The Democratic Party’s path towards 2020 must be carved not only by the party leaders in Washington, but by the people the party represents. Gone are the days of Beltway jargon and top-down marching orders. The time has come for Democratic Party leaders to hand the baton to the people and choose a Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair that has spent his entire career working for the people. That Democrat is Tom Perez.
The son of immigrant parents who left the Dominican Republic to flee a dictatorship, Tom does not take our country’s democracy at face value. This is a man who was raised in a working-class family, worked as a garbage collector to pay his college tuition, went on to earn degrees from Brown and Harvard, and was appointed to one of the highest positions in a presidential administration.
Tom was able to achieve his success because opportunity is one of the pillars that sustain our democracy, and none of this is possible without the people’s participation and ideas. He has a remarkable understanding of this democratic ideal, and he has developed it into a practical skill that has helped him achieve marked success revamping and running large government offices and winning lawsuits to help underserved communities. This skill? He listens to the people he serves.
Since day one of his professional career as a civil rights attorney in the Department of Justice through his tenure as Secretary of Labor, Tom worked to ensure that our democracy works for others, especially for those who do not have a voice. He litigated against discrimination laws, supported voter rights, and fought for the rights of communities of color, women, immigrants and the LGBTQ community.
{mosads}Tom is also no stranger to elected office, having served on the Montgomery City Council—the first Latino to hold this position. He also worked as a community organizer and helped CASA de Maryland, a nonprofit that helps immigrants, grow into a large advocacy and immigrant services organization. Even when his career took him to cabinet-level positions, his feet remained firm on the ground.
When the Justice Department went after Joseph Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s unconstitutional practices in 2013, Tom Perez, assistant attorney general at the time, flew to Phoenix to announce the lawsuit at a press conference. Tom, the civil rights lawyer, denounced Arpaio’s and his deputies’ racist, bigoted actions and stood in solidarity with the people who had been discriminated.
When HB 56 threatened the immigrant community in Alabama, Tom traveled across the state, listening to community leaders and members, hearing their stories to learn how to best defend them from injustice. He’s not one to sit back in headquarters. He’s always in the trenches. As DNC party chair, one can bet that Tom will fly all over the nation to listen to county chairs, state directors, outreach coordinators, volunteers, and to anyone who wants to voice their ideas.
In Tom, the DNC will have an effective leader who will listen to the people and empower them to become active participants in our democracy. We have seen him steadfastly earn the support of a diverse group of Democratic leaders and representatives. He knows that the party must resurface with the same enthusiasm and passion that prompts the local teacher to run for city council or in the county chair to organize a town hall so that her neighbors can voice their opinions.
He will build on the Democratic Party’s past triumphs with fresh, new ideas gleaned from younger generations. To do so, he will strengthen the Democratic Party at the local and state levels, and be in touch with each community’s ideas and needs so that these in turn will build the party’s structure. He will also build up party leaders who are diverse so that the party’s policies and ideas can reflect what our country has become—a diverse, inclusive nation.
Tom Perez is undoubtedly the leader, the fighter and the listener that Democrats need in the helm as we look towards 2018 and 2020.
Leopoldo Martinez is chairman and chief executive officer of the Center for Democracy and Development in the Americas, board chairman of the Latino Victory Fund, and an advisor to the Group of Fifty Foundation.
The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.