Dom Miller

What’s your hometown?  Philly–Born and raised. I went away for school for four years, and then I went overseas for six or seven months to teach English in Vietnam.

What is your day job?  I am a government relations specialist. I do lobbying work for Cozen O’Connor. I mainly do city lobbying, connecting our clients to city officials and agencies

How did you learn about Emerge PA?  I knew Anne prior to joining Emerge. One of my former jobs when I moved back to Philly was replacing Anne. Aren Blatt, one of our mutual friends, said, “Anne runs this program. You’ve already worked in campaigns, but you’ll get a formal training and the networking.”

Was there a defining moment that inspired you to run or support women who want to run? What shaped your decision to join Emerge?  I’ve always been a women empowerment kind of lady. When I was in Vietnam, we started Sister Circle, going out for dinners together. When I was in college, I was always involved in women’s groups and women’s inclusion. When I got into politics, I saw, we’re just not present. I saw the treatment of women in politics, and we wouldn’t get the same type of support, the same type of money [as men]. We need to get more ladies up here. Emerge drove that point home for me; all these women around me need to be running this country.

Is there a specific policy issue close to your heart, and can you tell us about it? I really care about voter inclusion and making sure that people who are in lower economic statuses have access to voting. A lot of the reason poor people are in the straits that they are in is that they don’t know about voting and the purpose and importance of voting. Which makes sense–there are so many other things going on in their lives. What I try to do in my role is let students become educators for their families and friends about why voting is important and how it affects our lives.

If you are running for office, where are you in the process?  I go back and forth. For a really long time when I was in Emerge I was gonna be the first African American woman Attorney General in PA. After I left, a lot of career changes happened, and I don’t plan to go to law school anymore. I know right now what I want to do forever is get women into office; even as an old lady I want to bring women into my house and help get them what they need. Even as far as we’ve come, women are gonna struggle to get the same resources and support as men. I’m working with a woman, Jasmine Sessoms, [editorial note: she runs She Can Win, a training program which is Philly focused] who’s building an all-female fundraising team, building young women to be fundraisers and field directors so they can go out and run campaigns and support other young women. I feel like we’re at a turning point–I’m so excited for 2018. Every election across the board is about to be exciting, locally to Congress.

Over the course of your time with Emerge PA, what has been your best insight into yourself and/or the campaign process?  I learned so much about myself. Because I was significantly the youngest woman on the program–there were women who had children my age–I learned so much. I learned about what I could do–these women are amazing professionals, lawyers, who have children, who are active and vital in their communities and still had time to come to Emerge. I always remember whenever we talk to ladies about Emerge training, the first day is so emotional because you lay out all your shit on the table and break down walls. It really does become a sisterhood. I feel like I learned about possibilities.

What has been your biggest success or proudest moment thus far on your journey, and/or, your favorite Emerge memory?  When the DNC was here, I was working at the SDCC, and I was able to go down on the floor with all the electeds and celebrities. I got to see Michelle Obama speak from the floor. I was hysterical, I was jumping up and down. There was a guy there from one of those TV crime shows. He was right in front of me, and he gave the the craziest stink eye, and I was like, I don’t care about you, I’m here for Michelle. The DNC was such a great vibe–so many people excited about politics. It was like, we’re Democrats, we’re united, we’re here, it’s a party. It’s democracy–there were people outside protesting, and that was cool. I was so full. I was so full on politics.

Who is a woman you admire?  I have so many ladies. I come from a matriarchy. I have like eight aunts and they’re all amazing, in active professions. In my generation in our family, I’m the only girl, so they all poured into me my whole life. They cosigned loans, helped me buy my laptop, helped me pay for school. I can’t be anything less than a billionaire running the city–they’re lawyers and doctors and they made me. And of course, Michelle Obama. And this sounds cheesy, but Beyonce. It’s not even her music, it’s what she represents–everyone one the world turns to this one person, and it’s a black woman, and that’s such a powerful, beautiful thing. She’s just so dope. I hope I can embody that some day.

What’s one thing you’re loving right now (food, TV show, book, hobby, etc)?  Oh my goodness, I am in love with Audible. I haven’t even read a book since I got Audible. I just love it. I’m sitting there doing work listening to books, on the train listening to books. The last book that I listened to was the autobiography of Tiffany Haddish. She is so funny–I’m laughing out loud on the train. The audiobook is narrated by her, and it’s amazing. I’m reading one now called Pimp–one of the top books in psychology. I’m hearing about it from a lot of different people, and I didn’t expect it to be so good, but it really is.

What’s your favorite memory of or place in Pennsylvania? It was definitely during JusticeFest, which we did for Larry Krasner [the Philadelphia DA–Dom was the finance director for his campaign]. It was such a great environment, very much a festival for criminal justice. We had awesome speakers, Larry was empowering. I basically put the whole event together, so to see it happen, it felt so good. We raised $50,000; we had music and acts and food. It was his brainchild; it was his baby that I helped make happen. Plus, it ended up being very unseasonably warm–in the sixties or seventies. We had a group songs from In the Key of Free, which are written by group of people who are incarcerated now, while people on the outside performed, and the people who wrote the songs were projected onto the walls of the Eastern State Penitentiary, where we hosted the event. I just didn’t want that night to end, even though it was a long-ass night.

What advice do you have for our future candidates or volunteers?  I would say, just run. Don’t overly think about it; get a good team and just do it. You’ll think of millions of reasons why you shouldn’t, but ignore all those things, and make a plan, and run. You might lose the first time–a lot of people lose the first time. A lot of people who have become president lose the first time. You can’t learn about being a candidate until you’ve done it. For volunteers, bring your friends. We need more support, more people to get involved in politics. Being a volunteer is an amazing way to stay a part of the process.

What’s your favorite way to spend a few empty hours of free time?  I don’t even have that right now. I like to nap as much as possible. A lot of my job is staying up on what’s going on in the city, so I’m skimming through articles. Listening to my Audible. I’m trying to work out more.