[0:00] Why it's important to run for CongressSo hello, the guest today is Kristen Hook, PhD, class of 2016. She ran for Congress two years ago. She didn't win, but she's running again this year. So hi. Hi, Kristen. Well, why is it important to run for Congress? Well, that's an interesting question. I don't think this is for everyone. Let me say it is a hard job and not everyone has the passion for it. But for me, it's important that we have people with the heart of a public servant serving in Congress and people who are in it for the right reasons to help people and to represent a community that they care about and love. So I think it's really important to run for Congress for those reasons if you care about those things. And yeah, we really, for me, you know, I hate politics. I'm a scientist 1st, and I really would like to get the ideologies out of policy making. I would like our policies to be based on facts and evidence, which is what I learned how to do getting my, you know, PhD at Cornell in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. And as a biological scientist, I think it's really important that we build our policies to help people that are based on sound reason and common sense. What do you mean by being a good public servant? Well, to me, a public servant is somebody who responds to their community and constituents, somebody who listens to their constituents and understands what the common issues are, common problems, and tries to help solve those. I was just talking to a woman the other day on the phone who is just about to hit retirement age and she's going to be qualified for Medicare and Social Security and that she has an issue and that someone messed up the input of her information. So her first name is not her first name in the system. It's an initial and that's the first time ever hearing of that. But she's not going to be able to get her benefits because of this mess up that would that happened even after going into the office, the Social Security office and taking in her birth certificate and her proof of identity and Social Security, they still they're kind of like ping ponging her between the agencies and telling her this isn't our problem and she needs help. So that's a perfect example of a constituent, you know, a service that you can provide as a Congress member, as as somebody who can go to those agencies and try to expedite issues before, you know, before she hits 65 in January. So even though I'm not an elected representative yet, I still make an effort to help help our constituents and help folks, because that's the whole point of the job is that you're doing that and you're legislating in a way that makes sure that your community is represented. So. So how did you meet her? Like, how do you meet the constituents and hear about their problems? Yeah, so I mean, I meet people all the time. That's part this is not a job for introverts. I am an extroverted scientist, but I learned last cycle that or last campaign that I do have limits. And even for an extrovert, it can be exhausting. So definitely not not for everyone. But I meet people through phone calls, I meet people through going to events around the community. And then if I'm somewhere and I, I don't know, just meeting folks on the, on the streets, honestly, I, I talk to everybody and I try to get people's input on what's going on in their lives and how I could help improve them. Very recently I was block walking, so I met some folks, you know, at their doors knocking on their doors. And it's always that's one of my favorite things to do as a candidate is just to meet people and find out what their lives are all about and how I can help improve them. So how many constituents do you like meet each week? My gosh, I have no idea how many people I meet each. I mean every week's different too in a campaign. So over the course of the last campaign, I mean I met thousands and thousands and thousands of people. But our district is 750,000 people. So it's very likely that it's a bias sample that I met of people who are politically engaged, right? Because even in block walking, for example, well, OK, they're showing up at political event, they're politically engaged if they are registered to vote and I have their voter information that also I was biased toward people who are a little more politically engaged. So I certainly have not met every person in my district. And I couldn't tell you the proportion of people that I have met, but I have continued to since my last race, I have continued to meet people throughout our district. And every day it's more new people, which is really exciting because there's a lot, a lot of good people in our district. Do you, do you see like after you talk to a lot of people, do you see like common patterns that, that, that show up? No, not so much. I mean, when I was walking on the, you know, doing block blocks last cycle, I, I mean, as a scientist, I approached my campaign like a scientist. So I love surveying people and kind of getting a sense of where people are AT. And my favorite question that I would always lead with was what issues matter most to you this election year? And through that survey and talking to a wide variety of people, that's when I started to realize that the number one issue in the country was the economy. And it was, it was interesting actually, because I live in a pretty wealthy district. I mean, it's, well, it's a disparate, we have very wealthy parts of two urban areas in San Antonio and Austin. And then we have the Hill Country, which has a lot of retired folks, but also one of the counties in our district has one of the highest poverty rates in the state. So we have, you know, a pretty disparate group of group of folks that I'm trying to represent. But one of the interesting, you know, things that popped up is when I would talk to people about the economy at