Excerpts from Ruth Fortune’s interview with Brian Shactman:

On Immigration:

“Many of the immigrants who choose to come here in search of opportunity. They are the most innovative, ambitious, hard-working people, and that's why we see, statistically, immigrants open more small businesses. Immigrants will work really hard. We will walk barefoot on hot coals, if that means through that path, we'll get to our dreams. And that's what my family has done. 

And we're at a point now where we are penalizing and demonizing immigrants simply because Trump needs a scapegoat. He needs someone to blame for the things that the government has failed to provide . . . When the rule of law ceases to apply to a certain group of people, Trump can redefine who those people are and include anyone he wants in the future.”

On Elevating the Working Class by Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage to $25 per Hour:

“But ultimately, what's happening right now is that the working poor and working people are subsidizing corporate profits. So many of the problems that we face are because working people are not earning enough money. 

The reason we have tens of millions of people in SNAP benefits, the majority of whom are working, is because they're not earning enough money. 

Actually let people earn enough to live with dignity and choose how to spend that money themselves and build wealth for their own families, that is empowering people, that is incentivizing people to work, because it's making working worthwhile for people.”

On Why She Is Running:

“I think people are fed up with the status quo. They see that what we've been doing is not working. I was the first to enter this race precisely for that reason.”

On Moving the Connecticut Democratic Party Forward:

“I mean, specifically in Connecticut, what the Democratic Party needs to do is understand that their roles as democratic town committee members or delegates at the convention, it is not to close ranks or rubber-stamp candidates. It is to allow for robust primaries. There are four of us in this race, and the truth is this will be, historically, the first time that at a convention, anyone other than an incumbent may get on the ballot.

“It is time that the people who are hard-working volunteers in the party understand that they serve as gatekeepers. To a great extent, what they need to do is open opportunities to candidates who are fighting because more candidates mean more voter engagement, better turnout, and engaging all of us in robust discussion about how do we take on the issues that have been plaguing us for so many years.”