00:00:00,100	S1:
Good morning, everyone. I'm Caroline Beaulieu for folks who don't know me. Um, you don't need to know me after today, but I will be moderating the panel with the candidates that are here. Um, first of all, we are incredibly grateful to you all for being here. As y'all. As we know, you're very, very busy. We also know running for office is not just you. It's your family and friends that are running. And it's a huge undertaking. So thank you not only for running, but for being here this morning. Um, like with all these conversations, we obviously want for folks to leave here and folks that watch to get a sense of who you are as a candidate, but also who you are as a person. Uh, we value honesty, uh, candor. Um, you know, say, say what it is you want to say and let the voters in on that conversation. Um, a few quick notes on format. Um, this is a forum. It is not a debate that it is not, um, set up so that we will be rebutting or arguing amongst each other. This is about giving y'all the opportunity to talk. Um, that said, we do have a sort of couple of built in spicy opportunities. Spicy, Spicy. I know, and part of those spicy opportunities have to do with these red and green cards in front of you. Um, does everyone know what typically red and green mean? Yes. In some cases it stops. In some cases it's go. And this one, it's yes or no. Um, we will have a lightning round. That is a yes or no. Um, and we'll just do binary. You'll hold up yes or no? Everybody. If we decide that there is a a legitimate break from the group, we may ask a candidate to give us 15 20s on why they have departed so much from the group. But if there's consensus or there's sort of a split, we'll go from there. Uh, similarly, during the candidate responses. So we have five different subjects that we'll be asking you about. Everyone will get to answer every question without being obnoxious, trolling or bullying. If there is a moment or a point that is being made by another candidate that you truly disagree with, you are welcome to hold your red card.

00:01:52,900	S2:
See, I see. I don't know that I'm going to give you a chance to explain it. It depends on how I feel. I haven't had.

00:01:57,000	S1:
Breakfast, but if we have time or we feel like there's something we would call upon you to make that rebuttal. Who knows? I have a lot of power over.

00:02:06,329	S3:
All right, Madam Moderator. Yes you do. You're welcome.

00:02:09,530	S1:
Um, so the other thing I do want to say is, for both your sake and our sake, we are going to have Tom and Chris keeping militant time.

00:02:17,599	S3:
Thank you.

00:02:18,129	S1:
Um, I will throw, um. I'll throw things if we don't do it, but we'll try to do a good job of letting you know when you have 30s remaining, uh, so that we can keep things moving so that everybody has a chance to talk. You're not just taking time away from other candidates. You're taking time away from yourself for later questions. Um, so let's just make sure we keep things moving. Um, and also, we don't want anyone to fall asleep. There's a lot of carbon monoxide in this room.

00:02:41,770	S3:
And that's not good for the senior center. It's not.

00:02:45,330	S1:
But there are weights.

00:02:46,930	S3:
Um, okay, so.

00:02:48,830	S1:
Uh, at this point, we're going to give everybody 60s to introduce themselves. I'm going to start from here down. But again on the on the reverse I'll come back. Sometimes I'll sprinkle it around at random.

00:02:59,199	S3:
Two minutes.

00:02:59,930	S1:
No, you have 60s or two seconds. So 60s, you're going to obviously tell voters while you're running. Um, we do ask that you be super concise, but it's your 60s if you want to waste it.

00:03:09,969	S3:
Um, so.

00:03:10,569	S1:
We'll begin here and let's.

00:03:13,229	S3:
Go. All right.

00:03:14,199	S4:
Good morning everyone. I'm Tom Wynn, and I'm running for Congress because I believe in a government that works for people, everyday people, and not just a powerful few. And I know you all believe the same, and that's why you're here. I am very much invested in making sure that we are representing you all and not special interests. And I want to make sure that we talk about what I'm looking to deliver for you. Uh, first of all, we need to address economic justice to make sure that every family has the opportunity to thrive. We also need to address the issue of democracy and what it means to be holding this government accountable, especially given what happened today with Iran and the violations of a rule of law. But also we need to talk about what we need, how we can stand up for our most vulnerable right now, especially as an immigrant. As an immigration lawyer, I'm appalled to see what is happening with our neighbors and friends. But we also need to stand up against hate of all kind and fight for human rights and civil rights. And I've been doing that my entire career.

00:04:13,199	S1:
Thank you, and thank you for your timeliness.

00:04:15,729	S3:
Now, I've had for two minutes. I know I looked down, I was like, what's the point? This is about pivot. Pivot. All right. And go.

00:04:23,199	S5:
Good morning everyone. My name is Rick Jacobs. Um, this is about public service and not politics for me. I began my career in the nonprofit sector. I helped military veterans and their spouses access their benefits, spend a decade in our public schools addressing the the high school dropout crisis. I was the CEO of the Massachusetts nonprofit Network, where I both passed a state law in order to create a retirement program for nonprofit employees, and was also on the board of the Massachusetts Health Connector, Where I helped to save health insurance for tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents. For the last ten years, I've been the district director of chief of staff for Congress and Seth Moulton waking up every day thinking about how to address the problems here in Massachusetts. And so I know that we have two problems. One, we need to address and fight back against Trump head on. We need to rescue our democracy, but we also need to look at the core issues, which are that people don't trust government. Again, they don't have faith in government. Again, they are getting crushed by the cost of living, and they need legislators who listen and act.

00:05:26,699	S6:
How done.

00:05:28,170	S1:
All right, Miss Belle Szeto, it is your turn in three, two, one.

00:05:33,730	S3:
Good morning, Jamie Bell, your former state representative. I flipped that seat blue since it had been Republican in 1858. And I think this crowd for helping us do that. I'm the current elected town moderator in Topsfield and the founder of the National Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance in Washington, where we have worked with Congress and passed laws that have secured over $100 million in funding and have helped over 100,000 families across the United States dealing with substance use disorder and mental health challenges. I am in Congress working with them every day. I'm not even an elected official yet down there, but I am already passing legislation and bringing money back to this country. I am fed up with billionaires. I am tired of inside insiders telling us what we're going to do and what our priorities are. I'm the only one of the only candidates that has taken the People's Pledge. I have grit, I have hustle, I have sharp elbows in a strong accent, and I get stuff done. I'm looking forward to being your next congresswoman. Thank you.

00:06:37,029	S1:
Um, John, how do you feel about high pressure situation situations? Good. Sit down in that chair. She's going to remove the tote and it is your turn. You have 60s.

00:06:46,170	S5:
60s. I was hoping to hear what Jamie's bag was going to say.

00:06:51,000	S3:
It was giving me an extra 60s.

00:06:53,000	S1:
Never get between a woman and her tote.

00:06:55,300	S7:
I'm not yielding to my 60s.

00:06:57,000	S1:
We could. We could save the world with a tote bag. All right.

00:06:59,569	S7:
Good morning, everybody.

00:07:00,670	S1:
And here we go. Ready? Go.

00:07:03,199	S7:
Okay. Uh, so I'm John Bacha. Uh, welcome. Good morning. Uh, I'm from Milford, Massachusetts. My father was a local politician. Taught me the value of public service. I've been in financial services forever. I put myself through law school. I'm a lawyer. I'm someone who's run my own business from the ground up. And, uh. But most importantly, I'm a father, and I've lived in this community for over 20 years. Uh, and I think that's what it's all about. It's about this community and helping enrich the lives of of people who live here. Um, a couple of reasons why I'm running. Why would I get into this? Because I'm tired of politics as usual. And what we're seeing out there. Um. We're put we need to put people over politics, and we need to. Um. Sorry. I gotta catch my breath here. We need to start to focus on the things that matter to people and what it is is about creating opportunity. We're taking things away from the most vulnerable. And so I'm going to be laser focused on helping people enrich their lives when it comes to the economy, rethinking education and fixing health care. So I look forward to talking to all of these things. All these issues in the course of the morning and some robust Q&A.

Thanks. 00:08:09,970	S1:
Thank you and well done. All right. You're up.

00:08:13,029	S8:
Hey, everybody, I'm Doctor Mariah Lancaster. I am a veterinarian by training. A little bit quirky for going into policy, but, um, about four years ago, after working clinically for a number of years in emergency medicine, keeping hospital doors open across New England during the pandemic, I shifted full time at a federal policy. So I went to the State Department, and I worked for two years as a scientific advisor, countering corruption and environmental crime around the globe. We have all of these international organized crime rings pillaging our natural resources and destroying our Earth. Oh, yeah, that sounds familiar. Um, and so then, wanting to work on more domestic policy, I shifted into Congress and worked for two years for Democratic congresswoman across issues sets like sustainable agriculture, making sure that we all have safe food to eat. Um, energy policy, making sure that we can actually invest in a clean energy revolution. And these are the issues that I want to bring back into my community. I grew up here in Northeast mass. I want to work on these issues for this community. So health care, education, environmental protection and energy policy and of course, combating corruption. Goodness knows we need it. Thank you.

00:09:20,399	S1:
Last but certainly not least. Yeah. Tap the floor.

00:09:24,200	S9:
My name is Bethany Andreas Beck. I'm a software engineer, organizer, and activist from Middleton, Massachusetts. I support Medicare for all, abolishing Ice and building affordable housing. And I'm also deeply concerned that Congress does not understand how the internet works or anything about the regulation that we need to make AI work for all of us instead of just billionaires and the investors. I stepped up to fight Trump. I have worked in Middleton to combat MAGA there, and then Trump got re-elected, and it is time for the Democratic Party that is willing to do more, to stand for something, to not be so afraid that someone might not like us if we stand up for what we believe in, because what we believe in is right and we should be proud of it.

00:10:14,700	S6:
Perfect.

00:10:16,269	S1:
Thank you so much. Um, so with that, John, you did miss the overview, but I do think that you know how red and green works.

Okay. 00:10:22,870	S7:
Figure it.

00:10:23,169	S1:
Out. Yeah. So if everybody here's what's going to happen I have a list of 11 questions. We're going to state the question. You're going to hold up your card. That's how this goes. You don't get to waffle. You don't get to say but but you're going to hold up either a red or a green card. And if you don't hold up either card, I will know and I will forget when we leave here. All right.

