Tanisha was born in Boston and raised in Brockton. After attending Thayer Academy in Braintree, she graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Government. “She then attended Boston College where she obtained both her J.D. and M.B.A. Tanisha has practiced law in large firms and life sciences companies in Greater Boston and New York City.” (“Meet Tanisha – Tanisha Sullivan”)
Tanisha’s family has deep roots in Massachusetts. Her father was born and raised in Boston and spent his career working in the Boston Public Schools, retiring in 2014 as the school leader at the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. Tanisha’s mother was born in Boston and moved to Mansfield at an early age. She spent several years working in media before opening her small business – a home daycare system- and helping connect and amplify Black-owned businesses across New England as the publisher of the Black Pages of New England in print and online.
“Following her parents’ example, Tanisha’s life’s work has been focused on service, equity, and impact.” (“Meet Tanisha – Tanisha Sullivan”) In 2017, Tanisha was elected to serve as President of the NAACP Boston in a volunteer capacity.
Sullivan told the Metro Record that she is a business lawyer who always thought when she went to law school that she was going to be a litigator because she loved watching reruns of Perry Mason and Matlock. She said, I thought that was lawyering; and that is what I wanted to do. Then I went to law school and received an internship and was exposed to business law and transactional law, and it opened the door to possibilities in terms of what we can do as lawyers. We could help empower entrepreneurs, and small business owners like my mom. I learned that we could help to shape economic opportunity, and so I became a business lawyer now in my 20th year of practice.
Along the way, I have had the opportunity to work in the Boston Public Schools and in 2013, I became the inaugural Chief equity officer for the Boston Public Schools. That was not in the life plan, but it was an opportunity to go into the district and help to transform its educational equity work from being compliant centered to empowerment centered. I did that Work for two years. Established that office and then went back into the private law practice.
Sullivan says she always sought out opportunities to serve. Most recently, she served as the President of the NAACP in Boston, a branch with a rich history and legacy for fighting for racial justice and equal opportunity. Sullivan says she is proud that she has had the opportunity to work with community leaders, elected officials, and other community stakeholders to help advance educational opportunity, economic opportunity, health Equity, public safety and voting rights.
All of that, she says, brings her to this moment and this decision to run for Secretary of State.
Why Secretary of State?
The office of Secretary of State is one of those offices that not a whole lot of people know much about but use regularly. It is the chief Information office and so if you want to know what is going on in government, this is the office that can help ensure you have access to public information.
It is the place you must go if you want to start a business. You must go through the Secretary of State’s office if you want to start a non-profit. You must go through the Secretary of State’s Office if you have a 401K or a pension. The Secretary of State has securities regulatory responsibility. This office touches so many points of our lives, and yet, many of us do not know much about it, and that, is by design.
I want to change that! I believe that this office; the office of the Secretary of State, one of the most important offices in our government needs to be more proactive, needs to be more present. This office must take an active role in helping to increase voter participation.
It must take an active role in ensuring that we have that our public schools have access to civics education and that our communities have access to all the information they need so that people can not only hold the government accountable but so that people know how we can take part in government.
This office has a significant role to play, especially right now in helping to stabilize our economy.
This is the office, if you are a business, you go there to register or file reports and pay fees. It is very transactional in nature right now; I believe that the Office should be a gateway to opportunity.
Especially for small businesses, having to navigate the matrix, that is state government to gain access to the resources you need can be a hindrance to your success, so I believe that this office very simply should have links on its website to connect veteran-owned businesses to the Supplier Diversity Office, for example, or to connect businesses to the local Nonprofits in their communities that are receiving funds to help with Technical Support.
This office could be and should be more engaged, and that is what I am looking forward to doing through the office. It will be a transformation.
Examples of the changes she plans to make
This is important, let me give the example within the business space, oftentimes we hear about equity in education, but I want to give this example to illustrate this point through the business space.
Here in Massachusetts, we are the most expensive state in the country to start a business, that is one, two – in Massachusetts, when you go to register your business with the Secretary of State’s office. The small coffee shop – Main Street coffee shop – pays the same fee to be an LLC as Dunkin’ Donuts. The same fee! That is equality. Everybody is paying the same. I happen to believe that the small Main St. Coffee shop should not have to pay the same fees as now the global entity known as Dunkin’ Donuts.
It Is about equity; equity says that the small Main Street coffee shop needs more support to get started; That the small Main Street coffee shop does not have a Whole lot of financial resources out the gate and so. Let us make sure that that entity is not hindered from getting started or staying open because of fees paid to the government. Whereas Dunkin’ Donuts is another Massachusetts-based company that we are immensely proud of. You know has done well and might be able to pay a little bit more.
So, equity says we treat each of these businesses in accordance with what they need and what they can do. So, in the business space, I do want to bring some fee structure equity to this work.
