Millennial in the House
An interview with MN Rep. Erin Maye Quade
Elected for the first time in 2016, Representative Erin Maye Quade represents District 57A in the Minnesota House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. As a gay woman of color who also happens to be one of the youngest members of the Minnesota Legislature, Rep. Maye Quade’s election has brought, in the eyes of many, a fresh breath of air to a relatively homogeneous legislature. She sits down with The Progressive Times to tell us more.
Note: Responses have been edited for clarity.
TPT: Thank you for joining us, Representative Maye Quade. To get started, could you tell our readers a little bit about your background and what inspired you to run for office?
EMQ: I was born in the district that I represent, I’ve lived there my whole life, and shortly after college I worked for then-Senator Obama in his field office in Denver. When I came back to Minnesota I worked for Governor Dayton’s campaign in 2010, and I worked for Congressman Keith Ellison starting in 2014. I’ve always loved policy, I’ve always loved our government and democracy, and I’ve really always loved connecting people to their government and to their elected officials. So, after the 2014 election, Congressman Ellison asked me if I was going to run for office. I hadn’t really thought about it, and I said “maybe one day”. And he said, “well, what are you waiting for?” and I really didn’t have an answer for that. He had asked me that question because I was telling him about how childhood poverty in my community had gone up 380 percent since I graduated high school, and I hadn’t heard anybody talking about it. I was so distressed, and I wanted to use his office to work with the Sheridan Story to help give meals to kids who faced the weekend hunger gap. So, in response to that he asked me, “why don’t you run for office and effect the policy?” That’s when I decided to run.
TPT: Taking a look at the demographic breakdown of the Minnesota House, I see a lot of older white men with a few terms under their belt. As a millennial woman of color in your first term, do you think your identity has been more of a source of strength or an impediment in such a relatively non-diverse legislative body?
EMQ: Well, I think it’s always going to be a strength because as you so aptly noted, there are a lot of folks in this legislature on both sides of the aisle who have a lot of the same life experiences. Being a millennial, being a woman of color, being gay, I have different life experiences, and so I feel that often I’m the only one or one of a few offering a different viewpoint on a policy or on a bill. I think that I’ve crafted a lot of relationships, and I think that that’s really important because people care about what I think and I’ve really enjoyed being that voice. I hope that my being here will help people to think about things beyond their own life experiences and beyond their own small circles, but also make space for other folks that are not like me to join the legislature and have a seat at the table in making policy.
TPT: In that same vein, it’s pretty clear to most people that we need more diversity in government. What would you say is the biggest reason why we don’t see more young people, LGBT individuals, etc. running for office?
EMQ: I think there’s a few pieces to this. Women in particular need to be asked to run for office, I think, seven times before they’ll consider doing it. They’ll say to themselves, I don’t have enough experience, I don’t have enough education, I don’t have enough of something to run for office. That’s not always the case with men. The youngest members of our legislature are men, and one of my opponents in this past election could have been a 22-year-old man. I think that for men, they feel more that of course they could do this, while women feel that they don’t know if they can but they would like to. For young folks, I think there’s just a feeling that the government hasn’t worked out very well for them. Student loan debt is booming, buying a house is only obtainable if your parents have wealth. They voted yesterday to allow networks to sell our information, and that’s not something I think millennials are supportive of, regardless of their ideology. So, it just feels like what we think and feel as young people is so not reflected back in our elected officials, so why would you want to participate in something that so clearly doesn’t represent what we stand for? So, I think that’s part of it. The other part is that it takes a lot of money to run for office. As I noted, millennials don’t have a ton of wealth in general, and that means that our networks don’t have a lot of wealth. My young network of people would do five, ten dollars at a time. That’s great, but they’re politically motivated, and if you have a network of people who don’t really care about politics, fundraising will be really hard. And then the pay is not that great. So, we have a bunch of barriers in place that would naturally filter out the folks that we desire to see in our elected offices.
TPT: And drawing off of your own experience, how do you think we should go about bring more of these underrepresented demographics into our government and encouraging them to run?
EMQ: I think that for me, my goal has been to reach out, to ask, and support, and to be there for people as they consider doing this so that they take that leap. I think it’s hard. I’ve told this story a few times, but my first week in office I was called a racial slur by somebody who thought it was the appropriate term to refer to a biracial person. So I think there’s this very justifiable fear that even if I do win as a young person or a person of color, it’s going to be hard. They’re not wrong, but I also think it takes the right person to say that I’m willing to endure some of this for the greater goal of being at the table. I don’t think it’s everyone’s desire to suffer through micro- and macro-aggressions for that greater goal, so it’s finding those people who feel like this is the place where they want to do that work. It’s also about getting together networks so we can fundraise for those people even if their networks aren’t wealthy, as well as having that support system once they’re in office.
TPT: Now, shifting gears a bit, you were endorsed on the campaign trail by Bernie Sanders’ group, Our Revolution, so clearly you align pretty strongly with Senator Sanders’ positions. Of course, perhaps Bernie’s most controversial characteristic was his open self-characterization as a “democratic socialist”. Would you characterize yourself the same way? If not, how would you characterize yourself?
