Transcript
Speaker: We are off. All right. The perfunctory podcast. We have an emergency podcast. We're actually excited about this. have Adrian Alexander. You go by Dree. Is it fair to call you Dree on the podcast? We're friends. All right.
Speaker: Awesome. Senator Durbin announced he's not running again today. And then right before he sat down, Schakowsky announced, congresswoman Jan Schakowsky announced he wasn't running again.
Speaker: Exciting times. yeah What is your like initial visceral reaction? Initial reaction is I'm a voter in a Representative Chakowsky's district and it's going to be an exciting time. Two really big races.
Speaker: um Also, like no shortage of good candidates, which is a good problem to have. It's... it's It's going to be a lot of dominoes, you know, right? Because some of the folks who will inevitably run for both of these seats may not be able to maintain their current seats if they have them.
Speaker: And then that'll create some more openings or, you know, we'll get people from out of nowhere that we didn't know to expect. And that's exciting too. So, yeah. Similarly situated, older incumbents, where there was about now a month of activity of people quietly and trying elegantly, but not so elegantly to edge them out. Yeah.
Speaker: How did that hit your gut? Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. We'll talk more about like my day job, but think being in labor, it it also feels like there is just this moment where there's a lot of change happening.
Speaker: And this year I had my first like mentor-mentee situation where i was a mentor. So I feel like I'm like at the point in my career, 15 years in where it feels like,
Speaker: People I know are now in leadership of different organizations. And I didn't expect it to be like this year, but it felt like, wow, it's coming. And with these two retirements today, and it's definitely the moment is here where people around my age are going to be stepping up.
Speaker: For sure. and that was, i think, partly a result of 24 having no statewide races. Yeah, yeah. There was this, like, static, everybody was locked into wherever they were, and now 26 was just over the horizon, and petitions out on the street in July this year.
Speaker: The cycle starts in, what, three months, which is also insane. i I think it's worth like pondering both of their legacies a little bit. like Senator Durbin, judiciary,
Speaker: you know the lead house Senate Democrat on judiciary, Jan Schakowsky's held that seat for however long. It's really going to be weird. and It's going to be a weird Illinois political scene without both of them. Not to mention who else may be coming down the road.
Speaker: and not just Illinois, because I'll say not being from here, I knew both of those names before I got to Illinois. And you know they've played prominent roles in different things nationally and Durbin, for example, and the DREAM Act and, you know, that fight before, you know, DACA and before it was assumed that that was a reasonable way for things to go.
Speaker: So they've been icons and kind of progressive movement, staunch labor allies. So, yeah, it's not just Illinois. And Durbin's role in Senate leadership, obviously, will have ripple effects as well.
Speaker: One evolved from a downstate Democrat, yup pro-life to pro-choice candidate. The other was always a liberal, progressive stalwart on the North Shore of Chicago.
Speaker: did you feel like, Greg Hines, right before we sat down, wrote this like, piece about how this is going to be the most generational shift in Illinois politics he's seen in his lifetime or some sort of like long span.
Speaker: At first I was like, it's a little bit hyper hyperbolic, but I'm like, man, I don't know. baby Maybe we are in the midst of what will ultimately be the most realigned political scene we've you and I have seen yeah and I think it's also worth noting we're talking about this particular cycle but really just even looking at what's happened in the past I think all of the state leaders and state government basically legislative leaders and the governor the past 10 years have completely changed over we've had multiple mayors of Chicago in that time so there's a lot of political change that's happened in a short time
Speaker: Let's do a little handicapping. yeah I don't want to put you in a bad spot, but we're on a podcast and it's fun to put people in awkward spots sometimes. um Senate race first.
Speaker: It feels like ah three or four persons of color. Yeah. with Women. a number of women. Black women. A number black women with a ah Pacific Island Asian AAPAC candidate in the mix.
Speaker: Not AAPAC. He's not AAPAC? Well, what's the what's the acronym? AAPI. I apologize. That's a bad mistake. AAPI. We'll cut that out on the podcast. AAPI. I apologize.
Speaker: um what do you do you feel like that will be the field or will someone decide there's a lane because illinois is tribal state yeah yeah um there'll be a lane for a white candidate yeah uh yeah i mean i think there's been some talk about white men that are looking at it but um we know We feel it need to be heard, Jane. We're the left behind demographic. Well, everyone's saying.
