I’ve lived in Austin for 24 years, but my involvement with the Democratic Party started long before that—I still remember the name of my Precinct Chair growing up in Philly, Ira Hoffman, who was always visiting our family to keep us engaged in our community and the Democratic Party. This sucked me in. From there, I was active with our student chapter at University of Wisconsin, working on the Clinton Campaign (Bill, not Hillary. It’s been a ‘few’ years since college).

I have continued to stand with Wisconsin Democrats from here in Texas when we held a solidarity rally in 2011 to protest Scott Walker’s work to destroy public sector employee collective bargaining rights. Here in Austin, I’ve remained a loyal member and most recently worked hard alongside a coalition of businesses, organizations and transgender people to kill the bathroom bill twice over.