Some Thoughts on Being Blocked from the Ballot

Friends,

I am not going to lie, it's more than a little frustrating to have my actions from 18 years ago used against me today.

I have never tried to hide the fact that when I was 18 I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. By 20 I was arrested for possession of crystal meth. I was sentenced to 2 years felony probation plus a concurrent prison sentence. Between 2005 and 2008 I bounced back and forth between state institutions until I finally got the message and was released in October 2008. Altogether I did 18 months behind bars. I finished parole June 2009.

It was behind bars that I discovered the power of prayer and meditation. It is in that horrible place filled with fear and anger that I chose to begin my healing journey. I turned my life around.

Since then the only time I have had any interactions with the police have been in the pursuit of my activism and journalism. I stand by every single one of those incidents.

I regularly receive support from people all over the world for my story. I am humbled and grateful for such support.

This is what makes it all the more frustrating that the City of Houston is blocking my ballot application to complete my run for Mayor of Houston. They are using my non-violent felony from 18 years ago to say that I can't run. The city is using a legal opinion from currently indicted Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to say that felons do not get the right to run for office once completing parole.

According to his 2019 legal opinion, "felons" like me do not get the "right" to run for office without a pardon from the Governor (extremely unlikely) or judicial clemency. But the state also claims that when you are released from prison or off parole you only have 30 days to apply for such clemency. If you don't do it in that period or receive a pardon you are subject to exclusion for the rest of your life.

It's bullshit.

Nonetheless, I am not giving up. I will not let their rigged system and their judgement of my life stop me.

The deadline to be on the ballot is tomorrow, Monday the 21st, at 5 pm. Tomorrow morning my lawyer is going to call the City Attorney again to see what he can get done. I will also be attending the City Council special session at 1:30 tomorrow to plead my case.

I need your help too. I need you to call the City Attorney and Mayors office and politely tell them I should be allowed to complete my run for Mayor. Let them know that you want to hear what I have to say.

Thank you for believing in me and to those who understand why I am even making this effort. I care so deeply about reaching people in my own community and helping them find their way to the rest of my work so they might see the bigger picture.

- Derrick Broze

P.S. - I just want to add that I don't think I should have ever gone to prison for drug possession. Crystal meth is a horribly destructive substance and has no redeeming qualities. As a former addict born into a family with other addicts, I also understand the havoc it wreaks on families. Still, I know that I had emotional and mental health issues that I was medicating with drugs and alcohol. I needed help with those issues.

Throwing me in a cage was not a solution and does not help rehabilitate. I am the exception not the norm when it comes to turning your life around. The sooner we recognize how key healing trauma is to recovery we will be able to address the root causes of drug abuse.