Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) discusses the future of the Democratic Party at Harvard University.
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00:00:00so welcome to my final study group we try to pack the house for you wow um thank you all for coming
00:00:27out here it's been uh such a tremendous semester i know that interest is i'm a resident fellow but
00:00:32i'm only resident fellow for about 24 more hours so i tried to do a nice small intimate interview
00:00:39for my last event and like the interest i couldn't be more timely so just thank you so much
00:00:44governor wallace for sitting down with me for what's going to be i think a really interesting
00:00:47conversation well thank you good evening everybody i i mentioned earlier i got a chance to sit down
00:00:52with some students in the smaller study group and have have a little bit of bite to eat or whatever
00:00:56and i i mentioned to them that uh on the nicest day of the year you are either truly committed
00:01:01to this issue or you have no life whatsoever so but i'm grateful to the institute of politics uh thank
00:01:09you and and i say this as someone in full disclosure who has uh who has used harvard as the butt of some
00:01:16of my jokes you know i i use it out there i still find it funny when i say this i say i graduated from
00:01:22shattern state college and i said you may know it by its more common name the harvard of the midwest
00:01:27naturally right but i will say in all seriousness and i hear it across this country especially over
00:01:32this last week a huge thank you for harvard for standing on the principles this country
00:01:36important
00:01:39so looking forward to the conversation but it does matter i mentioned to uh to the director that uh
00:01:51i had the president of the uh farmers union of all the things to talk to me about knew i was coming
00:01:58out here and wanted to make sure that i expressed that and and i would be remiss there's a lot of
00:02:02special guests here but someone who uh i had become a good friends with considered a mentor and
00:02:07actually helped get me re-elected uh the governor of all governors roy cooper is here
00:02:12thanks for coming
00:02:17it's a pretty finicky group of 23 or 24 democratic governors roy cooper led that democratic governors
00:02:27association and uh led us all to re-election so thanks roy appreciate it all right well i feel
00:02:34like there's a million ways we can jump into this conversation here's i want to do it we're going to
00:02:37do a little bit on the past a lot on the present and a little bit on the future and maybe some wiggle
00:02:43room in between you down that seems fair let's just jump into it because i know there are reporters
00:02:46watching and they're on a deadline so i am very respectful to their time you've been traveling the
00:02:51country going through red districts talking to voters some who are on your side probably many who
00:02:56aren't my question to you is has your prognosis of why the ticket lost changed after these
00:03:03conversations well i don't know if it changed i think trying to uh to assess this and i i think
00:03:09it's a healthy thing to do i got asked right away and it's an obvious first question they said would
00:03:13you have done anything different to be on this first of all the sense of gratitude i had to be on the
00:03:19ticket with vice president harris and and knew what our mission was we had about 100 days to uh
00:03:24to prevent what's happening from happening and i knew that that was important and this is a
00:03:29look there's no second place trophy in this it's it's you know it's zero sum but when i got asked
00:03:37they said would you have done anything different well yes we would have won that's what i'd have done
00:03:41and with that being said how do you assess this and and i think for me what i'm learning going up
00:03:47and i don't know i like when i got asked you know you're out here assessing you know what
00:03:52what the democratic party needs to do i recognize i might be the last person you'd want to ask i'm
00:03:57the guy that just got beat in this a part of that so i recognize that part of it but what i
00:04:02am most you know interested in is that you run for these jobs to improve people's lives i don't
00:04:08believe their lives are going to be improved and i was out there to try and understand why did you not
00:04:12believe that before november why did you not believe and and the folks i'm really focused on are those
00:04:17who stayed home of why they stayed home and i think what i came out of that with is we talked
00:04:22about this a little bit upstairs with your students that there's a lot of people that said what
00:04:26difference does it make they're all the same and that's a pretty stinging indictment of because i
00:04:31think we're very different i have no intention of limiting people's reproductive rights i do believe
00:04:36climate change is real i think you should have the right to collectively bargain i believe you invest
00:04:41in our children in education and health care is a universal human right so those are the things i talk
00:04:45about but i think people are saying yeah that's fine but we don't really have any of those things
00:04:49yet and it became clear to me that there's some pieces that were missing out there and and i took it
00:04:56in minnesota to do this when you have political power you better not just be banking it to get
00:05:00re-elected you better be burning it to improve lives and this idea of have we not done that enough
00:05:06did we not convince people and why is it that people were questioning tens of millions said i'm just
00:05:12going to stay home because things will work out pretty much the same anyway what is left when you
00:05:17watched president biden navigate a global pandemic navigate us out of a recession that could have been
00:05:24put us in a position to do this in a way that was talking about a soft landing and improving people's lives
00:05:31and yet still a majority of americans didn't believe that so that tells me there there's a disconnect
00:05:36and i think it behooves us to soul search a bit listen go out there especially these areas
00:05:43my district in minnesota is a great example of this i won that district and look there had only been
00:05:47one other democrat since 1892 i won in 2006 i won by 30 points in 2008 in 2016 i won by less than
00:05:57two points and donald trump won by 17 points what changed in southern minnesota farm fields mayo clinic
00:06:04you know mankato state university mankato these places what changed during that time and how did
00:06:10we go from overwhelmingly have those people to support to not only not having their support having
00:06:14some their disdain in a place where these were my neighbors so i'm out there whether it's wheeling
00:06:19west virginia or up in youngstown ohio we went down to houston texas or actually fort bend down to
00:06:25omaha and asked these folks you know what what is it and and one of the reasons going out there too
00:06:30was is i was hearing it people were like a primal scream of my god stop this this is craziness what
00:06:36can we do and asking what we can do and and that's what i'm asking them what they want to see us do
00:06:41and some of those voters democrats people probably voted for you as governor and for donald trump as
00:06:46president they did so it's an interesting overlap to try to reckon with that still so thousands
00:06:53thousands but that was still there but look the folks here at the institute who know these numbers
00:06:57it was not that unusual that you would see a scatterplot that upwards of well over a hundred
00:07:03plus districts a few decades ago would vote for a member of congress from one party and the president
00:07:09from another that continued to shrink and by the time my last election in 2016 that year there were
00:07:15four districts that donald trump won by 15 points or more that also elected a democrat to congress
00:07:22three of them were in minnesota we were just the last state to succumb to this that it went but
00:07:27then we became and the other one was in pennsylvania not surprisingly so you have these districts where
00:07:32people are still splitting their ticket that's basically the last time that they've done that and that's
00:07:37a troublesome trend in my opinion that you used to see conservative uh you know republicans crossing
