12.15.2009
Read Alan’s Primary Night Speech
By Sam Teller
Alan delivered the following remarks on Tuesday December 8th, 2009, at the Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston:
BIG CITIZENSHIP
Thank you all very much.
Running for the United States Senate in Massachusetts and for this seat vacated by our beloved Ted Kennedy has been among the greatest honors of my life.
I want to extend a heart felt congratulations to Martha Coakley, who ran an excellent campaign.
She will be an outstanding Senator.
I will do everything I can to ensure that Martha is the next Senator from Massachusetts and I ask all of you as my friends and supporters to join me in that effort.
I also want to congratulate Mike Capuano for his strong campaign.
Mike and I have become good friends through this race and I admire his passion and his willingness to fight for what he believes in.
And also to Steve Pagliuca who ran a spirited campaign and raised important issues.
I need to begin by thanking my extraordinary wife, Vanessa. I would not be standing here without her. She has been my rock and has made me a better candidate, husband, father and friend. I love you deeply.
And my brother Lance, who put his career on hold and flew out here from LA to stand by my side every step of the way in this campaign.
And, I have no idea how to thank all of you who supported and worked with me, especially an unbelievably dedicated campaign staff, led by Kelly Ward and Teresa Vilmain, our tremendous co-chairs, Sherrif Andrea Cabral and Representative Smitty Pignatelli and more than 100 Citizen Co-Chairs.
And also Senator Harris Wofford, David Belluck, Jim and Kristen Atwood, Eric Schwarz, Michael Alter and Billy Shore.
And mostly my Mom and Dad. Did you all know that my Mom is a Nurse and my Dad a Doctor?
They raised me with extraordinary unconditional love and an example of integrity and excellence.
You all came into this knowing that the climb was steep, the calendar short and the odds long, but you were so committed to the idea that citizens matter and can make a difference that you sacrificed and worked and brought pride to this campaign and to this commonwealth.
When we began this race, we were at 1% in the polls and unknown to the vast majority of voters. In ten short weeks our support has grown significantly.
We started with 400 of you on Boston Common and tonight we are ending up with tens of thousands.
We didn’t have the most money or the most name recognition, but we did have thousands of you and we had ideas about how to create jobs, provide health care, improve our public schools, seize the opportunities of the clean energy economy, end the war in Afghanistan and defeat Al Qaeda globally.
Ideas about how to reinvigorate our democracy and engage big citizens in solving the problems of our time.
And although we did not win, we were heard: by the Boston Globe and Blue Mass Group and by so many citizens who donated and canvassed door-to-door in record numbers, by young people eager to see more opportunities to serve their country.
And I want you to know, tonight’s election represents not an end to our efforts, but only a beginning.
We are living in extraordinary times with extraordinary challenges.
The world of today is dramatically different from the world of just ten years ago.
We know we must get beyond the tired debate that skips back and forth like a broken record between big government vs. Big Business and get on with something new.
New ideas, innovation, fresh approaches and Big Citizenship.
You know, it’s always been citizens combined with visionary political leadership that has brought change to America.
It was the citizen soldiers right here in Massachusetts who put down their pitchforks and picked up their muskets to join with our Founding Mothers and Fathers and defeated the greatest empire of the day.
It was the abolitionists and hundreds of thousands who shed untold blood who inspired President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
It was the suffragists who forced Wilson to grant women the right to vote.
It was the Progressives and trade unionists who insisted that work must have dignity.
It was the greatest generation who united to fight the depression and defeat the Nazis and save the world.
It was the Civil Rights workers who marched, rode freedom rides and held sit ins who inspired President Kennedy to make civil rights the moral issue of our time.
And now it’s up to all of us.
We are living in a time of big challenges.
And make no mistake about it, another era of Big Citizenship is coming.
Because that’s what we do in Massachusetts and that’s what we do as Americans.
We rise to the occasion.
We determine our own destiny.
We forge the future.
We can all be Big Citizens. We can all do our part.
Our next step will be putting our energy to work ensuring that Martha Coakley becomes our next U.S. Senator.
And then as our hero Ted Kennedy would say, the work goes on.
It has been such a privilege to run for the United States Senate here in Massachusetts.
I will never forget the stories of so many incredible people that I’ve met.
People like Maria Forte, an Italian-American immigrant, who came here, saved up and opened a restaurant in Hopkinton, only to lose that restaurant after being in business for more than 11 years because of this terrible economy. But She is determined to start over.
Or, George Sylvia, the formerly homeless Marine, who was in jail, but who thanks to Soldier On and his own commitment to turning his life around, learned that he could again be somebody important and make his big dreams real.
Well, we must all dedicate ourselves to making our state’s and our country’s big dreams real.
For jobs, health care, education and to end the wars.
I came into this election knowing from a lifetime of service that there are many ways to serve one’s state and nation and I will continue to seek and serve as I always have.
I have met so many people across our Commonwealth who are hurting.
Who have lost their jobs, homes, savings and dreams of college.
But I have also felt your undaunted spirit and your willingness to come together to overcome our challenges.
So, I will return to Be the Change and work with as many of you who will join me to launch a new movement in this state and in this country to restore equity to the middle class and low income people.
A movement for America to reclaim its founding tradition as an Opportunity Nation.
Thanks to all of you and the people I’ve met all across this Commonwealth.
I am more inspired, more committed, more determined than ever to work for a newer and better world.
To imagine the world as it should be, and to do the hard work with you to make it real.
Thank you all very much.
I love you all.
