As a teenager in 1939, my father enlisted in the segregated Army Air Force in Tuskegee, Alabama, and fought overseas for freedom in World War II. He came home to a nation that wasn’t too kind to Negro soldiers returning from war. Still, he registered to vote in 1956 and cast his first ballot for President Eisenhower. But he, along with my mother and other Black women in the north, found it difficult to vote in many elections due to property restrictions, voter intimidation and other shenanigans, including guess-the-number-of-jelly-beans-in-the-jar and literacy tests.
My parents became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee, known at the time as the Selma of the North, after a throng of Black people, led by 200 members of the NAACP Youth Council, marched against Jim Crow and violence for nearly 200 days straight in one of the longest youth-led protests in American history.
My parents, who overcame all of the above and much more, raised my sister and me to believe that we could do and achieve anything we put our minds to. They taught us how to rise up after being knocked down. How to dream great dreams. They showed us how to live. And how to love. True patriots, they loved this country more than any other country in the world, even when it didn’t seem to love them in return. I stand on their shoulders.
Growing up Black and gay and blue collar in America, nobody ever said it was going to be easy.
I’ve had my share of heart aches, heart breaks, my share of being stood up and let down. But I have survived.
I’ve been abused, misused, unappreciated and sometimes simply tolerated. But I have survived.
I’ve been invisible, silenced, laughed at and scorned. But I have survived.
I’ve been tried in the fire, but I’m coming out pure, like black gold.
I’m a diamond in the rough withstanding a lifetime of pressure to be someone or anything other than myself.
But I’m going to be me.
Living, giving, testifying, signifying…
Some say my life is a walking improbability, characterized by much more than overcoming adversity. I say it’s about seizing the moment and making manifest impossibility.
From being born out of wedlock and sent away by my dogmatic birth family, to being adopted by a Tuskegee Airman and a wise woman in Milwaukee.
From surviving an I-can’t-breathe episode of police brutality, to graduating cum laude with a degree in government from Harvard University.
From struggling as a ramen-noodle-eating starving artist behind the counter at CVS when the gigs weren’t coming in, to touring the country on stage and screen and becoming a National Poetry Slam champion.
From preventing disease among teenage, homeless sex workers on the Boston streets, to managing a commercial real estate firm with four offices in three states.
From growing okra and collard greens and offering food to anyone in need, to serving in the Statehouse for four terms, a surprise to many indeed.
From hours of listening and reading and keeping relationships intact, to working with Governor Lepage, President Jackson, Speaker Gideon and Attorney General Mills to pass the first-in-the-nation Maine Food Sovereignty Act.
Today, I stand on my parents’ shoulders and on the shoulders of all my ancestors and humbly ask that you elect me our next State Senator. I stand here today, five-fifths of a person—whole—and wholly committed to the road before us.
I have a proven record of making tough, bipartisan compromises and getting things done. I have managed systems and soils and programs and budgets and people for 35 years. In all of it, listening has been the most important part of the job. Bringing people together in teamwork and collaboration to produce the fruit of common purpose is my middle name.
When I took the Oath of Office, I promised to promote food sovereignty, end hunger, and support rural economic development. I am proud to say I was able to deliver with many legislative achievements. From passing landmark legislation on food sovereignty and ending hunger in Maine by 2030, to advancing the needle on food rights and food self-sufficiency; from fighting poverty, and investing in vital infrastructure, including rural broadband and transportation, to protecting markets for small farmers regarding hemp, cannabis, dairy, fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, and valued-added products; from ensuring that we steward our public lands and natural resources in a way that keeps our soil, water, and air clean and habitable for generations to come, to protecting the most vulnerable among us by outlawing the unauthorized custody transfers of children; from eliminating racial profiling in our state, to centering equality of opportunity for all people at the heart of our lawmaking process.
Over the past eight years, I have been honored to serve on policy committees that cover the areas dearest to my heart—the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee, which I chaired for two terms, the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs, which oversees voting rights and policies that support our veterans, and the Committee on Judiciary, which oversees policy that protects our individual and civil rights. I was also proud to be a part of the committee that was charged with facilitating the implementation of Maine’s adult-use cannabis law, where I fought to preserve the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box.
