ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Newly elected members of Congress have been here in Washington learning the ropes. There are about 70 newcomers across the House and Senate, including someone I first spoke to back in July named Lateefah Simon. She's a Democrat elected to represent Oakland, California, in the House.
And when we talked last summer, it was not because of her own political campaign. It was because her mentor and former boss, Kamala Harris, had just become the Democratic Party's choice for president. They first met more than 20 years ago on a task force when Harris was a San Francisco prosecutor and Simon was running a nonprofit serving young women in the criminal justice system. At the time, Kamala Harris said, come work for me, and Lateefah Simon at first said no.
LATEEFAH SIMON: She called me one day, and she was like, you know, this is my last time asking. Lateefah, you could either carry this bullhorn on your back for the rest of your life, demanding that elected officials work for you and the young people that you care about, or you could become a part of my team and we can actually deconstruct some of these inequities. And I got to tell you. I was like, what do you say to that?
SHAPIRO: Well, now Congresswoman-elect Simon is finding her way around Washington as an incoming freshman House Democrat, and she's here in the studio to talk with us - so good to see you face to face.
SIMON: It's amazing to be here in the studio.
SHAPIRO: I'm sure there are some similarities with the first day of school or arriving on campus for college or whatever metaphor you want to choose. Does it feel right off the bat like people are making friends across the aisle, or is there a clear kind of red team-blue team dynamic from Day 1?
SIMON: I said on the first day of orientation when we were off to one of the nightly events on these little buses that left our hotel every day, but on that first night I sat next to a Republican member and his wife and their little beautiful baby, and one of the things that I said was, our creator doesn't care who's a Democrat or a Republican. When you know the name of someone's baby, it's hard to hate them. When you play with someone's child, it's hard to disparage them.
Again, we're in a space during orientation where we were at a lot of events together. We were sharing meals together. It's clear that we have different ideology, but the way that I'm going to work and, I know, the way that many of the folks in the freshman class are going to work, we know that we have to reduce the harm of some of these proposed bad policies. We know that, as smart organizers and legislators, we aren't principals. We're part of a full body. It's the responsibility of us to not only, you know, have conversations with those folks across the aisle. We have to figure it out for the people that we represent.
SHAPIRO: It's so interesting to hear you use the phrase harm reduction, which is so familiar from the kind of grassroots organizing that you came up doing. But I've never heard it applied to Congress before, particularly as an opposition member coming in on this wave that gave Republicans control of the House, the Senate, the White House. Is harm reduction going to be kind of, like, your operating principle?
SIMON: I don't think it's enough. When I use that ethos of reducing the harm, it really is clear there's harm that will be done in this administration. We know that with women, with disabled folks, with folks who are struggling right now with the slim margin of the safety net benefits they get, you know, everything that we know that keeps this country afloat for many of us - we feel like it's under attack. I know that my job is to understand what's in front of us and to tell the story in a time where we don't have the Senate, we don't have the House. There's not a ton of legislating that we're going to be able to do, but the point is to be there for the fight. In the committee choices that I receive, I'm going to make sure that every moment that I have on those committees is telling the story of the American people who deserve a government that works for them.
SHAPIRO: To state perhaps the obvious, harm is in the eye of the beholder. And I think it's safe to say what every majority party sees as progress, the minority party sees as harm, so it's a matter of perspective. But if we check in with you two years from now at the end of your freshman term, what do you hope you'll be able to say you accomplished?
SIMON: Yes, yes. I want to - I'm clear. I want to be able to be in a Safeway or a Trader Joe's or at the pediatrician's office and be able to look a constituent or another American in the face and say, we fought like hell. We won some, and we lost some, but we did everything to protect the values - and I will push back because while progress is in the eye of the beholder, I got to tell you the child who is living in West Virginia now who is fighting cancer and their insurance company says, no, no more treatment for you - these are American values that we push back.
And we say, no, that child and their parent - their parent deserves to have a prevailing wage with good health insurance that looks out for that child. There's no Republican or Democrat in that conversation. There's the American family. And so, again, regular folks, regardless of the ways in which this election moved - they deserve what I feel like is the floor. The work that I've done over the course of my career has been about ensuring that people in power see folks with no power as human, and that's what I intend to do.
SHAPIRO: When you and I spoke over the summer, we talked about the tension between working inside the system or outside of it, whether you work as an activist or as part of an institution. So does the fact that you are now Congresswoman-elect Lateefah Simon mean that tug of war in your own mind is over and done?
SIMON: Oh, my God, no.
SHAPIRO: You're, like, the ultimate insider now. You're a member of Congress almost.
SIMON: I think my job here is to be accountable to the folks who actually have, what I always say, very few keys to access and to power. I might not have a lot of resource myself, but I have a lot of keys now. I am so excited about bolstering a constituency services unit in my local office to not only organize other electeds but to really provide access to some of these institutions that folks have really struggled with. You know, Barbara Lee has also been a very close mentor to me.
SHAPIRO: She was the congresswoman who held your seat...
SIMON: Yes.
SHAPIRO: ...Before you. Yeah.
SIMON: And she's just so fantastic, and her big advice is bolster constituency services. The uncertainty of folks being able to survive in this current economy is a real one. Make sure that folks have access to your office. Return their calls. Be good to them. Be in the district every single opportunity that you have. And I plan to do that. As a single mom, I know what it's like to be able to sit at a table, call someone for help and no one answers your call. So, yes, I'm the ultimate insider, but that organizer spirit in me - it's burning.
SHAPIRO: OK, last question I want to ask you because you told us that in your household, the vice president is auntie status. Can you tell us about what she's thinking and feeling these days after her loss?
SIMON: Well, you know, I've only talked to her once since the election. And I was in freshman orientation, and there was a no caller ID. I'm sitting in orientation in the auditorium.
SHAPIRO: You're like, it's either spam or the White House.
SIMON: And literally, again, student loans or the White House, right? And I pick up, and do you know what she says to me? How are you, baby? And I said, Vice President Harris? And she said, are you doing well, Congresswoman-elect? And I - she sounded full of joy. She said to me on that call - 'cause I started to tear up on the call. As she said to me when I was working in her office over 20 years ago, she said, Lateefah, when times get hard, what do I always say, Lateefah? Put your shoulders back. Put your chin up. Roll up your sleeves, and get to work. And then she said, focus. You're here in orientation. Hang up with me now.
I wanted to ask her so many more questions, but she's actually right. We have a job to do. We are servants of the people of the United States of America. My job is to focus, move forward. And I got to say, while I think she's the president that we deserved, I'm so excited to see what she does next.
SHAPIRO: Democratic Congresswoman-elect Lateefah Simon will be sworn in representing Oakland this January. Thank you for coming into the studio and talking with us.
SIMON: Thank you so much.
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