WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:270000 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:02.100 We are born into poverty. 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:06.500 We were reduced price lunch kids. Every week I'd have $2 for the whole 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:08.300 week would buy use your breakfast and your lunch. 00:00:08.300 --> 00:00:13.300 So when I was seventeen I ran away from home and lived in abandoned 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:13.800 buildings. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:17.500 They had running water but no electricity. 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:23.500 I would steal ice cream sandwiches how I sustain myself and it's how I 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:28.200 didn't starve - and then I got pregnant - my boyfriend 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:29.900 He called his parents to pick us up. 00:00:29.900 --> 00:00:32.200 His father took a handful cash. 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:34.900 Threw it at my feet and said you're not getting in my car. 00:00:34.900 --> 00:00:35.900 Take a bus home. 00:00:35.900 --> 00:00:38.300 I felt so lost. 00:00:38.300 --> 00:00:39.300 I felt so sad. 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:44.000 I was terrified to see my mom, but she looked at me with love and 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.200 grace in her eyes and said Julie, I'll help you however I can but you 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:52.100 got to go back to school and I graduated a week after giving birth to 00:00:52.100 --> 00:00:53.700 my now 28 year old daughter. 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:57.000 I have encountered so many people who were just like me. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:01.000 In fact, they faced adversity that's much tougher than the adversity 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:02.000 I seen in my life. 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:08.800 Whether you're a parent with a child who has special needs - or you're a 00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:14.700 veteran who's wanting to ensure that their benefits don't get cut 0 or 00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:15.700 young students 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:17.800 just trying to get a decent public education. 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:21.200 We're not disconnected neighbors. 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:25.600 We're not strangers happening to pass each other at grocery stores. 00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:27.000 We all need each other. 00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:33.000 We need more people in Congress who view others as part of this great 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:34.700 extended family. 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:40.200 The feeling of support that I got from the neighborhood that rallied 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:44.100 around a seventeen-year-old girl with a baby has made such an impact 00:01:44.100 --> 00:01:48.500 on my life and even and what I'm doing today, I was able to go to 00:01:48.500 --> 00:01:54.100 college and law school. When I hear that "You're a pull-yourself-up by-the- 00:01:54.100 --> 00:01:55.100 bootstraps-kind-of-girl" 00:01:55.100 --> 00:01:57.500 I'm quick to correct and say "No - 00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:00.400 "I'm the product of a community of support." 00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:05.900 This campaign is about the hundreds of thousands of people who live in 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:06.600 this district. 00:02:07.700 --> 00:02:12.100 I think bringing that humanity to legislating is what's sorely needed in 00:02:12.100 --> 00:02:16.500 our country - because people live life of struggle, because people live 00:02:16.500 --> 00:02:20.200 with challenges. I would hope that people could see a little bit of 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:24.400 themselves in me and realize that you can overcome the odds. 00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:34.700 I still a need in this District, in my state, and it's a need that's being 00:02:34.700 --> 00:02:36.800 unmet and I just want to help. 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:39.500 That's what a representative should do. 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:42.700 And it's not what we have. 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:45.800 And I want to change that.