you have the extraordinary power of that of ourselves. we partners around the globe. >> join us for conversations saturday at eight eastern on c-span and c-span.org. relisten with the free radio app -- or listen with the free radio app. and laser list president stephanie -- talk about the role of women in politics. she focuses on the upcoming midterm elections in what democrats can do to help their electoral chances and to further their agenda, she also touched on the rise of donald trump and the republican party during this one hour event. >> hello everyone. welcome to the national press club or it the place where news happens. i am editor at bloomberg news and i am the 111 event of the national press club read -- press club. to welcomesed

today's headline are currently president of the political action committee, emily's list, a group that aims to elect more pro-choice democratic female candidates to national, state, and local office. i would like to remind you today, if you are tweeting, we are press club d.c.. npc lsh" today's event is ive. our guests,troduce please hold your applause until all of them have been introduced. i'm going to start here from my left, we have frank mazama, a partner at the policy resolution group and a member of the national press club headliners team. we have art swift a professor at american university. henson, the senior vice president of story partners and in a member of the national press club headliners team. we have eleanor clift, airport and writer at the daily beast.

with emily kane. coming from my right, we have lowered rousseau, president at stanton communications and a member of the national press club headliners team. we have courtney morris, the national affairs education reporter and producer at pbs. we have christina reynolds, vice president of kinematic ash communications a emily's list. we have senior political reporter at -- third skipping of our speaker for only a moment, we have the executive director of the women in politics institute at american university and cochair of the national press club's headliners team. thank you all for being here today. [applause} >> i would also like to acknowledge some of the additional members of the headliners team who are responsible for organizing today's event.

lisette matthews, linda ross, and the national press club staff, lindsay under word, and executive director bill mccarran. now, onto our guest. edge of what she hopes is a political heat wave with the midterm elections, just 49 days a way. 256 women have won their party's house and senate primaries. this election year that is a huge new record or it stephanie is here to help is reviewed the field in democratic pro-choice candidates and explain what she believed that women can shift the balance of power in washington. >> more than 40,000 women have found the organizations run to win training programs. another 9000 people bond to do collective candidates.

wondering who the emily in a blaze list is heard the organization was founded in 1985, thank you for being here today ellen. emily is an acronym for early money --. a tried-and-true model. gathering lots of the nation's early is essential to attracting subsequent donors and making the dough rise. stephanie came to emily's list with decades of experience on the campaign trail. she served as national finance director of howard dean's 2004 presidential campaign, and she managed the political campaign of senator john pastor in 2006 and senator l franklin in 2008.

we are happy that stephanie has taken time out of her busy schedule to be here with us today. to the national press club, emily's list president stephanie schreyer --. [applause} pleasure. good afternoon. start, i want to think the founder and chair of our lord of emily's list, for being here today. moment, think of this you will hear a little bit about this, this history making moment, none of this happens immediately heard we all stand upon the shoulders of giants that come before us. the shoulders i stand upon our allen's third thank you for being here today.

and, thank you so much for inviting me here to the national press club. at a time when the press is under fire every day in this country. i am grateful to have a chance to speak to you and would like by thanking you for the work you do to bring the truth to the public every day. i know your job is not easy. this is such an unbelievable an unprecedented time in the news. with a live drama coming at you. particulate, out of washington. easy and it ist often impossible to figure out how to manage all of this. i also know that the days of the news cycle, are over. we are in a constantly evolving

news environment that moves as fast as the speed of tweets. today, i would like to take a trump,rom the tweets and the primaries are over. we are fewer than 50 days a way from this election. some of the most important stories you'll ever hear a bout in this election, still have not been told. they are getting lost in the shuffle. watchs sometimes hard to was so much focus on the mess in the white house. we mess -- miss so much of what is happening. most of the time, it feels like there is only one story about this year in democratic party politics that really ever breaks through. it gets rehashed over and over again. it is the dumbs and disarray

narrative. the theory that breaks the democratic party down into easily labeled divides, the outsiders versus the party establishment. the socialist versus the centrist, the progressive versus the moderate field, versus the new. in this version of the story, the democratic party is at war with itself, to be divided and confused. you that greatll divide is not a divide at all. but a simple debate. a debate that is not breaking the party a part of making it stronger and more energized than it has ever been. at least in a very long time. soe importantly, there is much more to the story of 2018. there is an energy happening on the democratic side that has the potential to fundamentally

