about the biden administration accomplishments.

>> this woman works like no one else does. congresswoman, thank you very much for everything to all the elected officials here today, i probably should not name anybody or i would get in trouble but thank you to all you do. all the candidates running, good luck and use this to push forward. i want to give a shot to shut out to deirdre, your speech was amazing. thank you very much. it was so great. i want to thank candace for putting themselves out there.

all of you in this room are going for democrats we know that but not all of you have put your name on the ballot. when you put your name on the palate, it is not just you but your family, your spouse, your boyfriend, your husband. have to live through this as well so i want to think every person in this room that has ever put their name on the ballot running for office whether you run bank -- you won or lost. the candidates for this year running are on the statewide level, federal level or local level, thank you for doing this. democracy needs you. we need more of you this and i want to thank you for doing that. certainly as i was sitting here listening to the speakers, i want to apologize to you. probably half the room has no idea what i am saying because i am talking in boston talk. i will try and go slow. i should slow down because when i go too fast, people say yes,

it is great but what the hell did he say? so i want to say thank you very much. just watching the people on the stage. there is no doubt the voters of this great state have an opportunity to do amazing elections on election day. as a congresswoman said, 36 days left. i have sat in every single area of politics you can imagine and not the doors, held phone banks, in iowa in the caucuses a long time ago, rigging tools to people's houses in standing on the streets and corners. it is not necessarily the candidate as the people with the candidate that make the person so i want to say thank you to each and every one of you and you have 36 days to make history. 36 days to go out there and fight and continue this fight and i know you have been there before. there is a lot at stake in the selection. iowa democrats have shown america what's grassroots looks

like. not just every four years when the camera shows up but every day. whether you are a county chair working in the district or a community activist or a union leader or volunteer, you give your time and energy to the community and you are the glue that holds together and i want to say thank you. i also want to tell you that president biden also stands with you, vice president harris stands with you. our entire administration stands with you. our fight is your fight. our belief in democracy, our respect for each other. the rights that all workers earned a good living to support their family and they deserve that right. you have heard bits and pieces about my family history. i am the son of immigrants. my family came to this country.

they did not have anything when they came to america and they came here to find a life also to support their family at home. when they came here, they did not have any money or degrees but they had a hard work ethic. they came from farming communities. my mother and farmer both came from farming communities in ireland where the work you did in the daytime put food on the table for you at night. that's the house i grew up in and i heard about it a lot. they needed an opportunity. my father found the opportunity when he had the opportunity to join a union in boston. it was the humidity to work hard but also to get into the middle class. when people talk about the democratic values and where they come from, they came from that. i father worked in a union that had health care, pension, an opportunity and a good wage. it was not so much a good wage

but became a good wage. what i heard at my kitchen table was fighting for working people every night. on sundays, my uncle would come to my house every night and my uncle and father would talk about who should take a shift on monday because so many did not have 600 hours in the year to get health care or someone did not have enough for pension or someone's kid was sick and they were unable to pay the hospital bills entirely put benefits together? my father would hold signs and i did not quite understand what that meant but i knew the person were holding signs for represented what my family wanted to support. that is the kitchen i grew up in. as a crew older and needed help myself, -- grew older and needed help myself, i was able to get into the same union and had work as a laborer. and when i needed help for alcoholism, i was able to get help because by union had health care. it was so taken away from them

but offered to them and we try to advocate for that health care because it is offered to them. before my father passed away, he has social security and pension and when he passed away, mother was able to get the pension he had. not everyone in this country believes so much of work 50 years or 40 years to get a pension. what is wrong with that? what is wrong with supporting somebody who has health care and pension and retirement and integrity and a living wage and opportunities and family leave it all the things that help families? what is wrong with that? there is nothing wrong with that. what do we stand for in this room is exactly that. we are supporting families and supporting individuals. that is what we do. i have had the honor to be mayor of boston for seven years, a legislator for 16 years. i ran the building trade in boston for a couple years.

