Three respected New Jersey progressive activists, join forces to helm the New Jersey for Bernie 2020 committee, aimed at electing Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, 46th President of the United States.

Larry Hamm, the Chairman of People’s Organization for Progress will serve as Chair; while Patricia Campos Medina a labor and community leader with more than 20 years of grassroots and Barry Brendel, Chair of Our Revolution New Jersey, a grassroots issues, an advocacy organization inspired by Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign, will serve as Vice Chairs.

All three positions are volunteer, and critical in helping build the path towards victory in the Garden State.

“Let me make this clear from the start, we are going to win New Jersey in 2020,” said Hamm.

“Bernie Sanders is right on the pressing issue before us from healthcare to climate change to income inequality. Bernie is right for this country and he is right for New Jersey,” he added. “I’m proud to have Patricia and Barry beside me in this campaign. Patricia has a wealth of experience in issue advocacy, coalition building and grassroots organizing and will be invaluable in delegate candidate recruitment and reaching out to diverse communities and advocacy groups that we feel are essential to the kind of grassroots campaign that Bernie Sanders wants to run in NJ.

“Barry is a highly experienced grassroots organizer and media consultant,” Hamm added. “Barry will spearhead our grassroots organizational efforts and provide critical operational guidance as we built a statewide system of volunteers who can help us mobilize voters.”

“Working families in NJ and across the US are looking for a candidate with a clear understanding of their economic concerns, and Bernie Sanders is someone who has not deviated from his belief that what we need is a fundamental change in our political system so that it serves working people, not billionaires,” stated Campos-Medina. “Bernie has energized young and diverse voters with a message of hope for real economic reform that keeps the promise of America alive for our future generations. I am excited to engage in this grassroots effort to change our country by defeating the Trump politics of fear. We will do it by engaging new voters and building opportunities for young people to participate in the electoral process locally in their communities.”

“Personally, I echo everything Larry and Patricia have said. I’ve waited 30 years for this campaign – a campaign that hits the pressing issues before us – and a campaign that is one hundred percent focused on the needs of everyday people – not the rich, powerful and privileged. Now we need to make Bernie’s vision our national policy,” Brendel said.

He added that the campaign will shortly begin county organizing and delegate recruitment.

Chairman Larry Hamm

Mr. Hamm has been a political activist since he led his first protest and sit-in 48 years ago.  In 1971, at the age of 17 he was appointed to the Newark Board of Education by Newark’s former and first African-American mayor Kenneth A. Gibson, making him the youngest voting school board member in the nation. Over the years Hamm has run for office, led campaigns and been a political consultant. He worked closely with the now deceased writer and activist Amiri Baraka on various political campaigns. (Amiri Baraka was the father of Newark’s current mayor Ras Baraka). A graduate of Princeton University Hamm was a leader on campus of the student anti-apartheid movement to free South Africa. In 1983, he founded the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) which fights for racial, social, and economic justice. POP is a multi-issue Organization, however, it has held many protests and been in the forefront of the struggle against police brutality in New Jersey.  In 1988, Hamm was co-chair of Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in New Jersey and was a Jackson delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. In 2008 and 2012 Hamm and POP endorsed Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.  In 2014 and 2018 Hamm and POP endorsed Ras Baraka’s mayoral campaigns. In 2016, Hamm and POP endorsed Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and served as a Sanders delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Vice Chair Patricia Campos-Medina

Campos-Medina is a labor and community leader with more than 20 years of grassroots activism and union organizing experience. She has served in political and legislative roles for several major international unions (i.e. SEIU, UNITEHERE, and UNITE) where she was at the forefront of many campaigns advocating for worker rights and progressive issues in New Jersey and across the US.  She is also a fierce advocate for women’s rights, immigrant rights and Latino community electoral engagement, most recently playing a critical role engaging Latina women voters during the 2018 NJ Senate electoral cycle. Campos-Medina served as an Obama 08 delegateand has played critical roles in many NJ local and state campaigns mobilizing voters of color.

Vice Chair Barry Brendel

Mr. Brendel is a political consultant who has worked on over 200 campaigns in 20 states, including seven presidential.  In 2016, he served as an NJ Senior Advisor to the Sanders Campaign. Barry is currently the Chair of Our Revolution New Jersey, a grassroots issues advocacy organization inspired by Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign that has engaged in many progressive policy and electoral campaigns across the state.  Most recently he worked on the campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage as well as the campaign to extend Earned Sick Days to all workers.