- On Election Day, I biked downtown
to the National Woman's Democratic Club
and phone banked for Hillary.
Every room was just packed with people calling.
I have to say I was there for four hours,
and I didn't reach a single voter,
which I should have taken as a bad sign.
I went and picked up my kids at school
and then we were just kind of watching TV
and it started to be pretty early when Florida started
looking really bad.
- The associate press within the last few minutes
calling Florida for Donald Trump.
- And I just went upstairs to my bedroom.
And every hour or so, I would look at my phone,
and a New York Times alert would say another state.
- Pennsylvania goes to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the President of the United States.
[cheers and applause]
[gloomy music]
♪ ♪
- It was like a physical--
I felt, like, physically assaulted
as a woman, as a Jew,
as a mother.
♪ ♪
all: USA! USA! USA! USA!
♪ ♪
I resolved to change my life that day.
[percussive flourish]
- My name is Laura Moser.
I am a writer, journalist, mother of two.
And I'm running for congress in the 7th congressional
district of Texas.
[tense music]
- Mommy. - Yeah?
- Think you should frame this? - I think I should.
Should I put it up like-- - No, no, no...
- My kids are almost five and eight,
and I always say that just when they got easy,
I decided to run for congress and make my life hard.
[soft electronic music]
- Hello.
- I've, like, not sat down today for one second.
So down there. - Yeah, okay.
- Here, you can do it-- Just stick that apple
in your mouth-- - Claudia, you can
take the beans. - Yeah, we gotta
watch the cats.
[honking]
Saying I have to go all the way over here?
[sighs] Come on. Let me in.
- Mommy, remember when I tried to do that...
- Good to see you. Hey, hey, don't fight.
Every day, there's, like, 20 things you should be doing.
You can't do all of them.
It's sort of like parenting. You're always falling short
in some way. And it never stops.
And Leo, that was perfectly planted.
- Whoa.
- I grew up about ten blocks away from where
we currently are sitting.
- So, why not--let's-- I think we'll start
with Belmont. - Okay, I do, too.
And I moved back so that I could
flip this traditionally Republican district
and turn it blue.
- I love that you're block walking.
- Totally. - It's fantastic.
- Every week I get her-- I do it every week.
The 7th congressional district is Republican,
but it's socially moderate. This district voted
for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election
by 1.4 points-- Which is not much,
but, hey, it's enough.
- It's going to be a tough district to flip,
so you have to have somebody who's strong and charismatic
and has leadership-- - And kind of not the same old.
[pensive electronic music]
After the election, a friend of mine said,
"Gosh, I wish there was just one thing
"that we could do a day. I wish someone would tell us
just one thing."
So the idea that I came up with was Daily Action.
You know, every day you get one text message
saying the one thing that you should do to take a stand
against the current government.
And we really focused on cabinet appointments
and Russia investigations.
- This is what democracy looks like.
And after the Women's March, I felt like it just exploded.
We had almost 300,000 people sign up within two months.
- The success of this did not go unnoticed,
and so on her trips back to Houston,
which she does frequently, people were starting
more and more to be like, "Well, what are you
actually doing? What's next?"
The long-term well-being of our kids is at stake.
How will they perceive the world?
How will they perceive their neighbors?
How will they be treated by folks around them?
Like, this is very real. Will they be the first
person to die in the Water Wars of 20--you know--90?
Like, who knows?
♪ ♪
Laura needed to start being here full-time right away.
So I found myself, you know, with a mound of logistics
in terms of figuring out moving.
And also with two kids,
who now I was the primary caregiver for.
It's for dinner tonight and then lunch tomorrow,
and then if they'll have it, dinner tomorrow, too.
But we'll see. Three meals in a row is a lot.
[gentle music]
- The day we got married, my husband accepted a job
with, uh, Senator Obama's
fledgling Presidential campaign.
all: Yes we can! Yes we can!
- We moved to Chicago. It was a long shot campaign.
And our lives changed forever, because, you know,
we all know how the story ends.
- Congratulations, Mr. President.
- Thank you, sir. [cheers and applause]
- We had Passover in the White House,
and my daughter--who is very, uh, strong willed,
I should say--she wanted to take her dress off
and wear a sheet, 'cause that was, like,
what she was into, was wearing a fitted sheet.
- Sometimes it doesn't matter where you are.
You just wanna tell the world how you feel.
