Issue No. 5: Jen Lunsford (D) State Senate New York

June 20, 2018 // Issue No. 5
 

Big ups to Katie Hill for making it onto the ballot in CA’s primary!

Hello hello, 

With a few primaries behind us, and many to go, here at E+A we’ve started to take stock of how the surge of women running for office is translating at the ballot box. June 5th was a big primary day--voters from California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey and New Mexico headed to the polls to weigh in. So how did women fare? Upwards of 59 women advanced onto the general election after the results from the June 5th primaries rolled in. It was a night of potential firsts. Deb Haaland won the Democratic primary in New Mexico, giving her the chance to become the first Native American woman in Congress if she wins in the general. But the primaries also hinted that women are facing an uphill battle. As The New York Times pointed out, “The primaries on Tuesday also highlighted the [Democratic] party’s more traditional instincts where powerful executive offices are concerned: In three important governor’s races, Democrats passed over female and minority candidates to nominate well-funded, well-known white men.” In other words, (to a certain extent), it’s still about men and money.

But while many news outlets have done a great job of painting the big picture--with the trends, the stats, and the takeaways--here at E+A we want to dive into the local, the particular, the nitty gritty nature of what it takes to get elected. This week we turn our attention to Jen Lunsford, a lawyer and activist running for State Senate in upstate New York (yes, New York beyond New York city does exist). Running against incumbent Senator Rich Funke, Jen Lunsford threw her hat in the ring after the 2016 election. As an activist and lawyer, Lunsford is no stranger to stepping up to the plate--from joining Lawyers for Good Government to speaking at rallies and marches.

Lunsford sat down with E+A to talk about how Kirsten Gillibrand inspired her to run for office (toddler and all) and why women often wait longer in life to run for office. And in case you were wondering, Lunsford is a Ravenclaw.
 
Lightly edited for length and clarity.

E+A
So what happened? Was there a moment that crystallized, where you were like, “All right, I'm going to do this?” 

Lunsford
Like a lot of people I was really dismayed about the 2016 election.  I am a very political person--I have a political science undergrad degree and I interned for Hillary Clinton when she was a Senator.  I have never held an election office or worked in a real political setting, but I've done a lot of policy work. And I was so excited for the 2016 election. I went down to the polling place with my 8-week old baby, we took pictures.  

In Rochester, we have Susan B. Anthony's grave and there's a little tradition here where the ladies all get in line and we put our “I voted” sticker on her grave.  The line was 2-1/2 hours long. I stood there with my son, there's a selfie of me breastfeeding in line to put my “I voted” for Hillary Clinton sticker on Susan B. Anthony's grave because I'm the most feminist person in the whole wide world.  And I was holding him all night long. Around 2:00 in the morning I was sobbing into his little body saying, “I'm so sorry because I didn't know this was going to happen.” And when I went through the whole grieving process that everybody goes through and then pretty quickly, by noon the next day I was like, "All right, well now we have to fix everything."

I first became engaged with a group called Lawyers for Good Government. Lawyers for Good Government is really fascinating.  This woman named Traci Feit Love in Atlanta (an attorney) woke up on Wednesday morning after the election and she was like, "Alright, let me see if I can get some progressive attorneys.  We're going to need to help people as these policies come down and people are starting to get hurt. Maybe I can start a little Facebook group, get a couple of hundred lawyers together, we'll see what we can do."  By Wednesday around 2:00 pm in the afternoon I was number 800-something. On Friday there were 60,000 people. By Monday, there were 120,000. That's 2% of all barred attorneys in the country. 

E+A
That is insane.

