USI’s assistant director of the multicultural center officially entered the race for the 2nd ward seat on Evansville’s city council Monday.

D’Angelo S. Taylor is challenging longtime incumbent city councilwoman Missy Mosby in the Democratic primaries in May.

Taylor has run for political office before. He was a candidate for mayor of the City of Macomb, Ill., but lost to Michael J. Inman in the nonpartisan election.

Taylor told The Shield in September 2018 the people of the 2nd ward have been neglected in many ways because of politics in general.

“We have folks trying to gain favor in certain places of the city, and that has led to many, many bad issues,” he said. “For one the raising of taxes, the person who I am running against has had a hand in that, a hand in not trying to fund affordable housing. We have a housing crisis here in the city.”

His platform is focused on expanding Evansville’s affordable housing.

“People cannot afford to live in the city, and not because they don’t have a job. These are senior citizens who have worked their entire life,” he said. “Social security is supposed to be set, it is supposed to cover your monthly expenses, and they can’t cover them because the properties are too high in rent. If they aren’t too high in rent, let’s say they have a home, well, the Vectren bills are very high even though they are talking about a monthly decrease.”

After doing soul-searching, Taylor said right now felt like a good time to throw his hat into the political fray.

“People tend to dig into your personal life, your past and everything I have done. That’s okay with me,” he said. “The reason I ran was that I feel like folks do not have a voice. When you have someone to provide that voice for you and they don’t, it’s a situation where you have to say, do I want to step up and do this and you know take this chance and help the greater good or do I want to sit back and say that’s not my problem, and let someone else fix it.”

Missy Mosby, a real estate agent, plans to file for the primary next week.