It's been harder for me for sure being Muslim American, it's been harder for me for sure being the first Muslim ever elected anything here in Virginia, but it's actually made me into a much better person. So, the neat thing is while it's more difficult for people like me maybe to get elected in certain parts of our country, we prove that it's possible. And, that's something to be commended here in our country, that people from all walks of life can be involved and that's not the case even in some developed countries.

The lack of fairness that we have in the richest country in the world is something that hits my district pretty hard. Eighty-three percent free and reduced lunch. We have the fourth-highest Medicaid population per capita in Virginia. There are folks that are just making it, literally day to day. When I'm knocking on doors, I'm reminded constantly of the struggles that people have. And, sometimes, we realized there are so few people that are advocating on their behalf that we want to be a real solid voice for them, and that drives me on a regular basis.

When we talk about defending Muslims, defending women, we're automatically by default excluding someone, but when we talk about defending liberty, when we talk about defending the freedoms that are enshrined within our founding documents, that is inclusive of every American. That's a message the American left needs to learn as we move forward.

I think the Democratic Party is firmly in the wilderness right now and doesn't know exactly what to do. We talk about trust. Fundamentally, the American people have lost a lot of trust in both parties, but in particular, my party. Growing trust is a very simple calculation: People want to know what your values are, and they watch your behaviors. If your behaviors align with your values, then they trust you. If you say I'm for the people, but we're just as bought off as the other party, or we say we're for fairness, but we gerrymander just like the other side, people see.

Falling into Donald Trump's trap, or being distracted every time he sends out a tweet is really not leadership. And, I would point you to a historical example, Italy's Donald Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, a larger-than-life personality. People didn't know what to do until somebody came up with a novel idea: Why don't we ignore him? They completely ignored the personality, the man, and focused on the issues. He was defeated twice. Maybe we can learn from that lesson.

You'd be surprised how quickly our identities evaporate when we were able to connect with people on a very personal level because we're all really trying to chase the same dream, we are looking for the same thing, we're raising our kids, we're just trying to get along. And, right now we are able to show people, hey, I'm just a human being like you are, I've got to take care of my kids and my family just like you, how can I help you?

We need to be fighting and rallying around the common American values. This is where the Democratic Party needs to learn and grow as we move forward.