Isaiah Harris knows what it’s like to be working class in Pittsburg ... because he is. His struggles are your struggles.

Isaiah comes from struggle. Raised by a single mom who worked multiple jobs to support her and her children, he believes that anyone working 40 hours should be able to afford their rent and have money left over. He is running because he is sick and tired of our out-of-touch state government that makes decisions about our lives without understanding that even if you work sixty hours a week, success isn’t guaranteed.

He knows well the importance of community-centered mutual aid, having relied on the Wesley House throughout his childhood and SEK-CAP’s Family Emergency Shelter, before the elites in Topeka decided helping families stay afloat wasn’t worth their time or money anymore.

He also knows better than most the difficulties that those working hard and trying to get ahead face. Our district is one of the poorest in the nation on average by yearly income and net worth. In order to address this, our representatives seriously considered adding hurdles to enrolling children in free and reduced lunches. This is a moral outrage. We deserve leaders who actually fight for working families, not for their corporate donors.

Isaiah works full time at a grocery store, and helps support his wife’s in-home daycare when he gets home. His lived experience has taught him how tough it is for families to pay their bills and to find affordable childcare, both growing up poor and seeing it all around him in his adulthood. He earned a degree from Pittsburg State and stayed rooted in the place that raised him. Isaiah Harris is a working-class man, running to make life more affordable for our working families and seniors.