Last week, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District joined WCPT’s Richard Chew for a conversation that touched on the continuing resolution the House recently passed to keep the government funded, her legislative priorities, the socioeconomic and geographic contours of her congressional district, her background in politics and more.
Below is a transcript of the conversation.
Richard Chew: With us this morning from the Second Congressional District here in Illinois, since 2013, is Congresswoman Robin Kelly. Welcome to the show.
Rep. Robin Kelly: Thank you so much for having me.
Richard Chew: Welcome this morning. Well, I’m going to dive right in. As we said when we were putting this together, I’m not the “gotcha guy.” I want to be able to speak with folks like you, Madam Congresswoman, and just let you have the opportunity to let listeners across the country know what you’re doing, what you’re working on, what’s important to you. But right out of the gate, I’ve got to tell you, congratulations on the bipartisan spending bill. I know you guys had to lean in hard to get that done, given the times that we’re in. What was it like to in this, I guess you could say, 11th hour [to] get that done?
Rep. Robin Kelly: Well, it was a relief that we were not going to face a government shutdown. It’s never a good time to do that, and particularly now, going into November, it was even a worse time. But I’m glad that calmer heads prevailed, or common sense prevailed, and we were able to get it done. I give our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, a tremendous amount of credit, and the person that handles these things for us, Rosa DeLauro, out of Connecticut. I always call her — she’s a beast. I mean, she does good work, you know — (laughs) — on getting things done and that kind of thing. So it’s a relief. And I know my colleagues — most of my colleagues… I’ll put it like this — all of them on the Democratic side, but most on the Republican side, I’m sure, are relieved. You know, I think if it was a shutdown, they would not have been bothered as much, but most would be.
Richard Chew: Yeah, and that — I was speaking to Henry, our board engineer, this morning about it, and it’s somewhat of a political move, probably from the right, because, to your point — and it’s almost kind of what I said to Henry — wouldn’t have really cared as much, but the destruction that it would cause for the country during this election season would be tragic. And so kudos, again, to you and Rep. DeLauro and, of course, Minority Leader — hopefully soon to be majority leader — Jeffries for getting it done. So applause to you for that.
Lot of people don’t know, Congresswoman, what your district really geographically represents. Would you take a moment and let folks know it’s a big – geographically it’s a big area.
Rep. Robin Kelly: Sure. I have the biggest district, Democratic district, in Illinois, and I start at 43rd Street in Chicago and I go south to Danville, a little south of Danville, and then west to Pontiac. So my district is truly urban, suburban and rural. I have 4,500 farms in my district also, so I kind of have a taste of Illinois in my district. (Laughs)
Richard Chew: And it kind of goes back to what a lot of people have been saying about the success of the convention, and I want to get your thoughts on that in a moment. But the question is: We had a diverse number of people at the convention in August, which is representative of the country. It’s also representative of the district that you are in. Wouldn’t you say?
Rep. Robin Kelly: Definitely. It is a very diverse district in all kinds of ways of diversity, geographic, ethnic, racial, economic levels, working, not working, low income, high income. Like I said, it’s probably a taste of America.
Richard Chew: Without a doubt. And the convention showed that with not only the people that were speakers for those four days but also just walking around both the McCormick Place and the United Center, and I’ve said a couple times it was just — I felt like my head was on a swivel. You probably did too, though, a little bit with all the people that you got to see, right?
Rep. Robin Kelly: (Laughs.) Head on a swivel, and then when all your colleagues come in and they have questions – (laughs) – and, you know, where should we go for this? Where’s this? What’s the best (inaudible) restaurant? I’m like, oh my goodness. But I was teasing them Wednesday night, saying, “Go home now, go home.” But they they had a good time. Chicago definitely showed out, you know. So I think that people were pretty pleased. You know, a few — like my relatives on the East Coast said, “It went a little late for us,” you know, [for] those kind of things. And I reminded them, “Well, she’s from California, so they’re, you know, three hours behind New York.” But I think that it was a very good convention, and people seemed pleased.
Richard Chew: I agree. Definitely agree.
So you mentioned East Coast. And lot of folks may not know this, but you were born on the East Coast and then you moved to Illinois, way back, back, back in the day, to — when people say “back in the day,” I laugh sometimes; you may, too. When you say, well, what is your “back in the day” because — right? I mean, have you ever done that-
Rep. Robin Kelly: It’s all relative.
