You know, I can't afford to take anything for granted.

Retired public service workers make up the backbone of the middle class in so many of our communities.

For more than two decades Chicagoans have routinely traveled to neighboring cities like Rosemont, Elgin, Joliet, Gary and Hammond to gamble. If people in Chicago want to gamble, then they should be able to gamble in Chicago at a city-owned, land-based casino.

If aldermen are doing their job right, they should be the ones who are closest to the vibe and the beat in their neighborhood and have a very important role to play on a number of different issues, but not a unilateral, unchecked right. That's gone as soon as I take office.

But there are parents out there who feel like they have been shut out from the process of how their children are educated, and that's never a good thing.

Breaking the back of the Chicago machine, it's quite monumental.

Building channels for people to believe that the city sees them and hears them and is willing to invest, is going to be critically important, and we have to start that right away.

Fundamentally, we need to make sure that our neighborhoods are safe - all of our neighborhoods.

The only thing you have in your life is your integrity.

We've got to do everything we can to speak to and protect our immigrant communities.

I want to make sure that I am the leader that respects the fact that kids all over the city and hopefully all over the country really understand that they can do anything that they want to do, that they set their minds to do, as long as they've got good, strong support from adults and love to support them.

We have been embarked on what I would call a proactive strategy that looks at our gun violence as a public health crisis, which is what it is. That means we look at the root causes of the violence.

I believe that everybody is entitled to a presumption of innocence.

I know every trick in the book, in terms of schemes and fraud.

I live in a world in which I have a very, very diverse group of friends.

To make blatant racial appeals or just blatant appeals only targeted to the LGBTQ+ community, I didn't think that that was a winning formula, and it's also inconsistent with who I am.

The whole circus surrounding Ed Burke, I knew immediately from my days as a federal prosecutor, was very, very serious.

You know, when you get the White House operator and they say, 'Just a moment for the president of the United States,' that's a pretty heady moment.

We have a lot of taxpayers in this city who deserve to get every nickel of their tax dollars that they're entitled to from Washington, and I intend to make that happen.

So, yes, I became the vessel into which people poured their hopes that we can have a different kind of city. I recognize that, but in politics, sometimes it's good to be lucky.

I'm not a person who puts things out in writing and policy prescriptions and is not intending to follow through.

Both my brothers played football. My mother had season tickets as a school board member. I was in the band, my sister was in the band. The thing was, the unifying civic activity was obsession over high school football.

My view is I should have been Miss Massillonian, and I wasn't. I think the reason I wasn't was because I was black. Frankly, I was told later I should have been. But they were afraid if they elected a black girl as Miss Massillonian, it would have been a scandal.

Look, there's no question that we have a challenge with gun violence. But there's a lot more nuanced parts of that narrative, and that's the part that I think that we have to make sure that we emphasize along with all the great things that are going on in Chicago, particularly in our neighborhoods.

I don't think I'll be a good mayor if I don't live my authentic life, and that's got to be involved with having fun with my spouse and my daughter.

One of the challenges I think we have is people feel like the act of governance is a zero sum game. 'Whatever I get, you're not getting.' Changing that dynamic is going to be critically important for me as a leader, so that people don't feel they're pitted against each other.

I've wanted to be a parent for a really long time, and I'm going to make sure I'm doing everything I can to be present in her life, to be her mother. I don't want to be absent from her life.

Chicago's been under the grip of the corrupt and broken political machine for as long as everybody's memory.

My mother is a fascinating person.

We need to educate our young people about the dangers of gun violence and that there are real consequences for solving disputes with guns.

When young people grow up with fear as the norm, they don't have the luxury to dream.

I'm pretty funny on my own.

We have to have a school board that's actually gonna be able to function and that has true parent representatives on it.

I think about my parents, and I think a lot about the sacrifices they have made.

What I hear from folks all the time is 'us against them.' It is a core part of what they feel is happening with our government. Investing here, but not there. Listening to some, but not nearly enough. Going into certain neighborhoods, but not others. That divide is something we have to categorically reject.

When you're walking down a street and you are a brown-skinned person or you're a person that lives in an immigrant community, there's no differentiating on - solely on the basis of what you look like. They don't walk down the street saying, hi, I'm an immigrant; I'm here legally or not.

You know, I'm a former federal prosecutor. Before ICE was ICE, I did a lot of cases with Customs Enforcement.

When we ignore the will of the people, people lose.

I know what it's like to be denied opportunity based on the nature of your skin.

There's things that you can learn by being in the room with people that's different than talking to them over the phone or reading a policy paper.

Our kids' lives depend upon keeping them safe. That has to be a fundamental duty and responsibility for me as mayor. That means we have to continue hard but necessary work of bridging the divide between police and communities they serve.

I am an independent reform candidate. I do not represent the past.

I am not tied to the broken political machine, and I did not aspire to climb the ranks of the Cook County Democratic Party to be the party boss.

I'm not affiliated with Ed Burke, Joe Berrios or anyone else who represents the old, corrupt Chicago way. I am offering voters a complete break from that past and pushing us forward in a way that brings people together and makes government more inclusive.

We can and will make Chicago a place where your ZIP code doesn't determine your destiny.

What I favor is that we have health care access to people that is not income based. We have to have health care that is acceptable and it's going to come in a number of forms.

It's not enough to be anti-Trump.

There's significant movement as far to the left in our party as far as you can go, where people are trying to out-Bernie Bernie.

I have to explain to my daughter what it means when adults lie. I have to explain to my daughter what it means when adults are bullies. I have to explain to my daughter what it means when an adult says something that's not true just to try to score political points.

If you look at the number of aldermen who have been prosecuted and found liable of federal crimes over the years... the common thread among all of them is doing something in the exercise of aldermanic prerogative or privilege.