The Year Duwayne Gregory Can End Peter King's Long, Tired Political Career

Alexa Sheryll is Duwayne Gregory's campaign manager. Their primary is a week from Tuesday, June 26. Alexa explained this week that she's heard that "a lot of people don’t know exactly where the money they give to campaigns goes. "As DuWayne’s campaign manager," she said, "I can tell you exactly where your donation goes... With our campaign, money isn’t going to some shadowy super PAC fund. It’s going directly to our efforts to bring real leadership to NY-02." She pointed to three priorities they need to fund between now and the 26th:

• Supporting our field team (even volunteers have to eat!)
• Helping DuWayne connect with as many voters as possible
• GOTV (get out the vote) efforts

Duwayne has already been endorsed by the Working Families, Women’s Equality and Independence parties and will challenge Peter King on those lines. His primary opponent is a woman and many Long Islanders wondered why Duwayne was endorsed by the Women's Equality Party. They based it on his work on behalf of women's equality, not on gender ID. Recently Duwayne wrote that "Trump campaigned on a platform that was anti-women-- and he’s followed through."

It started with repealing the Affordable Care Act’s birth control access mandate.

Now he has instituted a domestic gag rule that will withhold federal grants from organizations like Planned Parenthood simply because they perform abortions.

Planned Parenthood and similar organizations are the main source of healthcare for so many women across the country who couldn’t otherwise afford it.

I’m standing with women-- and against Trump-- and denouncing this domestic gag rule.

I have been a lifelong advocate for women’s rights and equality on every front. I support Planned Parenthood, paid family leave, equal pay, and a woman’s right to choose.

Peter King, on the other hand, has voted against paid family leave, voted against the ACA (which increased healthcare access for women), and voted to ban abortions nationwide.

Peter King is running the same anti-woman agenda that Trump is. As your Congressman, I’ll vote for policies that bring women’s rights to the forefront, not turn back the clock.

This domestic gag rule is just Republicans’ latest attempt to curtail women’s rights and freedoms.

Duwayne, who I've known for several years, is the Presiding Officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, a post he's been elected to several times. His campaign isn't so much about unaccountable promises as it is about solid progressive accomplishments, which has a lot to do with why Blue America endorsed him. He was the victim of a hate crime when he was eleven years old. This experience helped mold him into a champion for the voiceless. The son of two union workers, an auto mechanic and a registered nurse, he understands what working class families are fighting for. Washington needs more people with a sense of purpose to understand what they are fighting for and what they are fighting against. I asked Duwayne to name a half dozen things he's done that have changed the loves of people on the South Shore. These are the ones that popped into his head immediately:

• I created the Hate Crimes Task Force to address the hate crimes that were happening in the county.
• I sponsored a bill that was the first in the nation ban on powdered caffeine to minors. The FDA later took action to ban the bulk sale of powdered caffeine after my lobbying them.
• Under my leadership we expanded our human rights law to address housing discrimination against undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ.
• I also supported the ban of microbeads in consumer products which was having a detrimental effect in the environment.
• I initiated a program to provide child care for students at our community college that is on public assistance.
• I also created the Suffolk County Land-bank which is charger with cleaning up environmentally contaminated properties and returning them to the tax rolls. This program has received national recognition and has brought in over $5 million in tax revenues. 

It's one thing to talk about doing this and supporting that. It's something else to work with other people to get something done. Blue America supported legislative leaders who showed what they could do in legislatures before they got into Congress. And now we have dynamic congressional leaders like Ted Lieu (CA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Jamie Raskin (MD) and Karen Bass (CA). This year some of our top endorsements are proven legislators like Kaniela Ing (HI), Jared Golden (ME), Lisa Brown (WA), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Ellen Lipton (MI), and, of course, Duwayne Gregory (NY).