EMQ: I would say that I’m a progressive libertarian. I’m left, and then there’s that libertarianism of civil liberties that runs as a streak right through how I feel. I think that ideology is hard. I like my policy without a dose of politics, you know, politics actually isn’t my favorite thing in the world. I really enjoy figuring out how we can craft policy that benefits people, and I don’t do as well with ideologies or politics as some other people do. I always say that some people are really good at governing and some people are really good at running for office, and I tend to think that I’m better at being in office than I am at running for it.
TPT: How do you strike a balance between your progressive convictions and the need for bipartisan compromise when it comes time to work across the aisle, particularly with the existing Republican majority?
EMQ: One thing that I say a lot is that there is so much that elected officials agree on that is just generally good for society and the state of Minnesota. We know that, but then you insert that politics. For example, take early childhood education. It’s Governor Dayton’s favorite thing, and I’m pretty sure widely supported across party lines. We know that when we invest in our youngest learners, we have incredible outcomes. We know that early learning has the best return on investment, yet the Republican education proposal doesn’t fund it at all. So, that’s where we see politics get inserted into our politics. It’s a dig at Governor Dayton, and it’s a negotiating point for the Republicans because they know it’s his favorite thing. I think that reaching across the aisle isn’t as hard as it appears to be because we’re not that far apart in what we believe. There’s differences in policy, yes, but the ideological differences aren’t that present and yet that’s what gets elevated and that’s what we choose to amplify over and over and over again. So, for me, reaching across the aisle hasn’t been that hard at all. If you look at the bills that I’ve coauthored or chief authored, it’s a pretty even split between Republicans and Democrats. I don’t know how we get less political or partisan about our policy, but I think we need to do more of that and we as legislators need to amplify that. We don’t reward bipartisanship, though we often call for it. I’m not really sure how to make it all better, but I do know that the ability to do it is there.
TPT: Let’s say that hypothetically, you walked into work tomorrow and found that we had gained a progressive majority in the Minnesota Legislature overnight. What would be the top three policies you would push for?
EMQ: Oh my goodness, that’s a great question. So, I think the top three policies that I would push for would be huge investments in our education system just right off the bat, from Pre-K all the way through higher education. It’s one of the best things that we can do as a state to invest in our students, and when we have a surplus, I really think that’s what we should be talking about. I’d also love to talk about how we can reform our criminal justice system. We need to decriminalize a bunch of things, we need to do sentencing reform, we do not need to invest in private prisons. We need to invest in mental health, I think, is the biggest one. We piecemeal that one, with a little bit of money for this type of program and a little bit of money for this other one. We need to have mental health parity. If you have depression, it’s just as dangerous as if you have a broken leg, and it needs to be treated just as seriously as physical injury. And then we need to protect our healthcare market and our environment because of what’s happening at the federal level. I think there’s a lot that Minnesota as a state can do to protect itself from the most harmful policies that we see coming out of Washington.
TPT: Recently, the Minnesota House controversially passed HF600, which for those readers who are unaware, strips the rights of local jurisdictions to set their own labor standards such as sick leave, minimum wage, etc. This bill, although primarily supported by Republicans, was coauthored by a few Democrats. What are your thoughts on members of your party supporting this bill?
EMQ: First of all, I spoke out very strongly against the bill with the author and I spoke out against it on the floor. I think this is one of the worst policies we could pass, it moves us in the wrong direction and takes away local control, and it takes away the earned sick and safe time of 150,000 Minnesotans, some of whom live in my district. It’s beyond me why this is a priority for anybody. So, to the members of my own party, I in caucus explained why no one should vote for this bill, especially Democrats. I think that there are some members of my party who just know what they do and don’t support, and they’re not really moved by what I have to say or what other folks have to say. Everyone’s got to vote their district and they have to vote their conscience, but if I had it my way, no one would have voted for this bill regardless of party.
TPT: Now, I’d like to end on a broader question: as the only state representative in Minnesota this past election to flip your district from red to blue, what strategies do you think the Democrats should apply to achieve similar success on a large scale in 2018’s midterms and beyond?
EMQ: I was honest with my district. No one was confused about what I stood for and why, and I didn’t try to make my positions on issues based on what the polls told me they should be. It was this is the right thing to do or this is what is best for Minnesota and our community, and I was honest about that with constituents. Even at the doors, when someone would say that they do or don’t support this issue knowing that I felt the opposite, I would say honestly, “Here’s how I feel about that. However, what are some other things you care about and how can we work together on those things?” I think people really responded to my honesty, my candor, and my desire to more than anything be a transparent and acceptable legislator. People would prefer to have access to me and transparency from me and connectedness with their government more than ideological purity. Even recognizing that every district is different, I think being born and raised in the community that I represent now meant I reflected back to voters all of their community’s values. Whether they aligned politically or not, the values are the same. For Democrats, I think we really need to start digging down and making sure that all of our candidates know their districts and are honest with their constituents rather than running away from what they believe. I think that is one of the best things I did with my election.
TPT: Representative Maye Quade, thank you once again for your time. Keep fighting the good fight.
