I'm optimistic about our future as a party. It's about winning. The Democratic Party, if I had to do one word: winning. We need to win elections, because one thing I've learned is that when Democrats win good things happen to a lot of folks, and when we don't do so hot, we see a lot of chaos and carnage.

When you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu, my friend Lee Saunders has said, and he is correct.

It stands to reason: Higher wages means higher loyalty and morale, which means higher productivity, which means a more profitable business.

I firmly believe that the Democrats' message of inclusion and opportunity resonates everywhere. When we talk about health care as a right and not a privilege, and the impact of the repeal efforts, that resonates everywhere, because everybody in every ZIP code has benefited in one way, shape or form, and frankly, in terms of under-performance, I think we have all too frequently tended to take some of our core constituencies for granted.

Donald Trump is an embarrassment to our nation. I mean, every single day you see something else that is an embarrassment to our nation. We can't allow that to happen, because it really is an affront on our democracy and we really do need to move forward.

Every day should be Labor Day. We have to fight for the basic proposition that apprenticeship is a wonderful ticket to the middle class. When we're fighting for things like paid leave, America is the only industrialized nation on the planet that doesn't have some form of paid leave - these are not bold ideas elsewhere in the world.

Our workforce and our entire economy are strongest when we embrace diversity to its fullest, and that means opening doors of opportunity to everyone and recognizing that the American Dream excludes no one.