- [Evan] Oh, that's my friend, Joanne.

Hi, Joanne.

How are you?

- How are you?

- [Evan] All right.

- So I went to a women's conference yesterday with the LBJ School 'cause they were celebrating the graduation of their campaign school today.

- [Evan] Right.

- 61 young people, mostly women, interested in running campaigns or running for office.

- [Evan] Right.

- I don't know how many other schools there are like this in this country, but I was amazed.

So I don't know if you wanna comment.

- Yeah, I mean, I think this is a great development, right?

Candidates need education.

They need mentorship to understand how to get into these races.

There's a program in a lot of states called Emerge that focuses in a bipartisan way on developing women as candidates.

I hear a lot of people saying that the future is female and that we should listen to women as leaders.

(audience applauding) I obviously share y'all's views on that.

I think we need a more balanced slate of candidates.

And so any of these programs that help people figure out, "How do I run?"

And also help people figure out what ethics in government look like, because unfortunately, we're living in a moment where we have, you know, kleptocracy and kakistocracy, right?

We have corruption and we have incompetence.

And people need better models for leadership.

Somebody said to me this week, "Readers are leaders and leaders are readers."

That old truth.

And so we need to have the opportunity for fresh leaders to be developed.

- Love that.

Anybody else?

Go ahead and ask the question and I'll just ask it on camera for you.

- [Audience Member] Okay.

So do we need our own version of a project 2025 when we win the next election?

And should we call it Clean Up on Aisle Nine?

(audience laughing) - So the question is, do you need your own version of Project 2025?

And the questioner makes a very good joke.

Should we call it Clean Up on Aisle Nine?

- Well, I think it's gonna be Clean Up on Aisles Nine, 10, and 11 at this rate.

Yeah, we do.

Democrats, but more importantly, people who believe in democracy need a vision for how we strengthen democracy and improve it.

There's a lot of work going on in this regard, and I think that folks will be prepared when the country is ready to right size itself.

Let me just make one very specific comment in that regard.

You know, at the end of Watergate, Richard Nixon left office without being prosecuted.

And one of my very good friends, Jill Wine-Banks, who was the only woman who was a prosecutor on the Watergate team, to this day, believes it was that failure in accountability that got us to this present moment.

And there's a lot of truth to that.

If Richard Nixon had been prosecuted, there would've been no question about Donald Trump and a jury would've been able to decide what goes on.

So I think much of the fix for Watergate was soft norms.

It wasn't stuff that got written in law, like this wall between the Justice Department and the White House that has prevented presidents from directing prosecutions for all of those decades.

That was just a soft norm that we all obeyed.

The White House couldn't pick up the phone and call me.

- And we assumed it would last forever, right?

- Exactly.

And that's just not the case.

So I think some of the most important work along the lines of a project 2029 will look like reform for the Justice Department, the legal system, and the rule of law.

- All right.

That's it.

Eric?

- [Eric] I think that's it, sir.

Nope, we have- - Okay, one more.

Yes, sir?

- [Audience Member] We've broken the mold for redistricting, doing that out of cycle.

What is the possibility of doing midterm elections out of cycle and have a vote right now when folks are really upset?

- Kinda like the United Kingdom, right?

We're just gonna dissolve government.

- You know, there's a lot to be said for parliamentary government.

It's fast and it's immediate.

But our constitution provides for an entirely different system.

And you can't change that election cycle without constitutional change, which I don't think is coming.

But let me just, if you don't mind, two short seconds on this mid-cycle redistricting, which is a thinly veiled transparent effort to engage in politics and to make sure that your votes in Texas, for instance, and my vote doesn't count.

If there's ever a moment to pay attention, it's this case pending in front of the Supreme Court, Callais versus Louisiana, where the Supreme Court is very likely to make it much more difficult to challenge gerrymandering.

Please keep that on your radar screen and pay attention because the Supreme Court, which has already done so much damage to the Voting Rights Act is about, I fear, to finish it off.

And that means we need to demand that Congress fix it, re-institute it, and protect the right to vote.

- All right, let's get Joyce back downtown.

Hopefully some of you will come as well.

Give Joyce Vance a hand.

Thank you all very much.

- Thank you so much.