Issue No.2. Kim R. Ford : U.S. Congress, Washington D.C. Delegate

Before we introduce the next candidate, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for the support and thoughtful feedback, and also for sharing Eleanor + Anna with your friends and families. This project has been on our minds for so long and it was really exciting (and anxiety-inducing) to see it out in the world -- but it would have been much less so had there been no one to read it. The conversations we’ve had in the last few weeks have been really interesting and stimulating, we know some really incredible people. So thanks, you are so very appreciated.

Cheese aside, we’re here to talk about Kim R. Ford. Ford is running for the U.S. Congress as the delegate from Washington D.C. There’s lots to unpack here, so bear with us.

First, Ford has to face long-time incumbent (since 1991!) Eleanor Holmes Norton in the Democratic primary. Norton was the first woman to hold her position, and is a well-known and celebrated feminist and civil rights activists. She’s 27th in seniority in the House, and is the second-longest serving member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Second, D.C. is interesting in that it doesn’t get a vote on the House floor, and is not represented at all in the Senate (even though residents pay federal taxes, shrug emoji). The delegate’s job, then, is to serve on committees and garner seniority and influence within their party, and this position has only been held by Democrats in the modern era. Some issues that are important to D.C. residents reflect those of many larger American cities: affordable housing, racial inequality, economic opportunity, transportation and infrastructure issues. But then there is the topic that makes D.C. unique: achieving statehood.

Ford is certainly aware of the challenge she faces in the primary, but she’s pretty used to being told no and going for it anyway. She’s steadfast in her stance that it’s time (all over the country) to give new voices a chance. While Ford may not have the D.C. credentials of Eleanor Holmes Norton, she is no stranger to public service and the needs of her city, as reflected by her career as acting assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (whew) and in the Recovery Implementation Office under President Obama, and as the dean of Workforce Development at UDC Community College. But this stuff is also in her genes, as the daughter of the late Dietra Ford, who also worked on Capitol Hill but was best known for being an advocate for small and minority-owned businesses.

Ford took the time to tell E+A about her plans for office, following her heart, what it means to be from the District, why confidence can save the world and how she sleeps at night.

Lightly edited for length and clarity.

E+A
Let’s start from the beginning, why, how, and when did you decide to run for office?

Ford
I grew up in DC, I’m from here. My family was always involved in politics and my Mom worked on the Hill, so I grew up spending time up on the Hill.  So my whole life has been seeing people in public service, and the things they’ve been able to do. Sometimes it takes time and sometimes it doesn’t fully materialize the way you want it to, but just being around people who were doing things to try and make people's lives better and the world a better place. The difference for me was my mom. People always wanted my mom to run for office, and she always said, “I think we can get more done behind the scenes than by being the elected person.” I believe that people behind the scenes get all the work done, but I also think you have to have the right person out front setting the vision. I’ve never said since day one I want to do such and such, but I knew that I wanted to serve folks. I’ve been a member of the DC Vote Board, and we haven’t been able to get traction on statehood or voting rights, and I’ve been sitting around whining about this with all my friends, and at some point you just have to look up and say, “Well I got to stop whining about it and do something about it.” You look and you say, “Well given my background, I’m actually qualified to do this.” My background is federal and local, I understand the things it takes, and I have not been an elected official before, but I know and I’ve seen them work and see how they get things done. At some point you have to poo or get off the pot, right?

E+A
Many people cite the election of Donald Trump as a motivating force in running for office. To what extent did the 2016 election influence your decision to make this the year you were going to run?

Ford
For me it was less about nationally what’s happened and more about locally what’s happening. We’re running out of time in DC to make sure that all populations have the opportunity to be successful. And we’re a place that has more jobs than people, we’re a place where whatever you want to do--Jesus, by this point, there’s medical marijuana practices--you can do anything and have success in DC. It’s a sizable population, but not so big that the problems aren’t solvable. There is no reason you can’t solve homelessness in DC. There’s no reason that everyone who wants a job can’t get a job in DC. These are things that if you can’t solve it in DC, you can’t do it in LA or Houston or Dallas or New York. If you can’t do it in a place where out of 700,000 people, 150,000 are struggling, then you can’t do it anywhere. I would love for Hillary to be president right now instead of this raging lunatic, but I don’t know that that would be any different in DC.

