Thank you, Charlotte! Thank you, North Carolina! Look around this room. This is the New South. Not the South of the past — the South of the future. The South of working families, of immigrant dreamers, of Black excellence, of Latino power. The South that is ready for change. My name is Paletuatoa Peniamina. I'm running for re-election as President of the United States. And I'm here to ask you for one thing: vote. **Let me start with what we've accomplished.** I signed the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. I expanded access to the ballot box. I invested in clean energy jobs. I protected the right to organize. I capped insulin at thirty-five dollars a month. I raised the minimum wage. I created a path to citizenship for Dreamers. But the work isn't finished. The other side wants to undo everything we've done. They want to pass the SAVE Act to suppress the vote. They want to cut Medicare. They want to gut Social Security. They want to ban abortion nationwide. They want to take us backward. **Not on my watch.** **Second: The right to vote.** North Carolina knows the fight for voting rights. You've seen the lines. You've seen the confusion. You've seen the attempts to silence your voices. The SAVE Act is voter suppression, plain and simple. It would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. Married women who changed their names. Young people with student IDs. Seniors who were born at home. Naturalized citizens who've been American for decades. That's not election integrity. That's a poll tax. That's Jim Crow in a new suit. I will veto the SAVE Act. I will defend the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. I will make it easier to vote, not harder. **Third: The cost of living.** You feel it every week. The squeeze. Your rent goes up. Your grocery bill climbs. Your paycheck stays the same. I capped rent increases. I raised the minimum wage. I lowered prescription drug costs. But the other side wants to undo it all. They want to cut Medicare. They want to gut Social Security. They want to take us backward. Not on my watch. **To the Black women in this room:** You are the backbone of this party. You are the heart of this movement. I see you. I honor you. And I will fight for you. **To the suburban women:** You are the deciders. I hear you. I will protect your rights. I will protect your families. I will protect your future. **To the young people at Johnson C. Smith:** You are the future. Don't let anyone tell you North Carolina isn't worth fighting for. It is. And with your help, we will win it. **To everyone in this room:** The other side has money. They have Super PACs. They have the machinery of power. But we have something they don't. We have North Carolina. We have each other. We have the future. **So here's what I'm asking you today.** Register to vote. Make a plan. Bring your family. Bring your neighbors. Bring everyone who believes that the right to vote is sacred, that Black women deserve respect, that suburban women deserve to make their own choices, that clean energy is our future. Vote like North Carolina depends on it — because it does. Vote like your voice depends on it — because it does. Vote like your future depends on it — because it does. I'm Paletuatoa Peniamina. I believe in you. I will fight for you. And together, we will finish what we started. Thank you, Charlotte. Now let's go save America."