DPCC Co-Chair Bustos: We're Going to Fight for People Who Need Us to Fight for Them

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WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on CNN's Tonight with Don Lemon to discuss crafting a winning message for House Democrats. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video.

"I'm one of three Co-Chairs of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee – this is a position where I along with David Cicilline from Rhode Island and Hakeem Jeffries from New York were elected by our colleagues to help craft what we are going to be talking about from a message perspective going forth."

"I serve in a Congressional District in Northwestern Illinois where Trump won and I won by 20 points and I've had a lot of my colleagues say: "how do you make something like that happen?" I don't think it's anything overly complicated, but I show up. I do things that we call "Supermarket Saturdays" – where I walk up and down the aisle and ask people what's on their minds. I do something called "Cheri on Shift" where I work alongside people and job shadow them. I talk with them about the last time they received a raise or whether they were able to take their families on vacation. More than anything, it's showing up and talking nonstop about the economy and jobs and that we're going to fight for people who need us to fight for them."

"In the last election, Donald Trump had a message that resonated with people who hadn't got a raise in the last five years; who saw their jobs like a plant in my district ship every last job over to Mexico. We've seen so many of those stories and when he talked about making America great again in very simple terms, that resonated with people who wanted hope. What we [Democrats] didn't talk about enough consistently was about jobs [and] the economy for people who want better times ahead."

"From the day I announced I was running for Congress, I'm now in my third term, that's what I talk about every time I go home. It's what I talk about in the supermarkets and when I'm job shadowing. I don't think it's overly complicated. One, those of us in Congress make a good wage so we better work hard. Two, we better fight when we have a fight on our hands. And three, even though we're in the minority party we better show people that we are prepared to get results because we've been fighting so hard for them. I think it's those three steps that I've been focused on and I hope that we'll be able to show people that's what we're focused on as Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives."