Each time we see more women running for office,
it expands the idea of who a political candidate can be.
- I don't want anyone to elect me because I'm a woman.
But we need to elect me because I'm better.
[crowd cheering]
- [News Announcer] Democrats think they have a shot
to win the House, polls suggest they might.
But none of that of course, as we pollsters stress,
is certain.
- [Journalist] Tarrant County, really this
entire district is staunchly Republican.
- Well, I'm gonna argue about that.
The Tarrant County part of this district,
Hillary won it by 3,000 votes.
Our projections showed us to be pretty much
where we are tonight.
So we're just waiting now for election day results,
which we expect to be heavily Democratic.
- I feel like Texas and people all over the country,
states all over the country, we are stepping forward
in ways that say no.
I'm not going to accept this as the status quo.
- I think that many of those House seats
are gonna be flipped and they're gonna be
flipped by women.
I'm feeling hopeful.
- In the last presidential election,
so many of our young people simply felt disconnected.
Enraged or engaged, we are seeing the youth
in this country get in the game and that is
democracy working.
The record number of people voting,
that is good news.
- Among the many numbers I've read today
the most startling to me was that 65%
of the American people think the country's
headed in the wrong direction.
They just don't think the country is functioning.
People are challenging the structure of government
and its relevance to their lives itself.
- There was another option to look at.
- A better option.
One that works in favor of us, the people,
not just the upper crust rich ones.
- Just regular old people, just regular people.
- Hard-working folks.
- Hard-working, that us, exactly.
- A lot has been said about the fact that, you know,
there are very few black people who are here,
and there are a lot of Caucasians here,
but that's not the only way we define commonality.
And Lauren is just like everyone in that room
and we believe we're gonna have good outcome tonight.
- I met Lauren at a conference
right after the 2016 election.
And at the time she was saying like,
"Maybe I wanna run for an office someday."
And I was like, "Maybe I wanna work on a campaign someday."
She just had this, she makes you believe in her.
She's got this passion and she's got this charisma.
For a really long time, it was just her and I
figuring it out.
And she had never run for office before,
and I had never worked on a campaign before.
So we really had no roadmap for what we were doing.
It was just like, this is what we need to accomplish,
and let's start getting things done.
- There are just so many city councils,
boards, commissions, just elected positions
in this country where a woman has never served,
where a woman of color has never served.
I don't look at a map and see red, blue, or purple.
All I see is opportunity.
- [Team Member] The most similar election
that we had recently, we had a 27% voter turnout.
As of about 5:00 p.m. today,
we had an over 50% voter turnout.
[team cheering]
- It was or wasn't, and he was and wasn't.
- Well let's hope there's no problems, right?
- We'll go for it, we'll take it.
- But people are involved, so I think--
- I think this counts as a problem, but--
- [News Announcer] The Justice Department will be
keeping a very close eye on interim election voting
in multiple states tonight.
- Okay, thank you, bye.
They ran out of ballots because
our voter turnout was so high.
And they didn't anticipate it, and so they had to
rush ballots to the polling places and people left.
- [News Announcer] Some of the stuff we're reading about
now in Georgia and elsewhere, it's just,
a modern nation should be able to vote
with a little bit more confidence than
what we're seeing right now.
- We don't know how many votes it was.
I need to do well in other counties,
but we need to blow it out of the water here.
- Right. - Yeah, it's critical.
- [News Announcer] Democrats must pick up
22 Republican seats.
That brings it, to get to the magic number
of 218, become the majority.
- And this is good news if you're a Democrat.
You're watching this and you're thinking
they're leading in 16.
They've already picked up one. - Yes.
- It's early yet, it's only 8:00, it would have to be--
- [Jana] I'm so nervous right now.
I'm having anxiety.
- It's okay. - Alabama.
- Did you hear that Beto's first numbers were awesome?
They were only from Dallas, but they're awesome.
We must have our numbers soon.
- [News Announcer] 60%.
- [Journalist] Tell us how you're feeling.
- Well, it's very exciting.
We have been working the polls all day today
and we saw the tremendous turnout in Democratic areas.
