I know how it feels to be hated because of my religious beliefs.

People often talk about how I’m courageous, but I believe everybody should be courageous. Courage is being scared to death but remaining resolute.

My kids are the reason I continue to strive for something better. They know – as kids who are Muslim, Somali, black Americans – that they’ve always been part of a struggle and that change isn’t easy.

Life in Somalia before the civil war was beautiful. When the war happened, I was 8 years old and at that stage of understanding the world in a different way.

The house I was born in, in Somalia, was right next to a big market. A lot of beggars or panhandlers would be in front of our house constantly, and my grandfather and grandmother would always invite them in to have food with us and have them take whatever was leftover.

I’m a survivor of war. And if I survived militia, I certainly can survive these people

I’m not easily scared; from the age of 8, I learned what it means to have everything you know taken away and what it means to persevere. I approach politics the same way.

I was born in that breath of recognizing that they might be more powerful than you are, that they might have more technology than you have, they might think that they are wiser than you, they might control all of the institutions, but you control your mind, and that is what sets you free.

I am not a Somali representative. I am not a Muslim representative. I am not a millennial representative. I am not a woman representative. I am a representative who happens to have all of these marginalized identities and can understand the intersectionality of all of them in a very unique way.

I look forward to being a voice of reason in fighting for transparent and accountable budgets.

When people were selling the politics of fear and division and destruction, we were talking about hope. We were talking about the politics of joy.

We’ve become the party that wants to appease everyone and no one. And I think the only way that the Democrats become viable again is if we have people who have moral clarity and courage to say what they need to say and fight for what they need to fight for.

Fighting gerrymandering is one thing. The other thing is ensuring we have the right candidates for the people and not the right candidates for the Party

ICE has only become increasingly militarized, brutal, and unaccountable

We can all agree that we need to be helping small businesses. All of us can agree that the cost of higher education is too high, and college debt is too big of a burden for young people.

We need to be constantly reminded that this is a representative democracy, and we need to be in tune to what people are talking about.

Our immigration policy should be based in compassion and a desire to help the other

Every student has something to offer, and every student deserves a nurturing learning environment.

We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression, wherever we find it

You can’t hate up close. Any time you have an opportunity to go talk with someone, the chances of them hating you lessen. So that is a practice we all should adopt.

I know that when we interact with those we fear and hate, we will find commonality.

My family called me the ‘why kid’ growing up. I always needed to know why something is happening, why I had to do something, why whatever.

I talk a lot about the men in my family because my mother died when I was little, and my grandmother died when my aunts were little, so we didn’t have those kinds of heads of household. But all the members of our household who were female were sort of living as equal and as wise as the male figures in our family

I think my faith as a Muslim is very important. One of the core values is that you are always trying to build consensus. So when it comes to figuring out if something is permissible or not in Islam, it’s usually a discussion, and people have to come to a consensus in order for something to be approved.

We didn’t really grow up in a gendered environment. We didn’t have a hierarchy. My family is fearless. They truly believe that they have something to contribute to society and that it is an obligation as humans. I try to embed in my children that they have something to contribute. And that you give because you have to, not to be appreciated.

We need to recognize that racism has never been subtle, though it has gone under-reported.

We must see others’ struggles as our own, and their success as our success, so we can speak to our common humanity

I grew up in a household where we all celebrated who we were. There was no space to make people feel different or ‘less than

I had a lot of challenges starting school, and my dad says I would come home every day crying and feeling bad about the problems I was having with some of the kids. And he would tell me to work hard on learning the language

I was a teenager when 9/11 happened. And I really was uncomfortable with many members of our community feeling like they had to strip themselves of their identity in order to mitigate the violence and the fears that they were feeling.

I invited President Trump twice now to come meet my family and my community because he seems to have a lot of opinions about the kind of people we are.

When I first arrived in the country, I really didn’t speak much of the language. I knew two words coming here, and they were ‘Hello’ and ‘Shut up.

I come from people who dreamed of a free democratic system. I believe so strongly in the process and equal access

We know that when people are civically engaged, when they understand what their rights are, when they understand that in a democracy you can challenge governments, you can challenge policymakers, and you can… actually shape and form future policy, I think it changes the perception that a lot of young people have about where power is

I think a big part of my faith teachings is to work together towards equality: that we’re all created equal, and under the eyes of God, we all have a right to freedom and to access our rights equally.

If we are not actively fighting against regressive ideologies, we are contributing to making them grow

I would have loved to have heard a story like mine. I could have used it as an inspiration to get by.

I am much more interested in defending my ideas than defending my identities.

I believe women and minorities often wait for permission to be invited to something; we need to stop doing that.

Learning is not limited to the classroom, and Minnesota shouldn’t limit its education resources there, either.

I find hope in knowing that I belong to a state that has a lot of people who are champions of change and progress; that we will rise up and fight for justice and equality; that, ultimately, love will trump hate.

No Minnesotan should ever experience preventable health risks from breathing polluted air or from drinking unsafe water

Minnesota’s diversity should be its greatest strength, but our neglect of nonwhite students has stifled our progress toward growth and equity

This is a land of immigrants, and most come here for opportunity, a second chance.

Truly, this is a nation that sees itself as one that instills hope and is really about allowing people to pursue their dreams.

I believe in the ideals of America, in liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness.

I am proof that, as Americans, we can embrace our differences.

We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes, the American people want us to legislate, they want us to insist on furthering their set of values, but they also want us to resist and exercise our oversight powers.

Hope will be found by understanding that diversity is the essence of the American Dream and why we need each other to fulfill it.

As an immigrant, I truly believed when I was coming to this country that people had the tools necessary to live a life that is prosperous, that is just, and free. So, every single day, I am shocked with the hypocrisy of this country. That we are the wealthiest nation in the world. But we cannot figure out how to house our homeless people.