Massachusetts Peace Action endorses Berkshire resident and Independent candidate Nadia Milleron in the general election. Our candidate in the primary, Jeromie Whalen, won 45% of the vote and we hope Nadia will harness that support and do even better in the general.
There is a growing resentment for the Democratic establishment, of which Richard Neal is emblematic. Neal has sat in Congress since 1989. 75% of his campaign funds are taken from PACs including the right-leaning, pro-Israel, AIPAC. With an ingrown base of support that he has counted to back him without much question or controversy for 36 years, he has grown complacent. He consistently fails to respond except in the most pro forma way to any questioning of his established positions and steadfastly fails to meet with any of his constituents who challenge him. At 76, Neal’s age, tenure, static views and even more static though well funded base, make him vulnerable to a challenge from the left.
Nadia Milleron conducted a 7-year battle for justice with Boeing, after losing her daughter in a crash of one of its planes – the second in three months – that the company knew to be defective, as was a third plane that also crashed; her skill in organizing hundreds of victims’ families around the world to descend on both Congress and the company’s headquarters; her ability to draft legislation that would hold Boeing accountable and to garner congressional support for its successful passage.
Nadia repeated her performance with the Legislature of Illinois – home to Boeing – whose Members were uninterested if not hostile, as the threat to a local employer was unpopular and Nadia was no one’s constituent; her persistence nonetheless in lobbying, in attracting press coverage, and in turning initial hostility into eventual support, so that the bill ultimately passed and was signed into Illinois law; and the skill and strength by which she did all of this, turning a personal loss into a political win – twice.
She worked to press Congress to pass the Social Security Fairness Act that Richard Neal opposed; she brought 30 Berkshire constituents to D.C. on the last day of the 2024 Legislative session, to crowd the office of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who’d waffled about bringing the Bill to the Senate floor – but yielded to this final pressure, ensuring its passage in 2025, just before Trump began his second term.
She is an outspoken advocate for Palestinians, whose ongoing suffering she’s not afraid to call a genocide. She mentions the case against Israel pending at the International Court of Justice and support for the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants that target Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Her two sons became leaders of the most recent Gaza Flotilla (that she helped make ready), and she then worked hard to get Congress to demand their release, prompting widespread admiration not only for their courage in the face of Israeli abuse, but also for the mother who had raised them.
Nadia has a progressive platform that includes bringing the manufacture of medicines into the district and attracting more doctors to serve its residents; getting the insurance industry out of healthcare and money out of politics; eliminating income taxes for people earning less than $100,000 a year; and dramatically reducing the nation’s defense budget and ending constant wars.
The road to progress may run through CD1.
Vote Tuesday, November 3 for Nadia Milleron!