I have a longstanding unofficial policy on my podcast The Gray Area: Don’t interview politicians.
The reason is that most — and I emphasize most — politicians are so concerned about optics and messaging that they can’t help but speak in banal sound bites. It’s boring and predictable. And in theory at least, my show is an attempt to get beyond that stuff.
But I decided to make an exception for the California Congress member and Senate candidate Katie Porter. She’s served in Congress since 2019, and her style of working-class politics has always been interesting to me. Despite her Ivy League roots, she’s developed a pretty convincing populist appeal in Congress. Indeed, if you caught any headlines in the last few years with her name in them, it was probably about one of her whiteboard performances in congressional hearings.
Since she’s got a new book out, called I Swear, I decided to invite her onto the show to talk about her approach to politics, why the Democrats have a branding problem, and what’s wrong with Congress (spoiler alert: a lot, starting with its blind spots on wealth and privilege). Below is an excerpt, edited for length and clarity.
As always, you can listen and follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday.
Sean Illing
There’s a ton in your book about class divisions and how they play out in Congress. We all know that Congress is full of rich people, but were you surprised by how much class shaped politics across party lines?
Katie Porter
I had a sense, as do many Americans, that somehow people serve in Congress and end up millionaires. What I learned as a candidate, even before I got to Congress, was that you get to Congress because you’re a millionaire. That’s where all the advantages are in our campaign process. Parties go to people who are themselves wealthy, who know other wealthy people, who have family who…
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