Katie Porter, U.S. Representative, The 45th District of California
Interviewer: Beth Kowitt, Fortune

Most Powerful Women 2022 - Challenging Corporate Accountability, One Whiteboard At A Time

Challenging Corporate Accountability

So instead of the index cards, I thought about bringing a white board to help introduce our next conversation, but I cannot compete with our next speaker because no one uses the white word quite like her. Um Congresswoman Katie Porter represents the 45th district of California, which is not that far from where we are now. She is known for her straight talk, matter of fact, direct line of questioning while grilling witnesses including C. E. O. S. In congressional hearings. She is a former law professor and single mom whose style, substance and stance on the issues has helped shoot her to political prominence in just a few short years after she took her congressional seat in 2019. Uh Congresswoman Porter is facing reelection next month and we're so grateful that she made the time to join my colleague Beth Cohen today to talk about what lies ahead. Please join me in welcoming congresswoman Porter and best to the stage. Welcome congresswoman. We're so thrilled to have you with us. Thank you. Uh Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in the middle of a busy re election campaign season. So thank you for making the time I want to start on the single mom piece, which um, Maria mentioned because there are so few of you in congress. Why is that? And why does that? Yes. Okay. One, there were two, but the other one got engaged. Okay. To a rich guy wasn't that bad looking really when I checked why why is it the problem? And why does it, how can we, how can it change? Yes. So I mean, congress responds to the problems that they see and they can't see and do anything about things that they don't know about. So this gives way to what I call on Congress. Did. You know? So you're standing on the house floor, There's a lot of pushing and shoving. It's kind of like a bad cocktail party vibe where everyone's trying to get to the bar, except the bar is just the ability to vote right? And people will come up and say, did you know that childcare across more than college? Yes, Yes. Did you know that bacon is $8 a pound? Yes. Right. And but these people have just discovered these problems that I encounter, like every minute of every day, just because of who I am and the life that I lead. And so, you know, the, the gap, the more we can close the gap between Congress knowing what's going on. Um, and what's really going on, the more we can close that, that really helps us spring into action faster. And this was a huge problem during the pandemic. I remember saying to my staff, you know, a month, maybe two weeks even after the California closed down after schools were closed. This is gonna be a huge problem. We need to do something about this. This is gonna cause parents to leave the workforce, especially women, especially parents of younger Children. And we produced a staff report a month later describing this phenomenon. And it took like a year for people to be like, wow, you know, it's hard out there as a mom. And I was like, right, so I do think that representation matters. I think we have a lot of diversity in our Congress. It has improved a lot. But when it comes to there are still pockets where we don't have the diversity, We don't have the generational diversity that we need, we need more younger voices, more early career voices. Um, and we need that in the demo party by the way more so even than the Republican party actually, I think when I got to Congress, I thought republicans were the party of the um old rich white man. And it turns out to be only the white man part is correct. Democrats actually have a big problem with economic diversity. Um, and with age diversity and gender racial diversity just as much as republicans. So I think you can't solve what you can't see and our lives and that kind of lived experience is incredibly important to how we identify problems and how we think about what will actually work to solve them. So I've heard you say sometimes if Congress had a motto, it would be solving yesterday's problems tomorrow. Maybe that's the vibe that that vibe. What's it like to be part of an institution that you're so skeptical of. Yeah, I mean, I think that part of my duty as a member of Congress is to look at the institution. Um, and to step back from the policy making of the moment or the controversy of the moment or even the people in the moment and kind of say, what's happening in this institution, what's, what's working and what's not working. And I'll give you a good example of this. Um, we have no committee that is squarely dedicated to technology that's scattered among about three or four different committees, even as it has been the dominant force reshaping our society and our economy now for like 40 years. Right? So our committee structure reflects sort of the 19 hundreds. Right? And so that kind of rethinking of the inside, we didn't make any use of remote work capacity until the pandemic. There is still a vibrant informal flip phone caucus in Congress. Um, and you have not heard of the flip phone caucus, Let me tell you. There's uh, you know, we get on these zooms and I can guarantee you, I just count the seconds. 