Speaker: So I think that, i I do think that it will be important to see, like, do all the black women that are thinking about it get in? um If black women being kind of the base of the Democratic primary vote, if that vote is fractured, then yeah, I do think other people will be more likely to say, Yeah, that makes sense. um and Money is, of course, a question.
Speaker: President Christian Murthy has a lot of it. There's the question about whether the governor is going to get behind his lieutenant governor in a big way and what that looks like.
Speaker: So there's a lot of factors. I didn't mean to interrupt. Do you see the advantage of her running on JB's platform as opposed to congressional candidates? ah Incumbent congresswoman running on the national, they're na they're having to run on their national votes.
Speaker: um I honestly, I think that the governor has made such a big deal of fighting on the national field that it doesn't, it doesn't put her at a disadvantage.
Speaker: And just, you know, knowing the lieutenant governor since her state house days and being really, really involved in that first campaign.
Speaker: And she's very personable and has her own story to tell as well. so you know I think part of the reason that he picked her was because she was such a good retail politician, right? so And she's battle-tested.
Speaker: That Duncan race, like, that was not an insignificant um measure of a candidate's medal. Yeah, yeah. um And then you live in Congresswoman Chikowsky's district, so i give us the front row view there. no I mean, I think there's a number of elected officials that everyone thinks will probably get in and all of them, I would say, are have a space to run on a progressive mantle and continuing that legacy that she has. Then we already have the
Speaker: woman that's like internet famous and doesn't live in the district yet um but has been generating a lot of press you know um and i'm sure that there will be other people that haven't um yet i mean i don't think that it'll be just left to electeds in the district and i think there's going to have to be a lot of people that really decide what they want to do whether they're willing to risk a seat or you know um
Speaker: you know, but what direction they want to go in because obviously everybody's not going win and you know, what are, are there going to be other places to go after this if you're in the 9th district?
Speaker: I don't You know, I don't know. Going back to my earlier question about, forgot the person's name, the like progressive like influencer. something. i mean I always say I'm interested on this podcast. I've learned I've got to i've got to shuffle up my verbal cues.
Speaker: i don't I don't know the degree to which you have an inside look at Congressman Tchaikovsky's for psychology on that but what I could envision happening is the first person out of the gate made her political team realize that hey like you know maybe they put a pole in the field maybe they saw maybe anecdotally they saw things that they didn't like and That is a little – it's going to be a little halting for other incumbents, other congressional incumbents who are up in age.
Speaker: People are going to be motivated to start announcing against incumbents because it's going to drive the outcome that's desired. And i wonder if you think that's a healthy thing.
Speaker: um Well, I'll say about Schutkowski specifically, I'm not sure um' not sure if that would been the case here in that um she didn't live in the district.
Speaker: and I mean, I think it's mainly driven by outside press coverage as opposed to people in the district with connections.
Speaker: However... If you look at Danny Davis, Representative Davis, who when Keena Collins ran the first time, that would that would have been kind of an analogous situation. Right. He hadn't had that level of competitive primary. Everybody kind of like brushed it off a little bit. And she came close considering the.
Speaker: the amount of money and you know no or not much institutional support then it's like okay everyone's like okay well there's there's an opening there and he's another person that's up in age and we'll have to consider whether he wants to go through that again because I suspect that they're not gonna let up Rich Rich Miller from CapFax he covered it he's covered it in that respect of like Okay, you may not be willing to come right out and challenge an incumbent, especially an incumbent you have a tight relationship with or you've known throughout the years, but it forces you to start making calls that you otherwise would not have made to say, well, hey, you know, this gets if this goes sideways in a hurry, we have to be ready.
Speaker: That level of activity sets off alarm bells. And then, you know, it's just – This is a new way of doing things that I think is going to have longer-term effects than people realize.
Speaker: Do you anticipate any more big 26 changes outside of congressional? I have not heard of any thing, I don't i don't know.
