Member Statements on PCR07: Make Green New Deal Working Group aChapter Priority Campaign for 2026
IN FAVOR by Sarah P
I have been organizing with We Power DC for almost a year now because I believe that tackling the climate crisis needs to be at the forefront of our organizing work. In 2025 the federal terrain was exceptionally hostile to the concept of improving community resilience to climate change and associated organizing work across the country, meaning that many partnering organizations in these similar spaces are struggling for resources. Several other DSA members who spoke at convention mentioned that our coalition can lean on partners, but I just want to emphasize that partners in this space are struggling. I work in the grants space and you would be surprised at how many funding sources actually originate at the federal level, despite being distributed at the state and local levels. We need priority DSA funding to pass local public power legislation, improve and expand resilient transit options, and build more green social housing to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the worst effects of climate change, while meeting the city’s housing, economic, energy and climate needs simultaneously. I also wanted to point out that We Power just published its white paper that we will be using in the next year to engage city council members, residents, and others about establishing a municipally owned utility to take back our energy autonomy, lower electricity rates, and meet our climate goals. Community engagement will be crucial in the next year, and resources are needed to meet our internal goals, as well as the internal goals of our coalition partners. Thank you for the opportunity to express my support of this GND priority campaign resolution.
IN FAVOR by Trum D
Metro DC DSA should vote in favor of making the Green New Deal Working Group a priority campaign, because we are at a critical point in our municipalization campaign. This past year, We Power DC has been incredibly productive. Our active membership and visibility have ballooned through a combination of wheatpasting, tabling, social media, and the ascending political relevance of utilities/data centers. We completed our White Paper report, which has already been a massive success, becoming a critical tool for organizing and yielding immediate legislative action from the DC Council and our organizational allies. Finally, our collaborative network has greatly expanded, not only with organizations in the DMV but with other municipalization campaigns throughout the country. Yet, like other working groups, this past year has also been incredibly challenging. The Trump administration has destroyed what little climate change action existed in this country, while assaulting our community and challenging our fundamental right to home rule. In the midst of this turmoil, the capitalist class has been emboldened to unleash a level of rampant corruption and brutality that puts the heights of the Gilded Age to shame. Pepco, and its collaborators on the Public Service Commission, have unleashed a series of Rate Hikes that have left at least a quarter of DC’s residents in utility debt, while shutting off power to thousands. Simultaneously, AI companies have been carving up the DMV, working with their clients in the political class to build parasitic data centers throughout MD and VA. Marketed as job creators, in reality, these data centers provide little employment while aggressively driving up electricity costs, massively depleting water resources, and releasing pollutants into the community. With regulatory apparatuses either captured or gutted by the Trump administration, it is clear that only overwhelming community organizing can halt their advances.
The combination of anger with skyrocketing utility rates and the growing movement against data centers has made the work of the GND Working Group more critical than ever. Unlike mainstream climate organizations, which approach utility and data center issues from a climate-first perspective, the GND Working Group, as a socialist organization, prioritizes affordability and worker control. We are not beholden to a donor base from the petite bourgeoisie; instead, we put the workers at the center of our fight, advocating against Pepco on affordability grounds. With growing frustration with Pepco and AI, our work becomes even more critical. We must work with our branches to position ourselves as leaders in the Data Center fight, emphasizing the socialist alternative to the hopelessness of minor regulatory change. Simultaneously, while Trump’s assault on Home Rule will make it difficult to mount an immediate challenge to Pepco’s authority, we are perfectly positioned to push for legislation that paves the way toward municipalization. As a priority campaign, we will have the resources to expand our scope to meet both the growing demand for Data Center action and increase pressure against Pepco, positioning Metro DC DSA as a leader in the growing ecosocialist movement.
IN FAVOR by Quinn R
The current political environment presents a major opportunity for Climate organizing in DC. In a moment where Pepco has irresponsibly raised rates, there is a window to make our priorities a wedge issue in the upcoming elections. Anger against increased energy prices are a powerful force that can be harnessed to buoy other chapter goals, while also building toward the socialist objective of municipalization in the coming years.
IN FAVOR by David P
In 1970, Angela Davis was fired by the University of California for membership in the Communist Party. She made the equivalent of 65,000 dollars while renting two apartments, one in San Diego and one in Los Angeles, for the equivalent of less than 1000 dollars per month. The working class cannot resist political repression without the protection of a strong system of housing stability and tenure. We need to create a social housing department in the DC Government starting in 2027, and we want to make sure that everyone in DC understands this in 2026.