then about 155 years in january 20 21, i got a phone call and on the others of the phone call was president biden on the president asked if i would serve on his cabinet as labor secretary. i think about that often. i think about this guy who grew up in an immigrant household, whose parents came to this country with nothing, who has had so many opportunities in his life and challenges as well. but every challenge i had, i had people to pick me up along the way because that is what we do. we help people. i think about the opportunity to help people serve in the president's cabinet as he secretary of labor. and what my role is and what i am driven to do is pay it forward the opportunities that this country gave my parents and my family no matter who you are or where you live or what industry you work in. everyone deserves the opportunity to support their

family that they fair wage and good benefits. access to health care care both physical and mental school -- and mental trade a free and fair choice to join a union if you want to. these are the symbol american troops we are fighting for this november. that is what this president and this administration and democrats in congress are fighting for every day. i want you to think back to january 2021 before the president took office. the append of it was out of control, we had no vaccines -- the pandemic was out of control, we had no vaccines, schools were closed. there was no plan to reopen our economy. there was only chaos there was no plan. i was the mayor of boston when the pandemic hit. there was no federal plan. you made it up as they went

along, how do we protect people, how do we support people. people's lives were at risk every day in january 2021. the president and democrats in congress changed all of that. the american rescue plan. vaccines for americans. relief workers in businesses and towns all across this country. think about that. even small businesses were a part of the american rescue plan. the entire economy began to open up again. since that time, we have added nearly 10 million jobs, the most under any president in history in less than two years. the unemployment rate is down to 2.7% and nobody thought it was possible. here in iowa it is 2.6% and more small businesses were begun last year than any other year on record.

who says small government cannot help for all of america when the proof is right there? the president's infrastructure law that has been talked about. the president four years ago was talking about infrastructure in $2.7 trillion but that never happened. it never happened. the president was going to bill through congress and senate and invested in our roads and bridges and clean drinking water and broadband access to world populations in iowa and across the country who do not have that bill is creating a future opportunity. the follow-up bill was the chips and science act.

what this is doing is an alcohol, intel is building a plant so we can build ships in the united states of america because we invented chips and we need to make sure we are investing in those chips. we will continue to make those investments, the inflation, inflation reduction act. how many times have you heard we will lower health care costs and prescription costs. it never happens. in the inflation reduction act, it happens. it is happening now. prescription drug costs will be capped. we are taking on energy cause, tackling the climate crisis, good middle-class jobs in america, cutting the deficit and making big corporations pay their fair share in taxes. not hitting the middle class

republicans did. they hit the middle class. when you're going up and knocking on the door, this is truth. everything i've said is we can take it to the door. pro-business, pro-worker, there's nothing wrong with being pro-business and pro-worker and that's what the democratic party's about how do we grow businesses and how do we give opportunities for our workers, the president said he woul. he said he would he is using their power that we have not seen in decades, american workers are paying for better wages and fighting for better rights. i want to recognize the people in this room today. i want to thank you. you have won some tough fights in iowa. you have tough fights right now in iowa. we have your back. i have your back. right now more working people want to be part of the union than any other time in our country in the last 50 years. [applause]

we are standing with the workers in protecting the right to organize and fight, because we have the most pro-worker, pro-labor president in our history. and brothers and sisters in labor i want you to go on the job site and let the members know that. too many of our members don't understand that. i want them to know they are the most pro-labor, pro-worker president in the history of the united states of america and i want you to let them know they have a labor secretary who carries the union book in his pocket and is a proud union member. that is what we have to do. we have to go on the jobsite and talk our members and let them know that. and i don't think i have to remind anybody in this room with two exceptions the infrastructure bill. all of these historic investments in clean energy manufacturing, everything that everyone wants, we did not get a

single republican congress to's port any of this legislation with the exception of the infrastructure bill. think about that, reducing the deficit, tackling climate bringing down prescription because, health care, bringing drop back to america, think about that. who is the party that cares for working people and who is the party that is incredibly irresponsible and it is unfortunate said we did not get one single republican to vote on that legislation. and what does the republicans offer instead? bear with me for a minute, extreme attacks on women's right to health care. there is a plan out there every year to have social security and

