Las Vegas — Today, the ONE Campaign launched ONE Vote ’08 in Nevada, an unprecedented, high energy, non-partisan campaign to save lives and secure America’s future. The campaign aims to energize presidential candidates, ONE’s 17,000 members in Nevada and ONE’s 2.4 million members nationwide to make the fight against global extreme poverty a key foreign policy issue in the 2008 presidential election.

Nevada ONE Vote ’08 Honorary Chairs Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV) came together at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory School to launch the aggressive mobilization effort and multi-media campaign. Julie Pippenger, Executive Director of the Agassi Foundation, represented Andre Agassi at the press conference and announced his role as an Honorary Chair of the Nevada ONE Campaign. Berkley, Porter and Pippenger were joined by state political activists, local representatives from the presidential campaigns and faith leaders.

“Nevada’s new position at the front of the lines of the 2008 presidential race gives us a unique opportunity to ask presidential candidates directly about a vital part of our foreign policy,” said Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV), Honorary Co-Chair of Nevada One Vote ’08. “Nevada ONE Vote ’08 capitalizes on the successes ONE has had to date and demonstrates to candidates and citizens that Africa and other poor nations are an opportunity, not a burden.”

“Nevada ONE Vote ’08 is an unprecedented bi-partisan opportunity to increase awareness for those who have no voice,” said Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV), Honorary Co-Chair of Nevada One Vote ’08. “I’m proud to work with Andre Agassi, Representative Berkley, the other members of our Ambassador Council and Nevada’s 17,000 ONE grassroots activists to accomplish the goals of ending global poverty and disease.”

“Education is the vehicle to change, but around the world, 104 million children do not go to grade school because their parents cannot afford fees, books or uniforms,” Andre Agassi, Honorary Chair of the Nevada ONE Campaign, said. “The ONE Vote ’08 project is, at its core, about education — educating leaders and voters alike that we need to focus our priorities. I am proud to add my voice to the millions of Americans who have said we can do better.”

“America is a great country and the ONE Campaign speaks to our ability to make smart investments that save lives, make allies and build stability that strengthens us all,” Susan McCue, President and CEO of the ONE Campaign, said. “Nevada is a state close to my heart and I am proud of the leading role Nevadans are taking in joining together – Republican and Democrat – to change the future for the better.”

“The emergency of global AIDS and poverty calls out to all of our hearts, with people of faith joined in the belief that God has charged us all with ensuring dignity of our neighbors,” Ben Parker, Pastor of The Crossings, explained. The faith community will play a vital role in ONE Vote ’08 because of their tremendous power to influence the next president of the U.S. to do more for the world’s poorest people.

Citing the overwhelming statistics of the devastation AIDS has wrought, Aid for AIDS of Nevada Executive Director Caroline Ciocca made an effective case about how ONE members can halt and even reverse the trend.

“We are a global family and I am here as a Nevadan, an elected leader, an ambassador of ONE and most importantly as a husband and father to help put an end to the loss of our children and our mothers,” State Senator Steven Horsford said in his remarks.

Other speakers at the press conference included Jenna Morton of N9NE Group and Adam Bellamy, founder of the ONE Nevada Yahoo Group.

New Calling, headed up by Las Vegan Rashida Jordan and composed of members of Gladys Knight’s Saints Unified Voices, capped off the press conference with their fresh upbeat message of hope and restoration. Exclaiming, “Join the Caravan,” they inspired those in attendance to sign the ONE declaration.

In a launch celebration at MOON inside the Palms Hotel later today, over 200 Nevadans are expected to attend, sign onto the campaign and listen to local live music from New Calling and Nick Mattera.

In an exceptional demonstration of camaraderie and bi-partisanship, local campaign representatives from the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden attended the event at Agassi Prep to lend their support for Nevada ONE Vote ’08. Jill Derby, Chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, also issued a statement of support, as did many of the presidential campaigns.

Heading up the local team for ONE Vote ’08 Nevada are Megan Jones as State Director and Matt Higginson as Deputy State Director. Jones comes to ONE with almost a decade of experience on the Nevada political scene. She recently served as the Finance Director for Hafen for Congress. Prior to that she was Deputy Campaign Manager for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Higginson is a native Nevadan and recently led Henderson Councilman Andy Hafen to re-election. He also served as Field Director for the Gibson for Governor campaign.

ONE Vote ’08 Nevada has amassed an impressive list of Ambassadors of ONE. These individuals will serve as a steering committee for the ONE Vote ’08 project in Nevada and will help build momentum and support for the campaign. Together with Nevada Honorary Chairs Andre Agassi, Congresswoman Berkley and Congressman Porter, Nevada Ambassadors will help build momentum and be key advocates in enlisting members of ONE to mobilize during the upcoming Nevada presidential caucuses on January 19, 2008.

ONE Vote ’08 Ambassadors include Co-Chairs Sig Rogich, Billy Vassiliades, Robert Uithoven and Mary Conelly as well as noted political strategists and the leaders of business, non-profit and faith groups across the state.

The National Campaign

U2’s Bono, co-founder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), and a major force in the creation of the ONE Campaign, has already met with many of the leading Democratic and Republican candidates, echoing the calls of ONE’s grassroots forces who are meeting these candidates as they travel across the country. Along with coalition partners, DATA is leading on the development of the policy platform and working with ONE on direct engagement with candidates.

Democratic and Republican presidential candidates recently answered a question about what they would do for Africa for a special July 2007 Africa-focused issue of Vanity Fair (www.vanityfair.com). ONE Campaign co-founder Bono was Vanity Fair‘s first ever guest editor for the issue.

ONE Vote ’08 national co-chairs Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle will travel the country talking with candidates and voters about America’s role in the world and what the next president can do to save lives and secure our future.

ONE Vote ’08 plans to spend a minimum of $30 million on this mass mobilization and media effort throughout the 2008 election cycle. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided a $22 million grant to the ONE Campaign to support ONE Vote ’08.

The ONE Campaign: A Record of Action

ONE Vote ’08 capitalizes on the successes the ONE Campaign has had demonstrating to America’s leaders that poor countries in Africa and around the world are an opportunity, not a burden. ONE is a broad-based coalition of more than 100 partners composed of the nation’s leading relief, humanitarian and advocacy organizations, including DATA, World Vision, CARE and the NAACP. The ONE campaign has also rallied nearly 2.4 million Americans of all walks of life. Together, ONE members and ONE partner groups encourage America’s leaders to do more to eradicate global poverty.

In March of 2007, ONE’s grassroots supporters and its partners successfully fought for and won the full restoration of a $2.2 billion cut to the International Affairs budget, which contains critical global poverty funding. In February 2007, ONE members sent more than 200,000 letters encouraging Congress to protect $1 billion in funding in the FY2007 budget for the fight against extreme poverty; Congress responded by committing to a $1.45 billion increase.

This past month, the House of Representatives demonstrated bi-partisan support for a historic increase of over $2 billion in poverty-fighting development assistance over last year. The funds were included in the FY2008 State-Foreign Operations spending bill, which passed the House in late June.

ONE Vote ’08: Saving Lives, Securing our Future is an unprecedented non-partisan campaign to engage and energize U.S. Presidential candidates on issues of extreme poverty and global health, bringing high visibility for these issues into the U.S. political arena along with commitments by each candidate to support real solutions. For more information, please visit: www.onevote’08.org