Authors & Essays

Fifty years can feel like a lifetime, and at the same time, a blink of an eye. It is long enough to watch the world change and trends invent and reinvent themselves. It’s also long enough to recognize that, as much as things change, they stay the same. 

When I made the decision to run for governor, I couldn’t help but think about the person who first inspired me to live a life of public service. My mother is an immigrant to this country who arrived here as a child from Jamaica.

When the Declaration of Independence promised life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, ownership was already the currency of that promise. Land was liberty. A home is the foundation upon which families built security, passed down wealth, and claimed their stake in the nation.

As America marks its 250th year since its founding in a pivotal election year, we find ourselves at an inflection point. The fight for our democracy, our civil rights, and our fundamental right to quality, affordable health care has rarely felt more urgent.

Black men in America have the shortest life expectancy of any racial or gender group in the United States.

That is not a new statistic. It is a sustained reality.