Washington, D.C. — Latino Victory Fund announced the endorsement of its first Georgia candidate slate ahead of the primary election. The candidates are Jason Esteves, State Senate, 6th District; Phil Olaleye, State House of Representatives, 59th District; and Michelle Schreiner, State House of Representatives, 90th District.
Nathalie Rayes, Latino Victory Fund President & CEO, released the following statement:
“Latino Victory is proud to endorse this slate of Latino candidates for the Georgia General Assembly. We support Jason, Michelle, and Phil because they are hard-working, innovative Latino leaders who will bolster issues that matter to our community, including improving public education, access to health care, voting rights protection and affordable housing.
“Georgia is key to solidifying the Senate Democratic majority and is home to a burgeoning Latino electoral force. The state’s growing Latino population is a decisive voting bloc that played a pivotal role in flipping the presidential election and Senate seats for Democrats in the 2020 cycle. This influence must be reflected in elected office, especially in the Georgia General Assembly. State legislatures determine policies that impact the Latino community’s quality of life, and the need for more Latino representation in the state House and Senate is critical.
These endorsements mark the beginning of Latino Victory’s 2022 electoral work in Georgia, with an early vote event planned for early May. The state has been a priority state for Latino Victory Fund since 2017, when the organization launched its Georgia chapter. For years, Latino Victory Fund has endorsed Latino candidates in Georgia to help grow Latino representation in the state and has launched efforts to mobilize Latino voters for Democrats in top-of-ticket races.
Along with Georgia’s Latino leaders, grassroots organizers, and Democratic candidates, Latino Victory recognized the potential of the state’s growing Latino population and its ability to help sway elections, including the 2020 presidential and Senate special elections. In 2018, Latino Victory Fund launched the ¡Vamos, Georgia! Bus Tour to mobilize Latino voters for Stacy Abrams and other down-ballot Democratic candidates.
To help harness the Latino community’s electoral votes in 2020, Latino Victory held another ¡Vamos, Georgia! Bus Tour to mobilize Latino voters in support of now Senators Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. The tour included events held in Latino-heavy neighborhoods and featured Latino high-profile celebrities and advocates like Latino Victory co-founder Eva Longoria Bastón, America Ferrara and Kate Del Castillo. For photographs of the 2020 ¡Vamos, Georgia! Bus Tour, click HERE.
Meet the 2022 Candidates:
Jason Esteves
- Esteves is an at-large representative and the outgoing board chair of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education (APS).
- In 2013, he became the first Latino elected to a school board in Georgia. He has since worked to promote equity and improve the financial outlook of the school system. In November 2021, Jason was re-elected to a third term on the Board with 62% of the vote.
- Esteves is also a vice president at Equifax Inc., where he handles regulatory matters, risk mitigation, and sensitive disputes and investigations for the company. He was a litigation associate at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP (now Dentons US LLP), which he joined after graduating from Emory University School of Law.
- He serves as treasurer of the Democratic Party of Georgia and is on the boards of several local non-profit organizations, including GALEO and the Trust for Public Land. He is an alumnus of LEAD Atlanta (2012), Leadership Georgia (2015), and Outstanding Atlanta (2020) and is in the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2022.
- Click HERE to learn more about Esteves.
Phil Olaleye
- Olaleye grew up in a working-class immigrant family in Stone Mountain, Georgia. As a child, Olaleye traveled two hours one way to school each day to receive a decent public education.
- This opportunity changed his life and underscored the value of education and strong public institutions in helping transform people and the community, especially those most in need. Olaleye attended Duke University as a working student.
- After working at Citigroup to pay off college loans, Olaleye joined the United States Peace Corps for three years. He returned to the United States to study at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and then organized in the Mississippi Delta. Upon graduation, he moved back to Atlanta to put everything he had learned into practice to use at home.
- Olaleye served as the director of performance management at WorkSource Atlanta and currently is the executive director of Next Generation Men & Women, an education non-profit closing the opportunity gap for under-resourced high school students in Atlanta. Olaleye is the former president of the Organized Neighbors of Summerhill.
- Click HERE to learn more about Olaleye.
Michelle Schreiner
- Dr. Schreiner is a psychologist, community advocate, wife, and mom of twins. Her family is from Puerto Rico, and she is also proud to call Georgia home.
- Growing up, Schreiner relied on the school’s free lunch programs and worked through high school to pay for her meals and clothes. She pursued higher education thanks to government-supported programs, like the HOPE scholarship and the Pell Grant. Through part-time jobs, student loans, scholarships, and grants, Schreiner earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Georgia.
- Schreiner has worked as a professor, then at the Office of Inspector General Department of Health and Human Services, and as an advocate in the state legislature. She fought for the Georgia Work Credit so working families could get the financial boost they needed to move toward the middle class.
- Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Schreiner.
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The Latino Victory Fund is a progressive political action committee with the mission of growing Latino political power by increasing Latino representation at every level of government – from the school board to the Senate to the White House.
