What is the progressive caucus plan?

Earlier this year 35 legislators rolled out the Progressive Democratic Caucus. We planned on fighting for things such as educational equity, fair taxation, and keeping the environment clean. At that point in time, getting any sort of major legislation passed was nearly impossible. Too many legislators were against an increase in the minimum wage, enacting earned family and medical leave, and legalizing and regulating cannabis.

A lot has changed since then.

Now the question for the PDC becomes a strategic one. We have 92 Democrats in the House and 23 in the Senate. All of our Hail Mary legislation from the past two years are, if not foregone conclusions, much more likely to pass both chambers and make it over the finish line. Governor-elect Lamont is on board with our progressive agenda. So, should we focus on the issues that are already popular and make sure they succeed, or do we begin work on the next wave of legislation?

I strongly propose that we do the latter. The reason why earned-family and medical-leave has become so popular is that advocates have been pushing this idea for nearly eight years. The new class of Democratic legislators ran on this issue as a campaign promise, which means many of the new lawmakers will be committed to getting this done. This is just the time cycle for issues — it takes a lot of people, pushing many levers, to make big things happen.

With our expanded and new majority in both legislative chambers we should focus on what we want to accomplish ten years from now. Things like a public bank, providing voting access to everyone, equalizing our tax structure, universal broadband, implementing ranked choice voting, or increasing our supply of affordable housing. The options for what our future looks like are limitless, and as an individual member of the PDC, I can only speak to what I believe in.

However, we are ready to hit the ground running. While we had over 35 members of the Democratic caucus join the PDC, we now have over 45 – and we are motivated to get to work.

Now is the time to let your legislator know what you’d like to see us do. The PDC is an incubator for ideas. Not everything we want to do will become law, but if it is going to start anywhere, it will start with us. Make sure your representative and senator is thinking in the long term — short term wins are great, but it’s the long term wins that change a society.

Here’s to seeing an exciting 2019.