E+A
Can you talk a bit more about your past experience in politics? You said you have experience at both the federal and local level. To potential voters or readers out there who want to know what your qualifications are, what would you say to that?

Ford
I started in the auto industry and after that I said it’s time for politics. I got my Masters’ in Public Administration and got a call from one of my professors who said, “Hey, I just got appointed special advisor to the president, do you want to come to the White House?” And so I served in President Obama’s administration implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus bill, a $787 billion package. You know, when people talk about unemployment falling I’m like, “Yes! Yes!” It’s because of work we did nine years ago, it doesn’t happen overnight. I had responsibility for half that package, about $351 billion of it and half the federal agencies. And so I worked with each of those agencies to effectively implement the recovery act with no fault, waste, or abuse.

I was running around the White House telling people, “I’m from DC, I’m from DC, put me on a DC project,” and so they asked me to lead the neighborhood revitalization efforts for the Department of Homeland Security, which was consolidating its headquarters in the most economically disadvantaged part of the city. But on the DC side, there was no carrot no stick. And it was just so frustrating. Here is this great opportunity to do the right thing and try to help folks in this city, and we just couldn’t get anything done. I’ll never forget, we had this meeting with Homeland Security and GSA over the fact that DC residents weren’t getting hired because of credit checks. Seventy percent of the people who were applying for jobs were rejected because of credit issues, which is a requirement to work at the Department of Homeland Security. You don’t want people who are in debt, because they could technically be bribed. But this was the excavation phase-- the excavation phase. People were not able to get jobs digging dirt because of credit. If people can’t even get jobs digging dirt on this multi-billion dollar project, what chance do they have to work on anything? I got super frustrated and even though I had a bunch of opportunities to stay in the administration, I decided I really wanted to go local. I want to do stuff for DC.

I think it’s just the Federal Government. It’s one of the things that is also pronounced in Congress-people are there for a really long time. It’s a tenured system, just like academia. The longer you’re there the higher up you go. But the longer you’re there, the more jaded you get. So it’s not surprising that these systems lack innovation and they’re incredibly ineffective. It’s not that they’re not good people, but they’ve just been in it so long they can’t see what they can’t see.  We have people who have been there forever, good public servants, some of them a little crazy, but they were motivated at the right time to do something for people, and then they got into a system that has become such a cesspool of foolishness and toxicity, and the only way to get out of that is to change the people. So I’m running against a 27 year incumbent, and people say, “The race is about her until you make it about somebody else.” And I’m like, “No. After 27 years it’s not about all the great things you’ve done. It’s about the fact that you’re in a system that’s not working for us and there’s no way you can be the one who changes it. You just can’t.”

E+A
You’re running against Eleanor Holmes Norton who has been the incumbent since 1990, a very respected civil rights leader and elected official. What gives you the courage or the motivation to run against her for this office?

Ford
I really don’t see it as it being her position. Now, I’m one of apparently one who believes this. Because people will say, “You’re running for Eleanor’s seat?” And I’ll say, “No, no, no. It’s the 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia’s seats.” There is so much more we could be getting out of this office. So when I look, I say there’s no reason we should be sending back millions of dollars in affordable housing and workforce development. We’re sending millions back to the federal government. Millions! And, those are the two biggest issues we have in DC- affordable housing and workforce development.There are federal mechanisms that can help people recoup money from predatory financial practices. Our seniors are getting taken advantage of with predatory lending practices. There’s things we could be doing that we’re not doing.

I believe we’re seeing a shift in public service. It can no longer be, “I’m fantastic, let me tell you all the wonderful things I’m doing, and you’re just going to keep being with me because I’m me.” It has to be about the people. When was the last time we had a town hall in DC, probably not in 27 years. We should be engaging the residents. What are the issues? What are your concerns? How can we work as a region? We used to work with Republicans on the Hill. Now it’s just, if you’re a Republican we refuse to work with you and we’re fighting with you. And that can never work. And so when you’re compelled to service and you want to see people prosper, then you can’t then be afraid of this institution,We’re not saying she’s [Norton] not an institution or that she hasn’t done amazing work for the city. What we’re saying is it’s time for us to do more, and this role needs to be a different person with a different vision.

