Montigue Magruder
Montigue Magruder is a Virginian native that was born in Charlottesville and has lived in Richmond since he was 10 years old. He graduated from Armstrong High School in 2006, moved to Charlottesville for a year, and returned to Richmond after living in Morganfield, KY for Job Corps. Montigue has worked as a general labourer and caretaker for 6 years. He currently works part-time as a scooter mechanic and fry cook.
His political inspiration came to him in 2010 when he spoke in opposition to fare increases on Richmond’s public transit system. That event lead to him joining the Richmond Transit Riders Union, VA Organizing, RePHRAME, and the Industrial Workers of the World. Working with those organizations cultivated Montigue’s philosophy of everyone living a life of dignity and love from birth until death. As such, his political advocacy continues to centralize around the issues concerning “the least of these” in society.
In 2012, Montigue was appointed to the GRTC & Transit Study Task Force and wrote 5 of the 11 recommendations submitted to Richmond City Council. He ran for Richmond City Council in the 2016 Election and came in third place with 13% of the vote. He then realized that the issues he wanted to address required action by the General Assembly. Compelled by the appalling actions of the General Assembly, Montigue decided to run once more for the House of Delegates.
Montigue’s struggles with poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and surviving domestic violence led him to realize that the world shouldn’t be the way it is today. Those struggles compel him to do his part to ensure no one else lives the life he has endured. With your help, Montigue will be able to Build the Greater Good for fellow Virginians. If you recognize that the salvation of our state (and perhaps the world) is bound with his, let us go together and help Montigue (and candidates like him) begin the advancement of true justice and liberation!
Julie Bañuelos
I am Julie Bañuelos, a former Denver Public Schools teacher, an activist and a candidate for the at-large seat on the DPS Board of Education this November.
I come from a family of immigrants who originally were migrant workers but because of education, were able to lift up out of poverty and set us kids on a path to success. Just like many Denver families, we lived in humble surroundings while my father studied for his engineering degree. I grew up in the East Village, which is the housing project across from what was then Ebert Elementary, on 23rd and Tremont, in Denver's Curtis Park.
I loved my teachers, and school was a place where I found acceptance, was challenged to speak up and take responsibility for my actions and even advocate for my community. It was the relationships I built with those experienced, passionate teachers that helped me build self-esteem and resilience to face life's challenges.
It was because of that grounding that I got a degree in Economics and Latin American Studies from Grinnell College in Iowa, and even though my career in compliance and portfolio management kept me busy, I was still drawn back to my community, and I spent my lunch hours back at Ebert volunteering as a reading tutor.
But as you know, teachers are born, not made. My heart was drawn back to Denver, and I entered teaching through an alternative licensure program and went right back to DPS.
During my 15+ years with DPS, I've worked mostly with communities of color with large constituents of immigrants, students and families of English Language Learners – groups to whom I am still tied and who are most impacted by passionate teachers that invest not just their time, but also their souls to these academic and personal relationships.
If you've been in Denver even for a little while, you begin to notice that school closures and privatization follow the pattern of high rents and sprawling development. It happened in my own school at Ebert, where the flimsiest of justifications were used to shut us down but reopen it as Polaris, a school mostly filled with affluent families with gifted students. Lately, we see a similar pattern with the closure of Gilpin Montessori, and fighting these closures has become the reality.
It's time to create a different reality, one of school communities full of energetic kids whose teachers love to come to work, where students think critically about the world around them, and where parents and taxpayers feel respected and heard.
That's why I'm running. I want to build that vision of vibrant, engaged school communities into a new normal.
Won't you join this movement? Please volunteer or donate.
Together we can do it.
For public education in our strong communities,
Julie
Samantha Pree-Stinson
Green Party Candidate for Minneapolis Council, Ward 3
Samantha and her husband and have been married for 13 years and the couple has 3 boys in Minneapolis schools ages 17, 10, and 6.
Samantha and her family have lived in NE Minneapolis for the last 7 years and they are contributors to their community and beyond.
Samantha has served in the US Army as a Combat Medic SGT and has dedicated her professional career in healthcare to providing equity in the workplace for affinity groups so that they can obtain mentorship, development, and engagement opportunities to advance within their careers and chosen fields.
Samantha attended Minneapolis Business College and went on to earn a BS in Organizational Psychology and a Project Management Professional Certification from Frankling University and UC Irvine Extention respectively. She has served her community in public education by chairing the 2020 Committee, coaching NE/SE soccer league, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of KMOJ Radio Station and serves as the 2nd Vice Chair.
“The best investment you can ever make is in yourself and your communities." –Sam Pree-Stinson
Jabari Brisport
Green Party Candidate for New York City Council, District 35
Jabari Brisport is a 3rd generation resident of Prospect Heights. He’s the proud Caribbean son of an immigrant father and a tireless mother. Both raised him with a strong sense of justice and dignity in all circumstances. He’s also an artist, educator, and activist who’s spent the past ten years making political theater and marching in the streets.
At NYU, he was a founding member of The Glass Theater Company, an anti-gentrification theater group that railed against the NYU takeover of real estate in the Village. At the Yale School of Drama, he devised the piece Derivatives, which tackled growing income inequality. Through that piece, he was able to sign up over 100 people to the micro-loan website Kiva. After Yale, he joined the anti-racist artist collective Artists for Change, which held marches, protests, and online petitions to address the crisis of police violence. And for the past 7 years, he’s performed with the political comedy theater group Political Subversities.