Lunsford
Yeah. They're now a 501C3 and all of the states are organized as 501C4s.  I was co-chair of New York State. When there were lawyers at the airports, that was part us.  We set up DACA Clinics, we partnered with the Sierra Club. And basically we decided to act as the legal arm for existing organizations.  We didn’t need to free them at the wheel all that much. They were organizations that were already advocating for things or people who needed legal assistance. I also joined Rise Against.  I was the keynote speaker of the March for Truth in Syracuse. I partnered with Indivisible here. I organized some of their rallies, we did the Service Bill rally, obviously the women's march, and I was a speaker at one of the rallies to save health care because there was more than one.  But it didn't feel like enough. It felt like this was great and I was yelling at the sky and the people around me heard me, but it wasn't enough impact. And I'm the kind of person, because I'm an attorney, I'm busy. I need the time that I spend to have a tangible impact or it's not worth my effort.  

But I am also a service-minded person.  Someone who looks at a situation and says “Where do you need me?”  At my own events you'll see me moving tables or hanging banners. You need me to scoop potatoes, that's what I'll do. So I looked at our community and I said, "Okay, well where is the need?"  I was like, "Oh, we need someone to run for State Senate. I'll go do that." The average woman needs to be asked like seven times to run for office. I had to be asked like 70. And then finally someone who knows the Chairman of the local Democrats here said, "Oh, why don't you go sit down and have a meeting?"  So I said, "All right." I sat down with her thinking, "Oh, maybe I'll run for something." I walked out of that meeting ready to run for State Senate. Two and-a-half months later I announced my campaign. 

E+A
Okay.  So that makes sense.  

Lunsford
Yeah. I did that inside my head. That's just how I am though. I'm a fighter. When something happens my first reaction is to push back at it, and I'm going to tell you I have been doubling down with every twist and turn. I'm angrier and angrier and it increases my desire to fight and then Schneiderman, that one almost killed me.

E+A
That one was a real blow.

Lunsford
Schneiderman took the wind out of my sails because I had just met him. I had shaken his hand like three weeks ago. I gave him freakin' money.  

E+A
Yeah, because he just seemed like he was a good one. So you hit the ground running.  What happened next? What would you say your main campaign platform is at this point?

Lunsford
Well, in New York we're very lucky here to have a rather progressive legislature and governor.  But, do you know how messed up New York is?

New York has the 12th largest economy in the world.  It’s bigger than Russia, it's bigger than Italy. We have the power here to insulate ourselves against what's happening in the federal government. One of the issues that is big for me personally is health care. I did a lot of health care law, and New York has had a bill passed through the Assembly three years in a row only to die in the Senate (even though it has 30 cosponsors) called The New York Health Act.  The New York Health Act, which we call Medicare for All, because that makes people feel better in their tummies for some reason, is really Canadian style single-payer health care. Not socialized healthcare, but the State would pay your doctors as a single payer. That law, in addition to all the wonderful health benefits of getting everyone access to free healthcare, lowers your property tax because it removes Medicare from the county line. Do you know how much we spend in New York on property taxes just for Medicaid? It's bonkers. It will lower the cost of workers' comp as well because you wouldn't be paying the medical on that either.  It would alleviate the burdens on the workers' compensation court and on the regular court side here on no-fault arbitrations.  I'm a worker's comp and personal injury attorney so I do think of those things.

E+A
Okay.  So that's very specific and specialized.

Lunsford
The cost of childcare is also a major issue for me.  I'm a lawyer married to a project manager. I can afford the fancy pants commercial daycare center I send my kid to even though it costs more than our mortgage. But a lot of people can't, and it's removing people from the workforce, disproportionately women.  It's causing people to have to choose between their careers and having children. We need to find ways to help people who need to work afford daycare and people who want to work stay in the workforce.

E+A
Right. On that point, can you tell us a bit about your District and what kind of people live there and sort of what you're up against as far as getting elected?  

Lunsford
So this District is incredibly diverse and gerrymandered all to hell.  Most of the districts upstate are wide and big. But my district is skinny and runs down in between a few other districts.  We run through two counties, Monroe and Ontario. We have kind of lower middle class and middle class suburbs, the fancy pants rich people suburb, the east side of the city which is like the higher income part of the city, and then a swath of Rochester where it’s predominantly Latino.  In parts of the neighborhood the district is split straight down the street, where I'd represent one side of the street but not the other. And then it dips down and goes all the way to Naples, New York which is the God's country.

