Samuel L. Cooper

I was born on August 25th of 1986 in a small town in Pennington Gap, VA.  I was born prematurely at 6 months, weighing two pounds and two ounces.  I had to be flown via helicopter to the University of Knoxville in Tennessee, as Lee County Memorial Hospital was not equipped to handle neonatal intensive care.  I would spend the next 6 months of my life at the NICU, there were several times that the medical staff were unsure if I would survive, they were so certain one evening that they phoned my mother and family with what they believed was an outcome that looked very bad.  My mother and family came that evening to say their goodbyes, however, the next morning the doctor phoned my mother to let her know, against all odds, I was still fighting and not giving up.  Once I was finally able to come home, I would spend the next few months on a heart monitoring system that I know woke my mother up many nights, she even told me that sometimes she would wake up and check on me just to make sure I was still breathing.  In 1989 my parents split up and she made the best choice in leaving him and taking my siblings and I to Noblesville, IN.

I would attend public schools in Noblesville IN, from grade school to high school.  I remember my very first job, Burger King, located on Cherry Street, it was shortly after my 14th birthday, which meant I had to apply for and obtain a work permit.  I was not born into wealth, as my mother would ultimately raise my sister and I as a single mother.  I took college classes at Ivy Tech and IUPUI.  I currently reside in Fishers, IN. You may have even seen me dropping food off at your home as I am an Uber driver as I recently left working for MOHELA, a student loan servicer, because whilst the pay was good, I could not reconcile the job with my own personal beliefs on how student loans work in America.

I urge all of you to join this fight for our freedoms, our rights and our liberty.  This campaign is for all of us, from all walks of life, all beliefs of faith or , for all Hoosiers.   We might feel defeated; we may think all hope is lost but we cannot give up this fight, for all our futures and the futures of those yet to come depend on us, and we can’t afford to fail.