transform our system for the better. the untold story of the energy and the excitement is why i am here today and what i want to talk about, i do not think that any understanding of what is happening in our democracy right now is complete without understanding. i believe that progressive versus moderates or the establishment versus the narrative is missing before us. democrats are in the midst of how tolicy debates about best address the biggest issues facing this country. there iswe decide, really no comparison to the direction republicans have driven their party. and their primary cycle, theseicans keep reaching forks in the road where they have to decide what matters most to them.

their choice has been to move further and further a way from values rooted in basic dignity and humanity every single time. they are now openly embracing and the cheerleading to corrupt racist forces to hold onto their power. virginia, river in the republicans just nominated a confederate sympathizer for the u.s. senate or it while an actual neo-nazi, multiple what the premise, and candidates under criminal investigation are on the republican ticket across this nation. i will take our policy debates and i am proud of this conversations. the gop is facing a takeover by trump a lined forces. they're advocating the responsibility in any pretext of reaching out to all americans.

they are choosing the darkest path. you cannot tell me that there is not a lot of soul-searching in the reagan, bush wing of the leadership today. yes, i recognize there are extreme examples. whatever the candidates fall on thereght wing spectrum, is one thing about the republicans all agree on, and that is the end goal. empowering and enriching the few at the expense of the many. that is other values are rooted in, that is the vision their candidates share. this is how they work to make this vision a reality. by electing people to maintain their power by stripping our power a way to corporate tax cuts, dismantling health care, the list goes on and on. those of values in that vision,

their candidates, could not be more different from ours. this is not what you're used to hearing but if you zoom out just a little bit, democrats really are united around these of fundamental values. we all believe everyone must have access to health care. we believe in keeping families together. we believe all americans deserve equal rights and equal opportunities in a chance to earn a living for themselves. votingeve in more people , not fewer. -- in a power that belongs to the people and our voices being heard. we know it we understand that this is the time to stand up and take that power back. if we wait come it will be too late.

the unity around those ideas, especially among democratic women, is the time that is listing up votes since the 2016 election. it is the reason that the energy we sought in the women's march, the day after the inauguration turned immediately and to electoral win, particularly in 2017 in virginia, where our candidate became the first openly transgender woman ever elected to a state legislature. like elizabethn guzman and cathy tran, and were jennifer -- who was put on bed rest right before her election, gave birth to twins, right after that, and then one her recount. this is the reason african-american women in

alabama decided the special u.s. senate election for doug jones, defeating a serial sexual predator expected to win that state, republican seat area -- seat. season,ut this primary it is the reason this newly looked setlectorate different from aware used to seeing. why are general election candidate due to. whoexas, 25% of the people turn out to vote in this year's primary election had never voted in a primary election before. half had never voted in a midterm election before. nearly twice as many texans voted in then and therimary 2014 midterm general election. georgia, where stacey abrams

is running her game changing campaign, 34,700 african-american voters, or than 10,000 of them registered since 2016 election, voted in a primary for the very first time. home state of montana, the primary turnout was the highest we have seen in 20 years. centuryn a quarter of a has passed since virginia, last elected a democratic woman to congress. this year, and every virginia u.s. house, primary race, were democratic women ran a won.ratic women pennsylvania currently has an all male congressional delegation. there are eight women running for congress on this year's general election ballot.

the state of nevada, is now well on its way to having the first majority woman legislature in the history of this country. a cross our nation, historic numbers of women are right for office open down the ballot. heards list, we, have from more than 40,000 women and counting. starting from the day after the 2016 election, they are from all 50 states in washington, d.c. who want to run now and in the future. something really big is happening. to really put this in context, and start to understand what it might mean going forward, it is important to remember that our country did not get here overnight.

