Hillary for America
Written by Christine Griffin
Then co-chair of Hillary for America’s Disability Action Team
“Your Vote is Your Voice, and it is Essential for Individuals with Disabilities to be Heard in the Decisions that Impact Our Lives” - Tony Coelho
As people with disabilities and lifelong Democrats, we all supported Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in 2016, but we needed a leader and organizer to help us figure out the best way we could support the HRC 2016 campaign and get our disability policy agenda adopted. That’s where Tony Coelho came in and became the Leader of the Pack.
Tony, with his significant political know how and savvy quickly got us organized into groups. There were roughly 50-75 people with various dishabilles that organized into subject matter groups to
help write and shape HRC’s disability platform. We had a recording secretary who along with Tony developed a weekly agenda and we met every Saturday morning by conference call from November
2015 until the election in November 2016. Tony worked with the campaign staffers to help us shape the message and keep us informed about the issues the campaign was facing. It was fascinating to be a part of a campaign that took our involvement seriously and because of Tony’s influence, met with us regularly to give us updates and the hear about our development of white papers on issues important to the disability community.
One of the great highlights for the disability community was Hillary Clinton’s commitment to hold an event that focused solely on employment of people with disabilities. Tony and many others attended that event in Florida where Hillary Clinton committed to an “inclusive
economy” and spoke about her disability policy agenda that we helped her campaign create.
At another event in Madison, Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton did something no other presidential candidate had ever done, she announced her commitment to our recommendation to end the sub minimum wage loophole, Section 14(c). It was exciting to be a part of a campaign that recognized the importance of the disability vote, adopted our policy platform and talked about these issues publicly including spotlighting disability rights and activism in her nomination acceptance speech at the convention.
While we know the outcome of that election and it was disappointing, it set the stage for future presidential candidates’ acknowledgement of the
importance of the disability community as voters whose issues must be included in a candidate’s platform.
None of this would have been accomplished without Tony’s leadership and his commitment to the disability community.