I moved to Minnesota from Florida in 2021 to marry Amy, my then-girlfriend and, now, wife. I was hired as a policy researcher for the Department of Revenue that December and I immediately joined MAPE. In 2022, my union job helped me achieve a life-long dream of mine to buy a house here in the Twin Cities. My commitment to this union led me to volunteer to run as a Delegate in my first year, and then to become a steward. In 2023, I became local secretary, a role in which I currently serve.
The secretary's duties under MAPE bylaws mainly revolve around producing monthly minutes, a task I can fulfill ably.
I have also spent much of the last year supporting the MAPE Ceasefire Caucus, a rapidly-growing group of organizers dedicated to getting our pensions out of the business of war. We have successfully activated MAPE members into taking on new responsibilities as Delegates, to run for local and statewide MAPE offices, and to attend statewide meetings, like the Board of Directors. This energy and enthusiasm for union work makes our union stronger.
MAPE is not my first union. I joined my previous union, Graduate Assistants United (GAU), in the first year of my PhD work at Florida State University. FSU-GAU is a chapter of the United Faculty of Florida, a statewide local of the Florida Education Association for college professors and graduate workers.
I volunteered first as Department Representative, a role similar to steward, for the economics department. Recruitment work I did there tripled the number of union members in the department, and encouraged me to join the bargaining committee. I then ran for the office of Treasurer, where I served for two years and began to wear many more hats for the union. At different times, I became a UFF Senator, an FEA Delegate, and an AFL-CIO Delegate for the Big Bend Central Labor Caucus. In my final years at FSU, I was elected Vice President, where I led a successful effort to streamline and democratize our bylaws, and served briefly as acting chair of our political committee, leading lobbying efforts at the state legislature for student fees relief.
My experience in all aspects of union work demonstrates my ability to advance the power of all parts of our union, from membership recruitment, political action, bargaining, and contract enforcement.
While living in Tallahassee and attending FSU, I agreed to run for the office of precinct committeeman for the county organization of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP), the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee. In this role, I helped lead a progressive caucus to elect new county leadership for the party as part of an effort to democratize the statewide FDP. I became chair of the credentials committee, and recruited dozens of new members to volunteer to organize their neighborhoods and canvass for Democratic candidates.
In that time, I became active in volunteering for several city and county commission races, helping to elect several candidates to a progressive governing bloc in favor of affordable housing, an end to corporate giveaways, accountability for police violence, and fully-funded schools. We successfully prevented the passage of a $40 million bailout for an unnecessary new convention center.
I am a socialist. That means I believe that the working class—the people in our society who are not wealthy enough to sustain themselves through financial investments, that is, almost all of us—should have democratic power over our political and economic lives. Under a capitalist system, most people are forced to sell their labor to survive, which means employers exercise unaccountable power over us for most hours of our waking lives. Unions are the most direct way that most workers can challenge this power, and allow us a say over what happens to us at work. This is why I have spent so much of the last 9 years of my life doing everything I can to build the labor movement.
The Democratic Socialists of America serves as a vital organizing network that builds working class power both inside individual unions and across the labor movement as a whole. We stand for liberation of all workers and the dignity of every human life.
That is why I am proud to have been a member of DSA since 2016.