- [Announcer] Ladies and
gentlemen please take your seats,
our program is about to begin.
There's plenty of chairs, house right,
make your way all the way
into the room at this time.
Please take your seats.
(crowd murmuring)
- Well good afternoon.
I'm going to speak a little bit slowly
so that everyone can file
in and find their seats.
We have a pretty packed house today
and we know why you are all here,
and we're grateful for it.
Thank you, did you guys have
some good afternoon sessions,
how about a round of applause
to all our committee chairs,
and vice-chairs.
(audience applauds)
Well know, and I'm gonna ask again
for all of us over in
this side of the room
to quietly fill in as quickly as possible
so that we can give our
full attention to our guest.
It is my pleasure to introduce a leader
whom many of you already
know, Mike Bloomberg.
Who's elected mayor just
months after the attacks
of September 11th, 2001,
and under his leadership
New York rebounded faster
and stronger than anyone expected.
The Bloomberg administration raised
high school graduation rates by 40%,
reduced the city's carbon
footprint by nearly 20%,
and increased average
life-expectancy by three years.
After leaving office
his Bloomberg Foundation
has made supporting cities a top priority
because he knows the
power that mayors have
to make a difference.
Just a few minutes ago backstage,
I was able to personally thank him
for a Bloomberg Philanthropy grant
that the city of Rochester
Hills had been awarded
and I'm sure there are many of you
in the crowd today.
Just a few months ago I
was with Mike in Copenhagen
for the C40 World Mayors Summit.
And I've witnessed his commitment
to one Copenhagen fan here
apparently in the front.
(audience laughs)
I have witnessed his commitment
to addressing global issues
like climate change and public
health at the local level.
He knows that we can make great progress
when we come together to exchange ideas,
learn from one another,
and spread our impact
at convenings like this one.
As I highlighted earlier today,
the Conference of Mayors has put forward
a bipartisan policy agenda entitled,
the Mayors' 2020 Vision for
America, A Call to Action.
And I believe that there
are many priorities
in our bipartisan agenda
that are a shared concern
for our next speaker.
So please, join me in welcoming back home
an entrepreneur, a philanthropist,
and alumnus of our conference,
Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
(upbeat music)
(crowd cheering and applauding)
- Thank you, thank you,
please sit everyone
and Bryan thank you for
that kind introduction
and I'm glad you gave it
just the way I wrote it.
(audience laughs)
I also want to thank,
that always gets a laugh
when you do that.
I'd suggest to use it all the time.
I also want to thank, Tom Cochran,
who I've known for a long time
and has been a great
leader for this group,
and he'd certainly,
he invited me to DC in
January to give a speech
and I said, "Oh, I'd be happy to do it."
Actually the truth is, I'm
hoping to give a speech
in DC next year.
(audience laughs and cheers)
Another issue.
The truth is, it's great to be here
and I'm honored.
I think this city's future
is brighter than ever
and a lot of the credit
goes to my good friend,
Mayor Muriel Bowser.
(audience applauds)
She is doing a terrific job
and I hope some day soon
we'll be calling her,
Governor Bowser.
(audience applauds)
I do think the time has come for DC
to become a state with full voting rights
and as president I'll work with congress
to make that happen.
(audience applauds)
Now, I believe I'm the only candidate
with three mayors serving
as co-chairs of my campaign
and they are three of
the most respected mayors
in the country.
Steven Benjamin of
Columbia, South Carolina.
(audience applauds and cheers)
Greg Fischer of Louisville, Kentucky.
(audience applauds and cheers)
And Michael Stubbs of
Stockton, California.
(audience applauds)
And our political co-chairs,
our two former mayors, Michael
Nutter of Philadelphia.
(audience cheers and applauds)
And Manny Diaz, of Miami,
both of them did a great
job for their cities.
(audience applauds)
So I guess you could say that our campaign
has it's own US Conference of Mayors,
and if you would like to join,
we'd love to have you.
So just to be sure you sign up at the end.
Seriously, it's no secret
that I'm a big believer
in the power of the
cities and the communities
to drive change.
Bloomberg Philanthropies
has supported mayors
and local leaders in that work,
and I've been lucky to work
with many of you over the years.
We've worked together
to fight gun violence,
and confront the opioid epidemic.
We're working together to
spread the economic opportunity
and connect people to jobs
and growing industries.
We're working together to improve
early childhood education,
and protect kids from
tobacco and E-cigarettes.
And we're working together
to address climate change
and strengthen communities
against its impact.
In all that work, I've
tried to help locally
to change the status quo
and act boldly and try new things.
And you have done amazing work
and I've been honored to be part of it,
so let me say thank you to all of you.
(audience applauds)
I don't know if the public realizes it,
but you're on the frontline of issues
that matter most in this election.
So it's critical that you got out there
and get your voices heard.
And that's what I've done
through my foundation
and that's what I'm doing
through this campaign.
And if I become president,
I can just promise you,
the doors to the White
House will be open to mayors
because the policies that
the president designs
are often implemented,
not at the state level,
but at the local level.
And you will have a seat at the table
in ways that has never happened before.
(audience applauds)
I want your ideas, I want your feedback
on what's happening on the ground,
and I want you to have the authority
and resources to drive change.
And I will ask mayors and local leaders
to be part of my
unofficial Kitchen Cabinet
on all of the big issues
facing our country.
And today, I'd like to focus on one
that desperately needs federal leadership,
and it's an issue at the heart
of the US Conference of Mayors'
2020 Vision for America,
and that's infrastructure.
(audience applauds)
Every few years the American
Society of Civil Engineers
looks at the state of our infrastructure
and gives it a letter grade.
Last time, in 2017, they
gave it a D plus, a D plus.
For 20 years we've either
gotten a D, or a D plus.
Now, I was never a great student,
in fact, I was the kind
of student who always made
the top half of the class possible.
(audience laughs)
But I will say, I only got one D ever,
and that was in French
and I remember going home
and my parents screaming at me.
Let me just say that if the
state of American infrastructure
is anywhere's near as bad as my French,
we are in an awful lot of trouble.
(audience laughs)
I know we don't all belong
to the same political party,
or share the same position on every issue,
but I've never been shy
about saying what I think
and the fact is, under this president,
the problem, like so many others,
has been left to fester.
Donald Trump has made
promise after promise
on infrastructure,
what has he delivered, nothing.
Or as we say in French, bupkis.
(audience laughs)
That was the New Yorkers laughing.
(audience laughs)
There seriously, there seems to be only
one construction project
that he cares about,
and it's a border wall
that is a political gimmick
and a costly one,
which is something even many
republicans acknowledge.
In wasting billions of tax payer dollars
that shouldn't have gone,
that should've gone to fix our roads,
and our bridges, and our airports,
and our waterlines,
and to build the new
infrastructure that we need.
Meanwhile, we're falling further
and further behind other
countries on infrastructure,
particularly China.
We won't beat China with trade wars
that harm our own farmers
and factory workers,
we'll do it by investing in America.
And that's what I would do as president.
And all of you see how badly
we need more investment.
Our roads are unsafe,
and clogged with traffic.
Our bridges and dams are deteriorating.
Our airports are congested
with more and more delays.
Our railroads are stuck
in the last century,
and so is our power grid.
Our infrastructure is adding
to the climate crisis,
rather than helping to solve it.
Meanwhile, millions of
Americans lack access
to high speed internet.
Millions of American's home
pipes and drinking water,
home's pipe and drinking water
are contaminated with lead
and other dangerous chemicals.
We just can't accept that in America.
Any of it.
