SONIA CHANG-DÍAZ, STATE SENATOR ELECT, SPEAKS TO SUPPORTERS AND WELL-WISHERS

Thank you all so much for being here – and for everything you’ve helped us accomplish. I’m so honored to be here with you tonight – and to officially be the State Senator-Elect for this district.

It’s because of all your hard work, and because of the great faith and hope of the voters of the Second Suffolk, that we were able to claim victory on September 16th – and that we were able to make it final today.

We built this campaign together on a simple but powerful premise: we can and should expect more from our elected officials. Together, we knocked on thousands of doors, and called tens of thousands of people, to deliver this message. We talked to our friends and neighbors, and we told them that this time, they didn’t have to choose between leaders who would represent them on the issues, and leaders who would uphold the high standards of ethics and accountability we are looking for. We told them they could have both.

And who would have thought our call for more open, more accountable, and more ethical representation would ring so true today?

The last week has been a difficult one for our district. We’ve all been shocked and saddened by the allegations that have emerged – not just about Senator Wilkerson, but by the implications about the way politics supposedly works on Beacon Hill.

And yet, in the midst of so much challenging news, we see, today, examples of things going right in our political system. I see, today, much cause for hope.

First, and most thrillingly, it looks like today our nation has elected the first person of color to the Presidency of the United States… a man who won by speaking to our better natures, rather than by appealing to fear. A man who refused to pander on issues of race or on taxes, but rather, spoke to us intelligently. A man who built his base on the support of average Americans and small donors, and by inspiring young people to vote, rather than depending on corporate interests and high-dollar donors to prevail. That is the way we wished politics would work—and today it did.

Second, our home district—both on Sept. 16th and today—also voted for new leadership. Even before these new allegations came out, our neighbors and our friends stood up and said they wanted to Expect More and were ready for a new type of politics in our district. Because of them, and because of you, we are going to have it. That’s the way we wished politics would work—and today it did.

So we see: it is possible. We can build the kind of politics we want—but only if we push for it. And much work remains to be done. Whether it’s improving our public schools, stemming youth violence, tackling CORI reform, protecting our environment, or fighting for affordable housing and good-paying jobs, that’s the work I’m pledging to undertake with you.

As we’ve seen this week, we must also keep working to make our government more open and more accountable to the people it’s supposed to serve. Now is the time to talk about reducing the influence of well-monied lobbyists and special interests in government and increasing the influence of average citizens. Now is the time to talk about the role money plays in our system, and about how ethics & campaign finance reform can help our communities.

Because we need to be able to believe in our public leaders and to have confidence in our political system if we’re going to stay involved to fight the good fights. That’s what this campaign has always been about – and that’s the type of system I will push for every day up on Beacon Hill.

But I can only do it with your help. Your help, and the help of the whole district. And when I say the whole district, I mean just that – the whole district. In the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of talk, especially in the media, about the divisions in this district. There’s been a lot of folks trying to tell us that in the Second Suffolk we’re divided – divided by neighborhood, divided by class, divided by race.

But you know, that’s just not the district I’ve seen over the past few months. Whether I’ve been in Beacon Hill or Roxbury, in Jamaica Plain or Dorchester, the district I’ve seen is concerned about our schools, about our economy, about the safety of our streets. I’ve seen a district that’s a lot more united in our concerns, in our needs, and in our hopes for the future than the pundits would have us believe.

And so whether you’ve been a supporter of mine from the beginning or joined us along the way...whether you cast your ballot today for me, or for William Leonard, or if you wrote in Senator Wilkerson—regardless of where you stood today, I’m asking for your help tomorrow. Tomorrow we start the work of bringing our district back together and, together, working for the change our district needs.

Thank you again, all, for being here—for everything you’ve done and everything you’ve stood for. Tonight, let’s celebrate the things we’ve seen go right in politics today—and toast to the things we can make right in politics tomorrow.