Congress is ‘chaos,’ but these lawmakers keep coming back. Here’s why

Polarizing. Difficult. A whole lot of wasted time.
That’s how six lawmakers described what it is like being within the U.S. Home—a very tumultuous interval in American historical past that has introduced governing to a standstill, positioned their lives in peril and raised elementary questions on what it means to be a consultant in a divided democracy.
And but, they keep at it, working for reelection.
The Related Press sat down individually with lawmakers, three Republicans and three Democrats, to listen to what it’s like on Capitol Hill and what they—and Individuals—can do to make it higher. All hail from protected districts and are anticipated to simply win one other time period.
Here’s who they’re, why they first ran for workplace and why they keep coming again.

Republicans

Dusty Johnson is the uncommon lawmaker whose sprawling district makes up a complete state, South Dakota. He ran for workplace in 2018 as a result of he thought there have been “too many jerks” in Congress and he could be higher.
Nicole Malliotakis stated that because the daughter of a Cuban mom and Greek father, her background made her born for politics. She ran in 2020 to supply a “counter view” as a Republican from New York Metropolis, representing Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Mark Amodei from northern Nevada, or “original Nevada,” as he calls it, has been in workplace since 2011. He stated it’s his accountability to do public service and provides again to the state the place his household has lived for generations.

Democrats

Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Drive veteran, comes from the western Philadelphia area often known as “the mushroom capital of the world.” The daughter of a Holocaust survivor and mom of a queer daughter, she determined to run for workplace in 2018 after seeing them in tears after Donald Trump’s 2016 election.
Veronica Escobar, from the border metropolis of El Paso, Texas, ran for workplace to work for her group but additionally to inform the “El Paso story” and counter among the “negative narratives” about immigrants. She received election in 2018.
Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, stated his preliminary response to working for workplace was “Hell, no!” But he got here to understand his work because the nationwide organizer at March for Our Lives after the college capturing in Parkland, Florida, may carry over into Congress. He first received workplace in 2022.

So how’s it going?

“Chaos is honestly the word I would use to describe the totality of the Congress,” Frost stated. “A lot of wasted time.”
“You have your ups and downs,” stated Malliotakis.
Nearly all of them have been in workplace throughout two presidential impeachments, two historic Home speaker fights, the COVID closures and the Jan. 6 revolt on the Capitol.
“All of the things that you could not expect have happened have, have happened,” Houlahan stated. This yr specifically has been irritating “and in some cases super demoralizing because, you know, you’re not here to not do things.”
Amodei stated, “I think it’s an asset if you know how to play well with others. And if you don’t play well with others, then this is a nasty place to be.”
Escobar, who was among the many lawmakers trapped within the Home gallery on Jan. 6, 2021, stated: “I will tell you, I love my job. I’m grateful for my job. It’s a tough job.”

What can Congress do otherwise?

“I struggle with that a lot,” stated Houlahan.
Houlahan stated the Home’s 435 members function like “independent contractors,” with small staffs and every workplace’s personal character. After a profession within the navy, as a small enterprise entrepreneur and as a highschool chemistry instructor, she stated, “I’ve never seen anything like the organizational structure that is here.”
“Some of those offices, their mission is chaos, you know, and some of those offices, their mission is constructive,” Houlahan stated.
Johnson stated it’s the flawed query to be asking.
“It’s garbage in, garbage out,” he stated.
“And if the people of America are going to continue to elect people who use fear and anger to motivate, we’re going to continue to find it more difficult than it should be to get things done in Congress,” he stated.
Frost thinks until there are institutional reforms—marketing campaign finance adjustments and ending the Senate’s filibuster—”we’re going to be caught on this generational cycle of taking a number of steps ahead and some steps backwards.”
Malliotakis expects it’s going to be this manner for some time.
“The far right does its thing, the far left does its thing, and then everyone else in the middle really comes together to actually govern,” she stated.

And what can Individuals do to repair Congress?

“Congress is a reflection of what’s happening in America,” Escobar stated.
“We have families that can no longer talk to one another about politics or about government,” she stated. “We are drifting so far away from what is so good about our country and our communities, and Congress has a role in fixing that. . . . But we in our country have to do more of that, as well.”
Malliotakis stated it might assist if Individuals paid extra consideration to what their representatives had been “actually doing when they’re in Washington.”
“So many people complain about issues and then they vote for the same members over and over,” she stated.
Johnson suggests Individuals record traits they’d search in a partner, a boss, a pastor or little one and use them when electing a consultant.
“Congress can’t fix Congress,” he stated. “The American people can fix Congress.”

Do you are worried on your security?

“We’ve all gotten death threats,” Malliotakis stated. “Obviously, it is a polarizing time right now.”
Escobar stated she has stopped holding massive city corridor gatherings over considerations of gun violence.
“I worry that any time I’m gathered with my constituents that one of my constituents could get hurt,” she stated. “And I worry that my presence at a large gathering could put somebody else’s safety at risk.”
Houlahan stated the dangers of violence include the job.
“This is a job where we are in danger,” she stated. “It’s awful that we’re in that place, and we as leaders should be decrying that and not encouraging that.”
She stated, “But it is absolutely my expectation that this is not a safe job.”
Frost stated the threats he receives as a member of Congress will not be new to him. “And I think it just shows, of course, the tone and this kind of violent culture that exists within American politics.”

What are one of the best elements of your job?

All stated getting stuff finished—even small wins. Particularly the small wins, in reality, as a result of that’s about all Congress can accomplish these days.
“There’s no other feeling like it,” stated Frost.
He described standing on the White Home for the launch of the first-ever Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention. And the “joy” he felt when receiving phrase that the administration would approve a second passport workplace in Florida, one thing constituents had been demanding since earlier than he got here to Congress.
Amodei talked about work he’s finished towards a monument for Vietnam Battle helicopter pilots at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery. “That’s neat.”
“The best days are days when you actually feel like you took a vote of consequence,” Johnson stated, whether or not it’s certifying the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election or “making sure that we don’t have any of these silly, stupid dumpster fires.”
“My role as a legislator is to find a solution,” Escobar stated. “It may not be the perfect solution…. I have constituents who get mad at me for saying that, but progress is incremental.”

And the worst?

“I commute about 5,000 miles a week,” Amodei stated.
But what’s “worse is when you feel like you’re here and your time is being taken for granted,” he stated.

Why do you keep coming again?

“I keep coming back because it’s work that matters,” Johnson stated.
“I do love what I do,” Malliotakis stated, including she desires to do “great work for our constituents.”
Houlahan stated she envisions a future the place Congress turns a nook.
“I stay because I’m hoping that we will find ourselves again,” she stated. “And I hope that I can be part of it.”
Frost stated, “If we step away from our civic power, our opposition is more than happy to step into it for us.”
“The way this institution works should reflect the wants and needs of the people. And so . . . that’s why we’ve got to keep coming back.”

Does Congress matter?

“Anybody who would act like Congress doesn’t matter, I think, is naive to the point of being a bad citizen,” Johnson stated. “The reality is that every single one, we cast votes that bend the trajectory of this country.”
Amodei stated, “Well, fair question, but it’s like, well, do you think Social Security is important if you’re over 65? Do you think Medicare is important? . . . Do you think that our borders are important?”
He stated he will get the “uber-cynics” who say, “You people are such dysfunctional jerks that we should just get rid of all of you. It’s like, okay, so tell me what your plan is.”
“Everything we do here in Washington, D.C., in Congress, impacts every single citizen in this great country,” Escobar stated.

Mascaro is the AP congressional correspondent. Pesoli is an AP videojournalist.

—Lisa Mascaro and Mike Pesoli, Related Press