IN FAVOR by John Q
I encourage the chapter to vote in support of the Green New Deal working group as a priority campaign for 2026. As we’ve seen from recent elections, affordability is one of the most strategic frames and goals under which the left can organize right now - and passing municipal universal programs like a publicly managed energy developer, utility, and social housing provider all are critical steps towards providing affordable resources like energy and housing. I also think it’s critical that working groups find overlap in their strategy where possible: We Power and and Social Housing WG’s have come together as legislative campaigns in this unique moment in DC history to combine resources and build support for a similar agenda under the GND moniker.
IN FAVOR by Giancarlo V
My name is Giancarlo, I use he/him pronouns, and I’m one of the stewards of our nascent transit campaign within the Green New Deal Working Group. I urge you to vote to make the Green New Deal Working Group a priority campaign for our chapter in 2026 because of the importance of transit organizing.
Transit is a key component in an affordability agenda. The average cost to own and operate a new vehicle in the U.S. is over $11,000 per year, and in D.C. simply operating a vehicle you already own costs about $6,000. Given how high rent is in the most transit-rich parts of our region, many working people are forced to either pay this steep price of car ownership or pay a tax on their time, as transit journeys in the District take an average of 2.5 times as long as car trips, a statistic that is surely worse in our region’s suburban counties. Because simply giving every member of the working class their own car is not a feasible solution anywhere — but especially in a region like ours, with a large urban core and multiple dense historic areas throughout the region — the path forward is clear: making our transit system frequent, fast, and affordable.
Organizing to improve transit in these ways supports the work of multiple other working groups. Transit organizing supports labor organizing because transit workers in this region are members of the labor movement; because every time a union member can take transit to their job that is several hundreds of dollars hard-won at the bargaining table that they get to keep in their pockets every month; and because buses and bus stops provide a crucial public space where labor organizing can take place, as occurred outside Amazon’s JFK 8 Fulfillment Center on Staten Island ahead of their successful union drive. Transit organizing supports internationalist organizing because increased transit service and usage is key to limiting the amount of rare-earth minerals that capital seeks to mine in Chile, Congo, and other Global South nations. And transit organizing supports electoral organizing because riding transit makes you more likely to support socialist candidates. In both the primary and general of New York City’s mayoral election, Zohran performed best in transit reliant areas, winning precincts where most people commute on transit by nearly thirty points. If we want to aid the labor movement, to support the land defense efforts of our comrades at home and abroad, and to increase the odds that our comrades who run for office in 2028, 2030, and beyond are victorious, organizing to improve transit will take us a significant part of the way there.
Finally, we should prioritize transit organizing because there is currently a vacuum for grassroots transit organizing in the D.C. area and it is crucial we be the one to fill that vacuum. There are a lot of organizations that can support more reliable, frequent, and affordable transit. But our neighbors need to not only be able to take the bus to their job, but to know that they’ll be able to organize a union when they get there. Our neighbors need to not only be able to take the bus to the doctor’s office, but to know that they’ll be able to afford the care they need when they get there. Our neighbors need to not only be able to take the bus home, but be able to stand up to their landlord and organize a tenant union for necessary repairs when they get there. And our neighbors need to not only be able to take Metro to more parts of our region, but to not be killed by police or kidnapped by ICE on the way. Unlike many other organizations, we know that better transit isn’t the be-all, end-all, but one component of a broader program to improve the lives of working people in our region.
For these reasons, I hope you’ll join me in voting to make the Green New Deal Working group, including our transit campaign, a priority campaign in 2026.
IN FAVOR by Ben G
Comrades, I urge you to vote to make the Green New Deal Working Group (GND WG) a Metro DC DSA priority campaign. I joined Metro DC DSA this year and have been involved with the We Power DC campaign of the GND WG through community engagement, research, and legislative work. With ever-rising utility costs and the current onslaught of data centers in the region, this working group is vital in meeting the moment of capitalist attack and community pushback. The We Power DC campaign directly targets the parasitic power of the investor-owned utility (IOU) model of Pepco, replacing it with a democratically accountable public utility that can deliver on our core socialist demands for economic justice, climate action, and dignified union labor.