Speaker: i think you know it'll be it'll be interesting. There's also, you know we haven't talked about, there's cook county stuff and like so i i really do think it'll be about the dominoes um i think everyone everyone expects representative krishnamoorthy to to run what happens with his seat there's been i think a little more talk and maybe it's just because i live in the district about shakowsky's seat um with her age frankly um you know people have been more talking about
Speaker: preparation for whenever that day comes, but no one's talking about Representative Krishnamoorthy and when he vacates in that way because he's not older but now that there's a Senate seat that will inevitably create an opening and there's plenty of qualified good electeds in that area as well that may want to fight it out and that too could have implications. And Congresswoman Underwood. Yeah, that too. Absolutely. Like that that area of growth in the state? I mean... and it goes not just like in...
Speaker: the northwest or in western suburbs, but all the way into Will County now, too. Right. right so if she would If she were to vacate and choose to run for the Senate, whoever would choose to run for that congressional district, if they wanted to make a career of Congress, with that kind of, the way the population shifts are happening in Illinois, they're they're set for life.
Speaker: Is there a set for life? That's a good point. That's a good point. You're right. youre have done My whole theme so far is nothing's permanent and you you put me in my place. That's a good point. I am going to switch gears a little bit to what we thought we were going to talk about, which was a little bit of conversation about Catholicism and the Pope and all that because I read your tweets all the time and I'm a semi-practicing Catholic.
Speaker: Yeah. I will say my kids go to Sunday school. i have a daughter in a Catholic high school, but I wish I could say we were like you there every Sunday and abiding. I'm not quite that bad. I'm in the middle. There's an ether.
Speaker: what What I will say is we go to the best part about our kids' Sunday school Old St. Pat's is they put the kids in a classroom, and then they bring the parents up to a gym. There's guy named Terry Nelson Johnson.
Speaker: Shout out to Terry Nelson Johnson. He was a long-time lala um teacher and he does these, like, he does Kairos retreats and he teach he just, the guy is a communicator. He's a modern-day prophet.
Speaker: And he talks about how parent, like, getting in that gym and talking about Catholicism into the lens of a parent is church. That's church. Church is a verb. yeah And he always talks about church is a verb. So it's ah it's a great experience. And you guys travel to Pat's. do. that's Every other Sunday, we we we pilgrimage down to Old St. Pat's, I won't lie and pretend the kids love the idea, but they they do it. They're good sports about it.
Speaker: um And it's funny, Terry Nelson Johnson, one of his anecdotes, he's a great storyteller. One of them is about, and I i tweeted the photo, when Francis first got made Pope, there was a guy with a really bad skin condition who Francis spotted him in the crowd and he acknowledged the fact that that no one would go near this guy because they were afraid to catch what he had. yeah And he ended up embracing him and putting his hands on him.
Speaker: And they asked the guy after, like, what what was that like? And he's like, well, it was, it was he just whispered in my ear that he you know he was with me and he was touching my face. And that was a big deal for me because no one ever touches me.
Speaker: That guy man, that should be the Catholic. He should be the Catholic. He was, but he he was our, his Q rating was so good for the church. Yeah. yeah I said a lot there. How did you feel about his papacy as compared to other papacies? And what are you looking for in another pope?
Speaker: Yeah, so um I think, you know, you talk about this curating. One of my friends who's not institutionally religious maybe would describe herself as spiritual in a very and touch with nature type of way, texted last night was like, this hit me kind of hard and unexpectedly because he was just so good and it was so clear that he was about goodness and clarity.
Speaker: about being good for the world. And that's just so true. I tweeted about, like I had gone through this exercise thinking through what Chicago wants in the next archbishop when we were between George and Cupich. And really, I guess it's important to note, ah grew up in Georgia.
Speaker: i So religion is a part of the culture in Georgia, but Catholicism is not. And so, you know, growing around up around mainly black Protestants, some of whom didn't really know that Catholics were Christian.
Speaker: so amazing It was just a different world. So when I think about Pope John Paul II and the and the kind of like rever that people have for him is not quite the same. um Like my connection through the church was really through my dad who worked for the Archdiocese of Helena. a photographer? He's a photographer for the Catholic newspaper there.
Speaker: So like we, I had a super exposure to all the different individual parishes and like I remember going to like Vietnamese Catholic celebration I worked at a Vietnamese Catholic camp one year because he had just like found out through uh the paper some you know some work they were doing so I i that was my summer job um you know a very active Very diverse parish went there for different events different languages and I taught English in high school at a Catholic mission mainly Mexican immigrants so like all my exposure to the church was like hyper local and ah through Through my dad's work we knew
Speaker: priests, nuns, because like there were people that my dad knew from work. um But it wasn't very connected to the global church in that way.
