Interview: One-on-One with Congresswoman Susan Wild

“Most of all, I just want my constituents back home to know that I’m working for them, and that I’m not thinking about contributions from a big corporation when I’m in a committee hearing and questioning witnesses and when we’re voting on matters that are important to the working families in my district.”

Congresswoman Susan Wild was elected to represent Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional district in 2018. Prior to being elected to Congress, Ms. Wild worked as a lawyer and served as the first female Solicitor of the City of Allentown. Following up on her September interview with Merion West, while she was campaigning for this seat, she now joins Erich Prince for a discussion about her experiences and priorities now that she is in Congress. Topics of conversation include her commitment to campaigning without corporate PAC money, her relationship with the other newly elected Pennsylvania congresswomen, and the student debt crisis.

Congresswoman, very nice to speak to you again, now on the other side of the election in November. I want to start off by talking about this incoming “Class of Four” from Pennsylvania that we’ve been hearing about. I saw a photo of you with Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean in Selma at the beginning of the month for example. And, of course, you all appeared on NBC10 Philadelphia the day after the election talking about how you all supported one another throughout the election process. I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about the sense of camaraderie you have with these other new representatives, who are women, from Pennsylvania now that the campaign is over, and you’re all in office.

We got to know each other after the primary, after the dust settled, and we realized that there were other women running in other parts of the state. We’ve been, I think, a tremendous resource for one another in many ways. We talk very regularly. It’s funny, because people think we spend all of our time together, which we obviously don’t; we’re on different committees, and we’re all doing our own work. But we lean on each other a lot. We schedule meetings together; we’ve had scheduled meetings with Senator Bob Casey and Senator Pat Toomey.