their doors, people would say, I'd say, well, how is that impacting you specifically? And they couldn't, they couldn't pinpoint it at the time. I think now I'm going to see a different response. But a lot of people said, you know, I'm not personally impacted by the economy, but I'm hearing about it. So I think the news was kind of catching up with people before it was hitting their pocketbooks. And now we know that it's going to hit their pocketbook. I will be very interested the, you know, the further along this campaign I go and the more door knocking I do, I plan to ask the same question and kind of gather information. But it's a really great way to gather information about what issues you know are are impacting impacting people or is our top of mind. Gotcha. This is so like when you create your campaign with Rich where you have like your most important issues that you care about, do those change over time? Like like how do the how do the block walking affect your policies that you focus on? Yeah, it's a great question. So I definitely use the information that I gleaned from the first half of my campaign to draft my literature. Because if you're not addressing the problems people are experiencing, then you're you're not, you're not going to be a good candidate. You're not going to be someone people want to vote for if you're not, you know, if I was focused on other things. So I definitely, it's not to say that the economy wasn't an issue because it was, I talked about that a lot in my race last year because I come from a working class background and I want to build an economy that works for everybody and not just the privileged few. And so that was actually a priority issue for me to talk about. So, for example, in my literature, after hearing people bringing that up, I might have, you know, started or LED with health concerns and healthcare issues. But because of what I was hearing, I moved that down the list and put the economy first. So that's something that, you know, again, it's about listening and response, very basic communication skills. Gotcha. That that that makes sense. So so I'm trying to picture this like there's you and there's a constituent like you talk to each other. Is there like is there like interview style of a

[7:55] Listening to constituents on the campaign trailconversation? Yeah. So if I'm at their door and they answer and I say hi, I'm Doctor Kristen Hook. I'm running for Congress here in our district. Just wanted to know what issues matter most to you this election year. And then I shut up. And that's very important because what people tell you guides the rest of the conversation. But it's really, it's an honest conversation. It's not an interview. And I think that's important because whatever they say, I have some connection. It's very likely I have a connection. I have a personal story, and then I asked them about their, you know, why that matters to them. There's a lot of different things that come up and I have to be prepared for anything. But it's just like any other conversation with folks. So no, I don't. It's not interview style. It's more just conversational getting to know them. And do you find that your personal story resonates with them as well? Sometimes, yeah, sometimes it does. Yeah. Especially if it's something building off of what they shared, you know, especially if they say, well, education's my top issue. I'm a former teacher. And I say, well, I'm a former teacher too. I used to teach middle school science in New York City, actually, of all places. And yeah, I I talk about my teaching days and you know what? Why I value education, how it helped build me up and my career and helped me escape my socioeconomic status. And yeah, I, you know, I find those links that resonate and find our common ground. And that's really important for, for building trust and, you know, having people get to know me 'cause I'm just a real person who wants to make our community better. And let go. One thing I see is sometimes like the candidates seem very funny, like they're on TV. Like how do you bring it closer to the actual constituents? Yeah. So I'm not somebody who's on TV all the time. In fact, like I don't know if part of me is wondering like should I be more running, you know, more active on social media, which I think is a yes if you can do all of it. But I last campaign I prioritized in those in person direct interactions. And so I do not have that problem actually. I always have stories of people pop up and experiences. I had things that really stuck with me. And one of the things that I remember distinctly is I was on a block walk in San Antonio and I was just about to go back to my car at the end of the block walk. It was like about to be dark. And there was a guy that I had tried to knock his door earlier and he wasn't home. But when I showed up, he was outside on the sidewalk, and I was like, hey, was just stopping by. And, you know, my name's Doctor Kristen Hook. I'm running for Congress in our district. And he goes, you're running for Congress. What are you doing here on my block, on my street? And I said, this is the job. Like, what do you mean? What am I doing here? Like, this is what the job is. The job is to know the community and to be here to ask you, you know, how I can help you. But that just really struck me because it is such a divide between what people think Congress members should be doing and what people as Congress members and representatives should actually be doing. And too often when people get elected, I think they kind of, like, lose touch with their community and they'll focus on other things. And that's not the kind of candidate that I want to be, and that's not the kind of representative that I want to be. This is this is the second time you ran. Is there much benefits from the first time to the second time that carries over? Absolutely.