00:07:45over from uh or or liberal republicans and conservative democrats used to be on each side
00:07:51of that scatterplot now we we pulled apart and that that's really troubling and it is pretty much split
00:07:56on urban rural divide um and that's that's a real challenge and governor this is a strong clear
00:08:02democratic message that i heard from you a lot when you weren't the vice presidential nominee i don't
00:08:06know if you guys know you could not run away from tim walls on tv whether you wanted to or not on cable
00:08:11there was a time where i was flicking channels in the newsroom and you were you were doing a lot of
00:08:15hits right and then you became the vice presidential nominee and you thought i disappeared well i don't
00:08:22think can i can i be frank it wasn't just me it was a lot of people not just reporters but people i've
00:08:27been talking to this entire semester saying where the heck did tim walls go so my question for you
00:08:32and there are a million ways for us to get into this conversation is was that your choice no i would yes
00:08:37i said the choice to be on this ticket the privilege of being on it when you sign up for this i'm i'm a
00:08:41team player i'm with it and there's folks that i recognize are smarter than me they analyze this
00:08:46you put your input in running a campaign that had never been run before a hundred days uh in the
00:08:51situation we were at running against a very unusual opponent on the other side and look my my job was to
00:08:58do look i knew i was on the ticket um i would argue because we did a lot of amazing progressive things
00:09:04in minnesota to improve people's lives but i also was on the ticket quite honestly you know
00:09:08because i i could code talk to white guys watching football fixing their truck doing that that i could
00:09:15put them at ease i was the permission structure to say look you can do this and vote for this and
00:09:20and you look across those swing states with the exception of minnesota um we didn't get enough of
00:09:26those votes but you could be giving them permission on tv every day you could have been messaging that
00:09:30way and that isn't necessarily how it shook out well yes but i also said i understand myself i i said
00:09:35i think i'll give you pretty good stuff but i'll also give you 10 problematic and so somebody's got
00:09:41to make the decision here to handle some of this stuff and to make it and those are just decisions
00:09:45that were made and i think after the fact it is not second guessing or anything i think it's fair to go
00:09:51back on and look at this look we had the most qualified person who'd run for president in this
00:09:57country's history at the top of the ticket that in itself should have got this thing won we had
00:10:02in my opinion and you can disagree with me i think history will prove me right a very unqualified person
00:10:08on the other side and you have to determine how do you get those hits what was the best way did it make
00:10:15sense to continue to you know call him weird or call that out or make this pitch that we are
00:10:23significantly different and our policies can improve your lives and and there's people that
00:10:27make those decisions and whether it's right or wrong or not i guess history will make that case what do
00:10:32you think what do i think yeah i think this was going to be hard i i think that we are going to have to
00:10:39think why have we lost the self-identity that uh the democratic party is for personal freedoms
00:10:44therefore uh middle class folks therefore labor rights how did we lose it where people didn't
00:10:50self-identify that and how did we get to a point where people didn't feel like this was an important
00:10:54enough election to get out there and and vote that i don't know me being out there more no i doubt that
00:11:00would have made the difference um i know it probably wouldn't but i do think what i learned from that just
00:11:06candidly was if you leave a void donald trump will fill it and so i think you've got to be in every
00:11:13place as often as you can in every single day of every minute to make that pushback because i think
00:11:19the oxygen gets sucked out of the room and you get defined i i said this you will get defined and your
00:11:25policies will get defined very quickly because i don't think any one person right now in where we're
00:11:31at in america by themselves can be the counterweight to that noise that's there that the attention they
00:11:38get so i do think the lesson i learned on this is i think you're i think you're better off to do more
00:11:44to be out more to be in every forum you can be in so how is tim walls filling that void right now
00:11:50is it this listening tour or what else is there for you well i'm governing in minnesota the state that
00:11:55ranks first in health care mara healy's around here somewhere i'm going to tell her that
00:11:59that my our competitors we we look to massachusetts as being a peer state in this in terms of education
00:12:07access to education biotech research higher ed my god look we're sitting here um and so i think one
00:12:14of the things is is that i think this is a time to show an alternative model of governing and what
00:12:19governing can look like if you if you elect us here's what you're going to get your children are
00:12:25going to get enough food to eat you're going to have the highest quality of health care you're going
00:12:28to see personal incomes rise you're going to see home ownership increase you're going to see some of
00:12:32those things so i think that's one way and then i think because of the platform that the vice
00:12:37president afforded me and and being a governor um going out to these places that don't get to see
00:12:43that and i'll have to tell you this town hall thing it is a bit of me being an a-hole to these people
00:12:49i'll acknowledge what do you mean well acknowledge this that it came out from their leadership don't
00:12:54do town halls you're just going to get yelled at well i served in congress and i was there in the
00:13:01summer of 2009 and 2010 when the tea party was birthed and we were debating the aca and i stood
00:13:07in front of thousands of angry constituents for hours and took the questions not like oh look at
00:13:12you you're a tough guy or whatever it was my job i was elected to do it but i had no problem doing that
00:13:16because i could defend the aca i could defend why i voted for that and i saw these guys their
00:13:22leadership tell them don't do the town halls you're just going to get yelled at well you need
00:13:25to come out and tell us why cutting medicaid's a good idea you need to come out why you think you can
00:13:29deport people without due process if you believe in that stuff just answer it i felt really personally
00:13:35as a former member of congress that that was wrong and i also felt i had the ability that if you're
00:13:41not going to show up i'm going to make this really unpleasant for you because your constituents are
00:13:44going to come and i'm telling you for some of you in here wondering if it matters it matters to members
00:13:49of congress these these people can read a paper faster than anybody when you're looking for one name
00:13:55that's all they do they went oh god there's my name in the paper and they're yelling at me yeah
00:13:59it matters to them about how that's being done and there's the capacity especially in the districts
00:14:05we're choosing that there's going to be a big impact on people and i'll just make the case we went down
00:14:10to omaha that's a district that the vice president won by 10 points that one blue dot that's out there
00:14:15in nebraska um their member of congress won that was one of the very few ones voted for kamala harris
00:14:21they voted for uh this guy to be in congress and i went down to kind of hammer on it i see this
00:14:27weekend he's going to spend more time with family it sounds like what he said that's how this works
00:14:31that's how this works it's like a form of resistance kind of a pressure campaign from the
00:14:36outside in in a way yeah and i'm just there to join that resistance i've said this that people are
00:14:40coming to these town halls not to see me i'm going to see them they're doing it on their own you show
00:14:44up or not they're going to be there i'll guarantee you that they're going to yell at democrats who don't
