I am currently Deputy Press Secretary for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, where I fight every day to lift up the voices of marginalized and impacted communities of pollution caused by toxic power plants. My job isn't about raising my voice or profile, but lifting up those of others. That work has allowed me to branch out support to other local initiatives (local Indivisible groups, Black Lives Matter groups, community coalitions, etc.) in countless cities in countless states all across the country. In my free time I have been a member of your executive team at the local Party. I started out in leadership as interim First Vice Chair while our newly elected Representative, Dotie Joseph, ran in her primary. I then ran for interim Outreach Vice Chair, and in December was elected to a full two year term as Outreach Vice Chair.
In all of my years supporting the political apparatus in South Florida I have wanted to see change. Not a change in people, but a change in excitement and belief that we have a voice. I have made a career out of helping people find their voice, out of helping people realize that their voice has power. Through our course correction on support for the Democratic National Convention, I ensured we stood with the majority opinion of our members. We wanted to support our elected officials and I made sure your voices were heard, and that the media knew that as well. In my time as Outreach Vice Chair I have started to better engage with our elected officials, caucus and clubs, and outside events and organizations. I believe that we are a sum of all of the amazing parts of our party, and that “we are all in this together!”
I believe that the chair’s position for this specific time of ramping up for a presidential election needs to be focused on three things:
- Fundraising: I would be naive to think that we can achieve much without raising the funds needed to make the investments necessary to correct the issues we identified in the 2018 election. We need to fund our core programs, and we need to grow our presence in communities long ignored due to lack of resources. We need to equip our candidates with tools to reach their fundraising goals, and need to be able to provide our candidates with support however we can. But, we also need to be practical and not promise things that we cannot fund.
- Representation: Our DEC can be much larger, and our executive team can be much more diverse. I believe that we need to grow our membership and our leadership to be more representative of our diverse county. We need to train and promote our people to be the future leaders of our Party. There are many ways to do that, and I am excited to get to work on that with all of you.
- Amplification: We need to highlight and create opportunities for our elected officials and candidates to be out in the media. We need to increase our visibility to the everyday voter. We can do this through voter registration, event sponsorship, targeting opportunities for earned media, and developing spokespeople in all of our communities.
I want to be a leader of leaders, leaning on the experience of our amazing membership. I believe that the Chair of the Miami Dade Democratic Party should be someone who makes sure all voices are heard, supported, and encouraged. We have such a diversity of thought within the local Party with all of our caucuses and clubs, and I believe that the Chair should celebrate and work every day to ensure all of them are valued and have equal opportunities. I like to say “we are all in this together” because in order to achieve our goals in 2020 we need to make sure we are all on the same page, and that all voices are being heard.
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