The continued reign of Pepco imposes an intolerable financial burden on DC’s working class and poor. 24% of DC residential customers were in debt to Pepco last year, a figure that doubles to nearly 50% among the District’s poorest residents, mostly concentrated in wards 7 and 8. If we are serious about extending our reach east of the river and developing multiracial coalitions, we must bring material benefits and solutions for the popular struggles of our neighbors in wards 7 and 8. Rising electric bills and looming shut offs are among Washingtonians most shared grievances.
This fight is fundamentally about labor and worker power. Pepco’s profit-maximizing structure maximizes its use of contracted workers over unionized staff, and has led to a reduction of over 50% of unionized lineworks since 1997. The We Power DC alternative is a public utility that would be founded with the input of organized labor to be a model for progressive labor practices. This would mean reducing reliance on contracted workers and expanding the utility’s full-time, unionized staff. For electrical power-line installers, union membership already translates to wages roughly 35% higher than their non-union counterparts.
Operating a utility via the private IOU model is an active and needless obstacle to increasing our capacity for energy efficiency and transitioning to sustainable production and distribution. Annual budgets are artificially bloated to factor in senseless investor profit, and meaningful infrastructure projects are foregone to reduce investors’ financial risk while increasing residents’ financial burden. Although DC has a clean, sustainable energy transition embedded in our legislation, Pepco has made every effort to subvert this mandate and provide reason after reason for why this transition cannot be completed.
Finally, I would urge comrades to consider which campaigns should be prioritized for communication and legislative action with our (hopefully) incoming socialists in office. We Power DC specifically already has been from non-socialist councilmembers bringing legislation to reign in Pepco and begin the transition to public power. Our legislative asks are specific, implementable, and would offer immediate relief for working class Washingtonians as well as long term public ownership and operation of a vital utility.
Whether you want to expand DSA’s power in wards 7 and 8, strengthen labor power in the District, or support the public’s grassroot struggle against data centers, vote Yes on the Green New Deal Working Group. Vote Yes on seizing the means of energy production in DC.
IN FAVOR by Edward T
I think this campaign is important for advancing socialism in the DMV because it packages a goal of DSA (Green New Deal) with something that is broadly popular (lowering utility prices). A campaign like this is necessary to both make the broader public aware of the problems associated with private utilities and also to convince local politicians to push policies that support our goals.
IN FAVOR by Alex S
Stomp Out Slumlords should be a priority campaign for the next year because externally it is one of the chapter’s best projects in terms of direct interaction with working people in DC, and internally it is one of the easiest working groups for new members to get involved with and develop into organizers. SOS regularly helps tenants learn about and avoid evictions, it organizes tenant associations that exercise collective power at buildings and fight slumlords, and SOS organizers and organized tenants have fought against attempts by developers and the DC Council to rollback tenant protections in the city. SOS has grown into a key actor in the effort to create a strong citywide tenant movement. Recently, the DC OAG made headlines by winning the largest monetary judgment in DC history at Marbury Plaza. That process began because of SOS organizers (including Ward 1 council candidate Aparna Raj) who helped form the TA that continues to fight today. This is just one of many tangible wins that SOS has achieved. It is a model of what a local working group should be, and continuing to be a priority campaign will allow it to expand its work.
IN FAVOR by Claudia D
We Power DC has built a tremendous amount of power over the last few years and has brought public power/utility justice to residents, media, and lawmakers. The campaign has maintained an impressive balance of political strategy, in house research, and material solidarity with residents. Now, the campaign is broadening the tent to share campaign status with social housing, transit, and other emerging campaigns aligned with the Green New Deal in the region. With major elections ahead in 2026 where affordability and access to public services will be front and center, it’s imperative that the Green New Deal Working Group receive priority campaign status so that *multiple* issue campaigns can work to build a greener more affordable DMV.
IN FAVOR by Brian H
It is my feeling that the work proposed by WePowerDC is essential for working people in our communities given the high costs of energy at the benefit of Pepco shareholders and the detriment to working residents. The long term goal of public control over energy companies is inline with our socialist values and would represent a major victory for the working class in the region to rally around. This campaign is local and broadly popular amongst the working class in the region which makes me feel as though it is ideal for building the kind mass class consciousness and mass working people’s movement that we need.