Speaker: and like what i was talking to my husband. He lived in New York growing up, and Pope John Paul II came in 95, and like that was a pivotal moment for him, like the Pope coming to New York. And I'm like, yeah, don't remember that at all. you know he he John Paul did a, I went to St. Rita High School, which ended up relocating to 79th and Western, which that chapel on that campus is this beautiful postmodern basilica. and He either said mass from the roof or he did a greeting from the roof. There's an iconic photo of him doing that.
Speaker: um What's the oldest Catholic parish in Georgia? do you have a sense of that? Oh, um I think it is the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which is right across from the Georgia State Capitol. Wow. I'm pretty sure that that's right.
Speaker: What is the Catholic population in Georgia? Small but growing. um So, I mean, there's both since 1996, mainly when in the gear up to the Olympics, there was a lot more immigration from other countries, mainly Latin America, mainly Mexico.
Speaker: and And then that kind of helped the Catholic population along. There's a number of African immigrants, Nigerian a mainly that they're also pushing the growing Catholic population and then also migration from the north down to the south that's also.
Speaker: um And then after Katrina, there's a lot of folks from New Orleans that moved to um Atlanta, so like my parish growing up, we had a lot of folks that were, there's there's just like strong connection there anyway. We're like cousins and they there's like always a de decent amount of migration from Louisiana to Georgia, but particularly after Katrina, there was a lot. Did black Protestants think that Catholics was like a cult situation?
Speaker: no It was just like an ignorance, like, you know, you worship Mary. yeah I remember high school boyfriend I went to church with, I was like a pretty, not quite Pentecostal, but further along that spectrum.
Speaker: um And it was like, you know, well where are you visiting from? St. Anthony. And like at a point during the service, he came over and like laid hands. pushed back real hard like you ah so I was just like yeah you need to you need to get right yeah yeah it's it's funny because like I feel like here both it's a it's a mix of moving out of the south but also like socio-economic education like less people are church regular church goers right right um
Speaker: and Yeah, Catholicism isn't a social thing. yeah It should be, yeah but we we go there out of this duty, and it's a box-checking exercise, and and it's not a place for a congregable approach, you know?
Speaker: But now it's like because I grew up in that setting and because I still go to church, it's more like I i think I'm more than most people. I know everybody knows I'm Catholic. Yeah, right. Like I do kind of wear my religion on my sleeve in comparison to everyone else around me. And it it is a really important part of my life.
Speaker: um But it's funny to me that, like, that's kind of how people see me here in the north versus in the south. i it wouldn't have It doesn't count like that.
Speaker: Even though, you know, we were still, there's never been a point in my life where I haven't gone to church every week. That's amazing. You're amazing. you It is really a testament to the parishes that I belong to that yeah that's been the case.
Speaker: There has been, um when when I lived in New Orleans and when I lived in Minnesota, like, the Catholic parish that I went to was not my primary, like, church situation, in that when I was in New Orleans, I was also, like, really involved in this.
Speaker: It was, like, almost a Pentecostal church, but I was... ah volunteering with Honduran em immigrants. it was I lived there after Katrina and I was really involved in this work that the church, that their church was doing with immigrants who were rebuilding um after Katrina.
Speaker: And so I was really involved in stuff they had going on and I felt like that was more my church home even though i was going to Mass because, you know. i I still felt the need to go go to Mass.
Speaker: um and And when I was in Minnesota, it was hard for me because there is a black Catholic church in the Twin Cities, but it's...
Speaker: it's not mostly black and it's it's it's it was very different from the other black catholic churches that I grew up in and so um it I was part of like a small faith group that was a mix of catholic folks and um mainly lutherans um that were all worked in social justice space and it was like a bible study faith sharing group thing and that that felt like the more church part of my life that was feeding me at that time What are you as a weekly practicing Catholic looking for it in the next pope? Yeah, I think the thing that I loved most about Pope Francis, well, I'd say a couple of things. One, it was very clear that he was a pastor.
Speaker: Very clear he was a Jesuit. Yeah, yeah. and And it doesn't, the next pope doesn't have to be a Jesuit. But but the pastoral part, I think was really important. And i feel like so many people seeking that. I feel that really strongly, you know, my brother is queer.
