This is our chance to stand up for those people who won't be engaged in politics.
This is our chance to stand up for those people who are throwing their hands up and saying, man, life is just too hard.
So for all of those, help me do this tonight.
Let's do this.
Let's keep our spirits high.
It's going to be up.
It's going to be down.
Hopefully, if this really goes well, we'll be here at midnight going, hey, we won.
This will be great.
But for all of those people who can't get involved or couldn't have the time, for the mother who is spending the last two or three days at the food pantry this month because of the high inflation that came out of Washington, D.C., for her, for the military, for the police, this is our chance to stand tall and say, come November, come November, we're going to have your back.
Thank you very, very much for all of you for what you've done.
We'll be back later tonight with a better upgrade on numbers.
Thank you.
Stay fired up.
We can and will win this race.
bless i'm only looking at some of the popular vote numbers and how democratic congressman andy kim has been elected to represent new jersey in the u.s senate He defeated Republican challenger Curtis Bashaw.
Congressman Kim becomes the first Korean American in the U.S. Senate.
I can't tell you how incredible this is.
I'm having a hard time processing this moment right now.
I'll be honest with you.
There have been only a few moments in my life where I've felt the weight of the moment as I do right now.
Like a gravity generated by the magnitude of the consequence in our country.
It isn't about me.
It is about this moment in America and what we each individually tried to do to meet that moment.
I look out in this room and I can tell you I see so many people from all different moments of my life.
You are here in this room because in one way or another you have touched my life.
You have helped me in ways I may never fully be able to express to all of you.
Whether I met you in elementary school or on the campaign trail, I want to start by saying thank you to my congressional team.
For the last six years, we've served the 3rd Congressional District and I hope that we have made the people of the 3rd Congressional District proud of the work that we've done.
We have a team of incredible public servants of all different ages, everyone working together, many of them here.
And I just have to say how proud I am of that team.
To my campaign team, who carried out our message of change going forward, I know that many of you took risks to join this campaign.
You had people doubt your choice to join this campaign.
You worked long hours and struggled and stressed about the challenges we confronted.
I hope you take pride in this moment.
Whoever says young people don't care about politics haven't met the young people that are the engine, power, and to our supporters, look what we've accomplished.
Look what we've been able to do.
By most standards of what is possible, this moment right now should not be occurring.
A year ago.
Six years ago, few believed we could show what we could accomplish.
That we showed that politics isn't some exclusive club just for the well-off and the well-connected.
That we built something that epitomizes the grassroots.
I hope this experience has brought you closer to understanding the essence of our democracy, that you have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a citizen of this great country, and that you feel empowered by that.
You heard me say this quite a lot, and I'll say it again tonight, that I believe that the opposite of democracy is apathy.
And by extension, I hope that you see our campaign as a means of being the opposite of that helplessness.
I hope this moment is every bit as meaningful for you as it is for me.
I want to say thank you to my family.
My parents and my sister are here, who gave me the grounding in service and purpose that powers me every day.
To my wife, Cammie, Cammie, look what we've accomplished.
Look what we've done.
For them, right?
I'm just so proud of our family and what we've been able to do, our humble family, be able to take this kind of action.
To my boys, I'm proud of the two of you.
You know, I know that this has been tough.
I know it hasn't been easy.
And I know there have been moments where I haven't always been there for you in the way that I wish I was as a father.
But I hope you're proud of me.
And I hope that when you learn about this moment in America, that you come to understand why I did what I did and why I fight for you.
I chose this hotel for a particular reason.
37 years ago, when I was five years old, my family and I lived out of this hotel for several weeks when we first moved to New Jersey.
My first nights in the state were right here in this hotel.
My dad had just accepted a job, his very first job ever, working at a lab in Camden to do cancer research.
And we were looking for a home for us to rent.
My very first nights, as I said, were here, and some of the strongest memories I have ever had in my life, early hard moments in my life, were here.
I remember staying here.
I remember there's a restaurant here.
