Hi, my name is Kristen Sierra Washington. I am newly elected councilwoman for District 3 in Greenville, Texas. The first African American and African American female to win a predominantly white community. Now Kristen, you're an amazing person, an amazing woman, mom of two amazing boys. And you are a 34 year old black woman in Greenville, Texas. And you said, I'm going to run for City Council. What prompted you to run for a Greenville City Council? In Greenville, I did not see me anywhere. And what I say I didn't see me, I didn't see the young representation that can speak from my experience, my point of view, especially with everything that's happening in the world. When you think of Greenville, you don't think of black leaders. You don't think of not even a black woman being in a position to make change in Greenville. Because again, when you hear the name Greenville, Texas, the first thought is black is land white as people. So it's all about white people, it's races, don't go there. But now I want to change the narrative of when you hear Greenville, you hear, oh, Kristen Sierra Washington, she done something. She did what most would never dare to do. And that's not just run for City Council. And the black neighborhood I ran for City Council in one and a predominantly white. How was the campaign trail in Greenville and what type of adversity did you face? At adversity first, my biggest, biggest downfall hurdle, COVID-19, that was it. And you would be like, what? That was it. The adversity that I face was I can't speak to people face to face. I can't go up to you and hug you and introduce myself and tell you why I'm running because of COVID-19. The campaign trail was actually easy and fun. I didn't do things the traditional way. I didn't sit down with a table of my team. We talk about what I'm going to do. We strategize. How are we going to go door to door? No, I sat down with my parents, my siblings, my best friend Jamie. And I said, I'm running for City Council. And this is what I'm doing. And they told me, we got you back. That's great. So you have your family foundation as a rock. Yes. And you can lean on and you went in by it and then unconventional way. And it sucks that we are in the middle of a pandemic and a lot of people have been sick and lost their lives because of it. But you didn't let that deter you. Was it hard getting people to get behind you at first if so why? No. And I say that with pride because I'm known anyways in Grinble for church. So people know me on the church front. Oh, she's over the media industry or I see her making videos or I see her posting on Facebook and carrying people. So people know me from that aspect. But people also know me from I'm an Eastern star. So we do charity work in Dallas. And I remember I say the Amika, which is a form of Zeta 5 beta. And we do community service and we do things in the community. So people know me from that foundation. So they remember me from that. But I wanted to make sure that everything that I was doing in Dallas and everyone else outside of Grinble, I brought all that back to Grinble and I did it in my hometown. Did you have a mentor to lean on during the campaign? Yes, I did. I had my dad, my mom, I had my great-grandmother who when I wanted to quit, when I kept telling myself girl you can't do this, they constantly told me, yes you can, this is why you can. And my biggest motivation, my biggest mentor was my boys. I constantly kept seeing the deaths of people happening and I kept thinking if I don't speak up and step out as a mother and as a minister, then nobody would ever know what we tried to do here in Grinble, especially with everything that's been happening in and around Grinble. And I used that and I used them as my motivation to keep going because I always tell people when you see me or when I die, don't take that time when I'm dead and my funeral to say, oh I love Kristen, she has so many great ideas. I want you to tell me why I'm alive so at my funeral you can actually celebrate what I've done, what I've tried to change, what I've tried to make an impact on. So I try to make an impactful imprint on things I do every day. Hey, if you want to hear more from Auditor Nation, please make sure you like, subscribe to the channel, but don't just stop there. When you see the little bell notification, make sure you click on that and you will receive obvious notification whenever they post anything, whether it's a video, a conversation, something fun. You want to make sure that you have the notifications turned on for this channel because it's something you don't want to miss.