I need some results.
I need to know what's happening.
It's really hard to talk, 'cause I don't think I'm up.
It's not good.
- [News Announcer] If he is, what does that do?
The reason I was just about to talk--
- I need a calculation, I need a calculation.
52 into 98.
- [News Announcer] Once you got outside the city
in the suburbs they are changing.
And so it's one of the things you're watching.
- That's what we needed in Tarrant
and we're already there in early voting.
That's good.
- Oh, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Yeah, that's what I'm looking at.
[supporters clapping]
- Right now, we're getting our asses kicked.
- [News Announcer] We need the map up there.
- Are you sure?
- Positive, absolutely positive.
- [News Announcer] You got 25% of the vote still out.
By the end of the day, a lot of votes.
What we're talking about is 75%.
- Okay, so it's narrowing, always on.
- It's narrowing, but not much.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- "New York Times" still hasn't called it.
band playing
- No, but that's too big of a gap.
I think I should probably go
make a concession speech pretty soon.
- You feel like it's that too?
- Yep.
We're at like eight points back.
We're not gonna make that up.
This district was a lot more winnable
than people gave it credit for.
I think if we'd had the resources and if
we've had support, we probably could have won.
That's pretty incredible.
That's pretty remarkable.
And by quite a distance.
- No we, percentage-wise, I mean we did really well.
Yeah. - That's pretty remarkable.
- I mean, I always knew that this
was a long shot, you know?
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- I wanted to help save our country.
- Yeah, I think in a way I did.
- [Supporter] I think so.
somber piano music
[supporters clapping]
- I'd like to welcome a friend, a deep inspiration,
and someone that I am proud to have known
this entire time.
Liz Watson, thank you so much for everything
that you have done.
The posse that you have built,
and this party that is much stronger
for your presence in this race.
Liz Watson! [supporters cheering]
Thank you. - Thank you.
- [Supporter] We love you!
- [Supporters] Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz!
Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz!
- You all are such an inspiration to me.
I am so proud of how hard you worked.
How many doors you knocked, how many phone calls you made.
You simply could not have done anything more.
I could not have asked for a better team.
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
[supporters clapping]
- Our country is facing a lot of challenges right now.
And maybe the biggest one of all
is that the people who are in charge,
the people who call the shots, are doing
every single thing they can to divide us
from each other and to make us fear each other.
We see opportunistic politicians demonizing immigrants,
demonizing people in the LGBTQ community,
demonizing people so that they vote
based on fear instead of love.
It's nothing new under the sun and it's not
what makes America great.
[supporters cheering]
Diversity makes America great.
People who have no advantages and are
striving for opportunity.
Our love, our compassion, our generosity
makes America great.
This country is too strong and too good
to let hate and bigotry win out.
[supporters cheering]
We are the United States of America
and anyone who tries to divide us will fail.
[supporters cheering]
And we will continue raising hell
to fight for what is right.
[supporters cheering]
- We're up like 2K in King County.
We're down only 1K in McHenry.
- But how much of the vote is in?
[muttering]
Well, huh.
- [Team Member] Oh shit, Kevin says
"Politico" called us.
- What? - What?
- Text Lauren. - "Politico" called us.
- [Team Member] Get her in here.
- [Wolf Biltzer] And CNN projects--
- Oh, and Dems take control of the House.
- "Politico" called it for her.
"New York Times" has 93% of precincts reporting.
Lauren Underwood 51.6%, Randy Hultgren 48.4.
- [Team Member] We gotta go.
- Oh my god! - Where is she?
She came upstairs?
- Oh my god. - They said she came upstairs.
- Oh my god!
- She's not here yet.
- They called it! - Did they really call it?
- They really called it!
- Are you serious?
- You are the next Congresswoman.
- Stop.
- Lauren!
- For real?
- For real, it's for real.
[whispers] - Oh my god!
- I can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
Is this for real? - Give me your plate here.
- It's for real.
- I have Randy Hultgren's cell phone number.
- [Team Member] This is incredible.
- No way.
- Three points.
- No way, no way.
- [Supporters] Lauren, Lauren, Lauren!
