PART III: “IS THIS  ALL JUST FOR CONTENT?”

Two weeks pass, and we’re once again making the trek up to Rogers Park ,  with a photoshoot planned and a slew of questions from Kat’s potential constituents in tow.
For the past several days, I’ve taken some time to speak with residents in the area, all in an effort to better understand their perspective on this congressional race. I approach students on Loyola University’s campus, and walk into small businesses to chat with their owners. At one point, I even chat with a woman who is tending to a community garden.

Interestingly enough, almost nobody I talk to has heard of Kat. They don’t seem to be particularly invested in local politics, either. An undergrad doesn’t vote here; a seamstress doesn’t speak much English, though mentions her main focus is her family; a pawn shop manager declines to chat outright, telling me he “needs to consult his lawyer” first.

Upon striking out in the real world, I take the logical next step in weighing public opinion: I ask Reddit. More specifically, I ask 
r/AskChicago. And one hundred thirty-two comments later, I have more than enough queries for Kat (as it turns out, extremely-online Chicagoans are keeping close tabs on this race).

At the office, we conduct the shoot before diving into our Q&A. She clearly has a lot on her mind, and with the race heating up, every day brings a new lunch meeting or media hit with it. But she considers each question thoroughly and answers it closely; it quickly feels like all those hours talking directly into a webcam have paid off.

How does she plan to gain our trust, when many of us see her as an outsider? “I think you should be skeptical of everyone running for office. My campaign is built on showing what we do and not telling, so all I ask is that you just watch me.”

What organizations has she worked with in the district? “For our kickoff event, instead of charging $500 a plate, we actually asked people to bring in boxes of period products and donated those to Chicago’s Period Collective. We actually ended up collecting over 5,600 pads and tampons.”

What do you know about legislative mechanics that would make you a better representative than a state senator or sitting mayor? “Every single member of Congress has a team behind them — someone that helps them craft legislation and find experts. I fully intend to do that to help full in those gaps, because no one’s brain holds all the information in the world.”

The question that stands out to me the most, however, is the sole one I received in person. “Is this person really focused on the issues, or are they just doing it for ‘content?’” Karim, a lifetime resident of Rogers Park and Edgewater, had told me.

“To put it simply, I’m in this to win this,” Kat replies. “I have a track record of fighting the far right. And my big radical vision is that everyone deserves to afford housing, groceries, and healthcare, with money left over to save and spend.”

Throughout all of my conversations with Kat, she makes it clear that she was perfectly happy with her life as a creator. Campaigning for Congress isn’t exactly a lucrative endeavor, either; even as she raises six-figure sums in donations, she says she plans to pay herself a minor salary just so that she can help pay rent.

Still, it’s undeniable that this campaign has boosted her profile, both locally and nationally. That boost has come with backlash — one has to look no further than my post in r/AskChicago to see how sentiment has soured among some locals.

Yet after we pack up and leave Kat’s campaign office in late May, I follow along as she quickly becomes a more frequent guest contributor for CNN and MSNBC, typically commenting on topics not directly related to local Chicago politics. And according to the analytics tool Social Blade, she’s gained over fifty thousand YouTube subscribers since announcing her congressional campaign in March — nearly doubling her total count in the two years prior to running for office.