Why I Ran for Office

My story is similar to a lot of Americans.

I grew up in Philadelphia. My family didn’t have a lot of money. My grandparents helped support my mom and dad when I was a young child. My parents went to college during my childhood. There were times where they struggled to put food on the table, which is why they needed my grandparents’ support.

We got through it, but not without struggle and help from others.

I remember my parents working minimum wage jobs until they finished their college educations. My mom was a cashier while my dad worked in a factory (Nabisco, to be precise).

They couldn’t afford to buy a home until I was 10 years old.

Fast forward to my own adulthood: I met my husband while I was living in Florida after high school, working at a non-profit organization. We got married quite young: 20 and 21. We thought we’d work at that organization forever and wouldn’t need to go to college; however, for reasons too long to address here, we decided to leave that organization, and found out how poor the employment market can be.

We had our first child when I was 22. Soon after, I began college. My husband was fortunate to get a job that paid a livable income. I, however, could not because I was a college student. I ended up working minimum wage positions for many years. It’s only due to my husband’s job that I was able to go to college: but we are well aware that this is something not achievable to many.

Even with his job, we were able to get by because we lived in the town where my husband grew up, which was rural upstate New York. Cost of living was quite low. We were able to buy our home when my oldest son was 5.

By the time I completed two bachelor’s degrees, my children were 8 and 1. I was finally able to enter the work force with a livable income.

Being in rural New York, my husband’s job downsized, he ultimately got laid off, and couldn’t find a similar position. We moved to New Hampshire, as there were jobs here, as well as some family. We enjoy our life here very much.

I ran for office because I have first-hand experience with the struggles many families face:

• Wages that don’t keep up with cost-of-living

• Families needing services like WIC and state health insurance/Medicaid

• College being unaffordable to many, or people having to sacrifice to take out student loans, and the loans encumber them for many years afterwards

• Housing affordability is difficult when wages don’t keep up

• Families need to ensure their children get a proper K-12 education

• Families can’t afford ever-increasing costs like property taxes and rent increases, particularly when wages don’t follow

The only way to solve these problems – and others – is through proper policy. As a legislator, my promise to the voters is that I would put THEM first. I advocate for PEOPLE, not corporations. We can’t be giving tax breaks to the wealthy and the businesses while making the taxpayers suffer and bear the costs.

My goals are to enable the people of New Hampshire to live a life free of the burdens that currently entangle them.

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“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.

When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”

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Endorsements and Recommendations from 2018 and 2019