Hello and Welcome
My name is Jay Xiong, and I am the DFL endorsed candidate running for State Representative in House District 67B on the East Side of St. Paul.
Forty years ago, my family came to this country as immigrants and refugees. Like any other American family, we settled here because we fell in love with this city as a place to live, to work, and play because we believed in the American dream.
I am a lifelong resident of St. Paul. In my 35 years of life, I have been a proud resident of St. Paul and I have seen the changes that have come and gone. Some things in the community have changed for the better, while other things have not. In many instances, the important changes did not always reflect our community.
As a proud graduate of St. Paul Public Schools, I know first-hand the struggles that our children face in the education system. I also recognize the challenges that our teachers must navigate. Education has always been an integral part of my family’s refugee story. Because we know that education is the key to the future. Education is an important part of my platform.
It was my teachers who inspired me and helped propel me to study at St. Olaf College, in the same Northfield community where a single generation before, the great and late US Senator Paul Wellstone had taught across the river at Carleton. After St. Olaf, I came back home to St. Paul to make a life in public service.
In the years since, I have taught in our public schools, organized voter registration drives, mobilized the community for engagement, run political campaigns, and most proudly, I have had the honor to serve the great people of our state on the staff in the state legislature.
At the capitol, I have had the pleasure to help impact legislation great and small that affects our everyday life. I worked with DFL lawmakers on increasing the state’s minimum wage, passing Marriage Equality, pushing earned sick and safe time for Minnesota workers, passing the Women’s Economic Security Act (WESA) to protect working mothers, increase opportunities in employment equality for women, funding our Minnesota Hmong-Lao veterans with a commemorative memorial and many more.
As our State Representative Sheldon Johnson retires this year, he will leave a void. His are great shoes to fill, and I will spend every moment as your State Representative to filling those shoes and moving our neighborhood to new heights. I will carry on the fight for equity and resources for our community at the state legislature.
My Story
I am a proud Hmong American, part of that first generation born in this country to refugee parents from war torn Laos. My parents who were simple farmers and spoke no English when they arrived in Minnesota some 40 years ago, worked hard to make sure their children could one day have more and better opportunities than they did.
As the oldest in the family, my first responsibilities as soon as I was old enough were to look after my siblings, cook for them, teach them, be a good example for them. My other responsibility was to be the interpreter for my parents all those years growing up. My father worked two jobs to make ends meet and my mother worked in an assembly. Both my parents did not have much of a formal education, but they had strength and determination, and they were able to keep a roof over our heads.
I did not get to where I am today alone. My parents were political refugees, uprooted by war, resettled in a place they knew very little about. We survived those early years on food stamps, on state and county programs for the poor. We relied on local charities and the kindness of neighbors and even strangers when times got tough. I remember my father’s workplace donated toys for us during Christmas.
I cannot tell you how much my parents sacrificed for me. Because of their hard work for 35 years, I am a proud product of St. Paul Public Schools, graduated from St. Olaf College, came back home to work and organize in the city I love. A city and an Eastside that has given my family so much, I am truly grateful.
In the last 10 years, I have been organizing and building capacity with partners, organizers and activists across the Twin Cities. I have worked in our public schools. I’ve led nonprofits to get out the vote. I have helped run many campaigns, and dedicated myself to civic engagement and political participation. It is in this spirit of service that I wish to serve you at our State Capitol, in representing you and all of us on the Eastside in District 67B.
When my good friend and Representative Sheldon Johnson decided to retire a few months ago, I decided that the time has come for me to step up and serve the good people of the Eastside. The Eastside of St. Paul is a great place because of Representative Sheldon Johnson’s service and leadership to the Eastside, and to our great state of Minnesota. I have always looked up to him as a model as well role model legislator and public service leader, and I am thankful, and most humbled for his support of my campaign.
As a candidate running for public office, and as a young Hmong American who knows the struggles as well as opportunities in this state, I believe that when we care for one another, look after one another, and work together, we can accomplish many great things.