Today, I release my plan
for repairing America's infrastructure
and building the
infrastructure that we need
to grow and compete in the years ahead.
It's different from the
way other candidates talk
about infrastructure,
they usually just talk about money
because most don't have any experience
in managing big infrastructure projects.
Don't get me wrong, we
need to invest more money
in infrastructure,
but mayors understand that money
is only part of the problem.
The fact is, even
relatively simple projects
take much too long
and mayors don't have enough
say in what gets funded.
Most of the federal funding
that local communities need
is funneled through state governments,
who often tap into those
funds to pay for other things
like their own budget deficits.
That's not right, and we will fix it.
(audience applauds)
We've come up with an approach I think
that is smarter, faster,
safer, and greener
and that includes putting more power
in the hands of mayors and local leaders.
In fact, I'll work with
congress to make sure
the next Transportation
Authorization Bill requires states
to distribute 100% of
federal infrastructure funds
intended for cities and
towns to cities and towns.
Imagine that.
(audience applauds)
I'll also create a national
capital budget dedicated
to long-term local
infrastructure projects.
That way, mayors and local leaders
can begin important projects
knowing that there'll be money
to finish them.
We'll also make it easier
for communities to borrow
to invest in the future.
We'll offer local
governments federal loans
for key infrastructure
projects at a 1% interest rate.
And we'll expand Rebuild
America Bonds and other tools
that will open up access
to private funding.
Now I know how much
locally is gonna accomplish
if they have the tools to do it.
When our administration
entered office in New York,
much of the city's critical infrastructure
was old and strained.
At the same time, our
population was projected to grow
by one million people before 2030,
and climate change was
presenting growing threats.
So we created a long-term plan
to prepare the city for the future,
and we called it, PlaNYC.
We invested $2.7 billion
in a new water tunnel,
to ensure safe, clean
water for the future.
We built the city's first
bus rapid transit lanes
with more than 400 miles of bike lanes,
and we led the first city-funded extension
of America's largest urban train system
in more than 50 years.
When we left office, our carbon
footprint had shrunk by 13%,
far outpacing the national average.
The number of jobs was at a record high.
The air was cleaner than it
had been in more than 50 years,
and New Yorkers were
living three years longer
than they were when we entered office.
We can make that kind of progress
across this whole country.
But to do it we need a
plan, not just a budget.
But we've never had a
national infrastructure plan.
We've never had national
infrastructure goals,
or national metrics for measuring success.
We've been driving
without a steering wheel,
and it's no wonder that
we're in the ditch.
My administration will change that.
To start, we will create a national map,
tracing all roads, rails,
transit, air, and freight routes.
Believe it or not, that
doesn't even exist.
We'll create clear metrics
for measuring the health
of our infrastructure
and the success of our investments.
More and more American
cities are doing that,
including many of yours
and our foundation has been glad to help.
I think it's time the
federal government caught up
to what mayors are doing.
Better measurement will
lead to smarter investment,
and also more accountability.
Right now, states can
apply for federal funds
for new projects, without having to show
that they are taking care of
the existing infrastructure.
I'll require states to set benchmarks
for maintenance and repair,
and submit report cards on their progress.
We did that for schools in New York City,
and helped increase
graduation rates by 43%.
We'll allocate funding
for new projects based
on how well states are maintaining
what they already have.
In other words, we'll
reward based on performance,
just like any business does.
I know, what a crazy idea that is.
Make it work.
We'll also streamline
the application process
for federal grants and
permitting the process
for new projects.
Now, President Trumps wants
to weaken environmental requirements
which is extremely dangerous.
I will restore those requirements,
but I will also make reviews
faster and easier to complete
so we can speed up construction
without putting lives in danger.
(audience applauds)
We will allocate $850
billion over 10 years
to capital investments in
roads, bridges, freight,
and other infrastructure.
We'll factor climate
change into every decision
and create a new financing corporation
with $100 billion in
annual treasury credit
to help build resilience.
These investments will
create millions of good jobs,
for carpenters, electricians,
metal workers, cement masons, mechanics,
and people in every construction trade.
We'll make sure that
everyone has the opportunity
to compete for those jobs
by working with labor unions and others
to help people acquire
the skills they need
through training and apprenticeships.
That includes helping people
affected by transition
to electric and autonomous vehicles
so that workers benefit
from new technologies
and aren't left behind.
The plan we released will
allow us to make progress
on all the major infrastructure
challenges we face.
And let me just outline
a few of our top goals.
Number one, is ensuring
every American has access
to clean water,
an issue that has especially
impacted communities of color.
We'll invest $100 billion over 10 years
to fix water systems in the
communities at greatest risk.
And we'll start with those in crisis.
(audience applauds)
And we'll start with those in crisis,
like Flint and Newark.
Number two, we will repair
our roads and bridges.
As part of that work we'll
create a rapid repair fund.
I call it the Pothole Fund,
with an annual budge of a billion dollars.
When I was mayor, I always
encouraged New Yorkers
to call our information hotline,
311, to report potholes,
and I made sure to do that
myself if I saw a pothole.
One time, the city government
operator asked me for my name,
I said, "Mike Bloomberg",
and she said, "Bloomberg,
how do you spell that?"
(audience laughs)
Only in New York.
Our plan includes the
first ever national effort
to reduce road deaths,
an issue that has not
gotten nearly the attention
that it should.
(audience applauds)
In New York City, we
cut road deaths by 24%,
through smarter street design
and better rules and enforcement.
If we spread those measures
across the country,
we can save something like, 20,000 lives
by the end of my first term.
And that's a pretty good start.
We'll also prepare our roads
for the spread of electric vehicles.
Like building more charging stations.
But we'll also give people
more ways to get around
and that's number three,
mass transit and railroads.
We will triple federal investment
in public transportation.
(audience applauds)
We'll help cities extend
public transit to more people
and offer more options including,
bus rapid transit routes,
and bike lanes, and rail links.
We have a lot of people talk
about building more rail,
well I've actually done it
when we extended the
subway in New York City.
And while lots of high speed rail projects
have been proposed,
we will focus on what we can complete.
So we will commit to finishing
at least one high speed
rail corridor by 2025.
(audience applauds)
Thank you, and the plan
that we are releasing today,
also includes building new rail links
to 10 of our busiest airports by 2030,
to make it easier and
faster to get to them.
That brings us to number four.
Modernizing America's airports.
We will speed up replacement
of air traffic control systems
and boost funding for
improvements to terminals
and other airport infrastructure.
So going to the airport
can be an experience
that travelers don't dread,
even on Thanksgiving.
And number five, we'll
expand access to clean energy
and high speed internet.
And we'll do that by modernizing
and connecting the power grid
and by working with states
and services providers
to connect the more than
21 million Americans
who still lack access to broadband.
(audience applauds)
Investment in infrastructure
helped make America
the world's biggest economy
and the strongest political power.
We're at risk of losing that position
and we can't let that happen.
But better infrastructure will
also make our country safer,
healthier, and more fair,
by helping to ensure equal
access to opportunity.
And local governments can
help by leading the way.
I know you can because you already are.
And the more we do to empower
mayors and local leaders,
the faster we can make progress.
I've been in your shoes.
I know that the federal
government is too often
an obstacle and not a partner
in making the investments we need
to build a brighter future.
When I'm president, that will change.
Our team will work hand-in-hand
with mayors across the
country on infrastructure
and in all the big
challenges facing our nation.
But first, we have to win a primary,
and we can't do that
without a lot of help.