- You hear that? - No way.
- [Team Member] Oh my god!
- No way.
- [Supporters] Lauren, Lauren, Lauren!
- We did it.
- I'm so proud of you.
- We always knew we could.
Thank you so much.
- Oh my god.
- We did it!
No way.
- Lauren Underwood has won the election.
- No way, no way!
- [Team Member] 51.6!
- No way!
We did it, we did it!
- Oh Lauren.
- I love you so much.
- Thank you, Mom.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- I can't believe it.
- I know.
- [Team Member] Oh my god, oh my god.
I know!
- Thank you, sir.
And thank you, thank you for all you've done
for this community.
Seriously.
Thank you, thank you.
Okay, bye.
- Oh yeah!
[team cheering]
- [Lauren] That was Randy.
- Wait, did Randy just call you?
- You should of let me talk to him,
just for a second.
[everyone laughing]
That's okay, I would've been gracious.
I would've.
- I can't even believe it.
- I can't believe it either.
Congresswoman Lauren Underwood.
- Oh! - That's right.
Where's Ronnie Cho?
- Out here. - Ronnie.
- What?
- Yes, I'm right next to Lauren.
- Who is it? - Biden, Biden.
- [Joe] It's Joe Biden.
- Hi, sir!
Oh my gosh, we did it!
- [Joe Biden] You did it, congratulations!
- Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, sir, for coming out here
and for believing in us.
Thank you.
- [Joe Biden] Hey look, when you get to Washington,
you gotta call my house.
I'm close to the Capitol, and you know,
so I'll buy you a cup of coffee.
- Thank you, sir, it would be an honor.
- [Joe Biden] All right, well I'm really, really,
really proud of you.
- Thank you.
- [Joe] Go get 'em and enjoy the night!
You deserve it. - Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
- [Joe] All right, bye bye.
- Bye.
What?
[whispering]
This is not real life.
[team cheering]
Oh yeah!
This doesn't just happen.
We organized for this.
We got volunteers to help us.
We mobilized this whole community,
and they believed we could
because you believed we could.
And I look so ridiculous right now,
but I am so hot. [everyone laughing]
It's like waterfalls underneath here.
But that's okay, 'cause this does not just happen.
It really doesn't and I'm so grateful for your help.
Thank you.
Ronnie, do you have anything to say?
- Yeah, of course I do!
[everyone laughing]
The unlikely victory tonight, I think was
unlikely to only those outside of this room.
Tonight you gave them hope.
And we fucking did it.
[team cheering]
- Oh my god.
I'm so proud of you. - What?
- [Team Member] You sure you got that right, Ronnie?
- Congresswoman elect.
- Congress.
- The first nonwhite male ever!
- Ever, ever, ever.
[supporters cheering]
- Well hello!
I want you to help me, for the very first time,
welcome to the stage, the next Congresswoman-elect
for the 14th District, Lauren Underwood!
[supporters cheering]
- Look at what we built together.
[supporters cheering]
50 years and one day ago
on November 5th, 1968, Shirley Chisholm,
[supporters cheering]
Shirley Chisholm was elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives.
She was the first black woman in Congress.
[supporters cheering]
Tonight, November 6th, 2018, I stand before you
as this community's first Congresswoman-elect.
[supporters cheering]
If that's not standing on the shoulders of giants,
I don't know what is.
Together on this night, we made history.
We made history!
[supporters cheering]
- [News Announcer] A record-breaking number of women
ran in the midterms, and won last night.
- [News Announcer] Tuesday marked a turning point
as the Congressional representation of women
got a little closer to matching the percentage
of women in America.
- We were breaking the model of what a politician
and what a leader could look like when we had
so many different examples of people
who did not look like history.
The reason why Democrats did so well
in these Midwestern States and winning in these
really red districts is because of women!
I mean, that's why that happened.
[supporters chanting]
- The time for people to not be heard
and not be seen and not be listened to
or represented well, changes now.
[crowd cheering]
- But it's not just the story of the women who ran.
It's the story of the women who got behind candidates
up and down the ballot in every state, across the country.
