The statistics aren't good. According to recent estimates, women make up just under 20 percent of Congress and less than 25 percent of all state legislatures. Only six of our nation's governors are women. But we are 51 percent of the population. And the research shows that when women participate in government, we make it run better, more collaboratively. Historically, women have needed to be convinced to enter politics. But within weeks of the 2016 presidential election, thousands of women announced they plan to run. And we want them to win. So we're giving them a weekly example of a woman who has run and won. The point: You can, too. This week, we're introducing you to one who's running for the first time right now.

Katie Hill, executive director and deputy CEO of PATH, an organization that works to end homelessness in California, has zero political experience and yet every single skill she could possibly need to run for office. She is not only an expert fundraiser (who grew PATH's annual budget to $40 million), but an accomplished multi-tasker who's deeply in touch with the needs of her community. No wonder. Hill grew up in and around the district she's running to represent and now lives on a farm with her husband and several animals who made their voices heard during this very interview. While she challenges Rep. Steve Knight for his seat, she's planning to stay on at PATH and let her husband do all the laundry. Oh, and did we mention she's 29?

When I was a kid, both my mom and my dad worked night shifts, so we would spend a lot of time at my grandfather's house. He taught at UCLA and was just really into history. Before bed, when other kids heard fairy tales, he would tell us about the American founding fathers and the beginning of democracy [laughs].

Because of that and because so many people in my family have served in the military, it was always really drilled into me what democracy was supposed to be. It was very, "We live in the greatest country in the world because our government is a true democracy—of and by and for the people." Having that as an ideal as a child and then watching how it's devolved over the past several years—it's really affected me. This isn't how it should be, and so one big reason I'm running is because I think we need to change that and get to the point where the political system works for real people and truly represents all of us, not just people who can "afford" to have a voice.

Courtesy Katie Hill

On a more practical level, I feel really prepared. I'm the executive director of a large homeless services organization, PATH. We advocate, we help develop policy, we coordinate funding to deal with homelessness. I don't know if you know, but homelessness in California is up; we're at the highest in the country now, and it's really impacting all of our communities here. So I've been completely focused on that, even during the 2016 election. Prop HHH [that would free up $1.2 billion in bonds to pay for 10,000 housing units for the homeless] was on the ballot in November. I was obviously thinking about the national election, but I was really giving all of my time and energy to this local initiative. It passed with almost 80 percent of the vote, which no one expected. But on the day of that victory, of course, Donald Trump was elected president and Republicans held on to the Senate and the House. We realized not only would we not be able to move forward on so much of what we were fighting for, but we risked moving backward in a huge way.

If we don't deal with the systemic problem that we're faced with as a country, we won't be able to move forward.

I started to see immediately that no matter how much we're able to do, if we don't deal with the systemic problem that we're faced with as a country, we won't be able to move forward. And very early on, we learned how fast the budget was going to be affected. Because of those initial cuts, we saw...homelessness in an increased way. And then I learned my district was going to be one of the most most imperative districts to take back the house in 2018. It's one of the top-six most vulnerable states in the entire country. In fact, Hillary [Clinton] won the district by seven points, but the Republicans congressman won it by six, and it's the last Republican-held seat in LA county. I've spent my entire life here, and it's my home. I know it as well as anyone. Once I figured out all that, I found out that the reason we still have a Republican congressman is because we've never been able to find a strong Democrat who's actually from the district, who's able to fundraise, and has the background that is needed to work on the issues that matter to the community like I do. It was suggested to me by a few people. I put it off for a while, and then finally, as it became clearer and clearer that the work that I've been fighting for was at risk of being all for nothing, I had to look into it and maybe step up to the plate. I did, and it just took off. We passed an additional measure that we'd been advocating for, Measure H, in March, and I announced.

Already, I'm learning how much it takes to run a campaign. I'm lucky I have my husband; he's key, because he does every single thing in the house. I don't remember the last time I did laundry or made food of any kind [laughs]. That's something that I can't say enough, especially as a woman, when women too often have the burden of doing everything around the house. He and my family are my backbone. Plus, since I'm from here, my sister and my dad and my mom all live here in the district, which makes a huge difference.

I live in one of those rare purple districts, and I think it's very much emblematic of the middle class. It's a mainly suburban area within LA County, and it's kind of comprised of three main population centers. Two of them are pretty well off, and one of them is less well off. The people who live there, making less, should be in the middle class and have been striving to be in the middle class, but haven't had those opportunities for a variety of reasons. And even in those areas where people have done better, there's still a lot of struggle. And even though we have a lot of access to education, we're finding that there are people my own age, who have a master's degree in some cases, and can't even get a $45,000-a-year job.

[People] want to hear, "I understand what you're going through, and you can trust me to fight for you and what you care about." But we can do both—fight for policy and resonate with people at the same time.

On both sides of my family, my grandparents grew up in total poverty and came to California during the Great Depression. The only way they were able to work their way out of that was by joining the military, which is how they both went on to be able to go to college. One of them ended up becoming an aerospace engineer and worked on the Apollo space shuttle. The other ended up going to Princeton and became that UCLA professor, who kind of helped raise me. The fact that they were able to go to college for free and put that education to work is what we need to be able to offer again. That's how my family got here, and I think that kind of opportunity doesn't exist for enough people now. Let's say you're born into a poor family, and your parents are never going to be able to pay for school, and you can't afford to take $40,000 or $50,000 in loans. What kind of opportunities can we provide for you, if you're willing to work?

And we have a model for how to have those conversations. I think [Bernie] Sanders did a better job at that than the rest of the Democratic Party in talking about this, and that's why we saw so much momentum there. We have to be able to build. I think the truth is most people don't want to hear about policy. They want to hear, "I understand what you're going through, and you can trust me to fight for you and what you care about." But we can do both—fight for policy and resonate with people at the same time.

The campaign, for me, is about mobilizing everyone. We've done a bunch of events at the local high schools, and we're doing a huge youth and millennial outreach. I know that typically the idea is that young people won't show up to vote, especially for midterms, and you can't count on them. But I think this is a different time and I think young people need someone who doesn't just count them out immediately, that they can relate to and who has a message for them. If we can provide that and we can get people excited, they will show up. I've been so impressed with the kinds of thoughtful questions that I've gotten from young people, from Girl Scouts, from teenagers. That gives me hope, and I think this is our generation's time to step up and start answers those questions.

Mattie Kahn Mattie Kahn is a writer who lives in New York.

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