Hi there — I’m Javier.
I’ve been a friend of Peggy’s for over 20 years (her daughter is actually my goddaughter!), and I’ve known her as a colleague and fellow fighter for social justice.
I want to take a moment to tell you about the Peggy that I know. But if you’re fired up and ready to support my friend, please pitch in $5 now.
I first met Peggy in 2004, when she was running for Minneapolis school board and I was the president of SEIU Local 26.
We met when she came for her candidate interview. She stunned me — not just because she was potentially the youngest school board member in Minnesota, but because she was the most put-together candidate we had ever seen.
Not long after that, we hung out, and Peggy looked me in the eyes and said, “We are going to be best friends.” And she was right.
Fast forward 10 years, to 2014. Peggy was the co-chair of the Raise the Wage coalition in Minnesota.
We were trying to raise the minimum wage in our state and index that increase to inflation so that the minimum wage would increase as the cost of living did. Makes sense, right?
But we had a problem — the Democratic Trifecta controlling our government wanted us to be more cautious.
They wanted us to make a compromise. Raise the minimum wage, but don’t index it to inflation. They gave us a proposal, and we held an emergency meeting to talk it through.
Someone on the campaign had written the compromise on a whiteboard inside a cabinet. When it came time to discuss the watered-down plan, they got up to open it.
That’s when everyone heard Peggy say NO. And she got up and blocked that whiteboard with her body.
She wasn’t going to give up on working families who needed a real wage increase every year. And you know what?
She won.
Peggy crushed any deal that didn’t allow the minimum wage to be indexed to inflation. Until — you guessed it — under Peggy’s leadership, we did win that wage increase, INDEXED TO INFLATION. And because of that, for every year since 2014, the minimum wage in the state of Minnesota has increased.
I’m tired of watching Washington politicians lose fights they could win if they had the guts. I’m tired of Democrats picking easy wins when they should be standing up (literally) for working families.
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Thanks for supporting my friend,
Javier
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