Hey team, did you see Cory's speech from the Liberty and Justice Celebration in Iowa last week?

If you missed it, it's definitely worth checking out below. Then consider donating if you believe in this campaign -- the one that unites Americans in common cause to take on the toughest challenges.

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Thanks,
Booker HQ

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Friend, late last night, I spoke at the Liberty and Justice Celebration in Iowa, and I wanted to share it with you...

Ten years ago this month, I was in my third year as mayor of Newark, New Jersey's largest city. We were in the middle of the Great Recession, which for a community that's already struggling is like a depression, and it was hard, but we were pulling together, and we pulled through.

But at the same time, I was losing one of the most important people in my life, a guy who was like a second father to me who was in the final stages of his battle with cancer.

When I started out working as a tenants' rights lawyer in Newark right out of law school, this guy Frank was one of my first mentors. He had spent his life working as a tenant's rights advocate, leading the longest rent strike in Newark's history.

We would hear from families who had to deal with rats, mice, and roaches in rooms where their children slept, people who had to boil water on the stove to keep warm during brutally cold winters.

Sometimes, the meetings would go on for hours. I would grow restless and impatient -- most folks were saying much of the same things, and I already had all the information I needed for our case.

But Frank never rushed anyone. He sat and he listened.

After one especially long meeting, I said something to Frank about how long it was. And without judgement or pride, he told me that the meetings were about more than just fixing the buildings. The meetings were about more than sharing information.

They were about making people feel seen and heard and understood. They were about giving people a platform and a place to know that they were not alone.

They were about healing.

Frank got older, and I went on the run for city council, then mayor. By the time I became mayor, Frank's health was failing. Eventually, he went blind.

But when I would go visit him or pick him up to go grocery shopping or go out to lunch, I would announce myself, and he would say "I see you Cory."

It became our regular greeting. "Hi Frank, it's me, Cory." "I see you."

The last time I saw Frank, the nurses at the hospice he was at told me it was nearing the end. He was weaker than I had ever seen him, but when I came in, I announced myself, and he could barely breathe but he got out the words, "I see you."

I sat with him, I kissed his forehead. I thanked him. I told him how much he meant to me. I told him I loved him. And before I left, he said to me, "I love you, too."

Those were the only two things Frank said to me the last time I saw him. The last two things he said to me. I see you. I love you.

They were words of empowerment and encouragement and engagement: you are not alone in this. I am here for you, and together we will figure this out.

I know there are people who want us to believe that we can't win this election by making it about our values.

I believe that in order to heal our country, we must choose unity, we must choose a more courageous empathy, we must choose to recognize that we need each other if we're going to make it.

I'm asking you to join me because I'm asking you to believe in this campaign, the one that unites itself in common cause to take on the toughest challenges.

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I know you all have a lot of choices in this primary.

But the choice our country will make a little over a year from tonight isn't going to be just about one person or one office.

It won't be about what the pundits or the polls were saying the year before -- about who was leading or who was polling at roughly 3 percent.

It won't be about who took the best shots against their fellow Democrats on the debate stage.

It won't be about who had the biggest fundraising haul or who checked what boxes at what time.

I believe that in order to heal our country, we must choose unity, we must choose a more courageous empathy, we must choose to recognize that we need each other if we're going to make it.

I'm asking you to believe that we can do more than remove one man from one office, because beating him is the floor, it's not the ceiling.

I'm asking you to believe in an America where we come together to take on our biggest challenges -- from the epidemic of gun violence to the disease of addiction.

I'm asking you to believe in an America that leads the world because we invest in people. In good jobs in every community. In a high quality public education for every child.

I'm asking you to believe in an America that doesn't shrink into isolation in the face of the world's biggest challenges, but leads and unites the world's great democracies to take it on.

I'm asking you to believe in an America where you can turn on the news and see our leaders and feel pride and not shame.

I'm asking you to believe in an America where we revive civic grace, where we extend a more courageous empathy to one another and where nobody gets left on the sidelines and nobody gets left behind.

I'm asking you to believe that you are not alone in this.

Together we will channel our common pain, defeat Donald Trump, and we will win back the White House.

As your president, we will heal our country.

And together, we will rise.

Thank you,
Cory


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