I want to be your voice at the Minnesota House of Representatives. I ask for your support, your vote, and your contribution.
Priorities
My platform prioritizes five of the most important pillars of our community.
Education
Our state ranks nationally for a wonderful education system. But when you disaggregate the data, our children of color have a huge achievement gap, one of the worse in the country compared to their white peers. We should be proud that this is a great place to live and learn. But we also should fight hard to ensure all children can achieve their dreams and reach their highest potential, regardless of race, class or background.
As a State Representative, I will dedicate myself to work hardest for our children, who often don’t have a voice because they can’t vote, or because they are too hungry, too poor, or simply don’t have equal opportunities. I look forward to making new friends across all sectors to help improve our education system to ensure our children, who are our future, have a world class education.
Public Safety
Our most sacred trust and sense of self is the ability to sleep safe at night and know that our community does not face daily violence from any one particular faction of society. In light of many recent high-profile cases of violence in the Twin Cities, I want to draw attention to the need for improved community policing in all our cities. We cannot be well in our hearts, our minds and bodies if we are stressed, bothered and threatened by the fact that our own community is not safe. Wellness and safety goes beyond the individual, and it takes the whole village to make sure that all parties have a healthy dialogue in keeping watch on all our streets. This is why public safety is so important to me.
The Environment
The East Side is lucky to have such great connection to nature. We have beautiful Mounds Park, Pig’s Eye Park and Battle Creek. We are right next door to and/or are a part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary as well as the Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary. Saint Paul is a city that is very much founded on–and is great because of–bodies of water. From the streams of Swede Hollow, which gave us breweries and immigrant havens to the cliffs of Dayton’s Bluff, we are the great capital city because of the waterways which cruise through our city as the blood in our veins.
We owe it to all our ancestors and our future generations to leave this beautiful land better than we found it. We have no choice, because global warming is real. And if we believe in self-preservation, we must do our best to cut back emissions, recycle more, and write stronger policies to breathe life back into our planet, which we have abused for over two hundred years since the Industrial Revolution.
Infrastructure
As we must be careful to preserve and improve nature around us, we also have the great responsibility to maintain and improve our human-made infrastructure such as roads, rails, transit, bridges, parks, wastewater plants, drinking water, schools and government buildings. In the 21st Century, we are not only competing with near by states, but with entire countries, such as Japan and China, on issues of commerce, quality of life and transportation. Globalism has made us more interdependent and more competitive for goods, services, and people.
To attract businesses and entrepreneurs we need a solid infrastructure. For example a quality transit and road system is needed to get employees and customers to their shops. (Of course this becomes an equity issue as well — when those that need public transit the most have the least amount of access to it.) As your state representative, I will fight hard to ensure we maintain a world class infrastructure to be competitive on the world stage.
Economic Development
Our world is changing fast, and the economy is adapting at a speed in which lawmakers have to be creative about tracking trends, laws and policies to make us more competitive. Make no mistake, there must be a strong and real partnership between the public sector and the private sector for all of us to thrive. As the government stepped back from making rockets and sending people into space, great thinkers and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk with SpaceX stepped up to fill the void, and our next generation of people in space will be private citizens and they will be launched from rocket pads of private companies. There are unconventional businesses that have grown to change entire market shares such as Air BNB, Uber and Lyft, nudging away traditional services like cabs and hotels.
As the world changes and the economy adapts, we need brave policymakers who can adapt rules to the game so our businesses and constituents can have an edge in the world economy. I will work hard with all partners across many sectors and disciplines to think about future innovation in our business policies and how to cut red tape. We can only advance if we adapt. As your state representative, I will also work hard with local, regional and state nonprofits and especially workforce investment boards to ensure that all voices are heard and that we move forward together. Only in partnerships can we walk into a brighter economic future together.
This content was originally published at http://www.jayforhouse.com/