Justin Moore, civil rights attorney, officially joins congressional race in Texas
“The people in my district can have great confidence in knowing that Justin Moore, as a congressman, will be the kind of leader that the district deserves,” Moore tells theGrio.
Over the weekend, civil rights attorney Justin Moore made it official and registered to have his name appear on the ballot as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Moore is running for Texas’ 32nd Congressional District in the 2024 election after U.S. Rep. Colin Allred declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
“After a few months of doing some soul searching, after complaining about the laws…I realized I should be the person that starts creating these policies,” Moore told theGrio, “To ensure that they’re protecting folks here on the ground in my district and throughout the state of Texas.”
In May, Moore originally announced on social media that he would run for the U.S. House seat.
“I believe in the power of representation and the importance of amplifying the voices and leadership of those who have been historically marginalized,” he said in an Instagram post at the time.
Now that Moore is officially on the ballot, he is laser-focused on winning his election. But first, he will have to overcome a crowded Democratic primary. He would then go on to the general election in a district that has only elected a Democrat once in the past 20 years. If elected, Moore would become the latest member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), which is important to the Democratic candidate.
“We need a diverse array of voices speaking out for our communities,” said Moore. “[Becoming] a CBC member that represents District 32 is going to be really important, especially because this is a minority-majority community that deserves minority representation.”
“We need a representative democracy that has folks that are representing every aspect of our nation and office,” he added.
“For me, a life of service is something that I’ve been called to,” said the 36-year-old Democratic congressional candidate. “The people in my district can have great confidence in knowing that Justin Moore, as a congressman, will be the kind of leader that the district deserves.”
The Dallas native said that if elected to represent Texas’ 32nd district, he would tackle issues impacting marginalized communities, including criminal justice reform and voting rights.
“I want to hit the ground running to address making sure the ban on affirmative action doesn’t have the type of negative consequences that the radical Republican agenda has actively tried to seek out in regards to our community,” said Moore.
In addition, “Making sure we’re reforming our police practices and making sure that we have criminal justice reform,” he added.
The social justice attorney said, “It’s disappointing” that members of Congress faced challenges in their attempts to pass legislation on gun reform and to address police brutality.
“But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep on trying,” he argued. “We need police reform, and we need legislation to restrict gun violence in our communities.”
“I think we need new leadership in place to help re-energize our communities, to get behind these legislative pushes…and build stronger coalitions to fight for these pieces of legislation,” he continued.
Moore is an alumnus of Morehouse College, a private all-male historically Black college in Atlanta. He did not originally plan to attend college; however, a Morehouse recruiter convinced him otherwise.
“I decided to go to Morehouse College just based off of the sense of community that I saw there,” he recalled. “I was really just persuaded by the long stride legacy of Black intellectual excellence.”
Moore wanted to further his education and obtained a juris doctor from Dallas Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
“I decided to go home for law school because my brother had come home from Atlanta due to his mental illness, and I wanted to be close to him to help my parents with his transition back home,” he shared.
The same day Moore received his license to be an attorney, his brother died by suicide. “His death and his life were the reason why I began doing civil rights work,” he shared. “Once I am in Congress, I will continue that life of service that I committed myself to.”
Moore said that constituents living in Texas’ 32nd Congressional District will “get a fully committed servant” and “someone that will actively fight for their rights each and every day I’m representing them in Congress.”
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