[SPEAKER_00]: Hello to all of you. My name is Gail McLaughlin. I'm the former two-term mayor of Richmond, California. Richmond is a diverse city in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm also a co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, otherwise known as the RPA. And through our joint efforts in Richmond as an alliance and with progressive electives sitting on the city council, my work as mayor, we were able to make a transformative change in our city. we were able to beat back a giant oil refinery, the Chevron Richmond oil refinery in our city, who spent over $3 million in 2014 to try and defeat me and other progressives. But we all prevailed. We prevailed because we worked side by side with the community and educated the community and uplifted the community and stood for the important, bold issues of our city, and of our time. Now today, I'm here to support Anna Callahan as your state representative in Massachusetts. Now, I met Anna when she was living in the Bay Area. She came to Richmond and had heard about our model of organizing and wanted to know more about it. She helped us make a video about the RPA. And she also created an organization called the Incorruptibles. That organization trains candidates and groups in terms of building a local movement and running candidates for office without any corporate money. So she has taken the RPA model and spread it to other places, exactly what we wanted to happen. So I thank Anna for her work in spreading the model of organizing that RPA spearheaded. It's an important model and everyone should learn it, become part of it, and as a result, be able to transform your communities as well. Now, when I heard that Anna was running to be your representative in Massachusetts, I was thrilled. There is no better candidate, no more knowledgeable candidate of the organizing that needs to be done, as well as the issues that need to be lifted up. So I 100% endorse her efforts, I know that she will build the kind of organizing effort through her campaign that is needed. And when elected, she'll keep that organizing work going, which is what needs to happen. Too many candidates get elected and then they forget about organizing and the movement that they may have had just becomes inactive and ineffective. There has to be that side-by-side relationship with corporate-free progressive electeds and the community. Now, Anna has the kind of understanding of issues that are so essential for transformation. Issues that she stands for are things like Medicare for All, housing for all in Massachusetts, a Massachusetts Green New Deal, She stands for a living wage. She stands for free public college. She stands for the kind of Massachusetts Green New Deal that will bring about the kind of jobs that you need in Massachusetts while bringing about a sustainable planet. So I encourage you all to become active in Anna's campaign. She not only wants people that are currently part of the civic process who have already been active in standing up in their communities. She wants your support for sure, but she wants to expand on that and get those who have not been active to participate in the civic process. She knows there are marginalized communities. that have not been empowered, that do not know the steps they need to take. She will help them learn those steps. She will stand side by side with them and all of you. So I encourage you all to go to AnnaCallahan.com and volunteer for her campaign. Donate whatever you can to her campaign because She doesn't take corporate money. She doesn't take corporate super PAC money. She depends on all of you. So please give her your 100% support as I am giving her. We need the kind of elected officials that we know Anna Callahan will be and the kind of movement builder that Anna Callahan has been and will continue to be. So enjoy the kickoff today, the launch of her wonderful campaign, and I'll be rooting for all of you in Massachusetts, for Anna, for state representative. Thank you so much. Wish I could be with you, but hope this video shares some of my enthusiasm. Thanks again.