I stand on Pramila’s shoulders.
"I stand on Pramila’s shoulders." Jayapal Campaign

Elections are personal and political for me. That’s because my life is a demonstration of what far too many women of color face in the world. I became political because of what I faced myself—and what I saw others face.

I am a proud Latina. While I was in college with a full load of classes, I relied on a $7.85 an hour job as a barista to pay for my rent, food, and other necessities. I had no paid sick days—I remember a few shifts when I took orders in between throwing up in the bathroom just so I wouldn’t lose needed hours. I struggled to balance my coursework while living paycheck to paycheck.

One time, because my boss did not give me the hours I needed, I was going to be short on my rent. I was terrified of being evicted, so I found an online payday lender and borrowed a few hundred dollars. Even though I knew the interest rate was ridiculous, I took out the loan. I was desperate. I paid a huge chunk out of my next few paychecks to pay off this loan, resulting in several overdraft fees. Instead of going to the grocery store, I ate my coffee shop’s old pastries.

But then, in looking around, I realized wasn’t just about me. Low wages, lack of paid sick days, and predatory lending practices are far too common for millions of women of color. As I thought more about it, I started to see the connections between the fact that far too few in our elected bodies actually came from those circumstances, or represented those communities.

As a young Latina woman, I kept looking for myself in city councils, state legislatures and federal governments, to little avail. As an organizer, I kept having to explain to people the specific challenges people like me face; had to convince too many people that racism exists and we feel it every day. I kept looking for people in office who inspire us to believe that something much bigger is possible when we all come together—sí se puede , yes we can, a battle cry from farmworkers and immigrants fighting for dignity and respect.

That’s why I’m so excited to be able to mark my ballot for Pramila Jayapal for U.S. Congress on Tuesday. Pramila has been an inspiration to me from my first organizing days here in Seattle. Pramila understands that our progress depends on building a movement that is too strong to ignore. We got wages tied to inflation in Washington state because of labor unions—and millions of workers banding together to make it happen. We won marriage equality because there was a movement of people working to make that happen—for decades. And we have some of the best local and state policies for immigrants and refugees in Washington state because we built a movement for immigrant rights—a movement that was inspired, nurtured and grown by Pramila.

As a Latina in the social justice movement, I stand on Pramila’s shoulders at a time when there are too few politicians like her. She has a long record of building the movement and successfully pushing people in power to the left. She successfully sued the Bush administration to stop the unjust and illegal deportation of Somali men. Pramila has walked the picket lines with workers. She’s fought for women’s right to make choices over their own bodies. She has put her body on the line and been arrested in civil disobedience actions.

In the state Senate, she took on issues that directly affected me. She fought back the payday lenders who wanted to take away important regulations that I and others in the movement fought so hard to get on the books. She demanded that we think ambitiously about the Rainier Valley, one of the last bastions in this city for people of color, and she built a strong coalition to advocate for and fund the first ever Southeast Economic Opportunity Center that will bring small business training, higher education and workforce housing to that area. She put a stake in the ground around our core values and got us to think bigger about what is possible, writing legislation to raise the state minimum wage and offer free community college to people across our state.

But the thing that probably means the most to me is that Pramila names for all of us the tensions that exist, but then organizes for real solutions and creates an environment to—in her words—“call people in, not just call people out.” Her work isn’t measured in one legislative session, but in years of groundbreaking, painstaking coalition building that achieves real results.

Let's look at the victory that so many celebrate of electing the first three Latinas to the Yakima City Council. Before last year, Yakima, a city where Latinxs make up over 40% of the population, had never elected a Latinx to the City Council. She identified this issue back in 2006 when she started building organizing efforts all across the state, including in the Yakima Valley. That’s why the Latina Mayor and City Councilmembers are supporting Pramila in this election—because they know they wouldn’t be where they are without her years of organizing.

Electing Pramila would be an inspiration to thousands of women and girls of color, including a Latina student at Federal Way High School who looked blankly at me during an AmeriCorps tutoring session and said she would never run for elected office. Why? Because "I’m not white or a man," she said matter-of-factly, as if commenting on the color of the sky.

Identity shouldn't be the only deciding factor in your vote. But at a time in this country when people of color and women are under attack, we should seize the chance to elect Pramila—someone who does the work, walks the talk, and has achieved the results.

I’m voting for Pramila for all my friends without documents, for the single moms struggling to get by in my North Carolina hometown, for the workers making poverty wages in Texas, for the men of color being profiled by the police, for the immigrants trying to navigate a system steeped in institutionalized racism, and every other person in the 99%. This is a once in a lifetime chance to elect a strong progressive woman of color to a seat that will continue to speak for us at one of the most important times in our country’s history. I hope you’ll join me in electing Pramila Jayapal as our next U.S. Representative for the 7th Congressional District.

Xochitl Maykovich is a community organizer in Seattle. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.