I probably have the most diverse District in the area. And it's predominantly white. 

E+A
Right. So what's the political makeup of the District?

Lunsford
So in New York the Assembly gets gerrymandered towards Democrats and the Senate gets gerrymandered towards  Republicans. However, my District has 22,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. The makeup has changed slightly over time, but it has always been a purple District and it was held by a Democrat as recently as 2014.  The conservative party here is pretty active, however, we have an enormous amount of independents. My opponent is Rich Funke. He is a beloved local news anchor. He was a sportscaster here for 30 years and for probably the last 5 or 6 years of his career he was the main newscaster on NBC.  

E+A
What's your plan?

Lunsford
Turnout. Turnout. We are in an interesting situation now. We had two special elections in April that flipped the Senate, technically speaking, to a Democratic majority. But because we are an incredibly dysfunctional State, we don’t actually have a Democratic majority as we stand here right now even though there is one more elected Democrat than Republican in the Senate.  The plan is to say, "Hey, we need a voice in this region in the new majority. If you vote for the incumbent you're just putting another minority vote in there who's not going to get anything done.  You want that? Or do you want someone who can actually work for you with the majority as it's going to exist and be the voice for this District that we need." And not just for this District but the whole region.  There isn't another Democrat until you hit Buffalo.

And let's talk about women for a second. 

E+A
Yes, let's do.

Lunsford
Right now we have 63 Senators- 14 who are women, and one of them just announced her retirement.

E+A
Okay.  So that's pretty bad percentage. Has that been part of your messaging or platform?

Lunsford
It has been.  It has been for both groups, although it's funny-- I was in this outlying suburb, it's actually one of the more gerrymandered parts of my District, but I met with each of the town Democratic Committees in the public library and they told me not to mention that I was a woman. They thought that it was divisive and I'm like, "Okay."  Although I don't think I can hide it.

E+A
It's going to come up at some point.  Interesting. I mean at a certain point there's really nothing you can do about the people who find it divisive that you're a woman. So what are the pressing issues in your District?  

Lunsford
Well, healthcare is always an issue with everybody.  As a personal injury/workers' compensation and Social Security Disability attorney, I see what happens when people become suddenly sick or suddenly injured.  And I see across party lines no matter how old you are, your race, your religion, your job, it's going to destroy you.

I like people. My opponent does not seem to care much for the service part of the job, whereas that's why I'm in it. Helping people who have issues identify potential solutions and working towards that goal together is what I do, and it's what I've done my entire legal career.  

However, the number one issue across all of New York State  is property taxes. New York is one of the highest property tax states in the entire Union and we just got screwed royally by the Republicans in Washington. Removing the property tax write offs, the SALT write-offs, is going to hit New York very, very hard. There's a small carve out up to $10,000 that expires in three years, and we need to figure out as a state how to get ahead of that. The New York Health Act will affect our property taxes in a positive way.  The challenge is to figure out how to keep New York progressive and to maintain the services that make us a good state to live in, without decimating our school systems and our social services -- all of these things that my opponent calls unfunded mandates because that's a big scary word. He doesn't ever tell you what those things are, how they're important and how they impact our community. For example, unfunded mandates like Medicaid pay for people's healthcare and allow disabled people to function in society.  The pressing issues are finding ways to maintain all of those services while making New York an affordable place to grow and to thrive. 

We all have the same goals regardless of our political affiliations.  We want safer schools, we want quality schools, we want safe communities, healthy places to live and we want good job opportunities and higher wages.  The thing we disagree about is how to get there. If we can start talking about goals rather than differences I feel like there's a way to bridge the gaps that we're seeing.  

E+A
We have been noticing narratives that make it seem like if you're not in New York City or Los Angeles then you don't understand anyone else and they don't understand you.  Other narratives suggest that it's rural versus urban. How do you bring people along with the idea of single payer healthcare? How do you talk to people you want to bring along?  