the opposing party did not go from zero to donald trump. what is happening now has been a long time coming. the groundwork for all of this was laid over decades by the heritage foundation and the moral majority in the tea party and their -- the republican decades,o spent years, investing in state legislatures and elevating conservative and rejoining electoral maps and creating what has become a command and control structure were a couple of billionaires say this is what we're going to do and everyone else says ok. what we are building today is the antidote to all about. it is powered by people instead of just money, it is

building very fast. about thelot importance of winning majorities of the state legislative level at emily's list. that is because the work we do there is so critical to driving progress on a multiple sets of levels. because winning democratic majorities while getting us closer to -- is the only way to get better policies at every level of government. because we make progress, just by making games. wins in theour region house of delegates in 2017 were emily's list women were 11 of the 15 democratic pickups in the house of delegates did we did come one seat short and through the draw of straws, we did not pull that off. #after theypened

all got sworn in, they expanded medicaid in virginia. everythinghows how counts. with every person who votes and every woman who runs and every see, some amount of progress is made. numbers,in, in large we will see transformation. cycle, we have endorsed over 429 candidates running for state and local office heard it is a record for us. that number grows every day. we know those numbers include those that we have endorsed in special elections and elections held in 2017 as well as more than three hundred women who will be on the ballot this november.

tos year, the u.s. is poised see the biggest ever increase in women state lawmakers across the country from just under 26% if we do potentially our job, as high as 38%. the second point is that this work is a bout holding candidate pipelines for the future. women that have -- they almoste have a decade of candidates. i know there are future members theregress in that group, are future senators in that group, and yes there are future presidents, at least one. them, this starts the day they attend their first

emily's list training. just like the over 5000 who have done just that in the last 18 months. work matters for redistricting purposes. when we win, democratic legislative majorities, we draw lines. we ensure that there are more places getting heard. in to the people stepping this process, using their voices, voting and supporting candidates for the first time, are just getting started. we think about the impact they buthave over time, democratic women leading these legislatures across the country, we're in the beginning stages. startsformation that with this election year. when people look back to this

moment, it is time to see where weall started and how started building something in the middle of everything going on. this is what they will see. they will see mj hager running for congress in texas and the 31st congressional district. tattoos, see her covering the scars where she was shot in afghanistan. they will hear her telling her story, of all the doors that were closed to her before she made her decision to run. if you have not heard that story, you should google it. ,hey will see charisse davis the daughter of an army veteran, -- nation, and a professional mixed martial arts

fighter, who is taking on now her toughest fight. which is to get elected to congress, where, no native american woman has ever served in our history. hall, newill see deb mexico's first, a member of the laguna tribe, making history with her. they will see -- in new mexico to. the granddaughter of mexican immigrants who came to work in the field. she now works with farmers on water rights in the same board committee where she grew up. they will also see what the other side was doing. they will see republicans in congress trying to take away our health care and women, telling their stories to stop them. including women like betsy waiter in --.

who lived most of her life with the pre-existing condition after she was hit by a car as a little girl. they're going to hear about cindy -- and i was there commercial district who sold her possessions on ebay because she cannot get affordable maternity care. underwood, illinois 14th come a registered nurse with her own a pre-existing condition, she suppressed herself when she decided to run to save access to health care for everyone. every one of these women made the decision to run knowing it would not be easy, knowing that they could not afford to wait any longer. we are running and i was first while she is paying back your student loans. escobar is reached

heating frozen meals she makes ahead of time in her kitchen in el paso as she runs in texas third -- is living offers savings while living back at home with her mom in texas is 23rd. when we look back at the progress we made at this time in our history, these are the stories we will see. these are the women people will look to to see what they did and how they did it, and spite of some pretty incredible odds. examples of few women who with the help of emily's list will be winning this november. every one of our candidates has her own story to tell. note to stories are alike. ofer more than 30 years doing this, we know that no two winning campaigns are alike as well.