00:10:43,230	S3:
So playing this.

00:10:44,129	S1:
Morning the first question. And don't I don't want one of these like head one hand up with a card. Let's do this. Do you support expanding the size of the Supreme Court?

00:10:56,070	S1:
All right. Um, second, do you support term limits for members of Congress? All right. We have a split in half. Uh, four. Should Puerto Rico be offered statehood if its residents vote for it? You have a unanimous. Yes. Isn't that nice?

00:11:14,629	S6:
Unanimous vote.

00:11:16,370	S1:
Um, should the federal government increase funding for housing vouchers like section eight? Look at that. All right. Uh, should private prisons be phased out nationwide? Oh my God. All right, all right. Um, should federal funds ever be used for private school vouchers?

00:11:39,870	S1:
All right. Uh, should new oil and gas drilling be allowed on federal lands?

00:11:46,830	S1:
Rick, you almost.

00:11:47,600	S6:
I know, almost screwed up that the first quiz I had in red and green. Oh, wow. I was ready. Drill, baby. Drill.

Okay. 00:11:57,200	S1:
Um, should the US lead space exploration over private companies?

00:12:02,970	S6:
What?

00:12:03,629	S7:
Wait.

00:12:05,070	S6:
You should.

00:12:05,769	S1:
Yeah. Should the government be in charge of space exploration instead of private? Yeah.

Okay. 00:12:10,200	S6:
Okay, good.

00:12:11,269	S1:
Um, do you support laws that require all voters to produce official photo ID in order to vote? No. This is way that we all all agree. Um, is Drake Maye solely responsible for the Patriots Super Bowl loss?

00:12:25,970	S6:
No.

Terrible. 00:12:27,600	S3:
They flipped him. His defense left him out in the lurch.

00:12:31,029	S6:
Okay. All right.

00:12:31,870	S5:
Campbell is.

00:12:33,500	S6:
Uh, so sorry quickly For.

00:12:38,029	S1:
Uh, I believe was supporting the expansion of the Supreme Court. We had who who did not support the expansion of the Supreme Court. There were two people.

00:12:47,669	S6:
Okay.

00:12:48,570	S1:
Jamie and John. Yeah.

Quickly. 00:12:50,399	S6:
Uh.

00:12:51,129	S1:
You you both have to collaborate.

00:12:53,129	S6:
Oh, okay.

00:12:53,830	S1:
In in 30s. Why do you not support the expansion of the Supreme Court?

00:12:59,600	S3:
I think there should be term limits.

00:13:02,129	S7:
I agree, I think that's a good answer. I think there's other solutions to it than just adding people out there would go in the wrong direction. So yeah, we're slow. But yeah, I.

00:13:10,029	S3:
Agree we'd be expanding it til the cows come.

00:13:12,230	S7:
Home. I like your idea of term limits.

00:13:13,799	S6:
Yeah okay.

00:13:14,769	S1:
Okay. Perfect. Are were you were.

00:13:17,929	S6:
You know, I just I have a problem with that.

00:13:20,799	S8:
And I'm wondering.

00:13:21,330	S6:
If I can. Oh, no.

00:13:25,399	S6:
That's not a rebuttal. Okay. That's no rebuttal.

00:13:27,669	S1:
But afterwards, if you want to know why she disagrees. Send her an email. Um, okay. I mostly because I want to get into the meat of this, which is the, uh, the big topic questions as we as you may or may not know, I don't know if we told you. Housing, healthcare, climate, energy, immigration and education are the topics du jour.

00:13:47,600	S6:
Uh, plus bonus questions. I'm going to tell you that.

00:13:50,129	S1:
Um, but, um, first it's going to we're going to start with housing. Everybody will have two minutes. Tom and Chris are going to be in charge of your two minutes. Um, so it's no secret housing affordability has become one of the defining issues in Massachusetts. Uh, communities across the district are grappling with rising costs, obviously, supply issues, and there's divisive debates over zoning reforms and things like the MBTA Communities Act, as well as disagreement about the root causes of these issues. So the question for you for your two minutes is, what federal actions would you prioritize to address the housing affordability crisis and high cost regions, and what lessons from Massachusetts three approach do you think could work at the federal level? We're going to start at the end.

00:14:33,129	S6:
Yes.

00:14:33,600	S1:
You have.

00:14:34,000	S6:
Two minutes.

00:14:34,600	S9:
Thank you. So I support building affordable housing because we can do it where the jobs are, which will help address traffic and reduce environmental impact and address climate change. And it means that we aren't shoveling more money at developers who are going to build anyway, which is most of what our tax incentives right now do. Tax incentives are appealing because it doesn't look like the government is spending money. But actually every tax break is government spending. And I'm tired of politicians coming up with 35 point plans, none of which are build housing or change zoning. We need solutions that actually work that actually address these things. We know that cheap housing that I lived in when I moved to Boston was built in 1890. Cheap housing isn't new housing. Cheap housing is housing that has stood the test of time. So we need to support building housing. well with the support of skilled craftspeople. That is going to last. That is going to be the cheap housing for our children and our children's children. But we can't just throw apartment buildings all over the place and expect that to work. We need the infrastructure to support them and we need to put them near jobs if we want to reduce the impact that that kind of population growth, which we have more people now, we had children. So it is important that we support have places for all of these people to live. And that's why I am pushing for actual government investment. Repeal the Faircloth amendment and build housing.

Thanks. 00:16:17,129	S6:
Thank you.

00:16:18,570	S1:
We. Tom needs a.

00:16:19,629	S6:
Moment.

00:16:20,169	S1:
To restart.

00:16:21,000	S6:
The clock.

00:16:28,299	S6:
All right. Uh. You're up.

right? 00:16:31,000	S8:
Um, there are a couple of things right.

00:16:32,799	S1:
Off the bat that I.

00:16:33,629	S8:
Have in mind in terms of what we can do federally. A lot of what you can do on housing is municipal, and a lot of it is statewide. But in terms of federal action, there are definitely things that we can do. So part of this, what I talk to housing advocates across the North Shore about is changing the structures of incentives, not by changing tax code, but by saying, if you want to be eligible for federal grant dollars, then you are going to get rid of some of these antiquated zoning restrictions, and you are going to make sure that part of this is what we talk about with the MBTA, which we know is contentious, but it's a really important piece of making sure that these local officials who otherwise feel like they cannot say yes, they can't get to yes, have something, have some cover, have a reason that they can point to to say, yeah, yeah, we had to because the federal.

00:17:17,799	S1:
Government said it.

00:17:18,500	S8:
Was important or else we wouldn't get help. So that's a piece of what we can do to work hand in hand with local partners who are like minded. Um, the big piece that we rarely touch on is the corporate landlords piece that so much of what we focus on is we need more stock, we need more stock when a lot of places are vacant because corporate landlords are jacking up rents and leaving them empty. So we have to limit what private equity can be owning in the housing space. One idea that I need to explore more deeply to see how viable it truly is, but that I've really been talking about on the campaign trail is mortgage portability. I know that there are a lot of folks who are locked into three 4% mortgages and would love to downsize, but can't afford to because they can't take out a 7 or 8% mortgage. So making sure that we hold the banks accountable, the mortgage lenders accountable, and say you cannot get government bailouts and then be not giving people access to something like mortgage portability. So that is something that I would like to work on at a federal level, is making sure that we can help people keep their mortgage rates if they're downsizing, especially if, well, only if they're selling their original home. So that's just an innovative idea that I'm working on. Within all of that, though, foundationally, these pieces come down to changing zoning, making sure that we can invest in multi-use so that people that want to live in denser neighborhoods live above storefronts can, and that we can build the way that we used to. When you look at New York City, when you look at Boston and you have townhouses that aren't legal to build today.

00:18:45,170	S6:
Thank you.

00:18:46,029	S1:
Um, I also want to remind candidates, as we did see an example of it, you are welcome to raise a red or green card during during the conversation, if there's something that you want to take note of, agree, or disagree with. I'm not going to.

00:18:56,400	S6:
Ask you what it was.

00:18:57,769	S1:
But you can do it so that folks understand what you do disagree with, with content of conversation.

00:19:02,029	S6:
All right.

Okay. 00:19:03,869	S7:
So we need to build baby build, but we need to do it in a smart way. And we need to think about how we can we can just look at this in a silo. We have to look at rebuilding our economy, especially here on the North Shore where we're losing young people. We're losing companies. Uh, we have mostly small business here. And so we need to encourage our communities to build up, uh, in terms of bringing in innovative companies. But in terms of the housing. Um, it really is about creating a robust community from mixed use is a very important. We have great main streets and some of our cities and towns like Salem and Beverly, but there's others that we need. We don't have it in the ground, and we're putting on these apartment complex with nothing there. You know, there's no surrounding restaurants, there's no infrastructure. And of course, infrastructure is the key. If we get the rail system correct, it will help from a housing standpoint, from a federal standpoint, we need to really, um, focus on the zoning. We need to create some floors. A lot of these municipalities are their hands are tied in terms of what they can and cannot do. We need to also be sensitive to the environmental issues, but not let that get in the way. Um, so we need to be thoughtful about that, how we can do that in a way that actually allows people to, to build. And we need to bring the cost down. Um, the cost of, you know, we have to eliminate these tariffs. We have to make sure that we can afford to build these housing in a way that, you know, when the landlords, uh, there will won't be overcharging for rent. Going forward, I know we have some proposals in the state and thoughts around rent controls. Um, you know, we can discuss whether that's right or wrong, but I think it's important that we are creating, uh, the, the inventory for people that have housing. It people are stuck in their homes. There's a lot of elderly people especially. They're stuck in the homes and they have nowhere to go if they do sell their, their houses. So I think we need to solve this issue. Um, like I said holistically, if we can rebuild our economy here on the North Shore, a lot of this will will take care of itself.

00:21:02,730	S6:
Thank you so much, J.B..

00:21:04,930	S1:
Tom, are you ready?

