NINA TURNER

Make no mistake about it, Mitt Romney is the default candidate of the Republican Party.

I don't want our white working class sisters and brothers to feel as though their pain is not important because it is. But at the same time, I want my white sisters and brothers to understand that when we talk about income and wealth inequality, that disproportionately African Americans suffer a little more.

You know, women not making dollar for dollar the same as a man is not new. It's been that way since day zero, since the founding of this country. And when you put African-American women and Hispanic women into the mix it's even worse than that.

If not for food stamps, Medicaid, and various job programs, I would never have gone on to be the first in my family to go to college, the first black woman to represent my ward on the Cleveland City Council, and, ultimately, a State Senator.

My mother was born into a solidly middle-class family, but, as all too many Americans understand, everything doesn't always go as planned - no matter how hard you work. She died on welfare. Without the support of the state, I shudder to think of where we would have ended up.

I'll never forget when I was running, when I was knocking on doors for my first office as I served as a Cleveland city councilwoman and to have older men say to me, 'Can you do this and be a wife and a mother?' Excuse me? Women make the world go round. We multitask... But to have that kind of condescending question asked of me in modern times.

The GOP will not be satisfied until women are barefoot, pregnant and back home by 5 o'clock P.M. to cook dinner.

If you care about potholes, you have to vote. If you care about pre-k education, you have to vote. If you care about women's health care, you have to vote.

You never get to too big to phone bank, that's my opinion.

We tell people to go to college, but when they cross the stage, they cross the stage with a degree in one hand and debt in the other that stifles their ability to be able to live that good life.

We have an obligation to each other to not only push our politicians but to push companies to do right by their workers.

People want to see you be genuine.

I'm a Democrat, and that's worth fighting for.

The issues that matter to women also matter to communities... and these issues have a ripple effect all across the country. And the purist sense of the feminist tradition - feminism is not anti-man. It is pro-humanity.

Ohio is my home, always. I'm a homegirl. Ohio is my home. Ohio is my first love.

It is the duty of governments to create a pro-voter environment that encourages participation, but it is also the responsibility of citizens to make their voices heard.

My mother raised me herself, along with my six younger siblings, in Cleveland, and life wasn't easy even in the best of times. At age 42, she died, and it fell on me, then aged 22 and working minimum wage, to take care of all of us. At the time, I was newly married with a baby son. And I was deeply afraid for our future.

People don't wake up to go to vote and then have their ballot not counted.

The vote is the last great equalizer that we have in this country.

If there is a Republican or a Libertarian or Green Party person that believes in Medicare for all, then that's our kind of person.

Most men that run for office wake up in the morning and say, I am worthy to be the president of the United States of America. I want women to channel their inner man and say, Oh yeah, I am worthy.

Does being practical mean we prop up a legal system that's unfair, that bears its weight down on black men and black women, and by extension if you are Hispanic or indigenous or poor? Does being practical mean you don't say to the American people you deserve better than you're getting? That's not the practical we want.

Although she was not a politician, my grandmother gave me the most important lesson I've ever received and one I carry with me today. That all you need to be successful in life is three things: your wishbone to dream big, your jawbone to speak the truth, and your backbone to persevere through it all.

Women are outfundraised. Why? Because men have been doing it a lot longer. And, so not only do they have entry into the money, they have connections that a lot of women don't. Women are a lot older most of the times when they run for office because of the stigma.

It is a travesty for anyone who is elected to office, who serves in an elective office, to engage in voter suppression.