this is why, we don't do these generic prepackaged talking points. it is how we know the one size fits all approach is not going to work. this is not about a slogan, our candidates are diverse like our nation. they win because each of those candidates meet the voters where they are, connecting their own individual stories with those of the voters. that is essential because this work is about more than just this year. it is about way more than winning legislative seats and elect dean -- electing governors . this work we are doing is about electing women who can take us somewhere we've never been before in the nation. women with new ideas, new

perspectives, vision. and a voices, that will take this country, this country that was already great, and make it even better. this is my ask to you, look closely at what these women our doing and what they've already done. get to know and then tell their story. as anything, they show us how far we have come. where we are, and where we are going as a nation. thank you so much for having me today. [applause} 9 thank you for being here. we appreciate it. i would like to mention for our television and online

audience, any reaction hear from the room, make not be from journalists, we do the members of the public here at a luncheon today. keep that in mind. so, i have a lot of questions here from the audience. thank you for your compelling statistics and the great stories that you gave us a little taste of during your introductory comments. there are 15 democratic women find to be elected governor and at least six all female senate races. what do you see is the greatest are the most common factors driving this unprecedented participation by women in this upcoming election? >> the numbers, as your fervid on the ballot get larger and larger as you look at congress legislators, it is extraordinary. i get that question a lot and it is a series of things.

we talk about women and i want to note that 80% of these candidates ran were democrats. thes not bounce on partisanship which is another point out like to make. list, when wely's were slowly picking ourselves up after 2016, we were a little down. what we instantly saw, where women who wanted to do something. do anything. those same woman organized marches, but they also said i want to run. they said it would help my community and i'm afraid of the direction that we are going in. overwe have seen in those 40,000 running is this energy of empowerment. i would also argue that when they marched, they also say they run alone to have communities support and that is continued on and on.

trump and outwas 's lossillary clinton that was devastating. then they saw the power that they had in trying to stop the trumpts of administration, saving the affordable care act, and then, they saw themselves in those incredible women who one in virginia, and said i can do this and we're going to win. that is exactly what we see every day emily's list. running to win and to serve their communities. i think that is not just a moment, once 40,000 american women appointed planted a seed that they want to run for office, is going to keep growing. that is what is going on here. >> you mention the 2016, they

give you are over 15 with the candidates you are supporting. 2018, is that right? >> know we had great house candidates that your peered we were over one on the presidential. we are going to fix that in future fights. 2016, was a really comic it a moment for emily's list because to theit added women house, not as many as we had hoped third we added more onlyse women to the house, one of two cycles in our history, we added for new women to the united states senate, including for the first time ever, three women of color. which was a huge story. i remember talking to senator elect at the time, and nevada,

like ou one, we are so excited. there is a big loss that overshadows everybody's victory. every win really counts. in this when he had a specific emphasis on winning the house. >> how would you give the success for that? >> this am we looked at right away on emily's list. we knew that the map of the onete was a challenging with a lot of number kratz up for reelection. knew our need- we to take back the house and it was really the talk priority families list. districtwidehe

first started, about 50 potential pickups. recruited, like mad to make sure we had many of those districts as possible. i made it clear to my team who does this work every day, that i would like emily's list to deliver a 23 seats that democrats need so many can win two. we are excited about that. we would like to deliver the majority of the majority. nearly 50 redre to blue pickup seats. we will see a lot of activity but emily's list and a lot of those seats. 23are in a position to hit and maybe a few more. we'll see what the voters decide. that is extraordinary. >> we will definitely be

watching. how would you say the agenda of president donald trump's administration has changed or altered the mission and work at emily's list? >> it has made it even more important than already was. list wasy of emily's in ellen's simplicity of mission which was we are going to go out and were going to elect democratic women to office. 1985, our first candidate ever, was barbara mikulski who is running for senate. and it era where the democratic women have never won a seat the united states. that was a long time ago but for most of you, we remembered 1985.

it has been one advance after another. we've added 20 through them to the senate. that has made this really important. when president donald trump came in and then he made it so clear during the campaign, his views of women, of reproductive health issues, economic everything that our women voters care about, we knew we're up against it. we know we needed to make a stand. we picked up pretty quick. women across the country were ahead of us. whatd to organize it heard we were able to do in this election cycle, was to expand rapidly, to take on the responsibility of over 40,000 women who want to run in this country. entailed staffing and

sitting at kitchen tables, and work up their campaign plans and finding staff in all of these folks running the staff in the training, that is what we are here to do. were equal in easy, we would have women running. pretty close to having many right in every race. why this is aason -- except personal obstacles for women hitting in. the does not mean it's equal and fair we still have work to do to get back in. we expanded the work we've already done under this administration. we're going to keep going, this is for many cycles in a generation that changes leadership in this country. you mentioned obstacles, what is the cause of 90% of the governor shifts in the u.s. being held by men? >> this is him and we talk about

