Last month, I sat down with The States Project in Los Angeles for a conversation uplifting some of the most consequential work in our country at this moment: building power at the state and local level.
We were joined by over a dozen state legislative leaders from Arizona, New Hampshire, Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, Oregon, and North Carolina. I thanked them for leading the fight in their communities on so many important issues, including affordability, housing, and voting rights.
I shared with them that as I have been traveling our nation over the past few months and meeting with people in these communities, I hear one refrain over and over again:
People are done with the status quo. They’re done. It’s not working for them.
I told them about a woman I met in Jackson, Mississippi. A mother of three, she is putting herself through cosmetology school, receives SNAP benefits, and has a weekly grocery budget of just $150. We went shopping at the discount grocery store, and she pointed out how the price of everything has gone up. Her meals consist of whatever is left over after her kids eat. She has to buy cases of bottled water because her tap water comes out so dirty that sometimes she doesn’t even feel safe showering her kids with it. At the end of our time together, she said to me:
“I don’t understand why people keep saying the economy is doing great. Don’t they see me?”
That is the question. And that is why state and local leaders matter so much right now.
State legislators know more than anyone what people need: lower costs, good healthcare, to be able to afford their rent or mortgage. They know that for so many, the American dream feels like an American myth. State leaders see the people. They are in the community and they are most responsive to what people are telling them.
I do not need to tell you how hard things are right now: the cost of living crisis, the war in Iran, the unapologetic assault on our Constitution and our democracy.
Thankfully, the day will come when this president leaves the White House. When that happens, there will be a lot of debris. But our job is not to look back with nostalgia at the systems and institutions he knocked down. Our job is to be bold, to understand that a lot of what we had before was not working for the American people, and to build a government and elect leaders at every level that will actually deliver for the people of this country. To show people that opportunity is on the other side of hard work.
And it is our commitment to each other — to our community, neighbors, and the mother in Jackson — that will carry us when it is time to roll up our sleeves and get the work done.
Hey, Kamala. Thank you for posting something but WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??!!
I campaigned for you as did millions of good Americans but when we didn’t succeed in getting you across the finish line, I was counting on you to lead us in opposition. You were the de facto non-MAGA leader of our country, whether you are POTUS or not. You know who lead his opposition when he lost (after his come-back not too long after J6). He did rallies and kept his base active and united and motivated. I assumed that was what you would do as well and I was ready to follow your lead to fight the fascist takeover you warned us about but you have hardly stepped up to the plate.
Please lead us out of this mess. You are VERY late to the party but no one has jumped in who can fill your shoes so we still need you!!
I’m in CANADA and I am so upset about what’s happening in our two nations. It’s like a poison has infected your country. This group of Republicans does not want to do anything else except pad their own pockets and have the prestigious job and lick Trump’s boots. It has to stop.