July 5th, 2022
Thank you, Los Angeles.
Thank you to everyone who ran for office this cycle, thank you for investing your time, talent and treasure to make our City a better place.
And thank you to all the individuals and organizations who helped deliver the victory in the primary election. Our success is a mighty manifestation of people power – the power of aunties, abuelitas and activists from every corner of Los Angeles.
Thousands of you knocked on doors, hit those phones, spread the word online, and chipped in financially to drive our movement to make our city a place where everyone can afford to live with dignity, and where every neighborhood is clean, healthy, and safe. You are why the final results certifying our first-place finish show that nearly 300,000 Angelenos voted for our vision for progressive change.
As the campaign enters an even tougher phase, I am inspired and energized. Over these several months, I am especially grateful for the so many conversations I had with hard working parents striving to build better lives for their children; with young people building brighter futures for themselves; with teachers, nurses and other essential workers who have never stopped caring for us; with the multi-generational Angelenos and new immigrants alike who are united in their passion to rebuild their neighborhoods and rebuild our city. This is what motivates me and keeps me rooted in why I am running for Mayor.
In the Primary, we stood up and said that our City Hall cannot be bought. Now, our movement must be even louder and even stronger. Our opponent has no limits on how much he will spend or how much mud he will sling to impose his billionaire’s worldview on the people of Los Angeles. What’s next? His only option is to double down – and more – between now and November.
That’s why our city needs you. We need everyone who wants LA to move forward and not backward. We need everyone who knows that LA’s values are incompatible with our opponent’s Republican values. We cannot achieve our collective vision for our city without you.
This is not a damned if you do, damned if you don’t race. The stakes are giant, and the contrasts are stark. If you want to know what my opponent’s worldview is, just look at the Supreme Court he bankrolled.
My worldview comes from the Boyle Heights emergency room where I started my career – we have affordability, opportunity, housing, homelessness, healthcare, and climate crises that demand bold action now. My worldview comes from my lifetime as an organizer in South LA– collective action is the only path forward during times like these. Amidst so much divisiveness, if we come together, I know we can fulfill the hopes of our city’s 4 million Angelenos.
Collectively, the people of Los Angeles and I have developed a roadmap to follow. It’s one that leads to greater dignity, opportunity, equality, affordability, and health. On our path together:
- We will address our crises of homelessness and affordable housing with urgency, compassion, and care. We will marshal the resources of city, state, and federal government in a single focused plan to act boldly to immediately house 15,000 Angelenos living on the streets in the first year and build temporary and affordable housing. We will also address why people are unhoused including critically needed substance abuse and mental health services.
- We developed a roadmap that will reimagine public safety with more effective and responsive policing strategies focused on reducing crime and by expanding job programs and social services. Our plan places service providers and outreach workers on the frontlines of supporting – not criminalizing – people who struggle with mental health and addiction in our communities.
- We developed a blueprint for climate justice that can achieve clean air and water, especially in communities suffering most from pollution, reduce the cost of energy bills and create new jobs. Our plan expands clean energy investments, walkable neighborhoods, public transit parks and green space in all neighborhoods. As we move forward to the goal of 100% renewables by 2035, we will make sure jobs are not lost, new job and business opportunities are concentrated in neighborhoods where income inequality is most prominent.
- We developed a broad plan for jobs and economic growth that focuses the tools of public and private sectors to create jobs, revive small businesses and create new business opportunities. We intend to leverage city-owned assets to build new housing parks and community infrastructure: create a new small business recovery fund and cut the red tape that makes it hard to start a new business and grow existing businesses.
United by our belief that we can, and must do better, together we have built a vision for Los Angeles that invests in its greatest assets – our people – and helps them thrive, no matter how much money we make, where we come from or where we live.
The stakes in this election are as high as they have ever been in my lifetime. From City Hall to the Capitol, we are seeing how money and lobbyists have rigged the rules so that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class dies on the vine. When they’re in charge, shopping malls and skyscrapers get permitted before a street gets cleaned. When they’re in charge, officials answer the calls of their donors and ignore the cries of our neighbors. When they’re in charge, we lose our freedoms, our health, and our tax dollars.
It’s happening right now.
Since he suddenly switched parties and started running for mayor, we’ve seen our opponent stoke fear and division to advance his agenda of displacement and criminalization for the most vulnerable among us – an agenda that will fix nothing and that penalizes women and people of color the most. You cannot transfer the blueprints of a luxury shopping center to the streets of LA. But the divisive playbook he’s borrowing from his beloved Republican party could work in our city if we do not come together to fight for our values.
I am running for Mayor because I believe government can and should work for all of us. We deserve a government that meets the needs of people – not just the wealthy, not just the connected, but every Angeleno, especially those who need a helping hand.
That’s what this movement is about, and that’s what this election is about.
It’s our time, LA. Don’t let them set us back.
In solidarity,
