At the age of 12, Mary-Pat Hector began organizing around issues of gun violence prevention in Stone Mountain, Georgia. And at 19 years old, she became the youngest woman and person of color to run for public office in Georgia, losing her election for a city council seat by only 22 votes.
When asked how she became civically engaged at such a young age, Hector told me that as a “woman of color in this country, you don’t really have the luxury of not being politically engaged early on because consistently, issues that directly impact your life are on the ballot.”