00:14:48show up too which i think is actually a valid place to be that there is we were talking about is
00:14:53the resistance it's not a million person march but i can tell you these town halls are not performative
00:14:58people are coming and they're angry and they're saying it and so and i asked in youngstown i you're
00:15:04not supposed to ask i said how many year have never been to like a political event or rally because
00:15:08the assumption is if you're republicans they're all being paid you know checks or whatever but i kind
00:15:14of thought it would be a lot of just really geared up democrats about half the people raised their
00:15:19hand said they'd never been to one and that showed me that those people who stayed home from the last
00:15:25election or who we weren't engaging with they might not be ready to vote for us but they're ready to
00:15:30listen to what's happening and i think that is that's our opening at this point and so it's real it's
00:15:37not performative folks are angry they want to see something get done they're not convinced i'm not
00:15:42convinced at this time that they're ready to vote for us but i think they're ready for something
00:15:45different are you talking other democrats about this because it can't just be tim walls's war
00:15:50to wage on your own and it can't just be or might you could tell me cory booker doing a filibuster on
00:15:56the floor it matters it matters and and look i'm as i served in congress so i'm like somebody goes oh do
00:16:02you miss congress no i'd rather eat glass no no no but the people who are at congress is really
00:16:09important right now and and the people who who dismiss that first of all dismissing the physical
00:16:15ability to do what he did i think is that's a whole other subject but it was about tangible
00:16:21resistance at a time right after the the vote on the cr that felt like nothing was happening i think
00:16:29it mattered and i think whether it's bernie sanders in coeur d'alene idaho with with aoc doing it
00:16:33is that changing things is it passing any legislation no but i'm convinced what i say is
00:16:39i think every democrat needs to be out there every independent and i would say every republican who
00:16:43cares about rule of law and our institutions should be out filling the lanes because i don't think any
00:16:48one of us can suck up the oxygen of donald trump but i think if everybody's in the lane and if your
00:16:53cup of tea as i said is doing podcasts with folks then do the podcast by gavin newsom yes he has a very
00:16:59popular podcast sure yeah no and look there's been some contention around this i said this
00:17:05i think it's healthy for us it would not be my choice to go on a podcast and listen to steve bannon
00:17:11talk but it would not be my choice but i got to tell you gavin newsom's getting people to listen to
00:17:17that i know what gavin newsom can do and he's out there he's the governor of the fourth largest economy
00:17:21in the world he has something to add you can disagree with that but all of a sudden now we're talking
00:17:26about democrats now you might say yeah but we're talking about the wrong damn stuff well that might
00:17:30be true but here's what i feel like we got to fill every single lane and if there's one that's better
00:17:37than another then let's all pick that lane and do more of that but just setting back in the silence
00:17:42of doing you know we're counting on status quo that's the biggest thing that i you mentioned i'll
00:17:47go back to the learning something on this is sure the intense frustration with the status quo there was
00:17:53an article it's the hundred days of the trump administration i know it's like
00:17:57if i ever have a hundred days to live i would spend it in the trump administration because it's like a
00:18:02lifetime you know but but they they asked they asked a reddest county in minnesota rural county
00:18:12of all the things that is up near the canadian border being punished by tariffs and things
00:18:18agriculture being under threat lack of fema you know all the things are going to say you know you're
00:18:24you're putting up with a lot of hurt and the people said yeah but it's worth it it's worth it
00:18:28to get there you've heard him say this nobody's jumping ship yet but there was a guy and they put in the
00:18:32paper former democrat who said look i don't know if donald trump is right about the stuff he's doing
00:18:37in fact i think he's probably wrong on some of it but i support him because he's willing to bust things
00:18:42up and give it a try and that idea of he correctly identified their pain and then he said he was going
00:18:49to fight for him and then he picked the exact worst solution to all those things making life worse for
00:18:54them but the first two things outweighed the results which is a really stunning thing to think
00:18:59about and i think this is there's a fundamental here for democrats the competency and the getting
00:19:05things done that we heard this and i did this with with president biden that infrastructure act if i'd
00:19:10been in congress when they passed the infrastructure act i consider that one of the top five most
00:19:14influential votes of the last three decades in my opinion transformationally it was huge nobody could
00:19:20get it done and they got it done and everybody just forgot about it i said not me we had money for like
00:19:26a bridge i put up the biggest damn sign said brought to you by joe biden don't forget it every day
00:19:31that and it sounds kind of silly but i think there's this competency we win on the issues and we win on
00:19:40competency and then we lose the message and we lose power and we get in this situation so um
00:19:46it's perception asymmetry is i think what i'm hearing because i've been traveling the country
00:19:51talking to voters during the last election and there's perception from i don't want to say some
00:19:55but many including democrats that the party is weak i'm over i'm oversimplifying it right but that's
00:20:01probably what you heard from that voter that's fair and and but i i think that leads me to my next
00:20:05question about your own self-perception democratic party because we can talk about policy and we can
00:20:10talk about message but there are democrats who are yapping right now there's no shortage of takes
00:20:17about what went wrong and some of the perception is we went too woke we democrats went too woke and we
00:20:24should have been talking about this that and there's too much of a lurch to the left but we had jim
00:20:28cliburn here just a couple of weeks ago and he said there there is no party messaging problem it's
00:20:35a perception but the policies are good i don't think anything's wrong with the same the party right
00:20:39now where does tim walls fall on i think he's right on that the policies are good i i and i love jim
00:20:45cliburn on this i i do think we were able and fox news like i'm sure you'll get me to say something
00:20:50tonight every day i find something that gives them a whole segment on fox news i drank a damn malt with
00:20:57roy cooper out of a straw and that just questioned my manhood roy so that's what you got i was on any
00:21:02comment governor the whole time it was a damn good malt i'll tell you that so um no but i i do think
00:21:09we have been defined they did one a while ago because i'm not going to shy away from this
00:21:13i said in a state like minnesota that's older and white 70 of our workforce is going to come from
00:21:20communities of colors diversity and inclusion is really good for us and equity is kind of a founding
00:21:25principle how did we get that defined in a way that that meant we were taking jobs from other
00:21:30people whatever it might be because we've seen what their dei looks like it's a pretty bunch of
00:21:36incompetent white dudes that are in the administration right now why did we get defined as the people who
00:21:42were trying to game the system rather than bringing talent to the system and and getting things done uh
00:21:48so i i don't think we i think we assume a lot i'll say this as a teacher and i don't want to be
00:21:55like i'm in no fight with anybody on this if you're losing half the population and our policies are good
00:22:04and would improve their lives i don't think you can assume that the people aren't that smart and can't