Speaker: She doesn't go to Catholic church anymore. He just never felt welcome in the church after he came out. And not that there was something wrong with our individual parish, but just everything that the church does politically, policy-wise, you know, says you're welcome.
Speaker: And so he that that's That hurts me, you know, that my brother, who says a rosary, if he's, like, in a spot and just, like, really feels like he doesn't identify as Catholic but still says his rosary. But it's simply because he just doesn't feel welcome. So I think that that was, like, a big thing. And no, there weren't, like, changes to church teaching, but the fact that he was saying, like,
Speaker: I see you, right you know, and you are God's children all and belong here, i think is a big deal. And I certainly hope there's no swing back in that regard. I think the church is a field hospital.
Speaker: um the Pope as a pastor is really kind of like an important continuation. he What was amazing about him is you generationally, like,
Speaker: He had humanity to him. that He had gave people access. He would do availabilities on an airplane. yeah you know The famous Who Am I to Judge was an availability on an airplane. I remember very vividly he was trying to deal with ah a person in a wheelchair, and she was nestled up against his cossack.
Speaker: And the people behind her were grabbing him and shoving, suffocating her. He got hot. he got mad. It was like in in either Spanish yeah or Italian. Said, you guys are being selfish. I need you to take a step back. yeah you Can you imagine getting yelled at by the pole?
Speaker: I would have died. yeah um And I, my daughter, you you mentioned your brother. my daughter is, she did her confirmation last year. She's,
Speaker: don't want to say too much about her faith because I do think it's private for her. But one anecdotal thing that i I think reflected well on her strength as a person was they did this moment where you could do a Q&A with a priest.
Speaker: And she got to ask a question. And I didn't expect her to have an interest in that energy exchange, but she did. and she said to the priest that day, she said, she got to ask him a question. She says, what is it about me that doesn't make me worthy of being a priest? And and i would have loved, know, in a faraway galaxy to be able to have her ask Francis that question. Because I think he would have given her a very empathetic answer.
Speaker: response. Yep. And honestly, that's one of the places where I think a lot of women had some disappointments in terms of like the, the like, I think two panels that they did on the women in the diaconate. Yeah, no, I i feel like Most women I know have had a similar, I got into an argument with a friend that's a deacon.
Speaker: at that time he was a transitional deacon, becoming a priest. And i kind of angrily said to him, like, you know, oh yeah, God can do all things except call a woman to be a priest.
Speaker: And he was really frustrated. and and Honestly, if it's not, it's not, it's funny as a feminist, like, it's not the thing, like, about the church that I get hung up on the most, but just, I find the logic a little faulty. Well, yeah if you care, if you care about the institution, and I think, like, not to tie it all into politics, but...
Speaker: If you care about the institution, and we're losing institutional trust these days, yeah and you have to appeal to a broader base, and you cannot you cannot cannot assume that the flock will follow you anymore. they're two They have too much access to information.
Speaker: They're too distracted. they they They have too many options at their disposal for what they do with their time besides work. And I just, like, we have to open our eyes to that. like And I think Francis sort of knew that, but you're right. There was things that held him back that probably are beyond your and my control. Well, and I think, I mean...
Speaker: It's easy to think about it that way through a political lens. And I think more most of the church leadership does not. that's That's not religion. That's not the driving force for for religion.
Speaker: But I do think so there are a lot of... incredible things about the Catholic Church, I think number one for me is that it's the universal church that we're all connected around the world through this faith and that there are so many different practices and different ways that it manifests and we can all be very different.
Speaker: i can have, you know, i black Catholic gospel experience and, you know, someone else can go to Latin Mass and that's fine. I'm like, cool.
Speaker: like on this day too but gospel you know and we all share that right but um and it's it's cool that i've gone to mass in different countries and not understood the language but been able to follow yeah right i agree you can learn a language by going to mass for sure but um but i but i do think you know The other thing that I would say about Francis is that he centered hope and mercy.
Speaker: um And those two things, i think, in this particular moment in the world, have global appeal. yeah um And so the things that I've been thinking about for the Pope are like, do you have that pastoral experience? Or at least are you personally inclined to be pastoral in the way you're doing?
