Every day should be Labor Day. We have to fight for the basic proposition that apprenticeship is a wonderful ticket to the middle class. When we're fighting for things like paid leave, America is the only industrialized nation on the planet that doesn't have some form of paid leave - these are not bold ideas elsewhere in the world.
Thomas PerezWhen you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu, my friend Lee Saunders has said, and he is correct.
Thomas PerezDonald Trump and Eddie Gillespie and the Republicans in the Commonwealth of Virginia are the No. 1 impediment to Medicaid expansion. Voters understand that, and so, when they go to the polls, there's a lot of health care voters in Virginia. There's a lot of health care voters in New Jersey. And when you have a party whose belief is that health care is a privilege for a few, like the Republicans believe, that has consequences.
Thomas PerezI think when we show voters in every ZIP code across America that the Democratic Party is fighting for them - I mean, Dr. King said, what good is a seat at the table if you can't afford to buy a hamburger? I think that's a message that resonates everywhere, and we have to boldly put that forth, and we've got to organize around it everywhere so that people understand, in Wisconsin, or in the heart of Baltimore, what we stand for.
Thomas PerezAfrican-American women are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party, and we need to do more to make sure that we engage them, that we don't take them for granted. We need to be there. And again, I keep thinking about that woman I met in Detroit shortly after my election, who said, "You've got to stop showing up every fourth October and telling me that you care."
Thomas Perez