Ansari at Munich Security Conference: “We Need to Offer Bold, Big Changes for the Future”

WASHINGTON - Over the weekend, Representative Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), the first Iranian American Democrat and youngest woman in Congress, attended the Munich Security Conference, emphasizing the need for bold leadership to move past the chaos and instability caused by the Trump Administration.

"Young people already care deeply about foreign policy," said Ansari. "But for them, foreign policy looks like the climate crisis. It looks like student debt. It looks like artificial intelligence changing the future of work. It looks like endless wars. We have to connect global leadership with delivering real improvements in people's daily lives. That means offering bold, big changes for the future-not incremental change, but transformational change. Policies need to be designed to deliver for young people in a big way like they never have before."

At the conference, Ansari spoke in panels on topics ranging from climate leadership, rebuilding trust with NATO, and rebuilding the world order for the next generation.

WATCH

Panel Discussion: "Under Construction: A World Order for the Next Generation"

See transcript below:

Ansari on the next generation's visions and ideas for the construction of a new world order:

Ansari: "It's an honor to be here. I actually first got interested in politics when I was in high school, and I grew up in Arizona, and I currently represent Phoenix, Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives. And I was 16 years old when Barack Obama was running for president against our former U.S. Senator, John McCain, and he obviously had a once in a generation ability to inspire. But during that time period is when I just jumped in. I started volunteering with our local Democratic Party, getting hyper involved as a 16 year old, making calls, knocking on doors, getting volunteers to come out. And so got that first glimpse into politics then, but I did not decide to run for office, until many years later, after Donald Trump was first elected as president in 2016 and I was having an existential crisis of sorts, and decided, and I was working on climate policy, on the UN Secretary General's climate team at the time, and when he pulled out of The Paris Climate Agreement, I decided to move back home to Arizona and run for the Phoenix City council, where I felt I could make more of a local impact.

"So that's that's my story, but I think about this issue a lot about young people, and I think young people in the United States already care deeply about foreign policy, but it's a matter of how foreign policy affects their lives on a day to day, foreign policy looks like the impacts of the climate crisis. It looks like student debt. It looks like artificial intelligence, taking jobs away and risking the future of work. It looks like endless wars, and their siblings or their parents, or potentially them having been impacted by those wars. And what we've seen in the United States over both political parties, over the course of the last several decades is not enough has been done to provide transformational change for young people, and so currently in the United States.

"First of all, buying. The idea of buying a house is all but impossible. I'm almost 34 years old, and most people my age don't own a home. Housing is just entirely too expensive. Child Care is impossible. People are going to school, but having a harder and harder time finding jobs. They're impacted by the climate crisis and artificial intelligence, and then they are questioning their leadership, and somebody like a Donald Trump in this moment was able to really capitalize on those hardships, capitalize on income inequality and offer something different. And I think that now what we've seen from that has been the most corrupt and authoritarian administration in United States history. There was a worry that young people were moving towards the right in the United States, and recent polling and data shows that is not the case, and they have quickly even the gains that Donald Trump and Republicans made have quickly gone in the other direction, because they have seen that this is an administration that is only focused on enriching the president and enriching his family, but It's about where we go from here.

"And I think for me and for my party, of course, the Democratic Party, I think we need to offer bold, big changes for the future, not incremental change, but transformational change. We need to have policies that will make housing more affordable, that will make child care more affordable, that will really re-engage us on climate policy worldwide. And I think it's not just about rejoining the Paris Climate Accords anymore, but doing 10 times more as the United States on climate policy, on creating partnerships, on climate security, on regulating companies in the United States. I know there's been some talk about it this weekend, but one of our largest domestic challenges and why it's so difficult to make progress on policy in the United States is the role of big money in our political system. And right now, you have the artificial intelligence companies with the biggest super PAC prepared for the 2026 election, so that anybody who dares to talk about AI regulation is immediately facing millions of dollars against them in a campaign. And that is driving a lot of the, I would say skepticism of young people as well in the political system.

"So a lot of changes have to be made, but I am optimistic. I see young people every day in my role. I have a young team, and this election cycle, I'm seeing more and more young people who have never even thought about politics, come forward, want to volunteer, want to get involved, and I think they are going to make a massive difference in this election. But we can't think of them as just a demographic in an election. Policies need to be designed to deliver for young people in a big way like they never have before."

Ansari on prioritizing and tackling challenges simultaneously:

Ansari: "One thing that I will say, this might be the only thing that I would admit, that I have learned from Donald Trump is this lack of hesitancy to do a lot of things at once and not even think about the consequences, and that is manifested in terrible ways. But where I'm trying to get to is that I think my party has had an issue where we just want to do everything perfectly with all of the data and all of all of the backing and all of the buy in and all of the debates for years on the nuances, and we don't need to do that. Like when I picture the next administration and a Democratic president, I think we need to immediately enact a wealth tax and make sure that we are able to pay for universal health care for everybody in the United States of America. We're able to create new programs to make home ownership a reality.

"We're able to create free childcare programs, and we can do all of that while, at the same time, recreating the new version of USAID and re engaging diplomatically on the world stage by rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization and all of the many entities internationally that we've disengaged from, and create those in a way that's bigger and bolder, and more rooted in the realities and challenges of the year 2027 or 2028 or 2029 than ever before. And we can do all of those things at the same time, and we don't need to be so fearful. I also think a lot about one of our biggest challenges right now, is around ICE, our domestic immigration enforcement mechanism, or historically, what that has has been, and we are seeing mass agents on American streets, terrorizing people of all backgrounds, racially profiling people, as seen two US citizens were murdered in broad daylight by these federal agents. And that is, to me, that's foreign policy.

"If our domestic situation is one that people are fearful to travel to the United States, that immigrants from all over the world are trapped inside our detention centers, where I have been several times, and the conditions are horrific, an absolute stain on the United States that I think will last for decades. That is an example of an agency that needs to be abolished immediately the next time there's a Democratic president, and we need to rethink what immigration enforcement looks like in the United States. It's going to take a lot of work to regain our credibility around the world, and I think that's justified, but I think that the next president has a real opportunity to show that government can work for people, and that we can both deliver for people in the United States and be a credible partner around the world."

Follow @RepYassAnsari on all social media platforms and visit Ansari.House.gov to learn more.

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