In a wide-ranging discussion Wednesday with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Javier Palomarez, Martin O’Malley, former governor of Maryland and recently-declared Democratic presidential contender, laid out his vision for a new era of progressive leadership in America. The discussion, the second in the USHCC’s Presidential Candidate Q&A Series, highlighted Mr. O’Malley’s policy positions on issues important to the chamber’s 3.2 million Hispanic-owned business and the Hispanic electorate at large including immigration reform, financial regulation and economic inequality.
“I intend to make a great comprehensive immigration reform a national economic priority and a national security priority, and I am going to do whatever it takes to get it done during my service in office…How are you going to get wages to go up if you allow 11 million people to live in a shadow economy?” Mr. O’Malley said, distantly praising President Obama’s executive actions just enough to insert his own recommendations on what Mr. Obama has since been unable to accomplish.
While talking up his previous executive experience – first as two-term Mayor of Baltimore then as two-term Governor of Maryland – he boldly attempted to differentiate himself from the rest of the Democratic field in his bid to the highly sought-after Latino electorate. Struggling in the polls, Mr. O’Malley aimed to capitalize on the declining poll numbers of Hillary Clinton, his main competitor, and saw immigration and trade as the two issues which could frame his challenge for the nomination.
Raising his voice from a question regarding the Transpacific Partnership trade deal posed by Maria Cardona, Mr. O’Malley declared “When you have a secret deal and the only people who get to see it are the great captains of corporate America who have more cash than they’ve had in a long time . . . and now we are told ‘trust us’ on the secret agreement that we are not allowed to read as a people before our representatives have to fast track it, it’s not the way our country is supposed to work.”
His rationale for his strong stance on immigration reform? “We should not be breaking up families,” the Governor affirmed.
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