E+A
So, say you were to win, do you have concrete first steps of how you would be able to start to chip away at the systemic issues with politics and Congress? What are you prepared to do in office?

Ford
Here’s the things I think we can get done in ten years or less. And they start from day one. One, it really is about this relationship building. There’s going to be a wave in ‘18 and ‘20. And it’s not just going to be a Democratic wave, although I would like for it to be a Democratic wave. It’s going to be a rejection of status quo. Even when we see new Republicans coming, they’re not going to be the same Republicans we just had. We need to start with “Let’s work together,” not start with “You’re from the other party, therefore we don’t like you.” And we also have to stop playing this victim role. If you always believe that people are attacking you, then it’s like manifest destiny, that’s what will play out. We need to get Congress and their staff out to the real DC. We can’t continue to be this figment that is just on TV. This is a real place. People in public service should  care about the public. So we have to help them see that these are real people--with real hopes and dreams and businesses that are productive.

Every day I ask people, “Do you know that there are two federal constituent offices?” I have asked thousands of people this, and only one person knew, and this was because that one person actually works on federal affairs. What’s happened is that people are so fixated on the one thing we don’t have [statehood], that we’re not using all the power and authority that we do have. We actually have all the power and authority that all the other representatives have, we just don’t have the floor vote. But we’re not using all that power and authority. There are so many things that people could be taking advantage of that they’re not. One is changing our mindset around being the country's “petri dish.” We always look at it like, oh they always want to pilot on us. I say, how about we flip that, and suggest pilot programs that benefit the residents of the District of Columbia that then can be scaled and benefit the country. So I’m a huge proponent of piloting student loan forgiveness in DC. The New York Times has said it’s the greatest crisis of this generation. Great. Pilot it in DC. It won’t be that expensive, it benefits our residents, and other jurisdictions can learn from it, scale it. That’s shifting the way we look at our uniqueness. Instead of looking at the federal government as an imposition, let’s look at it as an asset.

We have to get the federal government out of our local matters, and it starts with the justice system. You know, the federal government controls our judicial matters. If you offend in Maryland, say it’s theft in Maryland, it’s a state charge--your record can be expunged and you do your state time in Maryland near your family and friends and support system. In DC, same offense--theft, is going to be a federal charge. You can’t ever expunge it, it travels with you everywhere and you are placed typically within 500 miles of DC. You get shipped off to Ohio nowhere near your support systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons has less programming than the state jails and prisons. So those are the things we’re going to do, ten years or less.

E+A
On that last one, what are the mechanisms in place to overturn that system?

Ford
DC was flat broke and we were looking at ways to save money. One of the ways to save money was to give up the judicial system, the justice system, which we did through the National Revitalization Act. Now, we don’t have that problem, and I don’t think anybody could see the multi-generational problems that that was going to set up, particularly for women. So we just have to repeal the law. Locally people in DC are debating whether we want to bring a jail back. The local side needs to figure that out, but from a congressional side, we need to rescind the law and then we can set up an agreement with Maryland and Virginia to pick the facilities that have the best programming. It keeps our folks closer to home, it gets them in better positions, and BOP (Bureau of Prisons) could care less, it’s a cost they absorbed. This was them actually doing us a favor.

E+A
You mentioned earlier how affordable housing is a priority for you. And homelessness is a big part of that conversation. What are some of your policy ideas--do you have pilot programs for DC in mind? How are you going to tackle that?

Ford
Well the first thing is that we have to stop returning federal funds. This goes back to this position and this position’s relationship to the local government. Because the other thing I’m fighting is that people have given up on this office. People don’t know what it does or what it could do. And they think that it’s largely ceremonial, which it’s not.  We cannot continue to keep sending federal funding back to the government.It’s the one place we’re treated the same as a state, but we’re sending it back.

E+A
Why is it being sent back?

