This single mom runs her own business and is now also running for Congress
Katie
Wilson says there are two remarks she gets from people on the campaign
trail that male candidates probably don’t: “Who’s taking care of your
kids? And you should really smile more.”
“Well,
I’m a fighter,” Wilson told "Good Morning America" during a recent
interview in her hometown of Keene, New York, responding to why she does
not always smile big for the cameras. “And I am angry."
PHOTO: New York Democratic congressional candidate Katie Wilson works on her campaign. (ABC News)
“What
I see in this moment is incredible injustice and that’s what's really
compelled me to do what I'm doing,” she said, standing around her
kitchen sink with her big dog at the window.
Wilson,
a single mom with two young, elementary school-aged kids said she
decided to run after President Donald Trump was elected. Like so many
first-time female candidates this election cycle, she said she felt that
a typical, traditional candidate was not going to cut it.
“We
have a Congress full of people who are worth a million bucks or who
come from very similar backgrounds, very similar schools, with similar
resumes ... but they don’t get it,” she said during the interview. “We
need to bring average voices to the table with direct experience.”
Wilson described the stress of being a single mom and a small business
owner. She told stories of the heartbreak and anxiety she has felt over
the years, wanting to take her children out to dinner or on vacation,
but knowing she could not afford it. She said running her own
consignment store in the small town of just over 1,000 people made her
intimately aware of local economic issues, including tax policy, health care options for businesses, market demand, income and more.
PHOTO: New York Democratic congressional candidate Katie Wilson runs her own store in Keene, N.Y. (ABC News)Running a family prepared her for 1st campaign run
Running a family, too, she said, prepared her for the campaign.
"The
logistics of running for Congress are not that much different than
being a single mom. I'm trying to be a force of good in the world, and
yet I'm constantly putting out fires and always worried about money,”
she said with a playful but serious smile.
Wilson
schedules campaign work around two key events every day: getting her
kids to school and being home when they get off the bus. The day of the
"GMA" interview she had made egg-in-the-hole for breakfast and argued
repeatedly with her youngest daughter who was refusing to eat it. Wilson
waited with her daughter's purple backpack slung over her shoulder,
tapping her food and staring her down.
When
we asked Wilson's son, Cooper, a fourth-grader, what he thought about
his mom running for office, he said it was "annoying.” Wilson did not
interrupt him or disagree when he talked about missing her in the
evenings and having her gone a lot.
PHOTO:
New York Democratic congressional candidate Katie Wilson spends time
with her children in Keene, N.Y., June 18, 2018. (ABC News)
“I
live a precarious financial existence, I’m a single mom, I’m not the
kind of person who runs for Congress. And everyone said, 'well, that’s
why you should do it,'” Wilson continued.
“This
moment requires something new, something different. I knew how
frustrated I was, and worried I was about my children’s future. I could
either sit around and continue to be frustrated and upset, or I could do
something about it and actively participate in creating a better
future,” she explained
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