[11:28] Benefits of running for a second timeSo if you do things right, I think that, you know, As for second time around candidate, I have built the base that I need to hit the ground running with this next campaign. And I'm already starting to feel some of those effects. And you know, I got to say, like as soon as I filed, I immediately set up my website again and I just spent a day editing some of the text of it, just a little bit of it. But I really just clicked a button and I was live. And I thought about how painstaking that process was in the last campaign and the first time I ran, because I was building all of those systems, I had to figure out what platform am I using? What kinds of issues am I going to talk about? How do I explain myself in a short bio? What pictures am I using? It took months and months and months to build out that website. And now I can just click a button. So on top of all of that, I've met and networked so crazily throughout this district, throughout the state and throughout the country. I met you on the campaign trail through a mutual connection in Cornelian and I just, that just keeps building. So that becomes easier than as a second time around candidate because now I know the people that I need to call when I need like a specific thing. So I really, I think I liken this. I can't remember if I told you this or somebody else. I likened running for office kind of like the game Zelda, where I'm sure nerds who you know, are listening and will appreciate this. You know, you go from house to house and everyone's got a different skill or a different chart or whatever that they're going to give you that you're going to need on your journey later. That's kind of like what running for offices, you meet a million people, they tell you, oh, I've got 5 friends that you need to meet. And then you find out what their super skill sets are, what their super powers are. And then you keep that in mind. And you have to have that all, you know, documented, organized, registered. That's where being a scientist is very helpful. And then you know, and then you can call upon that when when you run again. So it will never be as hard as the first run, setting everything up, figuring everything out, being uncertain. But I am really excited to be running again and to build on what I created and what so many supporters helped helped me create in the last cycle. There's like a lot of staff members and there's also a lot of volunteers as well. Is that easier the second time too? Absolutely yes. So if you have a big team and you have a big base of volunteers, you are likely very well funded as a candidate. And that's why we all get those emails and texts that annoy the heck out of us asking us for money. Campaigns are not cheap. I did not know that until running for office how expensive it was to to run a campaign. I mean, just a campaign manager for a congressional seat alone can cost you anywhere from 8 to $12,000 a month. And that's just one person. You need to have a finance person of help you fundraise. That is usually a whole team in and of itself. And then a comms team, a comms director, you have a compliance team. I mean, there's so many moving parts of a campaign and you can't do that if you don't have funding and you don't have those resources. It's so cool to be a second time around candidate because I've had people reaching out to me on social media and e-mail and former volunteers that I had coming back to me and saying, hey, I want to help, what can I do? And that's a really cool feeling because I certainly didn't start there last year and I was a no namer who I needed to like build all of those connections. But now people know who I am. People are starting to kind of see that I'm building up again and want to jump in, which is a really nice feeling. Yeah, this is the framework. Like people in capital. Is it usually just people in capital? Oh, there's so much more to campaigns. It's strategy. You need the funding to the funding to get the people right. Funding is the you need funding for to build a team, but you also need funding to reach your voters. And I can't reach, you know, the four, how many 450,000 registered voters in my district. It's I can't do that alone. There has to be a strategy for reaching them. And often that's done through mailers or text messages or emails or phone calls or block locks, and all of those vary and how expensive they are. And so that's what fundraising is really all about is reaching voters and getting your message across. And on top of that, you know, you can't just reach out to them once. You have to reach out a few times for your name to stick, for them to understand who you are and what you care about. So there's a lot of different moving pieces for campaigns, but I'd say people are the number one thing that you need because without volunteers, without support, without donors, without endorsements from people, you, you really, you're not going to run a very effective campaign. What's like a general like a step by step process like like what are the different chapters in the starting a campaign? So it makes it seem more like. 2