00:21:06,630	S3:
Okay, great. Thank you. So we do have a robust economy going on right here. And I'm going to point to a model that's working with regards to housing is have a light. And we see that right here in this community in both communities Hamilton and Wenham. And we see what they've done in Beverly as well, and they are continuing to make affordable housing that is supported a community base. And I want to say shout outs to my dear friend and a sidekick here who's here and has been part of that program. I also want to say local zoning. As the moderator, we had to bring this this three a that I worked on as a state rep and then bring it to the community and, you know who took care of it, the zoning and planning boards. And that's that is something that the local legislature, i.e. the people can can manage, they can figure out what is it going to look like, where is it going to be built, what are the parameters around it? So instead of it being three floors and six units, have it be two floors and four units or vice versa. So there is power at the local level on this when it comes to HUD. Part of what I see in the largest cities is that it's all rent, rent, rent, and it's $3,000. Are you kidding me? Who's affording this? Right, but we need to start to take a look at rent to own. But there's a problem with the with hut. So now when I talk about this up Gloucester, they are saying that they can't do it because there's provisions even though they as a city council want to do something, they can't do it because there's federal prohibitions on it. So we have to figure out what the heck is going on. How do we pull out the stop gaps? And I'll also say there are some really great housing bills that are already filed in Congress, that a bipartisan that are talking about, you know, shipping crates and community, the shipping crates, you're not going to put you in there and shut the door. It's just using them as a model of housing. Tiny houses. My mother lives in senior housing here. There is a wait list for housing that it could beat the band. We've got to build more affordable community housing. So thank you.

00:23:11,670	S6:
Tom.

00:23:12,200	S5:
I'm on the advisory board of Harbor Light Homes, and I agree entirely with Jamie. I've helped secure several million dollars for three of their projects. But we have to actually also build housing that's affordable, not just affordable housing. It has to be both. When I launched this campaign, I spent the first 30 days visiting every single one of the 39 cities and towns, going to small businesses, VFW halls, senior centers, not raising money in DC townhouses. And what I heard from the people of this community is that they're getting crushed by the cost of housing. I spoke to a seasoned nonprofit executive in Linn who had to buy at the New Hampshire border, because it's where they could afford. I met a young couple. The only way they could buy a house was to buy it from their grandmother. And when I delivered food on Thanksgiving, I went to an apartment where there were four men living in a shared one studio living room apartment. This is unacceptable. As a result of this, I'm the only person in this race who has a comprehensive housing plan. It is 36 points, Beth, not 35. And it's.

00:24:13,369	S6:
Built on four section Four.

00:24:16,599	S5:
Basic ideas. One is we need to incentivize the communities that want to be a part of the solution. That means giving them preferential treatment for HUD and Dot grants. We need to link housing development with transit oriented development. Three. We need to cut through all the red tape and the barriers we need to fix zoning. We need to reduce permitting, permitting barriers. There's an implement a housing construction task force. And three we need to address the middle missing middle creating housing for young people, workforce housing the people so that they can begin to build that asset. It's not just a plan. There's a there's a way to do this. I will do this on day one by implementing in the House a version of a housing bill, bipartisan housing housing bill put forward by Senator Warren and Tim Scott. It already exists. There is not a House companion. The Bipartisan Policy Institute says it will be the most important housing legislation since the Great Recession, and I will couple that with a second bill that will address affordable housing and transit oriented development.

00:25:20,569	S6:
Thank you. All right.

00:25:23,829	S4:
Well, I just want to be clear that housing is a human right and not a commodity. And as a state representative for the last seven years, I've had the pleasure of voting on many of the housing bills at the state level, including the three A communities bill. And I think I completely agree with you that housing development needs to be coinciding with transit development. And that is the crux of three eight. And we understand there's controversy with that. But the idea really is to increase housing supply, to give more housing options, including the accessory dwelling units, so that seniors can age in place so we can take care of our disability communities, because I think that seniors do deserve to to age in place, and young people deserve housing supplies, that they can stay in their communities instead of having to move away. And we lose talent that way. And as someone who's been working in the legislature, I've been thinking about this a lot. We have passed the Affordable Housing Bond Bill, which invests $5 billion into development, because the reality of this is it's a national crisis, because we've had disinvestment from the federal government. We have discriminatory housing laws at the federal level that needs to be addressed. And of course, I agree with the, um, with the corporate consolidation that's really hurting and bringing, um, bringing up prices. And that's why for Massachusetts, I voted on the affordable housing bond bill to invest those millions of billions of dollars into affordable housing, because we need 220,000 units by 2035, if we even want to bring any of the costs down. And so at the federal level, we need to continue to expand funding, but not only for affordable housing, but also for rental assistance. We need to talk about that to make sure that people can stay in our communities and enforce fair housing laws, as well as to work on zoning so that we can promote equity and affordability for people. And of course, I chair the House Committee on Climate Action Sustainability. We need to talk about how we can build smart houses that can save people money as well. And I look forward to more of this conversation.

00:27:24,269	S1:
So thank you everybody. As someone who's locked in by my delicious mortgage rate, I do appreciate these comments. Um, we are going to move on to healthcare. Um, I don't think it's a secret to anyone in this room, young or old or in the middle, that the cost of healthcare in the United States has reached levels that we find unsustainable and, frankly, unaffordable in the most classic sense. Um, insurance premiums out of pockets, coinsurance, the rise of the dark horse of co-insurance and prescription drug prices. I personally paid $360 last month for a prescription, and I have full insurance. Um, we pay more for drugs in this country than any other country in the world. Um, and so this is sort of a broad question, but we want you to get as hyper specific as you can, which is what is your specific vision for the future of the US health care system? But also, what steps would you immediately prioritize in Congress in order to build towards that realistic vision? We're actually going to start in the middle with Miss Bell, kiddo.

00:28:23,630	S6:
Great. Thank you.

00:28:25,170	S3:
Um, I am going to take a moment to be very personal about this. We had a crisis with one of my children two years ago. I it was like jumping through hoops to get the appropriate support. And we are currently paying off about $20,000 worth of out-of-pocket expenses. That the choice was either. What? My daughter. Uh, potentially not be here anymore or pay the out of pocket. And this is the reality I had and have insurance. And right now when I'm out speaking with families and whether it's elderly or singletons or what have you. Folks are choosing not to even carry health insurance right now because it's too much money, and they'd rather just pay the penalty or they don't qualify. Or maybe they have on the open marketplace that we have here, you know, let's call it what it is, friends, it was Romneycare. Stop trying to make this into something that's a Democrat or Republican issue. It was Romneycare, and it was to keep people healthy. And now it's being used as a political toy in Congress. So when it comes to Congress, what can we do? Get rid of these freaking pharmacy benefit managers. Insurance reform. What the hell are you making $10 million for? So you can tell me that I can't have restoration? Restorative breast, you know, breast. Pardon me? I'm missing my words, but that I can't have the care that I need for breast cancer and that they're calling surgeons in the middle of prepping as they're going in to Do reconstructive breast surgery and saying that that individual does not qualify. They're actually doing it on Caesarian sections right now. They're paying for everything else, but they're saying that the woman should have tried to labor vaginally, even after they've been in late. I'm not even kidding. After 29 hours and three hours of pushing. There is so much wrong. And it has to be Medicare.

00:30:28,970	S6:
Thank you. Appreciate it.

Um. 00:30:31,769	S1:
John, I'm going to move to you.

00:30:33,529	S7:
Okay, great. I mean, I'm just blown away. I mean, health care is a fundamental, right? What's more important than people's health? Right? And so I think we got to start with, you know, scaling back what what would cut under the big bad bill. Um, I think we need I'm a proponent of Medicare for all. I think we everybody needs to get access to affordable health care. Obviously, we want to reduce the cost of prescription. We want to reduce the cost overall. We have to cut the red tape. Uh, I think this is a theme across the board. When you look at government and the way it runs and make sure everybody has access to the health care that they deserve. And I think there's a few areas that I care about deeply. And that's personal mental health especially. You know, I've had some relatives that have been kind of were failed by the system. And I think we need to make sure that we're not putting Band-Aids on the problem. We need to make sure that we truly get people back on their feet. When you talk about mental health and and making sure that people have access to the things they need, veterans benefits, this is a thing that I know Seth Moulton has done a lot, a lot of good work on, but I want to continue that. I think it's important. Elderly care. You know, we have an aging population, and I think we need to make sure that we're we're accounting for that. And, you know, and then we need to make sure that we're focused on some of these programs that have been cut, some of the treatments, some of the things that we should be focused on. Um, you know, we can cure a lot of these diseases that we're just not we're not looking at because of the the administration and their approach to health care here. And then there's some basic low hanging fruit that we just need to to do. I mean, you look at things like in Medicare around like, you know, just covering certain basic things like vision and dental and hearing and things like that. I think it's important that that those areas are covered in our schools. You know, there's been some bills and some talk about just looking at, um, screening for certain types of disability and health issues. I think that should be, you know, we should do that if we can do that. Um, so I think we just need to take this down in little bites. But the big thing is that we need to make sure that everybody has access to the health care at an affordable rate.

00:32:42,269	S6:
Yeah.

00:32:42,769	S8:
Can I start?

00:32:43,630	S1:
Are you ready? Yes.

00:32:44,869	S6:
Okay.

00:32:46,470	S8:
Um. I agree that health care is a human right. It is past time for universal health care. And when I see universal health care, I. I think Medicare for all is the compromise at this point. It used to feel radical. At this point, it's middle of the road. It's if, you know, not for Medicare for all, I don't know what you're doing. So within all of that, the question is, what people have always said is how do we afford it? How do we afford it? And we just gave $75 billion to Ice. There it is. That's the money for this. We can't afford it. We have the money. And especially if we start taxing billionaires and corporations what they should be paying. Oh, we'll have the money. And when you think about how much bureaucracy there is in our health care system. So I look at this a little bit from my experience in the veterinary world, because they are intrinsically related. We buy all the same equipment. We're using all the same machines. Um, my sister's a nurse, my brother's an EMT. My mom worked in healthcare data her whole career, raising the three of us. And so we talked about health care a lot. Growing up, there's a reason that I became a veterinarian. And it's not just because I love animals. It's also because I love medicine. And when I work in the clinic, if I want that patient to get treatment, it's not a question of whether or not they can get the referral. It's not a question of whether or not they can walk down the hall and see the specialist that same day. It's a question of can they afford it? And that's because in veterinary medicine we don't really have insurance. We're seeing insurance get into the market now because they're learning. Oh, that's a way to make money off of people. But that is just one step towards corrupting the veterinary industry, not actually towards making anything better for anybody. What we are looking at is a system of systemic corruption and middlemen that profit off of illness. And so we need to simplify things back to where they have been in the past, where we have either non-profit insurance or just single payer health care. We pay point of care costs only. And that is where I would like us to get to as a nation is where your cost is covered through your taxes. That's it.

