As 2022 came to a close- a hell of a year that started with our hospitals being crushed by Omicron, was pancaked in the middle by an unprecedented assault on the fundamental rights of every American and the worst pediatric health crisis in a generation, and ended with a red fizzle at the ballot box- I found myself, as many candidates do at the end of a fundraising quarter, pushing hard to raise as much money as I could before the final deadline for the year hit. Making phone calls, sending emails, doing everything I could to break records and demonstrate out grassroots campaign was the juggernaut it'll need to be to extricate the most entrenched Republican in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
In the middle of all of this, however, I got a very interesting invitation. Would I be interested in speaking with a group of local voters- selling myself, my campaign, and my message, as 2022 turned into 2023 and all eyes in the country shift to Virginia? If so, there was a group of folks who said they'd love to chat with me about that, and hear what I had to say. While the district I'm running for has shifted almost forty points bluer since I ran previously, it's currently held by the most entrenched incumbent in Virginia: the author of Virginia's transvaginal ultrasound bill and architect of Operation Red Map. In nobody's world is it a “gimmie" district.
Oh, ahhh… just one small catch: this was a group of some very, very conservative folks who live in central Virginia.
As I mulled the offer, I didn't know if it came to me with the thought I would refuse- why would a progressive show up to hawk votes and be subjected to a hostile crowd on New Year's Eve?- so that they could say "Well, we would have loved to talk to him, but he wouldn't show up!". I didn’t know if they were looking for a "Gotcha!" moment from me. Or maybe they were 100% intrigued because we were running an aggressive, populist campaign in a fairly-drawn district.
Honestly, the only thing I knew for sure was that there was no way I was going to turn it down.
I've long understood progressives who want to eschew places like "Tucker Carlson" or other similar echo chambers, who exist to solely weaponize rhetoric. But people like Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, and Barack Obama (amongst others) have, at various times, gone unapologetically into "unsafe spaces" and wreaked havoc with the rhetorical narrative- and it is something I am a huge proponent of. The moment you dispel people's preconceptions of who you are is a moment when you can make real inroads. And thus, I finished up my fundraising pitches, fired off a Happy New Year email to our campaign team and supporters, and headed into the fray.
And it was pretty uncompromising. The topic almost immediately skewed to abortion and gun rights, which didn't surprise me in the least. They also asked me about ranked choice voting, campaign finance reform, healthcare issues, renewable energy, and even Medicare for All! At one point, one person there told me they would always vote for a "liberty and freedom" candidate.
I didn't hesitate for a moment. "That's me," I said. "That's the entire (progressive) agenda I'm fighting for. I want you to have as much personal freedom, individual liberty, and stability as I can possibly get you."
This raised some eyebrows, but I plowed ahead unapologetically. "That's why I fight for things like Medicare for All," I said. "What kind of freedom do you have if you're worried about a single illness bankrupting you? What kind of freedom do you have if you're worried your insurance company will deny your ER bill claim if they don't think you were sick enough? What kind of freedom do you have when anyone can donate unlimited amounts of money to make sure politicians listen to them instead of you, or you don’t have any consumer protections?"
I wasn't going to let my foot off the gas. "That's how I can be for 'Medicare for All' and against abortion bans, for common sense gun violence prevention laws and against the (Virginia government owned liquor business)," I told them, "It's all part of one coherent policy to make sure you and your families, and every single Virginian, has the greatest amount of freedom, liberty, and stability that we can give them. We protect you from the overreach of the powerful, whether it's the government or moneyed interest groups, and we make sure you have the opportunity to live as happy and healthy a life as possible."
It was clear what I was telling them wasn't what they expected to hear- going straight for the metaphorical jugular on "liberty and freedom"- but it is exactly what I intended to do, and what I suggest progressive candidates everywhere do.
Because it's absolutely true. We want to protect people from overreach and excess power, whether that's from the government or from corporations. We want to give people the ability and tools to lead long, happy, and healthy lives. When crises arise, we want to make sure people have the protection they need to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. In a time where things have become more and more extreme, from our political system to our planet's climate, we want to work to give people as much stability as possible.
That is the progressive agenda. That's why you see millennials as the first generation to become more progressive as they get older. People crave more stability as they get old, and millennials have come to understand- having weathered crisis after crisis, from Columbine to 9/11 to multiple economic crashes, a global pandemic, and more- that if you want stability, if you want prosperity, then a progressive platform is what is going to give it to you.
We need to own this as progressives. We need to be unapologetic about it! People loathe "King Solomon" style centrists, whose answer is "just cut the baby in half, then everyone will be happy!" They'd rather support someone they might not agree with on every single issue, but who they feel will stand up and support them. And especially once you drill past the noise put out by the conservative outrage machine, the vast majority of the country is with us on every single progressive policy plank.
That's why we have to go to places like these and boldly make our case, directly to people. We don't have to compromise on our values to do it because our values are what people are craving now.
Now, I'm under no illusions I stunned everyone in this place and created an army of lifetime progressives. They were respectful of me and our conversations, and I definitely made some inroads. But if I come up with one extra vote from there? I'll call it a win. If a couple of those folks go to other people, when the topic of me comes up, and say "You know, I don't agree with X, Y, or Z that Kellen said, but he was earnest, and I absolutely believe he'd fight for me and my family," then I'll call it a win.
But don’t take my word for it. Just look at John Fetterman. Marie Glusenkamp-Perez. Mary Peltola. Laura Kelly. Gretchen Whitmer. They get it.
Remember, a couple extra votes a precinct in Virginia would have given us Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. Nationally, in 2016, it would have given us President Hillary Clinton. Losing by 20 points instead of 30 or 40 in some of these areas makes an enormous difference. We can't win every single vote, and we shouldn't contort ourselves into pretzels to try. But we don't have to do that! We just need to stand up for what we believe in, to show people that our agenda is one that is fighting for them...
... and then- most importantly of all- we have to turn words into action. We have to deliver on what we promise.
That’s what I’m fighting for here in rural Virginia. That’s what we ALL need to be fighting for in every state, every zip code, and every corner of the country.
Kellen Squire is an emergency department nurse from Barboursville, Virginia, running for the Virginia House of Delegates. Donate today, and help us flip the bluest district the Virginia GOP still holds.