Let me be abundantly clear: I am black, and I am a woman, and I embrace both of those facts.
I'm asking people to vote for me because I'm an activist leader and a problem solver.
I'm not naive. All politics is about identity, right? Neighborhood politics, cultural politics, issue politics. It's not as though I don't get that. It's just - it has to be, I think, tempered in a way that is for our overall advancement and not to our detriment or obliteration. When I say 'our,' I don't mean just communities of color.
Raising me as a single parent, my mother held many jobs. Most of them had to do with the betterment and the advancement of our community and society at large. I grew up seeing her active in ministries at our church, with the homeless, as a social worker, with elderly, with youth, as a children's rights organizer with the Urban League of Chicago.
There's many law changes, policy changes I can point to. But a lot of my work has also been to name the issue that no one else named - to spotlight it, to advocate for it. That's where all advocacy begins. I've asked different questions. I've raised different issues.
I've always had a love affair with Boston.
If you look at the Affordable Care Act, ultimately that was saved not solely by lawmakers but because of the courage of individuals and families who went to Washington, who organized, who mobilized and said 'We're not turning around.'
We need a permanent solution to TPS recipients and develop a path to citizenship. And, more fundamentally, we need to ensure that our immigration policies treat those coming to this country with the dignity and compassion that should be afforded to all human beings and immediately stop tearing families apart.
Players who take a knee during the national anthem do so to protest injustice across the country - fulfilling a patriotic duty to never accept injustice, but to call it out when we see it.
I went to a school with the kids of judges and elected officials and architects, civil leaders, and influencers. And I felt very much a minority in every way. But it did expose me to incredible things.
I would not invest in a Trump hate wall. We don't need to be protected from immigrants that are coming here seeking asylum and refuge.
One of my priorities is criminal justice reform, and there is certainly bipartisan appetite for that. I think we need to eliminate the cash bail system. We need to eliminate mandatory minimums. We need sentencing reform. I think we need parole reform as well.
I understand and appreciate and respect that any time a barrier is broken or history is made, people want to celebrate it and mark it as progress.
I'm doing what Democrats said we needed to coming out of 2016, after that sobering defeat, which is to build a bench, to usher fresh faces and new voices and new ideas.
An increase in bicycle ridership brings an increased need for measures to ensure the safety of cyclists.
From drug companies to health insurers to Wall Street banks, big corporations are spending millions to buy influence in Washington and drown out the voices of regular people.
I'm an only child, so I don't come from a big family. But it has been my observation from friends who do come from big families that usually, when you have a family fight, on the back end you come out better and stronger for it.
If the power was equitable, then our boards, then our commissions, our contracting, our wealth-building opportunities would all look very different.
You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.
I have been really furious about the constant charges being lobbed against me about identity politics that, by the way, are only lobbed against women and candidates of color.