00:22:10get it is there a certain percentage that has issues like misogyny and racism yes and we can
00:22:14acknowledge that but it's certainly not the vast majority that we should be getting i say this as a
00:22:19teacher if i'm teaching a class and half the students don't get the content then i probably
00:22:24haven't delivered it the right way i think the democratic party has a hard time differentiating
00:22:28delivery and education there are there's room for gavin newson's podcast and there's room for bernie
00:22:34sanders rallies and there's room for andy beshear like rallying folks up damn it he's a democrat
00:22:39who's going to be down at the kentucky derby and they're going to be loving him at that that says
00:22:45something and he's standing on those policies you don't see andy beshear shying away from protecting
00:22:50women's reproductive rights he does it in kentucky i just think our policies are good we let them define
00:22:57us and and i i mentioned this roy in north carolina is where i saw it those last couple weeks of the
00:23:03campaign the signs that popped up trump safety kamala crime trump wealth kamala poverty and it
00:23:12was just one word on each one and at first i'm like what are we first graders for christ's sakes
00:23:16and then i'm like oh my god these are pretty devastating as they were doing that that how
00:23:22they were messaging that out even though our policies would have created more wealth our policies
00:23:27would have helped with home ownership but it didn't get there so i'm i'm making the case we're
00:23:32going to have to figure out how to differentiate and it doesn't mean we micro target and change
00:23:35our message for who we're with we just recognize that people take in the information differently and
00:23:40and how they're going to get it and we've got a problem now in that we got a whole bunch of young
00:23:47men too that went that way now you know when you vote young you tend to get kind of locked in a little
00:23:51bit my 18 year old son tells me dad a lot of these people weren't voting on policy it was just more
00:23:55fun to vote for trump or there was more going on type of thing you can laugh about it but there's maybe
00:24:00some truth there i think there's a ton of truth there i i do think there's some there but we're
00:24:04going to have to figure out you can't go tell people like what just how are you so stupid to
00:24:10vote for trump or you're not going to get them to vote for you by calling them that you can say look
00:24:14he lied to you or whatever it might be we we need to mind our house with the recognition that there's
00:24:20going to be an opportunity here but what does post trump governing look like and i would just say to
00:24:25all of you and i think you get this this is not something new in american politics we were
00:24:29discussing this this illiberal attack on this this is you know uh president jackson this is
00:24:35japanese internment we got a streak of this in us and we should notice that when donald trump's gone
00:24:40the tendencies to get to the point we got will still be there have we learned any lessons to try
00:24:45and prevent that from happening is what i'm trying to and again i i don't have the answer for it but we
00:24:50should all find it and i want to clarify what i was saying was legitimate too is a very strong
00:24:56section of young men have pivoted more conservative that's like a very real trend we see in the numbers
00:25:01seeing the young men i talked to and of the three leaders you said that you know you talked about
00:25:06bernie sanders none of these none of these people are younger than 40 right gavin newsom
00:25:12they remind me of my age every day in study group but who are the young democrats that you look to as
00:25:19leaders because i do not think that you can just throw gavin newsom here at harvard and suddenly the
00:25:23issue is fixed in fact i think that will probably backfire look we've got a lot of them and i look
00:25:28i'm partial to governors i will say that i i i think you've got westmore out there you've you've got
00:25:33josh sapiro you've got great all these folks are look it's okay to get younger folks in but like 50
00:25:39year olds have like learned something in their lifetime we don't want to throw them all out oh sure
00:25:44so i i think getting engaged and getting me in there i think there's a lot of voices out there the
00:25:49thing that i think you should look at is there's a lot of democratic voices in state houses and state
00:25:55senates and and ags that are out there too um we tend to look towards congress and we we elect
00:26:01martin frost we elect some of these people which is great but there's a whole lot of them out there
00:26:06there's young mayors that are doing this work and i think for all of you in here and this is the way
00:26:11it works is there is an incredible opportunity that america is hungry for for new leadership because
00:26:17that's what we do but ideas that really resonate and so i when i got asked who's the leader of the
00:26:23democratic party right now again a whole fox news statement you know segment because i said well hell
00:26:30if i know i think it's the people who are out in the streets right now and that's actually the right
00:26:34answer because we should be hearing that reflecting that doesn't mean that you reflect everything you
00:26:40got to show some leadership organize get things done but there are people out in the streets right now
00:26:45i i'm seeing it they're figuring out how to get 10 000 people organized in four days to show up
00:26:50orderly by the way all of this resistance isn't it funny not one police officer had be beaten to show
00:26:57this uh you know resistance that there is a peaceful resistance that's happening amongst a new group of
00:27:03leaders and the democrats who are like i said our job can be there to amplify that pour fuel on that fire
00:27:09whatever it'd be if you're an elected office you should use that but don't overrest or don't
00:27:13overlook those folks who are rising up getting this done what do you think that means for the
00:27:17midterms you're seeing a groundswell where does it lead well we need to win and roy coop would be proud
00:27:24of me saying this again we need to win the virginia governor's race which i think is a there's two
00:27:29governor's races this year virginia and new jersey and don't sleep on new jersey because they have a
00:27:34tendency to elect republican governors some states do this massachusetts what the hell's wrong with you
00:27:38you do this too you're the bluest state in the union and you got charlie baker what the heck
00:27:44um i understand a little different type of republican but this race down in virginia will
00:27:49be telling because of the federal workers and the idea that we'll be going from a staunchly
00:27:55pro-trump governor and those that are running for it to the chance to win and what i say what happens
00:28:01then how this applies to the midterms is you've got about 14 republicans in districts that kamala
00:28:07harris won and joe biden won they start getting really nervous now because if they continue to hang
00:28:14right with donald trump their chance of getting re-elected is a lot it's a lot less and i've never
00:28:19understood this people that will give up every damn bit of their dignity and their firstborn child
00:28:23to stay in congress it's not that good a job first and probably you got to keep some dignity in this
00:28:30and right now i said this and i don't mean it i have to be careful again when i say it so that the
00:28:34language isn't inflammatory they are more worried about their political career ending because of
00:28:40donald trump primering them than they are of the voters the minute they become more afraid of the
00:28:47voters ending their political career it's funny how they'll start to change and they'll start to
00:28:52moderate and when that happens the agenda slows down and you've got the opportunity i think that
00:28:58there's you know history would show this oh that it's almost impossible to win seats in a midterm
00:29:04of the president in power it's only happened a couple times joe biden george bush did it only one
00:29:09or two other times so i think history is not on donald trump's side and the ability to be able to win in
00:29:18those midterms should be uh should we should have a wind at our back now if he's successful in shutting
