When I moved to the United States during the pandemic, I fell in love with Fort Collins. But working people like you and me are being priced out of the communities we call home. We can’t afford to have children, buy a home, rent an apartment, or retire close to our friends and family. I’m running for city council because working people deserve to stay in Fort Collins.

As an HR professional for Colorado State University’s International Programs, I’ve had the privilege to work alongside our immigrant communities and to become a proud union member with COWINS. Unfortunately, many of these very communities—immigrants, union members, and working people—share my fear that Fort Collins is leaving us behind. Many of our local decisions are increasingly disconnected from the struggles people in our city experience everyday. I am a democratic socialist because I believe the people who make Fort Collins run should be democratically represented in their workplace, at their school, and in City Hall.

I grew up in Canada as the child of American and Syrian immigrants who taught me from a young age the importance of working together to fight for collective power. When I moved to the US during COVID-19, I quickly realized that our economy is failing working people. As businesses shut down and unemployment skyrocketed, millions of Americans lost their savings; faced eviction; and had their healthcare stripped from them when they needed it the most.  Even as the economy opened back up, it was clear that so many were still facing a cost of living crisis.

As I began my work at CSU, I came to understand local government’s role in perpetuating this crisis. When working people asked our leaders to make Fort Collins affordable, city council voted against raising the minimum wage. Despite union members, business owners, and economists all agreeing that raising the wage was a necessity, Fort Collins City Council listened to the 1% instead of the 99%. Unfortunately, this is just one example of how our city leadership has ignored everyday working people.

When I joined hundreds of community members to ask city council to pass a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, the proposal was not even brought to a vote. Our city should not have stayed silent as the humanitarian crisis worsened and members of our own community faced violence and hatred. More recently, I was proud to speak before city council in support of the Connexion Workers Coalition, and I am disappointed that city leadership refuses to recognize the union. Ultimately, my experience seeing working people shut out of local decision-making was one of the biggest inspirations in my choice to run for office.