Issue No. 3. Shireen Ghorbani: U.S. House of Representatives, UT

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Today’s Eleanor + Anna comes hot on the heels of the Utah State Democratic Convention, where our interviewee Shireen Ghorbani secured the nomination for Utah’s 2nd District of the U.S. House of Representatives. Utah has a fascinating political character, and the 2nd District is a perfect encapsulation of its weirdness and variety. The 2nd District bisects the state, stretching from downtown Salt Lake City in the north, all the way to the southernmost corner of the state, including the city of St. George, substantial amounts of rural area, and most of the state’s treasures: the national parks.

Most outsiders (and some insiders), if they consider Utah at all, view Utah as an unflinchingly loyal Red State with a capital R. While this may be a generally fair characterization when looking at the federal level (the incumbent is Rep. Chris Stewart, who is a Republican with a capital R), this version of Utah’s political narrative rarely tells the whole story of political life in the state. Ghorbani sat down with E+A before the convention to tell us why she decided to run for Congress, why Utah isn’t a lost-cause to Democrats or Independents, to reveal her favorite flavor of LaCroix and to school Beth (a Salt Lake City native) on Utah’s congressional districts.

Lightly edited for length and clarity.

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E+ A 

Was there  a moment where you were like, "Okay, I'm running for office, I’m doing this?”

 

Ghorbani 

2016 was a really rough year for me.  I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer.  She was 68 years old. My dad left when I was pretty young, so it was just the two of us.  We got the diagnosis in late June of 2016 and by August 19th she had died.  We had to spend a lot of energy in those early weeks trying to figure out what we would need to do to get care and having conversations like “do we sell the house?” and “what does medical bankruptcy look like?”  We were able to avoid all of that because when she turned 65, she enrolled in Medicare, and it was there for us when we absolutely needed it.  In the weeks afterwards, it just became so apparent to me that we have got to do better on healthcare in this country.  Families in the face of a diagnosis do not need to be scrambling to reorganize their financial lives. I know that Obamacare is not working great for everyone, and there's so much more to do, but to watch my representative after the election of Donald Trump cast vote after vote to make healthcare less accessible and more expensive, it was just untenable, absolutely untenable. 

 

And so, it sounds ridiculous, but I just started thinking, "Okay, I'm going to run for office.  I'm going to look at my opportunities at the city, at the state level, my issue is healthcare."  I'm lucky that I live in a community [Salt Lake City] where I'm actually pretty well represented, from my city council to my state legislature. I have people that reflect my values and priorities.  That falls apart for me when I get to the House of Representatives on things like healthcare, clean air, affordable housing, good jobs.  I was seeing a rollback on our public land which brings billions into our state, and like, joy in rolling back pieces of Obamacare which I think is just the wrong decision.  So that happened and as I was thinking “how do I get involved in just this very tangible way?” I went to Wonder Woman and I was like, "You know what, tonight I am going to Wonder Woman and tomorrow I'm going to figure out how I run for office."  And I did, I completely did.

 

E+A

We can relate, on the price of healthcare (and on Wonder Woman), and understand how the system works because we've had to navigate it, but how do you bring along people who this hasn’t happened to? We don't think this kind of stuff will happen to us. 

 

Ghorbani 

It's such a visceral experience for so many, even at the smaller level. I agree that not everyone's been at that end of life moment when they're trying to figure out care for something that's catastrophic.  But I talked to a mom in Bountiful [community north of Salt Lake] who has a child with autism. If they didn't have employer-based insurance, the therapy for their child would be well over $100,000 a year.  I talk to people who have had a premature birth and had no idea how quickly that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I haven't met someone yet who is like, "Everything is great. I'm not worried about changing my employer, or what's going to happen when I retire, or what's going on with my elderly parents, or my sibling that's struggling with mental illness."  I haven't met a person yet that hasn't had the struggles of figuring out care.


I think the party in power right now,  it serves them well for us to not understand that they took multiple votes over the last year and-a-half that have resulted in 3.2 million fewer people with healthcare. I think that's the job of Democrats, Independents, people who are looking for change to get out there and say, "This is immoral, what we are doing to families is completely wrong."  I think a big part of it is how do we tell the stories that help people connect the dots between their interests, their lives, their health and well-being and what the Republican party has done.

E+A

If you're elected, what would be your main priority for healthcare policy?

