I hope you're having a good Mother's Day, Danielle, and if this holiday hits you hard, my heart goes out to you. I'm thinking about my mother today, and I'm thinking about a time when she dug deep to take care of our family. After my daddy had a heart attack, he couldn't work for a while. Bills piled up. We lost our family station wagon. It looked like the house would be next to go. At night, I'd overhear my parents talk, and that's when I learned words like "mortgage" and "foreclosure." One day, I walked into my parents' bedroom. My mother's face was red and puffy. A dress was laid out over the bedspread — the dress that only came out for weddings, graduations, and funerals. "We are not going to lose this house," she kept saying. "We are not going to lose this house." She'd never worked outside the home. She was terrified. But she knew what she had to do. I watched her while she pulled it together, put that dress on, put on her high heels, blew her nose, walked to Sears, and got a minimum wage job. And that minimum wage job saved our house, but more importantly, it saved our family. This is a story that's written on my heart. I'm remembering my mother's courage this Mother's Day — and I'm thinking about all the mamas out there fighting for their families. I'm also thinking about all the ways the deck has been stacked against mothers and families like ours today. When this happened to my family, the minimum wage in America would support a family of three. It would take care of a mortgage, utilities, and put food on the table. But today, a full-time minimum wage job will not keep a family out of poverty. A full-time minimum wage earner today still can't afford a two-bedroom apartment in any state in the country — let alone a house. And on top of skytrocketing housing prices, families have to manage rising costs on basic necessities like health care and child care — with parents saying they're spending 22% of their household income on child care. Not to mention, Trump is doing his best to make life even harder for families right now with his dumb tariffs that can drive up costs while also risking putting people out of work. This year's Mother's Day is also arriving on the heels of a recent New York Times report about how the Trump administration is soliciting ideas on how to persuade women to have more children. They want to create a "National Medal of Motherhood" for mothers with six or more children. Look, mothers today do not need a medal. I'm sure that'd be nice, but what about universal child care? Paid leave? Policies that make it easier for families to make ends meet — from raising the minimum wage to lowering the cost of housing by building more supply? Today, and every day, I'm going to keep fighting for our government to actually pass policies that help mothers and families, not just dangle around shallow incentives. To honor my mother and mothers everywhere. Thank you, Danielle, for being a part of our grassroots movement to make real change. Elizabeth  | 
