Derek Fleming

Derek Fleming earned a high school diploma from Northampton High School and a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in 2011. His career experience includes working as a business owner.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in Massachusetts, growing up in a hardworking family of farmers, tradesmen, teachers, and military veterans. After earning my marketing degree from UMass Dartmouth, I worked in higher education at my alma mater and then in B2B sales. I’ve always had a deep entrepreneurial spirit; since I was fifteen and learning to cook, I dreamed of owning a restaurant. For the past eight years, I have lived that dream, operating a small restaurant in Arlington, right in the heart of the 5th District. I love my business, my team, and our customers, but I am ready to step away if our community sees value in what I can bring to Washington.

At my core, I am a family man. My wife and two daughters are the mental and emotional drivers behind my campaign; I refuse to accept that current leadership is the best we can offer the next generation. I am almost 37, and for my whole life and for all but 22 years of our nation’s 250-year history, America has been involved in military conflicts. Having never lived through true peace, I don't want my daughters growing up in a country that knows only endless wars. It is time for real change.

Honesty, integrity, and absolute accountability are the core requirements to serve in Congress. Today’s politicians have lost sight of those values. I am running to change that and return this government to the hands of the people.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Voters across the political spectrum agree that it is time to get back to Abraham Lincoln’s vision of a government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people. Right now, our current representation in Washington fails to check any of those three boxes. Instead, our Capitol is filled with career politicians and an isolated elite class who have completely forgotten what it's like to be a regular citizen. As a local business owner and a regular member of this community, I am running to change that and finally check all three of those boxes again. At my core, I am a man OF the people. With your support, I will serve as a representative elected truly BY the people, and I guarantee that I will always stand FOR the people.Americans agree on far more than Washington wants to admit. Career politicians intentionally amplify our divisions to distract us from the common-sense structural reforms that a vast majority of citizens actually desire. It is time for a representative who focuses on what unites us. My platform is built on popular, structural reforms: implementing term limits, ending partisan gerrymandering, overturning Citizens United to eliminate dark corporate money, and banning stock trading for elected officials. I believe in clean, single-issue bills and ending the irresponsible practice of hiding thousands of provisions inside massive, 7,000-page bills before anyone can even read them. Structural reforms like these are the heart of my campaign.As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, we must recognize we are no longer the nation of our founding. Today, we are the most diverse nation to ever exist, racially, ethnically, economically, ideologically, politically, religiously and geographically. While this diversity is our greatest strength, it also means a one-size-fits-all approach to governance cannot work. The needs here in Massachusetts’s are vastly different than those of rural Montana, yet a broken two-party system insists on forcing the same rigid, top-down policies on everyone. My candidacy will help shift power back to local communities, allowing different regions to handle things uniquely with basic federal guidance. We must reject one-size-fits-all governance.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about public policy in so many ways. For too many decades, outdated governance has failed us, leaving America lagging far behind when we should have been leading. I want to unleash our country’s untapped potential. We need forward-thinking leaders who actively want to lead on critical issues like housing, healthcare, innovation and education, instead, we have only led in death, destruction, and incarceration. To fix this, we must structurally reform Washington by implementing term limits, ending gerrymandering, and banning officials from stock trading. I stand for a smaller federal government that stops endless foreign wars, has less power over the people and guarantees fair treatment for all citizens.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My grandfather Bern, he was a man of amazing integrity, honest to a fault, always did what was right for people around him.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Honesty, Integrity and Accountability

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Listen to their constituents act on their wishes, don't take money from massive corporations, PACs and special interest groups.

What legacy would you like to leave?

To help usher in positive change for the lives of my family and also those in my community.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Beyond neighborhood babysitting I was a dish washer for a breakfast restaurant in Northampton for less than a year.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I've struggles with weight issues and it took until I was 26 to get them under control and find balance in my diet and physical activity.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

Not a good one but the most notable is that many of the representatives there seem to be for sale. They take so much money from corporations, PACs and special interest groups. Why would these entities give millions to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle other then to have influence? They wouldn't.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Outside influence from special interests, lobbyists and large media corporations that continue to divide our population for reasons of money, influence and power.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Absolutely

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

I remember being a young child and watching bombing and missile attacks from the US on TV news during the gulf war in the 90's. War and conflict has been a constant for America during my whole life.