Our campaign is building momentum
and we're taking our message to towns
and cities across the country,
and I hope you'll join the
growing number of mayors
and local leaders who are
part of our campaign team.
No one understands the problems
facing our country better
than local leaders.
And no one will appreciate
and value your support more
than I will.
So thank you again for inviting me,
and for all your great work.
I will still tell you being a mayor
is the best job in the world.
I loved it for 12 years,
and I would urge all of you to do 12 years
and if you have a minor
problem, like limits,
change the law, thank you all.
(audience laughs and applauds)
(upbeat music)
- Well that was fantastic
and Mayor Bloomberg
as a mayor who's now serving his 13th year
as a write-in, I really like that close,
that was a strong close. (laughs)
We are absolutely, Mike Bloomberg,
in lockstep with your idea.
We can get the house to
settle for just a moment,
I know that was exciting,
but we have another exciting
panel here in just a moment.
But just to mention, I think,
and I wrote this down,
that we're in lockstep with your idea
of Washington providing mayors,
Mayor Bloomberg's words,
"The authority and the resources
"to do what's needed in our communities."
We appreciate that vision
and all you have down
for American cities.
One more round of applause
for Mayor Bloomberg.
(audience applauds)
Well, we're gonna have to transition here
because we have another fantastic session
and it's gonna start right now,
as we set the tables
and the stage behind me,
we're going to move into our,
Women's Mayors Alliance
Leadership Plenary Session
to be led by San Leandro
Mayor, Pauline Cutter.
Now, it's gonna take just
a minute to set the stage,
but please do me a favor,
and I'm looking to those folks
that are exiting the hall,
we're gonna ask you to do it silently,
as we have a really special
panel coming up next.
You have 30 seconds to get
those conversations concluded,
we'll be right back, thank you everyone.
(upbeat music)
- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
please stay in the room,
please keep your seats and we
will be starting momentarily.
- [Woman] And I said, yeah.
- Well good afternoon everybody,
I'm so happy to be here.
And I'm happy that I don't
have to use my teacher look
to get the hall quiet,
so thank you so much.
I wanna let you know my
name is, Pauline Cutter,
I am from the City of
San Leandro, California
and it's my great honor
to serve as the chair
of the Women's Mayorship
Leadership Alliance
within the US Conference of Mayors.
I'd like to ask that all
of you join in us today
as we celebrate our recent
progress making working towards
our gender equality.
And much of that momentum
can be attributed
to a robust civic engagement
in communities nationwide
over the past few years.
Hundreds of thousands
of women participated
in the Women's March in cities
across the country this weekend,
marking the third consecutive
year of this effort
to harness the political
power of diverse women
to create transformative social change.
In 2018, we saw a record
number of women elected
to office at local,
state, and federal level.
And those gains include the
remarkable 117 women elected
to the 116th session of congress,
as well as dozens, yep, that's a good one.
(audience applauds)
As well as the dozens of new women mayors
who are here in this room.
And if you're a woman mayor
can you raise your hand
and we'll congratulate you.
(audience applauds and cheers)
And to show that we're equal opportunity
if you're a man and you're a
man, please raise your hand
and we'll celebrate you.
(audience applauds)
Okay, we were thrilled with the results
and the gains in last week
when the Commonwealth of Virginia
became the 38th state to ratify
the Equal Rights Amendment.
(audience applauds)
It's really a symbolic victory
for the generations of American women
who have long advocated for
the constitutional amendment
to outlaw the, excuse me, discrimination
on the basis of gender.
And I'd like to thank
Boston Mayor, Marty Walsh,
for members of his organization
for passing a strong
resolution in Honolulu
of the ERA and our annual
meeting this last June.
(audience applauds)
Thank you.
So, it's 2020, right, and
here we are still talking
about the Equal Rights Amendment,
I think that we need to move on
and get our business done.
Despite these major steps forwards
it's key to much of,
what have we been doing,
and the things that we're working for,
and as mentioned, the
civic engagement is key
to ensuring representation
in all levels of government.
So today our program will
focus on voter registration
as a critical next step to
continue our momentum forward.
I'm thrilled to welcome my
newly elected vice chair,
Mayor Victoria Woodards from
the City of Tacoma, Washington.
And she'll serve as a
moderator for our next segment.
Let's congratulate Mayor
Woodards in this new role,
and welcome her to the stage.
(audience applauds)
(upbeat music)
Okay, and next our alliance
is thrilled to be joined
by Miss Valerie Jarrett.
Miss Jarrett currently
serves as the senior advisor
to the Obama Foundation
and is Senior Distinguished Fellow
at the University of Chicago Law School.
As mayors, you may have
had the great fortune
of working with Valerie during
the Obama administration.
She oversaw the White House
Office of Public Engagement
and inter-government affairs,
becoming the strongest
serving senior advisor,
to then president, Barack Obama.
She also served as chair as
the White House Council
on Women and Girls.
Throughout her tenure, Miss
Jarrett worked diligently
to mobilize elected
leaders, community leaders,
and the private sector.
She championed equality
and the opportunity for all Americans
and she worked tirelessly to politically
and economically empower women
and here at the United
States and around the world.
Miss Jarrett oversaw the
administration's engagement
on policies to empower working families
and initiatives including, equal pay,
raising the minimum wage,
paid leave, paid sick days,
and affordable childcare.
She also led campaigns to reform
our criminal justice system
and sexual violence, and excuse me,
and sexual assault, and
reduce gun violence.
Miss Jarrett has received numerous awards
and honorary degrees,
and she was recognized as one
of Time's 100 most influential people,
and her book, "Finding My Voice:
"My Journey to the West
Wing and Path Forward"
was released this last April,
and it quickly became a
New York Times bestseller.
Miss Jarrett is here today
because of her capacity
in the Board Chair of When We All Vote,
which is a non-partisan, repeated,
a non-partisan voter
registration initiative.
It was recently launched in partnership
with former First Lady, Michelle Obama,
and we look forward to learning more
about those efforts today.
Welcome.
(upbeat music)
(audience applauds)
- Thank you.
Thank you so much, hello everybody.
- [Audience] Hello.
- It is so good to see you all.
You know, I love some mayors.
- [Woodards] And we love you.
- Well 'cause I started out
working for a mayor in Chicago,
I ended up working for
three mayors in Chicago
and that was how I got my
first taste of government,
so any opportunity I have to spend with
those who represent the
economic engine of our country,
I'm happy to do so.
So thank you for having me, Madam Mayor.
- Thank you very much,
it's such an honor to have you here
and to be the one to be able
to have this conversation
with you this afternoon.
We're honored that you joined us.
Aren't we happy to have
Valerie Jarrett with us today?
(audience applauds and cheers)
- [Jarrett] Thank you.
- Well, we're gonna get
right into the conversation
'cause we've got a lot to talk about
in a very short period of time,
but obviously you've been really busy.
- [Jarrett] I have been busy.
- Been a little bit busy since
you left the White House.
- [Jarrett] Just as
have all of you, right?
- Well it's so good to see you here
at the US Conference of Mayors.
And so, you've been working a lot,
you've had your prior roles as overseeing
the White House Office
of Public Engagement
and Intergovernmental Affairs
under president, Barack Obama,
but you've also been
up to a lot since then,
so tell us what you've been up to
other than coming to Tacoma, Washington.
She was in my city.
- I did actually, I
love Tacoma, Washington.
So well, after the administration
and I had the privilege
of serving all eight years
from day one to the last day,
in fact, I joke about the fact
that I waved goodbye to the Obamas
when they were on their
way to the inauguration
because I just knew I
had the best job ever
and why would I wanna leave,
but at some point secret
service looked at me
and they said, "Girl you got to go now.
