Where I stand, and why.

Loved first

I believe God loved me before I had done one thing to deserve it, that He came for me in the person of Jesus Christ, and that everything good I have to give is a return on a gift I did not earn. Love came first, and all of my strength runs downhill from it.

Love is something you do

Love that is never given life is not love. Christ fed people, healed people, washed feet. He served. When I ask what a policy is worth, I ask what it does to ensure none of us end up hungry, sick, or homeless. That is the measure He gave us.

Community

God does not save people into isolation. He sets them in families, in congregations, in cities, and He tells His people to seek the good of the place where they live, even when it is a place they did not choose. I was baptized in Albany. I learned to serve in Albany. Nehemiah did not rebuild Jerusalem's wall by himself; he told the truth about the ruins, and the people answered, "Let us start rebuilding." A city is rebuilt the same way today. Every congregation, every charity, and every family carrying a burden for someone else belongs at the table, and my job is to set the table.

Protecting the innocent

Scripture is not vague about whom God expects His people to protect. It names them: the child, the widow, the stranger, the poor, the one who cannot speak for himself and the one who cannot fight back. Any government that shrugs at harm done to the defenseless has forgotten what it is for. I will not shrug. The innocent will be protected in Albany with everything the office can lawfully bring to bear.

Strength in the face of evil

Evil is real. It has worn a face in every century, and in ours it most often wears the costume of an ordinary system: a machine that profits from division, that grinds down the weak and calls it efficiency, that teaches a city to hate half of itself. Christ promised me His company on the road, but He never promised the road would be clear or easy. I do not stand against wrong because I am strong. I stand because He is, and because He has never once let go of my hand in the dark. He never abandoned me in the face of loss and grief. I will tire, I will be outnumbered on some days, but I will not stop. It is because I hold each person as sacred and because I believe we are called to protect the stranger that I will stand against the machine, never against the people caught in it.

Holding evil accountable

Evil that goes unanswered grows. When the one who beats a spouse walks free, when the one who steals from the public keeps the job, when the ones who prey on children are quietly moved along, everyone watching learns the lesson the wicked most want taught: that nothing will happen. God gave government a sword for exactly this reason, and a leader who will not name evil, or who names it and then looks away, has laid the sword down. I will not lay it down. In Albany that translates to police who are backed, courts that are respected, a City Hall that does not look away, and a public record that says plainly who did what. Beyond Albany it means calling evil by its name, whoever committed it and whatever flag it flew. We dismantle the machine of division one piece at a time. Vengeance belongs to God. Accountability belongs to us. There will be accountability.

Grace

I have been forgiven more than I will ever be asked to forgive. It’s why I treat the person across the table, the one who voted against me, and the one who wrote the cruel thing online with respect. Christ warned that a city divided against itself will not stand, and Lincoln, at the end of the bloodiest years this country has known, asked for malice toward none and charity for all. Grace is the hardest strength there is, and a city relearns it one forgiven trespass at a time. We must stop allowing every small argument to become the end of dialogue, the end of friendships, the shattering of families.

Humility and stewardship

An office is a trust held for other people. The Son of God came to serve, and He measured greatness by the towel and the basin. I will hold Albany's money, Albany's streets, and Albany's trust the way I would want my own held: carefully, in the open, and with the knowledge that much has been given and much will be required. I will walk humbly. I will get things wrong, and when I do I will own it and fix it.

Hope

I believe our best days are still ahead of us, in Albany and in this country. I believe this because of the people that call this city home. I believe this because my faith is rooted in a never-ending fountain of optimistic resolve.

That resolve does not come from turning a blind eye to our challenges; it comes from looking them dead in the eye and knowing we have the collective grit to overcome them.

I see this unwavering spirit every single day on our streets and in our neighborhoods. I see it in the tireless dedication of our teachers who are shaping the minds of the next generation. I see it in the small business owners who unlock their doors before the sun comes up, pouring their sweat and soul into our local economy. And I see it in the simple, profound acts of neighbors checking on neighbors when times get tough.

We are a community built on the enduring promise that we are fundamentally stronger together.

When we choose collaboration over division, and when we choose shared progress over cynicism, there is absolutely no limit to what Albany can achieve. We know that progress isn't handed down from the top; it is built from the ground up. It is forged in our schools, on our shop floors, and in our town halls.

We are going to build a city where every family has the opportunity to not just survive, but to truly thrive. We are going to build a community where every child can dream without boundaries, and where our prosperity is shared by all who are willing to work for it.

So let us step forward with that same optimistic resolve. Let us roll up our sleeves, stand shoulder to shoulder, and get to work building the tomorrow we know we deserve.

Vision

A leader's first job is to see, and the second is to say what he sees plainly enough that others can understand and find hope in the vision for the future. Scripture is blunt about the alternative: where there is no vision, the people perish. A city without one drifts from budget to budget, patching what breaks and calling it prudence, until the repairs cost more than the plan would have. Vision is the cure for drift. It is a picture of Albany fifty years out, clear enough to build toward, honest enough to price, and written down where anyone can read it and hold me to it. Moses was shown a land he would never enter and spent his last strength bringing his people to its edge. That is the shape of the job. The best of what I want for this city I may not live to see finished, and I intend to build toward it anyway. I have watched what becomes possible when a committed community with passion and heart is given a vision to chase. Giving Albany that vision and beginning the journey towards it is my commitment.