Why I'm Endorsing Elizabeth Warren by Liuba Grechen Shirley

Liuba Grechen Shirley: Why I'm Endorsing Elizabeth Warren

In this exclusive op-ed, Liuba Grechen Shirley, who in 2018 ran for U.S. Representative in New York's traditionally Republican 2nd District, tells us why she is endorsing Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president.

I remember one of the hardest days of my campaign was when my son Nicholas had recently broken his leg. We had spent hours at the doctor’s that day. Both kids were crying and exhausted. I was exhausted.

Then I got a call from Elizabeth Warren. The conversation started with politics and quickly turned to motherhood as I told her what was going on with Nicholas. We talked about my mom and her Aunt Bee, and I broke down on the phone. I started crying, and she gave me the mom pep talk I needed at that moment. She told me, "We moms...when we run out of milk, we make breakfast with orange juice." She gave me advice and she listened. The conversation I had with Elizabeth was about more than motherhood. It was about the struggles that working parents face every day.

I know how hard it is to be a working parent in the United States. When I had my first child, Mila, I was the director of a research institute at New York University. I didn’t have paid family leave and couldn’t get my daughter into daycare because of years-long waiting lists for child-care centers I couldn’t even afford. We moved back home to Long Island so my mom could help watch our children and I could keep working.

Running for Congress was the last thing I thought I would do, but when my representative Peter King voted to take healthcare coverage away from 74,000 people in our district alone and told me that holding a town hall would only "diminish democracy," I got angry. I held a town hall for him, and then I ran against him.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/07/237670/liuba-grechen-shirley-endorses-elizabeth-warren-president-2020-child-care