00:34:49,170	S6:
I count. All right. Thank you.

00:34:52,829	S9:
So my grandfather is a veteran and he was living in Washington state, and he got an ear infection and his doctors were going to let him die. He had to move to Minnesota to get care at the Mayo Clinic in order to get treatment and get the care he needed. So I support Medicare for all. I think single payer is a great way forward, but we need to improve Medicare as part of that. As a step in that direction, we need to make sure that people can get the care they need, that they're not drowning under the cost of coinsurance on Medicare, as well as expanding to all of the parts of our body, including our teeth and our ears. And in a world where loneliness is one of the major public health crises in this country, we don't cover hearing aids. That is wild. We can make Medicare better, and we can fund it using my robot tax, which will mean that businesses can't fire people, replace them with computers, and get out of paying their taxes and paying into society. If we have corporations actually pay into the society that they are benefiting from, we can fund these things. But I do think that there are forces arrayed against us. There are people who make money off of the way it is. And there are people who are concerned. I don't think we should ever have only government health care available, because I don't want the government to be able to tell me that I can't get trans health care anywhere in this country. And so I think it's important that we take steps towards that. We we organize for that. But we also be prepared to support states that adopt universal health care. Mass care is doing great work in the state. I want to bring them federal funding. We saw that it didn't work in Vermont, because Vermont was worried about people moving to the state and costing them money. And so if we have the federal government support whatever state provides care to all of America, people will move here for health care. People will support it, and we will be able to build out the community health centers that are already providing care across the country.

00:37:03,099	S6:
Thank you so much. Um, we'll move to you.

Okay. 00:37:07,230	S4:
So I believe that getting sick or getting into a car accident shouldn't bankrupt anyone. And so this is why I agree with many of the comments beforehand, that we have an entire for profit industry that needs to be dismantled. It should not have happened in the first place. It's a basic right. And that's why I've been a part of the Medicare for all caucus ever since I've been in the state legislature and a part of pushing for us to get there. And for me, what if I, you know, if elected into Congress, the first thing we need to do is bring back subsidies. I mean, of course, we have to move towards all these other measures, but I'm seeing, uh, in front of me exactly how that's impacting people. I covered my mother's health insurance, and she's on the health Connector, and she's retired. It was $4.11, and it went up to Hundred and $35 this past January, so she didn't have someone like me to pay for her. What about all those people out there who don't have that? What are they doing right now? So those subsidies need to come back immediately. But on top of that, we need to talk about, um, expanding care. What health care is just not, you know, um, the cost of health insurance. It's about investing in primary care and how that will save dollars. It's about investing in the health care workforce. Right now, Trump is calling nurses, not professionals, and not investing in their education. We need more nurses. We need people going to the health care system. And of course, for health care, just like we're doing in Massachusetts, we need to make sure that people have access to reproductive care, gender affirming care, all of this sort of care that we make people healthier and, um, and our community healthier. And so, um, and also I've been, uh, even before coming to office, I was a legal services attorney with Greater Boston Legal Services, where I worked with a huge coalition to get paid family medical each year in Massachusetts, and it's been working very well. We need that at the federal level. And so when we're talking just about health generally, all of these things can take in so many different directions that we cannot cover in the two minutes. But the reality of this is that whether it's a big, beautiful bill or other things that the Trump administration has done, we need to just take that all back and make sure that we're serving the people.

00:39:15,869	S6:
Thank you.

00:39:17,170	S1:
And last.

00:39:17,929	S6:
But not.

00:39:18,530	S1:
Least, it's.

00:39:19,400	S6:
Your turn. That's awesome.

00:39:21,099	S5:
My mom was a primary care doctor. Um, and, you know, I vividly remember she ran a small family practice. I vividly remember her being up frequently at all hours on call, talking to people, helping talk through their medical issues. Um, when the ACA health exchange collapsed, Governor Deval Patrick put me on the board of the Massachusetts Health Connector. So I understand how immensely complex our health care system has come really on the backs of people who provide absolutely zero value to our health care delivery, and we have to eliminate that. So let's start with the basic values. No one should ever have to choose between the roof over their head or their food on the table and their health care. And in my 11 years as the district director for Congressman Moulton, we worked with a lot of people dealing with issues with Medicare and other issues, and I spoke to seniors who were literally rationing their drugs, cutting pills in half because they could not afford their prescriptions for the upcoming lunch. This is unacceptable. We need a Medicare for all system, single payer, whatever you want to call it, I don't care, but the basic idea is we need to eliminate all the people who are sucking the money out of the system and doing nothing to improve the health care we're receiving, but we also have to figure out how to do it, because this is an incredibly complex system. It's important to recognize for any of you in here who work for a union or a retired from a union. You spent decades negotiating as part of your pay and benefits. Incredibly good health care benefits. They are worried about the loss of those benefits. So what we have to do is create a private system that cuts out the middleman that delivers incredible service, and people will see that that is it is the superior product and migrate to that. And that's how we get to a single payer Medicare for all system.

00:41:13,000	S6:
Okay.

00:41:13,530	S1:
Um, quickly, before we move on, I'd like everybody to grab their red and green cards. First question, uh, should we abolish PBMs?

00:41:22,530	S6:
Oh my God, yes.

Okay. 00:41:27,070	S1:
Uh, pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen that are negotiating on behalf of the pharmacies, uh, catching.

00:41:32,500	S6:
Up the rules so I.

00:41:34,699	S1:
Can affordable health care and for profit care coexist.

00:41:38,099	S6:
Yes.

00:41:40,269	S1:
Okay, we have a we have a single. No. Noted. Um. And do you support the coverage of gender affirming care?

00:41:47,369	S6:
Right.

00:41:48,230	S1:
Thank you very much. Uh, next we're going to move on to Climate and Energy. Uh, we do have two minutes per candidate on this topic as well. Uh, as you know, uh, communities across the country are trying to balance urgent climate action with the need for housing, infrastructure and economic growth. Uh, clean energy continues to be a hot topic. It has been a hot topic for the last probably 20 years, but it is not meaningfully influencing buying decisions at scale, namely because of barriers to entry based around cost. There are also long term sustainable questions around the use of things like lithium ion batteries. Where does clean energy actually come from? So the question is, when you think about protection of natural resources and open space, it's often used as a rationale to stop economic development. How should the sixth district approach balancing concern for environment, as well as things like water with real needs regarding housing and infrastructure modernization? We're going to start at the end of the table.

00:42:42,800	S6:
Oh. Thank you. You're welcome.

00:42:46,769	S6:
Okay. Ready? Go.

00:42:48,969	S4:
So.

00:42:50,170	S9:
Uh, I put geothermal in my house. Oh, we dug a giant hole. We ran a pipe through it, and now my heating bill is $200 a month for electricity for my whole house. And it's fantastic. It's also a lot of money up front. We are very lucky that we could save for that because we bought our house a while ago. We've been able to save instead of saving for a down payment. We were able to save to install this thing that makes our our heating much cheaper. It's going to last for a hundred years that the expense of part of this, and it will pay for itself eventually. It'll pay for itself in 15 years. And if we had government programs that made that affordable today for people, we can make electricity more affordable and we can improve the environment. We can support the environment because we're seeing climate change be very real in this district along the coast with the clam beds. I had a forest fire a third of a mile from my house last year. We have flooding every year. We know that this is real. We also know that it's really expensive to stay warm in winter, and we shouldn't be having people have to choose between their prescriptions and staying warm. And the way that we can do that is the cheapest electricity right now. Our green energy sources, if we are building out solar energy, will be cheaper. We also need to repeal the Jones Act so that we can get natural gas from America to Massachusetts. Congress could do that. That today it's 100 year old law. It's wildly out of date, and we can bring down energy prices while also supporting our environmental goals and addressing a climate change.

00:44:36,829	S6:
Thank you. All right. Right.

See. 00:44:39,900	S8:
As a former energy and environment staffer on the Hill, um.

00:44:44,699	S6:
This kind.

00:44:45,469	S8:
Of gets to the gets it fire in my belly. Um, I think this question has its roots in a bit of the abundance agenda, dialogue and feeling. There's essentially this narrative that in order to build, in order to develop, in order to make progress, we need to scrap every environmental protection under the sun. I want to be very clear that that is not true. And so while there are absolutely miles of red tape and bureaucracy and frivolous checkpoints that slow things down, that we can consolidate and streamline and work on, that needs to be done. But that does not mean sacrificing our clean air, our clean water, our endangered species. So much of the North Shore is beautiful, precious protected land coastline, gorgeous wildlife habitat that is a natural heritage of all of us here on the North Shore, and the idea that we would sacrifice an ounce of that when instead we could, as we've talked about already, streamline other forms of housing reform to increase density and allow us to build in the ways that we used to. That is is just not a pill that I'm willing to swallow. And so I just encourage everybody to think about this through that lens of you are going to be concerned. People will try to convince you that we need to sacrifice the future of our planet for the ability to do all of the things that we need to do, keep our housing, get our housing crisis under control. Keep our energy bills down, all of these pieces. But the people that are saying that, that are driving this narrative in the media and in their books are also people that are not screaming when we start drilling in the Arctic, when we start, um, you know, going after the natural resources that are under beautiful federally protected land, that is all of our future.

00:46:43,829	S6:
Thank you, John, to you.

