VOTE

I was born in 1985 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At a very young age, I experience my first tragedy, losing my mother at the hands of my father. That was a foundation on which would build the person who is Carl Watkins. My older brother and I were then raised by our maternal grandparents, a wonderfully amazing woman, Geraldine James-Riley who was diagnosed with cancer in 1987 and her husband Leroy James. She was the strongest and most respected person I have ever met, and she taught me so much until her passing in 2016 from cancer. Almost 30 years this woman battled cancer having a large period of remission until coming back 2004 and never completely leaving. Throughout this period, she never complained, loosing another daughter in 2004 to domestic violence as well, her mother, her sister, and her nephew to cancer. This is the strength I watched all my years, and this is the strength that has taught me to be me. I always strive to make a difference, from commanding JROTC in high school, joining the military, becoming a pastor, and giving back as much as possible in various forms. I have made mistakes along the way, getting into legal trouble several times ruining some of my chances for career choices. All of this has taught me there are more to the values of America than just protecting certain groups of people. Every person on American soil should have some sort of protection because that is who we are. We are the land of the free, not the land of the selective free.

My mission is to remind people that they should look closely at issues that affect them directly and voice those concerns and issues. I have grown tired of people "settling" for a candidate that doesn't have all of their values at heart. If a candidate only meets a few of your requirement list, find another one. I also want our politicians to accurately reflect the community. The median net worth of Congress was recorded at $511,000 dollars well within the top 3.65% (over $200k). The median net worth of America is $97,000 that's less than the top 20% (over $100k). That's a huge gap! How can someone sitting on that much money accurately assess the needs of a family making the median or less? More concerning, why would they be more concerned with meeting the needs of the poor vs looking after their own assets. We the people tend to choose the rich and the famous to represent us, but in reality, they don't actually represent the majority.

My vision is to see a group of government officials who look like America. I want to see politicians who had financial problems, politicians who were immigrants, politicians who had legal troubles. I understand the fear of mismanagement, but that is why we have cabinet leaders and more than just one person making the decisions. I don't envision someone who couldn't manage his checkbook to write the fiscal plan, but I do think they should be available with input when writing legislation about availability of funds, loaning outside of means, etc.