“Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy. Why? Because we do not want a single ruler telling us what we get to see, what we get to hear, and what we get to protest against. Obviously, they don't want to be protested against, so they want to stop protests. We want our government to be of the people, by the people, for the people. And we want to be able to hold power to account.”

— Commissioner Anna Gomez, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

“Trump taking the housing bill hostage was like a Schoolhouse Rock special come to life. This major housing bill was negotiated by leading Democrats and Republicans over issues of housing to promote development and building new housing to lower the cost of it and to include things like prohibiting private equity from owning single-family homes. You would think Republicans would want to see it signed into law so that they can campaign on it and say that they delivered on something for the nation. However, Trump is so hell-bent on passing this super strict, very flawed, and dangerous version of a federal takeover of state and local elections, that he declined to sign the bill and then went and had a screaming match, like something out of The Real Housewives.”

— Eduardo Soto, Principal, Government Affairs & Issue Campaigns, Raben

“When we look at all states, the total cost to the national economy from restrictions to access to abortion is over $140 billion per year. This is not just an abstract thing, this is not just a personal choice, this is something that harms everybody when women cannot have bodily autonomy.”

— Kate Bahn, Chief Economist and SVP of Research, Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR)

“The lesson of the New York Knicks is that when people are naysayers, when people say that you cannot win, or that you are not the right person for the position, or that you are not the right player for the team, you have to ignore that. It's about skill, of course, and at the highest level. But at the end of the day, it is the drive, the belief in yourself, the commitment to being a team and playing together.”

— Monifa Bandele, Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, MomsRising

“In stadiums all over the country, half the stadium were rooting for the Knicks because a lot of New Yorkers can no longer afford to live in New York because of childcare, the cost of housing, the lack of a living wage. This is very connected to the electoral wins. When we ushered in Zohran Kwame Mamdani, we were able to see that people can get behind this. In a matter of months we are getting universal child care in NYC. Just yesterday, the pre-K 2 program was expanded by tens of thousands of seats. So this is a really exciting time in New York City.”

— Monifa Bandele, Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, MomsRising