00:46:47,269	S7:
Yeah. Despite the winter we're having, climate change is still real. And I don't know why we're not talking about it. You know, I look at my kids, they're 16 and 18, and I worry about the future. I think we have to prioritize it. We can't, you know, we can't overlook our environment. Um, I obviously, I think we need to solve the housing crisis, but there's a lot of we also have to take a common sense approach so we can marry the two. We can make sure that we're protecting our environment and still building houses, but we need to make sure that we're also doing it in a smart way. Uh, we need to look at other sources of energy. Obviously, these energy costs right now are through the roof and it's really impacting families. But we have to also, you know, really lean into we had to have a 21st century economy and we have to lean into new sources of energy, whether it's nuclear or solar or wind. And, you know, we saw we got a loss of a big offshore wind project here in Salem. Uh, we need to really make sure that we're if we do this the right way, it will actually create jobs. It will help not only the our environment, but will help our economy. So I think we need to make sure that we're not, um, you know, our environment is, you know, we can never scale that back. You know, the things that we lose, we won't get back. We have a great, as you mentioned, Moriah, we have great coastal communities. We need to make sure that we're protecting protecting for erosion. We're protecting our beaches. Um, and then, you know, onshore that we're making sure that our lakes and our water sources are, are protected from all kinds of, all kinds of, um, potential impacts. You know, we saw some cases, too, where there has been cyber attacks in other areas where our water sources could be, uh, you know, be implicated. I think we need to make sure that we're protecting on all fronts. And we're looking at this, you know, we're in a different world here in the 21st century. And so we think we need to, you know, really study this and focus on it, like everything else we've talked about is prioritizing the right things. And certainly our climate is one of those.

00:48:42,829	S6:
Thank you.

00:48:44,000	S3:
Okay. I am just saying these are not hypotheticals for this district. And this is something I worked on at the state House. I mean, the reality is that we've got a phenomenal opportunity to do solar wind. Do you see what they're doing over in Beverly? They're using them to cover all of their parking lots, like, let's just do it in over at Beverly High School. They've already done it. Let's just stick with what we know works. Jimmy Carter had solar panels on top of the white House that Reagan, you know, ripped down wind. We have wind energy. I've been part of that discussion for years about the offshore wind. And then under the Inflation Reduction Act, we got the money. And now, you know, the loony tune in the white House is grabbing the money. So let's cut to the chase and get get the program back up and running. Okay. Cranes beach, I got $2.5 million for the trustees of the reservation. When I was in the house for coastal restoration down there, and for the road where it divides the marsh, we know that we've got to take care of our crown jewels and coastal resiliency. Listen, we got 17 communities in the Ipswich River watershed, right? And they're asking us to build. And it's our only source of water, but we aren't doing anything to help that. So we have to keep the pedal on. And these are not Massachusetts issues, friends. These are all 50 states. And so although again, we've got a, you know, an orange cheese puff in the white House who's telling us what to do in his absolute fever dream, Stephen Miller craziness going on there. There are Republicans who I can work with and are already working with in these issues, and I'm tired of talking about this stuff. Let's just freaking do it. And I have to leave. And I love you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. I apologize.

00:50:22,730	S5:
Stop this.

00:50:23,269	S6:
Mic.

00:50:23,570	S3:
And then I'm.

00:50:24,030	S6:
Crying.

00:50:24,630	S3:
And then this guy's.

00:50:25,530	S6:
Got.

00:50:25,730	S3:
Stuff.

00:50:26,000	S6:
To say. Don't forget that giant tote.

00:50:28,400	S3:
My big. Yes. My my other bag. Other former self here.

00:50:31,929	S6:
Okay, okay.

Well. 00:50:34,730	S1:
Uh, we're going to take a five minute break to allow people to get a fresh baked scone from the back of the room.

00:50:40,969	S6:
Uh.

00:50:42,469	S1:
Uh, sign in. If you haven't asked, put a question in the question box. If you don't. Um, and we're going to start back here at 1007. Uh, is everybody back in their attentive mode? Are we ready, TV? Are we ready? Perfection. All right. Rick, go for it.

00:50:58,699	S5:
Okay, I'm.

00:50:59,070	S10:
Going to run out of time. Land use, climate change, coastal resilience. We could spend an hour on every single one of these. But let me tell you just a few things. And then when I see the 32nd sign, I'm gonna try and tighten it all up. For the last five years, I have worked with the City of Salem, Vineyard Wind, Avon, Grid, and Crowley to try and get the offshore wind terminal up and off the ground at Salem, only to see it axed by someone for the.

00:51:20,670	S5:
Simple reason that he does not like the sight of windmills off the coast of his golf course in Scotland. This is how we are deciding energy policy in this nation right now and it's absolutely criminal. This is a major issue in our district. We have coastal resiliency issues. King's beach, which I live a couple hundred yards from, is the dirtiest beach in Massachusetts. The Ipswich rivers.

00:51:47,099	S11:
Often confuse me, right.

00:51:49,429	S1:
We'll give you an extra ten.

00:51:50,730	S6:
Don't worry.

00:51:51,329	S5:
The Ipswich River is one of the ten most endangered rivers in the country. These are issues I've worked on with the clamors to ensure that they can continue in their livelihood. When the mayor of Newburyport came to me and said people were getting sick swimming at her beach, I took that information. And with our legislative team in D.C., we passed a law to require municipalities to let people know when they were discharging raw sewage into the rivers. This happens because of climate change. We have an increased ferocity of storms. We have CSO discharges into our river. Raw sewage ends up in our water. This is a problem that is going to cost billions and billions of dollars. It is an absolute ticking time bomb. So how do we address this energy situation? One I say, first of all, we should never have this conversation without mentioning both the cost of energy and the transition to renewables. And thankfully, we don't have to because, as Beth said, we've reached a tipping point. Renewables are actually cheaper to produce now than fossil fuels. So what we have to invest in is the federal government is the transmission technology to get that energy, the storage technology. And we lost the war when it came to being the leaders in solar power and wind, to the Chinese, to the Europeans, we should not lose the next generation of transmission, storage, nuclear power, new energy as we make this cheaper transition.

00:53:15,369	S6:
Thank you so much.

00:53:16,500	S1:
Is this working? I can't.

00:53:17,699	S6:
Tell. Um. All right.

00:53:20,269	S1:
Last but not.

00:53:20,829	S6:
Least.

00:53:21,400	S4:
Well, this is a tall order for sure. I am the chair of the House Committee on Climate Action and Sustainability. This is what I breathe, think and live every single day. Uh, for us, I think the most important thing is the partnership. If you're talking about building and you're talking about making sure that we're, uh, protecting all the beautiful lands, and everyone has already said that the most important part is to work with local municipalities and local people because, you know where we should be building. And that is very much tied to why I am in my committee. We are committed to making sure that housing policy is tied to climate policy, and that's how we can be responsible in our building. Uh, it's going to be very hard for me to, to get through all this in two minutes. But we need to build where emissions are low. And that's why our policies in Massachusetts tie development to transit oriented developments. And we also need to build to net zero standards. And that's how we can protect our climate. And that includes making sure we're making investments in solar and and also making investments. Solar hydro, offshore wind. And also we my committee we have been very supportive of Commonwealth fusion. And just looking at new technology of what that could bring in terms of bringing down the cost. And for us in terms of what we need to do. It's not just talking about renewables, it's about how do we leverage the money from the state and the federal government to prepare our microgrids so that we are in a position where all of these renewables are in place, that we could sustain that as a commonwealth. And for, uh, and for a lot of this work, we need to also invest in green jobs to bring back our, our unions and our workers along as we pivot to that. And that's how we can bring community along as well. For many of these projects, it just needs so much collaboration between local, state and federal government. And again, we've done a lot of this work to reduce carbon emissions at the state level, but we cannot do that alone. And so federal money needs to be pouring in. And you need an advocate to be fighting for those bringing back so much.

00:55:29,269	S1:
Um, I mean, also like it's it's two minutes, it's quick, but we wanted to cover everything. And also we encourage I know these candidates have to run, but like, you know, get in touch, get on the websites, connect through the socials, make sure you continue this conversation. I mean, certainly here in Hamilton, one of my no. We vote for people, not politicians, so it'll be a good time to follow up. All right. Um, I'm going to switch the order of these two questions, but the time will remain the same. Nobody panic. Um, we're going to move to education. Um, and, uh, one of the things that we want to talk about is something that's very personal, specifically to a town like ours, where education is such an astronomical part of our, our budgets. It's also one of the key drivers for overrides in our towns and the rising costs, specifically rising costs of things like healthcare for teachers and benefits for teachers has made it unsustainable to add additional programming as we try to maintain those costs. Just so you all know, the DC report came out this week and Hamilton went home in 2024, received only 2% of federal funding per student. That's $520 per student. That is against the 6% statewide. So we got $520 per student. The average was $1,377 per student. It is crippling towns like ours. It's what keeps our tax rates high. So the question that we have for you is, would you advocate for more substantial federal funding to support districts like ours? And what is your perspective on the current and future state of the Department of Education and its role?

00:56:54,170	S12:
Oh you're welcome.

00:56:56,369	S1:
Um, we're actually going to start with you.

00:57:00,070	S4:
Great question. I'm a proud product of the public school system here. I came to the US at five years old as a political refugee from Vietnam, not knowing a word of English. And here I am today. This is all due to the public school system. So 100%, I believe that we need to make investments so that all students have access to fair, equitable and high quality K-12. But I think we also need to, um, the federal government also needs to step up with early education and what universal pre-K should look like. Uh, and also we need to address student loans. I am a Pell Grant kid. I would not be able to go to college and be the first in my family to graduate from college, and then law school to become a legal services attorney if it were not for the Pell Grant. So we need to make those investments in. And Pell grants are also used for vocational schools, um, to expand the programs there because college may not be for everyone. And so how do we develop our workforce and how do we work with these vocational schools? And in terms of the federal level, those are the types of investments that they need to be pouring into our communities to help out, um, local communities, because we do know that the costs are astronomical and continuing to rise. And this attack on higher ed with school choice is something I completely am against because I believe making sure we need to make sure to put all of that money into public education, because the public school system is where we are really just educating our kids and giving them that opportunity that I had. And I think that that is a big part of the American dream that's slipping away for so many people and so completely. I agree with the investment in our K-12 and higher ed and vocational schools.