[16:14] How to run a campaignhour long session, Tony. Like how to start a campaign is like, yeah, I mean, you need to get running and running for office is like starting a startup from scratch and becoming the CEO overnight. And you got to build capital and you got to build a team. And then you got to get to your product. You are the product. But then you got to get, you know, get to your base so that you can, you can win it. And it's a lot of little steps. You definitely, you know, I will say to encourage folks, I had never run for office before running for Congress. And the reason that I ran for Congress at the level as a first time campaign because some people say, you know, well, you should start smaller and start in City Council and build your way up. But for me, I was a federal scientist before running for office. So I had been in the federal policy space for a long time. And that made the most sense to me because it's an area that I know very well and that I, you know, want to have an impact on. And so I would recommend making sure you know which level of government that you would be most happy in or most effective in or believe that you'd be most effective. And then I think another important thing is to gather as much information as you can before you make that decision. So I was talking to former candidates who had run before electeds, like really understanding what the job is and how to lead an effective campaign. I had never, I had volunteered on a few campaigns before as a block Walker and as a, you know, as a phone banker, but I had never worked on a campaign like technically much less run one before. So this is like a lot, a lot of new things I learned. I will say my Cornell experience helped me with that because as a scientist and the neurobiology and behavior department, we have a very different model for grad students where we kind of run our own labs. And we're like many professors, we do not work under the scientific research of our advisors. For the most part. I created my own lab. I built my own team, I generated my own funding. All of those skill sets I learned as a scientist were instrumental in helping me understand and know the steps, know how to figure out the steps to run for office and do those same things down the line for a different purpose, obviously. Yeah. Gathering information to get a sense of kind of what those steps are and talking to somebody who's run before. It's really instrumental so you know what you're getting into and making as many connections as you can. So when I started, I didn't know anything and I really built all of the connections that I made, not only with, you know, party leaders in the state, party leaders in the local area that I'm running in, but national organizations, national leaders and elected officials, my constituents, donors, media. I mean, you really just build your network out. And then you know this next time around, I'm I have a ground, I have a place to start this. Is so all those you build up over time, they all eventually transfer into like a vote on Election Day. Well, no, actually, I'd say no. I think so. Some of those, yeah. At the end of the day, some connections you make indirectly will help you get to a vote. But that's the whole goal, right? So obviously, like donors, they help fund you. They may not be in your district. They could live anywhere, right? Like as a scientist, if there are scientists out there who want to help fund my campaign and help me broaden my message to more people, they can donate to my campaign. They don't necessarily vote for me and they won't vote for be able to vote for me, but they can help me leverage money into a vote, right? They can like by donating to me, then they give me the ability to to hire people who can reach a voter or to directly campaign to a voter at their door or send a mail or etcetera. So yeah, it doesn't always translate. And that's part of the strategy and game of being a candidate is you got to figure out how to prioritize your time between people who can help you reach voters and people who you know may not be able to help you, and kind of parsing those folks apart. What's an example of something you would do differently this time than the last time because you understand the system a little better? Yeah, so one of my biggest challenges was the workforce, hiring people to work on my team. I I waited until the last minute to hire folks. And I wish that I'd started a little earlier would have been more helpful for me to get things started, to train people up and then to have them consistently throughout the campaign. I know there's, there tend to be some challenging dynamics, I think not only in the campaign world, but also on the hill generally, there's a lot of movement of people and between offices and it's a constant changing environment. But I do wish that I'd hired sooner. And now I'm hoping to raise enough money early on so that I can hire that good team to help build what I need to build over the next, you know, 11 months. We have less than 11 months now for this campaign. So a lot of things need to happen. But I that's kind of one of my major goals is making sure I hire right away. Gotcha that that makes sense. That was consistent through through that whole campaign. Right, yeah, I was kind of a one woman orchestra in the last campaign and it was brutal. It it definitely, it ate a lot of my time, my well-being and I don't want to repeat that in the next campaign. Are there like different styles of campaigns where certain campaign staffers are better fits for this style rather than that style? Like a what what? How do you define like your style of campaign? Yeah, that's a good question.

