Transcripts For CSPAN 116th Freshmen Profile - Reps. Casten

CSPAN 116th Freshmen Profile - Reps. Casten Craig Delgado July 14, 2024

Region. First up, angie craig. She is a former newspaper reporter and a Small Business investor. Rep. Craig i grew up in a mobile home port in arkansas. I have lived life at all extremes. My mom is a single mom. We raised three kids mostly on our own. We have lots of farms around us. I grew up in rural america. I know what struggle looks like there. About the struggle for your family. Rep. Craig one of the things im most passionate about is making sure families have access to health care they can afford. My family did not have access themselves for a lot of my childhood. It is probably no secret that i have been working really hard to make sure that we stabilize the Affordable Care act and work toward how do we Structure Health care to make sure that every american has access to it. Up going did you end from arkansas to minnesota . The st. Jude ran medical foundation. A foundation that provided heart treatment for low income women. Im sure that is no surprise, given my own childhood. Saint jude recruited me from another medical Technology Company in tennessee. I moved from arkansas to tennessee when i was 18 to go to college. 60 miles from home. And i worked two jobs to put myself through college. Just like my mom had done all those years before. My family looks like what every opportunity ought to be in america. That is that if you work hard, you ought to have an opportunity to earn a good life. Host when did you become interested in politics . Rep. Craig politics is interesting because i became interested in issues. I was leaving hr for a fortune 500 company when the aca was intomented after 2010 and 2012. I had seen what it looked like to implement the aca. The number ofn people who, all of a sudden, had access to the Health Insurance system in this country. And so i became very passionate at that point in time about how of we make sure we fix parts the aca. I saw the immediately too. Sure every we make american has access to highquality health care. My wife and i, we have four sons. We were married in california in 2008, right before proposition eight passed. In 2012, minnesota was the first state in the country to say no to a constitutional amendment that would have banned samesex marriage in our state. I was part of that effort to stop that constitutional amendment behind the scene. S. In 2013, we passed marriage equality. I have worked in the private sector for over 20 years but all of a sudden, something personal like my own ability to marry toht partner and the ability make sure every family had access to health care came together and i decided why not me . Get off the private sector and run. Lost you ran in 2016 and in the general election. What did that loss teach you . Rep. Craig 2016 was interesting. It was a tough year for democrats. I lost by 1. 8 . It was the third closest race in the country where a democrat lost. I was so much better in 2018 but not because of any policy difference. I just showed up for who i am in 2018. The key to winning is just being yourself, being authentic. Sons, iand our four came at it much harder at who i am and what i believe in. At the end of the day, i dont like to call myself a politician because i have spent so much time talking about what i believe in and what kind of country we can build together. And so, its just an honor to serve this district. Host how are you and your wife balancing life . Children, are they older now . Rep. Craig my wife and i have four sons. One is a rising junior the other three are out of the house. Two are in traditional four year colleges. Our oldest is working in a trade skill. One of the things you will hear me talk about a lot is rethinking our Postsecondary Education system. We have to make sure people know there is not just one path. I get afraid sometimes with democrats when others talk about free four year colleges that we are reinforcing to folks that college is right for everyone. And its not. Im so proud to be a mom for whom, her son, his path was advanced manufacturing. He was the one who took the engine apart in the driveway every afternoon. He needs to work with his hands and hes really good at it. Host what are your priorities other priorities out here in washington . Rep. Craig i have two andittees, transformation infrastructure as well as the ad committee. It has been surprising to me but it shouldnt have, just help fulfilling, even though how fulfilling it has been over the first 46 months. My grandfather was a foreman. Theost his job in 1980s farm crisis. I know what it is to lose your way of life, not just a job. Having spent 20 years working in International Markets and trade, i think i know more than most what it looks like when farmers just want a fair price and they want markets. Int is what i have enjoyed getting to know the farmers in my district and abdicating for them advocating for them. Host how many do you have in your district . Rep. Craig i dont know off the top of my head. [laughter] geographically, it is 50 rule. Starts in the, it southern part of st. Paul and it moves into this great rural farmland. It is not just farmers that are in our district. It is the economy that is produced around those small family farms. The truth is we are losing them at record pace. Losing them at record pace. Host what are some accomplishments you have so far . Rep. Craig i am proud of hr 31, that is the local Water Protection act. That will battle pollution in our cities and our counties. They are allowing those grant dollars. The other piece of legislation has not moved beyond committee is hr1425. That is the Reinsurance Program that would allow us to stabilize the individual market price. It is not the only answer we need for health care in this country today. It is part of the answer. I am incredibly pleased with that. Some of the Prescription Drug ills that have passed the house have been incredibly important. Finally, personally, i believe hrone is the most important piece of legislature we have passed. I wish the senate would take it up. Until we are able to make sure are special interests out of our way in this town, it is going to be difficult to