32. Can you hear me now? Yes, because you're a muted, we can hear you now. So I think one of the things that frustrates me is not that people don't have the familiarity. Lots of us in America for lots of different reasons, including opportunity and education may not have technology skills. It's the lack of a growth mindset. Um, it's that the way it's always been isn't necessarily the way it should always be. And I think that doesn't mean that I'm um that means that I'm pro the institution, like I believe in it. And so I feel like I have a duty to try to make it better and to fix it. And that's the kind of leadership that I want at businesses that I invest in, that I want it nonprofits that I donate to. Why wouldn't I want that kind of mindset in my government too? Yeah, thank you. So, being a single mom I know has also went a real urgency to your time in Congress. You have not been willing to wait around, you know, the 15 years or whatever to gain power within your party. How how's that going over? It's going, I mean, look, I think we have to rethink how we create opportunity in Congress and I think that the seniority system that the Democrats employee Republicans don't employ that system, they have a different system. Um they have term limits. So you do three terms, six years and a leadership position and then you rotate out. Um and they have much more of a culture of kind of contested elections. We have a much more deferential culture to our senior leaders and I value our senior leaders a great deal. I could go on and on. I won't about some of them and how much they've meant to me, we need to find ways to create diverse leadership and that means multi generational leadership. So how can we create roles and spaces for those senior leaders to still teach us to still guide us because they have wisdom and they have knowledge and they have experience that we need to learn from. But we also need to give rise to new voices. Um, and we can't treat people who want to add their voice to the leadership of our country as a problem. We have to say, this is wonderful that you two are speaking up that you two want to lead. We should be creating and cultivating that culture of leadership. Um, and the other thing about Congress is we should have a lot more professional development because we have like none. I mean, what I learned that congressional orientation could fit on a three by five card and had an awful lot to do with the fact that you're not allowed to wear your raincoat onto the floor of Congress because it's a very stern lady who will chase you down. Um, very little about how actually to do the job, very little sharing of best practices, very little opportunity to think about technology and innovate. So I think we need to innovate. And here's something I often say to my constituents, you know, I say it's been tough being in Congress, you know, because I was a law professor was considered a good job, people thought I was learned and right, and now I have the same popularity as the american cockroach. I'm not kidding. They've done polls. Congress people and cockroaches have the same level of approval. That's a real poll. And when you say that in Washington, you often hear back, well, of course, you know, what do you expect? People don't like republicans know they don't like any of us and we have to start with that. We can't look away from that. We can't pretend that isn't there. We have to look squarely at that and say, why, why do people not trust us? Why do they not approve of us? Because only when we look at that, honestly, can we start to fix it? Right. Right. I want to make sure we allow a lot of time for questions. But before I do, I'm gonna ask one more and midterms are coming up. There's been a lot of discussion about how the overturning of roe will galvanize women to come out and vote. Do you think that's gonna happen? I am not sure. And let me say why. Um, I think that one of the things that happened when row, when Hobbs was decided when Dobbs was decided, was that the narrative was sort of like abortion thrown to the states and we live in such a polarized environment where state laws so different, um that people are like, well, I'm in California. So like, I'm good, you know I've got Gavin Newsom, he's got hair gel. I can have an abortion if I need one. Right? And Gavin is doing the Lord's work. I mean, he's really doing an amazing job protecting people's rights to health care. But if Congress becomes republican controlled, they will pass a nationwide abortion ban President biden. I believe vito that, but in two years we don't know who's going to control the White House. And so there's nothing that states can do what God's really stands for is that abortion is up to all of us That right, that freedom, whether we enjoy it or we don't is up to every single voter. So when people say to me, what can we do? Like the Supreme Court took all the power away from us? I say it's the opposite. The Supreme Court gave all the power to all of us as voters. And that's what we feel terrified about, right, because it's on us to decide if this if this right is going to continue to be a right of this freedom um if this issue of equality is going to matter. So I would just really encourage everyone to make sure that people understand it is absolutely on the ballot in november, whether there's a referendum or the whenever the candidate's position are this is what republicans have said they're going to do and we should believe them. Okay, do you do you have any questions in the audience? You have one right up in the front if you could wait for the mic. Sorry, it's coming. Right, sorry. And if you could tell us who you are too sure, thank you. I'm Suzy Crampton with First Republic Bank and I don't know whether I'm naively optimistic or just naive. Um, but it feels to me oftentimes like there's so much still in the middle ground that maybe 80% of americans can really, you know, gather around and we spend so much of our time in the sort of 20% where we're polarized in opposite. And I'm just curious from your perspective, you know, do you think that there is still a common middle ground that most of us can get behind and for those of us that might be eager to say, hey, let's focus on the things we can agree with and make some progress there. You know, what advice do you have for us? I mean, is it a third party? I mean, what what is it that it might take to get us there? Yeah. So there absolutely is a lot of common ground among the american people tons on things including the right to an abortion, on gun safety, gun violence protection measures, on banning Congress from trading stocks. For example, there's tons of issues I could go on and on what there's not very much common ground amongst the people who are sent to Washington. And that problem has gotten markedly worse. Even in the four years I've been in Washington and I fear it's going to get even worse going forward. So, when we talk about gerrymandering, we often think about it about people having their vote taken away, not being able to elect a candidate