And that's exactly what one little girl did and
she was in the White House.
Right when the President walked in,
she flung herself at his feet, having a tantrum.
A million views on Reddit, you know.
"Good Morning America" calling. It was just--
to be part of the Internet cycle of fake fame
was an interesting experience.
- That's actually Claudia, uh, during Fourth of July Parade
in West U. She is Laura's number one fan.
Uh, and actually, she is working on new artwork
or the campaign. This is her idea
for a new poster. "Laura Moser for Congress."
I think conventional wisdom would tell you that
having it be a question is probably not the best.
You wanna have a declarative statement.
Laura Moser, yes, for Congress. But I think--
I am not convinced that that's the wrong approach.
- Would you want, like, coffee or just--
- I'm fine. - I'm good.
Thank you. - Yeah.
- Being a first-time candidate, it's like anything
you do in life that you don't quite know what it will be
until you jump in. And I think if you did know,
you might be more hesitant to jump in.
We have real issues and real problems.
And we need real solutions. So here I am.
- Here you are. - A year ago,
I wouldn't have thought I would be doing this.
For me, I'm a writer. I'm much more comfortable
writing my thoughts than speaking them.
And that's been--you know, it's just--
It's just a steep learning curve.
Every vote counts. I mean--
- It helps to have a one-on-one face that you're dealing with.
- Yeah. - How many people
are you running against? - There's five others.
- Five? - Frankly, that's a good
problem to have. Because if I were
running unopposed, I'm not sure I would be here
on a 90 degree day in Sept-- do you know what I mean?
So we're all harnessing all our energy.
Everyone in my primary is a first-time candidate.
I think that experience is not, you know,
this incumbent.
It's his 9th term, and he is not delivering
the goods.
- I support Ted Cruz, and we are both committed--
as are the Texas Republicans-- to defund, delay,
repeal Obamacare. - And the fact that we have
such far right Tea Party representatives,
it's because of the way they draw the lines,
not because of the population.
Thank you so much for talking to us.
- Thank you so much. - No, thank you for coming by.
- Yeah. - I don't have a flier.
- Oh, I didn't give you a flier?
- No. - She's still learning.
My biggest challenge is money.
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
- Take it easy. And this man--
take a page out of this guy's playbook.
Asking people for money is the most awkward part, for sure.
And I'm really bad at it. - Hi.
- How are you? - Is that too much?
- Thanks.
[chattering]
- And, you know, you have to look a certain way
if you're running as a woman. - No, it needs to be
kind of at your waist.
- Think about how much Hillary had to--
every day, like, her face had to be done,
and all that stuff costs money and takes time.
- You know, everybody can be in it.
- My friend was like, "You can't carry that handbag
to, like, that luncheon."
And I was like, "What's wrong with it?"
And she said, "No, no, no." And then I said,
"Well, I like your bag." And then I looked it up
on the Internet, and it was, like, $2,000.
- Thank you for coming.
[applause]
I love her. - I love you, too.
- Oh, excuse me. I left out one little thing.
These campaigns aren't free. [laughter]
And we would appreciate $2, $2,000,
whatever you can spare.
- You know that Internet thing that says, like,
"God grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man?"
Like, it's very hard as a woman to possess that
and to project it.
- Thank you so much, Lynwin and Kristen.
Um, Lynwin is my number one supporter,
and if everyone in this room could leave here
with 1/100 of the enthusiasm that Lynwin feels,
then I feel like we're gonna be in good shape.
You have to be able to kind of put a price tag
on what you've done. And that's--I'm learning.
We can't keep nominating the exact same people
and expecting different results.
And I am, for better or worse,
a totally different kind of candidate.
We need a candidate who brings people together
and who can get more people into the process.
And I think we do that by having values
and defending them.
All these women in Texas, they're just so tired
of having our rights whittled away,
and having people ignore our collapsing infrastructure
and schools so that they can, like,
tell us what to do with our bodies.
Every single person who doesn't like the direction this country
is going needs to do a little bit more every single day.
I've taken that to an extreme. But, um--
[laughter]
The stakes are checks and balances.
We need checks and balances on the executive branch.
♪ ♪
I'm proud of everyone. I mean,
I know so many people who've done more.
I've met all these women running all over the country.
I'm just--I'm really proud to be part of this movement
in this kind of dark time in our country.
Thank you. [applause]