"You are on real borrowed time,
"your badge is about to expire."
But I did some real soul searching
and I said, having had the privilege
of working on every single issue
that came across his desk for eight years,
what are the issues that I
really cared deeply about?
And I decided in this
next chapter of my life,
that's what I wanted to do.
And they were pretty simple
because their ones that I've
cared about for a long time.
In the introduction it was mentioned
that I chaired the White House
Council of Women and Girls
and so, fighting for gender
equity is important to me,
fighting for criminal justice reform.
I joined the board of
the Innocence Project,
a wonderful organization
that works to exonerate
people who are innocent,
but we know we all spend
too much money trying
to put people in the system
when they really just need a fair shot.
So what can we do to make life easier
so every young person gets a fair shot?
And President Obama
started My Brother's Keeper
and I've helped work on that.
What do we do to make the system fairer?
What do we do to help
people get the skills
who are incarcerated so
when they're released
they can lead a law-abiding life?
And then how do we get them
jobs when they do get out?
So that they don't just
continue that cycle.
So I work on that.
Ending gun violence is important to me.
I joined the faculty at the law school,
the University of Chicago,
I have not practiced law since 1991,
so, oh you're clapping 'cause
I haven't practiced law.
I'm a reformed lawyer,
but I love being around
smart, young people
and having them help work on these issues
that I care about.
I helped President Obama
with his foundation
and I know we're here today
to talk about When We All Vote,
but a final organization I would mention
is United State of Women.
- Right.
- They grew out of the White House Council
on Women and Girls.
So I would keep myself
outta trouble pretty much.
- Yes, sounds like you've been
a little busy since you left.
- [Jarrett] I have,
it's keeping me healthy.
- That's--
- It's like, keep moving,
keep moving, doing things
positively that you can do.
- Well, no we need you to keep moving.
We need you to keep doing
the work that you're doing
because it's really making
- Thank you.
- The difference in our communities.
So the Women's Mayor Leadership Alliance
was formed as a way to encourage
and develop leadership
potential for women mayors.
You were chair of the White
House Council on Women and Girls
for President Obama
which you just mentioned
and you've talked a
lot about gender equity
and ensuring all women
have a seat at the table
and not just a seat at the table,
they actually get to have a voice
and a meal when they sit there.
But since you've left the
White House you've been working
on building, and you just
talked about building,
United States of Women.
What is the organization doing,
and how can we here today,
help and get involved?
- Well you can help a lot.
So the organization, as I said,
grew out of the White House
Council on Women and Girls.
And we gave the new
administration a little while
to see if they were gonna continue it
and when they didn't, Tina Chen and I,
who worked on it together said,
well all change happens
on the ground anyway,
why don't we form a
not-for-profit organization
that focuses on gender equity,
closing the gender gap.
And so, the last year that
we were in the White House,
we hosted a summit,
some of you may have
been here in Washington.
We had 5000 people show up
from all around the country and the world,
sharing best practices on gender equity.
And so, Tina and I thought,
well let's have another summit in 2018.
We held it in Los Angeles,
Mayor Garcetti was an incredible host,
and we had twice as many people come.
And so don't you know this summer,
and we haven't released a date yet,
but this summer we're gonna
be hosting another conference
and we're gonna ask all of you mayors,
many of who are working on
this issue of gender equity,
let me know what the best practices are
that are going on in your communities.
We wanna put a spotlight on those
who are making things happen.
This is all about solutions.
We know what the problems are.
We know women only earn
80 cents on the dollar.
Women of color much less than that.
We know that the minimum wage is leading
to people not being able to
take care of their families,
it's leading to mental health challenges.
We know what the challenges
are for working families,
the question is, what are the solutions?
And so, give us your solutions
and we would ask for all of you to join us
and we'll be releasing
shortly the location
and the dates, and we
want your best ideas.
And they can come from
the business community,
they can come from the mayor's office,
they can come from the
philanthropic community
that's very engaged in this.
We have women's foundations
all across the country,
and it can come from advocates who say,
look this is what we know works,
it's evidence-based strategies
that we wanna help convene
people, get them together,
share those best practices,
and take solutions to scale.
- No, that's give, that's,
we can clap for that,
that's really great work.
(audience applauds)
One of the things that I love
about this government work
is the fact that the best ideas
are ideas that we share.
So unlike the private sector,
they get ideas and they hang onto them
because they wanna make
a lot of money from them,
but in the public sector,
we share those ideas.
And what's so really great
is that we face a lot of the problems.
So again, thank you to you
for bringing us together.
I love it, we can get together
and talk best practices
because we can learn from one another
and take those back and
actually implement them
in our community without
having to reinvent the wheel.
And so, thank you so much for doing that.
How many of you will
attend the conference?
I'm going.
- Please go, I'll send out the date.
- There you go, so we can
all be there with you.
- We're gonna announce it soon.
Please come, send your staff,
or send the business
leaders in your community,
the academics who are doing
evidence-based studies,
whoever you think can help
put a spotlight on what works.
You're welcome.
- Great, thank you.
So as Mayor Cutter mentioned
in her opening remarks,
the Mayors Leadership Alliance
is also focused on voter registration.
- Thank you.
- We know how important
that is to really change what's happening
in the United States.
We are so excited to
hear about the work of,
When We All Vote,
and what they're doing to
increase voter registration
and participation in all
elections across the country,
no matter if it's a school board race
or if it's a national election.
Tell us more about, When We All Vote,
and how your co-chairs,
including former lady,
Michelle, First Lady,
Michelle Obama got together
around this idea.
- Yeah, so after the last election,
Mrs Obama was really
troubled by one data point.
The fact that 43% of
eligible voters did not vote
in the last election.
And so she said, "What
can we do in our country
"to change the culture around voting?"
And not about one election or
one person running for office,
but really helping to awaken people
about their civic responsibility
to be informed voters
as just like the minimum threshold
that you are responsible for
if you want the privilege
of being a citizen
in this great country.
And so, she thought, well
what if we get a bunch
of co-chairs and it's
everyone from Tom Hanks,
to Janelle Monae, really cool people,
who are influencers, led by her,
who's a rockstar, I think,
and let's go out and focus on young people
and people of color and, but expand it.
And she intentionally Madame Mayor wanted
to make it non-partisan,
because she said, "I don't
want this to be something
"that polarizes the country.
"I want to go into every school district."
And so, we're working with high schools,
to try to get high schools to
help register people to vote
and I know that there are
mayors around the country,
that are already leading this charge.
Mayor Walsh from Boston, for example,
has an initiative to go
into the high schools
and pre-register people.
We wanna make sure that our
colleges and universities
are registering people,
their captive audiences,
and so we're gonna have a challenge
for colleges and universities.
We want to build communities
where people make it fun to vote again
and form their voting squads.
And we know that people are influenced
by those who they
respect and who they love
and so if we can get groups together
to go out and register people to vote,
and knock on doors,
and participate and educate
people about the candidates,
all of the candidates running for office,
that would be helpful.
And then the final thing is
our Civic Cities Challenge,
which is where you guys come in.
So we want you all to do
what I know you love to do
and that is to compete against one another
to see who can get the
most people registered
in your cities.
And of course, many of you
are already doing this,
from Minneapolis to Philadelphia,
to Boston, I mentioned earlier,
to Los Angeles, free
transportation is available
in many cities on voting day.
But what are the best practice
that you can come up with
to help increase the number
of folks in your cities
who are registering and
actually turning out to vote.
And get everybody involved.