do what my voters sent me here to do. Next, he is a is democrat from illinois who represents the sixth street. He is a biochemical engineer and an entrepreneur. He previously served as ceo of two energy companies. Where were you born . Rep. Casten columbia. Why . Rep. Casten my dad is no longer in the business. By then, it would not become his career. Born in ireland, your family makes its way back to america, where did you land . Rep. Casten we went to columbus, indiana. And then we moved to the suburbs of manhattan. We basically grew up there all through high school. I went to a high school, in firstit became one of the high schools to mandate desegregation. Though we were westchester county, affluent suburbs of new york, my high school was 50 africanamerican by the time i got there. When i was impressed rate, it wasnt. In first grade, it wasnt. Do you think that had an impact on you . Every expense you have as a kid you think is normal. Did it have an impact . Im sure did. But thats how you grew up. Political, family involved in politics . Rep. Casten not particularly. My dad fought in vietnam. Both of my parents were from were theorado and first generation to achieve things. Good people but smalltown people from colorado. Mom,andmother, my moms her neighbors were in internment camps. You learn something about the fabric of those people. Teacher at a as a school in North Carolina and then in harlem. In the course of growing up, my parents went to ireland and just before they left, one of the students knocked on the door and let youmom will have me if you want. And then they let thomas in. So, they werent involved in politics but they were involved in being generous to those who had needs. What does that say, her philosophy on that . Rep. Casten we just took for granted that was what you do. This wasnt a philosophy or an agenda. It wasnt a plan. You had someone who said can you help me out and she said yes. She continues to do it in a lot of different ways. What does your dad say about his service in vietnam and how do you think that impacted you . Rep. Casten my dad enlisted out of college. There back by 1965, 1966. This was before it came as politicized as it would later become. Dad was in world war ii. His grandfather was in world war i. Generation had gone and done military service. My dad was in the marine corps and the core of engineers. To the extent that i talked about it, he quickly became convinced it was a mistake and we were staying too long. It was not clear why we were staying there. He was home before things got really ugly. After high school, you went on to college. What did you major in and why . Rep. Casten i majored in molecular biology and biochemistry because i always wanted to be in politics. [laughter] that was good times. I enjoyed it. To be a i didnt want doctor. Everyone else in my major was premed. Do something environmental. Biotech was just getting started. I remember reading about this company in florida that was oing industrial scale. I went and did that. I got out of school and, even though i didnt want to do medicine, i was working in the research lab. I spent two years in Cancer Research in boston. And then i felt like if im going to do this industrial biotech stuff, i need to go back to grad school. I went back to dartmouth and got a degree in bioChemical Engineering. For the rest of your career, what did you do . I got a job at a Technology Consulting firm. Stuff i had done on the Chemical Engineering side , designing devices that could ,onvert gasoline into hydrogen a lot of neat alternative energy stuff. I did that for three years. And i gradually became concerned about Global Warming as the central challenge of our time. And increasingly convinced that there were tons of companies that had technologies not ready for prime time that were hiring us as consultants. Like if thelt companies that have mature technologies cant figure out how to sell them, maybe it is a business problem. And so, i took over a Small Manufacturing Company in massachusetts with a technology that was twice as efficient as the electric grid. We went from 6070 projects and moved to chicago and started doing the same thing on a bagel bigger scale. And did that for another six or seven years. How did you become a politician . Rep. Casten ill let you know when i become one. [laughter] was at the 2016 election . Rep. Casten over the 16 years i spent at the energy companies, if you are building power plants that are more efficient than the grid and cheaper to run and save a ton of money for your totomers, you are a threat the existing electricity monopoly. ,s a smart player in the space what do you do about that . I ended up pounding a trade association in new england. Chair asbecame the sort of a side job while i was running the company in illinois. They did the same thing in washington. I spent a fair amount of time trying to get legislation passed on the hill that would ensure a competitive environment to people who could provide competitive value. I knew washington as a place where you went. I didnt have any expense as a politician. Became more and more convinced i knew there was no economic bond that prevented us. When we sold our company, i was chatting with some my colleagues of my colleagues. Having a rise in climate in washington and having a president who has never acknowledged it as such, i felt like maybe i could make a difference in the Public Service round. You been focusing on while you are here, pertaining to clean energy . What legislation have you put forth . Rep. Casten im on the fair climate committee. The biggest caucus in washington. Have been trying to focus on legislation that recognizes this is a width thing to say. Hundreds of billions of dollars we could spend on infrastructure and lower the cost of energy and put more money in peoples pockets. In the construct of washington politics, that is a hard, how do you possibly pay for it problem. To work onrying policies that will change that. We have a bunch of Energy Storage assets im trying to put in place. There will be an asset that increases the value of those assets because we wont have to ramp up more inefficient power. We have a number of bills we are working on that are designed not to use federal