I’ve had the honor of living in Minneapolis for more than a decade but I grew up in the foothills of Appalachia in northwest Georgia where my values of justice, community, and a commitment to helping people were crystalized.

My entire life has been spent in service to this country and our communities — both in and out of uniform. From working for my hometown police department in a first of its kind community safety program, to serving 8 years in the United States Air Force which included work as a sexual assault victims advocate working with survivors of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) to navigate military justice, to serving as a volunteer firefighter while stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base, and now for over a decade organizing our communities to win hard policy battles at all levels of government, I have always been committed to serving the people. It was an honor to serve my country and now I’m ready to serve Ward 3.

I moved to Minneapolis in 2014 to pursue my degree at the University of Minnesota thanks to the G.I. Bill. But my love for this city and our North Star State goes back to 2012. While I was still on Active Duty and stationed just across the border in Grand Forks, North Dakota, I volunteered for the first time on a campaign with Minnesotans United For All Families and I was hooked. The collective power we have to shape our communities was invigorating. Minneapolis, as well as Minnesota, showed exactly why we were the North Star State by defeating the anti-marriage equality amendment and immediately passing marriage equality the following year. I knew this was where I wanted to build my life after the military right then and there.

I’ve also seen firsthand how bad policy and poor governance can affect people’s lives. I, along with countless other veterans, was forced to serve half of my military career under the discriminatory policy known as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell until we finally moved our country forward in 2011. Locally we have seen an underinvestment in affordable housing, a failure to protect workers and small business owners with a Labor Standards Board, and a lack of leadership on meaningful police reform.

I’ve worked with all levels of government to pass crucial bills fighting for our communities throughout the past decade. The fights ahead of us are going to take bold leadership. With so many issues facing our city from climate change, lack of accountability for police, looming federal funding cliffs from the Trump Administration, and the ever present issue of rising rent and housing prices, we cannot afford to lose sight of our mission to do good work for the people.

In the military at the end of the day what mattered most was keeping the mission in sight and doing everything within our power to successfully complete that mission. At City Hall the mission is to ensure that we are doing the most good for the most people within our power every day.

The job of a city councilor is to do good work for the people they are elected to serve. That starts with crafting policies that are informed by the needs and desires of the people, policies that put our community first—not big businesses and corporate interests. I pledge to work with our neighbors, community members, and other members of the City Council to ensure that we can all live affordable, healthy lives that allow all of us to thrive.

I promise that I will work with all of our Ward 3 neighbors to build the best Ward in the best city of Minnesota. When we find good policy it is our duty to collaborate together to pass that good policy. I look forward to building the coalitions and consensus we need to do just that.

Moving Ward 3 Forward is going to take all of us. Join me in building a Minneapolis that is affordable and works for all of us, protects us from the effects of climate change, federal overreach and attacks on our hard won freedoms by Trump, and ensures that we can all thrive, together.