medicare for seniors come to about on the united states congress floor. so whether or not we keep it or not, by the way, social security, the president says, you pay social security, not him, the american people go to work every day who vote to get rid of that, attacks on health care for working families attacks on unions, extreme attacks on democracy itself. i have to ask why do people even seek office in the united states of america and one to represent their community and congress or anywhere for that matter if your only idea is to her, demonize, and divide america. why do you get involved in politics if that is your plan, because that doesn't work. we'd seen it for too long in the country, the last 20 years in this country, and i know why i was in the public at service and why everything is going into public service and i know all the people that are in this room

today that got elected went into service and i know why tom vilsack went into service. they want in the service not to hurt people, but they wanted to help people, to give people the opportunity to live the american dream. but is why they got in the politics. it is simple. we are here to help workers get better wages. there is nothing wrong with workers being able to get good wages to get into the middle class, raise a family, support their family, pay their bills and do what they need to do. there is nothing wrong with that. there is nothing wrong with helping kids get good educations and support our teachers in the classrooms and they have the opportunity to educate our kids, because kids of the future of our country. we are here to help women get her health care. we have no right to tell what to

do with her body. i have no right to do that. resident biden has the right to do that alaska had no right to do it either. we are here to help seniors get medicare and help with their life, the seniors, let's think about this, everyone in this room is not a senior. we did not build this country. we are standing on their shoulders. the help toast dose with health care. the help us with so security, broad benefits so you can get benefits and wages, the seniors help to build our infrastructure in our country. if you're look at our churches, the seniors with our churches, bill barr hospital, bill barr medical, we need to do more for them, we cannot be taking away the benefits. that is not right. we have to help communities in the addiction crisis. addiction is ripping our neighborhoods apart right now in this city. in my home city there are people starving we need to create more

opportunities for people. i know your life is turned around. we need more people to get recovery. we need to help our veterans get the services they need the other side talks about how they protect veterans. they don't protect veterans. the benefits are from the democratic party. that's where these benefits are from. we need to let our veterans know how much we appreciate and love them because our vegans we would not have a free country. we are here to help all americans to live and love and thrive the way they should, these are american values. that's what we fight for every day. that is what president biden fights for every day would people in this room fight for every day. you know the difference between having someone in your party and the other side?

the difference between somebody and you're on party right now the democratic side you might have a conversation and might be different, but the other silent, i have been watching him rip people down. i have been told that if the other side does that they have to come after me, why? because i support l care? the person has to replace the chair and committee said in an article i'm going after marty wash in the national labor relations board. i want to think about that for a minute. what we done. what if we done. we've raise the federal minimum wage. we protect the monthly employer pensions. were marking to make sure the workplace is safe. making sure that people do that work get a fair wage not taken away from them. we are fighting to make sure that mental health parity is the

law of the land. we are working to do that, so we want people with mental health issues or substance-abuse issues that opting to have health care. we are get torn down for that? working to get torn down for everything that you stand for, fighting for the rights of people, that's what you're going to do, you can waste your time bringing me in front of congress. i'm glad they will go in front of congress and talk about it. i am a proud democrat. i'm proud what i stand for and what you stand for. so democrats, you have 36 days, 36 days. 37 days from now, don't be sitting at your kitchen table sink we should've made more

phone calls. don't say we could have one by more. you have 36 days to get out there and fight for democrats up and down the ticket. let's win state and local offices and let's win the future for all america. it depends on what we do every single day. we need to continue to fight, because we are the party that fights for people. we are the party that stands for working people, and you are the backbone of this party in the state in this country. i want to thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to come here today, god bless you, and god bless united states of america. [applause] [laughter] ♪ >> marty walsh, folks. [applause]

thank you. i hope you have had a great afternoon. please thank all the staff before you leave today. congratulations to our awardees, 36 days. let's go do it, folks. thank you. [applause] ♪