Steve Pemberton, a Democrat from New Bedford who grew up in foster care and published a memoir, will announce Tuesday that he is running for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary against U.S. Sen. Ed Markey.
Pemberton said he will be different from Markey because of his life experience.
“I’m going to reflect the human toll of what happens when policies don’t work,” Pemberton said in an interview. “I’m going to know what it’s like to have dealt with losing a parent to gun violence, a mother to addiction. I’m going to know what it’s like to have a family be separated, to fight, kicking, just to be seen.”
Pemberton is the second Democrat to challenge Markey, who has been in Congress since 1976 and was elected to the Senate in a 2013. Labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan entered the race in May.
Pemberton, 52, was put in foster care at age 3. His mother was struggling with alcoholism. His father was absent and later died of gun violence.
“What unfolded for the next 13 years would be an enormous battle to be safe, to learn to just navigate the basic necessities of life,” Pemberton said.
As Pemberton tells it, he moved between foster homes for two years before landing in an abusive home, which he describes as “more like a prison,” where he remained for 11 years. At 16, he ended up living with his high school teacher. He ultimately aged out of the foster care system.
He was accepted to Boston College. He worked on a housekeeping crew there the summer after his freshman year in order to get free housing.
After college, Pemberton worked as an admissions counselor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He later moved into the corporate world, taking human resources positions at Monster.com and Walgreens. He earned a master’s degree in sociology from Boston College.
He testified before Congress in 2007 on the importance of diversifying census takers. He was appointed by Tom Perez, the U.S. labor secretary under President Barack Obama, to participate in an initiative related to employing people with disabilities.
Pemberton moved from Massachusetts to Illinois in 2011 to take a job at Walgreens. He moved back to Massachusetts in 2017 to become the chief human resource officer at Workhuman, a technology company in Framingham. He split his time between the two states, but recently bought a home in Framingham.
Pemberton wrote a book about his life experiences, called “A Chance in the World,” which was turned into a movie. He is a motivational speaker.
Pemberton said he sees his candidacy as a way to be a voice for other people facing challenges like his. “They don’t want a lowered bar, they just want a chance,” he said.
The most important issue to Pemberton is income inequality. He said he would support “some version of a wealth tax.”
He wants to look at ways to expand access to education. Although he would not commit to supporting debt-free college, Pemberton said the system needs to “be more aggressive in providing those opportunities” to segments of the population, like teenagers aging out of foster care.
He is also interested in looking at the intersection of issues like income inequality, health care and education. He said the country needs to address the high levels of suicide, mental health problems, addiction, incarceration and children entering foster care.
Asked if he would support single-payer health care, Pemberton said he believes health care is a fundamental human right, and he will shape his policy platforms more as the campaign unfolds.
Pemberton supports abortion rights.
On immigration, he is adamantly opposed to President Donald Trump’s policy of separating families who entered the U.S. illegally. “Having endured a family separation, I can tell you it never goes away,” Pemberton said. “I can tell you, there are children who any time they see a cage, they’re going to have a triggered memory.”
“What this president and his party are doing is a stain on our nation’s soul,” Pemberton said.
He would support impeaching Trump, whom he called “uniquely unfit for office in the history of this nation.”
Pemberton lives in Framingham with his wife, Tonya, and their three teenage children.
He made political donations this year to U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In 2015, he donated $1,000 to Illinois Democrat Andrea Zopp, who launched a primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Pemberton plans to kick off his campaign in New Bedford, then visit Doyle’s Cafe in Boston and a youth development summer program in Worcester.