ARKANSAS | Joyce Elliot

Joyce Elliot was a high school teacher for thirty years. She went on to serve as a State Representative for 6 years, and was then elected to the Arkansas State Senate in 2008. In her first term in the State Senate, she was named one of the Top Ten Legislators. If elected, Elliot would be the first Black woman elected to Congress from Arkansas.

As a young girl, Joyce was one the first students to integrate her local high school. She went on to get her bachelor's degree, and a masters in English. She continues to fight for racial equity, traveling around her district to take part in Black Lives Matter protests. Should she win her seat, her legislative priorities are to support covid-19 recovery efforts; giving aid to hospitals, reinvesting in the economy, funding infrastructure and expanding health care. And, as a former teacher, she is also committed to reforming the inequalities within the Arkansas school system.

CALIFORNIA | Katie Porter

Katie Porter is serving her first term in Congress, representing California's 45th Congressional District. Once a UC Irvine law professor and nationally-renowned consumer advocate who held Wall Street banks accountable for ripping off California consumers and homeowners during the financial crisis. Katie refuses to take a dime from Corporate PACs or lobbyists, and in Congress has been standing up to powerful special interests and leaders of both parties to do what’s right for Orange County families. Her first priority in her 2nd term would be to overturn Trump's Tax plan and put $$ back in the hands of the middle and working class. She is also a strong advocate for Medicare for all, ending political corruption, protecting the environment,  common sense gun laws, and more.

COLORADO | Diane Mitsch Bush

Diane was raised by a single mother and experienced an early childhood of financial insecurity and stress. Her life changed when her mother joined the public employees union AFSCME, and she was able to experience first-hand how a stable, good paying job with benefits can provide dignity, security, and stability for working families. It is her family’s early struggles that inform her priorities and inspire her public service.

Diane is a former tenured professor, Routt County Commissioner, and State Representative, and has lived and worked in Colorado’s Western Slope for over 43 years. In 2013, she was elected to her first of three terms as a state representative. She has fought to combat climate change by ending fossil fuels subsidies and investing in renewable energy, as well as hold corporations accountable for the damage to the environment. If elected, she plans to be a champion for unions and create new jobs for working class families by funding infrastructure projects. She will also focus on expanding access to healthcare, including advocating for women’s reproductive health and choice. 

NEW YORK | Jamaal Bowman

Jamaal Bowman is an educator, husband, father of three and champion of working families and children and has been called, ‘this year’s AOC.’’

Jamaal was born and raised in New York City.  He spent his early years in public housing and later in rent-controlled apartments. He didn’t have much growing up, but his mother provided him all that he needed: love, a stable family, and a sense of community. Jamaal now lives in Yonkers with his wife and three kids, and he works as the founding principal of one of the best public middle schools in the city. 

A fierce advocate for teachers, students, and families for twenty years, Jaamal recently earned his doctorate in education focusing on the benefit of the community school model, which is an alternative to charter schools and the roadmap to fixing our public school system. 

Through his work in education, Jamaal has seen firsthand how low-income families are locked out of opportunity by a system that’s rigged for the wealthy and privileged few. Through his work as an advocate and a Principal, he has seen the results of inadequate housing, homelessness, mental health, the racist immigration system, the school to prison pipeline, food deserts, and trauma filled environments.

If elected, Jaamal will be a strong advocate for public education, fight for universal healthcare, rebuild the economy and create new geen jobs through the green new deal, protect immigrants from deportation and work to create more affordable housing for America’s families.

KANSAS | Michelle De La Isla

Michelle understands what it means to fight with grit.  She grew up in poverty, was homeless, survived domestic violence, and beat cancer. After graduating from college, this single mother went on to become a Professor of Biology at Wichita State. It was there that she learned that her story of struggle was not that unique. She was inspired to serve, and went on to hold various positions in her community advocating for those in need. She was soon encouraged to run for city council. She won. She eventually became mayor of Topeka, the city’s first Latina and only its second female to hold the office. Today, Michelle is running for the 2nd Congressional District in Kansas. Her priorities if elected are to end the divineness between the political parties and find common ground to solve real issues of those in her district; access to quality healthcare, jobs that will support families, provide more affordable housing, access to quality education, and improved infrastructure. 