Ghorbani

I'm really interested in a few of the proposals that are out there right now.  One is the Medicare buy-in. Creating a pathway for people to be able to buy into that system could alleviate a lot of the challenges that I think people are having with the marketplace for healthcare.  I think it's back to connecting with people that share interests --  I'm not so ideologically dense that I believe that only Democrats can solve this, far from it.  And I also think it's going to take a long time. When I talk about healthcare, I talk about affordable and accessible healthcare. I also believe we'll do it our own way.  We have the expertise, we have the ability to do this in a unique way and I'm really excited to see what that could look like. 

E+A

You mentioned clean air earlier, which is a big problem in Salt Lake City. Are there any other things that need to be addressed, and how will you tackle them if/when you're in office? 

Ghorbani

There are a few things. One is my concern about what's happening with our public lands.  Utah is the site of unprecedented rollbacks around our national monuments and public lands, and I am really worried about what that's going to mean for the economic well-being of this state and for our rural communities.  Grand Staircase was reduced by 50% and Bears Ears by 85% by the Trump Administration.  1.89 billion dollars of tourism and outdoor industry money comes into this district --  not my state, just my district.  I've got part of Canyonlands [National Park], Capitol Reef, Zion, Bryce, and I've got all of Grand Staircase. 

E+A

That's wild.

Ghorbani

In some cases it's been hard, there are certainly issues around shared use. I also know that there are billions of dollars that come in and there are businesses popping up all over in southern Utah to respond. But the other part of it, that's really interesting and tied to tourism, is that we're having a huge issue with affordable housing, and that's from St. George to our rural communities, to Salt Lake City, and then up into our northern suburbs. I worry about people being able to buy a home, to find stable housing, to not be priced out of communities where we need workers.

E+A

So how do you effect that kind change from Washington?

 Ghorbani 

There's some really interesting and innovative ideas around workforce housing, but I think more concretely the Sales Tax Bill is a good example.  There were incentives that were previously in place for developers to work on affordable housing, to include affordable housing units in renovations or in new construction and we have an opportunity to expand that and incentivize developers.

E+A
Your district is really interesting.  You’ve got Salt Lake, you've got Tooele, you’ve got the most rural counties, the most suburban counties, you've got all the national parks…

Ghorbani

Yeah, and the heart of Salt Lake City.

E+A
You've got the biggest range that you could probably get.

 Ghorbani
I think that's what I'm learning.  I don't think that we have that different point of views.  Across our rural communities, across the center of Salt Lake City, I hear a lot of common themes.  There are a lot of people here who don't feel like their government works for them.  That cuts across party lines, it cuts across socio economic status, it cuts across race.  I talk to people who want to make sure that there are good jobs so that their work plays a role in the global economy and that they know that there's going to be good jobs for them and their kids.  Almost every person that I've spoken to believes that we need to invest in education and our teachers, making sure our schools are equitable and that our kids have the opportunity to learn.  And we struggle on many of those fronts.  Things like clean air are not partisan.  The opioid crisis cuts across all of our experiences and backgrounds.  We need healthcare, we need addiction treatment so that we can stop losing one Utahan a day. 

I feel like we’ve spun ourselves into a bit of a divisive framework. Thinking "Okay,  I can't possibly have anything in common with somebody from a rural county in my state." But I do. It certainly feels different when you're in the heart of Salt Lake City and when you're out on the edge of Grand Staircase. However, I think what people want is ultimately the same. 

E+A
Utah is known on a pretty national level as being really party loyal.

Ghorbani
Again, I think that's the narrative, and certainly the lines have been drawn to reinforce that.  This district is about 40% independent and unaffiliated voters.  I think it's really hard to know until we are out there. Our plan is to knock on thousands of doors across this whole district because I think it's been a while since a Democrat has shown up and said “I will work for you.”

E+A

We’ve seen those ‘us vs. them’ narratives over and over again in regards to your district.

Ghorbani 
I think we do get in the news for the most outrageous things that happen across the state, but there’s also a lot going on where people are working together and I think that's the stuff that I'm really excited about and I'm really proud of.  If I look at my State Legislature there are a lot of things that I was really disappointed in this year. But I'll tell you some things I was really happy to see, like a comprehensive testing of rape kits a few years ago. That's an issue that I'm personally connected to, I'm on the Board for the Rape Recovery Center, a nonprofit here in town. That was bipartisan effort, people coming together to say we can do better. 

 E+A 

Do you feel like you can communicate that to your constituents? 

