My name is Joaquín Beltrán and I am running for Congress in Southeast LA because our families and community come first. I am a progressive grassroots Democrat who doesn’t take any money from PACs. My platform is focused on the health, safety, and economic growth of our families and community.
LOCAL ROOTS, CHALLENGES, AND THE AMERICAN DREAM
I was born in Unincorporated East Los Angeles and moved to Downey when I was 10. While in East LA, I lived with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles, all in a small house. Early on, my parents worked hard at their jobs, my mother as a seamstress at a sweatshop and my father as a machine operator. Thanks to their hard work we moved into our own house a few blocks away. My parents worked for the American dream by starting small businesses; my siblings and I joined them and learned the value of hard work. When I was a teenager, our small family business got uprooted through eminent domain. In the process of finding a new location my mom got sick and I eventually dropped out of college to help run the family business. I remember one of my first moments of advocacy at age 17 when I stepped up at the Downey City Council to urge the council members to approve my mother’s plans for her new business.
SMALL BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Writing and music were my first love, and when the new business and location were approved and my mom got sick, I had to pause my work toward my music degree to help run it. During that time, I got involved in the civic process of the city as an advocate and volunteer while working full-time. The experience gave me renewed purpose to continue helping my community, which I've been doing ever since through politics, engineering, and community organizing.
SPEAK UP AMERICA
I built Speak Up America to help people make their voices heard so politicians can be responsive to what matters for real people. Through Speak Up America, I’ve helped organize communities during the pandemic to advocate for better COVID policies and launched campaigns to bring high-quality masks and rapid tests, combat climate change, and helped organize webinars to create safer environments for schools during COVID.
This approach has carried over throughout the pandemic as I’ve worked to protect our communities with federal policies to provide high-quality masks, cleaner indoor air, and rapid and accurate tests to contain transmission of covid-19.
Ask me anything about running for Congress, the CA-42 race, my favorite N95 mask, what it’s like to be a grassroots candidate without corporate donors, meditation, favorite national parks, my rabbit Gracie, what makes a good song, and how leading with love, empathy, and curiosity can save the world.
VOLUNTEER AND VOTE
My campaign platform can be summed up as:
A vaccine plus approach to beating the covid-19 pandemic
Creating Jobs and Growing small businesses
Working on addressing affordable homes and rent
Fighting climate change
Join my campaign! Volunteers are vital for this grassroots campaign. We have only a few days left and we will make every minute count. Small donations make a huge difference in helping us reach every voter across the district. When voters hear this message of this campaign, they love it and they get involved! Every cent of every dollar is carefully used to reach more voters and get the word out about my campaign. Find me on Twitter and Instagram @joaquinlife and https://www.joaquinbeltran.com
