{A Hope In the Unseen} :: Willow Ann's Candidate Speech

She stands in front of the microphone and looks—her son is in the first row, next to his little cousin Joshua. A stream of faces, some familiar but most not. She gathers herself in the feedback of the microphone, closes her eyes, and takes a breath.

“I grew up in a house that taught me it was hard work that put food on the table, and it was love that made sure we did best by each other. It’s the same reason why I got in this race, even if my name don’t exactly strike you as familiar. When a woman can give back to make not just her own future—but her kid’s and her district’s and all of yours—she ought to do it.” She loved District Ten, and she could only smile when she thought of getting a chance to make it better.

“We all know we ain’t a rich district. Folks do their best to live on half and get by on a quarter. This past winter, my son took ill with a fever that took his hearing in his left ear. There weren’t doctors to help him, and it was faith and sleepless, hungry nights that helped him pull through. And I know I ain’t the only one that’s had hard times. Now, I don’t pretend to know anyone else’s business, but if the least I could do is make one person’s life better, I intend on it.”

“When I was a girl, my momma used to always tell me—When fear or despair whispers, you have to silence it with love.” She looks out again to the crowd and smiles. That she could only make their lives better, that would be enough.

“I’m asking for you to take the chance on me so that you don’t have to go to bed wonderin’ about how little you have left in your cupboard. Or that when there’s a knock on your door, your first thought isn’t about whether or not someone’s passed. As your Mayor, I’ll work to find solutions that don’t just work, but work for all of us.”

“I don’t rightly know Mr. Fowley or Mr. Emberstatt, and I think that they would be fine Mayors. Anyone that wants to make District Ten a better place deserves a shot. However, I want to ask you to look deep inside yourselves and asks yourselves: who is going to help you build a better tomorrow?”

“We may be short on a lot of things, but I can promise one thing that I’ll never run out of, and that’s hope. We’ve always known that it’s hope that pushes us forward, and hope that makes us go the distance. Hope that’s brought back our victors. And it’s hope that let us believe that what may have been impossible for you or me, is going to be the ordinary and usual for our children.”

“Thank you for the chance to represent all of you. I know no matter the outcome, together we’re going to build a better place for all of us.” Whether she won or lost would be up to the public, but at the least she could say she gave it her all.