[21:49] Leading a campaignI think. I certainly think there's campaign fit, right? Like if there's a person who differs from me ideologically, they probably don't want to work on my campaign. At the end of the day, I mean, as a candidate, you are the CEO, so you choose how you want things to run and people either deliver or they don't. And yeah, I'd say, I mean, that gets to leadership style, right? I tend to be more of a hands off leader and I kind of want to give things to folks and let them run with it. My last campaign, I definitely was a bit more micromanagerial than I'm used to because it was at the end of the day, it's your your image that's on the line, right? If there's a typo in a, in something you're sending out, You know, I, I'm, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I want to make sure that those are things that are caught before they go out. So yeah, I think, I don't know, I guess campaign campaigns differ between different people and it's all about leadership style and how people like to run, run an operation, really. Compared to the last time, what are differences in the district? Yeah, so the Texas Legislature, and with the approval of the Supreme Court, recently redistricted the congressional maps of Texas. And in doing that, they've changed the map and the makeup of of our district very slightly. So and we still have the Texas Hill Country, which is a really beautiful area, right, running West, right between Austin and San Antonio. The district used to have San Antonio or sorry, used to have Austin in it. And they've completely cut out Austin. They've added more of Hayes County just below Austin. And then they've cut some of Hayes County out. And then San Antonio, they've cut out about 50 precincts and added about 50 new precincts. So, so like the, the, the map has changed the shape of the map has changed the, I would say the demographics are roughly the same slightly. But but yeah, I have some new folks in the district that I need to make sure that I meet and other folks. I'm sad that we lost in the last, you know, with the change in the maps that are now in a new Congressional District. One of the things, and I see my role as too in these early days of the campaign is to make sure people understand where they who their representative is. It's hard enough to keep track of representative understanding your representatives if you're not engaged in politics full time. I, I try to be a resource for people to point out like who their representative is so that they know who they can hire and fire. And people have been really surprised. I've definitely talked to over 500 people in the last week and educated them on their new district because they thought they were in mine, but they're not, or there were they used to not be and now they are. There's, there's, it's, it's kind of a mess. And it's really sad that we have to go through yet another one of these redistricting plans by the Texas Legislature in the middle of a census decade, and people are already confused and it's just going to be even more confusing for them right before. And then how about like is there incumbent this race compared to last time? Yeah. So this race is an open seat. Now. I ran in the last cycle against Chip Roy and he has now stepped out of the race and out of this seat to run for Attorney General in our state. So it is an open seat. I believe I'm one of three Democrats who are running, and I believe that there are 8 Republicans who've stepped into the race and one independent. So it's going to be an interesting primary season for sure. There's more. People this time running the last time that makes. Sense, yeah, but they'll they'll be narrowed down. Yeah, they'll be narrowed down in the primary for sure. Gotcha. Gotcha. Like what's the structure like for primary and then the actual election? What's that timeline like? So March 3rd is our primary, but people start voting January 1st by mail. So early voting starts mid February. We have very early primaries and that means that we only have about two months left before people start voting for us. And obviously they vote, you know, you have to register. Well, we don't register by party affiliation here in the state of Texas. If they're open primaries, I think the Republicans are trying to close their primaries for the first time, but I don't know that they're going to be able to do that in time before March 3rd. But what that means is that if you're a Democrat living in a rural part of Texas and all all of your local candidates are Republican, typically Democrats in those situations will go and vote in the Republican primary. Those are their choices. And so it's really hard to tell who's a Democrat and who's a Republican here. But you have to make a choice when you show up at the on primary elections, whether you're going to vote in the Republican or the Democratic and, and yeah, so, so that is the so after that, after March 3rd, we will know who is going to be running in this seat against, you know, Democrat and Republican. And then there's an independent. So there will be 3 people running by the end for the general on November 3rd. Gosh, gosh. Next year, yeah. So you have to like plan your campaign strategy based on the primary and then also as the general. So in every state's different. So these are Texas politics we're talking about here, but every state's different. Some primaries are in June, some are in August. I mean, it's kind of crazy, but can. We talk about your district. So you said there was like the Hill Country and then two urban areas, like what are like some of the special things about your district? So, OK, so northern San Antonio

[27:21] What is special about her districtis in our district, Northeastern. They cut out some of or sorry, Northwestern and some of northeast, but they cut out some of the Northeast this time around. And so that's a really, you know, unique, special, special place to me as my well, I've lived there for the last two years and I grew up just two hours South. But it's a very mixed culture rich with Mexican American history. And you know, our part of the district is very, very well educated. And we also have some of the like suburban regions, like more rural suburban regions bleeding out of it. And so there's, I guess in total, there's now 9 counties represented, 2 of those lean more urban, but most of our district or half of our district is rural. And it's just the most beautiful part of Texas, in my opinion. It's really the most beautiful district with the best people. We have 4 to 5 universities in our district now. The new maps now include UTSA and Texas State University in San Marcos, which is up in Hays County, the northern part of our district. We have a lot of universities in our district and we have a lot of ranchers in our district. It's really a diverse community and it's just beautiful. Like we have rural, we have urban, we have, you know, folks living in poverty and we have like some of the wealthiest people in Texas here, so. Interesting district. Yeah, Super. And then let's talk about the, the, the, the Cornell stuff then like what, what, what, what was your PhD on at Cornell? And then like were you thinking of running for office at the time already or what was the process like?

