At the eleventh hour, last night civil rights activists and Black Lives Matters member, DeRay Mckesson decided to run for Mayor of Baltimore. Minutes before the 9pm deadline he became the 13th Democratic candidate to run in the primaries.

My fondest memory of Mckesson was during the Baltimore protests over the murder of Freddie Gray, when a CNN host tried to paint the protestors as violent vigilantes and Mckesson owned him in the most professional and articulate way I have ever seen. “…You are making comparisons, you are suggesting the idea that broken windows are worse than broken spines…” He eloquently shut the host down. So I’m obviously excited about his candidacy.

Because there are so many Democratic candidates, just a few votes could be the difference between a victory and a loss. The Democratic front runner, Sheila Dixon, said she has never heard of Mckesson and had no time for distractions.

The primary election will be April 26th giving Mckesson a little less than 3 months to get his campaign going and convenience the Baltimore community to vote for him. Mckesson can probably steal a large portion of the youth vote but other may be an uphill battle. For me, it’s excited to see a candidate that isn’t afraid to get his hands and get in the trenches with his people and fight for what’s right. Let’s hope the majority of the Baltimore community feels the same way.