If elected, you would be the first Gen Z Representative in the Minnesota Legislature, but that's just part of the background and experience you would bring to representing District 61A. Why are you running for office and what distinguishes you from the other candidates in the race?

It is important we keep the majority. Working at the legislature the past three years, I've learned how we pass bills. I'm running because I know how to keep the ship on course. I know I can pick up right where Representative Hornstein left off and make sure we're delivering for our district and for the state.

There's a gap in representation at the State House right now. We don't have any Gen Zers on the Democratic side of the aisle. 18 to 30 year olds deliver Democratic wins in our state by voting very heavily for our party. Yet, there's not a single person in the House within that age group that's speaking on behalf of our generation and that belongs to our generation. That's very important as we move forward.

We are seeing that we have less connection with rural Minnesota. Having grown up in Brainerd and a smaller farm town, Albany - where I have family that farms- it's really important to me to make sure that we don't lose our connection to rural Minnesota and to our farmers, the F in the DFL. I don't take it lightly. I want to make sure our small and medium sized farmers are taken care of. Folks around our state, especially young folks in our state, need to see more young leaders who are queer and BIPOC, to make them feel like they're being heard at the Capitol.

Something we never really talk about – groups of people who need to see representation – is that there are a lot of transracial adoptees in Minnesota. There's sticky stuff within the adoption system. A lot of people, now that we're older, have found out retrospectively. We need to talk about that and be more open about how adoption has affected so many folks positively or negatively. Having somebody in office who can represent those folks and work with them to alleviate any concerns they have with the system is incredibly important. We can talk about many different ways of starting a family or not starting one at all.

Is there anything that you found really resonates with people when talking about abortion in swing districts, especially for people who might be on the anti-choice side of the issue, but who might be willing to change their minds?

One of the things that I found most salient in conversations when talking to older men, maybe 50 and up, and bringing up choice, about how important it is, and to convince them to switch their vote, is their understanding of how it affects them personally. You shouldn't have to have a daughter to care about legal abortion, but that was one way that I found to connect to a lot of parents, especially men who have kids that are entering an age where they may become intimate with their partners.

Your campaign platform outlines an ambitious agenda for reproductive rights and abortion access, including increasing access and health insurance coverage for PrEP/PEP. For those who are unfamiliar, what are these medications? And why is increasing access to them important for all communities?

Reproductive care isn't just having access to an abortion, it's really anything and everything that has to do with reproductive parts of your body. Communities who have been left out of every single conversation are just now finally getting a seat at the table. We need to talk about how our queer community does not get the sex education that they deserve in schools. If you're in a school that doesn't teach abstinence only sex education, it still certainly doesn't teach what queer intimacy looks like.

When we talk about HIV and AIDS, we associate it as strictly something that happens to queer people, and specifically queer men. As we recognize the type of intimacy that leads to transmission, and we are understanding that funding PrEP, which is a medication to prevent the chances of getting HIV, we create space to discuss reproductive care. It's not just folks who are in heterosexual relationships that we're talking about, it's everybody and every sexuality.

We all, unless you've undergone a surgery, have reproductive organs. All of us. To expand that care for everyone means, of course, access to abortion in rural Minnesota and the suburbs and here. It also means that queer communities who can't get pregnant with their partner have things in place so that they can have intimacy with their partner safely, especially considering that so many queer people have to figure out how this works on their own. A lot of straight people that have [more than “abstinence only”] sex education now learn about what intimacy and sex looks like for their relationships.

Queer people have to figure it out on their own, which leads to many more instances of STDs happening in that community. We're just quite frankly uninformed as we're going through our schooling about what our bodies do and what intimacy looks like with another person and the risks that are involved with it.

If you're elected, is there anything related to a statewide standard for sex ed that you'd like to see passed through the legislature?

Last year, we passed that bill for comprehensive health standards. There's a timeline to set those statewide health standards within the Walz administration, which was the goal when writing it. We're already moving along the path to getting comprehensive sex education. The group that's putting together the curriculum will be diverse and understand issues with curriculums. If we don't see it going anywhere, then I certainly will draft something and work with Rep. Sydney Jordan, as that’s been her bill historically, to get comprehensive sex education.

Your district includes renters and homeowners, historic neighborhoods, beautiful green spaces and the lakes. What are your plans to increase affordable housing and support for unsheltered residents? And how will you leverage your prior experience at the capitol to help resolve these issues?

These things are really important to address. I don't have to reinvent the wheel. We have a bill that didn't pass last year for the conversion tax credit for office spaces to be converted into residential spaces. We need to pass it as we enter into a world and a culture where a lot of people work from home, but they may want to live in downtown Minneapolis because it's awesome! We want to make sure there's housing for them. By having housing downtown, we're creating a new way of bringing back downtown Minneapolis. When people are working from home, they can go outside to a local business and get food – that's really important for business and for the community to feel connected again.

When we're talking about affordable housing, it's really important that affordable housing is more than rental units. We must make sure we're talking about the full spectrum of housing. We must build upon the work from last session with first-time homeowner assistance programs for people to raise a family or just need a little bit of extra help to get there.

We know that BIPOC folks more often don't have generational wealth. As much as rental units are incredibly important, the first time homebuyers program creates opportunities for folks who've never had a chance to ever really build up any generational wealth.

What are your plans to increase affordable housing and support for unsheltered residents? And how will you leverage your prior experience at the capitol to help resolve these issues?