Speaker: you know, promoting the church around the world. and Can you bring that clarity of purpose and like what it means to live the gospel, to bring hope in a world that could be dark, mercy in a world where we're all sinners and where there's just um a lot of people aren't connected to each other and the kind of fabric that brings us together is fraying.
Speaker: I think those are the things to me that are important. um i I think that one of the things, you know you talked about how much Pope Francis spoke off the cuff. I think one of the things that a lot of the cardinals, even though they're appointed by him, that's probably the thing that they're worried about the most. They're like, ah, maybe let's have some stability. Yeah, right. Or don't make, I'm not going to put myself as out there as he did. Yeah. Or in the curia and like just kind of what, I think there's just so much, like he was,
Speaker: a driven personality that was out there so much. Becuria had a lot of power before that I think has been a little unsettled. And it'll be interesting whether there's someone that's promoted that's more of like a creature of kind of the institution or someone who has had less experience than Rome, but, you know, kind of more from his mold.
Speaker: Do you buy into the idea it can't be an American? I think it's unlikely. um i mean, there's and there's there's a lot of things that are like kind of at issue there.
Speaker: mean, I think the cardinals that Pope Francis promoted out of the American church aren't actually influential in the USCCD. And on and so I'm not sure what that means for like leadership, right? um in And how in a room of 130 folks or whatever,
Speaker: um
Speaker: how how it is that you can actually influence the process. um I do think that it's interesting, you know, I read a couple of articles that highlighted like how new his appointees are and like not having connections to each other or like the longevity to have connections with the older electors and what that means.
Speaker: that that feels right to me um because so much of this is about relationships and so if you're and if you're gonna pick essentially amongst themselves um then like what does that mean that there's not like soup pitch is one of the oldest uh france's i think it means the a dark horse i think that is a recipe for a dark no i think that's right i think like and And to the point about an American pope, like, yeah, okay, fine. You don't want a superpower country to have this.
Speaker: The flip side of that is, first of all, everything is political. We have a president right now who he has to be reasoned with on a world stage.
Speaker: And, like, I don't know. i think if if all things being equal, that shouldn't be an eliminate. That shouldn't be a eliminating factor for them. So who's your American pick?
Speaker: I like so have a great affinity for Cupich. I think he, the way he administers the Archdiocese of Chicago is a guy who is as close to understanding modern Catholicism as as one can get.
Speaker: I'm not sure he's perfect. i don't i don't I certainly don't think he thinks he's perfect. But like it would be great to see him walk out of that balcony. I don't know if that's going to happen, but it'd be fun. It'd be amazing. Yeah.
Speaker: I go back to the USCCB. Yeah. And, like, I feel like twice he's tried to make moves within the USCCB, and he hasn't gotten people to go along with him. That means he's not a coalition builder.
Speaker: Yeah. I... I mean, it's a tough crowd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it feels like he should have been able to be making progress within the whiman home team. Right.
Speaker: Especially as Papa Francisco is, like, appointing more and more folks. But, I don't know, USCCB is a tough nut to crack. It is.
Speaker: We did not stop much there. I'm going to do origin story. I kind of yeah took you off your beaten path there. But we have a few minutes before I want to get you back to the Capitol. Yep. ah Talk a little bit about how it all started.
Speaker: Georgia, and then New Orleans, then Minnesota? D.C. D.C. God walks through it. Yeah, so... um So born in Atlanta, um, to my parents are both from different places. So my mom's from Flint. My dad's from Louisville.
Speaker: Dad came down to go to Morehouse, um, and stayed. actually met my mom in Chicago. Um, then she moved to, to Georgia for him.
Speaker: we grew up, um, actually we moved to DC area when I was a kid for like six years. Um, My mom was ah in government affairs, corporate side. and Wow, I bet I did not know. Yeah.
Speaker: um She's a tanker. Yeah, I'm second gen. I used tease her all the time. I want to do what you do, for she worked on the Hill on a little bit for Senator Dodd and then stayed in the D.C. area. We moved back when I was in middle school.
Speaker: um I went to Catholic school for a brief moment, but mostly public schools. um And after after high school, went to Agnes Scott, small women's college in Georgia. was an awesome experience. Loved it.
