When the 118th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2023, it will include a new record in terms of the number of women serving in the Senate and the House of Representatives at 149.
There will also be a record number of Latinas and Black women serving in the House, including newly elected Rep. Sydney Kamlager. She will represent California’s 37th District, which was previously represented by newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
The former California state senator sat down with “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to talk about this new role and her goals in office. She described her experience since winning the election as “surreal.”
“You have election night on Tuesday and then a few days later you’re on a plane going all the way to the other side of the country. You have dinner at the Library of Congress with all of the new incoming freshmen members, and then you start your orientation,” said Kamlager.
But it hasn’t been without complications. Kamlager shared a story about an unnamed male colleague who dismissed her at orientation because he didn’t think she was elected. She said she was on a bus and went to shake the hand of this colleague when he ignored her and asked “Are you even elected?” Kamlager said she spoke to the man again a week later, and he did not remember talking to her.
“It goes to show you that we are still invisible in the eyes of many,” she said with the “we” referring to women and women of color. “That’s challenging because many of us are getting elected, many of us have been elected before, and many of us are carrying and shouldering so much of the burden of our communities and our constituents to fight for what they [and] we deserve.”
When asked about her priorities in office, Kamlager named taking back the House of Representatives in 2024 and rebuilding democracy.
“We have had bad actors who have propagandized the American people to undermine this democratic experience. So how do we rebuild trust?” she asked.
“One way that I have found success in the state legislature and in local government and hopefully here is by listening, finding out where people are from, find out more about their district and find out about the issues that are important to their constituents.”
When asked about inflation and the economic issues impacting many Americans right now, Kamlager said she’s interested in the building of generational wealth and creating more access to financial marketplace for people in marginalized communities.
“We have an opportunity to reimagine what it means to be an American worker,” she said. “I'm really invested in that. We have to create more jobs. We have to make sure they're secure. We have to make sure they're safe and healthy and supporting the healing of our Mother Earth.”
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