I’m running for Congress because I’ve seen firsthand how generational poverty, endemic gun violence and lack of opportunities is hurting our communities — and I want to be able to look my neighbors in the eye and say that we’ve done everything we can to change the system for the better.

I live at 16th and Lehigh, around the corner from where I grew up in the heart of North Philadelphia. My life, like the lives of so many of my neighbors, has been marred by violence.

My daughter’s prom date died in a shooting. My son’s football teammate was killed days later.

Then in a mass shooting on 60th Street on July 4, 2021, we lost our nephew, Lala, Salahaldin Mahmoud, and experienced the agony of my wife’s cousin Moni having to bury her 21-year-old son.

Our children walk down the path of violence when they don’t have the prospects of a good education or a job. Violence is correlated with poverty, and poverty begets hopelessness.

These stories, and stories like it shared by many in our city, compelled me to run for the state Senate, where I have served since 2017. During that time, I’ve fought relentlessly for families in Philadelphia who felt left out.

And now I want to take this fight to Washington — working to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that Donald Trump is making worse as he rewards his billionaire friends at the expense of hardworking families. And I’ll do it with a strong record of progressive accomplishments.

While others in the race talk about what they will do if elected, I can point to my record on lowering the cost of health care, fighting for criminal justice reform and taking on Trump.

While Trump is letting health care tax credits expire, raising costs for millions of Pennsylvanians, we led the fight in Harrisburg to lower health care costs by implementing Pennie, Pennsylvania’s Obamacare health care exchange, which brought health care to millions of Pennsylvanians.

And while Trump is cutting Medicaid, we successfully fought to keep Einstein and Temple hospitals open — two safety net institutions that our city relies on.

At a time when Trump is sending troops into our streets and using a racist ICE to crack down on immigrants, I’ve fought for criminal justice reform to end the over-policing and mass incarceration policies that have torn our communities apart for generations.

Last year, we championed the re-election of District Attorney Larry Krasner — a strong champion of criminal justice reform who promised to protect our constitutional rights from Trump’s all-out attacks.

And in Harrisburg, we are leading the charge to legalize adult-use recreational cannabis to curtail the racist destructive war on drugs.

While candidates across the country are all looking at the polling and trying to position themselves as fighters, I’ve actually taken on Trump and won.

In 2020, when Trump was trying to steal the election, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party needed someone who was willing to serve as the lead plaintiff.

While many were concerned about their safety, I stepped up, facing down more than 20,000 threats of violence made against me from extremists from across the country to take the lead in more than a dozen lawsuits against Trump and his campaign.

We won each and every time, protecting the ballots of millions of voters.

Now, I’m building a coalition of people from across our city — from Chestnut Hill to South Philly — committed to lowering costs, expanding opportunities and making sure that every person, no matter their race or ZIP code, has a share in the American dream.