A Conversation with Mckayla Wilkes
On policy, her experience on the stump, and challenging the #2 House Democrat
Recently, Nick had the chance to speak with Mckayla Wilkes, who is challenging House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in the primary for Maryland’s 5th congressional district. Hoyer (whose career Opinion Haver looked at all the way back in March) is the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, and he’s been in office longer than either of us have been alive. He repeatedly had his district redrawn to be whiter, because he did not want to face a majority-Black primary electorate. While he has more power than perhaps any Democrat besides Nancy Pelosi, his relationship with Pelosi has long been notoriously poor, because he is far more conservative than she is. We talked about Wilkes’s progressive platform, her recent endorsements, and how her upstart campaign has rattled the local Democratic establishment.
NICK: How’s the campaign been going so far?
WILKES: The campaign has been going very, very well. We’ve been having a lot of positive things happening...our [number of volunteers] has been growing. We have, I think, close to a hundred volunteers now in the area. We’ve raised over $100,000. We’ve gotten endorsed by Brand New Congress, by our local chapter of DSA, as well as a few local figures. So I think things are going very great.
NICK: How’s the reception been from voters--I mean, canvassing and phone-banking? Are people receptive to the idea of taking down Steny Hoyer?
WILKES: A lot of the feedback we get from canvassing is that we do need fresh ideas in Congress. A lot of people in the district feel like Steny Hoyer is kind of out of touch. And also, because we’re in a pivotal moment where Medicare for All is being discussed, and the Green New Deal, and we’re talking about criminal justice reform, and people are ready to move forward progressively on these issues.
NICK: You told the magazine Marie Claire that a Democratic state legislator actually confronted you at an event because she was angry that you were challenging Hoyer. Is that reflective of how the establishment has reacted to your campaign?
WILKES: Yeah, I would say, overall, in regards to the establishment, it has been kind of that way, especially in dealing with some of Steny Hoyer’s staffers...I think [some] people from the establishment...have been supportive, kind of in private, but what I’ve noticed is that a lot of them are afraid to speak up publicly in support of our campaign because of how much power Steny Hoyer has in the state of Maryland and the nation as a whole.
NICK: Why do you think progressive policies are better than Steny Hoyer’s approach?
WILKES: I think progressive policies...embody what Democratic policies should be. Being a Democrat means being inclusive, that means no one left out, that means we are essentially the party of the people, so to speak. And progressive policies are policies that look out for our interests, such as Medicare for All, such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, such as enacting a Green New Deal to help us out with sustainable infrastructure, ending poverty, affordable housing--the only thing we’re asking for as progressives is to treat basic human rights as human rights, and incorporate that into legislation. Progressive policies are all about putting the people first and putting corporations last, because let’s face it, politics has been ran by corporations forever. The base of the word progressive is “progress.” To me, that’s the way that we need to go--we need bold leadership that will fight for progressive policies instead of being against it and actively working against it, because that’s not productive to anyone in my district or in any district throughout the entire nation.
NICK: If you were to win, if you could push for just one policy in Congress, what would you choose?
WILKES: It would absolutely be the Green New Deal. I say that because if we allow the effects of climate change to progress without taking immediate, bold action to mitigate it, none of these policies are gonna matter, because our Earth is not gonna be a sustainable place to live on. Along with the Green New Deal comes creating tons of jobs--unionized jobs--jobs that provide livable wages, on-the-job paid training, and when you couple all of those things together, it touches on every single other policy. Even when you talk about criminal justice reform--you need to change people’s circumstances [...] if we can change people’s circumstances, create affordable housing, tie that to the Green New Deal, create jobs that provide a livable wage, give people on-the-job training so they can get decent jobs and at the same time gain a skill set--everyone’s circumstances can be changed.
NICK: You’ve mentioned criminal justice reform and tied it to the Green New Deal. You’ve been very open about your past--about having a criminal record, about how you’ve had an abortion. Those experiences are uncommon in Congress, or at least they’re not something members of Congress often talk about or admit to. How will those experiences, and this openness, influence the kind of member of Congress you’ll be if you win?
WILKES: I would be a member of Congress that actually knows what it’s like to be a constituent. I’d be a member of Congress that has lived experiences in the ways legislation actually affects people in our district. I always say you wouldn’t go to a foot doctor for heart surgery, so why do we have...corporate politicians governing how we as regular people live our lives? They’re trying to fix problems that they’ve never encountered. It’s not personal to them. If I were to become a congresswoman, I can actually resonate with the people in my district. I feel like now, in the halls of Congress, there’s a disconnect between politics and people. Right now, politics is run as a business, and to me, it’s totally personal. I couldn’t fathom treating it as a business, because these are people in my community--my neighbors, my family. It’s the life that I’m living. I feel like I have a duty to actually help the people in my district and not be tied to corporate interests, because that’s what matters.