Richard Chew: It’s all relative. But let our listeners know a little bit about that part of your background, and then how you sort of ascended through the Illinois House of Representatives.
Rep. Robin Kelly: Sure. I came to — born and raised in New York and came to Illinois to attend Bradley University, where I have my undergrad and graduate degree. And then I always joke and say, two husbands later, I’m still in the Illinois area. (Laughs.) But I lived in Peoria on and off a long time. In fact, both my children were born there. And then I came up to the Chicagoland area and worked for local government. And from there, there was a census change from the 2000 Census, and actually a group of men came and asked me to consider running for state representative. And I said, “No, no, no, no, no” and I can’t do it, you know. You know, I told him I’m sensitive, I’ll cry easy-
Richard Chew: (Laughs)
Rep. Robin Kelly: …You know, all kind of excuses. And then, family and friends said, “You can do this, you can do this.” So truly took a leap of faith and ran against a 10-year incumbent, worked so hard. And on Election Night, by eight o’clock, I think that night, or quarter to eight, I knew I’d won, and that really started my political journey. Served there four years, and then a young man wanted me to be his chief. I told him, “No, no, no, no,” for three weeks, took another leap of faith, actually gave up my seat and became Alexi Giannoulias’ chief of staff for four years, and no regrets. Great decision.
All of us are still close that worked in the office, and he decided to run for President Obama’s seat, and I decided to run for his. And 2010 was not a good year for Democrats. We both lost, and I wound up being the chief administrative officer for Cook County for two years. And then when Congressman Jackson decided not to run, you know, got a lot of phone calls, “You should do this, you should do this.” And I didn’t know if I was ever going to run again or not. You know, I didn’t have to be elected. I knew to, you know, make changes and make a difference. And we were doing good things in my position at the county.
But I ran, and me and I think 17 other people, 17 other Democrats — I think it was five Republicans and three independents, something like that. And somehow, I wound up — (laughs) — you know, winning again. A lot of hard work. But it was very short, because it was a special election. And I’ve been there 11-and-a-half years in October.
Richard Chew: Well, I like to give folks the opportunity to know the history of someone that’s been in in politics or been representing people, let’s put it that way, because you’ve done that, both as an elected official and outside of that. So that’s why I wanted just to have folks know a little bit more about who you are and how you’ve ascended to where you are now.
So one of the questions I have for you is, women’s issues are on [the] tip of the tongue for everybody. Give us, as a nation, an assessment of where we are, and then a grade on where we are.
Rep. Robin Kelly: Well, as you said, you know, women’s issues are on most people’s minds and when — you know, the downfall of Roe v. Wade, that was shocking, devastating. And I still say, you know, [it’s] unbelievable that my daughter has less rights than I did, you know, many years ago. And to see that fall and that affected — it seemed like that was just a domino. And now we’re talking about IVF and, you know, on and on and on.
And I do a lot of work around maternal mortality and morbidity, and the United States ranks very low, gets low grades on women and delivering babies compared to, you know, other countries. And Black women, you know, fare even worse. They die three-to-one times the rate of white women. So I would say, you know, in the health care arena we get — I’m trying to think of a grade, but I don’t know if it’s a C or even less than that.
And then when you look at our pay is still less, you know, than men from the same work. And again, if you’re a woman of color, you know, it’s even worse. So we have a lot of work to do in lifting up our women and the rights of women and what women get paid, women that are running, you know, corporations and entrepreneurs and things like that.
Interestingly enough, in Congress, looking at the Congressional Black Caucus, we started with 12 men and one female, Shirley Chisholm. And now there’s — is it 60 of us? Yeah, and 32 of us are women. So we’re coming on. And even in — period, you know, but on more the Democratic side, not the, you know, Republican side. There’s more women but nothing compared to, you know, the Democratic side.
But despite that, we’re still fighting tooth and nails for, you know, our rights. And when you think about women and working, like the issue around child care is so expensive and, you know, we didn’t have the babies by ourselves, but a lot of times, we’re still responsible. You know what I mean? And so just looking at things like that, you know, we need to do a lot better than we’re doing.
Richard Chew: I agree with you. I push really hard with guys. I said, “Listen, this is — we have to lean in, irrespective of our age. If you’re a 75-year-old male or if you’re a 20-year-old male, we have to lean in harder to help support and push issues and agendas to strengthen all of us, but certainly with women’s issues, because it impacts all of us. And a lot of men — I don’t think a lot of men get that, but I know that more men are getting it, and that’s somewhat encouraging to see. But it’s come from leadership, like your involvement with the Congressional Black Caucus and the Health Braintrust and all the things that you’re a part of.
