In my own neighborhood, I have served as a precinct chair for over a decade and have worked to help elect strong Democratic leaders in Dallas and across the State, including County Judge Clay Jenkins, Congressman Marc Veasey, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke and many others.

Since being sworn in to represent our community in February, we have hosted several town halls, worked with constituents one on one to resolve issues with the state (including securing unemployment benefits and jail release), and introduced legislation to address needed criminal justice reform and many other efforts.

The reason why so many of my neighbors have repeatedly put their trust in me is because I worked at the federal, state and local level for over a decade on the issues that matter including education, health care, justice reform and economic job creation and workforce development.

Having to work with mothers who are mourning the loss of their child due to police brutality and knowing that we have so many barriers when it comes to trying to make sure an officer is prosecuted for murdering one of those children or when it comes to the civil rights fight in court the issues that we have, I decided it is just best if we rewrite around the issues that I am facing consistently and rewrite around the House in the districts instead of dealing with it one case at a time.

Therefore, I do believe that the person that represents this specific district needs to be someone who is intimately familiar with the issues that Black and Brown people are going through and is willing to be that voice for the Black and Brown community.