AZ Political Podcast: Congresswoman-elect Yassamin Ansari breaks down her goals in DC
Dec 18, 2024, 1:52 PM
PHOENIX — This week on the AZ Political Podcast, I finally got a chance to sit down with Congresswoman-elect Yassamin Ansari, one of two new House members representing Arizona in 2025.
Ansari will replace Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego in Arizona’s Congressional District 3 — a solidly-blue, very diverse district where 40+ languages are spoken.
Ansari shares with us what issues and challenges on which she hopes to lead in Congress: including climate change (possibly her biggest issue); the border and immigration (where she’s more moderate than you might think!); affordability; and (affordability’s close cousin) homelessness.
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One thing is for sure: She’s already a leader. She hasn’t even taken her oath to be a U.S. representative and she’s already been picked as president of the Democrats incoming freshman class — and will be the youngest woman serving in the House of Representatives this upcoming term.
We also learn a little about Ansari’s background as a first-generation American of Iranian descent and whether that motivated her to get a degree in International Relations from Stanford (where she interned for Nancy Pelosi) after which, she worked as a policy advisor for two different UN secretaries general.
By the way, she accomplished all the above BEFORE being the youngest person ever elected to the Phoenix City Council. Ansari is already an accomplished woman who is well positioned to accomplish a lot more.
AZ Political Podcast is available at KTAR.com, the KTAR News app and everywhere you get your podcasts.