MASSACHUSETTS | Ayanna Pressley

Ayanna Pressley is an advocate, a policy-maker, an activist, and a survivor. On November 6, 2018, she was elected to represent Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first woman of color to be elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

 Ayanna believes that the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power, and that a diversity of voices in the political process is essential to crafting more effective public policy. She was born in Cincinnati and raised in Chicago, Ayanna is the only child of a single mother and a father who was in and out of the criminal legal system. Ayanna’s mother, Sandra Pressley, was a tenants’ rights organizer who instilled in her the value of civic engagement. 

In her first term in Congress, Ayanna introduced legislation to ensure fair compensation for low-wage workers, to support survivors of sexual assault and harassment, and to fundamentally reimagine our criminal legal system. She has been a strong voice for women, minorities and progressive values.

MONTANA | Kathleen Williams

Kathleen’s father is a World War II veteran, her mother worked in the Navy shipyards. When Kathleen was 11 years old, her mother Marie started to lose her memory, and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 49. Kathleen and her father, Harrison were Marie’s caregivers until she passed away eight years later.  

After her mother’s passing Kathleen went on to college. She graduated with a B.S. in Resource Economics from U.C. Berkeley, and from Colorado State University with an M.S. in Recreation Resources. She soon landed her in Helena Montana, where she worked for the Environmental Quality Council crafting environmental policy, and soon met and married her husband, Tom.

When Tom was called to Iraq in 2009 on a foreign service assignment, Kathleen was approached to run for the MT state legislature. She won, served three terms and worked to improve healthcare access and affordability, created opportunities for MT working families, protected lands and waters, expanded medicaid women’s rights, created hundreds of small businesses and negotiated water compact that protected tribes and senior water holders across the state.

In 2017 she and her husband announced that she would not run for reelection so that they could travel the west together working with farmers and ranchers, days later her husband had a fatal heart attack. After helping her family heal from this devastating loss, she contemplated her next step. The national news gave her the answer. There was a need, she has the ability, so she stepped up and ran for office.

Kathleen hopes to soon become Montana’s second Congresswoman. Should she be elected her priorities include: growing and diversifying the economy, getting healthcare to all who need it, strengthening our education system and rebuilding a broken Congress so that it works for all of us.

MISSOURI | Cori Bush

Cori is a single parent, a registered nurse, a pastor, an activist, and a community organizer. She emerged as a community leader through her work on the front lines of the Ferguson movement as a protester, as clergy, as a medic, and as a victim of police assault. Seeing firsthand the need for proper representation and better legislation for all, Cori ran a groundbreaking campaign for the U.S. Senate in Missouri in 2016, mobilizing thousands to engage in the political process, inspiring many to run for elected office. Her priorities should she be elected include: tackling gun violence, moving forward with criminal justice reform, and environmental justice; expanding access to healthcare, affordable housing, better education and higher learning, protecting women’s healthcare, choice and more.

NEBRASKA | Kara Eastman

Kara Eastman is running for congress in Nebraska’s 2nd district for a second time this November, now with a little more name recognition and momentum. She is a social worker and a small business owner in Omaha. Her small business helps support and offers consulting services to nonprofits. She also started the Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance, a non profit environmental health organization. In just the past 10 years, the organization has grown and raised over 13 million dollars that goes towards healthy housing in Omaha. As a small business owner, Kara has seen first hand the effects of COVID on small businesses around the country. That’s why she has spoken out about the need for direct funding and real government support. 

She is also on the Board of Governors at the local community college. She has made it her focus to amplify diversity efforts at the school through both non-discriminatory policies, but also by creating more jobs in the community. If elected, she knows that education is key to achieving racial justice and equity.

NEW MEXICO | Deb Haaland

Congresswoman Haaland grew up in a military family; her father was a 30-year combat Marine who was awarded the Silver Star Medal for saving six lives in Vietnam, and her mother is a Navy veteran and federal employee for 25 years in Indian education. Through hard work and determination, Haaland earned degrees from the University of New Mexico and UNM Law School. She is still paying off her student loans, as is her daughter (a recent graduate from University of New Mexico). In 2014 Haaland was elected as New Mexico’s Lieutenant Governor, making her the first Native American woman to be elected to lead a State Party. Four years later, Deb Haaland was elected as one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress. Today, Haaland is running for a second term in Congress on a platform committed to: reversing climate change and promoting environmental policies that put ‘people before profits,’  helping working families by pushing for bold programs that would provide for free childcare, pre-k, paid family leave and increased minimum wage. She is also an advocate of Medicare for all, campaign finance reform, stronger gun safety laws, and more.

