thank you to our next mayor Gainey, who always comes and gets me ready and in the spirit that we need to be in. Thanks to Brandy Fisher who has been a phenomenal and fearless leader in this region. And of course to everybody here who has been standing with me, not just today, but this entire way that we've been building movement here in western pennsylvania. Uh not to bury the lead. I want to start by saying Hello, I'm some early and I am excited and proud today to announce that I am going to be running for Congress and what is currently Pennsylvania 18th district. Uh huh. And like uh like Brandy, I also want to thank our current Congressman Mike Doyle for his 25 years of service to this region for standing in the gap for so many and as Brandy so eloquently said for his leadership and willingness to think about our future generations, to think about where our region is going, not just where it's been and how we're going to get there. I don't take this lightly at all. I know and understand the gravity that we're facing. We are a country. We are a region and many unprecedented, unprecedented crises. We are facing an imminent threat to our voting rights to our democracy. That's not new but has absolutely picked up steam in these last recent years. We are facing The door pandemics of COVID-19 and the racial justice. That issues that it exposed, where we had a country right that already had pre existing inequities that exposed the pre existing, that created the pre existing conditions that made this pandemic ravish so many vulnerable people. People more than others. We have an environmental crisis that is not going away just because we don't have leaders who are bold enough to say that we have to make a transition and that we need a green new deal so that we have a sustainable future for every single one of us. We have a lot at stake here. We have a lot at stake here. I'm running because I understand that we cannot afford to wait another election. We can't afford to wait another moment. We can't afford to hesitate. We have an urgency right now and the issues that we're facing in communities just like this, I brought us too bright. It because this is where everything has begun for me, this is where this is where I'm from, this is where my family is from. And this is, believe it or not, If you would have looked up and down the street 20 you know, 60 70 80 years ago, you were looking at the street that was more densely populated than Manhattan. You were looking at an area that had economic prosperity that created shops and theaters and people, it was bustling and it was growing and then because we were not prepared for the economies of the future, everything collapsed too often as communities like ours that are not allowed to prepare or think about the economies of the future. And it's always black and brown and poor and vulnerable people in communities that are left to pick up the pieces, but were rarely the folks leading the conversation when we're talking about what change we need were rarely the folks who are creating the tables were not the folks whose perspective is centered when folks come and make policies that are going to determine what our next society looks like as we come out of these crises and build for a new society. We have to ensure that the people who are closest to the pain, our closest to the power, our closest to the policy, those people need to be leading these discussions because what we know is is that there's a difference between having folks who believe ideologically and issues right? There are a lot of folks who believe in a green new deal or environmental justice. There are a lot of folks who believe and know that health care is a human right. There are folks who believe that every kid should have a quality education that everybody should have affordable housing in the communities that they call home. But it's a different situation when you live in, you got a different urgency when your community is experiencing it every single day, you move differently when you realize that if we don't do something about our eviction crisis than your friends, your family will be out on the street. You move different when you know that the kids in your community have the highest rates of asthma when your elders have respiratory illness or COPD because of our, our poor air quality. You move different, you have a different urgency. I'm running because we need bold new leadership that is going to not think and not only look back, look behind, but we need folks who are going to have a vision, folks who are going to move us into a new future where we have equity, where it's not just the money, if you where we have people who are gonna be bold enough To address the growing chasm between the 1%, the rich, the powerful and all the rest of us. No, I'm running because now it's our time, it is time for movement. It is time to build movement, not monuments, it's time that we have a people centred people powered politics that changes our region, changes our nation and I'm here because we have an incredible opportunity to start that movement. Maybe not start, but to really take that movement to the next level. Right here in Pittsburgh, right here in Western pennsylvania in the Mon valley. This is the place we were, where we are going to pass a green new deal that will come through here. This is the place where we will build a more robust labor movement that is reflective of our workforce, where we have people, a coalition that look like the folks who are standing with me today because this is a coalition that we will move forward into the future. This are the group of people. These are the groups of people. We will have black and white and brown and rich and poor. We will have people from the suburbs and from urban communities. We will build the movement that will touch every corner of this district because we've already done it because we already know that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. Because we know that when we show up and when we knock on doors, we expand the electorate when we know when we come out here and we talk to every single voter, we know when we center the marginalized, when we center the poor, when we center the disabled, black or white or queer, we know that we empower them. We know that when we do that, we help them find themselves in this system. We know that when we do that we're going to build the power and the movement that we are really going to need to get a Medicare for all. We know that we're gonna build the movement that we need to get all of these progressive policies and we know that we cannot do it with just one politician out of time. We know that we cannot do it by just having one vocal advocate. We are only going to do it by having all of us joined together. So I am honored to be a part of this movement that didn't start with this congressional race. I'm honored to have been a part of a movement that has worked collectively throughout this region to bring political change. That has been changing lives in this region. That has already changed lives in this reason. We have a region now that is bold and talking about prison reform and police accountability. Talking about environmental racism, talking about housing and food, injustice. Talking about poverty, Yes, talking about race. These are opportunities that we cannot afford to squander. So I am excited about what the next few months will bring. But I'm even more excited about the movement that will come from this because I know that this movement will set the precedent, will set the example of what's possible everywhere else in this country. So thank you so much. Uh thank you so much for everyone who stopped me so far. It has been my honor to fight for you. And I will not stop until we have racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice all across this land. And before I go, don't forget to vote y'all. Because even as we're talking about these elections are movement is about the bigger picture. So don't forget that we still have to come out and vote in two weeks because we fight in every single election. Thank you so much