00:29:26down our number one fundraising site and act blue then it becomes harder if the women in this room
00:29:31who are married have to go find their birth certificates and prove what their maiden name was
00:29:36that becomes harder if you say you can't hand out water to people like in iowa when they're waiting in
00:29:41line that becomes harder if you close polling stations whoever do i think we're going to face a
00:29:46lot of voter suppression yes yes i do um but i also think wisconsin was a good example of this
00:29:52we always do well in like midterms we as democrats do well in midterms and special elections because
00:29:59those are pretty high propensity voters we lose the folks who vote in the presidentials and then don't
00:30:05vote again that tends to happen so i'm convinced of this we run campaigns in presidential years
00:30:11like that's the off your electorate that is a very different electorate and it takes a different
00:30:17strategy and i i don't have the answer otherwise we would have won our team would have won but we
00:30:21didn't um but what happened in a couple i'll give you an example of this special elections in iowa
00:30:27where donald trump won by 27 points or whatever we had democrats win senate seats there in minneapolis
00:30:34the bluest of all the blue districts in the country we had the senate majority leader uh passed away
00:30:40democrat and we had a special election here a couple months ago for that that seat is going to
00:30:45be won by a democrat by 40 points every single time that's what that's not the most amazing thing
00:30:50and minnesota always ranks first or second in voter turnout all the time that special election this
00:30:56year was the highest turnout special election in minnesota history same thing happened in wisconsin
00:31:02for this thing and it helped over there that we had the most loathsome man in the universe putting
00:31:07in millions of dollars to be able to can you clarify who you're talking about yes well then when i do
00:31:14this it it's like he threatens to sue me like i have no money like well that's a good part so but
00:31:21but elon musk being over there gave us a foil and they won judge crawford won by 10 points and the electorate
00:31:32was bigger than in the presidential which we lost by a point all we needed to do was get
00:31:38a tenth of that extra turnout we didn't have to convert anybody's vote we just needed to get those
00:31:44that showed up to vote for judge crawford in that race and so i think there's lots of wind at our back
00:31:50but it's been a hundred days of destruction you think we can survive 550 more that's the real challenge
00:31:57that's that's how long it is till the midterm so do you think it's a blue wave a blue sprinkle
00:32:03want to get you out early on this one i'm i'm i should be like a politic they pay people to make
00:32:09these predictions oh sure like there's a job on tv that's that's the best part these elected officials
00:32:15here will tell you this the funnest thing is listening to people talk about like what happened
00:32:19in the campaign i'm like oh that is bullshit i was there none of that happened i was like in the room
00:32:23no no that happened there's a way to tell your own story look i see look i think there's every
00:32:27reason to believe with this energy that's out there with how we're talking we stay true to who
00:32:31we are we put proposals out that are positive improve people's lives and we're committed to
00:32:36once we're elected to doing that to improve lives um i think we we will take back the house i am very
00:32:43pessimistic about the senate just to be honest with you the way things work i think it's a very
00:32:47difficult look two of the people i admire as much as anybody who served in congress was
00:32:51sherrod brown and john tester and if john tester can't win you're not going to find somebody that's
00:32:58going to win the way it is in montana right now um right now now the question is we have to
00:33:04fundamentally change who we are because look john tester got drugged down and i don't blame him
00:33:09like he was a dear friend of mine we served in there during the presidential campaign he's like don't call
00:33:14me dude and so you know the thing was is being associated with national parties and things
00:33:19on these state races we're going to have to figure that piece out of how do we reimagine and i'm
00:33:25making it because look i'm not a democrat minnesota i'm a democratic farmer labor party we combine the
00:33:30two parties with humphrey it's a little different now will i tell you there's much difference now
00:33:34no but there is a historical ideology here of focusing on the working class in a way that
00:33:40brings them in we still do have strong labor um and you do here too i think we have to start
00:33:45planning right now here's i know you hate this i hate it everybody hates it these campaigns have
00:33:51already started should we pass a law and do the european thing and have 60 day races yes we should
00:33:55do that should we have campaign finance reform yes we should do that in the absence of that donald
00:34:01trump has been running since he came down that damn escalator and never stopped we have to do the
00:34:06same thing or we're not going to win speaking of running you said that you're not running for president
00:34:10i am not why not you you're on a ticket you're a gut sitting governor you have a very strong
00:34:15democratic message as i'm sure democrats the room might agree to i'm handsome well i don't like to
00:34:22editorialize
00:34:23they don't clap for me like when i say when i say we should be running i don't think an individual
00:34:33should be running i think we collectively as a party and those elected officials should be running this
00:34:38campaign kind of like the old school mountain climbing expeditions you never knew who was going
00:34:42to summit it was whoever was ready at the last moment and on summit day if somebody was in the
00:34:46best shape push them to the top and the whole team gets credit but governor you know someone is
00:34:50going to be like well i'm just soft launching my listening tour and then suddenly it's going to be
00:34:55the exploratory campaign and then but you know how these things work that's okay but here's what i'm
00:34:59telling you no no i think you're right but i would just tell you i've been out at these these town
00:35:03halls been on the street listening see things like this or whatever if people think you're
00:35:07hungry for the office rather than the moment that we're in in the fighting of this i think
00:35:11they're going to bury you um i think people are like not very patient right now for the
00:35:16the politics as usual i think they i'm trying to make the case that we're collectively as a team
00:35:21flood the zone i've been advocating for it's never going to happen somebody's got to organize it i
00:35:25don't think i can get it done but i think we should have a shadow government that should do press
00:35:29conferences every day in contrast to theirs they do this in britain and it you know it pains me
00:35:35it pains me to say the british do this right you know and in full disclosure to all of you all those
00:35:42times i crept on harvard i take it back i take it back you're standing up you're doing it but it's
00:35:46that thing that the brits do it right that we're seeing look we're seeing it today in canada i don't
00:35:50know if somebody's getting results on their phone but um that that campaign is only a few months long
00:35:56and it's not this craziness that's not our world so i think we need to collectively run a
00:36:01presidential campaign without a candidate right now that builds all the infrastructure helps us
00:36:05clarify this and by the time we get to 2028 we're ready to get this one so you have no fantasy picks
00:36:11no draft picks for no what i was making i told the that the class earlier on this my son came to me
00:36:18back in august before we were picked and he went to one of those offshore betting sites we can bet on
00:36:23politics he comes to me and he said dad give me a hundred bucks i said you know what he said you're
00:36:27nine thousand to one it was probably a good idea he had but no i here's what i think i think it's a
00:36:36super talented bench do i think the person who's out there no i'm not sure they're out there yet but