00:58:38,230	S3:
Sen.

00:58:39,300	S1:
Rick, we'll move to you.

00:58:40,670	S5:
T Massachusetts invented the public school system, and I don't think it is. It is not lost on me that I think some of the reasons in which the United States is one of the strongest, smartest, most powerful, most envied countries in the world is its education system. And I am distraught by the energy and effort being put into chipping away at that system that has been so fundamental to providing everyone with an opportunity, everyone an opportunity to succeed and excel. I'm the product of public schools. My wife is in eighth grade public school math teacher. My children are public school children. My brother is a public school principal and my two sister in law are public school teachers. It's absolutely critical to our success. I am dismayed at what is happening at the Department of Education. Let's be honest, I think Massachusetts understands and will invest in education if the federal government doesn't come up to the plate. But what about the kids in the States where that's not the case? And I think everyone should have that opportunity, not just kids in Massachusetts. I will absolutely fight for federal funding for education and ensure that that is distributed equitably. We need to invest in the programs at the federal level that have been gutted, that support kids in the special education system, that support kids in underserved communities. They are absolutely critical. We need to double Pell Grants so that young people who don't have the means have access to college. Um, our public, you know, our public education system is the secret sauce to our success as a country. It is the single biggest return on investment we can ever make, and we must do so.

01:00:24,329	S1:
Thank you very much.

01:00:25,869	S7:
Again, we need to prioritize opportunities for people. And what's more important than education? It starts there. Um, well, it's happening with the Department of Education is appalling. Uh, what we have in our state here, we. How many times have we seen prop two and a half overrides? Um, we see a couple of teacher strikes here. You know, teachers have to be paid appropriately, but we need to rethink education from the ground up in providing, like I said, providing opportunities, taking some of the pressures off working families, starting with universal pre-K. When you look at it through K through 12 education, we need to rethink the curriculum there and making sure that people have the opportunities to get through high school and get a career. You know, things like financial literacy, practical skills and vocational schools is very important to me. My father was an administrator at a vocational school in Franklin. Um, I was at Essex Tech and I was just blown away. They said they had 1600 applicants for 500 spots. That's not opportunity. That's not getting people the chance to get an education. There's so many different paths you can have. Um, so we need to encourage that. We need to from a federal funding standpoint, we need to lean into that, those opportunities. Adult education programs or programs or innovation? New technology. We have tuition free community colleges in Massachusetts. Great. Should be a national thing. Um, and, you know, we need to help build the infrastructure. Salem is building a new high school. Uh, does anyone know the cost of it? $447 million. Uh, and only half of that is being paid by the state. So it's going to be more tax increases for the Salem residents, who are already under pressure from all the things that we talked about already. So, you know, from a federal funding standpoint, I think it's been said already we have the money. You've seen it so many times when there's a crisis, Covid, all of a sudden the money flows into the right areas. But now we need to do it for the things that matter most education, health care and our economy. But education is job one. What's more important, we need to train the next set of students for the workforce, get people educated and give them the opportunity to succeed in life.

Okay. 01:02:34,269	S13:
Thank you.

01:02:36,829	S1:
Go for it.

01:02:37,730	S8:
I agree with so much of what has already been said. Um, as somebody who came through the Massachusetts public school system, went to a state school, then the only veterinary school in all of New England is Tufts. And so I went to a private school for graduate school. I took out 182,000 in student loans. I've never missed a payment. In eight years. I owe $250,000. Now we are headed barreling towards a student loan crisis to a point where somebody like me isn't eligible for a mortgage. There's a reason that that the average first time homeowner is 40. And it's because people of my generation cannot even qualify for a mortgage because of our student debt. So let's that is the kind of the kind of college piece, which I think is driving a lot of folks towards pursuing vocational schools, which is part of why we then have this admission crisis. Right. So there's all these different pieces that are functioning together in this system. What I would also really want to speak to here is that this is not a new problem. This is decades of federal dismantling. This is not this is not Trump. All of a sudden, obviously, the Heritage Foundation wants to dissolve the Department of Education altogether. That is criminal and disgusting and anti-American. But this has been going on since Reagan. This is a systemic issue that has been generations of lack of investment. And so Massachusetts has done a great job at compensating for it over the years. But what that means is that now we have, have and have nots in our educational system driven by zip code and property taxes, and that is not how the next generation should be raised. We should have the same educational opportunity no matter your zip code. So for me, education is in the top three priorities of my platform. This is a number one thing that I want to work on. I agree we need comprehensive education reform. And as on the other side of all this is we're rebuilding the Department of Education. Again, we have the money to pay for things, and this is something that deserves to be paid for. So we're going to make sure that we're investing in every student across the whole country.

01:04:32,530	S13:
Thank you.

01:04:33,429	S1:
And to.

01:04:34,099	S13:
You.

01:04:34,599	S3:
Yeah, we.

01:04:35,429	S9:
Have free community college for some people. We don't have universal free community college even here in Massachusetts. And I believe the public education should be free. It should be accessible to everybody, whatever their parents made and whatever their parents currently want to contribute to them. I want to see us support education for everybody. Uh, we spend a lot of time trying to make the numbers look smaller. But a free college education is going to be free to a billionaire's kid the same way a tote bag is free. If you donate $200 to NPR, it's just not going to be the issue. And I don't think that vocational school is says people should stop aspiring to college. 77% of the people who go to Essex Tech graduate from or end up going on to higher education. We need to stop pretending that rural life and the skills that are involved in our trades are separate from the rest of society. I was a four page kid. I went on to go to Smith. Yo, these are my two of my siblings. Became the Grand Master show champions at our state fair, and they both went on now. One is an engineer and one works at the Mayo Clinic. We have a We in America education and getting things done are not are not separate spheres. They are things that we do together, and we certainly see the budget crisis in Middleton, especially around special education. We need to finally fund the Ada. We need to bring the Ada. A we shouldn't be punishing towns that are doing the right thing, that are taking care of kids and making sure that every child has an education. We need to support them. And I would love to. I would love to see universal pre-K. I want to see universal school lunches and breakfasts so that kids have the support they need to be able to learn. And the way we're going to do that is by changing how we fund these schools, so that it does not come down to year after year trying to fight these anti-tax activists who have put made sure that we cannot raise the taxes we need to support our schools.

01:06:46,170	S1:
Thank you so much. I also just wanna make sure everybody has the appropriate amount of outrage from the statistic I shared earlier. The 520 is off of the $24,000 per student that it cost to educate in our public school system. So just so we're clear, it's not like 520 off of like, you know, $2,000. Um, uh, all right. Now we're going to go backwards. You don't know this because you don't have the agenda, but I do. Um, next topic is immigration.

01:07:12,170	S3:
Um, I.

01:07:13,070	S1:
Don't know that this needs a preamble, but I don't like to miss an opportunity to talk. So, um, you know, it's a very emotionally and politically charged, uh, topic. I also think it's incredibly nuanced, right? People find themselves actually following somewhere in the middle. Uh, both fear for what's happening with ice, but also compassion, but also questions about the system and how what are the path to citizenship and what is the right level of immigration reform. Um, so again, we want to we want to hear from you about, at a federal level, uh, what are your top priorities for federal immigration reform, including your vision for path to citizenship? And do you see a role or structure for Ice in this vision? Um, I'm going to start with you, Rick.

01:07:54,929	S13:
Okay.

01:07:55,800	S5:
Thank you. I don't think there's anyone in this race, with the exception of perhaps my friend to my left who has done more over their career to protect immigrants. Um, I, in my role as district director of literally helped to ensure that people, um, did not get deported. We'd help people get their work visas. We worked with the immigrant community in this in this district, over and over and over again. Um, what I see happening with ice is appalling. Ice needs to be stripped down to the studs, and we need to start over from the beginning when we take back the house and ideally, take back the Senate. We should impeach Kristi Noem. Stephen Miller, who has never gone before. Congress needs to be hauled in and held to account for this absolutely inhumane, brutal policy of immigration. I absolutely believe that what the Democrats are doing to shut down DHS until we get, frankly, the bare minimum of policies implemented, things that we expect and that are followed by every other law enforcement agency in this country. IDs, judicial warrants, not wearing masks. We absolutely need to hold the ground on that. But it's flat out not enough because for the very first time, we are actually seeing the American public beginning to agree with us more, or at least the Republicans less on immigration because they're seeing the brutality. And so we should not be stopping at something like Ice or like masks and warrants. We should be pushing for full scale immigration reform. That means investing in the system that adjudicates these policies, so people aren't waiting for decades to understand whether they have a future in this country. It means smart technology at our borders to stop things like fentanyl, not ridiculous walls. And it means a domestic enforcement infrastructure that focuses on the worst of the worst criminals, domestic abusers, drug dealers and does not hunt down everyday good citizens who only crime they've ever committed is coming to this country and not being a citizen. Thank you.

01:10:08,369	S1:
Appreciate it. Tom, I'm going to move to you. That's all right. I mean, you don't have a choice, but.

01:10:14,399	S14:
That's all right.

01:10:16,229	S4:
As an immigrant and someone who practices an immigration law. Thank you, Rick, for the recognition that I've spent my entire career on thinking about this, working on this. So first off, the rogue agency, we need to abolish it. We need to keep we need to keep them accountable. And for me, I think that how I envision immigration reform is that, number one, the pathway to citizenship needs to change to allow more workers to come in. I practice right now in EB one visas. We are turning away 60% of geniuses from across the world, preventing them to come to Massachusetts, our country, to invest in research and so many other things at our different universities. Because it's not just an attack on immigrants, it's an attack on our on our education system, which is just outrageous to me. But we also need to allow for employers to be able to bring workers over here. These are some of the pathways that have been used in the past that are now we're facing hiccups. I know we have an immigration lawyer also here who came up to me. We need to think about ways to support not only those who are already here, but those who are trying to come in and invest in a system where it's actually independent from the whim of the executive branch. Because right now I have some friends who are diplomats who are getting orders on rejecting things outright because they're afraid of repercussions. That is not how our immigration system should be working. And of course, I also think very much about Ice and Border Patrol and how those should be removed from cities right now because they're terrorizing our community members. And that's not only a humanitarian concern, but it's also an economic concern. We're hearing from folks that people are afraid to show up to work. People are afraid to go to hospitals. People are afraid to do all these other things. And just one last note I know I'm supposed to end. We are working on an immigration bill right now in the Commonwealth. It's called the Protect act as well as the governor's bill, and I'm working on those issues right now at the state level as well. So please talk to me if you're interested in these issues.

