This year, Raleigh has witnessed its municipal elections become a battle between its residents striving for a better life, and social elites determined to slowly strip away democracy in an effort to maintain a harmful status quo.
Not only is Raleigh’s fast-paced growth hurting the environment, Raleigh’s Black communities continue to be abandoned, displaced, and gentrified, all the while Black bodies are no safer from rogue Raleigh police officers now than before the tragic murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin. Between Downtown South’s lack of affordable housing and the City’s recent budget increases for Raleigh’s unreformable police department (without creating a community-demanded mental health response unit operated separately from RPD), city councilors seem more focused on making Raleigh a personal playground for the rich than meeting the needs of its most vulnerable residents. The common refrain in all these concerns is the lack of response to community concerns undergirded by a continuous and strategic reduction in community engagement opportunities. The Council gutted Citizens Advisory Councils (CACs) in 2020, then threw away $70,000 on a consultant who came up with no concrete replacement plan at all. Following the lifting of COVID-19 precautions in March 2022, the City returned to fully in-person council meetings, leaving no virtual option for citizens to engage remotely, despite numerous public pleas to do so. Just this week, City Council voted to increase regulations that limit the public’s expression of their First Amendment rights like reducing the signs of signage allowed in council meetings and banning certain community members from entering the Municipal Building deemed “disruptive” to the Council’s work.
This is why I've decided to run for Raleigh City Council again. Since I ran for Mayor in 2019, the city council has managed to make the city remarkably worse. I am running to help overturn this council and make the priorities of the people, also, the priorities of the city. The organization I founded, YAP!, has been working the past 5 years on advancing ethical and equitable solutions for serving our most marginalized communities. By choosing to run for office, I am hoping to raise awareness and increase engagement in these
There is a lot of dirty money being poured into this race, but we know that we have the power in numbers. I need your support in donating to my campaign and funding the future visionaries of this city. Please pitch in to our collective efforts to imagine a better future for all of us.
Financial Disclosure
All donations will be made to YAP!, a public benefit corporation and the operator of Young Americans Protest, a political action committee. YAP!, Young Americans Protest will fund my campaign.