A week before you formally announced your campaign, you asked your Twitter followers if you should run. Was this an impromptu decision, or have you been considering it for a while?

I’ve been thinking about it since [2017]. This is gonna be my start in politics. I wanted to get my legs up under before I run for governor, before I run for mayor.

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Growing up, I got a chance to witness a lot of struggle in my neighborhood. A lot of people struggled, myself included. As I got older I noticed that there was still a lot of struggling going on. If it wasn’t drugs, it was no jobs. If it wasn’t no jobs, it was people out loitering, hanging out, getting into trouble. I’m 48 years old and that’s been going on before me.

I wanna take it upon myself to fix the situation. I think I have some new, fresh ideas. I think that the traditional way of doing politics is over now. Let’s come up with some real solutions. Let’s serve the underserved. That’s where I’m at right now.

Can you expand on some of your ideas for fixing District D?

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Let’s put a gangland initiative in place. Let’s make the neighborhood safer for the elderly, and everybody. Let’s advocate for harsher penalties for people who commit crimes against seniors. Let’s get rid of the illegal dumping. Let’s fix the drainage problem. Let’s talk about the potholes. Why have we not fixed these potholes? What’s the problem? Why is this not done? Why are these houses abandoned? Why are they still up? Why is there grass growing around it? So many questions. Do [they] not care about my community? I’m getting that done, and there’s nothing they can do to stop me from getting that done.

I remember my uncle used to work pouring concrete and as a plumber. Now, I don’t see uncles working as plumbers or pouring concrete no more. Let’s open up some trades for these youngsters that are getting out of school that are not gonna go to college. In District D, in my neighborhood especially, if you don’t get a scholarship, you probably not gonna get to college. So lets put these kids in a position where they can get a trade [so that] a livable wage is obtainable. Because right now they’re out on the streets trying to figure it out. I wanna offer an alternative.