Ford
There’s a lack of understanding on how the programs are supposed to spend, and there’s a lack of alignment between the delegate’s office getting the local agencies the technical support they need to implement the programs correctly. So when we send money back, everyone blames the mayor. You can’t say that the delegate’s office has no role in that when it’s federal funding. The delegate’s office should serve as the liaison. If you’re an agency head appointed by the mayor, you may or may not be a subject expert. Let us help you help the people we’re all sworn to serve together. Where we’ve totally gone off the rails in DC is we’ll send federal money back only to supplant it with local dollars. And I know this is super technical federal wonky terms, but it’s absurd. We need to get our stuff together. We can’t become a state until we start acting and functioning like a state. And one of the ways you act like a state, like all the other states, is you draw down your federal funds and spend appropriately. And when you do that, you get access to discretionary funds because you can prove that your programs work. That’s more of a systems issue. Not sexy, but it benefits you.

E+A
You mentioned a few things that are unique about DC. Could you touch for a moment on how representing DC in Congress differs from representing anywhere else?

Ford
I think it’s exciting, right? It’s different and unique in a special good way that we’re not taking advantage of. I really think that for any sort of legislation, DC would be a great partner for you to have on it. When you start talking about some of the big things, like national security and defense and the environment and all these big, huge issues, it’s not that those things don’t affect everyone per se, but there’s nothing that doesn’t affect DC. So I think it’s a real opportunity.

E+A
We know that getting statehood for DC is a part of your platform, what do you think the likelihood of that happening during the next ten years is?

Ford
I think we can get it in ten, but we have to change our approach. I think we have to have tangible outcomes on that road. We can’t keep saying “statehood or nothing,” because that just gets us nothing. We need to chip away at the federal hold on DC; get the federal government out of our justice matters, and get the federal government out of our local matters. We have to get the floor vote. We had the floor vote. We had the floor vote- we had it, we had it, we had it. Co-sponsored by Republicans, voted on and passed the House and the Senate. We pulled it for gun laws, and in hindsight most people say those got eroded anyways. The vote is the chip. You can’t keep going to the table demanding something if you don’t have a chip. So we gotta get the chip to get the ultimate thing we’re demanding. That goes back to getting the representatives and their staff out so that they see this is a real place with real people. Here they are talking about metro funding and they’ve never gotten on it,-they think it’s little trains between buildings. Go ride the metro, go meet our conductors. We’ve got some great conductors who say things like “step lively people.”

E+A
So putting the campaign aside for a minute, what women have had the biggest impact on your life?

Ford
My mom (Dietra L. Ford). She’s my hero. She passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly 18 years ago. I mean, everyone is biased about their parents, but she’s been gone 18 years and when I announced my candidacy, people were like, “You’re mom changed my life, I’m here for you.” That’s how much she impacted people. If I just become half of her I’d be proud. She was just such a great person. She had a life of public service and was incredibly effective -- a very humble, ethical, compassionate person, which, sadly, you don’t see a lot. You wouldn’t get these, “I’m fantastic” pontifications out of her.  And I gotta say, I loved Ann Richards, man. She was a handful. She’s one of these people where you just didn’t necessarily expect it. You know, it’s like it’s Texas, and she was very Texan, I’ll tell you that. But I just always liked her. Fiery, man.

E+A
Definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Ford
Right, you’d see her sitting around a table with all men drinking scotch and smoking cigars. And you could just see her saying, “No guys, we’re not going to do that.” And they’d be like, “Yeah, okay Ann.”  

E+A
Can you tell us about  the bravest thing you’ve ever done?

Ford
It’s gotta be this, right? Almost everywhere I show up people just think that I’m nuts, and then for the most part people come around. I just follow my heart and am pulled to certain things, and this is risky. I’m not working, I’m doing this 100% of the time, I’m going  to go flat broke. We’re seeing a lot of receptivity, but to some people this is an affront to an institution, an icon. And it’s not meant to be that. I reached out to the congresswoman when I filed and I spoke with her and let her know. To me it’s not about her, but to other people, some people think, “How dare you?You need to wait your turn.” But I’ve also had people say, “Man, you have a lot of balls to do this.” And I’m like, no I don’t, I’m a female, but okay. I think it takes a lot of courage to stand up and say that being a public servant sucks. Whether you’re an elected official or not, they’re usually incredibly hard jobs. If you care, it’s really, really hard. You spend so much time focused on the few things that didn’t go right or go well, rather than the success. It’s thankless. And especially on the elected official side, good grief people will just make stuff up. It’s just rough.

