Charlotte Kelly is a queer, fourth generation Somerville renter and community organizer running for City Council At-Large. She is running to make sure community voices can shape a Somerville that works for all of us.
At UMass Amherst, Charlotte was a student activist involved in the Student Labor Action Project, Coalition to End Rape Culture, and UMass Fossil Fuel Divestment, helping to make UMass the first public university system in the country to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. The burden of the student debt she took on to pay for her education drove her to fight to make public college free. This led her to advocacy work in the Massachusetts State House with the Center for Education Policy and Advocacy and electoral work as field director for Senator Pat Jehlen’s 2016 campaign.
After helping to reelect our progressive champion to the State Senate, she moved to Copenhagen, Denmark to work on a master’s degree. While demands for universal public goods are treated as unrealistic by establishment figures, Charlotte saw first-hand that another way of living is possible where people can have access to social housing, free medical care, living wages, and good public services.
Together, we won more than $1.5 billion dollars in state funding for public schools across Massachusetts, leaving an unprecedented impact on a generation of students, particularly low-income cities, communities of color, English language learners, and special education students.
Charlotte became the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, at 23 years old after years of fighting for education justice. She built and led the statewide coalition that brought together parents, students, and educators to fight for more equitable public schools and colleges. Together, they won more than $1.5 billion dollars in state funding for K-12 schools across Massachusetts, leaving an unprecedented impact on a generation of students, particularly low-income cities, communities of color, English language learners, and special education students.
As a socialist, Charlotte understands that budgets are a reflection of our values. She is currently organizing with neighbors and members of our community who have experienced violence at the hands of the police. Somerville has directed more funding toward expanding policing instead of addressing systemic racism and economic inequity for decades. Charlotte has fought for an investment in public services that are accessible, life-affirming, and work toward structural change.
Throughout her life, Charlotte has been politicized by our relationship to power: who has it, what decisions they make with it, and who is left out. Navigating the world of politics as a queer young woman, she has experienced how people are pushed out of political processes. She has seen her community rapidly transform and push out other renters who have long called Somerville home. She has learned how bureaucracy can be used as a barrier to people’s self-determination. She has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with workers and frontline communities to take on the crises of our time - privatization, police brutality, and climate change.
We can do things differently. We can have more affordable and public housing, invest in our schools, make public transportation free, and create good union jobs in the process. Charlotte knows that bringing people together to fight for solutions can be truly transformative, not just for ourselves but for our communities, and that’s exactly what she will do as your Somerville City Councilor.
