There Ah, Alright, good afternoon. Other, everybody doing? My name is Becky, given I'm going to be your MC. I am thrilled to welcome you here to New Brunswick. We're right off the campus of Rutgers University, and I'm here to welcome you to our union hall on behalf of the Rutgers faculty and grant work reunions. Welcome good time. You're going to hear for some great people. We're going to hear from the next Governor of New Jersey at the
end. Let's warm up a little bit before I introduce the first speaker, I want you to start slow, and then we're going to pick up the pace. I want you to say, razz is for us. Whoa.
On. All right now I'm thrilled to introduce my sister, my friend, state director and vice president of s, e, i, u, 30 2b, j, so
good afternoon, folks. I am the daughter of baseball player, not a famous one, but still baby to my heart. And every single Sunday we used to cheers, and we used to cheer, and that just gave me those kinds of vibes. And so I am so happy to be with my family, my union and my progressive family, standing behind someone who are really champion for our people, champion for the working class, a different type of governor that can really embody who we want and who our priorities are. And my sister. My name is Andrea Hill. I'm the State Director at VP for 32 DJ SEIU here in the state of New Jersey. And it's an honor to be here with all these groups like Rutgers, AAUP, jst, make the road Action Party. New to
rally around barakah as our next governor.
Baraka has won this coalition endorsement because he has been working families first and essential workers first. He's joined our members, our 32 DJ members on the picket line stood out to employers and passed legislation that improved the lives of workers struggling with the rising cost. He's made New York safer, healthier, greener and more fortunate, and he's done so much for newer and now we lead that ministry. We are approaching a crossroads that demand the leader who will stand up to Trump and his administration's school policy, someone who will protect every community like that of many of our members are a part of, and Baraka already showing that, as he's already rose up to the challenge against the detention center at Delaney long had in November, they
will take a leader who can rally New Jersey and from different backgrounds, get it done, and Mayor Bronco will get it done. We are not just about words. We are also about our action and so as a union of black and brown members who clean and secure our community, our commercial buildings, our train stations, our arenas and K through 12 schools and airports, we are mobilizing our 15,000 members, their families, their communities. We are registering voters. We are going to be knocking on doors and making calls to get out the vote for mayor, baraka for governor from now until November, if you guys don't know it, this is our state. New Jersey is our state, and we need someone who can really leave New Jersey represent them.
Be bold and
not be succumb to any kind of machine, someone who will stand for all thank you so much, and I'm so excited to be here with our next Governor. Thank you so much,
Maria. Thank you everyone from 32 BJ, who's with us today and who's excited to knock together as a coalition for the next governor. It's now an honor to introduce another amazing progressive leader in our state, Dina matology. Borstre is executive director many, many of you here know her from the amazing work of Citizen Action. Please welcome Dina. You. Great
to be here. Thanks so much to our staff, our board, our members, our family, the mayor for rallying together. Our organization has been working to advocate for the economic progress of all New Jersey's working families for over 40 years. Over this time, preparing taxes for one families, affordable health care, bank investment in working communities, paid family leave and other reforms that have improved the lives of working families and their economic well being, New Jersey citizen actually moves a champion for working people when we see one and brass Barak is that champion. Statewide
leaders from all over the state, black, brown and white, chose Roz he was the only candidate who can unite our diverse organization, and he is the only candidate who can unite the working people of New Jersey, Ross is a
candidate for all working people, and when he's governor, he will advance our movement to build more economic opportunities for working people and an economy that works for us all. So let me ask you, who is Roz is for us, a
fight for us. He'll work
tirelessly for economic opportunities in fairness for all New Jerseyans, and like he did in Newark when he fought for affordable homes, clean drinking water and investments in small businesses and entrepreneurs, Roz put Working Families First in Newark, and he will put Working Families First in New Jersey. So let me ask you, who is Ross for us? Republicans
in Congress and the Republicans who are running for governor in our state talk about addressing affordability. They're not talking about affordability for the working families in the state. Their policies benefit the wealthy, not us. Ross will address the real affordability crisis in our state. He'll provide the leadership we need to defeat Maga and Maga attacks on our safety net and on our democratic freedoms too. The working people of New Jersey have the opportunity to elect a governor who will put us first. We must, must, must our majority power by uniting behind one candidate who is one of us and who will fight every day for us, and that candidate is Raz Baraka Roz is for us. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Nina. Make no mistake, we are under attack. The state of New Jersey is under attack. Our institutions, our safety nets, our universities, our K 12 education system, we are all under attack. And we, as a coalition, the people you see before you are only the tip of the iceberg of this coalition, and we have come together to say we need a progressive governor who will lead us in that fight back, and that Governor is Ras Baraka. I'm excited to bring up another amazing progressive leader in the state of New Jersey, Antoinette miles is the state director.