IN FAVOR by Harrison P
Resolution to Make The Green New Deal Working Group a Chapter Priority Campaign for 2026
We Power DC has had significant movement this past year with outreach to the public and legislators. Currently, we have 2 bills at the DC Council with direct DSA influence on energy bills, regulation, and the PSC. We continue to build coalitions to bring forth 2026 omnibus bills for Utility Transparency Form and Ratepayer Protections. Our groups has weekly meetings with DC Councilmembers to discuss legislation to protect DC ratepayers.
Our media outreach is influential, as nearly every story from local outlets have utilized quotes, research, and social posts planted by We Power organizers. We continue to keep the conversation on Pepco’s unaffordability, corruption, and poor service, which alerts people to the public power alternative.
IN FAVOR by Gabriel M
I’m writing in strong support of granting Priority Campaign status to the Green New Deal Working Group for 2026. I am an organizer with We Power DC and I believe deeply in the principle of public ownership of energy assets, and I see this campaign as one of the clearest opportunities to advance that principle in a concrete, winnable way.
Energy is an essential good. No one should be at the mercy of a parasitic monopoly like Pepco—an investor-owned utility whose business model depends on extracting profit from residents, raising rates, and delaying the transition away from fossil fuels for their shareholders’ personal gain. Rising bills, shutoffs, and opaque corporate decision-making hurt working people every single day. A publicly owned, democratically controlled utility would make energy affordable, accountable, and aligned with climate justice, not shareholder returns. Accordingly, the GND Working Group deserves priority status.
The broader Green New Deal group reinforces this work by organizing around housing and transit, both of which shape affordability in DC. The Social Housing campaign educates Metro DC DSA chapter members and the general public about social housing and facilitates collective action in support of the passage and implementation of the Green New Deal for Housing Amendment Act. The Transit Working Group fights for a transit system that prioritizes local buses that run faster and more often, streets that are safer for people walking and biking, improved service on the region’s Metro, VRE, and MARC rail lines, the expansion of intercity bus and train services, and the construction of additional Metro lines.
These collective efforts matter, and they strengthen the GND working group’s overall vision, while also aligning it with Metro DC DSA’s overall goals. From my perspective, the fight for public power remains the sharpest, most transformative lever we have to begin moving the ownership of critical infrastructure assets from greedy private hands to public ownership. Over the past year, We Power DC has built political education infrastructure, produced a substantive white paper, shaped legislation, and forged strong coalitions across labor, environmental justice groups, and other community organizations. Priority Campaign status will allow us to escalate this work, which deepens organizing across the city, expands our base, and pushes toward real public ownership of DC’s electricity system.
I strongly urge members to vote in favor of the Green New Deal Working Group as a 2026 Priority Campaign.
-Gabriel McFadden
IN FAVOR by Matt S
Hello comrades—I’m Matt, one of the co-chairs of We Power DC, and a steward of the green new deal working group. I’ve been involved in ecosocialist organizing in this chapter for over four years, and I urge you in the strongest terms to support the Green New Deal working group as a chapter priority campaign.
We are in a moment of interconnected crises. Climate disaster threatens our region with devastating flooding and dangerous heat exposure, borne primarily by our poorest neighbors. The same forces of capital that created the climate crises push us all into an ever-worsening affordability crisis, from power bills, to healthcare, to housing.
The Green New Deal Working Group works at the intersection of these crises, pushing an ecosocialist agenda to empower our communities to “to expand public services in a way that broadens and deepens union organizing, lowers cost of living, and improves quality of life for working-class people.”
To do this work, our three subcampaigns, We Power DC, Social Housing, and Transit, organize around specific issues, while the Working Group builds solidarity and collaboration between them. Each campaign aims to advance the material interests of the working class and expand public ownership while reducing fossil fuel consumption—through concrete legislation reigning in our vampiric electric utility; disciplining landlord capital by building green, publicly owned housing; and improving and expanding our public transit system. This working group also incubates emergent GND campaigns—we are currently working with comrades in MoCo and PG County to establish a new nexus of organizing against data centers, beginning with a socialist night school this winter.