Lunsford
I am a very fact-based arguer. I'm a lawyer. I care very much about logical arguments that are backed up in reality. And I have had to teach myself that that doesn't really matter when you're talking to people. You need to just tell them what something achieves rather than how you get there. You tell them you're going to get free healthcare and your property taxes are going to be lowered. That's what you say and that's the end of it. Now if they ask you questions great.  

I think people hear single payer and they think socialized medicine. Some studies that show that ‘socialized medicine’ freaks people out, and I've been told a number of times not to say ‘single payer,’ just say Medicare for all.  But it's not Medicare for all, and it drives me bonkers. You have to figure out a way to jump over the words they have preconceived notions about. 

It's very, very hard to talk about something like immigration.  You just say the word immigration and there is a value laden idea that follows it, regardless of which side you're on, so you need to find words that don't mean things to people already and use those words.  

E+A
In marketing the analogy is that every single person know smoking cigarettes is bad for you,  but people really like smoking. So you're not going to tell a cigarette smoker that it's bad for them, you have to appeal to their emotions and find something that means something to them.  

Lunsford
You also need to talk about the economic argument.  What's going to happen to all the people who work in the insurance industry in the city?  How do I tell them I'm not stealing their job? The people, especially with healthcare, they know the moral argument, everyone has been screwed over by an insurance company.  That's perspective we need to understand, that the people who disagree with me aren't bad people, they just think about the world differently.

Let's talk about guns for a second.  I did not expect to be running so hard on guns right from the get go. I'm a ‘Moms Demand Action Gun Sense’ candidate. This is a very divisive issue in my District  People like guns. I'm not a gun person, but I understand. I'm a lawyer and I understand how the Constitution works and that you are allowed to place reasonable limits on civil rights,  we already do it with the Second Amendment. The problem that we have with the gun debate right now is the NRA, whose sole purpose is to make you afraid that your Second Amendment rights are being abridged.  They don't care at all about an individual's right to own a gun. They care about a corporation's right to sell them a gun. So I really started thinking, ‘What is the difference, where is the binary position from which we cannot argue?’  What it comes down to is that there are two kinds of people. People who feel safe with a gun in the house and people who feel less safe with a gun in the house. You will never get those people on the same page, so you have to figure out another way to come at it, and what I have been saying is responsible legal gun owners should agree with me. Shouldn't we create a system of regulation that protects you from the kinds of people who aren't as responsible as you are? 

March for Our Lives was bigger than the Women's March and the Women's March was pretty big here.  I couldn't find parking and I got teary eyed. What they did here that they did not do at the Women's March, they blocked off the main streets with snow plows so you couldn’t run a car through the crowd. I hadn't considered that as a threat until I saw that snowplow. I had my baby and husband stay home because I didn't want them at an anti-gun rally because I was afraid that that was the kind of thing a lunatic might target. 

I was 17 during Columbine in 1999. I was the same age as many of the victims and we didn't have active shooter drills when I was a kid, but it's our generation and older generations that are kind of giving up on guns and saying that oh well this is just how it is now.  But the kids who grew up with the active shooter drills are like wait, wait, wait, wait. This doesn't make any sense why are doing this? I find that fascinating. 

E+A
It's been really interesting to watch this new generation taking responsibility.  

Lunsford
The kids are the difference because they are giving you permission. I get to stand on the shoulders of these kids not the other way around.  

E+A
I hope we can convey the passion that you have for these issues, it's palpable. So, to go in another direction entirely,  if you were to name a woman who's had the biggest impact or influence on your life who would it be and why?

Lunsford
Little bits and pieces of people have impacted me throughout my life. When I was thinking about running, my son was a year old, and I was like, “Can I do this?”  I have a full-time job, so does my husband, he travels, he's in freakin' Paris right now. I have this little kid who I just got used to. Why would I add this unbelievably difficult thing in my life?  A friend of mine said read Off the Sidelines by Kirsten Gillibrand.  I got it from the library and I read it a couple of pages at a time before I passed out.  Kirsten Gillibrand ran for office with a toddler. She ran for Congress as a first-time candidate.  Her situation was different, she was much more financially stable. So she had a different situation, but she also had a bigger list. There is a picture of her changing her infant's diaper on the Governor's desk right before she goes out to announce that she is going to accept the nomination for the Senate. To this day you can't bring kids out on the Senate floor after they turn one. When she has childcare issues and there's a late vote, she would stand from the hallway with her kids, stick her head in the door and vote. I'm like, “Okay, I guess if you can do that I can do that.”