People have an interesting perception of our district because they see the lakes and they see all the big mansions. They think that this district is like Wayzata or Hopkins or Edina where it's just overarchingly, really, really wealthy, and that's not the case at all. The median income in our districts is about $68,000, but the mean income is about $115,000. What that tells me is there's a large disparity in incomes, and there are a lot of really high earners that offset the small incomes.

I see homeless friends every day on the street. We need to address the unhoused by working collaboratively with every level of government. What I'm seeing right now is pushing the blame around. We really just need to all work together and find a solution. Our county administers many of our social services. The legislature needs to make sure we write bills in conjunction with our county to make sure they're workable and we're sending funding that's appropriately used.

I want to fund outreach officers on the streets, folks who are trained and are able to talk to unhoused friends and provide them with the resources that they need. A problem right now is outreach officers are underfunded. It’s a job that's not the safest, and it's incredibly mentally and emotionally tolling. When we're talking about jobs that help people, we need to provide them the benefits and the pay they deserve.

We need to bolster our shelter capacity. We have the Avivo Tiny Village, which is great. Last year, there was more funding in the bonding bill for that, which sadly failed. If I'm elected, I'll pick up that bill from Rep. Hornstein to get that passed, as well as increasing the shelter capacity we have in district and around Minneapolis. Because it's not just a 61A issue – it's an all of Minneapolis issue. It's a statewide issue.

When we're talking about shelters, it's really important to understand that they are veterans, queer folks and BIPOC folks. We need to make sure the shelter spaces are culturally safe. For veterans, we need to make sure there is nothing triggering their PTSD. If we're talking about the queer community, we need to make sure there are facilities available for those who are gender fluid or transgender to make sure that they feel safe using the restroom.

To be in a shelter and feel unsafe, is unfair and inhumane. Just talking about all the different cultural things people observe within our city – if you're having someone who has a Muslim background, they're going to have a different set of needs than someone who comes in that's Christian or someone that comes in that's atheist.

As part of achieving our vision of reproductive justice, families must be able to raise children in safe and healthy environments. Just recently, Minnesota experienced heavy flooding and record breaking heat waves, followed by an unusually dry winter. Tell us more about your priorities for 61A and how the Minnesota Legislature can help mitigate the effects of climate change, and what impact would that have on families?

We've set great goals for decarbonisation and electrification for our state – goals that are necessary for us to hit. Now, instead of drafting more bills that have more goals, we need to draft bills and policies that create pathways into the green economy. The Rise Up Center in 61A, which will be built soon, is a space for low income and BIPOC folks to get training to enter the green economy. That's incredibly important. That's going to be in my district. That's going to be a priority for me to track the implementation and analyze how it works.

Weatherization is incredibly important. The most fiscally sound way to do weatherization is to do it now. Every year we see flooding around the state. If we don't weatherize against climate change proactively, it's going to cost us even more money to fix. On the front end, we need to make our buildings and our infrastructure more resilient – as well as working on implementation of new electrification and new energy standards.

When we're talking about families and 61A – we have families of all income. We have families who are really high income. We have families who are living far below the poverty line. When we're talking about climate and energy, we need to make sure that people have their own power and their own say over how much they're helping the world.

Right now, there are rebates for solar, and that's all great. I'm thinking of families who are renting homes and families who are in situations where they don't have a say in the energy efficiency of where they're renting. If your energy source is not efficient, you're going to be paying a lot more on utilities.

I want to work on legislation with folks who are really strong on renters rights like Rep. Esther Agbaje and Rep. Howard to make sure renters have a say. At my apartment, the boiler is ranked low. That means my energy bill is higher every month. I have no say if my landlord would ever put in something more efficient. That's something worth tackling too.

Of course, above all else, holding polluters accountable is a very important thing.

61A is a district that really loves multi-modal transit. We have bike lanes. We have Hennepin and Lyndale, so a lot of buses come through our streets. We have downtown, which has bus rapid transit, regular bus lines, a light rail, and so many bike trails around the lake.

In our district, there's a concerted effort to see less vehicle miles traveled. We need to create a transit system that's accessible for everyone. Not just accessible for folks who maybe are dealing with a disability and physically accessible, but also accessible in the sense of using public transit can be intimidating, and making sure that our transit system is set up for folks to hop on a bus and know where they're going.

One reason a lot of folks don't want to use transit is because they perceive it as unsafe, or because friends who are unhoused have substance abuse issues and they use substances around transit stations. We need to make sure that folks are safe on transit, and that they're comfortable on transit, and everyone around transit has the services that they need.

Is there anything else about your background, your experience, your priorities, any issues that you'd like us to highlight as part of this interview series?

A lot of people my age became politically active with the election of Donald Trump. That was the first election that a lot of my friends and I voted in. That's always been what's led me in this space, fighting against something that is trying to take down and tear down people that I care about. I’m running to be somebody that makes people feel united behind something that matters. I want to make sure that in this seat, folks know that whether they're more conservative Democrats or they're as far left as possible, that at the state level, my goal is to represent all of them. I grew up around Republicans as a queer BIPOC woman, and I still always found ways to be friends with them.

At the legislature, I see compromise happen every day. I had a handful of Republican members and staff wish me good luck. They know I'm a progressive, they know everything about me, that's pretty obvious. They see how much I care about this work. I'm hopeful that if I'm elected, those people that said good luck will be willing to sign on to some of my bills and get some good things done.