00:36:40i think what's really hopeful to me is is that you have people coming on a monday night to a forum on
00:36:48politics at a time look we i don't want to whistle past the graveyard i'm the eternal optimist i've always
00:36:52said that i uh wasn't just a joke i supervised the lunchroom for so long you have to be an optimist
00:36:58to do that so i've always believed i've been around young people i asked them and a lot of them have
00:37:03no reason in this room to necessarily be very optimistic and hopeful right now but you still
00:37:07are it's the nature of it um but i think it doesn't do us any good to not recognize the danger
00:37:13we're in i think you have to do that doesn't you know don't go home and doom scroll and all that
00:37:18that's what's different it that's your alternative right now yeah the goldman like oh what crazy
00:37:23crap happened i'm on tiktok i'm watching like cooking yeah but if you do it just a day or so
00:37:28all's i'm getting is kitten videos dogs and and just this dragging of katie perry that's all
00:37:35i'm sorry that is all i'm getting the concert's not doing well um but i have one final cue from me
00:37:47before we throw it to the room so if you see microphones start lining up it's a simple one
00:37:53governor i'll regret if i don't do blank before 2028 fill in the blank
00:38:00wow it's an easy one i think do what i can do to help define the democratic party as a party that's
00:38:14there to protect rule of law personal freedoms and and the things we care about it's my job in
00:38:19any small area and i don't care if it's omaha or wheeling west virginia to make the case that there's
00:38:25value in what we stand for i never had to think about this growing up because there was the democratic
00:38:30party with social security survivor benefits take care of my mom when my dad died we got to get back
00:38:35to that and that's my goal to try and redefine who we are in a thing that people are proud of to be
00:38:41there all right are you guys ready to ask a couple of questions um you don't introduce yourself but if
00:38:48you'd like to you can i'll see through the lights and let's just this space is really cool welcome to
00:38:53the jfk junior forum governor only only the best yeah
00:38:57it's the power of veritas or something all right let's let's start over here hi governor uh thank you
00:39:08so much for being here my name is megan i'm a first year at the college i'm from minnesota
00:39:12if you know if you know where eden valley is it's a small town of 1 000 people so i don't blame you if
00:39:21you don't it's it's between wilmer and st cloud not yes of course right right
00:39:28um so i want to kind of switch gears a little bit um so it's kind of an understatement to say that
00:39:35we're in a very chaotic time specifically as students at harvard i'm sure you've seen us in
00:39:40the news all the time um there's a lot going on and a lot of students are feeling kind of helpless
00:39:45right now you talked a little bit about like what the democratic party can do is there anything we
00:39:51can do as students to take action and feel a little bit less helpless right now yeah and i yeah
00:39:56thank you for for asking that question look each of i i am concerned about this and i've been saying
00:40:02this especially and i think those of us of older folks that are here need to acknowledge this
00:40:06it is far harder being a young person in america now than it ever was they are lying to you if they
00:40:12tell you that it was hard when they were growing up oh we went to school on horseback you know up
00:40:17bull crap they went with almost no cost i never worried once from a family that had no money that i was
00:40:24going to be able to go to school and i never worried once i was going to be shot in a classroom it's
00:40:28different now and i think the one thing is is that the country is hungry to see the optimism of youth
00:40:34because right now the mental health crisis the stress you're under there's a lot of things coming
00:40:39at you i think you making the option to come here and those who are wondering like this is a pretty
00:40:45engaged group but i would tell this to everybody who's out there politics is who shows up who literally
00:40:51shows up i was i didn't do a single thing electoral politics other than vote until i was 41 years old
00:40:56and the next thing i know i'm there with the vice president i'm like damn life comes at you fast
00:41:00and and it was just showing up and being in the right places so i think right now that for your
00:41:07own mental health show action and getting out there but here's the thing this youth movement that's
00:41:13happening and it's it's not ageism and all this you know it some people are too old we can say that but
00:41:19that you don't want to generalize it together but the thing about youth there energizes everyone
00:41:24and and it re-energizes the party and i think you should bring the ideas to this maybe i'm miss
00:41:31maybe i'm misvisioning what i think the democratic party is and there needs to be more expense because
00:41:36look we're having a debate you brought you've said it britney we're having a debate look you guys are
00:41:40focused too much on these fringe issues well somebody's personal civil liberties is not really
00:41:45a fringe issue to them and if we're not able to stand up for that do they really believe we're going
00:41:51to stand up for other stuff because i got to say this if donald trump's going to go full bigot he's
00:41:55not giving an inch and he's going to stay there so if that's your gig you're with him because you know
00:42:00he's got your back on bigotry or whatever it might be we need to be the ones that make it clear who we
00:42:05are and and i don't know if we're speaking to you yet of where it's at like we allowed them to define
00:42:12what i think and i president biden's move on this was the move to forgive student loans was something
00:42:19that our generation could finally get right for you and they made that uh they made that a problem
00:42:25for us and it should have never been the reason that the reason that these boomers and stuff are
00:42:31telling you that we paid our way through because it didn't cost anything there was no need to take
00:42:37out a loan because the generation in front of us paid on the front end so this idea now that we
00:42:43made college so unaffordable home ownership so unaffordable and everything um we have got to change
00:42:49that so that you feel like the party really does care all right thank you thank you over here thank
00:42:56you good evening chastity coston from north carolina governor cooper i love you she knows i am a doctor
00:43:04of education leadership student from the graduate school of education
00:43:06and governor waltz thank you thank you for being here tonight thank you for your words of wisdom
00:43:13for your work not only in politics but in the hardest field in the world education as you are a teacher
00:43:20and a coach as an i am also a fellow teacher coach and principal my question is what are your thoughts
00:43:26on the intersection of politics and education and what would you say to someone like me who aspires to
00:43:31transform education through policy change specifically as the u.s secretary of education
00:43:36if that role exists in a few years hey well
00:43:40so i never finished my dissertation so i'm so jealous that you're going to get there
00:43:48but thank you uh it does matter and and this is one that's very personal i i think one of the things
00:43:53this this intersection both at the level here academic freedom that you see at our universities
00:44:01but the access to quality public education which i feel is under threat and this idea that um
00:44:07that there was indoctrination happening i mean the irony of this is is that we have to
00:44:13give vouchers to our parents because they're indoctrinating our kids in public schools so those
00:44:19parents can use those vouchers to go to religious school to indoctrinate them into this ideology
00:44:25our goal is to make sure everyone is welcome at our public schools i would say this and as a secretary
00:44:32of education if when you get that job when you get that job um we need to not assume things again and it's
00:44:43not about elitism or talking down to people it's people are busy and don't know and i say this as someone
