Remarks in Concord, New Hampshire

All right. Well, thank you so much, Deborah. And it is so great to be here with all of you. I was thinking especially, did we not pick the best day? The sun is out, the leaves are still beautiful, and we had a big national victory last night across the country. And I actually think that's a good place to start. First of all, in New Hampshire, the mayor here in Concord was reelected. We're happy about Joyce Craig and Manchester. And then we had eight out of 10 of the mayor's races went Democratic in the state of New Hampshire, in the major places. And a big excitement there in Laconia for what happened. And then, let's just sort of take it out of New Hampshire for a second, not that we should. But I was thinking about this on the way here. So, I filed for president today to get on the ballot in New Hampshire. And I stood there with the secretary of state, who was delightful. And he went through, of course, all the past — I saw the picture of Walter Mondale ice fishing, and all of the past primaries and what had happened. And he was very good at not only telling me the historical facts, but also filling me in on the fact that many, many times it was a candidate that people didn't expect that was going to win at this moment in time, that came in and ran, and won in New Hampshire. So that was a lot of fun to hear about.

But what the real message to me from that visit is that we are living in a moment in time where our democracy is really hitting back in a good way. Our democracy is about citizens, citizens making decisions. And the president is not the king. And to me, that is what happened last night. The President is not the king. We have a democracy in place. And we're standing in front of a state house that is all about democracy, with the biggest legislature in the United States of America. That is real democracy at the grassroots level. And we saw that in Kentucky, where mean spirited policies, Trumpian policies from a governor that was cutting health care and really not having the backs of people. The people of Kentucky — despite that being a state that Donald Trump won in a big way — they pushed back and we now have a new governor that's going to come into the state of Kentucky.

You look at Virginia, I actually helped there with some of the legislative races. And you look at who won there, this incredible diverse field of candidates, that basically, many of them elected and now reelected, who had the backs of the people that they represent, who were really the antithesis of what this president is about. He divides people. We had candidates that won last night that united people, there is no doubt about that. While as he puts his business interests and his partisan interests in front of our country's interests, we actually had candidates that won who put America's interests first. And that is where we are right now in our democracy.

So the first thing I see from last night, and my filing, and why it's so important to me to be doing it on this morning, is that we want a candidate that doesn't want to just be the president for half of America, but wants to be the president for all of America.

The second thing that I see coming out of last night and what I've seen all across New Hampshire, and in our country is that this election is, yes, about changes in big policies, making sure that we do something about the existential crisis of our time, and that is climate change. And that we get back in the international climate change agreement, that we do something and get comprehensive immigration reform passed, that we bring down the cost of pharmaceuticals, that we take on those health care premiums. Those are all issues, income inequality, debt rising because of this president treating this country like some kind of bankrupt casino and using our farmers and workers as poker chips. All of that matters.

But what matters even more when you look at that election result last night is a value check, a patriotism check on this president. That's what I believe is at the core of a lot of Americans' votes. That's what this is about. And that's why I have seen both in New Hampshire and across the country, people turning out — Independents, people who some of them even voted for Donald Trump. My last visit after the debate in Ohio, where we did our ten county, thirty hour, three hours of sleep tour around this state, one of the first stops was a coffee shop and there was a line of people for photos and they all had stickers on that said, which was cool, 'I'm a climate change voter.' There were a bunch of people with 'I'm a Supreme Court voter.' And this guy came up in this brown jacket, and he whispers to me,"I was a Trump voter. But don't tell anyone else in the line. I don't have one of those stickers on." And he said, "But, I am not voting for him again." That is what the people of Kentucky said last night. That's what those people in those swing purple and red districts in Virginia said last night. And that is what the people of Laconia said last night. We are seeing those changes. And we don't want to screw this up, guys. We cannot. This is the most important election that we have ever seen. And we have to make sure that we have a candidate that brings people with us instead of shutting them out. That is who I am and that is who I always have been.

So if you are tired of the extremes in our politics, and you are looking for someone that is going to have your back and you're tired of the noise and the nonsense, you have a home with me. And if you don't just want to eke by a victory at four in the morning, but instead you want to see that big light of a victory, not just apparent winner, but winner early on to then go on to those Senate seats in Arizona, right. And in Colorado and in Maine and across the country. If you want to win those seats, we cannot just win by a little, we have to win big. And you all know that I have run every race, every place, every time. And this is my favorite part. Every single time I've led a ticket, we had the highest, if not second highest voter turnout in the United States of America in my state with a fired up Democratic base. But we also brought people with us and flipped the legislature — the House — every single time I lead the ticket. So that is what we want to do here to get things done. And I am just excited to be here on this historic day, at this historic place to make a historic filing for president of the United States. So let's go out there and win this. Thank you, New Hampshire.