John,

We’re back with another installment of 21 to Watch in ‘21 – a biweekly
series where we spotlight and introduce you to some of the people and
issues to keep your eye on in the progressive movement.

Our sixth spotlight belongs to Mckayla Wilkes, 2022 candidate for
Maryland’s fifth Congressional district. If Mckayla’s name sounds
familiar, that’s probably because DFA backed her for MD-05 last year when
she mounted a campaign against forty-year incumbent, Steny Hoyer 

Rep. Hoyer has been in office longer than Mckayla has been alive. Let that
sit with you for a minute. 

Fed up with seeing her community represented by out-of-touch, corporate
politicians, Mckayla launched a people-powered campaign that shook the
establishment to its core, giving Rep. Hoyer the toughest primary of his
career.

Now, she’s back to finish the job. 

This rematch election is not until 2022, so we’re keeping our eyes on
Mckayla and seeing how she moves in 2021, watching history unfold. 

[ [link removed] ]Taking on the corporate Democrats takes momentum and money, so give
Mckayla’s full interview a watch and consider making a contribution to
help topple the establishment for a better Maryland.

Check out a few highlights from her interview below:

[ [link removed] ]On receiving DFA’s endorsement:

“So many other groups kind of want to wait to see where you're at and
what's going to happen. Democracy for America gets it, and they understand
that grassroots candidates need that early support in order to mount these
challenges. . . [I am] honored to have the support of DFA and just to be
working with you all.”

[ [link removed] ]On why she is running for office: 

One of the hugest things that led me to seeking office was being directly
funneled into the school to prison pipeline and seeing how that affected
my adulthood and led me into the criminal justice system. Because both of
those things really showed me how we don't have a system based on justice,
but we have a system based on incarceration. And from that point on, it
just became kind of like a domino effect of just everything that I was
seeing that was just completely wrong with our system.

[ [link removed] ]On the challenge of going up against moneyed candidates:  

One of the biggest challenges is money because our race is essentially one
that is a race that is people versus money. We're going up against the
second most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives, Steny
Hoyer, who has a war chest of money. … And so as a grassroots candidate
who strives to put our community first, we spend a lot of time calling
people calling donors, calling constituents, calling regular working class
people and asking for money just because that's the way the system is
built. ... until we get to a place where we have campaign finance reform
this is something essential to do in order for us to make it.

[ [link removed] ]On building a campaign bigger than herself:

“I'm definitely in this to win. . .  But I think that people should know
that me running this race is so much bigger than just a race for us. For
us, it's a movement. For me, it's a movement and this is something that I
care about truly and deeply. It's something that I take personally.” 

Thank you for checking out Mckayla Wilkes in 21 to Watch in ‘21. 

[ [link removed] ]As always, there was lots of good stuff we couldn’t fit into these
clips, so be sure to watch our full interview with Mckayla and consider
making a contribution to help her topple one of the most entrenched
political establishments in the country.

Until next time, keep fighting for change.

- Kelley

Kelley Jackson
Communications Director
Democracy for America




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