State Legislator, a Male Perspective

He won election to the state legislature at age 34, without party and labor union endorsements or personal wealth to fund political ads. But his prior experiences – costing nothing – and his efforts to meet every voter – were priceless assets. Now he is beholden to only his voters. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Jason Dawkins (JD) was born in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, an area where a high percent of the population lives below the official poverty line. 

CHILDHOOD

JD grew up in the family rowhouse in the city. When he was 13, an older brother was shot and killed. 

EDUCATION

Following JD’s graduation from a public high school in the city, he took courses at Penn State Abington and Community College of Philadelphia. 

Still in his early 20s, JD moved to the city of Atlanta, Georgia to stay with relatives while applying to another college. One of those relatives was shot to death. 

So, JD didn’t get a college degree. He got an education in the tragedies of urban life. 

EARLY ADULT JOBS NEVER A BINDING COMMITMENT

JD’s first adult job was at a call center for a mortgage company. “It wasn’t fun,” he said, “but it taught me how to deal with angry customers.”

He also worked in miscellaneous jobs for his grandfather, the cofounder of youth football’s famed Frankford Chargers, who had coached and mentored at-risk kids for a lifetime. (In 2007, JD’s grandfather, William “Billy” Gambrel, became Philadelphia’s first living African American to have a community recreation center named in his honor.)

“My grandfather was instrumental in my development as a person, especially in terms of self-respect and respect for the community,” said JD. 

COMMENCING A POLITICAL CAREER

For seven years, JD worked as an aide to a City Councilwoman. 

Realizing that he would rather help make government policy rather than assisting someone else to carry out policy, JD decided to run for election as a Pennsylvania State Representative – a full-time job which would require spending lots of time in the state capital (Harrisburg), a 2 ½ drive from his home city. 

But first, JD would have to get elected. The local majority political party had another candidate in mind to be supported so JD opted to challenge the party’s endorsed candidate in the primary. JD had little personal money he could afford to spend on a campaign for flyers to be distributed in front door handles or tv or newspaper ads. But JD had a few advantages he brought to his campaign, which money could not buy: 

• Name recognition within his voting district for the work he had done with the well-known local youth football team
• Respect within the local political network, gained from JD’s work and mature judgment as an aide to a City Councilwoman
• Personal determination to ring every doorbell at every home within his voting district, to introduce himself and his political agenda while seeking voters’ support and willingness to vote on election day (or by absentee ballot – for which JD distributed information)

CONCURRENTLY REPRESENTING VOTERS FROM YOUR DISTRICT AND OTHERS

Following his successful election to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives at age 34, JD is part of a new, mostly younger group of city-based representatives to the state legislature. The delegation includes 25 Democrats and two Republicans. 

JD was elected by the city’s representatives to chair their city’s House delegation.

CHALLENGE – DEALING WITH NON-EXPERIENCE

The biggest challenge, in JD’s estimation, is dealing with the non-experience of other state legislators. So many members who either live outside the city or who have never even visited the city, thinking they fully understand it solely based on tv news of violence and squabbles among city politicians. 

JD says city conditions can be unexplainable, like post-traumatic stress syndrome – unless you live it. 

“Most of my city colleagues know what it’s like to leave their homes and be afraid, be traumatized every day by the crime, addiction, poverty in this city, especially in comparison to other parts of the state. There are plenty of places throughout the state also suffering from low wages, but there are so many other differences about our city,” noted JD. “There’s the density here, a 26 percent poverty rate, 400,000 people living in poverty. In some of our members’ city voting districts, the poverty rate is 50 percent or more. So, it’s an uphill battle to try to persuade other state legislators about our needs.”

IMPROVING CONDITIONS FOR YOUR VOTERS REQUIRES A PLAN AND PERSEVERENCE

JD is coordinating with other city representatives to proceed as a group with the following goals:

• Get people into jobs without needing special training – looking to pair jobs with the skill sets available. Identifying unfilled jobs and working to obtain more paid apprenticeships.
• Increasing the minimum wage ($7.25 in 2019) and tie future increases to a cost-of-living index to avoid having to seek increases every year if inflation continues. 
• End life in prison without parole. This addresses a population written off as “scum or menaces.” JD says, “I believe in redemption. I believe in forgiveness. Because I lost a brother to gun violence, I know that for my own personal growth, I had to forgive his killer, which was extremely hard to do. But there are people serving life who didn’t kill anyone, who were accessories or who didn’t understand the legal system when pleading guilty to specific crimes. I’ve been verbally abused over this many, many times. But people are starting to look at criminal justice through a different lens, including the cost of aging inmates.
• One way to help legislators unfamiliar with our city problems is to bring them to the city; invite them to advocacy groups who work on the ground so they can see what we deal with. Most of my GOP colleagues were firmly against ending life without parole until they went to the prisons and talked to some of the inmates.

CAREER SATISFACTION

JD says “I ran to serve and get things done. I ran against the party, ran against the unions. I won by 64 votes. So, my loyalty is solely to the people who sent me here. 

In the past, there were people who didn’t have to work hard to get here (in the state legislature) and didn’t value the space the same way I value the space.. I think it’s changing. And there are more like me. 

There is so much work that needs to be done to improve the lives of all our citizens. I look forward to working on campaign-finance reform and redistricting, so the majority of the people are more in charge of their own destiny.” 

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This career story is based on several sources: primarily an article written by John Baer, published online by [email protected] on 2/8/19 plus online research.