Ghorbani
I think it is definitely a big part of telling a particular story, but more importantly, I think it's an issue of listening.  Getting out, getting in front of people and hearing their concerns and understanding what it is that they're looking for in their representative.  I'm disappointed that my representative doesn't seem to be responsive to us. There's a real sense that he doesn't want to come here and defend the votes that he's taken. I just really believe that should I have the honor, every chance I get I'm going to be back here with an open door, holding town meetings, making sure that people know that I am here to listen to them.

E+A
What else about Utah politics, like Utah, seem to be misunderstood?

 Ghorbani 
While we have a super engaged community -- people who volunteer and serve their neighborhoods, their communities, their faith organizations for hundreds of hours a year -- we have a very, very low voter turnout of about 30%.  We do not have a ton of people that are engaged in the political side of things, but I'm talking to people every day that are registering for the first time or working to make sure their friends are registered. We’ve moved to mail-in [ballots], which is good, but it can be pretty hard for people to vote, and to feel like they're informed enough. 

E+A 

If there's one thing that you think your constituents should know about you what would it be?

 Ghorbani
I'm not the kind of person who grew up thinking I want to be the President. I'm doing this because I feel like we are getting the raw end of the deal in so many factors. I'm really lucky to have a great job and to have a partner who's an educator, a child in daycare and a mortgage. I'm very lucky to be able to manage all of that.  I also grew up in a house where we were living on the edge.  We didn't have healthcare.  My mom, for many years made under $30,000 a year raising a child by herself, trying to keep me in dance lessons and in good schools.  I'm also the daughter of an immigrant.  I understand the experience of really feeling absolutely blessed to be born and raised in this country. 

 E+A
But you're not from Utah originally though, right?

Ghorbani
Yes.  Before I was a Utahan I was a North Dakotan.  I grew up in Bismarck. Besides my early childhood years, this is the longest I've ever lived anywhere. It's the first place I bought a home, established my professional career and I don't want to live anywhere else.  I mean Utah is absolutely home to me. I love it.

E+A
We read you were in the Peace Corps. What was your time overseas like? 

 Ghorbani
A few things I would say came out of that experience.  One is just seeing how profoundly important being involved in communities is to the success of places.  Being ready, willing and able to go out and work in a language that I had just learned [Romanian] with communities that were working on really difficult issues. We worked with university students getting engaged on their environment and things like that too. 

I was really proud of our anti-violence work, work related to gender and development,  and human trafficking and work with an organization that opened the first domestic violence shelter in Chisinau [the capital of Moldova].  I worked with students who were involved with Amnesty International and the Stop Violence Against Women campaign, and then I worked on women and girls empowerment camps and summer programming. I loved it.

E+A
Did your husband go to Moldova as well? Can you kind of tell us about you guys?

Ghorbani
We met my freshman year, we were in the same dorm.  We're big live music fans and I happened to walk by his dorm and he had a poster up for a folk singer that I really like, and I just stopped into the room and I said to the guy who was sitting there, "Is that your Brenda Weiler poster?"  And he was like, "No,  it's my roommate’s, he's down the hall."  And I walked down the hall and I met him.

E+A 
Omg.

Ghorbani
We started dating and at this point we've seen easily hundreds of concerts together. We have been together since 1999, and then got married after we finished college, and joined the Peace Corps that year.

E+A
What's your favorite kind of music?

Ghorbani
I would say it's like your kind of folky Americana. His favorite band is Wilco.  It's hard for me to choose these days because I love that kind of folky stuff and I'm also just like a huge Beyoncé fan. 

E+A
She transcends.

Ghorbani
Yeah!  And Janelle Monae. And our son is named after a Beatles song, so music's a really big part of our lives. He's Desmond, from Obladi Oblada. 

E+A

Oh that's really cute.  Do you have a theme song?

Ghorbani
One song that I really love that I find myself listening to a lot these days is “White Flag” by Joseph.  Another one is by the group Ages and Ages called “Divisionary.”  I found myself listening to a lot of Sia after the election -- I was listening to “The Greatest” a lot.

E+A
She is special!  So growing up, what relationships in your younger years formed you?  It sounds like you and your mom were really close.