of choice. And that's true. But what gerrymandering really does at this sort of institutional level is produce a much more polarized institution. So when you pack republicans often wider wealthier or whatever the demographic is into one district and you pack other people into another, what you end up doing is electing a very, very strong, progressive liberal and a very strong conservative republican. And then the common ground disappears. And so I think we have fewer and fewer battleground states. We have fewer and fewer battleground district. I represent a battleground district. My district equal numbers of democrats and republicans, and I wouldn't trade that for anything now. It's not easy, especially not easy at points like this in the election cycle, but I'm a better representative because I have to listen to learn from and talk with people who think differently than me. But those are those districts are spinning and there's fewer of them. And that I think are politics in Washington reflects that structural problem. But I don't think it's a problem among the american people. It's there, don't get me wrong. But I think it's it's more extreme. What you see in Washington is more extreme than what you see on the ground amongst the american people in terms of middle ground question, thank you. We have one in the back here, if you can wait for the mic. Hi, I'm Tracy Laney with levi Strauss. So I live up north in the state. Um I we heard from Representative Cheney yesterday about the work of the january 6th commission and obviously you were there on january 6th and we're under personal attack. And what I'm worried about these days heading into the midterms is not just, you know, kind of women coming out and allies to women coming out and supportive, you know, making sure we protect our bodies and our health. I'm actually worried that a lot of americans don't understand the existential threat to democracy that we have, especially with all the election deniers on the ballot. So I'd love to get your perspective, especially since you do sit in a diverse, politically diverse district on that particular issue. Yeah, So look, I think we have to be very clear about this. And I when I do canvas training to go out and knock doors, which I hope you all will knock doors wherever you are, please please find a race, whatever your politics are. Um, please knock doors because it will make you a better leader and a better american. Um, but when I knock doors, I always, I do canvas training for people for volunteers who are gonna knock doors and I always teach them one of my sayings on my whiteboard is knock loud. Be proud because I get people who go knock and they're like, and then they run away before anyone can come to the door, you know what I mean? It's like a stealth, ding dong ditch. I'm like, so what I always tell them is if your neighbor's house was on fire or there was a risk of a hurricane and you needed to evacuate, how would you knock on your neighbor's door loud? Because you want them to come, you'd want them to know what democracy is on fire. It is at risk of burning down the institutions that have upheld this country and frankly helped spread to democracy and human rights throughout the world are at risk. So Mac loud because because we are that kind of risk. I do think we see a strong correlation between education and kind of the way people think about the sort of institutional risk that we see versus kind of particular issues. So I'm very fortunate I represent a very well educated district. So I've had a lot of republicans come up to me, they've been like, you know, I'm not voting for a single democrat except you and you think like I'm so great and then they say, I don't even like you lady, it's just that I'm not sending anyone to Washington who will ever attack our capital and our democracy and our election system ever again, right? And many of them are veterans who fought and died for that. So I think there is some awareness, But I think frankly for younger people they have lived through so many attacks on democracy in their lives these are voters whose first memory maybe was hanging chads in florida and it's only gotten worse from there. So it's not that young people are disengaged that they're disillusioned. Um And how we get them back into the fold and turning out is something that I spend every day working on and trying to do because I think they some of them feel like it's already gone. Democracy has already lost. Um and I think we have to we have to show them that isn't the case. And I think the January six Commission on that accountability work is an important part of that. Okay very quickly you're up for tough tough election cycle for you. Um how high do your emissions go beyond the house? Oh I mean today they went to getting here on time. Like I mean my son called me, I was like half an hour later he called me and he's like mom I forgot my I. D. From my P. S. A. T. Can you drive it to school? I was like oh so that's what you know being one of fortune's powerful women looks like just making sure you get that I. D. To the high school on time. Um So I don't know I mean I think I will say this I try not to foreclose opportunity to to myself because I have found in my life um particular as a woman, as someone who grew up in a rural area. Um as someone who's not a person of wealth, like some doors get closed in my face, so I'm not gonna go pull any other ones closed, right? So you know, one of the best pieces of advice I ever got is that doors will be closed in your life and but others will open and your job is just to see them. You don't have to walk through every door, but you have to be open to seeing them. So I think about trying to make sure I can win this election and then I'm gonna stand there and take a look at the next doors and and think about what might come next. But I loved serving. Um I've loved getting a chance to learn more about this country and what makes it viable and strong and healthy and I want to keep doing that work for the rest of my career, whether it's an elected office or whether it's in some other kind of public service congressman. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you