People are tired of leadership figures who speak as if they serve everyday Michiganders and Americans as whole, while failing to match their actions to their words. People are tired of those who seek power for the sake of power. People are tired of working so hard to have so little, and if they are lucky enough to retire with any means, their physical and mental health has been traded away in the process.

The fact is, our institutions are broken. It is our systems that need to change. I have been affected by our collapsed healthcare, criminal justice, education, and economic systems like so many others, and I know that I am only one of many hundreds of thousands who share this reality. That is why these systems must be changed by leaders who will get the job done without giving us excuses for why they can’t or haven’t yet done so.

We are all tired. Some have even gotten lost in a sea of despair. But like a great man once said, “Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year. It is the struggle of a lifetime.”  I am ready to continue that struggle in the Michigan state Senate to move our cause forward.