Speaker: um after After college, went to and i and I went to, so I went to the St. Anthony's, like the, the Catholic Church, a small Catholic Church on the West End before Morehouse-Bellman, Clark, Morris Brown had all a Catholic Center on campus.
Speaker: Everybody went to St. Anthony's, it was the parish that was closest to them. So that's where my dad started going there. um And my mom was in grad school on the AUC campus.
Speaker: They both helped start the, it was the little blue house before it was the official Catholic Center. Wow. So they were involved in that. My mom was convert. she She converted when they got married.
Speaker: um So did a fellowship through the Congressional Hunger Center right after school. That's where I met my now husband. I was in New Orleans, then went to D.C., worked on workers' rights like policy there.
Speaker: I was really torn at that time between whether I wanted to do like organizing or like policy work. um and ended up deciding to go to public policy school afterwards. That's how I ended up in Minnesota.
Speaker: knew nothing about it. And literally said, i had got a scholarship, said, if I go visit and see any black people, I will go there. And the public policy school is on the West Bank in the Somali neighborhood. So that's how I ended up in Minnesota.
Speaker: um My then boyfriend moved back home to New York. after after the summer we were both in DC um so I was like trying to go to New York after after grad school applied to a million jobs there didn't get any and had done an informational interview with Roberta Lynch who's the deputy director of AFSCME at that time she had called me out of the blue like hey we have an opening are you interested in interviewing
Speaker: And so, um yeah. When you say out of the blue. No, like so I had done an informational interview with her my first year of grad school. One of my professors knew her. Wow. so And so I was like, I'm interested in labor.
Speaker: my my Three or four of my grandparents were in unions. And particularly for my mom's parents, they were from rural, rural Arkansas. Right. And my granddad first moved to Little Rock, the big city, and he shined shoes at a hotel, in you know, in the late 40s, early late wait forty And um was like, yeah, this is not not the move. So he ended up following my grandmother's brothers to Flint and got on at GM, put on doors on the assembly line, was a UAW member.
Speaker: My grandma worked the hospital. She was a SEIU steward. um And she was a steward because she liked the gossip. I'm sure there's a lot of incoming in that role.
Speaker: but um But my granddad was just like a rank-and-file union member, but was very, very clear on the difference that the union made in his life. And um he could tell you, like, every single contract win could tell you what the price of milk was. Like, he didn't he finished only seventh grade, but, you know, they were able to...
Speaker: raised five kids have a house you know since couple kids college uh so it was a it it clearly made a difference for them how long have you been with ask me now 15 years this this year yeah yeah oh like pension bill after pension bill um do you have anything you want to do a commercial for for ask me um For asking, I'll say we're the best damn union. And if you want in, we'll always take taken folks. And, you know, i I don't know. I love my job. So there's it's hard to say just one thing because we represent so many different types of people.
Speaker: But we're we're doing a lot of fun in terms of new organizing, museum workers, Today we announced the big campaign at the College of DuPage. Very cool. so But we fight hard for every single member, and it's it interesting times. i do I started out just doing City of Chicago and Cook County, and then got roped in the Springfield stuff, and and now i feel like I'm doing a lot more so city even than when i first started.
Speaker: I want to go a little bit back to politics and tie it in and ask me. do you There's a lot of conversation about the direction of the Democratic Party right now. Yeah. And I'll talk about that in a moment.
Speaker: Were you surprised at the level of detachment from organized labor in 24 that there Yeah. Did you think labor, especially after Biden left the ticket and Vice President Harris came on board, took a back seat, things that it shouldn't have taken a back seat to?
Speaker: It's hard for me to say that because I think... I spent a lot of time in Wisconsin, and I know I saw a lot of brothers and sisters from of SEIU there and the teachers there as well.
Speaker: saw UFCW folks from Illinois up there. i mean, there was a lot of Illinois labor that was in Wisconsin week after week after week. But i think it's I think that if you're talking about just generally
Speaker: the idea that labor endorsed, labor should be able to to deliver. it's It's more of, you just said, you guys were camped out in Wisconsin, and the vice president didn't carry Wisconsin. Right.