01:12:26,300	S13:
Thank you.

Um. 01:12:28,430	S1:
I'm gonna go to you at this point.

01:12:30,029	S9:
Absolutely. We must abolish Ice. Oops. Sorry about that. We must abolish Ice, and we need to prosecute the crimes that have been committed. We need to get rid of the qualified immunity that is letting them kidnap American citizens off the street with absolutely no suspicion other than the color of their skin. This is simply lawless. Once that's done, we can talk about building an immigration system that builds the working class instead of breaking it down. I have been a union organizer among programmers, and there's a lot of H1-b coworkers I've worked with who and they are at the mercy of their employer. If they get caught organizing a union, they can be deported. And we should never be in a position where immigration is undermining unions instead of building them. We should be building our working class. We need to create a paved path for the skilled workers and the people trying to create a new life, because that's what America is built on. It is un-American for us to try to pull the ladder up. After all, the rest of us are here. I want to also acknowledge that there are Indigenous Americans who.

01:13:40,430	S3:
Are here.

01:13:40,699	S9:
Before all of us, and we need to support their sovereignty going forward as well. But we've seen that when immigration happens, it puts a strain on communities, especially when we are welcoming refugees. We need to have federal support for those programs, making sure that we have enough housing for people to move into. I visited with ten families living in a church basement who had fled violence and targeted repression in their countries. We need to have places to welcome people that aren't linoleum floors and sheets hung from from PVC pipe. We need to make sure that America can be the welcoming nation that we should be, and that that will build our economy and our culture going forward.

01:14:33,029	S13:
I thank you. All right. For a tour. Uh, this is yours.

01:14:38,000	S8:
Deeply personal to me. My my closest, um, family, aside from my siblings, my first cousins were adopted from Guatemala and didn't become citizens until they were in their 20s, and they also served in the National Guard and dedicated their lives to our country. And so the idea that we are as a nation, this administration, is vilifying people that have helped protect us for years through military conflict is, again, atrocious, anti-American. What more can I say about this administration? Um, Ice needs to be fully abolished. Crimes need to be prosecuted. That does it very well. Um, I also would go one step further. I think the Department of Homeland Security, as put together after nine over 11, should be dismantled. There are better places for a lot of those structures. FEMA should be in its own disaster response and ideally climate resiliency agency. Um, TSA should be in transportation. I don't know why it's not. These are just structural pieces of what we should be doing as a country to properly organize our federal government. Um, within all of that, I also I worked at the State Department for two years. I have absolute firsthand knowledge of how a lot of these systems function from a diplomatic lens, and there is so much of what we could be doing to help people start the process towards citizenship before they even step a foot in the United States, becoming a US citizen shouldn't be. Well, prove that you deserve it. It should be proof that you are a good person that has that. We cannot verify that you have an identity, right? Like, we for years had an Ellis Island system show up and you have a pathway to citizenship. I talked to people. Now, even Trump supporters. I talked to a Trump supporter two weeks ago who was saying, well, you know, people just need to come do it the right way. And I'm like, oh, I learned in their conversation, his grandparents came from Italy through Ellis Island, actually, his parents his. No, no, no, it was his grandmother. His grandmother came from Italy through Ellis Island. And I was like, right, that was the right way. Then there was a path. It was very simple. And so there are very, very simple, straightforward ways to help people find their way to citizenship. And we need to be doing it.

01:16:51,130	S7:
So I definitely share the outrage here in terms of what's happening. And actually, my grandparents did come here from Italy and there was a path, there was a way to be a citizen in this country, and it was we need to get back to that. And what's happening right now is just it's ridiculous. You look at I have an office, campaign office in Lynn and talking to the chief of police and saying crime is down because no one's reporting it. They're scared and people are scared to walk their children to school and just getting taken off the streets. There's no way to live. These are our people are working in our communities. They're our neighbors. And I get sickened when I see the big detention centre they're planning on building in New Hampshire. It's it's amazing to me. I don't know which way we're trying to go here. As a lawyer, I believe in the rule of law. We need to create a pathway to citizenship. We need to do things the right way. Obviously, we need to protect our borders, but. And protect our communities. But Ice is definitely not the answer, right? So there's a way to do this, the right way to do this and a wrong way to do this. And I think it's about having a thoughtful approach, making sure that we are following the law, which is definitely not happening now, you know, with no warrants, no, you know, mass people running around as a rogue agency. And so I think we need to go back to, um, a plan where it allows people to we need to protect the people that are here and working, number one. And then we need to make sure the ones that want to come to this country can do so legally, in a way. And obviously, like everything else, we have a criminal system. And if there are people that fit that category, we will prosecute. We will bring them, uh, you know, to, to through the court system as appropriately. But again, we can't be arbitrary. It has to follow the law. There has to be a framework. And again, what's happening now has to be pushed back against. By all Americans, I mean, it's unconscionable.

01:18:40,170	S13:
I appreciate that.

01:18:41,630	S1:
Um, I could obviously, as I think everyone here.

01:18:43,270	S13:
Talk about this topic for.

01:18:44,500	S1:
A long time, I want to be mindful of time, and I want to make sure that we we have the time to do so. We're going to go rogue. Um, which again, y'all don't know, you don't have the agenda. Um, we do have some some audience questions. Uh, three of them are yes or no questions. And so get your cards, guys. Locked in. It's so exciting. Um, and then we have one card. Uh, that's an actual question. And we'll give you time to answer that briefly. Uh, so the first is yes or no? Do you support a wealth tax? Oh, look. Unanimous. Tough one for us. Um, secondly, is Israel committing genocide?

01:19:22,170	S13:
Okay, we.

01:19:22,500	S1:
Have a split there. Um, and lastly, should we be at war in Iran?

01:19:30,369	S13:
And now wrapping up.

01:19:31,899	S1:
All right. So this next one, it's just going to be a quick you'll. You'll each have 30s. We'll start here and move our way down. Um, you have a choice though.

01:19:39,729	S13:
Is it? 30s?

01:19:40,670	S1:
30s? Um, you may either. If you had a disagreement and you want to clarify one of your yes or nos, you may do that in your 30s. Um, or you may answer this question, which is how do you feel about redistricting, gerrymandering and its impacts? Um, so we're going to start here and go down again. You could either respond to something you feel needs a response, or you can answer the how do you feel about district redistricting gerrymandering. And we'll start.

01:20:07,329	S13:
Here.

01:20:08,029	S4:
I'm going to answer the question. I think this is a tragedy. What's happening in Gaza is a humanitarian concern and very tragic for sure. Um, but I'm also concerned about Hamas and, uh, the violations there. For me, this issue is about not giving a blank check, even to our allies. And that's holding Netanyahu accountable and frankly, trying him for war crimes. But my answer is based on this is a very nuanced show.

01:20:36,770	S13:
Appreciate it. All right.

01:20:39,369	S5:
The country's 250 years old, and we've honestly rested on the laurels of our founding fathers, who got a lot of things right, but a lot of things wrong. And I think we need to have a serious discussion about democracy reform and nonpartisan gerrymandering. A nonpartisan redistricting commission should be one of many key pillars we're discussing. I think if you look at the midterms, when we as Democrats win, we are going to win at the expense of centrist Republicans, leaving only the people who are in the most gerrymandered district, whether they're the far left or the far right.

01:21:12,600	S15:
To cite.

01:21:13,670	S5:
Each other on social media, we need gerrymandering. We need redistricting reform, amongst others.

01:21:21,930	S7:
I'm just tired of the political games in general. I think the system is broken in a lot of different ways. I think we need to make sure that we're allowing for people who want to really protect democracy to do so. And so I think it's important. You know, we need reforms all across the board. We're seeing self-serving politicians who are just acting, you know, based on decisions like getting reelected based on what money they can raise. And, you know, we continue to see, continue to see this pendulum swing back and forth between Democrats or Republicans. We need a system that works and that allows democracy to prevail.

01:21:58,300	S8:
And go on redistricting and gerrymandering it. It started here in Massachusetts. Gerrymandering, literally named after part of this district. Um, we needed a better redistricting nationwide. Until we have that, we shouldn't unilaterally disarm. So if the Republicans are going to do it, we need to be willing to do it so that we actually keep things fair. Um, but I agree that we need broad democratic reforms really quickly on Israel-Gaza. It meets the criteria of a genocide. We should be calling it that.

01:22:27,600	S1:
End out at.

01:22:28,130	S13:
The end.

01:22:28,899	S9:
Yeah, I want to fight against corruption in all its firm forms, and that means taking the power back to do that. So we cannot unilaterally disarm. And right now, in the face of rising fascism, uh, gerrymandering is the least we can do in this fight. We need to be standing up and taking direct action in order to ensure that we have a democracy where we can have an independent redistricting commissions across the country. We will get there.

01:23:02,470	S1:
Okay. Um, so just so you know, we have one more quick rapid fire and then you're going to get a closing, which is a one minute. You can say whatever you want. The rope is there for you to hang yourself with.

01:23:10,869	S13:
Um, so.

01:23:12,069	S1:
But before we do that, uh, grab your cards.

01:23:15,130	S13:
There you go.

Um. 01:23:17,369	S1:
Should we move away from the two party system? Officially?

01:23:25,369	S1:
Nope. It's so hard. It's so hard. Okay. So. Okay. Um. This is too close. Yes. When you get a one word answer, we'll start here. Move down, and then the second will move this way. Um, what is one issue that you believe is not getting enough attention in this race?