00:44:48who has been in education my whole life when the department of education was being dismantled
00:44:53like just the fear and the hair on fire and how horrible this was recognize that the vast majority
00:45:01of americans have no idea what the department of education does the republicans especially know that
00:45:07because their constituents are coming to me and i'd hear them say that oh thank god now we don't have
00:45:13to have that woke curriculum i said you know the department of education has nothing to do with
00:45:16curriculum right that's all local at best state they didn't know that but what we should have been
00:45:23doing is the genius and the brilliance of the department of education was it was on the front
00:45:29line of civil liberty and civil rights for all students including my son who needed an iep and idea protected
00:45:39that child making sure he could get it people don't know that when that went away now
00:45:46conservative liberal non-engaged parents are going to find out how fragile the situation is with
00:45:54their child to get them to where they need to be and and i would say when you become secretary of
00:46:00education it needs to be less the experts will do the pedagogy they'll help figure out the pell grants
00:46:07and things this is about the genius of the american public education system and access to
00:46:13everyone to get in there and i i think about that that that we've lost that piece of it and we allowed
00:46:19them to believe that this was about a woke department of education that simply had the audacity to believe
00:46:25that we shouldn't warehouse this child maybe we can get him to a point where he can live a full life
00:46:30i as a parent am very grateful for that i'm also very worried that that's going to go away so go do
00:46:35that and sell it i will thank you thank you for your question up here and i'm here and then i'll
00:46:41let you have one up the rafters so hi thank you so much for being here tonight um my name does that
00:46:46feel cool being up on that balcony it's a nice one of my favorite seats in the forum um but my name is
00:46:52annabelle and i'm a senior at the college um and i just wanted to ask so i think there's an
00:46:56understanding that one of the larger problems facing the democratic party is that voters democratic voters
00:47:02fail to unite behind a candidate i think you saw that in 2016 um when voters didn't vote for
00:47:08hillary democratic voters didn't vote for hillary and again in 2024 um and i think democrats struggle
00:47:14with making like the perfect the enemy of the good and i think that is a problem of messaging but i was
00:47:20curious what you think democrats and democratic party leadership can do to resolve that problem
00:47:24um and hopefully with some elections yeah thanks for the question it's a tough question i actually
00:47:30agree with you on on this and it's really hard i was mentioning upstairs um in minnesota we have
00:47:37democratic party does an endorsing convention and they endorse their candidates for the offices
00:47:42um and i went to get the endorsement for governor in 2018 and i didn't get it
00:47:49so i ran in a primary and i won in that um that's considered somewhat disloyal by some folks or
00:47:59whatever but i won the general election and we passed democratic policies and the person i ran
00:48:05against is one of my closest allies in getting those things done so i think part of this is is
00:48:10that if we want to be a big tent we want to take the ideas in this we have to be willing to be challenged
00:48:15on those ideas we have to understand and it's got to be that the policies and the improvement of life
00:48:22is certainly bigger than any personality or anybody running that's the part that i think we have to get
00:48:29by now the problem with that is the public as a whole believes you need to elect this charismatic
00:48:37leader who's going to carry us over the finish line and we stick with that and if it's not our person
00:48:44we do get a little bit bitter on it so um i know i'm just re-explaining the problem
00:48:49i do think i would hope and we saw this that the threat is enough to realize but it wasn't in this
00:48:58last election there were enough people that said on on issues that were very divisive said there's no
00:49:03difference between the candidates they're the same and they stayed home i think one we need to make it
00:49:09clearer than that and two this is where donald trump will help us the consequences of not getting
00:49:14that right are pretty catastrophic so i think we have to keep with that but i'm actually okay
00:49:19with challenging the status quo inside the party with new ideas and fresh ideas but i do think once we
00:49:26pick a candidate we've got to all agree that you got to go um until we get a multi-party look i would
00:49:33the goddamn brits again i would take i would take more of a parliamentary approach to this because
00:49:38that it would make us compromise because there's no compromise if we had 15 parties right now you'd
00:49:43have to build the coalition how do you think he was going to build a coalition with the greens
00:49:47or anything he can't build a coalition with the libertarians because there's nothing libertarian
00:49:51about what they're doing right now so thank you all right over here um hi thanks for our speaker i'm
00:49:58honored to be here my name is nike lima i'm a phd student in innovation and public policy at the
00:50:04university college london and um also from minnesota product of anoka hennepin county we're
00:50:11everywhere my question is i'm really interested i'm also a tech and human rights fellow at the car
00:50:18and ryan center uh here and so i'm really interested in digital transformation in government and have
00:50:24been paying a lot of attention attention to what's happening with doge i'm thinking uh i want to ask
00:50:31in terms of rethinking public value alongside digital transformations that are happening in
00:50:36government what do you think should be at the forefront in terms of priorities thank you yeah
00:50:41no this is a great question and and this goes back again if if we want to have bold leadership
00:50:45if if we want to have transformational government we have to have effective government and one of the
00:50:51things is is we're you know this is this is where these tech guys there is something said about this
00:50:56they're bold they break norms they tear things down which is good if you're coming up with a new
00:51:01iphone it's terrible if it's your mom's social security check that might not show up but but i don't think
00:51:09we've done enough and it's not about buying their frame and criticizing government i don't believe
00:51:14government can fix everything but i do believe government is a force of good i believe government
00:51:18can take civil liberties i believe we can collectively do things together better here's where i think the
00:51:23technology piece of this doing the things that we all know need to be done and we're concerned about
00:51:27protecting personal freedoms and and personal data all of that but we're starting to really embrace
00:51:32this in minnesota that we have the capacity to using ai in things like making sure fraud detection
00:51:40in government i'll tell you there's nothing i'm dealing with this in in minnesota where we had folks
00:51:44steal from the food programs during the pandemic that undermines people's faith in government and so
00:51:49the republicans answer is if people steal from government you shut down the government program
00:51:55and punish everybody else who wasn't stealing our role has to be to use this technology in a way that
00:52:01improves lives and i heard this on a panel i set with governor hochel of new york and this was pretty
00:52:06the data's pretty good and it's early they were using ai in foster placements and you measure a foster
00:52:15placement by how successful it is how long that child stays in that home how long they're able to
00:52:21you know continue to go to school and progress using ai over just humans picking how this was done
00:52:27they improved their foster placement significantly which when you think about that the number of
00:52:32children's lives that were significantly improved by that embracing of technology and efficiency in
00:52:38government was dramatic and i think it's trying to convince people that ai is not terminator every
