Race is a factor in everything.

Neighborhood restaurants matter.

I don't put too much stock in polls.

I've always had a love affair with Boston.

Plans without price tags are simply pandering.

There's something to be said for perseverance.

We want Boston to be the safest bicycling city.

Our schools should be rewarding for all students.

My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead.

I don't think people that make history set out to make it.

I never thought I had the monopoly on struggle or suffering.

It's important that people see themselves mirrored in government.

I'm very confident about my ability to earn votes in every neighborhood.

Listening is something as elected officials, as leaders, we forget to do.

My mother lost her job, so I left school to work full-time to support her.

In tech communities, we consider disruption the way to lead to innovation.

As I have always said, those closest to the pain should be closest to the power.

At some point or another, everyone has felt unseen and unheard and marginalized.

I knew I would be demonized as entitled and what no woman can ever be: ambitious.

I'm asking people to vote for me because I'm an activist leader and a problem solver.

Making progress on longstanding challenges requires a different lens and a new approach.

Thanks to my mother's sacrifices, I was able to attend one of the best schools in Chicago.

Let me be abundantly clear: I am black, and I am a woman, and I embrace both of those facts.

You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.

When I was ready to buy my first home after years of renting, I immediately zeroed in on Dorchester.

Not everyone is granted the opportunity that each of us deserves: to fulfill our God-given potential.

We make a mistake when we stereotype neighborhoods as 'bad' and not worth our attention or investment.

An increase in bicycle ridership brings an increased need for measures to ensure the safety of cyclists.

I am probably an outsider because I challenge conventional narratives about who should have a seat at the table.

I've just kept going, like millions of people do every day, because life does not allow them to do anything else.

I have been a policymaker proven in tackling some very complex social issues on the municipal level here in Boston.

I happen to be black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both, but that is not the totality of my identity.

For me, whatever vantage point that I'm serving, I'm going to be an advocate and do the work to actualize my values.

Because boys tend to dominate the narrative for who's at risk, sometimes they dominate the lion's share of services, too.

Public service and community organizing and movement building is such a part of my DNA that it's really hard to separate it.

I used to turn in, like, 20 money orders to pay my rent - $20 for this one, $30 for this one. I didn't have a checking account.

At the women's march, we held signs that said, 'Today we march, tomorrow we run.' They didn't believe us, but it's coming to pass.

People close to me personally, politically, have expressed frustration that I'm not the political animal that they wish that I were.

When I was growing up, 'Ebony Magazine' was a must read in our household. In those pages I found our news, our stories, and my pride.

We must acknowledge that issues like systemic racism, economic inequality, and the achievement gap are the result of manmade policies.

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.

I'm an only child. My mother was raising me alone. We couldn't afford child care; child care hours didn't work according to her schedule.

We should be uncomfortable with the growing gaps in our society, and we cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to these injustices.

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.

Bad influences and distractions were around every corner. But I also learned that my neighborhood could be a nurturing, positive place to grow up.

I've not been a decisively re-elected city councilor and top vote-getter three times because I haven't done the work and because I don't work hard.

If the power was equitable, then our boards, then our commissions, our contracting, our wealth-building opportunities would all look very different.

My mother informed me that the way to be a change agent to create change, the first line of defense, or however you want to phrase that, is politics and government.

Just as every animal is part of a kingdom, phylum, class, and order, every Dorchester resident has a parish, school, park, and neighborhood that they identify with.

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.

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