I'm running for City Council because I believe that the people of Cincinnati want something better. Housing, utilities, groceries, childcare, and more are making it increasingly impossible to comfortably live in the city of Cincinnati for working class people like you and me, and our transit is far from what's needed to live in a city like Cincinnati. We need to build a more democratic city, where the needs of working class people are first and foremost in City Hall.
I've experienced firsthand the struggles tenants have faced in the Greater Cincinnati area as a tenant myself. Staying afloat while keeping up with rent has meant living paycheck to paycheck for most of my life—and that was before having two children to raise and cover school and childcare costs for! And as a trans woman, I've experienced firsthand how our struggles as queer people, as tenants, and as workers are united. These struggles only intensified during and following the Covid pandemic.
During the Great Recession, I saw the way that our society prioritized bailouts for billionaires and their companies, at the expense of regular people across our country. I also saw people start to stand up to demand better, and to have their needs prioritized, first as part of the Occupy movement, and then later with the Bernie 2016 and 2020 campaigns. Inspired by the success of the first Bernie movement, I chose to join Democratic Socialists of America, and became a Democratic Socialist organizer, co-founding the local Cincinnati chapter.
In that time, I've constantly been on the side of the people of Greater Cincinnati in our fight against corporations and the far right. Our DSA chapter's very first campaign was to fight against the sale of a public library building to private developers and to take a stand for public space remaining in public hands, and led the chapter's canvassing against a Kentucky ballot initiative to redirect public school money to private school vouchers. I've personally stood multiple times over the years on the picket line in solidarity with union members fighting for a better contract, fundraised to support union workers on strike, and supported workers organizing for new unions in their workplaces. I'm also proud of the work I've done with DSA over the years to defend abortion access in both Kentucky and Ohio, where people repeatedly stood on the side of abortion rights and access every time.
As a Democratic Socialist in Cincinnati for nearly a decade now, I've seen how people in our city have struggled to have their needs and voices heard. The fight for affordable housing has consistently stalled, as major development projects have prioritized stadiums, luxury buildings, and housing instead. We remain one of the most segregated cities in the country, which disproportionately harms and impacts safety and public education for the Black population of our city. And in that time, we've seen multiple city councillors arrested on corruption charges for taking deals that favor development firms and corporations in our city.
It is time for people in Cincinnati to fight for a better city that stands up for regular people, not corporations and development firms. As a Democratic Socialist, I plan like my fellow DSA members Zohran Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib to fight for regular people over corporate interests. We can have a Cincinnati with fast and free transit, with affordable housing built everywhere in this city, and free childcare for the residents of our city. We can be a city that is willing to be brave on our principles, to pursue divestment from Israel in solidarity with Palestinians, to protect our immigrant friends, neighbors and coworkers from Trump's cruel immigration policies, and to ensure trans youth in our city are safe and taken care of in our medical institutions. And we can build a mass, democratic movement of people that looks different from anything Cincinnati has seen so far.