Connected new brothers and sisters. He's labored in the house, working people in the house. That's what
I like to hear my to hear. My name is Antoinette miles. I'm the State Director of New Jersey Working Families Party. We believe that regular people, unions, community organizations and movements coming together across our differences help to make a better future for us all with our collective endorsement of Mayor Ras Baraka for governor, we have united and aligned our forces to make sure that the next Governor of New Jersey is going to be a governor who not just understands what it means for working people who are surviving paycheck to paycheck, who understands what It means for our communities who are asking for clean air and clean water, who understands what it means when we want quality public schools and make sure that we have safe neighborhoods in a safe world? I'm here to tell you that we know that Raz is not only he is us, but he is for us. We know that today, the wealthiest people in corporations are continuing to get richer and richer off of our backs while our wages stay the same, and the Trump agenda right now is trying to crash our economy and cash in on behalf of the elite instead of them for working people. It's a disgrace, and that's why we unified around Mayor Baraka, because we need someone who's going to stand up to the Republicans who are right now running for governor and think that they can pay a red carpet for Trump to come into our state and attack our families, and we're saying no one in hell are we going to allow them to do that? Is why the Working Families Party is going all in to elect Mayor Baraka. We know what it takes to reshape the halls of power and trend we led with many organizations here, the lawsuit to eliminate the corrupt unconstitutional, and by ending that system, by ending that system, we have created a level playing field that allows not for party bosses to elect who they want to choose, but for working people and those who have the interest of working people at heart to step up and represent our communities. We've been with Mayor Baraka since his first run for mayor. My predecessors had the opportunity to work with him, and we know that the same opportunities and progress. He has brought to Newark. He will bring to our state. And the stakes are high, but we are ready to do something different. We are ready to reimagine New Jersey.
We are ready to reimagine New Jersey. We are ready to rebuild the Democratic Party coalition of working class, Black, Latino, Asian, white people ready to rebuild that coalition to elect Mayor baraka for governor. And we're going to do that by putting boots on the ground, by talking to our neighbors, by calling people who have frankly, been left behind by the political system and making sure that we meet them where they are, whether they are in the barber shops, whether they are the local nail salon, we're going to go to where they are and bring a message to them that speaks to them authentically, and we're ready to do that. And there's no better champion and no better authentic voice to do that than Mayor Baraka. Thank
you so much. Antoinette, I want to shout out a few other folks who are here who have also joined the movement to elect Mayor Baraka, the next Governor of New Jersey, Lorenzo Hall, President of SEIU workers united.
I several
leaders here from the Rutgers adjunct faculty union, Heather Pierce together.
The next speaker is an amazing member, leader of Make the Road action. Please welcome Raquel. Whoa, whoa.
And please welcome Raquel, we will use
in 1987
McGay. My name is Raquel Morrissey. I'm a member of indoor action, and I live in hillside. I'm excited to knock doors for Mayor Baron come for the future of my grandchildren. I want to share my story. I immigrated to New Jersey in 1984 I lived in Elizabeth,
and I paid $160 I made $135
a week. I also remember, Ins before it was is used to come to the warehouses, and I lost a few friends that way.
No 10 years ago, medical style hospital, like
many people who worked in warehouse, I didn't have health insurance, and so when I was pregnant with my first child, I had to pay $15,000 in cash to Christ hospital before I was allowed to take my daughter, Luna.
I share my story to say that the struggles of working families in New Jersey is not new, and we need a governor who's an organizer who understands that the struggles of today are part of a long time negligence with immigrants and working families in
the state.
Our struggle for a better future starts here in New Jersey, and it goes beyond any single week, any year or any election,
oh, India,
Lisa and those dollars
today, a room in Elizabeth cost $1,300 and most folks make about $34,000 A year.
Esto significa que Bucha personas es tan gastar. That many
people are spending half of their checks on the rent.
Necesitamos un leaders can tie into que los indigrantes somos intilinos, somos pacientes, que tambien somos trabajadores. Y cuando uno cuando al leader
that understands that immigrants are renters, who are also patients, who are also workers, and when any of the boats have a home, we all see
Luna Baraka understands that immigrants are the backbone
of our economy and an essential part of communities across the country. Mayor Baraka knows that without us, we all
pay the
price.
Just on Friday, Alina haba, daughter of immigrants, shared that she believes that ice is above the law.
Collective I can figure to
remind everybody that it was our collective resistance that stood in Trump's way. It was us who prevented the worst promise of his first term from being carried out.
