“But you are a Democrat,” I blurted out to Rahm Emanuel as he walked into Pete Sessions’ D.C. office. Emanuel, then a Democratic congressman who later served as Barack Obama’s chief of staff, stopped by on a late evening at the Capitol to cheerfully greet his D.C. office neighbor and interns, including impertinent me.
It was 2003, and I was a sophomore in college at the University of Notre Dame, interning in Washington for Dallas Republican Pete Sessions, the second of several Republican internships that I had in college. I was a cradle Republican, raised in a conservative area in North Dallas. And I was in disbelief that a Democrat and Republican — especially this Democrat and Republican — were friends.
So how did this cradle Republican run as a Democratic candidate for the Texas state house 20 years later?
My current beliefs stem from a different side of my upbringing that I can only now see with hindsight. My grandparents were West Texas farmers, public school teachers, and LBJ Democrats. They raised my father, who became a pharmacist and Medicaid advocate. He owned an independent pharmacy, fought big chain pharmacies, and invested in his employees who worked with him for decades. My mom was a labor and delivery nurse at Parkland Hospital who taught me that the government had no business in a delivery room. And one of my brothers came out as gay.
Yet on a surface level, being a Republican was part of who we were as a family and in our community. We were Texans. We loved our country. We went to church. And we were all conservative. The “we” was more important than the “why.”
I tethered my sense of self to Republicanism, despite many fundamental disagreements. I was conservative, but I disagreed with the war in Iraq. I was a Notre Dame graduate but was firmly pro-choice. I was a Republican but supported the LGBTQ+ community. I soothed my inner conflict by telling myself and others: “I’m fiscally conservative, but socially liberal,” as if that explained away my inner rift. After law school, the cracks really started to show. My pro-choice and pro-gay marriage stances became wedge issues.
After graduating law school, I became a federal prosecutor and an Air Force judge advocate general in the Obama administration, jobs that required me to stay nonpartisan, a convenient cover for my feelings of being politically orphaned. I was consistently voting blue but did not consider myself yet a Democrat. I was still a Texan. I loved my country. I went to church. But could I unshackle myself from the other parts of my cultural identity? If I did, then would I still be included in the “we” that made up my hometown?
Working in the Trump administration forced me to confront the hard truths of what was important to me. I didn’t just represent the United States government in the courtroom. I represented Trump’s government, which meant that judges and defense counsel looked at me with deserved skepticism. I also looked inward toward the hopes I had for the future of my family and country. On abortion, gay marriage, climate change, public schools, gun safety, and so many others, my beliefs fell squarely within the Democratic Party.
After the 2020 election, I felt a sense of urgency to run for office. But I had anxiety about being an unwelcome outsider by running in the Democratic Party. Instead, I was surprised to learn that many folks shared my political evolution, and many within the party have become my best friends.
Though I didn’t win the primary election to represent District 115 in the Texas House of Representatives, I met so many people who shared common goals of making our communities better and hoped for less vitriol. While I may have lost the political identity of my youth, I gained a better perspective of what really brings people together.
After I exclaimed “But you are a Democrat,” Rahm Emanuel politely said to my brazen 20-year-old self, “So? I am a Democrat. I’m saying hello to my friend Pete.”
Kate Rumsey is a former federal prosecutor, criminal defense attorney and Air Force JAG who ran in the last primary election.
Part of our opinion series The American Middle, this essay describes one woman’s journey from thinking Democrats were the enemy, to running for office as one.
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