Get the advocacy community,
get the business community.
We're working with
teachers, and principles,
and schools across the country,
that are in your school districts,
include them in that process
and let's see what we can do
to really increase the
number of people who turn out
not just for president,
but as you know, it
matters who's the mayor,
it matters who's on your city council,
you have to work with your city council.
It matters who's in the
state legislature drawing
the lines that make important
decisions about funding
and representation.
It matters who's your governor.
Every single office matters.
It matters who's your prosecutor
who's making prosecutorial
discretion decisions involving
our criminal justice system.
And so we want, I ask, I'm here today
to really just ask for your help
to figure out new innovative ways
of turning that 43% into zero.
I actually believe in mandatory voting,
I don't think I'm gonna
get that through Congress,
I don't think I'm gonna get a free day
so everybody can take
off work and go vote,
I'm being realistic here,
but I do think that we could increase
the number of people who turn out.
In the midterm elections it ticked up.
I think for young people, for example,
who disproportionally do not vote,
they went from 20% to 30.
That's a huge jump, right?
But 70% still didn't vote,
which is why we're targeting young people
who have the most to
lose, the most at stake,
they're gonna be here the longest.
- Absolutely.
- And the evidence shows,
the final point I'm gonna make is,
that evidence shows that those who vote
in their first election,
are more likely to be life-long voters.
So let's get 'em early.
- So, speaking of young people, I mean,
we know that a lot of
millennials don't vote
because they don't think
it makes a difference.
- I know.
- So how do we get them,
how do we get them to understand?
I mean, the fact that you
talk about getting down
to even the school board level
when I was reading about When We All Vote,
the fact that you're gonna work in schools
and get parents registered,
not just kids, but get parents,
but we've got these young people,
how do we encourage them,
how do we break that cycle
of them not engaging?
- Well, we have to make it cool to vote.
We have to have people who they trust,
who they're influenced by.
Talk to them, we all know
that we are all influenced
by those who are around us,
those we respect, those we love,
and so that's part of why we
want to have these circles
of voting squads so that people can talk
to their peers and can influence.
One of the many reasons why it ticked up
in the midterm elections is
that those amazing young people
from Parkland who went through
the worst tragedy any teenager
should have to endure,
a school shooting, took
that pain and that anguish
and they channeled it into activism
and they traveled, summer before last,
all over this country, red
state, blue states alike,
registering people to vote
and one of them I met in Chicago,
which is where they kicked off their tour.
He had, and I don't even
know what it's called,
shows you how old I am,
you know, those little
bars where you swipe
- [Audience Member] QR Code.
- Thank you very much.
And you're not that young,
but you knew what it was
- I was gonna say it is.
- Okay.
- David's mom here.
- Okay, wait, who's ma?
- [Audience Member] David.
- David Hoggs, okay, well he is amazing.
He's my friend on DM,
we DM each other from time-to-time.
That's about as cool as I get.
But anyway, when we kicked off their tour,
and I'm gonna tell you a short story
about David in a second.
We kicked off their tour,
one of the teachers
they just came up to me
and he had a QR bar on his T-shirt
and he said hold up your telephone
and turn on the camera to my T-shirt,
which I did, dutifully,
and don't you know it automatically went,
linked into how I could
register to vote where I was.
And I said to him, "How come
I didn't think of that?"
And you know what he said,
"'Cause you're not young."
(audience laughs)
He might've said, "'Cause you're not 17."
Maybe he was more gracious
than what I just said,
but the bottom line is these kids came up
with these incredible ideas.
And I was fussing at
David, you'll appreciate,
'cause he was in Texas,
not inside the venue where
they were having their rally,
but no, no, David went outside
and started meeting
with the demonstrators.
And so I'm texting, I'm
like David, you know Texas,
they carry guns in Texas,
and he said, "I have to be
willing to talk to the people
"with whom I so strongly
disagree and hear them out."
So that's coming from a young person,
which is why if we get the Davids
of the world engaged right now
and they see the ability
to move that needle,
as those young people did,
then what might happen in four, or five,
six, seven, 10 years from now,
so that's why we're going
after the young people.
- I think that's really smart
and we want to give David's mom a hand
for raising such a responsible young man.
(audience applauds)
- He's an effective leader
but you know, we know in
our communities all across
this country we have extraordinary talent,
I always say talent is
ubiquitous, opportunity is not.
And so the question that we
all have to ask ourselves,
as the leaders, is well
what are we gonna do
to expand that opportunity
and getting people involved
in civic engagement,
we think, is the way
towards that opportunity.
Because so many kids,
part of they don't vote
because they feel apathetic,
they don't know their government
does anything for them,
they don't think,
they don't feel empowered
to make a difference.
And when we can show them,
that if these teenagers
from Parkland can travel
the country and move the needle,
just imagine what you could
do in your own neighborhood.
- Well you know, the
US Conference of Mayors
I'm really proud to say,
has stepped up and they held
their first summit last year
in Los Angeles
and now they're holding it
this year in Portland, Oregon
so it'll be an annual event
but I think it's a really
great way to engage youth
in the process so that
they really understand.
And then to not just see
themselves in their own city,
but as they work with other
cities and see young people
from across the country
coming together to engage,
you're right, it makes
a really big difference
when we engage them
and let them use their own ideas.
- [Jarrett] Yes.
- And their own thoughts and ways.
You wanna know how to get
kids to vote, ask kids.
- [Jarrett] Ask kids, yes.
- And if you ask them they
will absolutely tell you.
But let's move away from kids for a second
and talk about the adults in the room.
- Yes.
- So you've said we can come
to the conference, how
else can we, you know,
when you talk about, When We All Vote,
how important that is to our country,
how else can mayors,
what in this room can we do to support it
and what kind of ideas can you give to us
that we can take back and use?
- Well I would ask you to
talk to the people who are
in your community right now,
who are engaged in voter registration.
You can, we will have a one-pager
that we'll give out to
everybody who's here
that suggests how you can engage with,
whenweallvote.org,
you can go to our website,
you can take the piece of paper,
but I think just looking at
what's going on right now
and I mentioned a few cities
because many of you are
already working on this.
And so, part of our challenge isn't just,
how many raw numbers of
people do you add to the rows?
But you know, what's the
greatest improvement?
Where are the cities where
you've really dug down
and you focused on this issue.
And we encourage you in the US Conference
is a perfect place to do it,
the National League of Cities
is involved with us as well,
share your best practices with each other.
To your earlier point, Mayor,
about the fact that you
don't have to covet it,
we want everybody to get better at this.
And so, we will be happy to share with you
what we think works,
influenced by people you know
and there's no substitute for just,
you know, out there with that
clipboard registering people
in front of the grocery store.
And I see those folks all the time,
giving them some support
I think would be great,
coming from your leadership.
There's so many volunteers.
The election judges,
do they ever get a hug from
their elected officials?
No, they really don't but
they're doing such important work
and you have to hold
the system accountable.
I mean, I should shout
out to the work that,
for example, Stacey Abrams,
from Georgia is doing
because the flip side of
registering people to vote
is ensuring that our vote
is not being suppressed.
And you guys could be very
helpful in that effort.
She's now working in 20 states
but she can't be everywhere
and you are again, you're the
ears and eyes on the ground,
you know the laws that are
being passed in your states,
you know the practices that are going on
that are suppressing the votes,
so share those best practices
and hold the people who
are doing that accountable
as you are actually
uniquely qualified to do.
Eric Holder who is doing
incredible work on redistricting,
trying to make our districts fairer.
And so we say, let's look
at it really holistically.
