Meet Mckayla Wilkes

Highlighting the brightest and the best of 2021 {NAME}, We’re back with another installment of 21 to Watch in ‘21 – a biweekly series where we spotlight and introduce you to some of the people and issues to keep your eye on in the progressive movement. Our sixth spotlight belongs to Mckayla Wilkes, 2022 candidate for Maryland’s fifth Congressional district. If Mckayla’s name sounds familiar, that’s probably because DFA backed her for MD-05 last year when she mounted a campaign against forty-year incumbent, Steny Hoyer Rep. Hoyer has been in office longer than Mckayla has been alive. Let that sit with you for a minute. Fed up with seeing her community represented by out-of-touch, corporate politicians, Mckayla launched a people-powered campaign that shook the establishment to its core, giving Rep. Hoyer the toughest primary of his career. Now, she’s back to finish the job. This rematch election is not until 2022, so we’re keeping our eyes on Mckayla and seeing how she moves in 2021, watching history unfold. [Taking on the corporate Democrats takes momentum and money, so give Mckayla’s full interview a watch and consider making a contribution to help topple the establishment for a better Maryland.]( Check out a few highlights from her interview below: [On receiving DFA’s endorsement:]( “So many other groups kind of want to wait to see where you're at and what's going to happen. Democracy for America gets it, and they understand that grassroots candidates need that early support in order to mount these challenges. . . [I am] honored to have the support of DFA and just to be working with you all.” [On why she is running for office:]( One of the hugest things that led me to seeking office was being directly funneled into the school to prison pipeline and seeing how that affected my adulthood and led me into the criminal justice system. Because both of those things really showed me how we don't have a system based on justice, but we have a system based on incarceration. And from that point on, it just became kind of like a domino effect of just everything that I was seeing that was just completely wrong with our system. [On the challenge of going up against moneyed candidates]( One of the biggest challenges is money because our race is essentially one that is a race that is people versus money. We're going up against the second most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, who has a war chest of money. … And so as a grassroots candidate who strives to put our community first, we spend a lot of time calling people calling donors, calling constituents, calling regular working class people and asking for money just because that's the way the system is built. ... until we get to a place where we have campaign finance reform this is something essential to do in order for us to make it. [On building a campaign bigger than herself:]( “I'm definitely in this to win. . . But I think that people should know that me running this race is so much bigger than just a race for us. For us, it's a movement. For me, it's a movement and this is something that I care about truly and deeply. It's something that I take personally.” Thank you for checking out Mckayla Wilkes in 21 to Watch in ‘21. [As always, there was lots of good stuff we couldn’t fit into these clips, so be sure to watch our full interview with Mckayla and consider making a contribution to help her topple one of the most entrenched political establishments in the country.]( Until next time, keep fighting for change. - Kelley Kelley Jackson Communications Director Democracy for America Paid for by Democracy for America, democracyforamerica.com and not authorized by any candidate. Contributions to Democracy for America are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to {EMAIL}. [Click here to unsubscribe from receiving further emails.](