DMO is pleased to announce the hire of Alejandro Chavez as our Political Director. Alejandro was born and raised in the progressive movement. He identifies strongly with the values of his grandfather, Cesar Chavez, and has dedicated his life to supporting candidates and causes both locally and nationally. We are honored to have him on our team and hope you will give him a warm welcome. Read more about Alejandro’s experience below.
Alejandro’s hire marks the launch of a strategic new direction for Democratic Municipal Officials. Following a professional strategic planning process, we are restructuring our staffing to allow us to build upon our successes and enhance our priority work.
Under Alejandro’s leadership, DMO will prioritize two key areas of work. We will greatly expand our data work to ensure we connect, engage and empower our 40,000 Democratic Municipal Officials. And we will be asking for your help to make that happen. With strong data we will be poised to better support you and our allies. While we enhance our data, we will simultaneously be launching pilot programs and developing a strategy for stronger political engagement to better support candidates for municipal office and DMOs who have actively been involved in our organization who are now seeking wider office. We will strengthen the blue wall and build our bench.
Meanwhile, Jesse Maldonado who stepped in as our Interim Political Director will now serve as our Alumni Director, ensuring that when our members leave municipal office, we will still have a meaningful role for them within DMO. Learn more about our Alumni Council.
Nils Robbins remains our Communications and Operations Director and leads our policy work. Dan Besse now serves as our Labor, Policy and IGA Advisor. Barbara Moore maintains the helm as our Executive Director. With your help, we will add a Deputy Political Director in 2022 to continue strengthening our State Chapters and our Labor Council. These are exciting times at DMO! We hope we can count on your enhanced support as we grow to serve you.
With over a decade in political advocacy and organizing, Alejandro knows how to run a candidate for local office and advocate for international diplomacy across the nation. In Arizona, he was the Campaign Manager for Ruben Gallego’s successful run for State Representative. He then joined MoveOn.org to promote diplomatic solutions in the Middle East, successfully gaining public support from MoveOn members to push their elected officials to support the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Following his time at MoveOn, Alejandro became the Senior Electoral Campaign Manager with Democracy for America. There he worked to elect Rep. Veronica Escobar, the first Latina Congresswoman in Texas, and Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto as the first Latina US Senator. In 2020 he was the Political Director for Prop 207 Smart and Safe campaign in Arizona to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use and passed by 60% the most of any marijuana initiative in the country.
Alejandro’s work takes him where he is needed most – a worldview that runs in the family. Alejandro’s grandfather was the renowned labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez. Today, Alejandro takes up that mantle in his work and his volunteerism with various community groups, including The National Redistricting Foundation, where he supports community engagement efforts in their lawsuit to stop the 2020 Census from adding a citizenship question that would stifle an accurate count of the people.