How can we make our country healthy
where every citizen
feels a vested interest
in the outcome?
And your leadership, you are role models
all across the country,
everybody knows who their mayor is,
they may not know who their state rep is,
they may not know a lot of
other, their congress person,
but they know who their mayor is,
and you're out there every day,
you're in front of the press,
I'm glad the press is here today,
use your bully pulpit in a way
to try to encourage people as well.
There's just so much you can do
for which our country
should be really grateful.
- Thank you, so final question.
So from your point of view,
what's at stake in the 2020 election?
- Oh boy.
A lot.
- Loaded question.
- Well a lot, and it's not just,
I mean, obviously I'm here
wearing a non-partisan hat,
so I'm not gonna talk about politics,
but I think that if we
continue on this trajectory
of disengagement,
and I was backstage earlier
talking with Mayor Walsh,
it's not just disengagement from politics,
I think young people
are just so frustrated
with many of our institutions
and they have the luxury
of just defining their own community
in the palm of their
hand in their telephone,
and so they don't have
to get uncomfortable.
They don't have to get
outta their comfort zone,
they don't have to do what David did
and go listen to somebody who has
a dramatically different
view than they do,
and I think that that's not
good for us as a society
and I think the toxicity
that we all feel in the air
and I know many of you said to me earlier,
that you feel it on the
ground in your cities as well,
well, we need to reverse that trend.
And I think part of the concern we have
with so many people not voting
is a sense of apathy, and
disengagement, and polarization,
and not talking to one another,
and not listening particularly to those
with whom we disagree.
And so, I think this
election is about trying
to figure out ways of
bringing people back together
in a time when the stakes are so high
and the challenges we have
not just in this country,
but around the world,
actually require cooperation.
They require us to compromise
and you know, I'm old enough to remember
when compromise wasn't a bad word.
And I think we are pushing ourselves away
as opposed to coming together.
And so, I like to look at this election,
if we can increase the number of people
who turn out to vote dramatically,
then they become more of a citizen,
they become more vested in
the outcome of our country,
they become more invested in
the outcome of your cities.
I was depressed when my city, Chicago,
it's just always gonna be my home town,
we have a terrific new mayor,
African American woman, who's openly gay,
but the number of people
who voted was abysmally low.
And I think as elected
officials you would agree
that if you have huge voter turnout,
it helps you to have
that wind at your back
from the citizens in your city.
And so, that's another
reason why I think we need
to increase those numbers
so that you do have that mandate,
and you know that people
are not gonna just vote
and then go back home and expect you
to solve all their problems.
No, voting is the beginning,
voting is not the end.
- And they have to hold us accountable.
- And they should hold you accountable.
- It's one thing to put us in office,
it's another thing to hold us accountable.
Valerie, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you all, thank you so much.
- Thank you for all the work that you do.
- [Jarrett] It's good to see you.
- On behalf of the US
Conference of Mayors,
come back and see us anytime.
- [Jarrett] I will, I'll
take you up on that.
- Thank you.
- Thank you very much.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, for the rest of our program,
I'd like to welcome our panelist
for the discussion about
how mayors can support voter
registration efforts locally?
Our first panelist is Fort
Worth Texas Mayor, Betsy Price.
She was reelected to her
fifth term in office 2019
and she's remained
focused on promoting jobs,
strengthening education,
and improving mobility in one
of the fastest growing cities
in the country.
Please welcome Mayor Price.
(audience applauds)
And next we're joined
by Satya Rhodes-Conway
who is the newly elected mayor
of the City of Madison, Wisconsin
but you may already know
her from her previous work
as managing director for
Mayors Innovation Project
and her new role as mayor,
she's focusing on
affordable housing, transit,
and equitable governance,
please welcome Mayor Rhodes-Conway.
(audience applauds)
Fans in the audience.
Our final panelist is Kyle Lierman,
he's a CEO of When We All Vote,
he also is a founder and
CEO of Civic Advisors
and following his previous service
as the White House
Senior Associate Director
of Public Engagement.
In that capacity he served as a liaison
to national leaders and helped
the administration launch,
It's On Us, a campaign to prevent,
excuse me, sexual assault.
And if you will notice, he is a man.
(audience laughs)
Come on out, Kyle.
(audience applauds)
Okay, well thank you
so much for being here,
we really appreciate it.
And talking about a very,
very important subject.
I think we'll start with our mayors first,
if that's all right?
And first of all I just want to ask
a little bit about your city,
the voter registration
process in your city,
or county, or you know, state jurisdiction
and have there been any new requirements
recently effected or not, Mayor Price?
- Sure, Fort Worth is, I've
been up here once today,
so some of you have heard me.
But Fort Worth's now the
13th largest in the nation,
city in the nation with phenomenal growth
and that means we have a lot of new people
that have to be registered.
We don't do, the city
contracts with the county
for voter registration.
But for years I was a tax assessor
and I had a seat on the
County Election Board
and I stayed closely involved,
but Texas went to,
one thing that we see is
serious voter fatigue.
An election here for schools,
an election here for county officials,
an election for city officials.
Then, by the way, you've
got primaries tossed in
and national elections.
So Texas went to two elections a year
and everybody falls on those two election
and it has helped.
The other thing that we did this year
and in Tarrant County,
we, and Dallas County,
we helped piloted, we moved,
when you early voted for
the 10 days of early voting,
you could vote anywhere in the county,
in any election,
but on your regular election day,
you had to vote at your home precinct.
And people would forget if
the precinct location changed,
or if they're working late
and they wanna get there by seven,
so this year we piloted opening that up,
you can vote anywhere in
the county on election day
and that was very successful,
and now we've made it permanent,
going forward that's what we're gonna do.
- Wow.
- So it's been really good.
And with education campaigns
and if we all voted just
think what we could do.
- I can't imagine the
logistics of that so far,
but I'll have to ask you
more questions about that.
And how about you?
- So Madison is
approximately 240,000 people.
We've got 180,000 registered voters.
Much of the work around elections
is done out of my City Clerks Office,
and they're doing an incredible job
around voter education,
voter registration.
In the face of some, I think,
pretty significant challenges
in state law, so we're a voter ID state
and that happened not too many years ago.
You may have read in the news recently,
they're trying to purge
voters from our voter rolls.
And we lose 200 and something
thousand across the state,
so that's another challenge we're facing.
People don't know if
they're registered or not.
And we've got, just sort
of increasing requirements
around what you need
to bring to the polls,
what you need to have proof of address,
and it just makes it harder
for people to get registered.
So we really have been facing
some challenges around that
but I think local government
has really stepped up
in Madison in particular.
- All right, thank you.
So, we'll again, start with you then.
What is the city of,
excuse me, Madison doing
to support the voter
registration this year?
Are there anything
different that you're doing,
or are you going out and promoting?
I mean, it's gonna be a
big year, we all know that.
- It's gonna be a big year,
and there, so a little something going on
in Wisconsin in July
so we're hoping to have a
little bit more attention
on the election,
but yeah, we're actually,
we see voter registration
as one component of a
much larger piece of work
that has to do with
outreach and education,
in addition to registration,
and then also turnout.
All right, so our Clerk's Office
trains voting ambassadors,
they go out all across the city,
they will help people understand
what kind of ID they need,
they will help people get ID.
We have a great partnership
with the League of Women Voters and NAACP,
that if somebody does not
have the correct ID to vote,
they will actually facilitate
a person getting out
to the DMV to get a Wisconsin voting ID.
They'll get you a free cab ride,
they'll go with you if you need,
you know, they really
want people to have the ID
that they need.
