Mother Jones

Meet the Trailblazers Fighting to Change the Face of Politics

September 19, 2018 | by David Beard

One candidate fled the violence of Colombia with her mom at age nine. Another fled the Taliban at age six. A third says his parents were almost deported from the United States.

Catalina Cruz and Safiya Wazir won their primary elections in New York and New Hampshire respectively last week, while William Tong is campaigning to become Connecticut’s first Asian American attorney general. They’re representative of a surge of minority candidates in this year’s midterm elections, in which more women and people of color are not only running for office—but also winning votes and unseating entrenched politicians.

Cruz, a former housing lawyer and one of the first Dreamers to run for office in New York, says the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant stance prompted her to enter the race for State Assembly in Queens. “I have this privilege,” Cruz told Mother Jones. “I’m formerly undocumented, I’m a lawyer, I have these connections…Why am I not using it for something more than managing a state agency?”

Meet the Trailblazers Fighting to Change the Face of Politics