Navajo Candidate Wins IAM Endorsement
March 13, 2012
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Arizona Navajo Congressional candidate Wenona Benally Baldenegro recently added an endorsement from the IAM to her growing list of labor union support for her run to capture the seat in Arizona’s Congressional District One.
“We believe in Wenona’s vision for the working families of Arizona and the rest of the country. The IAM is proud to endorse Wenona Benally Baldenegro for Arizona Congressional District One,” said Gary Bunten, President of the Arizona State Machinists Council.
With their endorsement, the IAM joins the United Steelworkers of America, and AFSCME #449, who have also endorsed Benally Baldenegro’s campaign.
“This is a critical time for Arizona and the nation. Our nation’s working people and middle-class families need jobs and are calling for help. Our nation’s seniors are under attack by Tea Party extremists’ efforts to dismantle Medicare and Social Security,” said Benally Baldenegro. “Meanwhile, instead of working to create good jobs and change the failed economic policies that have led us to this current crisis, the Republicans in Congress have only concerned themselves with partisan politics that include slashing funding to critical programs, restricting access to educational opportunities, and supporting anti-union and anti-worker policies that disadvantage working Americans.”
Benally Baldenegro grew up in a single-parent household in Kayenta, Arizona, a rural town on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona. Her humble upbringing taught her the value of perseverance and of hard work. Benally Baldenegro attended public schools in Kayenta, and went on to receive a law degree from Harvard Law School, as well as a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this, she completed her undergraduate degree at Arizona State University and was the first American Indian to graduate from ASU’s Barrett Honors College.
If elected, Benally Baldenegro would be the first American Indian woman to ever serve in the U.S. Congress.
