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Melissa Harris-Perry: I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. Welcome to The Takeaway. So glad to have you with us.

Now, as we near the end of one semester, another new class of freshmen are going through orientation right now before their term starts in January.

No, I'm not talking about my Wake Forest students, I'm talking about the freshman of the 118th Congress. Having been duly elected in their respective districts, these bright-eyed, big-idea'd, first-year representatives have been spending two weeks in our nation's Capitol getting to know the campus and their fellow classmates. What a class it is.

They're young. 17 of the congressional newcomers are under 40 and they're diverse. 149 women will serve in the 118th US Congress and a record number of Black women, 27. One member joined The Takeaway back in September as part of our midterm SHElection coverage, and she came back to talk with us this time from DC and freshman congressional orientation.

Sydney Kamlager: My name is Sydney Kamlager. I am Congresswoman-Elect for the 37th Congressional District in California, representing Los Angeles.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Back in September, I'd asked her why she was running and she had quite an answer.

Sydney Kamlager: Sometimes on very busy days I ask myself that very same question.

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Sydney Kamlager: We're at a historic moment nationally, but also in Los Angeles, which is on the precipice of electing its first Black woman as mayor in Congresswoman Karen Bass.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Pause, we're not just on the precipice, Karen Bass did that, y'all.

Karen Bass: No matter who you voted for, no matter who you are or where you live, I will be a mayor for you.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Kamlager went on to defeat Jan Perry and is now the representative-elect for the 37th Congressional District of California.

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Sydney Kamlager: This is the second week of two weeks of getting acquainted with Congress and what it means to be a representative in the House, and I can tell you it is like drinking out of a fire hose.

Melissa Harris-Perry: [laughs] It's not like college. You don't have an RA and a construction paper sign on your door or something?

Sydney Kamlager: No, you don't. In fact, we are preparing to, I guess, put our names in a hat in a lottery to figure out where we're going to be with our offices. We've already been told that we only have bad offices from which to choose. Just learning the halls and the tunnels and then getting caught up in the rapture of all of these buildings in which we will be working that also happen to be built by my ancestors and your ancestors.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I am sometimes almost embarrassed by how emotional I get in the halls of the physical Capitol building, how emotional I still get when I take a walk or a jog up to the Lincoln Memorial. There is something very powerful about that space.

Sydney Kamlager: Oh, my goodness. I have been pinching myself as often as my mother has been texting me, which is every single day. I've been walking these halls getting lost and looking at all of these edifices that, like I said, were built by our ancestors. You get tours periodically by Black and brown employees who know these buildings just as well as they know our constitution and the history of this country, and it is awesome.

It reminds you that democracy is a shared project for all of us, and it reminds you that we all have a place in this country. If you don't get goosebumps when you come to these buildings, I don't know what else you need to remind you of the importance of the work that we all have to do to protect our democracy, our families, this country, our future.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Let me pause here, again, for one more moment because as you bring that up, there's a certain tightness in my chest around thinking again about January 6th and not only the kind of desecration of the democratic process that we saw on that day, but what felt to me very personal in terms of a desecration of the space as you point out, space that was designed and built by the ancestors of Black Americans.

I like to think of my people in the broadest sense of who my people are, but also right now today, cleaned by, cared for, halls walked by, run by Black and brown folk and seeing that disrespect of the space, I still can't even quite form words for how painful it was.

Sydney Kamlager: Absolutely. Part of the new member orientation is also electing leadership. We elected Hakeem Jeffries from Brooklyn to be our minority leader. This is the first time in the history of this country that a Black man has been elected nominated leader of our party. That happened on Shirley Chisholm's birthday, and that's the same district that he represents. What a circular moment.

As we are hearing from colleagues who are nominating members for our leadership positions, you look around the room and the staff of members are young, they are diverse, they are LGBT. When you are trying to find your way to the bathroom and the person in it who's cleaning it, or if you don't know how to use your computer and you look to the tech person to get help, they are Black, they are brown.

When you're walking the halls, like I said, to get tours of the building, the folks who are giving the tours are Black, they are brown. It is awesome.

