“One of the equalizers of the inequities is money, and how much it costs to run for office,” now New York Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz told me. “Not just the campaign itself, but on a personal level. You have to quit working. You have to hope that somehow you have enough savings, and if you don’t, you’re going to go into debt. And if you get into debt, you better hope that you are going to make enough money once you get elected, or actually get elected, so that you can pay off that debt.” She shook her head. Even months into the campaign, this level of vulnerability, coupled with the fact that she was relying on her husband for financial support, made her visibly uncomfortable. She’d been working since she was 14 years old. Counting on someone else to pay the bills wasn’t only foreign to Cruz, it warped the way she saw herself — a necessary, but unwelcome twist in her personal narrative.