I also want to share, that that is not easy. It is a whole lot easier to say everybody just pays the same fee and figures it out. I am not talking about what is easy, I am talking about what is fair, I am talking about what is right. I am talking about what can create and can open more opportunities for more small businesses because small businesses are the backbone of our communities.
They hire local people, and small businesses in our communities helped to make our community safer. They are incredibly good community members. They sponsor the little leagues and the soccer teams. They are anchors. And the stronger your small business community is, the stronger your democracy is.
That is the interest of the Secretary of State’s office, that is the interest that I have as a candidate for Secretary of State, I am not looking for the easy. I am looking to do the tough work of democracy to ensure that we all have access to opportunity.
how do we convince folks who live in affluent communities to buy into what you are looking to change?
I am proud of the fact That in June the Massachusetts Democratic Party endorsed me in this race for Secretary of State, and they endorsed me over the 27-year incumbent, and we did not just win the endorsement, we obtained 62.4% of the Democratic Party vote.
To get a supermajority vote like that, you have you must have a vision and a message that resonates across communities, across demographic groups. You must have a message that connects with people as a whole and that is what we have.
there is an interest, an active interest across the Commonwealth in really tackling economic inequality, even for people who themselves might not be experiencing economic hardship.
There is a real concern across Massachusetts for the fact that we are struggling with the housing crisis. we have real food insecurity in Massachusetts. We have a transportation crisis;
I hear that all the time here in Western mass.
When you think about the office of the Secretary of State, from my perspective, this office needs to be looking for ways seeking ways to help tackle some of these issues. That matters in Longmeadow like it matters in Wellesley as it matters in Worcester and Lawrence.
When we are talking about economic opportunity and building up our small business community, and our community of entrepreneurs, that resonates across demographic groups.
Because what we are talking about is empowering people in a way that allows them to have some Economic freedom and build capacity. When we talk about increasing voter participation even in communities that experience higher rates of voter participation, that matters because there is an understanding that we need more people voting who believe that this country Should work for all of us.
So, increasing voter participation means that more people will be voting, and the more people voting means the greater the opportunity for us to elect more people who will not just talk about the Values of freedom, justice, and equality for all people, but are going to work to ensure that we are delivering on freedom justice and equality for all people.
Have people embraced your vision?
I am honored that we got the Endorsement, but I am struck by how the vision I have for this office is not just a vision for people of color, women, or folks in eastern Massachusetts, this is a vision that is truly about the Commonwealth as a whole, and people are catching it.
You have Spent much of your time in Western Massachusetts, which is unusual for Eastern Mass politicians, why is Western Mass this important to you?
I am running for statewide office, and I truly am running to represent the entire Commonwealth, and I want this campaign to be Reflective of the Type of leader I am and the type of leadership I am going to Bring to that office. It was important to me that we make a deep Investment in Western Mass, not just by me showing up, but by having Lezlie Braxton here, he is on the team, and he has been on the team from the beginning.
One of the things that I am learning, especially as I am in Western Is just unfortunately how Disconnected, we have been as a Commonwealth, and I think that The Secretary of State Has to play an active role and bringing us together.
This is the Chief democracy office That’s what I call it! There’s some responsibility That comes with that and responsibility that To help be The glue That connects our Commonwealth holds us together, certainly working in partnership with the other Constitutional officers and other elected officers, but being that heartbeat in the democracy And that requires that I am present not just here in Western mass, but I’m also on the South Coast that I am You know, on the North Shore up You know, as much as I am well I live in Boston So can be as much as I am In Boston, but You know what I mean, you know.
Will you return to Western Ma and help to create that East / West Bridge once you win?
I want to be the Secretary of State who helps to build that bridge. The way that it will show up in my administration is by putting democracy into action. I do not believe you can be effective in our democracy and advancing our democracy from an office building sitting behind a desk in an armchair. Democracy work is community-driven work, so I will push the office out of its four walls and into our communities. We will have a greater presence. Physical presence in communities across the Commonwealth.
We will be looking for opportunities to partner with municipal elected officials, Community local community-based organizations, and stakeholders to partner so that we can help to build relationships that will not only impact voter participation but will also help us with our census count. This will also help us you know Ensure that our communities are better educated about how government works and the role that we can play in it, this will be when there is a Secretary Sullivan, this will be in an office that you would know about.
I am a leader who is led by people and for that to be the case, you must be with the people, and yes, that means rolling up my sleeves and working right alongside our community.
I think it will be important for this office to be judicious in how we lean in to provide support. One of the most powerful aspects of the American democracy is the local municipalities.
I want to make sure that this office is not coming in to do the work or to direct the work but showing up in partnership to help clear pathways for the work that the communities are trying to do. Our goal is to use the power and authority of this office to clear roadblocks and to work alongside others as the Commonwealth works to move forward.
