Nebraska Poor People’s Campaign held march outside Capitol

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Nebraska Poor People’s Campaign raised awareness on Oct. 15 for upcoming policies in the Nebraska Legislature.

The campaign is led by a national organization who held marches across the country on Saturday.

The tri-chair for the Nebraska Poor People’s Campaign, Angela Montalvo,  spoke at the event.

“With living wages, health care, voting rights, and other issues critical to poor and low-income people on the ballot, this year’s elections are more important than ever,” Montalvo said.

According to the Poor People’s Campaign, there are 140 million poor and low-income people in the U.S.

Committee member,  Mandy Berlin Coyle, said many of those people are facing other obstacles as well.

“If you’re affected by poverty, systemic racism impacts that, that also affects climate justice, it affects health care, it affects voter ID, it affects everything,” Berlin Coyle said. “So you can’t just address one or two things.”

One of the main issues the Nebraska Poor People’s Campaign is focused on are voter I.D. laws.

Berlin Coyle said poor and low-income people already struggle to vote and requiring identification would just be another barrier.

The march in Lincoln was aimed at encouraging those people to go to the polls on Nov. 8.

The Poor People’s Campaign is a non-partisan group.

Instead, Berlin Coyle said they are much more focused on policies that would be beneficial for nearly every citizen, such as increasing minimum wage, and free and affordable healthcare.

Montalvo said being a part of this campaign has given her a chance to talk about struggles she had faced first-hand.

“It feels really, really great,” Montalvo said. “I have never been a public speaker or anything like that, but it’s what I’ve been doing the past 2 years and it’s really great. I feel that I have been heard.”