Then you hear stories of colleagues who were here on January 6th who said they had to take off their jackets to get ready to fight, and you think, how could it be that there were so many people who've decided that it is okay to disrespect this country? Why do you resent it so much that you want to kill people when many of the folks who come here each and every day are doing all they can to protect this country and the workers and the families and the futures of all of us who live in it?

Melissa Harris-Perry: This is not your first time in elected office. You have been serving in the California State Senate, but now you're taking on a federal role for California. I will say, I'm sure you already know this, but obviously the work of being a representative from California who serves in DC, y'all got a particularly hard task. All you west coasters who are making that long flight back and forth, who are dealing with constituent issues across the three-hour time difference. What are you looking forward to and what are you like setting up some systems to try to manage as you move to this larger stage?

Sydney Kamlager: I tell everybody that my number one priority is to stay married because I do love my husband and I want to be with my kids. I'm doing lots of things. Everything from trying to figure out who can help me do my hair in Washington, DC, because Black hair has a life of its own. How do I make sure that I'm doing my exercises and how can I eat right? Because when you're running from meeting to meeting all day, you're not eating healthily and being shuttled around, you're not getting in your steps.

Then I'm also thinking about how am I preparing to take back the House in 2024. How am I finding folks on the other side of the aisle who have an incredibly small majority, but who might be interested in working with me so that we can find some small wins that will make a big difference in the lives of my constituents and Americans across this country? At the end of the day, we have to do all that we can to make living in this country more affordable and more dignified, and more safe for everyone.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, you are part of the largest class of women who will serve during the 118th Congress. When you and I last spoke, it was part of our SHElection series. Tell me what difference you're hoping women make there in the US Congress.

Sydney Kamlager: Women keep it real and I think Black women keep it real, real. How about that? There are 27 Black women that are now in Congress. We are younger, we are more diverse. We have diverse backgrounds and experiences and histories, and we are not afraid to roll up our sleeves and get the work done.

Oftentimes, we are doing the same work that a man is doing and we're not getting the credit and people are not helping to lift us up. I think the more women you have, we tend to support each other and elevate that from a gender space.

I am hopeful that a chorus of female voices, Black, brown, Asian, Native American, lesbian, bi, queer, will help change the perspective and the direction of some of the hate and resentment that you hear coming from spaces that you know you have to shut down, because when that rises to such a temperature, people die.

I think we are also going to take the fact that so many women and young people got up and got out to vote this election cycle because our bodies and our rights were on the line. I hope that we're able to sustain that momentum as we move into 2023 and prepare for 2024.

Melissa Harris-Perry: The seat to which you were elected was vacated by the just indomitable Karen Bass, who is now the mayor-elect of the city of Los Angeles. Has she left you with any advice?

Sydney Kamlager: She said, "Call me whenever you need anything." I said, "Madame Mayor, what? You got a lot of work to do?" She told me to take it easy. Take it all in. You will never be a freshman again. She told me to reach out. She told me to lean into the Congressional Black Caucus. There's so much history and fight in that caucus, and she said, "Lean into the strengths that got you here. Lean into the work that you've already accomplished and let that lead you." I'm going to do that and I'm going to continue to lean on her for advice and support her in any way that I can as well.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Do you have a top one to maybe even a list of New Year's legislative resolutions? What is at the top of your list to get started on first?

Sydney Kamlager: Wow. The top of the list is to get in the mix around climate protection. I think oftentimes Black and brown people are left out of those discussions, and yet we happen to live in communities that have the highest level of toxicities where we also suffer from the greatest number of health disparities.

My other top priority is to talk about the generational wealth gap. Black folks have a history of financial resilience. We gain, it is taken from us. We gain again, we are excluded from the table. I'm going to be leaning into economic justice for all communities because that's what we heard when we were campaigning and running for office. That's still the squeeze that people are feeling when they're going to the grocery stores and the gas stations, and we have a responsibility to talk about how different the dollar is for Black folks and brown folks than it is for other people.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Congresswoman-elect Sydney Kamlager, thank you so much for joining us.

Sydney Kamlager: Thank you. I'm pinching myself right now because I've been talking to you.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Listen, tell Leader Jeffries to give us a call. The Takeaway wants to talk to him.

Sydney Kamlager: I'm going to let him know right now. [laughs]

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