Rep. Katie Porter and son Paul Hoffman.Photo: Apu Gomes/Getty
Forjust over three minuteson election night, staff, volunteers and supporters were treated to the adorable musings ofRep. Katie Porter’s middle child, Paul Hoffman, 14.
He gushed over the willingness of the group to work tirelessly on the campaign without receiving a paycheck. “When I first started canvassing, I asked my mom how much I would be paid for doing it. ‘Paul,’ she said, ‘the volunteers aren’t paid. They do this because they want us to win the election.’ I couldn’t believe it. All of those people giving up their free time to help strangers? In the heat? It didn’t make sense,” he said.
“But then I got to know all of you and I saw your passion for improving our country and making sure we’re headed in the right direction. And I saw how hard you all worked on my mom’s behalf. The fact that all of you are giving your time to try to fix our government is actually pretty great,” he said to voluminous applause.
Then he gave the crowd a kid’s-eye view. “When you’re a kid of a member of Congress, trips out in public often take longer than usual. People stop her in grocery stores and airports when you’re on vacation, everywhere. However, as more people have learned about my mom, it’s fun to see what different people appreciate about her. Some people like her for the silly things like the car she drives and her white board,” he said. Ah, the famous white board she brings to congressional hearings, the one she uses to prove her points to CEOs and other financial wizzes.
“Most people who come up to my mom talk to her about her Congressional hearings where she absolutely wrecks corporate CEOs,” he says. “Or how she breaks down complex legislative ideas so average Joes like you and me can understand them. Sometimes people come up to her and tell her their problems. But no matter what the issue is, she’s always able to give them an idea for how they might be able to solve it,” he said, noting how proud he is of his mom.
Paul is the second of Porter’s three children, whom she is raising as a single mom in Irvine, California. He says his mom tries to use her sharp legal questioning — she’s a Harvard Law School grad — on him and his siblings, but they don’t go for it. “She’s a little bit confident from having done that with CEOs, so she thinks she can do that with us,” he says. “But she doesn’t have any justifiable evidence. She’s a pretty bad questioner at home.”
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Lately, he’s been pounding it on the campaign trail, attending town halls and campaign events. It’s the family business, though Paul has no political aspirations. He loves to make videos and hopes to be a movie director.
It’s still unclear whether Rep. Porter — who is running in a newly drawn district — will be reelected to Congress, as votes are still being counted. Her race could prove key indetermining which party controls the House, which appears to be in Republicans' favor but is not yet guaranteed.
As far as Paul is concerned, a win for Porter looks “pretty likely,” though he would like to see his mom try something new next time around to avoid biennial campaigns. “Being in the Senate would be good because it would be a longer term.”
source: people.com