- This is the first time in my life,
yeah, this is the first time in my life
that I'm doing work that I feel like
I'm supposed to be doing.
I thought I knew what it was to work hard.
And I thought I knew what it was
to follow my passion before.
And all of everything I've ever done in my life
just pales in comparison to this feeling.
- The fact that we had women who ran,
who didn't succeed, but so many of whom
got incredibly close to winning their races,
speaks volumes to where we are headed.
- [Woman] I am hoping that that will help build
and strengthen the pipeline and include,
bring in those women who didn't make it this time.
- [Woman] Once you kind of break the seal
on electing a woman and you have an electorate
that knows how to pull lever for
a non white non male candidate,
it gets easier to do it again.
So that makes a real long-lasting difference.
- [Woman] We see this year as an exceptional year,
whether it is the beginning of a new paradigm,
a new model for women's participation
in American politics, we're gonna have to wait and see.
piano music
- I get this question a lot about
is this a movement or is it a moment?
Um...
The hunger to know that answer
is ultimately unsatisfiable.
It is ultimately insatiable,
maybe that's the right word.
Because when we're in something,
when those of us who want it to be a movement,
when those of us who are invested in seeing
long term change are putting energy, thought,
fear into this work.
We want to know that our efforts can lead to change.
But we are the ones who fundamentally
are responsible for the answer.
- [Jana] I'm gonna say in 2018 it was not winnable,
but I do think it's winnable now in 2020.
- No.
I'm not that candidate.
I may run for something else.
- [Liz] Dear friends.
I wanted to reach out to thank you
for your unwavering support for our campaign.
When I reflect on all of the people
who made this campaign possible, it's truly overwhelming.
I wanted to share with you some news about my next steps.
It's hard to leave, but I can promise you this.
I will continue to be with you in the fight
for an Indiana and a nation that leaves no one behind.
With love and admiration, Liz.
emotional piano music
- There are a lot of lawyers in this room,
and I'm not a lawyer, I'm a nurse.
Madam Secretary, I want to be very clear
about what the family separation policy
is doing to children's mental and physical health.
Were you aware that the trauma of family separation
is connected to something called toxic stress?
- I'm not familiar with that term, no.
- Okay, were you aware that toxic stress
can actually change a child's brain,
because it's still developing?
There's so much to do within this
very fixed amount of time.
So it's just how much capacity do you have?
How effective can you be?
I am eager to use this role to make sure
that those 720,000 people across my seven counties
know that I have their back.
The political campaign stuff doesn't stop.
I try to just make the most of it.
So that I'm not the last one, right?
Like, I'm 32, the youngest black woman
in history to serve here.
LIke...
Let's find some other dynamo young woman
and make sure she has a good chance of joining me.
Or when I'm no longer here, right?
That she can come and have her impact
and um, that this won't be the last surge.
piano music
soft rock music
I don't know where I'm goin'
But I know that I'm gonna be
Stronger, faster, better than before
Aim for the sky superwoman I can fly
And I break down walls 'cause I am a warrior
The road that I'm rollin' on
Is gonna take me high and then low
But I know that I'm bound for something more
Something more yeah
Working so hard to stay afloat
But every inch I get closer to my goals
Jump through the fire to find my way
Can't stop me I'm on a leap of faith
I fall but I get back up
I might crawl when the road gets rough
But I stand like a warrior through the fire
There's a light in the dark
Something written in the stars
And it's calling out my name to make it shine
Like a diamond in the silent sky
For all the world to see
For the world to see yeah
Put your hands in the air if you're ready
Come on come on come on all right
Put your hands in the air if you're ready
Put your hands in the air if you're ready come on
Put your hands in the air if you're ready
Take that leap of faith now baby
Put your hands in the air if you're ready
Come on come on come on yeah yeah
Working so hard to stay afloat
Every inch I get closer to my goals
Jump through the fire to find my way
Can't stop me I'm on a leap of faith
I fall but I get back up
I might crawl when the road gets rough
But I stand like a warrior through the fire
I fall but I get back up
I might crawl when the road gets rough
But I stand like a warrior