Victory speech – Nov. 6, 2018

I don't have much voice left, but hello, Nevada!

You know I always start everything off with a certain rally, so I know most of you know it and it goes like this: Ain't no party like the Democratic Party, because the Democratic Party don't stop. Woo!

Well, I have to say we voted and we won and we did all of this together.

You know what—it was a really hard-fought campaign and I have to tell you that I just spoke with Senator Heller and he was so gracious and we talked about the race. No—I appreciate that. He served this state for 30 years and so I want to thank him for his service to our state and for his gracious call and to help with the transition in our office. That's what we'd call a mensch.

But there are a few people that I really want to thank tonight, so I'm going to give a special—even though my voice is hoarse I'm gonna try to give that special shout out—so I have to thank my husband Larry, my daughter Miranda. I love them so much and I would not be able to do this without their strength and their support and their love. And Larry makes a mean breakfast. He got me going every single day.

And of course I want to thank all of you, the thousands of volunteers. You knocked on doors, you made phone calls for us. You are amazing, amazing.

I have so many partners in labor, if I had to include them all we'd be here all night, but everyone from the AFL-CIO and SEIU, and let's hear it for Culinary 226, 226, 226.

So I want to say that there's hundreds and thousands of people across the country who chipped in what they could to support my campaign, over 400,000 of them, and I thank them tonight. But this victory does belong to all of you, and I am so proud of the work we put in to win this race.

And of course I got a few other people to give congratulations to. Our next governor, Steve Sisolak. Gotta tell you—feels pretty good, first time in two decades Nevada's going to have a Democratic governor.

And of course on a night when women are winning up and down the ballot, this is a historic night for us because now Nevada joins to be the fifth state with two women senators.

And of course we got a little bit more winning to talk about. Susie Lee—she's going to take good care of my district. So now we're gonna have the majority female congressional delegation—how about that?

We're pretty lucky here in Nevada, that's for sure, but I can't tell you how excited I am to join Catherine Cortez Masto in the Senate. [responding to the audience:] I love you guys, too. But I gotta tell you that Catherine endorsed me on day one and she has done so much to invest in building up our state party. She's doing amazing work and I can't wait to be her partner and fight for Nevada, listen to your stories and take them with us as we do good work for all of you.

And I want to thank someone else who's been with me since the beginning. You know Senator Reid had some advice for me when I first ran for Congress, and his advice was simple. He said this: know who you are and why you're running, stay true to yourself and your values, and be a straight-shooter. I appreciate his friendship, guidance and support, and a straight-shooter is what we're going to be.

But I have to tell you, I'm a little sentimental tonight because a lot of times you don't get to see bookends in your life, and 40 years ago I was a young college student working my way through school and I was a member of 226—but that's not the best part of the story. I was working right down the hall here at Caesar's Palace as a cocktail waitress to pay my tuition. I put my tips in those envelopes and it paid for my next year of college, and I know it took a while but 40 years later I'm back and here I am. But I think about that young woman then and I never could have imagined all these years later, really, that I'd be standing here on this stage as your next United States senator and that everything that's happened in between.

You know my—I love you guys, too—so you know I want to tell you that my faith and my upbringing, they were a big part of my decision to take on this race because I believe it's our responsibility to leave this world a better place than how we found it. And after all the hate I've seen recently—that we've all seen—I can't tell you how much this means to me as a former synagogue president to stand here tonight as your next senator. Hate will never win. Hate will never win.

And plenty of people had their doubts that this victory would be ours tonight. But this is the story of this election cycle—women stepping up to lead, to take back our country and take back the agenda in Washington.

I'm humbled by tonight's results and I want you to know that I will never forget where I came from and I will always put Nevada first. I will work each and every day to represent all the people of our state, to provide first-class constituent services and to find common ground with anyone in the Senate who has an idea that benefits Nevada. Yeah.

And I'll have lots of fights ahead of us and I'm ready to stand up and keep fighting for all the issues this campaign was about. So let's talk about those issues. I'm gonna tell you what we're gonna fight for.

We're gonna fight for a $15 an hour minimum wage. No nobody in this country who works full-time should ever live in poverty.

I can tell you what else we're gonna fight for. We're gonna fight for every student to be able to graduate from a public college or university without a crushing debt.

We got a few more fights. We're gonna fight back against plans to cut Social Security and Medicare.

And I can tell you one that I am so proud of—how we reacted in Las Vegas—but we're going to fight, yeah, we're gonna fight to pass common-sense gun safety legislation.

You know, I'm gonna take the privilege of a few more fights. We're gonna fight for civil rights. We're gonna fight for voting rights.

We need to fight for immigration reform that protects our DREAMers. We have to fight for immigration reform that protects our TPS workers and keeps families together.

And I look out on those beautiful sunsets we had this week here in the desert and we need to fight for real action to address our climate crisis and invest in Nevada's clean-energy economy.

I will tell you this. I will fight like hell to fight back against anyone who tries to defund Planned Parenthood or attack women's reproductive rights.

And we have the biggest fight of all, one that binds each and every one of us, because if you don't have your health you don't have anything. So I will never stop fighting to protect our health care.

And together, together, all of us—we voted to make this a country that once again lives up to our American values. Donald Trump said that he was on the ballot in this election. Well, I'm really proud to say Nevada responded accordingly.

So to everybody watching tonight, I have a message: no matter what the color of your skin, no matter what your religion, no matter who you love or where you came from, you are part of the fabric of America and this is your country, too.

You know Nevada's a diverse state. We welcome, we support our immigrants who come to this country to live the American dream. And tonight in Nevada, the politics of fear and division—they have lost. It’s great news for our state and it's great news for the country.

But I have to tell you that with all of you here, you don't realize that how hard my team worked, so I have more people to thank. I want to bring Team Rosen to the stage so you can see them, you can thank them. They are amazing. Team Rosen, my friends.

I want to say this one thing before I finish. What I'm reminded tonight is that all of you here helped out. You got involved in politics to make a difference for people and I got into politics for that reason, too, not to hold a title or for an office. So I'm never gonna stop listening to your stories. I'm never gonna stop carrying them with me as your voice in Washington, because that's what this job is all about. And you see the incredible team I have and that's what they're all about.

So I thank you again for your support. I want to thank you for this win. You're the real reason we're celebrating tonight. This is your victory. Thank you. We voted. We won.