Kelly Morrison thinks more doctors should be in Congress — particularly doctors who are Democrats.
“As the complexity of our problems increases, I think it’s so important that people with scientific backgrounds are at those decision-making tables,” the Minnesota Democrat said.
While Republicans in the House have long had a doctors’ caucus, Democrats now have enough to fill out one of their own. The Democratic Doctors Caucus formed earlier this year with a total of six members, including Morrison and two other freshmen. Wearing white coats as they rallied outside the Capitol this week, the group called for the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his efforts to oust staff, cut health research and erode trust in vaccines.
Morrison called his direction “really, really concerning” when she sat down with Roll Call this summer. She discussed what it’s like to be first OB-GYN in Congress to support abortion rights and weighed in on where the country should go next after the murder of Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman, who was a friend and former colleague of hers.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Q: Before you were elected, there weren’t any pro-choice OB-GYNs in Congress. How have you drawn on that background?
A: My experience of taking care of patients, knowing my patients on such an intimate and personal level, and understanding their lives, their struggles, their challenges, both health-related and life-related, just deeply informs my work. I think it gives me a particular window into the challenges that Americans face in affording their lives, being able to reach for health and wellness. And I think about my patients every single day that I’m in Congress.
Q: Much of your political career has been focused on ways to advance access to health care. What are some of your concerns with what’s happening at HHS under Kennedy?
A: He is someone who has spread bad information, both dis- and misinformation, about vaccines, about supplements, about various kinds of “wellness therapies,” and has profited off of that information, and he is continuing to do that. Firing everyone on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was profoundly concerning.
So we’re really in solidarity [on the Democratic Doctors Caucus], and have been trying to find ways to help dispel some of the bad information that is unfortunately now coming out of the American government, and finding ways to help people get good, evidence-based health information has been one of our goals.
Q: You sit on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and you used to work at a VA hospital. What’s something people should know about the issues facing veterans?
A: I was one of the 70 percent of American doctors who had at least part of their training in a VA hospital. And I think that’s an important number for people to be aware of when we think about the physician shortage, the health care worker shortage that we have in our country. Dismantling our VAs not only will hurt veterans, but it will hurt all Americans.
My husband’s an Army combat veteran. He comes from a long tradition of military service. My dad and both my grandfathers served. So I have just really profound respect for people who put on the uniform, and I think we owe them. We made a contract with them that we will take care of them when they come home, and we’re really starting to fall down on that sacred compact.
Dismantling the VA, making steps increasingly to privatize the VA, is not what most veterans want, and it’s a really concerning direction. The politicization of the VA that this administration is doing by dismantling people from marginalized communities and women’s access to care is really concerning.
Medical training and important medical research also occurs at VAs, and of course, their whole founding mantra is to care for our veterans when they come home. And all three of those tenets are being harmed.
Q: Your name was on a list of elected officials made by the shooter accused of killing your former colleague from the Minnesota state Legislature. Are acts of political violence like this becoming normalized?
A: I think it’s incredibly damaging to our democracy. It has a chilling effect, potentially, on people’s willingness to run for office, and we need good people to step up and run for office more than ever.
The Jan. 6 insurrection set a bad precedent. I think President Trump pardoning the people who assaulted police officers and assaulted our democracy sends a very bad message to the American people and emboldens people like this man who killed my former colleague and friend Melissa Hortman. We’ve got to collectively stand up together and say that this is not the America that we want. We need to put a stop to it.
Q: You won the seat once held by Dean Phillips, whose primary challenge to former President Joe Biden focused on a need for generational change. How do you think the party should reconcile experience and change going forward?
A: The ultimate answer is at the ballot box. Competition is healthy, and if people want to challenge sitting representatives, I think that’s OK. People have to make their case to the American people. But I do think there is an appetite for fresh, new and, in some cases, younger leadership out there.
In referencing the last question about political violence, we want to make sure that younger candidates feel safe and excited about running. I really want to see us go forward to a time where it’s considered a real honor to serve in Congress, and it’s a noble endeavor. It’s so important that people feel empowered to participate in our system, and especially to run for office.
Quick Hits
Last book you read? “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder.
In politics, can the ends justify the means? My default to that question is no, because part of the reason we find ourselves in the place we’re in now is because people have justified that approach. If you look at what’s happening in Texas with this attempt to gerrymander the state so that Republicans can remain in power in the House, Democrats have to fight back. And while I think that’s probably what needs to happen, it’s really sad that this is the place we’re in. Using the ends to justify the means may break our democracy.
What’s the most meaningful thing you display in your office? I led a resolution on the House floor to honor Melissa Hortman and to condemn political violence, and it passed 424 to zero. So the clerk handed me that count, and I framed that and have it in my office and think about Melissa every day.
Your least popular opinion? I believe hot chocolate is a daily drink no matter the season.
Something your friends know about you that your constituents might not? I got my pilot’s license before I went to medical school, which was a really cool endeavor. It has expired.
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