Recently there’s been a lot of talk about the value of grassroots donations to Presidential campaigns – another candidate even called them “pocket change” and said that we “aren’t going to defeat Donald Trump” without catering to major donors.
I disagree.
This campaign is fueled by more than 175,000 individual donors from this so called pocket change.
So far this month, our average donation online has been $15. This is personal for me.
My path to this moment didn’t begin with me. It began when my grandmother, Victoria, came to the United States at seven years old. She never made it past the fourth grade, but worked hard for low wages for her family and passed on the values of hard work and perseverance. My mother, Rosie, grew up to become a strong Chicana activist, educator and single mom to myself and my twin brother Joaquin. She taught me that if you want to make a change in your community, you don’t wait— you work hard. That is how she became the first Chicana to run for San Antonio City Council.
$15 isn’t just pocket change – it’s what so many have fought for as the hourly living wage. I believe that we need to unrig our broken economic system so that it works for the people at the bottom as well as it does for those at the top. For years, working families have been asked to pay more and more, while the 1% reap the benefits. This is why I have advocated for raising the minimum wage to $15 and joined the “Fight for 15” protests by fast-food workers across the country, who are fighting for a living wage and safe working conditions.
I am proud that my campaign had one of the lowest average contribution amounts of any of the major Presidential campaigns last quarter. This shows that Americans from all walks of life believe in our message and our vision of putting people - not corporations - first and are giving whatever they can spare to help us spread our message.
It is no secret that my campaign is not the favorite of hedge fund millionaires on Wall Street. But that’s ok, because it’s not their support I’m after. I have pledged to reject any help from PACs, special interest groups, and lobbyists, because I know their corruptive influence is not in the best interests of our country. It may hurt our fundraising, but I don’t care because I have the support of people like you instead, and that’s all I need.
