From Kesha for Vermont:

Kesha has spent a lifetime speaking truth to power and ensuring that progress leaves no one behind.

In her decade as a legislator, Kesha made her name by co-governing with the people, bringing the voices, stories, and vision of Vermonters to the halls of power. She has built broad, diverse coalitions and worked alongside movements for equity and justice, often when it wasn’t popular or easy. She was an early advocate of urgently addressing climate change and transitioning to a green economy. Kesha has led on creating homeownership opportunities, advancing paid family and medical leave, expanding early and higher education opportunities, and reforming our broken criminal justice system. Her frontline experiences as the Head Start Advocate for an early learning center and then as the Legal Advocacy Director for Steps to End Domestic Violence were deeply intertwined with her work in legislature fighting for vulnerable families.

Kesha has always lifted up others and built a pipeline for the next generation of leaders. She is a founder of Emerge Vermont and the Bright Leadership Institute, supporting women, people of color, and young people to represent their communities. While serving on the boards of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and the Vermont Natural Resources Council, Kesha advanced the interconnected fight for health equity, abortion justice, and environmental protection.

In 2020, she made history again as the first woman of color ever elected to the Vermont State Senate. There, Kesha has used her deep legislative background to support Vermont’s working families and advance climate action. She has fought for universal health care, funding teachers’ and state workers’ pensions, access to the ballot box, abortion justice, and recovery dollars for unemployed Vermonters and small businesses.