If you're not out front defining your vision, your opponent will spend gobs of money to define it for you.

The 2000 election exposed some ugly history in our country.

No voters will be left behind.

We're like a Third World country when it comes to some of our election practices.

Look, Congress has allocated more money to finance the upcoming Iraqi elections than it has for the American elections. There's something wrong with that.

If you're not out front defining your vision, your opponent will spend gobs of money to define it for you.

A campaign is about defining who you are - your vision and your opponent's vision.

I was motivated to be different in part because I was different.

Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor. And perhaps they should understand the role of a community organizer is to help people in distress.

Civic education and civic responsibility should be taught in elementary school.

Because of my faith and my imagination, I was able to enjoy my childhood, even though it was tough.

Since Bush has been in office, African-American women have fallen behind in terms of income and wages.

A government of, by, and for the people requires that people talk to people, that we can agree to disagree but do so in civility. If we let the politicians and those who report dictate our discourse, then our course will be dictated.

A white-boy attitude is 'I must exclude, denigrate, and leave behind.' They don't see it or think about it. It's a culture.

After Katrina, no one was the same. People, relatives, they were dying one after another.

America is inundated with polls. We need a term for being swamped with polls. I would say 'poll-arized,' but that's already in use to describe our political divisions.

As Americans, we are proud that we are a country that people run to, not from.

As Democrats, we believe in giving every eligible citizen the opportunity to vote - whether it's early because they can't take off work on Election Day or absentee because they might have plans to be out of town.

As a child, I lived through and survived the segregated South. I sat at the back of the bus at a time when America wasn't yet as great as it could be.

As a child, I lived through and survived the segregated South. I sat at the back of the bus at a time when America wasn't yet as great as it could be. As a grown woman, I saw the first black president reach down a hand and touch the face of a child like I once was, lifting his eyes toward a better future.

As a child, I sat in the back of the bus. I was told, time and time again, that God's potential didn't exist in people like me. I've spent my life fighting to change that. And, from the first day when I met Hillary Clinton, I've known that she's someone who cares just as much and fights just as hard.

As a grown woman, I saw the first black president reach down a hand and touch the face of a child like I once was, lifting his eyes toward a better future. But I have never, ever, in all my years seen a leader so committed to delivering that better future to America's children as Hillary Clinton.

As a longtime political operative, I know firsthand how a vote here or a vote there can make a huge difference in a close election.

As a practicing Catholic all my life, my faith and the church are never far from my mind. The lessons I learned in the church have structured the way I've approached my life and my career. They were lessons of grace, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion.

As the civil rights struggle progressed, Americans responded to the justice of the cause, shedding layers of the crusty armor that shielded the white majority from contact with its large black minority. There are layers left. It feels so much better to be on good terms with one another.

Ask any worker at Starbucks, Cosi, McDonald's or Walmart, 'How many jobs do you have?' and likely he or she will tell you: 'Two.' I know colleagues who've had breakfast at one store, and gone to lunch in another, only to find the same person waiting on them.

At the same time that Donald Trump was facing a federal discrimination lawsuit for refusing to rent to minority families, Hillary Clinton risked her own safety to seek out the truth, to comfort the afflicted, and to make a home for justice where there was none. It was at the Children's Defense Fund that I met Hillary.

Before Hillary-bashing became its own thing, she was subjected to the standard-issue woman-bashing used on every powerful woman in Washington.

Being on food stamps can be demeaning. Cashiers know the difference between the new plastic SNAP cards and a credit card. Some food stamp recipients say some cashiers have made them feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.

By definition, conservatives struggle with change.

Congressional opposition to immigration reform or emergency funds doesn't stem from any philosophical objections or differences of principle. It stems from a calculated, petty, selfish rejection of anything Obama proposes.

Democratic candidates who run from President Obama in red states where he is unpopular are making a big mistake. Their holding Obama at arm's length deprives voters of a clear choice at the ballot box.

Democrats believe that when more people vote, it's not just good for our party; it's good for democracy.

Democrats have pushed for equal pay for women because we know that when women succeed, America succeeds.

Due process policies such as tenure are put in place to protect good teachers from being fired without cause. They aren't there to protect 'bad' teachers.

Events like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy were unlike any weather disasters before. They showed the world who suffers the most from the impacts of extreme weather: low-income families and communities of color.

Every member of my family was displaced by Katrina.

Failure. It doesn't exist. 'Failure' is just what happens when we lose perspective.

Fear is one of the worst, and most limiting, emotions in life.

Food stamps are an investment in our future.

Generally, Senate races are not a referendum on the president or on any one issue but a choice between the two candidates on the ballot.

George W. Bush was good as his word. He visited the Gulf states 17 times; went 13 times to New Orleans. Laura Bush made 24 trips. Bush saw that $126 billion in aid was sent to the Gulf's residents, as some members of his own party in Congress balked.

Helping the poor doesn't mean redistributing the wealth. It means removing the breaks that give the wealthy an advantage so huge that big chunks of the nation's income are automatically removed from individual economic competition.

Hillary Clinton, because she's the Democrats' presumptive 2016 front-runner, has become the target du jour. Frankly, I don't know how public figures get through it.

Hunger has no ideology. It does not respond to party or to rant. Hunger, in short, is not a red state/blue state problem.

Hunger in America is an American problem. The hunger of one should be the concern of all. Especially the hunger of children - our children.

Hurricane Katrina was the storm of the 21st century. It devastated an area the size of Great Britain. More than 1,800 Americans died. Three hundred thousand homes were destroyed. There was $96 billion in property damage. I served on the Louisiana Recovery Authority. I saw Congress write one big check and then skip town.

I am ashamed of some of Democrats in my own party.

I denounce Donald Trump for not denouncing the kind of vitriol, the kind of violence that he has perpetrated with his angry rhetoric, and he knows exactly what he is doing.