I think it was called Circles.
I can't remember.
But I just remember feeling like the food was amazing.
I was like, people in New Jersey live good here.
Quality of the food, high class, I felt like a prince.
And I just have to say, I wanted to be here tonight in this hotel.
I wanted to pay tribute to my parents, to my family, to this state, for giving a kid like me a chance to be on the dream, for giving me the tools through public education and a kind community.
It worked but easy initially.
We had no family to lean on here, no friends to help us get started, but New Jersey welcomed us.
I wanted to return here tonight to give perspective.
For my parents, this hotel was an important step in achieving the American dream and then they're ultimately given back to this state.
My parents taught me something I'll never forget.
They taught me to love America.
I revere this country.
I am in awe of America.
When I worked at the White House, I've shared this story before, when I worked at the White House, I had a pair of black pristine leather shoes that I would only wear whenever I was asked to go into the Opal Office.
I wanted to treat that room different.
I wanted to remind myself that I'm part of something bigger than all of us.
And it's because of my reverence for this nation that it also pains me to our core to see the struggles that we are going through.
That we aren't just having policy debates and fights, but instead the very foundation of our democracy is render tragedy.
People tell me they simply didn't trust their public servants.
They simply didn't trust that the politics was working for them.
They didn't think that the big challenges we face in our family and as a state are solvable because they thought nobody was looking out for them.
We know what happened in our race.
I certainly recognize right now that we are at a moment of profound anxiety about what comes next for our country.
That the coming minutes and hours and days could very well be excruciating.
But regardless of what happens next, we need to recognize that we face significant challenge regardless of the outcome.
That the divisions we face are deep to the bone.
They will not be fixed by any single election.
And it isn't just about the politics.
We live in a time of the greatest amount of inequality in our nation's history too.
In Salem, I visited a public housing complex and talked to a mother who showed me the black mold growing on her home on the walls where her kids live.
She told me about her pleas for help that did not go answered.
I heard from a young man who felt so pessimistic about his life, he said to me that he didn't think that he could ever afford to buy a home in this state because of the high cost as well as a high student loan burden that he was facing.
Regardless of what the final results are from this election, our nation is on an unsustainable trajectory.
But let there be no doubt that this is a new era of politics rising.
The same old, same old is dumb.
We've shown New Jersey that there's a better way.
We've shown the country that there's a better way to be able to do this.
It could mean a politics that lifts people up, that gives people hope, that delivers for everyone.
It could mean a politics that changes the trajectory of our nation and builds a brighter future.
I'd like to put forward a challenge to us all.
In a little over a year, we're going to be celebrating our 250th anniversary as a nation, as a democracy.
Let us use that extraordinary milestone as a moment of healing.
Let us change this trajectory that we find ourselves on.
In the same way that I reflect on my family start in this very hotel, let us reflect upon the first principles of our nation and put forward a renewed vision.
Let us use the 250th anniversary to be a reminder of the greatness of America.
That the greatness of America is not what we take from this country, but what we give back.
It is what we pass down as I look to my parents and as I looked to my two boys, the hope I give for the same opportunities and the certainty that my parents gave us when we first came to this hotel nearly 40 years ago.
That we should use the 250th anniversary to make major investments in our country and our democracy, like supercharging civics education, like building a national service program, investing in civic organizations and community groups about rebuilding the architecture of community that has decayed in our nation with the goal of breathing new life into a meaning of patriotism.
This challenge is a reminder that today, that Election Day is the starting line, not the finish line.
What we built isn't just a campaign.
We have built a movement.
A movement to fix broken politics.
A movement that does not end with the election tonight, but it does not diminish with the votes ending.
It's a movement that helps our nation heal by reminding us that we have more in common than what separates us.
It's one that can put service at the center of our citizenship, giving everyone a chance to give back and be part of something bigger.
It's one that can lift up the knowledge of our citizenry to ensure we are informed to make decisions and also remind people that public service is something we should be proud of, aspire to, and not diminish.
