I was born and raised in California and grew up in Long Beach. I went to California State University, Long Beach and studied psychology and social work. It was there I became interested in studies around poverty, criminal and environmental injustice. In the early 1990's I joined the Green Party.
I grew up relatively poor, and most of my life I have lived paycheck to paycheck and I have been a renter. My education and career was greatly influenced by personal and community economics. Specifically, issues of housing, debt and general marginalization.
I worked for a decade with people who were, or were in danger of being homeless. I have worked with people who had set incomes from the government, and witnessed how those incomes fail to meet the basic cost of living. I have worked for the lowest of wages, like millions in our nation, and understand the rent is too damn high.
Oil and automobile companies have hijacked our future. We are a nation committed to vehicles, but not committed to a sustainable future. We must build a system to replace highways and roads. The most sustainable technology we have is public transit. Our nation needs to commit to the expansion of trains and transit with the motivation of an army at war. While the US places public transit in the background when it comes to funding, I believe it should be at the front of our interests to have a future.
The Green New Deal should be our at the front of our nation's interest, our environment is getting destroyed and we must fight to help it. Before it's too late.
Having the history and training of a social worker, my campaign is that I believe the United States Senate needs a social worker to help understand the needs of our nation at crisis.