There will only be a strong governor who will make sure that all New Jersey can thrive in the dark days ahead. Say,
step way? Gonna bring the mayor up in a second. We know he's gonna bring the heat. Ready to knock on doors. You need to be ready to talk to your neighbors, to talk to your families, to talk to your classmates, to talk to your students. You need to get on the ground. We're not here to give an endorsement and then go home. We are here to organize and do the work and elect Mayor Baraka the next governor.
It's a pleasure to be here, for sure, a pleasure. This is a historic moment, in my mind, for New Jersey is historic moment for this country right now. What's happening is we pull together folks from working class all over the state of New Jersey from different nationalities, different backgrounds, different zip codes, different languages and cultures, how they identify, whether they're documented or undocumented, families together to finally raise our voice and fight for a working class agenda, a working class, working class priorities in a state where you have a government, a state government that represents the majority of families in the state and not a small number of people in the state, not only our chance to push back against the failed and bankrupt and raises policies of Donald Trump, but it's also an opportunity for us to Build a democracy we want to see in New Jersey, to build economic prosperity for all working families, so they're not crushed by their medical bills, so they're not crushed by housing costs. They're not crushed by inequality and lack of opportunity. That we create an economy that visits everybody's home, a democracy that warms everybody's children, no matter where they are, to pull homeless off the street, to increase people's wages, to give people opportunity to health care that's affordable, to make sure education is accessible and we're not deported because of their views and their ideas. That we
make ideas flourish where ideas continue. We continue to develop a country that we want to see, a democracy that they continue to teach us about in the fifth grade in history class, the Constitution, the democracy that we all uphold that they're constantly undermining every single day, a constitution that they're going against every single day. As working families are trying to figure it out. They're trying to make a living, trying to afford childcare for their children, trying to afford medicine, trying to live in communities that are safe, where they're not victimized or targeted because of the language they speak or how they identify themselves, because their neighborhoods are just not safe, they want to be able to go to schools that teach their children that they matter, that there's somebody that they're equal to everybody else, that you can grow up and be and do whatever it is that they want to do. This is what we believe. This is why my family ventured to the north, fleeing segregation in the South, while many families around the world came to the port city of Newark looking for a democracy. They only heard of something that they only read about, something they imagined in their dream, and they came to this place, looking for that place, looking for that opportunity, and looking for this and what did they found deep inequality and deep inequity. And they didn't run and hide. They didn't decide to go back. What they did was use whatever was in their hands, whatever they had in their heart and their mind, to build what they needed to build for their families and to make America more democratic, more inclusive, those people fighting immigrants, fighting people come from the south, those folks fighting to make sure that America lived up as king said to the things that it written down on paper, that It came to reality for all of us, not just a few of us, and that's what we're fighting for. That's what fighting for in this state, and that's what we're going to
get. That's what's going to happen, that no longer can we afford to subsidize millionaires. I years ago. You have a problem with us subsidizing education, but want to subsidize millionaires. You have a problem with us raising people's with minimum wage, but you don't have a problem with giving cuts to millionaires and billionaires. You have a problem raising people's fees on your charge of transit, but you have a problem with giving people attacks for flying luxury airplanes or flying flying private jets. This is not equality. This is not equity. This is not what we need. We don't need a budget where we cut people's Medicaid or cut people's opportunity for housing or cut people's opportunity for decent education. We don't need a budget that does that. We need a budget that's fair the wealthy pay and fair share. Individuals who make the most money add income to what we need in the state of New Jersey. That's what we
need. That's right. We need
a budget that represents us, that looks like us, that speaks the way we speak, that visit our homes, that recognizes our mothers, our grandmothers, our children, a budget that we can all live off of. And in fact, that budget is the only budget that will make New Jersey grow. That's
what people are afraid of. We're going to inspire voters. You're going to give voters hope. You'll go all over the state of New Jersey and talk to voters wherever they are. We're not just going to organize things for them, for them to come to us. We're going to go to them. We're going to go visit them where they are. We going to talk in a way that they understand. Claim talk to let them know that economic justice and social justice are the same thing that you want. Are the things that we all want, that what you're fighting for individually is what we need collectively, that your individual fight can't win unless it's attached to a larger fight, that we have to have a united front across the state, across zip codes that we never won historically by ourselves. The only time we won is when we had the goal, the authority, the courage, to get together, to be together, to stay together, that's when we win, when we collect, when we collectively together. We always win. And all the people who think we can't win, if you don't fight, you won't win. We win.
Three. Give me the ball. That's what I'm saying. We have three minutes left to this day, and we down with the fourth quarter. Give me the ball. We gotta take this over the over the line. We gotta score here. We gotta go hard or go home. We gotta go out every day as long as we can to make sure we get folks to vote. You cannot leave your house and leave three people in the inside who did not vote. You gotta vote wake them up and make them go vote too. People