NICK: That’s definitely a different approach than a lot of members of Congress, particularly high-ranking members of Congress, people in Democratic leadership. That leadership is where Steny Hoyer gets his power. He raises a ton of money for Democratic campaigns, he has immense influence over the Democratic agenda in Congress. That undoubtedly poses a challenge for you, because it’s hard for anyone to overcome a member of Congress that powerful in a primary. How are you planning on overcoming all the advantages and all the power that [Hoyer] has in your primary?
WILKES: It’s no secret that Steny Hoyer has a lot of great friends, but you don’t need friends like his. I plan on overcoming the advantages that Steny Hoyer has by utilizing people power, grassroots energy. Already, we have raised three times the amount of small-dollar contributions Steny Hoyer has, and it’s only the third quarter. It’s going to take a very, very strong ground game, and it’s going to take a movement. That’s something we’ve been trying to center around in this campaign: it’s so much bigger than my candidacy, it’s so much bigger than just me running for this seat. It has to be a movement, because we don’t have the corporate friends that Steny Hoyer has, so we have to create a movement within the district in order to power this campaign forward, and so far we’re on track. That’s going to be our main focus, to continue to have the people involved, and to just let the people know that they actually have a choice. For too long, the people in this district have not been involved in the legislative process because of people like Steny Hoyer, who doesn’t even bother to...go knock on doors, who doesn’t even bother to hold a town hall for his constituents. The biggest thing for us is to continue to ensure that the people of this district are at the center of this campaign, that it’s not just about me, that it’s about everyone.
NICK: So clearly you see your campaign as a movement within the district. Do you also see your campaign as part of a broader movement across the country? Steny Hoyer is far from the only powerful Democrat facing what is in many cases the first difficult primary of their career. Do you see your campaign as part of a movement with those other challengers who are also making some of the same arguments, that we need a new approach, a more progressive approach, in Congress?
WILKES: We absolutely are a part of a huge movement across the nation. I’ve actually become great friends with a few progressive primary challengers throughout the nation, like Anthony Clark [running in IL-07], Joshua Collins [running in WA-10], Nabilah [Islam] from Georgia [running in swingy, Republican-held GA-07], Betsy Sweet [running for Senate in Maine], Lindsey Boylan [running in NY-10], Cori Bush [running in MO-01]--I mean, the list goes on. We use each other to amplify our voices because, like I said, it’s so much bigger than just me. We’re all running in different districts, but we’re essentially all running the same race, we’re all fighting the same fight, and we all have the same agenda, to grow the squad and continue this movement all throughout the entire nation so that we can create a brand new Congress that is actually going to fight for the interests of the people, for the 99 percent.
NICK: That’s similar to what I’ve heard from Lindsey Boylan and Morgan Harper [running in OH-03] when I interviewed them. Like you, they were very clear that it’s about the district, but that it’s also bigger than that.
WILKES: Someone actually called us the “progressive Avengers,” I thought that was cute. [laughter]
NICK: In your campaign platform, there are things that aren’t traditional Democratic platform planks, such as support for Native Americans, for indigenous communities, and policies addressing things like food insecurity. How do you come to decide on such a detailed policy platform?
WILKES: So--I didn’t do it all myself. [laughter] My team and I sat around and--we’re just totally concerned with being as inclusive as we possibly could. We wanted to go above and beyond the mainstream Democratic platform, for lack of a better term. We really wanted to get into the nitty-gritty of every single issue that we can think of that affects...marginalized communities, and try to pinpoint on issues that aren’t really widely talked about, like food insecurity, having...a black agenda, fighting for free feminine healthcare products, because people might see them as a one-off, but these are things that affect people’s everyday lives, not only in our district but throughout the entire nation. It’s all about trying to be as inclusive as possible. There were nights where we were up until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, discussing--”Can we add this to it? Can we add that to it?” Because we really wanted to do our best and not leave anyone out.
NICK: That sort of comprehensive approach--do you think that’s something Congress is lacking?
WILKES: Yeah, I absolutely do think so. These are issues that, like I said, maybe seem like one-offs, but they’re just as important as any other policy. Food security is just as important as Medicare for All. It also may be a little bit different for me because I do have these lived experiences--I’ve dealt with homelessness, unfortunately I’ve had lived experiences with a lot of the things that are on my platform. Living through that and seeing that these things affect people, we were able to have that kind of unique advantage...creating our platform.
