Former Congresswoman Katie Porter offers reflections for 2025
Former Congresswoman Katie Porter today offered “Three Reflections for 2025” to a packed conference room in the Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway building.
“If there is any speaker I will introduce this year, Katie Porter is probably someone who needs no introduction because you all know that until just this last month, she was the congresswoman for this district,” UC Irvine School of Social Ecology Dean Jon Gould told the crowd of the speaker, who began representing Irvine, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Seal Beach in 2019. The University Hills resident has since returned to her pre-Congress position as a UC Irvine law professor.
Before detailing her three thoughts following the November 2024 election that re-swept Donald Trump back into power in Washington, D.C., Porter said she believes there is a general feeling of worry among Americans, including many of the president’s supporters. She encouraged people to “watch less and read more” when it comes to news coverage.
That informed her first reflection: People should talk less and listen more, especially to those with whom we disagree. Porter used her own experience going door-to-door as a candidate, advising those who do the same to refrain from asking for votes and instead asking what problems do the people on the other side of the door believe need solving — and whether they have any possible solutions themselves.
“This is the listening time,” she said. “... And less judging.”
Her second thought concerned a hot topic in the news: identity politics. Unlike many pundits advising her Democratic Party to downplay race, sex and gender identification, Porter suggested leaning in to find common ground among all people regarding the problems we all face when it comes to the cost of living, healthcare and being able to retire.
Porter’s third reflection was the need to come up with new ideas to move the country forward. Ideas about what? The concerns raised from her first thought: more listening and less talking.
“What people in government are short of is good ideas,” she said. “This is where we in the academic community get in the game. If you’re not taking your research and figuring out how to translate it to the world of political and policy ideas, you are leaving change on the table. That is just as true for our scientists as it is for our folks here in Social Ecology.”
The former member of Congress took questions from the crowd of students, university staff and faculty members about cable news, social media, misinformation, higher education, student loans, progressives versus moderates and communicating with family members who don’t share your politics.
Porter, who skillfully side-stepped Dean Gould’s final question about her political plans in 2026, concluded with her thoughts about possible future political opponents to the “elites” from both parties ruling Washington, D.C.
“What we need to be seeing is fresh, energized communicators. That’s what we should be shopping for.”
The full event is available on YouTube.