Monique Singh Bey, a Kansas City, Kan., resident running for U.S. Senate, said she would be a voice from the trenches, representing poverty-stricken Americans.
There are many issues she sees from the trenches in poverty-stricken America that those in power do not see or care about, she said on Tuesday in Kansas City, Kan.
She added she is concerned about children and education, reducing recidivism, health and mental health issues, and senior citizens’ issues.
“My first mission is to do everything by the way of God,” she said, “that’s my first mission.”
Because she is a largely unknown candidate without large campaign contributions, there is a sort of a David and Goliath aspect to her campaign. She said she feels a calling to run for office.
Singh Bey said one of the areas she is concerned about are laws dealing with people coming out of prisons.
“It’s think it’s very unfair how they redline not only black people but all people who have been there, whether they are women or men,” she said.
She doesn’t like it that when people are released from prison, there are no resources and all that can happen is they go back to prison, she said. They are set up for failure, Singh Bey said. Once it has been proven that those released from prison can be upstanding citizens, after a period of time, they should be able to vote and should not be held back by questions on applications that stop them from getting a new job, she said.
“Straight from the trenches, I am the voice that’s needed to be heard,” she said. One of her main goals in running is to include issues that affect poverty in the campaign. “We’ve already won, because we’re making a stand.”
She said she would like to speak to meetings and groups, hoping to increase voter turnout here.
Singh Bey said she went to a political black empowerment conference in October that started her on a path to run for office. She is backed by the Universal African Peoples Organization, which is recruiting minority candidates throughout the nation to run on the theme of proportionate political representation.
“Activism has been in my family for quite some time,” Singh Bey said. Her grandmother, Mrs. Richard Lawton Sr., was one of the plaintiffs in the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education case, she said.
The empowerment conference developed a desire in her to look into issues, not knowing this would lead to her candidacy, she said.
Of the U.S. Senate’s 100 members, only two are black, Singh Bey said. There are no black governors among the 50 states, she said. Yet blacks make up about 13 percent of the national population, she said.
Singh Bey originally announced Dec. 1, on the anniversary of the day Rosa Parks took a stand and would not give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus. A Democrat, Singh Bey is expected to be a liberal on many issues, providing a contrast to incumbent Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican. Originally Singh Bey had planned to run as an independent.
Zaki Baruti, a human rights activist from St. Louis, Mo., who is head of the UAPO and is serving as her campaign adviser, said that Singh Bey will further develop her platform on the issues as the campaign moves along.
Baruti said they will probably be supportive of maintaining Obamacare or developing further positions on health care that will address a single-payor health insurance plan. He expected those discussions to come up at a later point.
He also agreed with Singh Bey that some federal laws on drugs that were passed have really targeted poor and minority people.
Baruti said he wants to get more people involved in the political process, and increase voter turnout.
Singh Bey, 49, is a native of Topeka, Kan., who moved to the Kansas City area several years ago. She has three children and 12 grandchildren. She has worked as a valet driver and as a court advocate. She has not run for office before.