NICK: One thing I’ve seen in my experiences canvassing and phone-banking for a number of candidates is there’s often some--definitely justified--cynicism that these things can be fixed by government, that there are political solutions to things like food insecurity or gun violence or the environment. How do you confront that cynicism, and get people to have faith that maybe there is a solution to these problems through democracy and through politics?
WILKES: That’s actually a great question. What I like to do is--in this race, because Steny Hoyer’s so entrenched, one of our biggest focuses is concentrating on communities that are politically disengaged, because they don’t feel like democracy would help their situation. Being someone who was that person who did not believe in politics--I thought “you can’t fix this with politics, no politician is gonna care about this, there’s nothing that you can do, there’s no legislation you can write to fix my problem”--I like to just talk to the person, and just ask them “what is your issue? In your day-to-day life, what are your struggles? What are some things that could make your life a lot easier?” And try to tie it to progressive legislation. You never know--especially when talking to people, when you talk to them about their issues, when you talk to them about a specific progressive policy, they would never think that this actually could fix this problem. It’s all about tying real-life issues to progressive policies so that they understand that legislation and politics can actually fix our issues, and that we have the power to change this, but we need to band together and get out the politicians we have now. [Those politicians] make it seem as though legislation will not help us in any kind of way because we’ve been seeing it for too long, because people do have that sense of hopelessness, like nothing will help us--”you can’t help me get food in my refrigerator, you can’t help me find a better job, you can’t help me find somewhere to live.” It’s all about having a holistic approach when you’re talking to people in the district, and just letting them know this is what I’m fighting for. I’m fighting for affordable housing, I’m fighting so that we can bring jobs to the district, I’m fighting for jobs with livable wages, there’s absolutely legislation that will help all of our lives get better. And usually after that they’re more receptive. It’s all about tying their everyday life experiences to policy, and letting them see that there is a way out of this and work together and elect someone that’s gonna fight for these issues.
NICK: You recently hit a fundraising milestone: you hit $100,000 raised. And I hate that I have to talk about fundraising so much for my job, because money in politics is such a problem, and yet it’s also so important to campaigns. Fundraising is very, very hard for outsider campaigns like yours and all of the other progressive primary challengers we were talking about, because there is so much pressure not to give to campaigns like yours. So campaigns like yours have to rely much more completely on small donations of $5, $10. Raising $100,000 is a noteworthy milestone--do you think you’ll be able to keep it up? Have people shown more interest has time has gone on?
WILKES: Absolutely. Our momentum keeps growing and growing and growing. The amount of support that we get from people just wanting to help--even after we hit our milestone for $100,000, when people see a movement happening, [they] want to be involved in it. People are so excited...because of how the momentum is growing. They have hope. I stress to everyone who wants to get involved that...this is a movement, this is bigger than just me running for office. I mean, of course I want to win, but if I don’t, at least I’ll have the legacy of this movement that will come out of it, and my progressive work is not gonna stop, I’ll always be an activist, and I would just hope that the movement will continue on regardless of the outcome in 2020.
NICK: You were recently endorsed by former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska. What does this endorsement mean to you?
WILKES: I was very, very honored to receive the endorsement from Senator Gravel, just for everything he stands for. I mean, he’s the senator that read the Pentagon Papers [into the Congressional Record]. At a time when mass surveillance is growing, it’s things like [Senator Gravel’s reading the Pentagon Papers] that set a precedent for what we need...peace-based foreign policy, being against the forever wars. He actually inspired most of our foreign policy platform, so it was absolutely an honor to have his endorsement in this race.
NICK: Looking at your civil liberties platform, it has a lot of policies that would absolutely be a huge departure from the Democratic consensus on things like mass surveillance...a departure from the very bipartisan consensus, post-9/11, that more surveillance is a good thing and it’s necessary.
WILKES: I totally disagree with that [consensus]. And one of the [Gravel] teens is actually our foreign policy advisor.
NICK: I think that’s all I have, but if there’s anything else you have to say, you have my info.
WILKES: I do have one thing to add--the question you had asked if there was only one thing I could pass. It would be the Green New Deal, but I think that it would also be campaign finance reform, because without campaign finance reform it’s going to be that much harder to even pass any of these progressive policies that we’re fighting for if we don’t get the money out of politics. We can’t allow the fossil fuel industry to continue to dump money into our elections--or the pharmaceutical industry, or insurance companies. As long as we still have them involved in our legislative process, as long as we allow them to contribute to our politicians, it’s just gonna be that much harder to pass anything that will help regular working people.