So that's a great
partnership that we've got.
We do mock elections in schools,
and at festivals, and at
community events, mostly for kids,
but we get their parents
at the same time, right.
And then we do voter registration
at every front desk in the city.
So you walk into city hall,
you go into the Clerk's Office,
you go into the treasurer,
or you going up to the city
attorney, whatever it is,
that front desk person
can register you to vote.
So we're really focused on touching people
wherever they are,
not just with registration,
but with a whole suite of
education and information
because even when people
are registered to vote,
we've found that they can
be intimidated out of voting
if they don't have enough information.
- Right, right, and how about in Fort?
- Yeah, and oftentimes
it's not just the fatigue
of voting sometimes,
but the registration process is daunting
and we've done a lot of what you've done.
People, to be a registrar,
you have to go through a
four hour training session
and you used to have to
go to voter administration
to train to take voter registration.
You don't now, you can become licensed
to be a voter registrar online
and that's helping some.
And we used to say you had to have,
you know, a hard copy and
wet signature to vote.
Well now you don't.
We do have voter ID in Texas,
but we're getting a lot more traction,
a lot more education,
we've had it in place now
for four, five years.
We're working with the
YMCAs, our local churches,
all of our young leader groups,
AARP, NAACP, all are working on it.
I'll tell you, AARP and
Silver Sneakers have been one
of our biggest advocates.
And the other piece is
working with the high schools
and even junior highs, and the colleges,
because a lot of this is about civics.
People just don't know.
I don't get asked very
often about voter fraud
or voter suppression,
I get asked a lot more often
about why does my vote matter?
What difference is it gonna
make whether I vote or not?
They've just missed a huge
amount of civic engagement
and they tend to vote better
at the national level,
and okay at the state level,
but not very, all of you know,
not very well at all at the local level.
And I think we have to be,
one of the hallmarks of my administration
has been public engagement,
and voter registration
and voter engagement
is a big piece of that.
We started a young leader's group called,
Steer Fort Worth, the year I was elected
because my first election in 2011,
only 12% of our voters voted
in the municipal election
but less than 1% of 'em
were under the age of 40.
And Steer Fort Worth is
a group from 18 to 40.
Everyone of, there's 400 of them now,
and everyone of 'em is registered to vote
and almost everyone of them
voted in the last two elections.
- That's great.
- It's been a big piece
but it's with face-to-face touch,
then they go out and touch people,
and they go out and touch people.
- We have similar issues, I think,
in terms of new voters, right?
- Yep.
- Because we've got
a Big Ten university
so we have the pleasure
and honor I will say,
of introducing thousands
of new voters every election, right.
We have young people who
have come to us from all over
and who never voted before.
And so, it's our job to educate them,
to reach out to them,
to make sure they understand
that they can vote in Madison,
and they should vote in Madison,
and how they do that.
So we work with the UW as well.
- Yeah, we work with ours too
because we've a couple
of big universities too,
like you and that is a challenge.
- Yeah.
- They don't know
that they can vote locally.
- Yeah.
- Nice, and back home.
So Kyle, what is the goal of
When We All Vote initiative
and can you tell us how mayors can partner
with the When We All Vote?
- Absolutely, and you heard a little bit
of this from Valerie,
but When We All Vote sort
of starts with the premise
that voting has to be bigger
than any one candidate,
or one issue, or one issue, or one party,
or one election.
It has to be about people
wanting to use their voices
and their power.
And so, we start from that premise
and then in terms of breaking
down the voting process
and what we can all do,
voting is really about three things,
access, information, and motivation.
So you gotta do everything you can
to create as much access
for voting as possible,
you gotta do everything you can
to make sure people are educated
and have the information
that they need to vote.
And then you need to make
sure that they're motivated.
But again, it can be bigger
than any one candidate or one party,
it can be about convincing people
that their vote does matter.
- It matters.
- And so, what we're doing,
and I know Valerie talked about this,
but we wanted to come here today,
to the US Conference of Mayors
to tell folks that in a few weeks,
Mrs Obama is gonna be
launching something called
the Civic Cities Challenge.
And we are right now, finalizing
building out a blueprint
and playbook for mayors
on how mayors can take best practices
from folks like the mayors on stage,
to implement a, basically
a Civic Cities Program.
How can you as a mayor
do everything possible
to make sure your community is registered,
and ready to vote?
Not just in the 2020 election, but beyond.
And so, the two sort of
pieces of that are one,
how do you use your internal
resources as a mayor?
I loved your, the front door piece.
So every time your city government touches
your constituents,
making sure that you're
asking your constituents
if they're registered to vote?
But then also, I think just as important,
is you all using your
convening power locally.
Bringing together local
businesses, the schools,
the colleges and universities,
the local radio stations, and saying,
in a non-partisan way,
all of us can play a role
in making sure our customers,
our members, our employees,
are registered and ready to vote.
And so, we want to, all
of the folks in this room
to be on the ground floor,
to be founding members, city members
of the Civic Cities Challenge,
and that we think, can unlock,
and sort of break this cycle,
of a lot of folks turning out
at a presidential election,
and maybe not as many turning out
in state and local elections.
If it's not just about
the top of a ticket,
if it's about people
making their voice heard,
it's not just gonna happen in
those big national elections,
so we have to break that cycle.
- So are there gonna be
any resources available
to cities, mayors, or you
know, certain, like rubric
that we can send out with our
text messages and so forth.
- Absolutely, we're
doing everything we can
to make this as seamless
and easy as possible
for mayors across the country.
And also, as I said,
sharing the best practices
of what other cities are doing.
But we literally have a program
for everything you wanna do.
If you wanna engage your high school,
actually last week we
launched a program called,
the 2020 Prom Challenge,
where When We All Vote
and MTV are gonna supercharge 20 proms
across the country.
We're giving $5000 to 19 high
schools across the country
that do a great job of registering
at least 85% of their high school seniors
and then When We All Vote and MTV
are actually gonna throw the prom
of the high school in America
that does the best job of registering
their high school seniors
and getting them registered to vote.
So there's both the sort of brass tactics,
blocking and tackling resources,
you know, exactly how folks can do it,
the messages that they can send out,
but we also wanna celebrate great work.
Both the great work that mayors are doing,
but also the great work
that the mayors help push.
So we want all of you to
call your high schools
and get them signed up for that program.
We want all of your
colleges and universities
to sign up for a program we call,
the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge,
which is getting colleges and universities
to use their, sort of,
administration's power,
signing people up and registering them
when they come in from orientation.
There are a lot of things
that mayors can do,
both pushing, using their convening power,
and internally.
One thing I read about recently was
a lot of your cities provide
free tax prep services
for folks in your communities.
You can make sure that
folks are getting registered
while they're doing their taxes this year.
At every point there is a place
where you can make sure
folks are registered,
and we're gonna make
that as easy as possible
for all of you.
We have the tools, we have the resources,
and we're gonna be really
celebrating the mayors
that do this work well.
- I'm also thinking some of
us have to walk precincts
for either our tax initiatives
or election purposes or something
it's always nice to have that in your bag,
in case somebody tries to tell
you they're not registered
and we'll fix that.
So, let's talk a little
bit about voter suppression
and what are some barriers,
if you've seen this in your city,
and what are some barriers
that you've helped overcome
to try to.
- You know, we just, voter
suppression is there,
but it's more about education
and I mentioned fatigue earlier.
But the real place that we see it,
and I don't know that suppression,
and I'm not an expert on voter fraud,
or voter suppression,
my job is to get 'em
out, get 'em registered,
and get 'em to the polls.
