I was raised in Benton Harbor, Michigan. I grew up being told how I was supposed to vote before anyone asked what I believed. I'm Black, so I'm supposed to be a Democrat. I was born a Democrat, but I grew into a Republican. I broke through the blinders, and that assumption ends with me.

I was in fifth grade when President Obama was elected. I was too young for Obamacare to touch me, and it still made me angry; that was my first break. (I'm also still not over what happened to our school lunches.) But the real change came when I started earning my own money and figuring out life. I saw a party that raises my taxes, redistributes what I earn, puts feelings ahead of the law, fails to stop dangerous people who cross the border illegally, and wants to take guns from ordinary Americans while keeping armed protection for themselves.

I didn't want to be defined by the stereotypes, so I stopped being the stereotype. I stopped giving it truth. I stopped blaming everyone else for where I was, and that's when things changed for me. I believe every one of us can do the same. Stereotypes aren't unique to Black people; every race has them. But nobody has to become their stereotype. That's a choice. We can wait for a handout, or we can go get what we want ourselves, and never give anyone the power to tell us where we can go in this world.

I've spent my career keeping people safe: concert security, armed hospital security, and now running security for a property group across 185 properties in 22 states, many of them senior and affordable housing. I co-founded a small business in Fishers. I know what a paycheck, a payroll and a regulation feel like from the ground. Today I work armed security at 38th and Meridian in Indianapolis, and I educate young people and my community every chance I get. I've been in cuffs, and I've put cuffs on people. I understand both sides of the law, because I've stood on both.

I'm 29. My generation was handed debt, housing we can't afford and a government that treats us as an afterthought. Nobody in that building is looking out for Gen Z or millennials. I'm running to be the one who does. It's the voice of my constituents that matters. I'll be their pen. If you disagree with me, then let's talk and figure it out together. My office will be open door, for real, with a public action meeting every quarter where Hoosiers set the agenda and I report back on what got done.