Independent. Transparent. Accountable.

I come from a movement, not from money. I come from generations of grassroots organizers. I wasn’t raised by lobbyists, corporations, or political insiders; I was raised by people who believed that ordinary people, working together, can create meaningful change. That’s why I became a community organizer. That is why I became a criminal defense attorney. And that is why, for more than 15 years, I have led one of the most impactful criminal legal reform movements in the country, in Massachusetts, nationally, and internationally.

I have spent over two decades in boots-on-the-ground advocacy from the streets to the State House, community meetings to the White House and from courtrooms to federal policy tables. My work has always been about one thing -creating systems that serve people, not punish them and building infrastructures for justice as healing to stop harm and create true public safety.

I know how to fight systems, and how to run them.

I didn’t just protest injustice. I built organizations that could win against it. I have led an organization with multi-million-dollar annual budgets. I have worked with philanthropy, foundations, and public institutions, and I have shifted funding practices so that money flows to the people closest to the problems and working on solutions. I am a student of Movement Ecology, I know that real democracy requires more than elections. It requires co-governance, people’s assemblies, and communities helping decide what government does.

I am also someone who has been incarcerated.

I am not running from my past, I am standing in it. More than 20 years ago, while practicing law, I made a serious mistake involving money controlled by predatory lenders during the height of the subprime mortgage crisis. I was primarily practicing criminal defense. A small part of my practice involved closing loans for banks and mortgage companies. Those loans were devastating families. I saw it every day. Making a foolish mistake to temporarily use money belonging to lenders to try and fix a mistake I made was wrong. I took responsibility. I served my sentence. I have been fully transparent and accountable ever since. And that experience changed me forever. It gave me something few politicians have - A deep understanding of how power works, how punishment is used to control, and how people are discarded by systems and removed from the most important process of figuring out how to create healthy, thriving people and communities.

We are not defined by our worst mistake.

Massachusetts has 1.7 million people with convictions, some of whom are still eligible to vote while incarcerated in county jails, many of whom are formerly incarcerated and are legally allowed to vote but don’t know it or don’t believe their voice matters. That is not an accident. The criminal legal system has been used to silence millions of voters, especially working-class, Black, Brown, immigrant, and poor people.

My life, as a lawyer, organizer, and someone who has been incarcerated, gives me a rare and powerful truth: The people closest to the pain are the people closest to the solutions. The issues such as housing, healthcare, affordability, and equitably funded systems of education, are all issues that everyone, particularly the working class, under-employed and un-employed people need to be a part of creating the solutions for.

My campaign is already organizing these voters back into democracy, because democracy doesn’t work when millions are pushed out.

Why I’m the right Governor for this moment.

Massachusetts doesn’t just have an affordability crisis. It has a trust crisis. We have leaders who refuse to audit themselves, block transparency, and govern behind closed doors. I am different because I come from accountability, community, and lived experience with broken systems. I know how to challenge power, build coalitions and institutions, and govern with people instead of over them.

My campaign is about shifting power.

I am running to build something Massachusetts has never had, a government that belongs to the people, not the establishment duopoly of corporate Democrats and Republicans. A government that listens to working families, centers communities, and delivers real solutions on housing, healthcare, affordability, education and justice.

Everything in my life, organizing, law, leadership, mistakes, accountability, and movement-building, has prepared me for this moment. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all and for your interest in our campaign.

Please consider joinging and supporting this people-powered campaign.