NEW MEXICO | Xochitl Torres Small

Growing up in Las Cruces, Xochitl Torres Small’s family never had a lot of money. Her early struggle taught her that through hard work and a good education she could not only succeed, but also give back to the community that had always supported her. 

Like so many New Mexicans, Xochitl and her family took out loans to pay for college. To limit that debt, Xochitl took jobs tutoring, serving as a Residential Assistant at her university, and working to support women’s health.  She graduated Cum Laude from Georgetown University in just three years.  

Armed with a college degree, Xochitl returned home to Las Cruces.  As a Field Representative for Senator Udall, Xochitl worked to increase cell phone service, broadband, and other communication lines in rural New Mexico. She worked with teachers, college instructors, and business leaders to create better job opportunities for local graduates.  She also helped bring farmers, conservationists, and communities together to protect New Mexico’s water.

As a judicial law clerk for a federal judge, she worked on one of the heaviest criminal dockets in the country.  Xochitl saw firsthand the personal costs and financial burden our nation bears because of its broken immigration system.

If elected she will continue to advocate for immigration reform, economic development for Southern New Mexico, investment in education, veteran services, decreased healthcare and prescription costs and improved access to providers for rural areas, like her district.

NEW YORK | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez made headlines two years ago when she became the youngest woman ever elected to congress. She was raised in the Bronx with her parents, both Puerto Rican, and her younger brother. She saw first hand the effects on income inequality, specifically within the district she now represents. After college, she returned home and worked as a bartender to support her family financially. 

In 2016 she worked as an organizer on Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Like Bernie, AOC is a democratic socialist. She’s been outspoken about Medicare for All, free public colleges, cancelling student loan debt and the Green New Deal of (which she co-sponsored). She decided to run for office after the 2016 election. She challenged Rep. Joe Crowley, a long time democrat and representative for the 14th district. Her campaign was unprecedented and became a national news story. It was a completely grassroots effort that relied entirely  on local organizing efforts. After her primary win, AOC became a household name and won her seat in congress in 2018. 

Since then, she has made immeasurable strides in congress. Not only is she an effective legislator, but she has also been able to connect with the members of her district in a way unlike most other politicians. She uses social media as a way to communicate with her constituents and to listen and respond to people’s issues. 

She is now up for re-election this November, after winning her democratic primary. She has made it her mission to fight not for big corporations or the rich and powerful, but for working class families. She fights for reproductive rights, racial equality, and environmental justice. 

NEW YORK | Jackie Gordon

Jackie Gordon is a combat veteran, an educator, a public servant, and a community leader. Jackie was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and grew up in Queens, NY. While in college and teaching in local schools, she enlisted in the United States Army Reserve, she served in desert storm, Iraq and Afghanistan, and after a long and impressive 29-year career, she retired from the Army Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2014.

Jackie went on to spend three decades working in New York public schools, and has earned degrees in education from Hunter College and Queens College. From 2007 to 2020, she served on the Babylon Town Council, where she worked to direct resources to veterans and military families as Chair of the Veterans Advisory Council, she pushed for the revitalization of Wyandanch Village, which has breathed new life into the community, and helped raise nearly $1 million for the Wounded Warriors Project through the annual Soldier Ride in Babylon. Today she is running for Congress in NY’s 2nd Congressional District on a platform promising to help her community overcome effects of covid-19, bring down the costs of healthcare and prescription drugs, invest in public education, veterans and their families, advocate for sensible gun reform, and more.

NEW YORK | Mondaire Jones

Mondaire was born to a young, single mother who dropped out of college and had to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. When Mondaire was two years old, his mother was diagnosed with a devastating mental illness resulting in his grandparents playing a major role in his upbringing. 

At 19, Mondaire was elected chair of a committee on the NAACP’s National Board of Directors. He took his activism along with him to Stanford University, where as a student leader he championed progressive causes. After college, Mondaire served in the Obama Administration in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice before deciding to attend Harvard Law School.  As an attorney, he began representing defendants who could not afford counsel in criminal proceedings and learned first-hand how this country perpetuates a system of mass incarceration by over-arresting, over-charging, and over-prosecuting poor people and people of color. He has been honored by the Legal Aid Society for his hundreds of hours of pro bono legal work. 

