Maplewood Township Committee Member and former mayor Dean Dafis entered the race for Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill’s seat in New Jersey’s 11^th Congressional District. Running on a pro-democracy, working class platform, in his launch video, he shared his story as a first-generation, Greek-American who started his career in legal aid and moved on to civil rights advocacy and political organizing.

As a progressive voice grounded in community investment, service, and local accountability, he announced his campaign with a vision serving communities as a representative who will fight for NJ-11’s working class families.

Raised in blue collar, downtown Philadelphia to immigrant parents, Dafis said he grew up fighting for his parents’ standing and access as they climbed the social and economic ladders, as well as for his own human dignity as a gay man. “We’re a nation of immigrants, who came here for opportunity and freedom, but under Trump and MAGA, hardworking immigrants like my parents are terrorized, hunted, and detained,” Dafis explained. “The aspirational beacon of hope and possibility, of a shining city on a hill has been replaced by a plutocracy filled with cruelty, division, and darkness.”

He learned the value of hard work and the importance of community service at his family’s diner. “While we definitely struggled to make ends meet, back then the American Dream seemed reachable,” the candidate remarked. “Today, that same dream is out of reach for far too many working families. Housing, groceries, childcare–the basic essentials–continue to skyrocket, while MAGA Republicans give giant tax breaks to their billionaire buddies and dismantle support systems that help people get by.”

After graduating law school, he started his career in legal aid before moving on and battling economic injustice and corruption on Wall Street as a securities litigator during the accounting scandals of the dot-com bubble. After the crash of 2008 and stints in Big Law, Dafis said he turned to non-profit advocacy and community and political organizing on local issues. He later moved into national issue campaigns, including banning gay conversion therapy where his testimony was informed by his own experience as a survivor.

Dafis was part of the marriage equality fight in the Garden State and across the nation, which is a right that was only temporarily spared by the alt-Right Supreme Court earlier this week. A passionate fighter against autocracy, he would be New Jersey’s first out LGBTQ+ representative in Washington at a time when the community is targeted across the nation with leaders in Congress failing to stand up for equality and allowing states to roll back basic human rights.

As an elected official, Dafis established the Garden State’s first suburban community police board, which has since been replicated by many other towns. During Covid-19, he supported small businesses with swift acting policies that helped protect jobs and local investment. Over his tenure in Maplewood, he has transformed local zoning rules, dismantling barriers to economic development and entrepreneurship. He has also centered public health in all decision making, created opportunities for youth engagement, successfully advocated for missing middle housing and aging in place initiatives along with affordable housing development, and became a leading voice for student athletes and strong public education.

In his professional role, he advises fellow elected officials and policymakers on initiatives, fortifying safe and secure housing as a pathway to upward mobility. His comprehensive statewide network in homelessness prevention has been highly effective in keeping residents housed, and in expanding their access to legal advice and representation.

“In Washington we need more people with lived experience in the struggle and in making government work for people. We need proven fighters, effective leaders,” Dafis added.

Concerned that Governor-elect Sherrill will inherit a state budget at a time of massive federal cuts that threaten defunding vital programs for working families, Dafis said he is prepared to hit the ground running. “New Jersey is at the edge of a cliff. Funding for our schools, critical infrastructure investments, housing and healthcare supports–they’re all on the chopping block. Without the promised money from Washington, our state budget can’t fill these gaps. I’m going to Washington to speak truth to power, put people over process, community investment over markets, and build new and sustainable safety nets for working people.”