Reaction

“It was a purely authentic, organic amazement. I was stunned. I had been readying myself immediately before my aide came in to take the stage in defeat, and was sort of readying myself for what I was going to say to this room. Because I knew — I had seen and felt what we were building out there. And I saw, especially millennials, many of whom had been in a fetal position since 2016, who had come out and we had restored their hope. And then there were many who had never participated or been engaged in the process who we had given hope. And I was sitting there thinking, ‘I’ve written one speech. It has to work either way, and I’m not sure we pulled this out. And so how do I look into this audience and find a way to maintain the hope that we have given or restored?’ ”

Platform & Campaign

“There were policy differences between myself and my opponent, and there were campaign differences. We didn’t accept corporate PAC money, we raised a million dollars in grassroots donations, I was calling for the defunding and the abolishing of ICE, I was spotlighting different issues relative to disparity in inequality. But I think ultimately this was a generational shift. Less of an ideological one, although I do think it was a style difference. I was running on bold, visionary, activist leadership as I have said repeatedly since Tuesday one week ago today, that I think our victory was less a referendum against hate and more a mandate for hope. Our campaign was not just about resisting Trump and the policies of he and his administration. I don’t feel, as a Democrat, because we’re in the minority, and especially sitting in the 7th seat, that we should be putting our hope and our aspiration and vision for this district on a shelf, because we’re in the minority. I’m not going to treat Kavanaugh as an inevitability, no matter how sobering the landscape. We had a phone bank at my headquarters last night to lobby senators. And so I think what was deeply resonant and transcendent is that I was offering bold, visionary, activist leadership, which was giving people hope, and that was not a lot of the messaging that was happening in many other campaigns.”

Future of Democratic Party

“I think wherever you are, we are still in the midst of — I called it on the trail an identity crisis, and that might be too dramatic an offering. But we need to get it straight. I do think that we are presenting false choices to one another internally, in the party. I reject that this is about working-class white voters versus everyone else. I reject that this is about jobs and the economy or criminal justice reform. Our destinies are tied. We are a big tent. There are many seats at the table of democracy, and the silver lining of this administration has been that our organizing silos are breaking down. And so, to me, we are at a crossroads as a party. And this can be our darkest hour or our finest. And I think it’s our finest if we sit in the place of coalition and movement building, we don’t pawn off the hurt on one constituency at a time we say that we’re going to stand for trans rights, we’re going to stand for immigrants’ rights, we’re going to stand for women’s rights, we’re going to stand for workers’ rights. That is who we are. So the fight for the soul of the party is a return to who we have always been foundationally. And it is a resurrection of those foundational premises.”