[Source: OC Register, Screenshot take by Author, Chloe S. Mun]
If you live in the 45th district of California like me, you would be very familiar with the phrase, “How liberal is Katie Porter?” Katie Porter is a Democrat, who ran against the Republican Mimi Walters, in the year 2018. The spammed ads of Katie Porter have been repeatedly shown on social media, and people have been quite annoyed by the continuous spam messages. It’s unfortunate since the ads were not released under her approval but by another person. After the elections, she is now known as California’s 45th Congressional District representative as the first Democrat to be elected. However, before representing the 45th district, Katie Porter had already made noteworthy accomplishments.
Before joining Congress, Katie Porter has had an extensive educational background. She attended Yale University and furthered her education at Harvard Law School. Her most recent job before becoming a congresswoman was working as a professor in the School of Law at University of California, Irvine. She is a single mother of three wonderful children, who are certainly proud of their mom for representing them and the voice of many others in society.
Recently, the students at my school and I had the opportunity to meet our representative, Katie Porter. Many of us only knew her from advertisements, so it was really fascinating to get to know her in person and learn what she does. It was also amusing to realize that she is a fellow Irvine citizen.
When she first entered the room, everybody was applauding for her and was in awe. It was interesting to see a famous publishing company and many other teachers in the room, anticipated to see her. She answered our questions and concerns and her stories were very engaging. She shared some parts of her personal life, which made some of the students realize that people on television are regular humans, too. Before meeting Katie Porter, we only focused on what we saw on social media and were easily manipulated to what the media wanted us to believe. However, after meeting her, our opinions about her changed and and some even stated that they were inspired by her.
Personally, I was shocked to hear that she was a typical Irvine citizen who drives a van with three children. I was also quite surprised to see that she was actually caring, despite the advertisements that made her seem like a cold-hearted person. Overall, it was my pleasure to meet Katie Porter, and I am very glad that she is representing my district.
Chloe S. Mun, Grade 8
Jeffrey Trail Middle School