E+A
That’s a story about her we hadn’t heard.

Lunsford
A man similarly qualified to me would have run ten years ago.  But I think of all the millions of reasons that I don't feel qualified and I don't feel ready.  Women who have been sitting on the sidelines, who are objectively qualified to run are now standing up and saying “Why not me?”

E+A
So that takes a certain amount of composure and confidence. Do you have embarrassing moments or a time when you didn’t feel this strength?  

Lunsford
One of the things that makes me qualified to do this is I don't embarrass easily.  I lack the shame gene. But...the most embarrassing story is so simple: I told a boy I liked him.  He not only rejected me, he told his friends, and they made fun of me for months. There was no reason to humiliate me like that.  I’ve had very serious things happen in work situations where I felt out of control or I felt like I hadn’t done the best job I can do and nothing compares to that dude humiliating me in seventh grade.

E+A
It’s just such a formative time. It’s a really funny common theme in these interviews, where everyone’s like “I don’t embarrass easily.”  It’s like oh good, then you should run for political office. That’s great. We love that.

Lunsford
You have to be like that.

E+A
What about culture stuff?  Do you have a favorite song?

Lunsford
I wish I did.  I should. My husband makes fun of me that my musical taste was born and died in 1994.

E+A
Awesome.

Lunsford
My favorite song, the one you listen to if it’s the last song before you die, would be “Hunter Strike” by Temple Dog.  I like grunge. I will say that right as I was gearing up at the beginning of my campaign Kesha was out with “Prayer.” And I was just like “damn straight.”

E+A
We felt the same way. She’s a brave woman. What do you do for fun?  With your baby, without your baby? 

Lunsford
I wish it was a better answer than watch TV, but that’s all I have time for, and I try to make a little bit of time for it every day, because if I go straight to bed I dream about work.  Though I used to read a lot too.

E+A
What are you currently watching?  

Lunsford
I’ve been watching a lot of Handmaid’s Tale but only in small doses.  I can’t binge it like I could other shows because it’s too real.  I mix stuff up, like I’m watching all the Silicon Valley from this season  but I’ve also never watched Star Trek in my entire life, so I watched Next Generation as the thing that was on while I was doing other things.   I’m a secret nerd, but I’m not the Star Trek kind of nerd, I’m a Harry Potter nerd.  I listen to the entire Harry Potter series on audio book once a year.  I think I’ve listened to the whole thing 15 times.

E+A
Okay.  So what house are you in?

Lunsford
Oh, I’m Ravenclaw. First, because I was sorted officially like a dork, but also because I am probably smarter than I am brave.

E+A
That’s an interesting characterization of Ravenclaw.

Lunsford
Harry Potter is about friendship and bravery and fighting for what’s right even when it’s hard.  

E+A
There’s such evil in Harry Potter.  

Lunsford
The fascinating part, and I could talk about Harry Potter all day long, it’s not Voldemort, it’s Umbridge. Dolores Umbridge is the most violent character anyone has ever created. Voldemort’s motivation is so pure that you’re like, “You’re evil because that’s just how you are.”  She’s sadistic and acting like she’s not. She acts like she’s in the right and justifies all of her horrible behavior. It’s so analogous to now, you have a government telling you that something bad is not happening and you’re looking at the bad thing.

E+A
Yeah. Which of the kids do you identify with the most?

Lunsford
Oh, obviously Hermione. I am a know-it-all nerd with a compulsion to correct people.  

E+A
Did you ever watch Parks & Rec?  Leslie Knope is also a self-proclaimed Hermione.

