On Day One of the Democratic National Convention, DLCC featured three legislative leaders and DLCC Board members on the convention stage: Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León, and Georgia House Democratic Leader Stacey Abrams. These state Democrats stressed the importance of legislative elections by detailing some of their respective state caucus’s accomplishments. Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León maintained the successful push to enact a statewide $15 minimum wage in California and underscored the benefit of fair wages by sharing his mother’s story as a single working mom. Under House Speaker Tina Kotek’s leadership, Oregon now boasts some of the nation’s most inclusive equal opportunity laws, such as a non-discrimination law that includes protections for sexual orientation. Speaker Kotek articulated her experience as the first lesbian Speaker of any statehouse and how state progress has empowered her and the LGBTQ community to thrive while protected as equal citizens under the law. In Georgia, House Democratic Leader Stacy Abrams has worked to keep her community safe by authoring and enacting legislation to expand protections for disabled adults and seniors, strengthen Georgia’s HOPE scholarship to relieve Guardsmen of their student loans, and create a procedure for the review of incidents involving an officer’s use of deadly force. Leader Abrams spoke passionately about her belief in government as an expression of our “common humanity” and the Democratic Party’s role in advancing civil and human rights.
These lawmakers expressed how progress made in statehouses across the country can be translated to achieve national legislative breakthroughs. DLCC is proud to promote and encourage state advancement by working to elect Democrats to statehouses, and we are so proud of our Board members and their fight for state progress.
If you missed this important address, you can watch Speaker Kotek, President Pro Tempore de León, and Leader Abrams below, or by clicking here.