dollars to spend money but to remove the barriers that exist from the private sector. Because once you get people with the ability to act out of their own self interest, they will always build one that is cheaper to operate rather than one that is expensive. The newly delgado is elected represented for new yorks 19th congressional district. He is an attorney and former hiphop artist. Where are you from . Rep. Delgado new york. What was your childhood like . Rep. Delgado fun. My family was workingclass. We spent a lot of time in church. Spent a lot of time camping in upstate new york. Spent a lot of time just enjoying life and the environment on the outside. It was a good time. Was, a time where studying very important. Schoolwork was important. My parents pushed me to stay on top of my books. They believed that if you get a good education in this country, you had a good chance to get ahead. I have very fond memories of my childhood. Who were your parents . Rep. Delgado my parents were hard working. Dedicated, loving and determined. To see me succeed. Where did they come from . Rep. Delgado my parents came from my mom is from upstate new york. My father came from boston. In pretty rough neighborhoods. But through hard work, they found their way. They had a dream that their young kids would live better lives. Where does your spirit come from and you continue to follow that today . Do you continue to follow that today . Rep. Delgado yes. Im a spiritual person. Parents, based on how they were brought up in their homes and communities, felt the same thing. They wanted to pass that down. Its traditional in a sense that you have to believe in something to some extent if you want to overcome obstacles in life. Not just as an individual but as a part of a community that has seen marginalization historically. You went to college where . Rep. Delgado colgate university. And deep played bass about and you play basketball, tell us about that. Rep. Delgado the last time we went to the ncaa tournament was 20 years ago. I think this years team was the first team to go since then. I remember saying i wanted to go to the mba when i was eight. And my dad said youre not going to the nba. He said here are all the players on each team and did the math and you said you have a one in a million chance to make it. Your best bet is to try being a doctor. That was my childhood. Best toove this day. You played with a future mba best ballplayer. Rep. Delgado i did. A donald foil. Donal foyle. Commencement address at the bicentennial year of the school. To be able to connect with the students and flashback to 20 years ago and see myself out there like them and now here i am as a congressperson, its pretty amazing. After college, you moved to california and you were in the music industry. Tell our viewers what you did. Rep. Delgado i left my parents scratching their heads. I graduated from law school and had a bunch of student debt over my head but i wanted to figure out how to connect with young people and speak through hiphop culture and talk about issues that matter to me and i think are still relevant today. Income inequality to wealth disparity to gender inequities, climate change, police brutality, all the things were the things i was talking about in my music. I felt there was no better platform than hiphop music. It was not a monetarily successful endeavor. , eight on air mattresses cup noodles daily. The janitor, i was for a department building. My parents were certainly supportive but a little bit concerned about what i was doing. In the end, it was fulfilling and rewarding. Lawou did go on to Harvard School and you are a Rhodes Scholar as well. Yes. Delgado which is why my parents were scratching their heads. When did you start rapping . Rep. Delgado my first love was sinking. Sinking. Ging. Choir withe church my mom. And then i was in an r b group in college, which went nowhere. I was really into poetry. Mr. Obryant was the first person to introduce me to poetry. So i got into that. Ive always been writing poetry. It wasnt until my College Years that i started to rap. And try to actually speak the words to a beat. It kind of took off from there. I didnt take it serious as a career choice until i got to law school. And i really started to figure out for myself what i wanted to do coming out of law school. At that point, i didnt see law as the space for me to have the kind of impact that i wanted to have. Do you still rap today . Rep. Delgado no. I dont. Certainly about things i like to say or write about, i just dont have the time to actually write. Most of my time is thinking about how to help my constituents and make sure i am serving their needs, and we have a lot of things to focus on, the opioid care, to epidemic, it is just a lot and im excited to be in this position and have the chance to actually serve the community that gave me so much, and my wife, for that matter. So that takes my time. Tell us about your wife. Tell us who she is in the documentary she made. Caller i could rep. Delgado i could go on too long about my wife. First of all, we were born the same month of the same year, grew up one hour apart, and i fell in love with her at first sight. It was my first week at law school at harvard. She stood up to present something and ask for volunteers for a documentary project she was working on for her third year loss will paper, and i raised my hand, not knowing what i was volunteering for, but knowing she was the one i wanted to marry. She is incredible. She is a force of nature. Her story is remarkable. She grew up raised by white jewish parents and did not find out until she was in college that her mother had an extramarital affair with an africanamerican, and rather than succumbing to some of the pain that that could bring about, she internalized it and made a film, a documentary on that secret with her family. Sitting down with her mother. Sitting down with her father. Really prepping the issue to get to the bottom of her truth. A lot of courage. It is the same sort of courage that throughout the course of our life and partnership has guided us on our journey. The documentary she may little white lies. Thank you, it is calle

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