01:23:46,699	S1:
I'm going to start here. If you don't have an answer. That's fine.

01:23:49,899	S7:
I talked about climate, but climate, I don't think. I think people are talking about affordability. I'm sorry. Not one word, but, you know, I think climate.

01:23:55,899	S1:
Three climate. Okay. One word.

01:23:59,630	S8:
Abortion care.

01:24:01,699	S9:
Uh.

01:24:02,430	S1:
AI rec.

01:24:05,699	S5:
Civic renewal. Sorry. Two words.

01:24:07,770	S1:
That's okay. I mean, that was the word on general topic. I guess I.

01:24:10,800	S14:
Just.

Yeah. 01:24:12,770	S4:
I mean, wow, this is a tough one, but I think, uh, I would say affordability.

Okay. 01:24:19,470	S1:
Um, and then, and we can include JB, even though she's technically not sitting at this table. Um, if you were not running, which other candidate on the stage would you cast a vote for?

01:24:29,699	S4:
No, I would not be running if I did not think I was the best candidate for this race.

01:24:37,369	S1:
Rick.

01:24:43,800	S1:
Just trying to make the day is uncomfortable for you in.

01:24:46,399	S14:
This race starts us out.

01:24:48,630	S5:
Um, I agree with Trump.

01:24:56,000	S9:
I'm willing to answer.

01:24:58,100	S14:
I mean.

01:24:58,569	S7:
I honestly, I again, I asked I think we all bring different things to the table. And I think, you know, there's there's things we all agree with. This is the best part of democracy. I think it's a really good group of people. And not to hedge, but I do. You know, I think whoever wins this race, the sixth district, is going to have a good. A good representative in Congress.

01:25:17,369	S5:
It has been fun. I mean, there has been good camaraderie and a lot of good conversations. I mean, Beth and I texted about at late at night about policy.

01:25:24,869	S15:
It's like.

01:25:26,399	S5:
It's a strange question.

01:25:27,329	S15:
Because.

01:25:27,670	S8:
I gotta get your number.

01:25:28,600	S15:
Rick.

01:25:30,399	S14:
Don't we all know.

01:25:33,170	S1:
Right down at the end you all want to answer the question, or would you like to evade as well?

01:25:36,329	S14:
Oh, I'm.

Oh. 01:25:37,569	S9:
Uh, tram.

01:25:38,430	S14:
Oh, no, I.

01:25:41,100	S9:
I wouldn't be running. I'm. I'm stood up to challenge Seth Moulton. I'm running because I think the politics as usual has not gotten us where where we need to be. I want to see us do more. I want to see a democratic.

01:25:53,600	S14:
Hold for your closing. Hold it for your closing, but hold it for your clothes, I really appreciate.

01:26:00,199	S1:
You answering.

01:26:00,630	S14:
Or.

No. 01:26:01,869	S8:
Um.

01:26:05,000	S8:
I think the reality, honestly, is I will. I don't know that all of us are even going to make it to September, right? I think part of this race is having enough money to make it through a race this long. Um, you may have noticed that there's a candidate absent today, and that person doesn't have to worry as much about fundraising as the rest of us. And I know that a lot of us on this stage are very scared that our campaigns may not survive. To actually be able to cast a vote for ourselves or one another. Um, so I think it's very tough to answer that question, because I just don't know who's actually going to be in the race at that point. It was an eloquent.

01:26:40,729	S1:
Evasion, I'll give you that. I appreciated.

01:26:42,930	S14:
It.

01:26:43,130	S15:
But.

01:26:44,699	S14:
What I will say is, like, I.

01:26:46,130	S8:
My fiance and I my fiance is literally.

01:26:48,470	S14:
A proxy.

01:26:48,970	S1:
For.

01:26:49,100	S14:
My campaign. They are really close.

01:26:50,329	S8:
I just want to.

01:26:50,869	S14:
Say this because it's literally part of the.

01:26:52,300	S8:
This is part of the answer of this is something that we still are debating, like because we talk a lot about who would we vote for? And honestly, my answer has changed over the course of the campaign of being in the race. I think initially I would have probably leaned based on ideology and other moments. You're convinced based on personality and who you have the greatest collegiality with. Um, and I don't really think that any of us in this room, I mean, certainly there are folks that are in one camp or another and are strong donors for one of us. But I think most people at all of these events haven't made up their minds yet, and I think it would be not really reasonable for any of us to have made up our minds, because we don't necessarily know where each other's stand on everything. So, you know, I think ask me again in August, I will.

01:27:34,430	S5:
Can I? I want to say one thing that I'm sure if my consultants were here, they'd be very angry.

01:27:38,569	S15:
At I.

01:27:38,869	S14:
Love angry.

01:27:41,670	S5:
I suspect that any one of the eight of us who go to Washington, DC, when it comes down to the votes we take, will probably be the same on 90% of the year. Yeah, I think ultimately this comes down to who do you think is going to best represent you? Who's going to represent this district? Who do you trust? Who do you think has the experience to do the job?

01:28:02,029	S4:
I mean, and to add to that, I think it's who you do you want a D.C. insider or do you want someone who's been here, who's done the work here and will be here to represent you? Because a lot of the work is in Washington, but a lot of the work is about here being listening to you and meeting where you're at as well.

01:28:18,529	S1:
So with that, and with time in mind, we're going to give each of you one minute. We're going to start at the end of the table and move this way. Uh, one minute I will I will not direct you. So whatever your consultant told you to say.

01:28:29,270	S14:
Not I.

01:28:30,500	S1:
I you may say I started. Yeah. Tom, are you ready? All right. Go ahead.

01:28:34,869	S9:
Yeah, I, I have this consultant.

01:28:37,300	S14:
Um, but that's fantastic. Uh, I.

01:28:39,670	S9:
I want us to. I think that there is more to this office than just our votes. I want to take the techniques we've been using in our towns here to resist MAGA, where we get together with our neighbors, where we organize with the indivisible models, where we build popular movements behind what we want to see happen. I don't think that I'm going there alone. I don't think I'm going there as the, uh, as a representative of Washington here in this district. I'm going to Washington in order to organize for our priorities from here. And I'm going to stay involved. I'm going to stay building those movements that we've we've started here, taking those national, finding our collaborators and building the power to get more done than we can. If we see this position as just being about us and our vote.

01:29:30,899	S1:
It was.

01:29:31,170	S15:
Impeccable.

01:29:31,899	S1:
Timing, just incredible. All right, your minute.

01:29:36,270	S8:
We have an opportunity in this race that this district hasn't seen in about 30 years to choose not just the representative, but what kind of representative to send. Whoever wins this primary is going to be the person that goes to D.C.. So you get to choose who aligns with you, who you believe will deliver for you, who has the skills, as Rick said, to do so? Uh, I think it's very easy to look at my years of experience in the State Department and Congress and feel like I'm some sort of insider. But I think fundamentally, what I would say is I'm also a person who spent years and still spends years, and even in my time in D.C., spent nights and weekends working in the E.R.. Coming home after 15 to 18 hour shifts with blood and sweat and worse all over me. And I think understanding that kind of work, knowing what it means to be checking your bank account in the grocery store checkout line and fear your bills is there arriving? It's important experience to be able to bring to a role like this.

01:30:37,199	S7:
You can't say I'm not an insider. I'm not a politician. But I think what qualifies me is that I've been able to get things done in the private sector. I've built a business from the ground up, and I think the most important thing is I've lived in this community and this is about being in the community, listening to people visiting this 39 cities and towns and creating opportunities to make people's lives better. Prioritizing the right things. And I think that's what politicians have lost. It's time to put people over politics and to create opportunity. And for me, this election is simple. We need to protect our democracy and we need to help those that need it most. And you need people who can do that. There's a time to fight, and there's also a time to work with the other side, and we need to do that as well and find common ground. It's very difficult right now, but we need new leadership, new vision. We can't just insanity as doing things the same way, and we can't just keep sending the same type of people to DC. And so I'm bringing a different type of perspective. Hopefully that resonates. I humbly ask for your support. Thank you.

01:31:40,899	S5:
I've always thought about how I can do good in the world, and as I thought about mulling this decision and the impact it would have on my family, I really thought about two things. One was the crisis we faced with Donald Trump, who was chipping away at the fundamental fabric of democracy. Everything he gets away with, it becomes more brazen and worse. And the second idea that people are struggling, they're hurting. And it all comes down to the cost of living. They're feeling crushed by housing, education, health care. And I don't see those as two separate problems. I don't think we can trust the people who got us into this mess, begin with and their friends to get us out of it. I think we need a different approach. I have an old mentor who always used to say to me, meet people where they're at. Talk about the things they care about and do something about it. It hasn't been a slogan for me. It's how I've lived my entire life. It's how I plan to be a representative, and it's why I'm asking for your vote.

01:32:35,130	S4:
Thank you so much for this opportunity for me to share my story and our and my vision, and how we can advance our shared values. I think it's very important for us, especially in this moment in time when our government is in crisis, for us to elect a legislator representative who is not playing by the old playbook, we all know that the old playbook is not working for us. And that's why the fresh voice, new perspective is so key here. And as someone who's been the state representative for the last seven years, I'm the one with experience in passing legislation, bringing money back to the district and really serving the people and prioritizing constituent services. And a big part of that is communication with people. Because I've lived here, I've worked here, I've been here. And if there's one thing that you hear from the folks that I currently represent is that I'm everywhere because I believe that. So in order to fully serve the people, you have to listen to the people and meet them where they're at. And so for us, it's about getting results and fighting Trump at the same time. We must and we can do both. And we have to be elected folks who are willing to be courageous and lead with moral clarity and get things done.

01:33:40,430	S1:
So thank you so, so much to everybody. Having done this at the local level, I know that running for office is a toll on you, a toll on your family, a toll on your friends, toll on your bank account. Signs are expensive. I don't know if anyone has ever bought a yard sign before, but on behalf of the the Democratic town committees here and everybody who's who's focused on this race, we appreciate your time. We know you have a busy day and we're grateful. So thank you and good luck.

01:34:04,229	S16:
Thank you.