ali time and the good news is, we have great candidates and buttions to change, currently, we only have two democratic women governors in the entire country. they both happen to be up for reelection. governor quebrada in oregon, well have done extremely in governing in a progressive way in both states and have really introduced family -- policy the great for the --. this great stories to tell but there is still a bit of a challenge. one of those challenges is that a lot of voters just have not seen women in executive positions all that often. over 20 states, we've never had a woman governor of either party. be what you cannot see, so that is the case.

for talking about a country where there is not that many women ceos, you are also not seeking women in corporate roles and executive roles. we are still breaking through mind sets of women in executive roles. every time one woman comes in, it makes a huge difference and they become important not just in our state, but across the country. a conversation i have with women who are running now, -- running for governor in michigan, states that have had a woman governor, i will tell you, for the first year, it was a lot of uphill battle to get them to think about the effect that michigan could elect a woman governor again. i have those conversations michigan, that anything could happen. she was in the lead most of the way. would make a great governor

and we got a lot of work to do, but it is still in the mindset of so many. we still have a lot of work to do, we have to deliver. which still aes, lot of folks have not seen executive roles, it is intending to be a challenge. the good news is, we have great women in place. governor's race, laura kelly is coming. -- the seachange type of candidate who can really change everything for so many people in this country. that is the good news but we have a lot of work to do. do you think the me too movement will be a factor and women turn out in the midterm? is yes, itthe answer is part of a lot of factors of driving energy among women voters.

about womenked wanting to run and the reelection of donald trump, and the loss by hillary clinton, it was the one to punch of that. voters, speaking of some, not us, didn't even like heather clinton, they're on hold by all of us that should be president. so is going to be ok. they cannot believe that that they took to the streets in march and the neighbors to organize. they are doing all of this third not one thing happens and another thing, and me too. i don't believe the me too without really happened the women's march.

the beautiful thing about the women's march is this, women across this country, the women became to bc, the women -- d.c.. the women who walked out of the house and jackson, mississippi, or helena, montana, or one of the 600 locations in the united think who probably didn't there was another democrat or like-minded person in the whole community, they were in power that day. realized, iout and and not a loan. there are people who think like me in his neighborhood in this community. all they setting empowerment had backup. the me too movement is exactly that. women have then struggling with all of this for ever. for generations, there were told to not say anything, be nice,

overlook it, finally, they said i'm going to do it and i'm not not going to be a loan. not as was happening now as get ready for this election. they were in power they know they're not alone. that is just feeding the energy by women voters. it would make a very public stand and citizen of the direction we want to go in. >> very unprecedented in many ways. you mentioned hilly clinton a few times, what is her role in the midterms? >> she has already been an inspiration to so many of our candidates and so much of the activity early on, and continues. last 49say in these days, she wants to do whatever she can to be helpful to these women who are running and that

is exactly what she is doing with the fundraising and support. fact of folks focus on the that it was the donald trump election that energized these women. us you are traveling are in the campaign are traveling around the country in the last weeks before the 2016 would go to canvass kickoffs and will go door knocking and make phone calls, and older women, younger women, women my age, would come up to me and say, cap talk to you? -- can i talk to you? no go in the corner and whisper with great fear, do you really think she's going to win it? is it going to be ok? are they going to stop her? there is a lot of fear, and they said they'd want to believe it is going to happen, i do want to be heartbroken. i got a lot of that.

they're so much emotion that comes up in so many women across country, to see that last ceiling breakout. but they were devastated. devastation and that anger, and they took it to action. just a chilly clinton has done over and over again and told us to do. i think her role has already been set in the inspiration, and women across the country. >> will she be doing any events leading up to the midterm with emily's list? >> we communicate regularly. do isl the best you can to financially support a lot of our candidates, she has a fundraiser coming up for a group of our candidate. >> we're going to leave this discussion you can see the rest of it online at c-span.org president trump us begin our carolina. >>