Lucy Flores. Photo by Naj Jamai for Elle.

Politicians love to tout their humble beginnings, but Lucy Flores’ are of a different order altogether—and her commitment to springing people from the trap of urban poverty that much greater.

Flores urges everyone to tweet about her fundraiser—a Cinco de Mayo party featuring hot street tacos and beer—at #FiestaForFlores. She tells how her father brought his family to Vegas after his two eldest sons were killed in gang violence in Los Angeles, how her dad loves music and she does too, which is a good thing because it was one of the only positive outlets she had growing up. “I was a very, very bad kid,” she says.

Then she lays into her first song. It’s “Por un Amor”—and there are no pinstripes, no flag pins, no corn dogs, just the six-member Mariachi de Mexico band fronted by a beautiful 34-year-old woman in a black dress that hits well above her knees, in sky-high stacked heels, a green tattoo on her ankle, her body trembling with vibrato:

Por un amor he llorado gotitas de sangre del corazón…

“Gracias!” shouts Flores four songs later, before stepping down from the stage to do the more traditional political work of pressing the flesh, of introducing herself to her constituency.

[…]

Sitting in the back of the police cruiser after the arrest for assaulting her mother, Flores thought she’d reached one of those ends: “It was over. I’d tried.” But to her shock, her parole officer recommended that instead of throwing the girl back in jail, the judge remand her to her father. “The thing about Lucy is that I felt like she was listening to me,” says that parole officer, Leslie Camp, by phone. “Lucy was trying to do the right thing, and I told her as much: ‘You’re making some mistakes, doing things you shouldn’t be doing, but it’s really not you.’” The two remain in touch, and Camp says that despite being a staunch Republican, she’ll be voting for her ex-parolee in November because she knows that “her heart’s in the right place.”

[…]

I would vote for her just because she sings Mariachi, but oh my goodness, read the rest of her story! Lucy Flores - Gang Girl to Governor - Elle

Here is her campaign website.

Here’s a little something from her Twitter account, in case you want to follow her:

Seen the Sept issue of @ELLEmagazine? U’ll find me in there. Wonderful to work w/ the incredibly talented @rtraister. http://t.co/ibSe9aNTMF

— Lucy Flores (@LucyFlores) August 28, 2014