Even before the Latino vote was crucial to elections, Hillary held the first ever White House convening on Hispanic youth as First Lady. She’s fought for early childhood education so that a kid like me, growing up in the public school system, doesn’t fall behind before she even gets the chance to begin. She’s defended school lunch programs so that a kid like me, dependent on those programs for her mid-day meal, doesn’t sit distracted by hunger pangs as she tries to focus on her math problems.

Maybe Hillary’s my kind of bad-ass because she wastes no time licking wounds. When she lost the presidential nomination to Obama in ‘08, she immediately urged her supporters to back him with grace and without reservation. When President Obama called her to serve his administration as Secretary of State, she answered.

Even further back, when her push for healthcare reform failed in 1994, she didn’t run and hide in shame or wallow in defeat. She got right back to working with Democrats and Republicans to bring healthcare to 8 million uninsured children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program, so that a mother like mine, raising 6 kids on a single income, didn’t have to choose between a trip to the doctor’s office with one sick kid or a week’s worth of groceries for the whole family.