Endorsement: Yasmine Taeb for Democratic National Committee Member

At the Virginia Democratic state party convention on June 18, among other business at hand will be to elect Virginia’s five Democratic National Committee (DNC) members. Today, I’m happy to endorse Yasmine Taeb for one of those five spots on the DNC.

For some information on Yasmine Taeb’s impressive background, click here. A few highlights include:

• She is “an experienced human rights and civil liberties lobbyist [and attorney] and currently works at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Quaker lobby in the public interest,” where she “directs FCNL’s work on a number of civil liberties and human rights issues, including lobbying for increased resettlement of Syrian refugees; calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center; lobbying for increased transparency and oversight of the U.S. lethal drone program, among other issues.”
• “As a Commissioner on the Arlington County Commission on the Status of Women, Yasmine worked to advance initiatives and policies that empower women, and while serving on the Human Rights Commission, Yasmine works to eliminate unlawful discrimination in Arlington County.”
• She “served as project manager at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and co-authored CAP’s Islamophobia report, ‘Fear, Inc. 2.0: The Islamophobia Network’s Efforts to Manufacture Hate in America.'”
• “Yasmine has substantial legislative and advocacy experience and has served as the Government Relations Manager for the Arab American Institute as well as a Legislative Fellow for Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA).”
• She “currently serves as the Co-Vice Chair of the Democratic Asian Americans of Virginia, a caucus of the Democratic Party of Virginia.”

Yasmine also has racked up an impressive – and growing – list of endorsements: more than 22 Virginia elected officials, including 16 members of the General Assembly (Senators Adam Ebbin, Barbara Favola, Janet Howell, Jeremy McPike; Delegates Sam Rasoul, Jennifer Boysko, John Bell, Patrick Hope, Mark Keam, Paul Krizek, Kaye Kory, Kathleen Murphy, Mark Sickles, Marcus Simon, Rip Sullivan, Vivian Watts); Arlington County Board members Christian Dorsey, Jay Fisette and Katie Cristol; Loudoun County Board member Koran Saines; Fairfax County Board member John Foust; etc.

I’ve gotten to know Yasmine since 2014, when she ran for House of Delegates in the one-week special election to replace Bob Brink, and have been extremely impressed with her. In speaking with Yasmine about her candidacy for DNC, I was very encouraged to hear this Bernie Sanders supporter unequivocally commit to supporting our nominee (who almost certainly will be Hillary Clinton), to work to bring the party back together again, and to defeat Donald Trump this November. I also was pleased to hear Yasmine strongly disavow the ridiculous “Bernie or Bust” movement, particularly given the tremendous threat posed to people like her (a Muslim and a woman) by Trump.

In addition, Yasmine and I discussed the importance of building up the Democratic Party at the grassroots level; of building strong, diverse “farm teams;” of boosting Democratic turnout at the state and local level in “off-year” and “odd-year” elections, where Democratic voter “dropoff” has been disproportionately far worse than Republican voter “dropoff.” As Yasmine states on her website, she “has worked with constituencies across Virginia to get Democrats elected” and has “actively work[ed] to engage communities of color in the political process.” This is exactly the type of attitude, perspective and experience we need on the DNC if we’re ever going to reverse the tremendous losses we’ve suffered in state legislatures and Congressional delegations the past few years. Which is why I’m proud to endorse Yasmine Taeb for DNC and urge everyone – Sanders and Clinton supporters alike – to vote for her on June 18!