What are some of the successes that you guys have seen recently with the with those two congressional groups?
Rep. Robin Kelly: Well, we — I feel like with the CBC — and it could be this way with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, but I’m a member of CBC. I feel that when I look at what happened with the infrastructure bill that we were able to pass — the Congressional Black Caucus at that time, under the leadership of Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, we were a big part of negotiating and getting that passed.
And one thing I give President Biden and the Biden-Harris administration so much credit, because they listened to us. You know, they listened to the different groups. You know, they consulted with us. We were at the White House, you know, giving, you know, our thoughts and those kind of things. For us, we, you know, won’t be satisfied until we can get the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed. And, you know, we see more equality in Black wealth, and we passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing [Act]. These things have passed in the House but we couldn’t get them passed in the Senate.
And then when we went in the minority, we couldn’t get, you know, things passed in the House. So that’s why we need the trifecta, you know, like we had, but then, you know, in the Senate, it’s just — it’s more than the majority to pass a bill. So it’s really tough when people say, how come you — this hasn’t happened, because we have to have the right people at the table voting at the same time, you know, in both houses. It’s tough.
Richard Chew: Right now, that’s a big conversation, in terms of what Congress is or is not doing. And I always try to let folks remind people — and I literally mean always — it’s the trifecta right now. Vice President Harris and Tim Walz win. We still need to have the Senate, House and state legislatures. And you were a part of that, so you totally understand the import of that. But I’ll ask you a couple of last questions, because I know you have a busy morning. And again, congratulations on the bipartisan spending bill getting passed.
Rep. Robin Kelly: Thanks.
Richard Chew: So we’re going to have you back because we love having you on again and talking about what you’re working on. But if you could, as we wrap up, give us a little bit of your vision, little bit of your goal for this next — your next term, these next two-plus years, and what do you want to see get taken care of, get accomplished?
Rep. Robin Kelly: Before I get to that, I just — right now my goal — to be able to see my vision is to make sure Vice President Harris becomes President Harris and Hakeem Jeffries becomes the speaker of the House. Because without that, it’s really tough.
But, you know, I have a very heavy health care portfolio. People still don’t have access — as much as we’ve done, more people still need access to health care. As I said, my district is urban, suburban and rural, and there are urban areas but also, in the suburban and rural areas, people have, you know, a hard time with where health care facilities are — enough doctors and nurses and doulas and people like that. So we’ll work on that.
I think gun violence prevention is a public health crisis. That’s what I ran on, and we still, as you know, have a lot, lot more work to do. Economic development is always in my mind for my district, as far as workforce development, you know, education and training. But I have bills that I’ve had in the hopper that haven’t seen the light of day. So hopefully, you know, they will see the light of day, and we’ll be able to move forward as not only my district and state but as a country.
Richard Chew: Civics 101, guys — House, Senate and the White House so that they can get stuff done and, as the congresswoman said, with Leader Hakeem Jeffries that will allow us to move things forward.
So as we let you go — and thank you so much for being with us–
Rep. Robin Kelly: Thank you.
Richard Chew: How can folks and listeners all over the country find you, support you, and be able to get behind your work.
Rep. Robin Kelly: Well, I have three offices in — one in Chicago – this is on the government side — one in Chicago, one in Matteson and one in Danville. You can just Google me, and everything comes up: Congresswoman Robin Kelly. Everything comes up both on the government side and then on the political side.
Richard Chew: Excellent. Excellent. Well, thank you so much, congresswoman, for being with us today.
Rep. Robin Kelly: Thank you.
Richard Chew: It’s a pleasure to have you on the show. We will keep your name loud and strong and proud because we know that what you’re doing, it means a lot to so many people in this diverse district that you represent. So have a great rest of the day. Stay strong and when you feel that push, that’s us from Chicago, just propping you up a little bit more. Okay?
Rep. Robin Kelly: I’m feeling it. (Laughter) Thanks so much. Have a great day.
Richard Chew: You, too. Bye now.
Catch “Chew’s Views with Richard Chew” weekdays from 6-8 a.m. CST on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820).
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October 1, 2024 at 02:51PM
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