We need a brand as a party that says we're the party that are going to help working-class people, white people, black people, brown people, gay people, straight people, improve opportunity for them to grow their wages, to have security, economic security.
Like many Americans, my family and I have spent our entire lives at the epicenter of de-industrialization.
Between the fundraising, being away from family, the environment of hyperpartisanship, Washington is really stressing people out.
You can be hostile to greed. You can be hostile to income inequality. You can be for raising raises... but you can't be hostile to businesses because 98 percent of businesses are small business people.
My great grandfather emigrated from Italy, and my grandfather worked in a steel mill and was able to raise kids and have a family and go on vacation.
I have lived my whole life just outside Youngstown, Ohio. We watched the steel mills close and 50,000 jobs disappear in the late 1970s. We watched businesses move overseas throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
I got a lot of respect for Nancy Pelosi. I love her. She was a mentor of mine.
I embrace a Green New Deal; I just think we have to have public-private partnerships if we're going to get there. We have to align the environmental incentives with the financial incentives.
The people I represent in Northeast Ohio and the tens of millions of workers across our country are proud to be called blue collar.
It's a lot easier to negotiate and be skillful from the majority. I want Paul Ryan negotiating with us. I don't want to have to negotiate with Paul Ryan.
We focus sometimes too much on the minimum wage, and we should be talking about living wages and middle class wages and pensions and benefits and the kind of thing that people in the industrial Midwest talk about all the time.
I think once you meet me, you realize I'm not necessarily some soft yoga guy. I've been on the picket line. I've been in the union halls. I'll drink a Miller Lite with you.
While the political debate over abortion will continue for a very long time, the federal government can and should be doing more to support programs and services that provide women with better options.
I think social issues are always part of a presidential campaign.
We need a president who doesn't just visit our forgotten communities for rallies but one who lives in them - one who knows the pain and suffering that comes with being unseen and unheard.
We can't just be the party of redistribution of wealth; we need to be the party of the creation of wealth in communities all over the country, not to just Silicon Valley, not just Wall Street, but all over.
My grandparents and my mom prayed the rosary a lot, and later in life, I had a priest friend of mine teach me centering prayer, based on Father Thomas Keating's work. That led to practicing different kinds of meditation off and on as I got older.
As a Catholic, I find mindfulness helps me participate in my religion more wholeheartedly. If you are praying the rosary, participating in the rituals at Mass, or listening to the priest preach, you will actually be paying attention! Whatever your religion is, it can enhance the experience of participating in that religion.
I wrote 'A Mindful Nation' to promote the values of slowing down, taking care of ourselves, being kind, and helping each other. It seems to me that if we embrace these values individually, it will benefit us collectively. And our country will be a little bit better off as a result.
I've heard from CEOs of major corporations and members of Congress talk about their spouses getting mad at them when they're home because they're spaced out and thinking about work. It's so easy for all of us to have our mind on the last meeting or the next one.
