It rarely happens, but when it does, you know the feeling – a person you are meeting for the first time is so poised and has such a captivating presence that it leaves you deeply impressed.
This is exactly what happened to a group of Riverside residents and me when we met Sol Flores in person this past weekend. Sol is running for the open Illinois’ 4th Congressional District seat vacated by Rep. Luis Gutierrez.
Fifteen years ago, Sol founded La Casa Norte, a nonprofit organization that provides housing and comprehensive social services to thousands of homeless Latino and African American youth and families in Chicago, and has run it ever since.
What Congress needs today are authentic and entrepreneurial fighters, empathetic and electrifying leaders who know how to listen and connect to voters and who represent their constituents above their party. Sol is such a leader.
And there is one more thing.
To a large extent, selecting people for the U.S. House of Representatives is an exercise of trial and error. Lately and unfortunately, error has dominated. What we have never tried is a Congress that is made up of an equal amount of men and women.
It’s time we make progress towards this goal.
Join me in enthusiastically voting for Sol Flores for Congress on March 20.
Tom Jacobs
Riverside
