Hopeful

by Craig Wiesner - San Mateo Daily Journal - September 8, 2025

Congressman Kevin Mullin is hopeful. I was glad to hear that given how I felt much of the day before I asked him a few questions for this column. He had just been interviewed by my Indivisible Mid-Peninsula colleague at the Peninsula Italian-American Social Club. Over 200 people showed up to hear Mullin answer questions about the issues facing our nation. Like me, he started the day with the shock of a mass shooting taking the lives of two children with 17 others wounded. He heard CNN in the background at home and worried that his twin boys might be watching but they had left the room to gather up stuff for school. “I try to shield them from things like that but…” Like all school kids in our country, his children have been getting active shooter training since kindergarten. Mullin is a strong advocate for common-sense gun safety legislation, but, as a member of the minority party in Congress, there’s not much chance of such legislation getting anywhere, unless… Well, that’s where the hopeful part comes in. 

This was my first opportunity to hear the congressman speak at length and I was impressed and inspired. Mullin’s story is compelling. The son of a civics teacher, Mullin, a fellow USF alumni, had started out seeking a career in radio but struggled to find work in the Bay Area, one of the toughest media markets in the world. A chance encounter with Jackie Speier propelled him further into public service and that brought him to what he calls the “honor of a lifetime,” representing the 15th Congressional District. Indivisible Mid-Peninsula chapter co-leader Nancy Nagel, working with publicist Sarah Sherwood, had prepared a list of questions covering issues starting with the president’s Executive Order (EO) against mail-in voting. Mullin correctly and proudly cited San Mateo County as having led the nation in universal mail-in voting with in-person options. While the EO doesn’t have any legal teeth, he said it is part of an overall playbook to reduce trust in elections and other institutions. He, like many of us, sees our current struggle as literally fighting to save democracy from a would-be authoritarian in the White House, a Republican-majority Congress led by a Speaker who has abdicated all power to the Executive Branch, and a Supreme Court politicized in a way he could never have imagined. This is the “Break Glass in the Case of Emergency” moment. And what would be behind that glass? Mass mobilization. The only thing that can save democracy for us, is us. We must, as one of my favorite lines from the musical Hamilton implored us, RISE UP. That’s the idea behind Indivisible’s “One Million Rising” movement (nokings.org/rise). 

For California, it also means supporting Proposition 50, the redistricting ballot measure. The president told Texas to redistrict to win him five more Republican house seats in 2026 so that he wouldn’t be a lame duck with a Democratic majority. Texas said “YES SIR!” An independent commission set California’s congressional district boundaries but to fight “fire with fire,” Governor Newsom and the legislature are asking us, the voters, to allow a one-time temporary redistricting to balance out the five Texas Republican-leaning districts with five California Democratic-leaning districts for the mid-terms. Mullin urges us to support Proposition 50. Me too. Billionaires plan to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into fighting it. Gee, I wonder why. Vote yes on Prop 50. 

Mullin answered questions about militarizing the streets of “blue” cities, which he also saw as part of the authoritarian playbook and a misuse of our National Guard. On income inequality he said one of the biggest things we needed to work on was building more affordable housing. “Young people who grow up here should be able to work and live here.” What would be Democrats first priority if they “take back the gavel” in 2026? Rolling back the Medicaid cuts. On a day when the president was trying to fire a Federal Reserve Governor and the head of the CDC, Mullin said that we needed to renew our fidelity to professionalism, the law, facts, and the Constitution.

What are the chances of Democrats winning? Mullin said we needed new ways to communicate, especially to younger potential voters. I smiled, noticing Indivisible Mid-Peninsula’s young TikTok team sitting right in front of him. Mullin, seeing over 200 people show up on a Wednesday evening, said he is hopeful. He says momentum is building and urges us to keep working. Having him as my representative makes me hopeful too. But his message is clear. It is up to us to rise up, to get our friends and neighbors to join each of us, and save this incredible democracy for the generations to come.

Craig Wiesner is the co-owner of Reach And Teach, a book, toy and cultural gift shop on San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos. Follow Craig: craigwiesner.bsky.social.

NOTE: This post differs from the version that appeared in the print and online newspaper. I have added links to some of the text for more information about the content.