Use the Power You Have by Pramila Jayapal

Author:Pramila Jayapal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The New Press
Published: 2020-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

On my side, I was now—oddly, after just two years—considered a more “senior” member of Congress, at least relative to the new members elected in 2018. Recognizing my activist background but also that I was not a new member, a local reporter named Essex Porter went on our local NPR station and called me the “Godmother of the Squad.” I wasn’t so sure about that, but I had made it a point to reach out to the new women and particularly the people of color who had been elected. I visited all of them in their offices in the first weeks of the new Congress, sent Seattle chocolates to each of the newly elected members as congratulations gifts, and did what I could to be helpful. As soon as they were elected, several of them asked me for help in how to set up their offices. As a member who had recently gone through everything they were going through, I was able to talk them through the decisions I had made and what to look for. I asked my staff to give them all our documents—from budgets to office processes—and help in any way we could.

I knew how hard it was to be a newcomer to Congress and how little mentorship there really was, and I wanted it to be different for these newly elected congresswomen. My training as an organizer is also all about building relationships and supporting the collective, and I knew these early moments of assistance would be crucial as we built our team of progressives. Later, these relationships would get even closer. My apartment became a place for many of the women of color to come and vent or strategize. Word got around that I liked to cook and that I made comfort food dishes, like hot vegetarian soups or Indian favorites like a chickpea dish called chana masala. Sometimes, a member would call me up and say, “Can I come over for homemade soup and wine?” I couldn’t always deliver on homemade soup, but the answer was always, “Of course. There’ll be wine and boxed soup, if necessary!”

Those have been some of my favorite moments, when members drop their guard and share their problems and support each other. That was much more prevalent in the activist world. Here in Congress, there was more competition and less time. Even to each other, we were supposed to pretend that we had it all under control, when the truth was we were all struggling in different ways. All of us struggled with the demands of the job—from staff management and transitions, to competitiveness with other members, to trying to make our mark on the issues that mattered to us the most when there were many other members who cared about those issues too.

Beyond the issues, it was the conversation, the camaraderie and the sense of community that helped. With the women of color, in particular, we needed our own spaces to talk things through, to vent and to share experiences that were unique to us.

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