Since the creation of this working group in fall of 2024, we have built power across GND campaigns, putting on joint events such as the immensely successful socialist night school with Femi Taiwo this past spring. We plan to deepen and expand collaboration across campaigns this coming year–some examples of anticipated future collaboration include:
Working with SOS to provide resources on emergency utility assistance programs and organize ratepayers in target buildings
Collaborating with abolition on community events, such as last month’s coat drive, that allow us to talk directly with residents in energy poverty
Collaborating with the labor WG to strategize around working with IBEW about municipalization, and work with other local unions to use their bargaining power to advance ecosocialist goals
I urge you to support our continued fight against the capitalists responsible for the interlocking crises of affordability and climate catastrophe, and make the GND working group a priority campaign this year.
IN FAVOR by Brandon W
I strongly support making the Green New Deal working group a Chapter priority campaign for 2026. With a new Democratic statewide administration in Virginia, the potential for a socialist Mayor & Councilmembers in DC, and more socialists being elected in Montgomery County & Prince George’s County, this is a ripe opportunity to prioritize resources toward meaningful organizing on bringing down utility costs, building social housing, and fighting for fast, frequent, and accessible transit.
The WG’s priority campaign specifically outlines how its joint tabling and canvassing events will be able to garner support from everyday people concerned about their utilities, housing costs, and transit to learn how to organize & contribute meaningfully as organizers within our chapter. Political education and engagement efforts such as wheatpasting and a bus shelter bench project pilot will also be critical in the short run in helping minimize the harm of utilities and a transit system not focused on the region’s residents who rely the most on transit.
Committing the additional funds and investing in the efforts of We Power DC, the Social Housing Working Group, and Transit Working Group will mean that the chapter will be prioritizing organizing in a critical election year to fight for affordability in utility costs, build more affordable housing, and create a transit system that has fast, frequent, and accessible service — three areas that DMV residents care deeply about. Moreover, with areas like public power utility organizing and public transit organizing in particular, DSA has a prime opportunity to fill a vacuum and build organizing infrastructure that will simultaneously create an opportunity to recruit more working people into our chapter.
IN FAVOR by Bethany C
Comrades, I am writing to urge you to vote in support of PCR07: Resolution to Make the Green New Deal Working Group a Priority Campaign for 2026.
I am Bethany C, co-chair of We Power, and this past weekend was my first convention! I joined We Power back in February and had been on the edge of DSA’s orbit for a few months by then, but I was still not sure where I wanted to get more involved.
We Power quickly became the ecosocialist home I was looking for, where the efforts aligned not just with climate goals but also with my vision of a future led by the working class, the vision we’re all working toward.
Since I’ve joined, I’ve gotten to dive in as our campaign produced our famed white paper and immediately began using that same paper for political education at a Socialist Night School event and in direct conversation with council members to shape upcoming utility reform legislation. With Priority Campaign Status, we were able to build out wheatpasting, canvassing, and tabling efforts in solidarity with not just our GND and environmental justice comrades but also with Street Team and Abolition, and are hoping to work with SOS to provide utility resources to tenants and tenant organizers in the year to come.
And this work has never been more urgent - Nearly 25% of DC ratepayers are in utility debt, and Pepco has continued to worsen this crisis by jacking up electricity rates by nearly 20% in just June of this year alone. These hard-felt increases have led to more people than ever turning to our campaign as the organization leading legislation and advocacy on ratepayer protections, expanding renewable energy, and bringing down rates - Just last month, we organized our supporters to send 116 letters to the Public Service Commission urging them not to let Pepco pass an additional $350,000 bill along to ratepayers. We’ve all seen this year that affordability is an incredibly mobilizing issue and we’re excited to maintain that momentum in supporting both electoral and legislative gains this year while also continuing to bring new folks like myself into our org and our vision for the future.
I’m also excited to expand on the power of the broader Green New Deal Working Group as our shared work on data centers with PG County, MoCo, and NoVa, and continue to build on our extremely well-attended events like our political education event with Femi Taiwo and our regular social events. We know these issues all intersect as issues of both climate and affordability, and especially in our current environment, these are not issues our chapter can afford to step back from.
To join me in supporting an affordable and livable future, I urge you to vote to make the GND Working Group a Priority Campaign this year. Thank you!
IN FAVOR by Kit B
I support PCR07 Make Green New Deal Working Group a Chapter Priority Campaign for 2026 because of its cross-cutting focus on human rights and dignity, affordability, and public health. To illustrate this point, and explain how priority campaign status for the GND Working Group would benefit the chapter as a whole, I’d like to dive into the specific example of the transit campaign’s planned bus shelter bench project.