And that serves all of us better.
I think it's really more
about disinformation.
People hear one story, or
read it on the internet
and believe it's true.
It's our job to really get
the truth out about that.
What they need, where they can go,
and how it can be done?
And the other piece is to build a trust.
We have a very large Hispanic
population in Fort Worth
and many of 'em are first-time voters
they've first registered their kids,
or the dreamers,
you've gotta build a trust with them
because they don't come
from a community where
they trust local officials
or they trust their government officials
so they just don't vote.
For us, more than suppression,
it's about building the trust,
and getting the knowledge
out about what they can do.
- Yeah, I actually agree that I think
that the lack of information,
or misinformation,
is probably the biggest barrier
because the confusion keeps
people from going to the polls.
One of the things that
our Clerk's Office sees
is that even if folks are registered,
if they have any doubt about
what kind of ID they need,
or any part of the process,
because you have to vote at your precinct,
in Madison on election day.
- Try changing it, it's great.
- I'm taking that one home.
- Me too.
- But they, it's gonna
be your neighbors there
and you don't wanna be embarrassed
in front of your neighbors,
and so, we actually do see
people not going to the polls
even though they're registered.
So I think it is again,
coming back to the full suite
of you wanna educate people,
you wanna get them registered,
but you also have to turn them out.
One of the things that
we've done in Madison,
which I'm particularly proud of,
is that we do early voting
at every single library
throughout the entire city.
- And that's, it's good.
- And we have a couple of
other municipal facilities
that are in, you know,
we try and spread it out
all across the city.
So for a couple of weeks
before election day,
you can walk into any library
and many city offices
and cast your ballot,
no matter where you live
in the city of Madison,
and you know, again, similarly,
we have to go back to our home
precincts on election day,
but I'm gonna look into
- You should look into it,
- What we can do about that.
- It's great.
- But we have seen a
significant increase in turnout
as a result of the work we've
done around early voting.
And to just make it anything
that makes it more convenient for people.
Easier for them to get registered,
easier for them to go vote,
I think it helps,
and we can do a lot of things to that end.
- Okay, so we probably have room
for at least one more question.
One of the things, just thinking about
in my City of San Leandro,
is the youth vote and you know,
sometimes you get those really
excited 18, 19 year olds
because they get to vote,
but then it goes into this
big lag of you know, excuses
and I think we've heard a little bit
about some of the practices you use,
or do you have anything
that you can pinpoint,
and I'm gonna start with Kyle
and then we'll come back around.
- Yeah, well I mentioned, you know,
I think, so I managed
all of our youth outreach
in the Obama White House.
The hardest community to reach for us
on any of the issues was
the 18 to 24 year old,
non-college young folks.
So first thing is, the
most important thing is,
catch 'em before they leave high school
and so that's why we have
our My School Votes Program,
and that 2020 Prom Challenge I mentioned.
So catch them while
they're in an institution
and while they're with
people that they trust.
The second piece is that ALL
IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
Make sure your colleges and universities
are involved and engaged in pushing this.
The third thing, and I just wanna sort
of mention this as well,
one of the ways, and we did a lot of work
with mayors around summer
jobs and summer learning.
One of the things we've
talked with a few mayors about
is integrating voter registration
into summer jobs efforts.
So you're providing summer
jobs for young people
in your communities,
one, let's make sure those folks
who are getting those jobs are registered,
but two, those summer jobs
could be doing voter registration.
And the best way to reach
that non-college 18 to
24 year old community
is from folks within that community.
And so, if you have folks
that you're helping get summer jobs,
making sure that they're
talking to their peers,
making sure they're
talking to their neighbors.
So it's using the institutions
and then that summer jobs
piece could be really important
and then the thing I'll say we'll do,
is we got the celebrities covered.
So, you know, we got Michelle Obama,
we got Lin-Manuel Miranda,
we got Selena Gomez,
we got Tracee Ellis Ross,
our coaches are phenomenal
at spreading the word online
and we're gonna go huge on that.
And so, that's sort of another layer
of how we're making sure
we're reaching young people
in a really significant way.
- Okay, I just wanna call dibs
on Lin-Manuel right now
- Oh, all right, Madison visit.
- Come on to Madison,
Lin-Manuel anytime you want.
- They will be going
to Civic Cities Challenge
cities by the way.
- So one thing that I
just wanna add to that
is that we actually hire
high school students
to work the polls.
So we need a lot of poll workers,
I'm sure you all do too.
And under Wisconsin State Law,
we can hire high school
students to do that work,
and so, it's an early
introduction for them,
before they can legally vote,
they figure out how the election works,
what the process is like,
they get a level of comfort with it,
and hopefully that translates then
when they are eligible,
to them registering and
having a habit of voting.
- And I think you can
register 'em all day long,
but you gotta get them to the poll.
You got to get them to understand
why either early voting,
or why on election day
they have to be there?
And I guess everywhere,
and particularly in Texas,
we have civics teachers
they don't get much civics,
much history teachers whose
kids can get additional points
towards their national merit,
or towards whatever they're working on
if they volunteer on campaigns.
And when I first ran,
and in several of my others,
I had kids in every part
of the city starting
from ninth grade up,
who can either knock doors for you,
or go to polling sites
and pass out literature
and I'll run into those kids now
'cause I've been serving nine years
and they'll say, you know we're voting
because we actually
saw an elected official
and a candidate hard at work
and we tell our friends to.
And I think engaging 'em,
I love the high school piece
and we are doing some civic classes
and registering 'em,
but you've gotta engage
'em in what you're doing.
We get 'em in as interns
in the summer.
- Yeah.
- But you, it goes a long way
if you actually get 'em on your campaign.
- We, for the first time
in Madison, last year,
had a mayoral debate at a high school
to an audience of high school students.
It was fantastic.
- That's a great idea, yeah.
- The one other program
- We've done it
at the college level
- I just wanna mention,
'cause I totally agree,
it's not just about registration,
it's about turnout.
One of the pieces that's part
of the Civic Cities Challenge
and we've run tests over the course
of the last few election cycles on this,
we literally run a program
where you throw parties
at polling locations.
It's called Vote Together.
We have researched with a professor
at at Columbia University
that shows that can
increase turnout by up to 4%
and those of you in here know,
up to 4% is actually huge
when it comes to turnout.
And so, again, it's about,
those are non-partisan events.
And you mentioned libraries,
these can be taking place anywhere.
We wanna go big with those at
early vote locations as well,
so there's, with When We All Vote,
there's really a way,
sort of along the entire cycle
for us to work with you all
through the Civic Cities Challenge
and it's both registration and turnout.
- And mayors have a great voice
with their business community
- Yep.
- And not just the little ones,
but we've gone to several
of our big businesses
and said, "What can you
do to get your business,
"get your employees to turnout?"
And several of them now do free meals.
If you go take your
lunch hour and go vote,
come back with an I Voted sticker,
they give you lunch,
or a voucher to go to
a restaurant or stuff,
and people love it.
And a lot of the businesses will go,
that's a no-brainer, and we can do that.
So it's been a great tool.
Just every little bit helps.
- [Rhodes-Conway] Every little bit helps.
- Every little touch.
It's about the quantity of touches to 'em,
I think more than nearly anything.
- Okay, well I just really wanna thank you
for hanging with us
and hearing about this,
you know, subject.
It's something that's near and dear
to all of our hearts, getting elected,
and then just really seeing that civics
is carried out in our communities,
so thank you very much for being here.
(audience applauds)
- Five o'clock.