Today as an openly gay man with an impressive life story and resume, Mondaire is running on a platform committed to; helping his district overcome the devastating impact of covid-19, securing healthcare for all, increasing the minimum wage, moving forward on criminal justice reform, taking bold action on climate change, and more.

NORTH CAROLINA | Pat Timmons-Goodson

Pat Timmons-Goodson was born and raised in North Carolina, in a military family. After getting both her undergraduate and law degree from UNC at Chapel Hill, she went on to become a district attorney and later judge on North Carolina’s 12th judicial District Court and NC Court of Appeals. In 2006, she became the first African American woman to serve on North Carolina’s Supreme Court. She was also appointed to the US Commission on Civil Rights by President Obama, where she has worked tirelessly to combat discrimination under the law. She was nominated to serve on the US District Court, but was blocked by the GoP controlled Senate. 

She decided to run for office, and step away from the advocacy work she was doing, because she realized that in order to make real change there needed to be real legislation shifts. If elected, Timmons-Goodson plans to fight for equal access to healthcare (especially in the aftermath of this pandemic), fight gun violence across the country, work to support working-class families and continue to fight for racial equality.

SOUTH CAROLINA | Melissa Watson

Melissa Watson understands that far too often leaders get elected and then forget the people that put them there. As a single mom of two beautiful children, she understands the struggles that everyday families and businesses in District 07 face because she lives them, too. She believes that the focus in Washington has to change from protecting special interests to bringing common sense solutions that help all of our neighbors live better lives and have greater opportunities to provide for our families.

Melissa has spent her entire career focused on how to make her community a better place for everyone. Melissa dedicates her labor in the pursuit of education, working as a certified teacher and was chosen for the Rookie Teacher of the Year Award at Baptist Hill High School.  She also works hard as a licensed realtor when not leading in the classroom.

She holds an undergraduate degree from the College of Charleston, a graduate degree from the Citadel and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Phoenix. Melissa spends much of her free time volunteering for community organizations and as a leader in South Carolina politics. 

TEXAS | Wendy Davis

She was a teenage mother who learned first-hand what it meant to struggle. With the help of scholarships and her family, Wendy was able to go to community college, then to TCU and on to Harvard Law School. Today, as a Texas state senator she has fought against $5.4 billion in cuts to Texas public schools, founded a non-profit that empowers young women to speak up and advocate for themselves and their communities and perhaps most notably; she stood for 13 hours on the Texas Senate floor to fight for Texas women’s healthcare and choice. She is running for Congress in Texas 21st district on a platform committed to: bringing affordable healthcare to everyone, decreasing the cost of higher education, investing in public education, protecting Medicare and Social Security, moving forward on sensible gun safety reforms, and more.

VIRGINIA | Abigail Spanberger

Abigail began her career of public service as a federal law enforcement officer working narcotics and money laundering cases with the US Postal Inspection Service. Following her love of country, public service, and languages, Abigail joined the CIA as an Operations Officer. She traveled and lived abroad collecting intelligence, managing assets, and overseeing high-profile programs in service to the United States. In 2014, Abigail left government service to begin a career in the private sector and bring her family back home to Virginia. She went to work at EAB – Royall & Company, where she  helped colleges and universities to create diverse student bodies, increase graduation rates, and break down financial barriers to higher education.

As a CIA agent, Abigail took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath didn’t come with an expiration date. When she saw partisan politics threatening the country she has worked so hard to protect, she knew it was her time to stand up for the people in the 7th District. 

In her first term, she helped pass the largest campaign reform bill in recent history, has earned the distinction of being one of the most bipartisan House Democrats, and courageously took a difficult vote to impeach President Trump, even though it was not a  popular vote among many of her constituents. As a former CIA officer she explained, that her oath to the constitution and our country would override any political damage the decision might cause her personally.  

If re-elected she is committed to continuing her efforts to decrease costs of healthcare and prescription drugs, prevent gun violence, protect social security and medicare, grow the economy through job creation, invest in our education system and clean energy as well as broadband internet. 

