Make. Your. Voices. Heard!
With only 25 days until the most important election in our lifetimes, the MCYD is proud to announce our Days of Action kickoff on Thursday, October 15 at 7 PM. This event will kick off 4 days of action across the month designed to help get our Democratic candidates at all levels of government over the finish line!
Raise Your Voice: A Conversation On Youth Engagement will feature young Democrats who are already helping us build a better New Jersey:
Our speakers will be available to answer any questions you might have about their background, their current activities, and the state of this year’s elections.
Our current speakers can be found below, with more to come!
MCYD hopes that this event will educate, motivate, and inspire young people like us to see ourselves in the work necessary to build the future we seek.
To sign up to join this virtual event on Zoom, click here.
We hope to see you there!
CURRENT SPEAKER LINEUP
 Clifford D. Dawkins, Jr. is a resident of Rockaway, NJ, where he lives with his wife and high school sweetheart, Tammy, and their young son and daughter.
Orphaned at a young age, Cliff independently made his way from Dover Public Schools, where he was a decorated scholar-athlete, to Cornell University, where he graduated, with distinction, earning a Bachelors in Business Administration; a Concentration in Organizational Management, Communications, and Law; and a Minor in Africana Studies. Cliff next graduated from Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy with a Masters in Public Policy, and a focus on Labor, Education, & Social Policy. Graduating again with distinction, Cliff represented his class as the 2012 convocation speaker on the Bloustein School's 20th Anniversary Celebration. Additionally, Cliff was honored with the Bloustein School's coveted "Outstanding Student Service Award" for his contributions to his campus and affiliated communities. Also in 2012, he received the Gold "United States President's Volunteer Service Award" for his grant-writing work with the Urban League of Morris County. Lastly, Cliff graduated from Rutgers School of Law, where he was elected the first first-year student of color to be President of the Student Bar Association. After law school, Cliff served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jose L. Fuentes in the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
Cliff has founded and leads numerous community-based organizations. He had twice interned in the US Congress, in the House of Representatives with Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen and in the Senate with Senator Bob Menendez. Cliff also recently ran for NJ State Senate in LD-25.
Today, Cliff is an employment and labor attorney at a premier law firm, community organizer, professional mediator and arbitrator, and social entrepreneur. He was awarded the 2019 and 2020 National Black Lawyers 40 Under 40 Award and Top 100 Lawyers Award, the 2020 Thomson Reuters "Top Lawyers Rising Star Award", and the National Bar Association's Chairman's Award.
In September of 2020, Cliff, Tammy, and his younger sister, Maya Dawkins, came together with an esteemed group of community leaders to found the Marjorie A. Dawkins Institute for Equal Opportunity ("MADI") to help develop the next generation of leaders across the state of New Jersey.
 Axel Owen currently serves as Campaign Manager for NJCAN2020, a coalition of organizations running the campaign to legalize marijuana in this year’s referendum.
Axel has years of campaign experience across the country and served as the Political Director of the NJDSC.
He most recently served as statewide organizing director of Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign in New Jersey and served as campaign manager for the re-election of Assemblymen Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick) and Roy Freiman (D-Hillsborough) in 2019. He managed the 2017 campaign of State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch), which toppled a three-term incumbent.
More speakers will be announced in the coming days, so stay tuned to Facebook and Instagram for those announcements!
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