00:52:45time but there are challenges with it but but government can be more innovative this goes back
00:52:50again where reagan made the case the worst word you ever want to hear you know i'm from the government
00:52:56i'm here to help that needs to be something that we say yes the government is here to help and we can
00:53:02deliver on that so i'm looking for the innovation in that we're looking to embrace ways that we can get
00:53:07better to protect it because if we don't do this then the programs we love won't be there and and
00:53:12they they make the case uh it turns out doge is going to be another one of those opportunities it is
00:53:17going to be so ineffective destructive damaging but ineffective on actually saving money and improving
00:53:26lives that there's going to be an opening but what i think most americans will say is well the
00:53:33democrats won't get it any better anyway this is the case i'm making i don't i don't wherever you
00:53:37land on this i represent again a health care state if you haven't heard me say that with the mayo
00:53:42clinic with others um if we come back into power and when we do if we tinker around the edges with
00:53:50health care rather than a radical transformation we deserve to lose elections because people have been
00:53:55talking about damn it how do i get health care and look i deal with this in minnesota because i'm also
00:54:01home to united health care so you get both sides of the equation here that has to be figured out i
00:54:07think technology helps us become more efficient and bolder on delivering things because also i want
00:54:11government to do like all of you is i want government to build the roads be there for security help with
00:54:16education make sure my food's safe all that i want them the hell out of my life then i don't need
00:54:21them in my bedroom i don't need them telling me what i'm going to read i don't need any of this
00:54:24do the stuff that government should do then get out of the way and i would just unrelated to this
00:54:31but say it i thought this was my hardest and best argument during the campaign i said if for no other
00:54:37reason to vote for kamala harris is you will not have to see that guy on tv every day and you can go
00:54:42weeks without having to worry about that the president's screwing something up i think technology
00:54:46gives us the idea truly to make some of these things work smoother for folks where they feel like
00:54:51they don't have to do it thank you we have two minutes left so this will be our last question
00:54:57before we get there i want to thank everybody so much i'll do another thank you at the end it means
00:55:02so much to me this is our last event all right take us home governor thank you so much for being
00:55:08here my name is river and i am a transgender man and an autistic student i'm a senior at thayer academy
00:55:13an incredible high school who has given its students the opportunity to attend this event so i just want
00:55:17to say thank you mr fortunato and all of the thayer staff who have given us this opportunity
00:55:22i love you guys you guys are amazing um now for my actual question given my neurodivergence and
00:55:31transness i am more than a little scared right now more specifically i am very worried about how i have
00:55:36seen some democrats talk about conceding trans rights and queer rights in general for more centrist
00:55:41and right-leaning support what have you heard about that and how are you working to support trans and
00:55:46queer rights for people of all ages yeah well river thank you
00:55:49thank you for sharing and trusting us with your story um i would work backwards on this is
00:56:01no matter what we say on this issue we're not going to get their votes on this issue so why wouldn't
00:56:06we be true to who we are in protecting all people's rights in minnesota we made sure and been absolutely
00:56:11clear this is nobody's business but yours to make these decisions that protecting and being
00:56:16a safe haven um for the transgender community i fought this issue back in congress when we were
00:56:21going to some of you remember this fight when we were trying to press the uh employment non-discrimination
00:56:26act and it was not an all-inclusive and we had many of our lgbt lgb they create the t on this one
00:56:33rights group that wanted to pass enda and the only way we could get republican votes is to get rid of
00:56:38the trans part of it and not protect them in that and i said why would we pass that if we weren't going
00:56:43to be all-inclusive and i think the issue and i've said this all along is if we truly believe
00:56:49that equality means equality for everyone i said it the other day in my state of the state speech
00:56:54you say you love freedom but if you don't love it for everybody you don't love freedom you love
00:56:59privilege and we're going to get pegged with these issues we're going to get
00:57:03we're going to get pegged with these issues but i would tell you this river we have not been very
00:57:12good at making it clear that we're going to defend everyone's rights and then we're going to move on
00:57:17and talk about economic issues and we're going to move on and talk about education issues instead of
00:57:22making this case and you know it's the case i i have legislators in minnesota that are still coming
00:57:27at this issue and i just asked them when is the last time you saw a transgender athlete compete and
00:57:33of course you know the answer is they haven't but the issue resonates and it pulls with people
00:57:38because it's the unknown you can demonize a group that is relatively small in this country but we're
00:57:45seeing it right now and here's where i think there's hope in this that i think people are starting to
00:57:49get this if you can take a breo garcia and disappear him there certainly can do it with anyone else
00:57:57and i think this idea we all know the quote when they came for so and so i said nothing when they
00:58:06came for this group i said nothing when they came for this group i said nothing when they came for me
00:58:11there was no one left to speak americans at heart know this is not the issue their 401k
00:58:17is not tanking because river wants to live the life they choose we need to say that and then give them
00:58:26an agenda that improves people's lives i disagree and this is going to be a debate i may be on the
00:58:31wrong end of this one because it's coming to come out there i don't think and i've said this that you're
00:58:35going i used to say this in congress on votes people would in con when you're governor you're
00:58:41watching the weather tonight because there's tornadoes in minnesota you're you got to get things
00:58:45done when you're a member of congress you fret for months over a vote oh my god i have to vote
00:58:50it's going to be tough and how do i weigh this or whatever my thinking from the first time i got
00:58:55there was they're going to say it no matter what you voted for and just do it move on because they're
00:59:02going to make it up the same thing for our party do we really believe in equality and access for
00:59:08everyone if we do don't let them define it be strong about it then move to the issues we know
00:59:13impact greater number of people and i don't know maybe it's not going to work but it was why i said
00:59:19this because it is true i think there's a strong human need to be part of broader society but also
00:59:28just to mind your own business on things that that resonates with people like yeah you know what
00:59:33i don't want you involved in this so river i'm sorry you're going through this we say in minnesota
00:59:38you are protected you're seen you're valued you're loved we have the law behind it to protect that do we
00:59:44always get it right no there are still people that will that will uh do what they can do but
00:59:49the force of the law is behind we're a trans refuge state we are seeing more people move to minnesota
00:59:55than any other and i have make the case on this we are a better state because of that we will be
00:59:59stronger we will be economically strong and we can live with ourselves because we're not horrible
01:00:04damn human beings and i think that thank you thank you for your question thank you thank you guys
01:00:12uh-oh is my mic hot thank you governor waltz for coming and thank you all for this last event okay