Ghorbani

The interesting thing about my mom is because she was an educator she spent a large part of her professional life in front of people, but in her private life she was really an introvert, and was a voracious reader. She grew up on a farm on the North Dakota/Montana border and quickly started to orient herself to a much bigger world.  After college she did a Fulbright program in Pakistan, where she got really interested in teaching in the Middle East. She moved to Iran to teach at an American school, which is where she met my father. She had an unbelievable thirst for knowledge. She loved writing and how it can connect us to ideas.  She instilled in me a real joy of reading, of understanding our world and of seeing things from different points of view.  I've been lucky to have a number of close friends and mentors over the years, but something my mom said to me a lot growing up, because my dad wasn't from here, and because she traveled quite a bit, was that just by being born in the United States I'd already won the jackpot, so “what are you going to do to give back?”  

E+A
Did she have a favorite author or a favorite book? What about you?

Ghorbani
Right now I'm really into this book of poetry called Salt by Nayyirah Waheed.  They're just these beautiful little poems.  I just absolutely love it.  But that's a little departure for me, I'm not always the biggest poetry reader.  And I would say my mom... I don't know if she could choose. 

E+A 

What is the bravest thing you've ever done?

Ghorbani
I mean this feels pretty big. I think having a kid was a big deal for me too.  I wasn't exactly the kind of person who imagined that would be a big priority for me when I was younger.  I actually think there are some similarities between that and running for office.  I didn't know if I would like it and that like scared me a lot, and I wasn't sure if I'd be good at it or if I could be the kind of mother I wanted to be. Can I be the kind of representative that I think the people of Utah deserve?  I have moments where it scares me, thinking about putting my family in the public spotlight in this way and putting myself out there. But I joke that I was ugly in junior high so I'm kind of built for this. Losing my mom also made me kind of fearless.  I was like, “Okay, we have to stand up for those things that we believe in.” 

E+A 
What about on the other end of the spectrum, what's the most embarrassing thing you’ve done? 

Ghorbani
I think because I was just like a homely child I got involved in theater.  I don't really get embarrassed very often. 

E+A

It doesn't matter who you are or how beautiful you are, being a middle schooler is just not a good time.

Ghorbani
Well I insisted on dying my hair jet black, and I cut it pretty short and I had braces and only wore olive green.  So I was kind of in this like weird, Eddie Munster-y kid in only olive green clothing. Like that made me cool.  Or maybe I felt like it made me invisible. My friend just sent a picture from Easter when we went down to the mall and took a picture with the Easter bunny, and truly all of my reflections on that time are confirmed by this photo.

E+A
We can't even revisit those times without getting a slight PTSD, so at least you have a good sense of humor.  So, if you win how are you going to celebrate?

Ghorbani

One of the things that I love to do that I think is a little unusual is I'm kind of a DJ. I've DJ'd a few weddings and there's a bar in town that has me DJ on very rare occasion, but I want to have a huge dance party.  That's what I want.  And then get to work, like immediately.

E+A
Let it all out and then buckle down. To cap it off, there's a few questions that we ask everybody:

 Dead or alive who would you take to dinner and what would you ask them and why?

 Ghorbani

I would take my mom to dinner. She's a big part of the reason I am in this race and why I am committed to working for accessible and affordable healthcare for every American. I know she would be so proud of what I am doing, and I would love to show her the TIME Magazine cover I am on from this January. I would love to laugh with her one last time. I wouldn't have to ask for her support because I know she would be my biggest fan. She would be running up and down the streets of Salt Lake and St. George telling people about why they should vote for me.

 E+A

In the spirit of the original Eleanor and Anna program, what’s your favorite drink, and favorite kind of dog?

 Ghorbani

I love many kinds of beverages but I have got to go with water. Drinking water makes me more alert. My favorite go-to sparkling water is La Croix, Pamplemousse - because it is the best. Boring and true.

I like lots of dogs, and I really like smart dogs. I had this amazing poodle named Izzy and he hated to fetch. The first time I threw the ball, he retrieved it. I threw it again and he just looked at me as if to say, "you had the ball - why'd you throw it away?" He was a great dog. His name was Izzy Stradlin after one of the members of Guns N’ Roses. I have a real soft spot for kind of just muppety looking animals.

E+A

Finally, if you had a silver bullet that could solve one of the world’s problems (world peace doesn’t count), what would it be?

Ghorbani

I would say poverty. We could choose to work every day to meet the basic human needs of shelter, education, nutrition and healthcare. Worldwide over 30 million children live in poverty in our richest countries. Each night one in five children go to sleep hungry in the United States. I know we can do better. I am working for a future where we all have the chance to succeed, and addressing poverty is a large piece of the puzzle.

 

 

 

Beth Carter