Victory Speech - April 9, 2013

When I first announced for Congress in December, I asked you to stand by me in a fight that was bigger than any one person. I told you then, and throughout this campaign, that our fight wasn’t about me. It was about you—about your dreams, your hope, your family. You lent us your hearts, your time, and your support, and look at where we are now.

I’m sure you remember when we began this campaign. I sure do. There were a whole lot of people who counted us out, nay-sayers who said we couldn’t win. Well, we not only won an election, but we took on the NRA. We gave a voice to the voiceless and we put our communities on a brand new path to a brighter day.

Now make no mistake about it—the road ahead will be bumpy. Making our families safe from gun violence is going to be a challenge. Putting people back to work is a tough task. But to those who say that we won’t be able to make Congress do anything on gun control, who think that the Tea Party Congress can’t be beaten—I’ve got two words: Watch us. Watch us beat the odds again. Watch us take on the NRA, the Tea Party and anyone else standing in the way of our safety. Watch us mobilize families and turn grief into action, just like the families of victims of gun violence have done in powering this campaign each and every day. Watch us tell the Tea Party Republicans that we aren’t going to let them gut vital promises to seniors like Medicare and Social Security. Watch us vote for President Obama to continue to put people back to work, to fix our broken immigration system and to keep us on the path to recovery. And watch me work hard day in and day out to be your voice, to be your champion, because that’s what this campaign was all about: giving voice to the voiceless and making the powerless powerful. We never lost hope, and we never stopped fighting and we never will; I know I won’t. Because, after all, you don’t overcome challenges by seeing them as too great to conquer, you overcome them by always reaching a little higher, by dreaming a little bigger, and by believing that the stars above us are within our grasp. When we reach for them together, we can do wonders. So thank you so much. God bless all of you. I am just so honored to be your next congresswoman.

Speech from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb-qbYJjuEc.