Showing Americans that being patriotic means looking out for one another, not tearing each other down or attacking our democratic institutions.
I approach this moment with the utmost humility as I prepare to take on this job, a job that only 2,000 Americans in the history of this country have ever had the honor to do.
Out of approximately 600 million people who have ever been called Americans, to be able to step up and have this opportunity.
of the over 120 years of koreans being in america that i could add a chapter that hasn't been written before damn that i will not be perfect that i will stumble and i will struggle at times But I assure you I will give this everything I got, and I will try and serve with honor and integrity.
I promise you I will not lose myself along the way.
I will anchor myself in the deep sense of public service that has guided me all these years.
I won't let the job change me.
Instead, I will work to change the job to be able to better fulfill what the people in America can serve.
Change the broken politics that have decayed our nation.
And I hope to represent everyone in this state.
Whether you voted for me or not, I serve you.
And I hope to bring back meaning to that phrase, public service.
The way I see it is I am now dedicating the rest of my service to this nation to address one singular question, which is how do we heal this country?
I do this for my boys, for Austin and August, who deserve more than I can ever create.
We do this for your kids and your grandkids, because what is the point of our time on this planet if we take more than we give?
I thank you not just for being with me on this journey, but for being with me on the journey ahead.
What started in living rooms in Burlington and Ocean Counties and grew into convention halls and balmidge and hunger damage.
We have become the strongest grassroots mobilization New Jersey has ever seen.
And from a movement that nobody believed would win to one that is bringing my voice, your voice, to the highest levels of our great democracy.
I just have to say how incredible of an experience that this is.
I want to ask you, are you proud of what we built?
Do you believe in the change that we can build?
And are you ready to keep fighting for our country?
And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this incredible honor, for this Jersey kid who never thought he'd be able to say this, that I am your next United States Senator.
Tim Sheehy, the 2024 Republican nominee to represent Montana in the U.S. Senate, spoke to supporters on election night from the city of Bozeman.
He defeated three-term incumbent Democratic Senator John Tester.
At the time of his remarks, the race had yet to be officially called.
All right, so I have some news.
When this great state was founded in 1889, we had two Republican U.S. Senators.
We've not had two Republican U.S. Senators for 114 years.
But that streak just got broken tonight.
I want to introduce to you the junior senator from Montana, Tim Sheehy.
All right, thanks, everybody.
Thanks for sticking around so late.
I know it's been a long night, but some of you have been here since the beginning when we announced last year, and everybody said, Tim Who?
And now you're still here today.
So thank you for everybody for coming out.
Thanks for everything.
God bless America, exactly.
First off, I want to be very honest and say I want to thank Senator Tester for his many decades of service to the state and country.
We may disagree with him on policy, but it's a tough job.
And I want to thank him for his years of service.
I have to thank my wife, Carmen.
As you guys probably know, she was.
We met when we were teenagers and decided pretty soon thereafter we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.
But then we didn't see each other very often.
And as you probably know, we were then married via the mail.
I'm a mail-order husband because she was deployed in Afghanistan and I was somewhere else.
And we decided to get married.
So we notarized a couple of forms and mailed them to Kalispell Courthouse.
And the rest was history.
But she stuck with me through all kinds of crazy stuff, plane crashes, wars, two wars, multiple deployments, and we're still here.
And now we're on to our next adventure.
So thank you.
I love you.
My parents, who I literally wouldn't be here, I wouldn't exist if it wasn't for them.
So I have to thank them.
They've taken on, like many of you have here who are friends and business partners and family, they've taken on so much responsibility.
At 72 years old, now they have to be quasi-parents of four young kids again as we've been running around the state trying to save this country.
So thank you, Mom and Dad, for all your effort you put forward.
My best friend and mentor, my brother Matt, I can't see him out there.
He's here somewhere.
I know he's actually here.
Wouldn't be anything without him.
He's been since I was a little kid.
He used to beat me up, but then I became a Navy SEAL and he thought better of that.
