Every student has something to offer, and every student deserves a nurturing learning environment.

Hope will be found by understanding that diversity is the essence of the American Dream and why we need each other to fulfill it.

I am much more interested in defending my ideas than defending my identities.

I believe women and minorities often wait for permission to be invited to something; we need to stop doing that.

If we are not actively fighting against regressive ideologies, we are contributing to making them grow.

We must see others' struggles as our own, and their success as our success, so we can speak to our common humanity.

I've always said you get what you organize for.

I believe in the ideals of America, in liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness.

As an immigrant, I truly believed when I was coming to this country that people had the tools necessary to life to live a life that is prosperous, that is just and free. So, every single day, I am shocked with the hypocrisy of this country. That we are the wealthiest nation in the world. But we cannot figure out how to house our homeless people.

I invited President Trump twice now to come meet my family and my community because he seems to have a lot of opinions about the kind of people we are.

Life in Somalia before the civil war was beautiful. When the war happened, I was 8 years old and at that stage of understanding the world in a different way.

I have a duty to teach my people about their rights and protect them from being bamboozled.

This is a land of immigrants, and most come here for opportunity, a second chance.

Fighting gerrymandering is one thing. The other thing is insuring we have the right candidates for the people and not the right candidates for the Party.

We didn't really grow up in a gendered environment. We didn't have a hierarchy. My family is fearless. They truly believe that they have something to contribute to society and that it is an obligation as humans. I try to embed in my children that they have something to contribute. And that you give because you have to, not to be appreciated.

I want my children to attend inclusive schools where diversity is respected and acknowledged as a sign of strength.

Truly, this is a nation that sees itself as one that instills hope and is really about allowing people to pursue their dreams.

I think it is really important when we're talking about fiscal responsibility that we are balancing the budget in ways that really benefit the working people and Americans.

I know what it feels like to be a young family looking for opportunity in the United States.

Learning is not limited to the classroom, and Minnesota shouldn't limit its education resources there, either.

I am not a Somali representative. I am not a Muslim representative. I am not a millennial representative. I am not a woman representative. I am a representative who happens to have all of these marginalized identities and can understand the intersectionality of all of them in a very unique way.

We have people who will take votes that they can't defend. They'll say they stand for a policy, but when it comes to vote for it, they won't take the vote.

Since 2011, I am happy to say that I have reconciled with Ahmed Hirsi; we have married in our faith tradition and are raising our family together. Like all families, we have had our ups and downs, but we are proud to have come through it together.

I'm not easily scared; from the age of 8, I learned what it means to have everything you know taken away and what it means to persevere. I approach politics the same way.

We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes, the American people want us to legislate, they want us to insist on furthering their set of values, but they also want us to resist and exercise our oversight powers.

Our immigration policy should be based in compassion and a desire to help the other.

My kids are the reason I continue to strive for something better. They know - as kids who are Muslim, Somali, black Americans - that they've always been part of a struggle and that change isn't easy.

We can all agree that we need to be helping small businesses. All of us can agree that the cost of higher education is too high, and college debt is too big of a burden for young people.

Somalis in Minnesota have worked so hard to get their voices heard in the political process.

In just my own neighborhood, you can't go one block without seeing a sign that says, you know, 'Everyone's welcome here,' 'Refugees are welcome here.' I love my Muslim neighbors, and so there is truly this spirit of generosity and compassion and openness that still exists.

It's our time to fight for the America we know we can have.

My family called me the 'why kid' growing up. I always needed to know why something is happening, why I had to do something, why whatever.

I come from people who dreamed of a free democratic system. I believe so strongly in the process and equal access.

My kids are part of the rest of my community and my wider family.

I was always made aware of inequality in society, that there was a class system. In Somalia, we have clan structures. My mother's family is ethnically not Somali, and so we spoke often about what it meant to be 'other' in that way.

I talk all the time about the eight-year-old me and all the eight-year-olds who are living in their camps.

I have been very fortunate to have a partner who really stepped up and have wonderful children who do a lot of things that make it easy for Mommy to do this work.

We say this is a land of immigrants, and we forget that this was a land that belonged to people. And those of us who are new immigrants and those of us who come from generations of immigrants have to realize we are not that much different from one another.

I was a teenager when 9/11 happened. And I really was uncomfortable with many members of our community feeling like they had to strip themselves of their identity in order to mitigate the violence and the fears that they were feeling.

For me, as an immigrant who didn't speak the language, when I would have struggles as a kid, my dad would say, 'Once you are able to communicate with people, they're able to connect with you beyond your otherness.' That is really the message I've carried throughout my life.

I had a lot of challenges starting school, and my dad says I would come home every day crying and feeling bad about the problems I was having with some of the kids. And he would tell me to work hard on learning the language.

I look forward to being a voice of reason in fighting for transparent and accountable budgets.

Some suggest that, as a woman, I meddle in political affairs and need to be 'put in my place.'

I am committed to growing participation in the political process and doing it the right way.

I talk a lot about the men in my family because my mother died when I was little, and my grandmother died when my aunts were little, so we didn't have those kinds of heads of household. But all the members of our household who were female were sort of living as equal and as wise as the male figures in our family.

Minnesota's diversity should be its greatest strength, but our neglect of nonwhite students has stifled our progress toward growth and equity.

American hate is not new - and it is not scarce.

We need to recognize that racism has never been subtle, though it has gone underreported.

I'm going from the state House to the opportunity to serve in Congress and serve the people in the Fifth, which is a great honor and a great opportunity... It is something that is exciting to a few people, but, you know, often times it is important for us to own the moment, celebrate it, and then move on.

Many in the Somali community are excited to vote and support candidates who have shown an ability to lead with integrity and not use props and gatekeepers to get their votes.