Luis Acevedo-Arreguin, the Independent nominee for Congress in 2022 is endorsing Democrat Charlene Concepción Nijmeh in the heated primary campaign that will be held on March 5th. Thirty-year incumbent Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a hyper-partisan who is widely seen as contributing to the Congress’ toxic culture of bullying and political bossism, trails in the polls but is trying desperately to retain her seat.
In 2022, Acevedo-Arreguin led a grassroots challenge to Lofgren in the newly reapportioned 18th congressional district. In 2021, Lofgren’s district was redrawn very dramatically. Lofgren’s wealthy white tech-worker constituency that she has represented since 1995 disappeared from the district, which is now a working-class majority-Latino district that is far more rural and far less connected to the tech industry.
As an Independent candidate, Acevedo-Arreguin earned more than 20% of the vote. He was able to mobilize hard-working Mexican American communities in places like Salinas, Watsonville, Hollister, and San Juan Batista — where the interests of the tech industry seem entirely divergent from the well-being of the current residents of these places.
The tech industry’s gentrification pressures have sent Bay Area housing costs skyrocketing, and the gentrification of Latinos out of San Jose has been a decades-long process that is now starting to be felt in the communities of the Central Coast, and in places like Gilroy.
The tech industry’s failure to build school-to-work pipelines has not gone unnoticed. That the industry imports labor from around the world to staff its companies, rather than to train the historic Mexican American population that has lived in San Jose before it was part of the United States, does not go unnoticed by voters.
Acevedo-Arreguin made the issue a centerpiece of his campaign. Now, Nijmeh is speaking up for the same constituency that she also says has been left out of the tech industry’s explosive growth.
“The Mexican American and indigenous populations have been largely locked out of the tech industry because we are not doing a good enough job training our young people in mathematics, engineering, and the sciences,” explains Nijmeh. “When I’m in Congress, I’m going to bring together Silicon Valley tech leaders and public education leaders in our most marginalized communities to ensure that this type of collaboration is happening.”
“Luis and I agree that our communities need these training-to-career pipelines. We haven’t seen that type of embrace of Latinos from tech leaders, but our current Representative has not prioritized us,” she adds.
“A couple of years ago, I ran to represent District 18 driven by the lack of attention of legislators in Washington, D.C. to the problems our communities face every single day: from an immigration reform promised by a congresswoman who has been in Congress for almost 30 years with no progress at all, to an uncertain future for thousands of Latino children attending schools where academic performance in mathematics is terrible,” Acevedo-Arreguin explains. “I am not running this time, but I am pursuing the same ideals of a better health and educational system, affordable housing, a comprehensive immigration reform, and no more involvement of our country in wars…”
“I am urging the constituents of the district, where I have spent most of my life in the United States, to vote for Charlene Concepción Nijmeh. Charlene not only believes that it is the time to pass the torch to the next generation, but she also shows her concern about the conditions of new generations who are growing up in our country,” he says.
Acevedo-Arreguin also notes in his endorsement letter that he is impressed with Nijmeh’s commitments to reject corporate PAC money, to not own stock while in Congress, and to donate her salary to support those who are most in need here in the 18th congressional district.
“When you get to know Charlene, you’ll find that she fights hard for her people and she speaks truth to power,” he writes. Acevedo-Arreguin says that Nijmeh’s work in textile recycling is an inspiring story of environmental entrepreneurship and doing well by doing good.
“Charlene understands that economic development can and should happen in congruence with environmental protection and conservation. I’m excited about her proposal to make Pinnacles National Park the flagship of the National Park System and to cultivate our region’s eco-tourism, recreation, and agri-tourism industries,” he explains.
Be the first to comment