So he doesn't do that anymore, but it wouldn't be anywhere without Matt.
And of course, campaign team, I mean, I can't list all of you.
I'm sorry.
I know who you are.
You know who you are.
This has been a brutal campaign.
There's no question about it.
18 months.
The lies that have been told about me, about my family, about you guys.
I've had campaign staff specifically singled out, and it's been a rough time for everybody.
Businesses and charities I'm involved in have even been targeted.
So all of you who've been part of this campaign, I know you've been do it a lot.
My friends, family, and partners at Bridger Aerospace, you've been maligned terribly out there, but you've continued to do your job.
You've put your head down, fought fires, and protected our communities despite all that.
So all of you on the campaign team and everyone else has helped us out.
Thank you very much for your dedication to this country.
And everybody who voted for me, thank you.
I have, since I was 18 years old, I've served this country.
I sat on the dotted line, like many of you here did, and I was proud to serve my country overseas, came home, served my country fighting fires.
And to those who did not vote for me, I will also serve you.
Just like I did in the military, I took an oath to serve all Americans, and I'll take an oath here to serve all Montanans.
So I will earn your vote in the future.
If you didn't vote for me, I will work to earn your support in future elections because we have to save this country.
And to save it, we've got to come together and figure out how to heal this country.
We have to disagree better, and we've got to actually move forward and stop arguing about everything.
We've got to make some progress.
To our miners, to our loggers, to our truck drivers, our diesel mechanics, our electricians, our plumbers, our carpenters, to the people who work with your hands, our ranchers and farmers who make this economy run.
You are the people that we have to make this economy work for again.
We've got to make sure that the folks who go to work every day work with their hands, pay for their own education, and put food on the table for their families, we've got to make sure this economy works for them again.
That's going to be our top priority.
Bring inflation down, get real wages back up, and make sure that if you work with your hands, you can make a good living in this country and provide for your family.
And a key part of that is our resource economy.
We've got to bring back our resource economy, and that hits home hugely here in Montana.
We've got to make sure our coal miners don't have to worry every single year that they're going to go out of business.
They're going to lose their jobs.
Our timber industry, copper, oil and gas.
We need to unleash American resources.
We do it better, safer, and greener here in America than anywhere else in the world.
So let's do it here with Montana jobs.
And to our veterans, our police officers, our first responders, our military members, our firefighters out there, you have a sacred duty.
We're so grateful that every day you put on a uniform and you decide to put your life on the line to protect the rest of us.
It's about time we stand behind you unequivocally.
We've got to rebuild our military.
We've got to make sure our military is ready to fight our next war and prioritize combat lethality for our men and women in uniform.
We owe them a lethal military, and we're going to give it to them.
In Montana, our Native brothers and sisters, it's about time we turn the page on relations here.
We make sure we get our tribal communities back on their feet economically.
We give them sovereignty and agency so that they can succeed economically, grow businesses on the reservation, and have the economic freedom to grow the communities, have prosperity, and have a successful organic economy on every tribal community in the state.
And finally, you've heard me say it a million times, I'll say it again: common sense.
It's about time we bring common sense back to this country.
And in Montana, we've run a grassroots campaign, as you all know.
We couldn't outspend our opponents on the air.
We couldn't beat them in the media.
So we traveled the state.
Grassroots, we burned a lot of shoe leather, burned a lot of diesel.
We visited every single county, most of them multiple times.
And what we heard is Montanas want common sense back.
They want a secure border, safe streets, cheap gas, cops are good, criminals are bad, boys or boys, girls or girls.
Now, most of you here know the real Tim Sheehy.
Unfortunately, most of Montana knows Shady Sheehy at this point.
So over the next few months, hopefully they'll get to know the real Tim Sheehy.
And they'll learn that I've dedicated my life to this country, as is my wife, as is our family.
This role will be no different.
We are going to dedicate our time and our energies to make sure we get this country back on the right track and we make Montana and America work for all Americans.