The transit campaign hopes to start building benches at bus stops throughout the city that currently are lacking. This has been a tactic used effectively in a number of other cities, such as San Francisco and Kansas City, to draw attention to the lack of accessibility, funding, and forethought being put into transit, as well as providing the very much needed relief and rest for bus riders. It provides a form of visual political education, while also providing a physical space for people to engage their community, whether through formal canvassing efforts or just through casual conversation. It provides a space for labor organizers to meet on the way to or from work and a place of refuge for someone needing a place to sit in a city full of hostile architecture. It also physically demands that the city recognize the issue that the bench build is addressing. This is an issue that extends beyond the DC borders into the bus systems of PG County, MoCo, Alexandria, and Arlington, which provides an exciting opportunity to engage in new coalitions and work more closely with branch chapters.
I truly feel that this project is illustrative of the GND Working Group’s potential to engage, educate, and advocate for the working group’s key areas of focus, while simultaneously amplifying the work of other working groups and building the chapter as a whole.
IN FAVOR by Marli K
I’m writing in support of the Green New Deal working group becoming a priority campaign for Metro DC DSA. The Green New Deal working group has significantly grown over the last year, expanding to encompass We Power DC (WPDC), Social Housing, and the chapter’s Transit work. Together these three campaigns represent our chapter’s ecosocialist organizing and should be a priority for 2026 to build on the incredible work this formation has already been doing.
I’ve been a member of WPDC since 2019 and have watched how this campaign has worked to fight the climate crisis and challenge the existing shareholder utility structure by fighting for a public utility in DC that is accountable to the people. There is no other organization fighting for a democratically controlled, publicly owned electric utility in the DMV. This directly complements the organizing work of Social Housing and Transit. Clean electricity, affordable housing, and reliable transit are all basic rights for working people that our Chapter should focus on to materially benefit the working class. The Green New Deal working group has concrete plans for this year that will both contribute to DSA’s goals of winning socialism in the DMV and will help to grow our chapter by bringing in new members through our organizing efforts. These plans include the following:
We Power DC
We Power DC plans to pursue three broad goals in the coming year:
Electoral: Elect one public power champion and 4-6 supporters of utility reform
Legislative: Pass 1 piece of legislation or shape at least 1 PSC reform that tangibly weakens Pepco and/or builds towards a policy and regulatory framework for a future public power utility
Coalition and Power Building: Cultivate 4 active partnerships beyond traditional allies (e.g. the Chapter and enviro groups) with key stakeholder organizations in the fight for energy justice (e.g. IBEW, Empower DC, statehood groups). Partnership will be defined as mutual support for priorities (i.e. public power pledge), and collaborating on events and/or legislation
Social Housing
Support passage of the GND for Housing Act by:
Meetings, rallies, and outreach with/toward DC Councilmembers, especially engaging their constituents to voice their support
Encouraging the passage of resolutions at ANCs in support
Deep canvassing and tabling, including at farmers markets, community events, to educate and raise awareness
Amassing research, best practices, talking points, and other resources
Building and strengthening relationships across the chapter and with GND4DC coalition partners
Transit
The transit working group’s overall aim is to advance legislation that increases the availability, accessibility, and equity of public transportation for all through increased and expanded bus service, sustainable funding methods, and improved conditions for transportation workers and riders. Specifically, we hope to:
Develop a strong base of active members and a robust coalition with unions, ANCs, advocacy organizations, and other DSA chapters across Maryland and Virginia.
Develop a stronger organizational structure and organizational resources, such as developing working group bylaws and a working group board, amassing research on the state of public transportation in the DMV, and developing talking points and literature with that research.
Educate and engage on transit-related issues and solutions through regular socialist night school events, reading groups, and tabling.
Organize and advocate for transit-friendly legislation in DC, Maryland, and Virginia through public pressure campaigns.
WDPC became my organizing home when I first joined the chapter, and I think that as the Green New Deal Working group continues to grow and expand, it will continue to build the chapter and its leaders. I encourage other members to join me in voting for the Green New Deal Working group as a priority campaign to ensure this campaign has funding and full support from our chapter to carry out its vital work challenging capital and making material gains for working people here in the DMV.