[29:02] What is science policySure. So so my PhD was in neurobiology and behavior, specifically on the behavior side. So behavioral biology, otherwise known as animal behavior. And you know, in my free time I spent a lot of time doing outreach science outreach and communicating science. I was actually one of the Co founders and Co leaders of Comsicon Cornell, which was a 2 day professional development workshop for graduate students and postdocs in the sciences in the upstate New York region on how to effectively communicate science. So communicating science has always been an important part of my background, especially as a former science teacher. And, you know, to be honest, I knew there were, I know there were some science policy folks at Cornell, but that was just not on my radar. I, to be honest, did not know what science policy was. I didn't know what policy for science was. Like, I'm a late, I'm a late bloomer to all the things because of my background. It's like, it takes like making the right connections and meeting people to understand how the world works. And it wasn't until I moved to DC to start a postdoc after Cornell that I fellows who were with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where which is they have a fellowship program, they put scientists in government. It wasn't until meeting them that I, you know, and being a groupie of them for over 4 years while I was a postdoc and academic, that I started to understand what like how useful my science communication background could be in the policy realm. So in 2020, when the pandemic hit and I saw how important it is that we have members of Congress who understand science, much less believe in it, that's when I left the my lab notebook behind and I jumped into policy work as a AAA S Fellow. So I worked in the US Senate for Senator Elizabeth Warren, I worked at the National Institutes of Health, and I worked at the Government Accountability Office. And, you know, in those roles, I served as a science and tech expert to help develop national or federal policy across a broad range of topics. But one of the proudest accomplishments I had was in Senator Warren's office. I helped establish and secure over $20 billion in environmental environmental wins in two major pieces of federal legislation. So it's pretty proud accomplishment I've had. And I also served as an oversight investigator, holding government accountable and making sure that we have a government that works for everybody. And that's what I want to do here in Texas, here in my district. Gotcha. Well, what is the science policy like? Do you write the regulations that get passed through Congress that becomes a bill like? Well, what science policy like? And so depends on if you work in the executive branch, science policy means a lot of different things, right. We have agencies that, well we used to have agencies that are devoted to science and public health and the environment etcetera. Anything that touches on science, including the funding agencies like the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes of Health, they fund a lot of the public research that is done across the country in the scientific realm. And so if you work on science policy in those agencies, you you might be in charge of running program, being a program officer who's in charge of making sure that, you know, you're building those connections across those academic institutions. You're helping or coordinating those research grants with, with the different faculty members who are, you know, trying to secure them. You're developing panels to to review those proposals that they're submitting and the merits of them. Like there's all this stuff that goes on in the background, right? That's science policy. That's, that's policy for science, right? There's like the scientific enterprise that the US is interested in. Maybe you're an AI expert and you work in government and you're helping develop white papers about different policies that we could enact to regulate AI, right? Like, there's just a number of different things you can do when you're in Congress. If you're a science policy, science policy person, you're very likely to be working on a portfolio of different science bills and helping draft the bills or review the bills and pushing forward legislation for your boss that allows you to, you know, achieve your policy goals or your boss's policy goals. So that looks a little different than the executive branch where you're implementing, right? It's creating laws versus implementing them. Gotcha. There's also this whole other world though, of policy science for policy, which is just using your science skills to, to be useful for a broad variety of policies. And that's personally what I love doing is like using my analytic skills and skill sets as a scientist to have impacts on policies involving the economy or immigration or education. You know, we can, the Department of Education is useful because it collects data across the entire country. Scientists can come in and analyze those data, develop hypotheses and ask questions that are testable and use that data to answer