VIRGINIA | Cameron Webb

Cameron Webb, an internal medicine physician, is the first African American to ever run in the 5th district of Virginia. After college,  Dr. Webb left Virginia to get both his law degree and medical degree. Both he and his wife, an ER doctor, have been on the frontline of the COVID pandemic since it began earlier this year. Before coming home to Charlottesville, he worked for President Obama as a White House fellow, the only doctor on the White House Health Care Team. He also spent time working on education policy within Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative. When the Trump administration began, Dr. Webb stayed but found it increasingly difficult to make any progress. He later left Washington and went to work as a teacher and doctor at University of  Virginia’s school of medicine. He knows first hand how COVID-19 has affected not just his community, but the country. 

Dr. Webb is running in a historically red district, but he hopes with his experience and his historic campaign, that he can bring in a slew of new voters this November. His priorities should he be elected include: expanding equal access healthcare, reforming our criminal justice system, working to update and improve our education system (including guaranteeing free community college / public university tuition for low-income families), and helping rebuild his district from the pandemic. 

VIRGINIA | Jennifer Wexton

Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton has been serving the people of Northern Virginia and Shenandoah Valley for two decades as a prosecutor, advocate for abused children, state Senator, and now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia’s 10th District.In her legal career, Jennifer served as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for Loudoun County, prosecuting felony and misdemeanor criminal and traffic cases in all of the Loudoun Courts. She later served as a court-appointed guardian ad litem, representing abused or neglected children, as a special justice in mental commitment hearings, and as a substitute judge in proceedings in Loudoun County’s district courts.

Jennifer took her passion for protecting others to the state Senate, winning a special election in January 2014. In her five years in Richmond, Jennifer found bipartisan support for her legislation to make our children safer, combat the heroin and opioid epidemic, increase access to affordable healthcare, prepare our children for jobs of the future, ease traffic congestion, and bring more businesses to Northern Virginia.  

Jennifer came to Congress with experience in legislating and a deep understanding of Virginia’s 10th district and the issues that matter most to our region’s families. In Congress, Jennifer has worked to make healthcare more affordable for our families, keep our kids safe from gun violence, and has fought to protect the interests of federal workers and contractors in our region. She has introduced 17 pieces of legislation in her first term, passing four bipartisan bills through the House, with her recently introduced Retirement Protection Act being signed into law as a part of the CARES Act Coronavirus response.

VIRGINIA | Qasim Rashid

Qasim is an immigrant, a proud American Muslim, lawer, advocate and a devoted father and husband. He made national headlines early in his campaign when he responded to a hateful comment on his facebook post with an appeal for understanding and a gesture of kindness; helping to raise thousands of dollars for the author of that comment to use in paying off his burdensome healthcare bills.

But gestures of kindness and an appeal to humanity is kind of Qasim’s lane. He earned his law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law and has spent much of his career fighting for those impacted by domestic and sexual violence, uplifting those incarcerated through prison chaplaincy, and serving his neighbors through blood drives and highway cleanups, and advocate for children’s education.

Qasim further channels his passion to serve by working with national and international non-profit organizations that advance women’s rights, improve water, food, shelter, healthcare, and education access for children living in poverty, and fight to protect the religious freedom for all people. To that end Qasim has written numerous books, given hundreds of interviews, and testified before the US Commission on International Religious Freedom to protect the rights of persecuted religious minorities around the world. Likewise, Qasim has worked with the US Government to improve national security here at home, while upholding the United States Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

In addition to his humanitarian commitments, Qasim works as a consultant to help major organizations, small businesses, and non-profits improve their corporate strategies, messaging, and innovation. If elected Qasim’s priorities are to: address climate change, reform the criminal justice system, invest in public education, expand access to healthcare, address and adequately fund programs to solve the opioid crisis, bring broadband internet to his rural community and more.

TENNESSEE | Keeda Haynes

Keeda Haynes spent nearly four years in prison for a crime she did not commit. While there, she began studying for the LSAT. Once she was released, she started working for a law firm and put herself through law school. In 2012, she passed the bar and became a public defender in Nashville. She has made it her focus to help those who are currently incarcerated or formerly incarcerated. Having seen first hand the effects of the flawed criminal justice system, specifically for minorities Right now, she works for a nonprofit called Free Hearts which provides support for incarcerated women and their children. She works to educate her community on the goals of Free Hearts and the effects of the criminal justice system. 

If elected, Keeda would be the first black congresswoman from Tennessee. In it’s history, Tennessee has only sent two black representatives to congress. If elected, Keeda plans to work hard to make substantial reforms to our criminal justice system and bring greater equity and fairness to all Americans by advocating for better, more inclusive policy solutions on many fronts.