When I hear 'politics,' I hear 'relationships.'

It's important that people see themselves mirrored in government.

I understand and appreciate and respect that any time a barrier is broken or history is made, people want to celebrate it and mark it as progress.

I'm an only child. My mother was raising me alone. We couldn't afford child care; child care hours didn't work according to her schedule.

I'm not naive. All politics is about identity, right? Neighborhood politics, cultural politics, issue politics. It's not as though I don't get that. It's just - it has to be, I think, tempered in a way that is for our overall advancement and not to our detriment or obliteration. When I say 'our,' I don't mean just communities of color.

I'm an only child. My mother was raising me alone. We couldn't afford child care; child care hours didn't work according to her schedule.

From drug companies to health insurers to Wall Street banks, big corporations are spending millions to buy influence in Washington and drown out the voices of regular people.