Congresswoman-elect Lateefah Simon was the featured speaker at the Alameda Chamber & Economic Alliance’s sold-out High Tea event on Thursday, December 5. California Assemblymember Mia Bonta was also present as Simon reflected on how female mentors, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have helped shape her career. Simon also responded to community questions about the political climate and the challenges she might be facing in the incoming legislation.
Among the 70 attendees at the networking event was Sebriah Porter-Clare, a manager for Carbon Health urgent care in Alameda, who came to the event to connect with other businesses and to find ways to support the community.
“I wanted to get to know what government officials plan to do for the community,” Porter-Clare said. “What does that look like on such a large scale? I think it’s so important and really fascinating to be front and center, to be in these small spaces with these people with very big titles and very big access to everything. I thought it was very motivating, inspiring. It seems like all the work that (Simon) has done in the past has been labors of love and labors of progression.”
Alameda Education Foundation Executive Director Vicki Sedlack, who will retire from her post at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, asked Simon how to stay positive when “people like us feel really depressed about the future of politics on the national level.”
Simon responded by emphasizing the importance of leaning on community support. “I do have a lot of positivity because I also know that there are rooms like this, full of women, full of leadership, and full of folks who are problem-solvers,” she said.
Bonta added, “Alameda is really based on people showing up for each other every single day, so we have something special here.”
Simon, a Democrat, also responded to concerns about how she would handle being a minority in the upcoming Republican-majority U.S. Congress.
On some issues, Simon said you simply make the case for them. “Infrastructure is not a partisan issue. Transportation availability is not a partisan issue,” Simon said. “We go into these spaces knowing that even in Democratic-controlled spaces, you don’t get along with everybody. You have to figure out how to take the ‘I’ out of ‘Team’ and just do the work.”
Regarding other issues, Simon said the focus will be on mitigating damage. “We will try to block what we can block. There’s a lot of harm reduction that’s going to need to be done.”
Johana Segura, the owner of 24/7 Nightingale Home Care, came to the event with concerns about seniors and children. She was happy to hear that Simon and Bonta included specific mentions of those demographics in their discussion.
“We want to make sure seniors are taken care of, and that children with disabilities or adults with disabilities receive the services they need. So, it was a great topic for us to hear from them,” Segura said.
Lateefah Simon is the Representative-elect for California’s 12th Congressional District.
Vicky Nguyen is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Vicky-Nguyen.
