"Be a badass like me"

What Jan Schakowsky's endorsement means to me.

To explain what Jan Schakowsky’s endorsement means to me, I need to rewind the clock a long way.

I was a young math professor, newly arrived in Chicago, and shaken to my core by the way President Bush was lying our country into a war in Iraq, and by how many Democrats who knew better either went along with it or were scared to speak out.

But not Jan.

She was fierce and fearless, not only in voting the right way but aggressively organizing, both in the House and in the streets.

Jan’s moral clarity and courage were part of what moved me to start organizing, eventually partnering with her political organization to send thousands of people from across our region to knock on doors in Wisconsin in an effort to defeat George W. Bush. She was demonstrating remarkable leadership of her own, while also living out the idea that the truest power comes from ordinary people banding together to make change. She gave me hope.

This was all very inspiring but also, let me be honest: I was intimidated by Jan.

She was this tiny ball of fire, willing to stand up to anyone from the president on down. The idea of being on the other side of her righteous passion was daunting.

Over the years as I got to know Jan better and she became a friend and fellow elected official serving many of the same constituents, I learned that her intensity was unfailingly deployed on behalf of the voiceless and toward those with the power to do something useful. It wasn’t something to be feared; it was a model to emulate.

She’s not intimidated by fancy titles, pessimistic conventional wisdom, or long odds. She knows that her job gives her a remarkably effective tool to fight for justice, and she also knows that if she gives in to the social pressures that cause most politicians to play it safe she’ll relinquish most of that power.

So Jan shrugs off those pressures and she fights – for peace, for justice, for people and the planet – and she wins.

I’ve tried to keep that example in the front of my mind as I’ve handled tough issues in my own public service career. Sometimes I call Jan for advice; other times, I just ask myself what Jan would do. During this last year, in all of our conversations, I’ve been moved not only by her horror at the Trump administration’s vicious attacks on our community, but also by her insistence that we fight back with everything we have, no matter how hard or risky it feels.

Jan ended one of our last conversations before finalizing her endorsement with one simple condition: “listen, if I’m going to do this, you just need to promise me one thing. If you win, you need to be a badass like me.”

I promise, Jan.