those questions to understand how to better influence policy and create policies that are based on evidence. So. It's based on data and not based on like the gut feeling. Kind of thing, right? Right. Or politics, yeah. Gotcha. Interesting. So, so science for policy it's. Like, yeah, there's policy for science and there's science for policy. And both are necessary, right? We need more scientists in government doing this work. And unfortunately, this administration has decided that we don't need experts. And that couldn't be further from the truth. We need experts building our policies and implementing them. And that's why I'm running as a scientist, running for running for Congress. And if it go ahead? Yeah. If I'm elected, I will become the first woman scientist to hold a PhD ever in Congressional history. So I would very much love to, you know, earn that honorary degree. And yeah, I'm, I'm hopeful that we can do it. It's gonna take everyone helping. Yeah, but do you see more of a PhD scientist running for office now? I, I'm not sure I would say PhD, but scientists for sure. I've actually had a number of folks reach out to me over the past year that they're getting involved and they want to talk to me about how I, how I did it, how did I start things, which I'm happy to be that, you know, Pathbuilder, like torching my own path and figuring things out. And now I get to help other people that do the same in their communities. I think that's really important. So I'm happy to be in, you know, be a resource for people who are running because I wish I had had that when I was starting out. There weren't a lot of scientists I could call upon to ask, and it's really nice to be able to do that for other people. That's so interesting. And how are the voters like the voters? Does being a scientist resonate with them as well? Like how did the constituents see the scientists? Yeah, people are excited because they value science. Many people do value science and think it's so cool because it's a unique thing, right? We don't need more, no offense, but like, we have a lot of lawyers in the in Congress. And part of the benefit of having a scientist is somebody who thinks differently, somebody who has, you know, a different kind of way to solve problems. We have a lot of problems we need to solve in our country. And I'm trained to solve problems with my PhD, and that's what I want to do here. I think people are excited about that notion of having somebody different. And, you know, I think there is some confusion sometimes, like, how does being a biologist, like, reflect on or like, how does that impact your ability to do policy? But they don't necessarily know that I've already done that. I've already bridged that gap in my career by working in the federal government on policy issues. So I've kind of built, you know, I did not have running for office on my bingo card when I was, you know, working at the GAO. This kind of was something that started bubbling up for me when I moved back home to Texas and I wanted to get more involved. But but I see how useful all of these, this background actually is for me to be able to think critically, to learn quickly. I mean, having a PhD doesn't necessarily make you smart, but it means that you can learn things very quickly and digest them. And then, you know, being a communicator, that's a very important part of policy making and being the legislators and talking to people about what it is that you intend to do. So all of those skill sets translate to policy making and being a being a representative, being an effective representative. And that's what I hope to bring to my community.

[37:26] Closing questionFor the closing question, I always ask the guests, what's the kindest thing anyone's ever done for you? That's me, I have too many to name. I genuinely can't name a single thing I honestly mean that. And I will say like, I hope I don't see her up saying this, but since my last run, you know, before running, I was a federal scientist and I quit my job to run for office the first time. I gave up my income, I gave up my pension, my healthcare, and my housing to run. And since my last run, it's been really rough. So I've been struggling over the past year and I've had so many constituents and supporters and family and friends fill that gap and help me as much as they can doing, you know, making me a meal or, you know, just I, I mean, it's too many things to name, to be honest. But it just forms my heart to know that at the end of the day, like I'm not alone in this and people see me and value what I have contributed. But what I will say is that I know who my community is. They have shown up, and I'm so appreciative of every little small act of kindness people have shown me over the past year as I've gone through this really troubling time. So I know I'm not alone in those struggles too. And I'm grateful for my community and I hope that others who are listening and have had the support they need to, But that's been really heartening for me. That's so wonderful. Thanks for sharing, Kristen. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks for interviewing.