But having spent time with thousands and thousands of people who didn’t have someone in the room for them, that’s what it’s about. One of the things people always ask me about is the transition when it went from the Obama administration to DeVos. They’d say, “They must be crazy.” But what I couldn’t stand was the other career employees who on January 19th were one people, and January 21st were another -- not representing their students, and not fighting because they wanted to make sure that they were in good graces. I’m responsible for 25 million students, if I get fired I’ll be fine. I mean, I have to sleep at night. When you’re sworn in, you take an oath of office to serve in the federal government, and you swear to do everything right by the people you serve. That’s when you have to have all the courage in the world, when you’re the only one fighting for them.

E+A
Do you have (either personally or for the campaign) a song that pumps you up?

Ford
Yeah my song is Janet Jackson "Together Again." It goes back to my mom. But the song is like, “I know you’re still there watching over me and one day we’ll be together again.” And it’s a fun song. But I would also just throw in there that any Backyard gogo is a good uplifter. I’m from DC so every now and then you have a little skillet from Backyard and it’s like back to the good old days.

E+A
So if you won, how would you celebrate?

Ford
When I win, I am going to go somewhere and turn my phone off for some period of time and just exhale and try to release all of the negativity. It’s a tough process. One of the things somebody told me in the beginning, is people you thought you could count on will let you down in ways you never expected, and people you never expected will come through for you in ways you never expected. And it’s very true. And it’s weird. Because going back to being human, a person, I think we internalize the negative more than the positive. Why I always say I’m a public servant, is I see how politicians become the way they are. I see how they get mad, how they hold grudges. It’s not me and I refuse to become that. So I just have to detox, be in a place where I can forgive and release and let all that stuff go and then just really focus on what an incredible honor it is to serve the residents of the District of Columbia.

E+A
And finally, three things we ask every candidate. First, dead or alive, who would you take to dinner? and what would you ask them? 

Ford
My mom because she passed when I was 18 and I would love to sit with her as an adult and just have a conversation. We just never got to be friends. Not too long before she passed she went on a business trip and sent me this little pillow while I was at college. I’m looking at it now and it says “A daughter is just a little girl who grows up to be a friend.” And I see my friends and their relationships with their moms, we never got there. She and Eleanor were actually good friends. I had some epic failures in my personal life--I married the wrong guy, got divorced. And I feel like she would have been like, “Nooo, noo.” I feel like she would have seen it. I just think I’ve missed out on a lot of advice and guidance. But it’s also a part of my drive. I had to finish college because I knew she wouldn’t want me to not finish college. If she were here I know I’d still have the drive and everything. But some of it is linked to, these are the things I told me mom I was going to do.

E+A
Absolutely, kind of keeping you accountable.

Ford
Right.

E+A
In the spirit of the original Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt program, what is your drink + dog of choice? 

Ford
Well I love bubbles. Bubbles are great. Champagne, prosecco, cava. And in DC, we have a huge brunch thing, so everything is just bubbles. I could just brunch every day. I’m actually allergic to dogs, but those little miniature Yorkshire terriers are so cute with their little ears. But I’m allergic to dander. We’ve actually put it on the FAQs for living room chats, like “Do you have a cat?” Just so I know whether I need to be super doped up on Benadryl and my asthma medicine.No, but those miniature Yorkie terriers, not those teacup ones that pop out of people’s purses, because that’s creepy.

E+A
Last but not least, if you had a silver bullet to solve any world problem (not world peace)? 

Ford
I think it’s confidence. I know that people probably want to hear a policy issue, but what I saw at the community college while I was a Dean is that what we do there is restore hope and rebuild confidence. And that was always the crux of the student success initiatives, to treat people like people and make them know that they were invaluable and could do anything. And once that happened, you could literally see in people’s eyes when that switch goes on and they knew they could do this; I can finish this program, I can do this, I can start my business, I can be a better parent, I can run for office. And when they can do anything, then we can solve all the world’s problems.

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