The City of Tracy has elected their youngest-ever city council member. Dan Arriola was sworn into office on Tuesday night at 29-years-old.
"It's so funny here, because the people that I work with as colleagues knew me when I was a kid!" Arriola said.
"Until Tuesday, millennials have never had a voice at the table," Arriola continued.
At the age of 3, Arriola's family moved here from Portugal, making him a first-generation American.
At 25, he became a Deputy District Attorney for San Joaquin County.
At 26, he was elected to the school board for the Tracy Unified School District.
And at only 29, he was just sworn in as the youngest-ever city councilman in Tracy.
"Being a first-generation American, being able to come back to your hometown after finishing your education, for me, this really was a dream come true," he said. "For being this, was being able to obtain the American dream."
But things haven't always been easy.
"When you're 13-years-old and cleaning toilets, you pray for a better day," he said.
Arriola grew up in poverty in the city for which he's now responsible for making big decisions.
"I always had to work, so I worked two or three jobs to put food on the table for myself and for my family and I knew that I didn't want to continue the rest of my life that way," he said.
Now that he's got a seat at the table, he says he's bringing in "a new generation of leadership" and wants to focus on issues that will directly impact millennials, like himself.
"Millennials are our current work force. We're the ones beginning to have families and the decisions that we make as a city council will be affecting millennials for longer than anybody else," he said.
Some of those decisions include how to bring in more jobs that will attract people his age, tackling homelessness and affordable housing.
"The fact is, I did everything right, but still I have to rent and I can't afford to buy a home in the town that I grew up in and that is not OK," he said. "If an attorney, an elected official can't do it, how do we expect anyone else to be able to do it?"
Arriola says he wants to serve as a positive example for kids across the area.
"I've been able to epitomize the American dream and I'm really hoping that for every other young person in this town who feels like they don't have a role model, or whose family didn't go to college or who struggles financially, I want those kids to know that they can do it too," he said.
Arriola will serve a four-year term.
The Tracy City Council meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month.
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