Why I’m Supporting Tom Perez
by: Danny Funaro
I am a millennial — the often discussed, much derided generation that has come to include anyone born from the mid-1980’s to the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. The narratives that follow millennials like myself range from the positive — our propensity to care about social and economic justice — to the negative — our supposed materialism and sense of entitlement. Whether you subscribe to the good or the bad, one thing is unquestionable: millennials are the future of the Democratic Party and the country as a whole. Tom Perez is the candidate for DNC Chair that best speaks to the experience of and issues relating to millennials like myself.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. My mother, who divorced my father when I was eleven, is a school nurse. She often raised my three siblings and me on a paycheck to paycheck basis. We were never poor, but I saw the stress my mother was under living that lifestyle. I always longed for a way to lighten that burden and in some ways I did. When I was in high school I used to sweep sawdust and scrape wood blocks at the local butcher for seven dollars an hour. Now that I am in my third year at the University of Notre Dame, an opportunity to help my mother even more appears to be right around the corner. The only problem is, like so many people my age, I am about to graduate with a mountain of debt. Tom Perez understands my struggle. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, the son of Dominican immigrants who worked hard and did the right thing to get by. When the time came for Tom to go to college, he put himself through with Pell Grants and hard work on the back of a trash truck. Much like my job at the butcher, working on the back of a trash truck was not glamorous, but it taught respect for money and hard work and helped Tom get by.
Tom is committed to alleviating the financial hardship that many millennials face. No policies exemplify this more than his commitments to raise the minimum wage and pay DNC interns. The fight to raise the minimum wage from the paltry federal rate of $7.25 is one of the defining battles of our time. For too long, large corporations have profited huge sums while refusing to pay their workers what they deserve. To protect their profits at the expense of the American worker, these corporations have spent millions of dollars lobbying local, state, and federal governments. Tom Perez has been a leader on this issue. As Secretary of Labor under President Barack Obama, he ensured that federal contractors paid their workers a higher minimum wage and raised the minimum wage for millions of home health care workers. He has continued this fight to the present with his criticism of Donald Trump’s now former nominee to be Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder.
The demands of a hyper-competitive environment have forced many millennials like myself to take internships that pay nothing or close to it. We have no choice but to take these internships in order to keep up with our peers. Companies and organizations have taken notice of this and have perpetuated the system of severely undervaluing the hard work of interns and new employees. By committing to pay interns if he becomes chair of the DNC, Tom Perez is leading by example in the fight to make sure everyone, no matter their age, is paid their fair share for hard work.
Tom’s legacy of fighting for the underdog goes even further than just advocating for millennial-related issues. As the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under Attorney General Eric Holder, Tom Perez turned the division around from its dark days under the Bush administration. He went after voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas as part of the effort to combat voter suppression, which he calls “the civil rights battle of our lifetime.” Furthermore, he set records for opening investigations into sheriff and police department misconduct, fought and beat the big banks when they foreclosed on active-duty service members and participated in racially motivated discrimination, and sued the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio for discriminating against Latinos.
As DNC Chair, Tom Perez will not rest until he sees progress on all the issues that he holds dear. He will support Democratic candidates in every zip code as they stand up and fight for the rights of workers, minorities, and people with disabilities. He will organize a grassroots movement in order to rebuild and sustain a party that recruits the leaders of tomorrow. Lastly, he will create a Best Practices Institute so that when solutions work, they will be remembered within the DNC and shared with state parties across the country for years to come. The challenges we face as a party are great, but with Tom Perez’s leadership, I am certain we will prevail.