Speaker: what do you shoot What do you do, too? yeah There were some reverse coattails there. Yeah, and there were some state um state senate seats, too, that were really important there, too. So it's, I mean, clearly the work on the ground made a difference in some ways. Why it didn't translate to the presidency i think it's really hard um but i believe i mean otherwise i wouldn't be able to keep doing the work that i'm doing i believe that a big part of the answer is just um and continuing to make people that may not naturally feel connected yes feel connected through the work that um
Speaker: are able to accomplish on things like childcare, healthcare, and just affordability.
Speaker: i have a I've come to be saying about this problem We are we are really caught up right now in whether to be a resistance party or a capitulation party.
Speaker: Like you got the Gavin Newsom getting ropatoped by what's his name on the podcast? What was the dude's name? forgot the influencer's name. And and like I understand resistance has to happen because it's it's we can't allow the theist administration the federal administration to run roughshod over people.
Speaker: um But like there's that conversation. But there's the Democratic Party's problem conversation. I personally think we have become a club that people feel like they can't get into anymore or there's a members-only problem.
Speaker: The Republican Party is a religion. party There's an elite party problem. The Republican Party is a religion. You worship him. And they take converts. yeah They will let people find the light. And as long as you discover the light, you're welcome into their club into their religion.
Speaker: We kick people out because they don't fit our membership criteria. So I think that there's two things on that. One, I think that it is incredibly, incredibly hard to find successful examples of multiracial,
Speaker: thriving democracies, period. But just like a party that is as big of tent as we are in a two-party system essentially is incredibly difficult because you have folks that have very divergent views.
Speaker: You talked about Senator Durbin at the beginning um being pro-life Democrat. There's not that many of them left. More respectfully, I'm going to make it a little about me here. yep you You do a career's worth of voting on one issue, and you fall out of lockstep on one vote, and you got to go.
Speaker: that is That is not the way to grow a party, and it's not the way to defend against a party that takes everyone on.
Speaker: And then in the one cycle where the inflation is running amok and things are unsteady at the top of the ticket, you survive a second Trump administration. Well, and I think it's hard. I mean, talking about the pro-life issue is probably a ah really – good one for this um podcast, but, um you know, i've I've been open about, I've had miscarriages, two miscarriages and a stillbirth.
Speaker: And I'm Catholic and i think it is really hard even being a feminist and, you know, wanting women to be able to make their own choices.
Speaker: It's hard for me to embrace reproductive rights language when I, yes, a person who wanted the children that I was pregnant with, um it feels like I can't say, you know, no, my baby wasn't born, but I still feel strongly from the moment that I knew that I was pregnant, I was talking about my baby and, you know, referring to baby and the loss that I felt and not
Speaker: at 12 weeks and at 26 weeks was all bad for me, right? um And I think it's hard to have those conversations in certain spaces and I understand why politically it's inconvenient to not have a conversation about it.
Speaker: But I, you know, i'm I'm a Democrat and I have those feelings and those feelings are not unique to me. Like if you ask people where they feel life begins, most people are going to think it's some gray space in between. And most people use language about their baby when they're pregnant. Right. yeah So think that.
Speaker: i think We have to recognize that we are, you know, black Catholic woman who has those feelings who wants to be able to talk about that.
Speaker: And we are the correctional officer in downstate Illinois. And we are the... Jewish person who has an affinity to the state of Israel and the Jewish person that feels that their cultural history is also tied to the liberation of people in Palestine. We are all of those things in the Democratic Party.
Speaker: And so like that's really difficult to grapple with. And I think it is kind of uniquely American in that we have essentially a two-party system And, you know, is that we can't just say, oh like, oh, like, you broke break off and you be over here, you be over here, you be over here. We'll do like a coalition thing and then together we can form a government. Wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker: and And it's also not real politic. There's not enough coalition members right now. yeah we We don't have physically enough people that will vote for core democratic issues when when the other side's Kool-Aid drinkers come out to vote every four years.
Speaker: that that there's It's a simple math problem. We've got to grow the tent to fix the math But also, like we have a lot of people in our tent that don't vote. Yeah, that's true. Or we've got to motivate them to come out based on a set of factors that they wouldn't otherwise. yeah You've been very kind with your time.
Speaker: there going to be a tweet thread about this? Yes. All the references are going to be the gospel and the same. Thank you for coming on. We will hope to get this posted soon. Adrian Alexander joining me from William Vans. we will see you guys soon. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Elo.
Speaker: think did it. Oh, my God. That was awesome.
