April 12, 2021

Special to BuzzFlash by Spenser Seddon

Katie Porter currently serves as the US Representative for California’s 45th Congressional District, being the only Democrat ever elected (now twice) in the history of the conservative-leaning Orange County district. Since being elected in 2018 to her first term in the House, Porter has made a name for herself by capably doing something many of her Congressional colleagues seem to have difficulty with: her job.

A law professor and attorney by trade and training, and a single working mom with three kids, Rep. Porter’s tenure in the House exemplifies what it should mean to be a lawmaker – working to develop, advocate, and implement policy and programs to meet the varied needs of the American people and serve our public interest. Rep. Porter’s steady stream of sponsored bills and her voting record attest to her commitment to working people and families, consumer protection and advocacy, climate justice, and progressive values.

And, of course, there’s always the matter of Katie Porter’s trusty whiteboard. Rep. Porter’s “mighty whiteboard of truth,” as it’s been dubbed by some, makes for a handy metonym for her transparency, accessibility, and straightforward, fact-based discourse – things we ought to demand of all our representatives, and yet which we so often find lacking in the halls of power. Porter walks the talk, putting it into practice, and what a delight it is to see! Intelligent, confident, morally grounded, and sharp as a razor, Porter has come to cut quite a figure in the public sphere, wielding her whiteboard in hearings to crunch the numbers, spell out the facts, and hold the powerful to account.

Perhaps Porter’s most acclaimed win-by-whiteboard dates back to the initial days of the coronavirus pandemic with her exchange with former CDC director Robert Redfield, wherein she secured free COVID-19 testing for all Americans with a promise extracted on camera. After sketching out (on the whiteboard, naturally) how testing costs an absurd $1,331 per person if billed to an individual, Porter proceeded to cite the existing statute asserting the CDC’s legal authority to make that crucial testing free — before then pressing Redfield into agreeing, on the record, to honor that statute and actually put it to use! It’s political poetry in motion: asking incisive questions, demanding real answers, always getting to the point in the face of nonsense, obfuscation, and equivocating – and always doing so in service of supporting the American people.

Best of all, Porter’s performance in that instance is representative of her engagement and style across the board. There’s a broad assortment of one-percenters and heartless hacks whom Porter has had occasion to similarly call out and dress down, including encounters with Louis DeJoy, Ben Carson, Mark Zuckerberg, Jamie Dimon, oil executive Mark Murphy, Equifax CEO Mark Begor, and Celgene CEO Mark Alles, to cite just a few. And yet, the work continues.

To take a page from Rep. Porter’s book, then, and get to the point: This is what real leadership looks like. Katie Porter gives us a heartening example of what legislators are supposed to do when they go to Congress. In the face of an ongoing counterfactual assault on our democracy, with people exhausted by mendacity and greed as well as a pandemic, a person like Porter offers something of an antidote, a corrective for our times – a substantive model of how competent, compassionate leadership ought to be. And for that, we are grateful.

Taking that to heart, let’s endeavor to reclaim not just our time, but our democracy and our future, too! Here’s to you, Katie Porter!

Spenser Seddon is a writer, editor, and marketing & communications professional based in Seattle.

BuzzFlash is once again honoring upstanding & outstanding people with our Wings of Justice recognition! Read the full collection of recent honorees here, and peruse selections archived from our original website here.

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