The memorable picture of Dads Caucus founder Rep. Jimmy Gomez bringing his child in a provider to the House flooring final 12 months could appear a far cry from the manosphere and “bro” tradition round President-elect Donald Trump and his substantial beneficial properties with male voters, particularly Latino males.
But Gomez, a Democrat from California, thinks his and his fellow Dads Caucus members’ focus is on level with voters, particularly working-class males.
“People are beginning to acknowledge the worth of the Dads Caucus — of getting males who’re fathers, males who’re elevating children proper now, to be concerned in coverage discussions,” Gomez stated.
The caucus, at the moment made from 39 Democratic lawmakers — however open to Republicans, too — champions household insurance policies corresponding to household depart, reasonably priced youngster care and the kid tax credit score.
“We noticed how inflation and the rise of grocery costs was hurting households, as a result of we noticed it influence our personal households,” he stated. “I’ve a 2-year-old son now, and over the previous few years his meals has gotten far more costly, and I’ve even seen my very own financial savings go down because the meals goes up, my financial savings went down, down, down. And it doesn’t matter what, you possibly can’t make sufficient.”
The caucus members, Gomez stated, present a type of “pattern and entry” to American households all through the nation.
Gomez’s California district is numerous in revenue, race and ethnicity. It contains downtown Los Angeles, Latino-majority Boyle Heights, and Koreatown. Gomez gained re-election this month in opposition to fellow Democrat David Kim, a progressive immigration lawyer.
Trump gained a bigger share of Latino voters this presidential election and that shift was extra marked amongst males. According to NBC News’ exit polls of 10 key states, 55% of Latino males voted for Trump.
But Gomez stated he’s seen the rightward shift by Latino voters occurring for over a decade, even in California, a reliably blue state. During this previous election cycle, Americans, together with Latinos, expressed deep issues concerning the financial system in polls.
“What occurred on this election is that the financial system was horrible for working individuals. No matter how a lot you’re employed, you’re falling behind as a result of the costs saved going up and up and up,” Gomez stated.
He drew a comparability together with his upbringing. His dad and mom labored 4 to 5 jobs every week to make ends meet, however they had been in a position to personal their very own house, even when it meant somebody needed to sleep within the storage.
But now, Gomez stated, housing and childcare alone can take as much as 60% of somebody’s revenue earlier than taxes, “so there’s actually nothing left. You can’t actually save to start out a small enterprise, to purchase a home, to do something — I really feel we have to do extra to speak about these points, particularly housing, particularly childcare. What are we going to do to assist them?”
Gomez stated males have a sure stress to supply for the household and, once they can’t, they develop into open to listening to “something anybody says.” He stated when his sister eloped and returned together with her husband, the one query their father had for him was: ‘Do you’ve got a job?’
On the post-election debates and controversy round whether or not misogyny performed an element in Trump’s beneficial properties amongst male voters — particularly Latino males — Gomez stated, “Don’t blame, study. Learn from their experiences. Learn from their ache. … Is there a portion of that? Of course, it’s there, however does it clarify the entire motive? I don’t suppose it does. And in the event you solely blame it on that, you then’re by no means going to vary the way you govern.”
He insisted that the shift towards Republican candidates has been coming over time, as he’s seen in California, and this has been the case with Democratic male voters too.
The Dads Caucus has 39 House members and three have been elected to the U.S. Senate (Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Andy Kim, D-N.J., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.), which now makes them a bicameral caucus. All the members are Democrats, however Gomez stated one Republican confirmed curiosity in becoming a member of earlier than the elections. “I’ll have that dialog with him once more to see if he’s nonetheless keen to hitch — we’re open to Republicans,” Gomez stated.
He stated the caucus is pragmatic and supported the House GOP package deal that expanded the kid tax credit score earlier this 12 months.
“When they negotiated with the Senate Democrats that expanded the kid tax credit score, it was a win, however it wasn’t what we’d have written as Democrats. We supported it as a result of we knew that even getting one thing to the pockets of employees immediately was going to assist,” stated Gomez.
The Dads Caucus is increasing the areas they work in. Gomez stated they just lately mentioned analysis on how social media has extra of a unfavorable influence on younger males than younger girls, since younger girls “pull out of it in a method that younger males don’t. … It type of caught with quite a lot of us — we had been all pondering they’re effective,” he stated, referring to younger males. “And what we see is quite a lot of that alienation, that isolation that comes when quite a lot of social media use continues, they usually by no means pull out of that pattern.”
Gomez stated the caucus is in search of methods to take care of this by means of insurance policies or applications particularly focused to assist younger males.
For Gomez, the caucus is not only about co-sponsoring laws, however about main the dialogue and preventing for the payments.
“The powerful half about politics is one, you need to get Republicans and Democrats to agree that there’s a downside, or see the issue the identical method, after which two, you need to get laws that either side agree on, and I feel that there are rising consensus on a bunch of points,” Gomez stated, including that he’s engaged on a bipartisan invoice to transform industrial and actual property buildings for residential use. “Housing is one in every of them.”