My name is Jeff Livingston and I am running for state house district 15 where I have lived for 8 years. From the time I could understand what was going on around me, I have lived in a position that is… let's say, increasingly prevalent in the black community. I have watched people decide who and what I am with a glance. That situation was fairly unique in that I grew up in a neighborhood where people who did not look at me seemed to have a lot of agency and knew how things worked better than I did. That dynamic motivated me to understand what they knew that I didn’t. The search for that knowledge showed me vividly that I was not alone in the lack of knowledge or the thirst for it.

I watched the world become more polarized and divisive and more and more devoid of the agency (freedom and power of choice specifically) I coveted in my youth. I realized that it is far easier to have the freedom of choice I wanted if everyone around me had that same freedom. This made me wonder what I could do to develop that agency in others as well as myself and after some time looking for that avenue, I landed on becoming a state representative. As a state representative, I can educate, empower and embolden the local community. I can educate my community on how much of a difference their voices can make. I can empower my community to take the reins of their economic success, and I can embolden my community to understand that their prosperity can come not in spite of the success of others in our community, but because of it since after all a strong community is a healthy community. To build that kind of community (have I said the word community enough?) I need your help. I need you all to get out there and vote and make your voice heard so I can do my job. That job is amplifying your voice and making it heard throughout the district, throughout the state, and throughout the country. My final message to you is be bold where you normally are not to get to the places of your dreams.