Here’s a ridiculously inspiring interview for your Monday morning: The Huffington Post’s Nina Bahadur talked to 24-year-old Lindy Li, who’s running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th District. If she’s victorious, she’d be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress (an honor currently held by Elise Stefanik, a Republican rep from New York, who’s 30).
Li’s feature had lots of great nuggets of wisdom, but here are some of the best:
On her age: “I try to see any potential weakness as a strength. And for me, ability, intelligence, work ethic, energy, vitality — these are qualities that matter more than age. I’d be happy to get on a stage [with my opponents] and have a debate on ideas, to see who would be a better public servant. That’s how we should be judged by our constituents, not by a number.”
On Pennsylvania’s lack of diversity in Congress: “In Pennsylvania, we’re a huge state — the 6th most populous. We have 20 members of Congress, not a single one is a woman. And not a single one is of my generation, or even close. There’s not a single person in the House of Representatives, and therefore in the senate, under the age of 31. So we lack female representation, and we lack representation of the youth.”
On dealing with haters: “If I talk about trolls, it gives them power. People make up lies about me, but people who actually know me know that what [the trolls] are saying is so far from the truth. And the only way for me to prove people wrong is to keep on being who I am. At least with detractors there is a kernel of truth, distorted. Or there’s constructive criticism that I should take.”
Read the full interview here.
Cover image courtesy of Lindy Li.
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