Lunsford
So my husband, being a very supportive man, got for my campaign office both the headshot of Hillary Clinton that she [Amy Poehler] has on her desk and also a picture of Leslie Knope sitting at her desk, both for me to put behind me at my campaign desk. I know some people who know some people, and I got Amy Poehler's contact information, cause I was going to send her my first campaign flyer to tell her that Leslie Knope is the reason I ran for office.  I’m chickening out. It seems like it’s dorky to do.

E+A
She would love that.  Find the courage!

Lunsford
I think Leslie Knope is my spirit animal.

E+A
If you could put together your ideal dinner party, who would be your guests, and why? 

Lunsford
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is my crush and I think she would get along well with Ida B. Wells because they are both badass bitches who fight for equality.  I've read that Nikola Tesla was a wonderful, highly sought after dinner party guest and I think he's amazing. I imagine he and Carl Sagan would have a lot to talk about, and Carl Sagan is a charismatic, funny guy.  Stephen Fry is the glue.

E+A
Yeah.  We would not have thought of that.  Good. All right. So do you have a drink of choice?

Lunsford
I have never been drunk my entire life.

E+A
Wow. Rare these days!

Lunsford
I am not one who drinks alcohol for a variety of reasons that mostly have to do with the fact I don’t like alcohol, I don’t like the taste of it, so I’m not paying you $9.00 for it.  But I think also the fact that I don’t like being out of control in any way. But I mostly drink flavored seltzers. 

E+A
Oh like do you drink LaCroix?

Lunsford
I do.  

E+A
What kind is your favorite?

Lunsford
There’s a cucumber something that I really like. I also really like Arnold Palmers. I remember inventing that in my kitchen when I was five and thinking I was really smart.  The thing that I made that no one’s ever thought of before.

E+A
It is objectively one of the best drinks that exists.

Lunsford
Yes.

E+A
Do you like animals?  Do you like dogs?

Lunsford
So I love animals and but for my horrible debilitating allergies would like to be in the animal industry.  So I am crazy allergic to cats, but that did not stop me from having a cat for 15 years and taking a variety of medications.  I also grew up with dogs, I’ve had lizards and birds and hamsters. But I do have a pet. I have a sugar glider.

E+A
What’s that?

Lunsford
So a sugar glider, you should google it, they are a marsupium.  They’re about the size of a chipmunk. They fly like a flying squirrel.

E+A
Oh my God.  It’s so cute.

Lunsford
And they eat with their hands.  I have a video of them eating like they eat like people.

E+A
Yeah.  Like a little squirrel.  Oh my gosh. Okay. You just sent us down the rabbit hole of sugar gliders for the rest of the night.  That’s fine. Last question, if you had a silver bullet that could solve any major problem in this world, and this is not a pageant, so you may not say world peace, what would it be and why?  What problem would you solve?

Lunsford  
I think about it all the time. I fantasize about what powers I would want and if I had one wish; this is what I do when I fall asleep so I already have an answer for this.  Climate change because it is the hardest problem to fix that would have the biggest impact on everyone. If I have this power in my hand I would fix climate change because if that is the number one threat to everyone in the world, it’s a health threat, it’s a national security threat, it’s a threat to our very existence and we are acting like it’s not a problem.  

E+A
Locked and loaded.  

Lunsford
This is how I fantasize at night.  This is what I do with my brain time.  

E+A
I mean there are worse ways to spend your brain time.  

Lunsford
The super power I would have is the art of persuasion just because it would be very convenient with the job that I have.  

E+A
Yeah, it would.  And with running for office as well.  Art of persuasion would be really good.   Well, okay, this was awesome. Thank you so much.   let you go and get on with your many responsibilities including your sugar glider and also your human child.    

Lunsford
Yes. Both of which are in need of my attention now.
Thanks for spending time with Eleanor + Anna. If you want to see a candidate interviewed here, send us an email at hello@eleanorandanna.com or tweet to @eleanorandanna. And remember to share with your friends!