Undervalued Underwood: Why the Media Intentionally Ignores Democratic Workhorses
Maddow's reaction to Lauren Underwood is not unique. The problem is that our media views politics through a WWE lens. They like up-and-coming storylines. They are drawn to divisive figures. This leaves zero room for the workhorses that go about doing their job the right way. pic.twitter.com/g8T8nQdviM
— Trevor's Company Hasn't Been Indicted In NY (@ObamaClintonDem) July 8, 2021
Wednesday, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow had the following to say about Illinois Congresswoman Lauren Underwood:
She's just -- I don`t know why Congresswoman Underwood doesn`t get more national press. She`s an honest to goodness star in the Democratic Party. Practical, effective, excellent communicator representing the swing districts, perfectly tuned and timed to the needs of her district, running a great office, doing effective work at home and Washington, getting bills signed as a freshman.
She`s a star. She`s an absolute star.
For those of us who have been following Rep. Underwood's career, Maddow's words represented a collective longing we've all felt since the congresswoman was elected. As a nurse-turned-politician, Underwood was a key piece in the blue wave of 2018, making the 14th Illinois district a swing district and beating out a four-time incumbent Republican congressman in the process. She won on the backs of a multiracial, multigenerational coalition that proudly made her the district's first woman of color to be elected to the position. Over the next 2 years, Underwood proved herself to be one of the most effective legislators not just in her freshman class but in the entire House by authoring 4 separate bills that became law, even with Donald Trump and a Republican Senate serving to stymie the Democratic agenda. Underwood won reelection in 2020 by less than 6,000 votes with over 400,000 votes cast, making it the ninth closest race in the country. Since winning reelection, Underwood has worked tirelessly to address healthcare discrepancies and has been a vocal proponent of making the health care provisions in the American Rescue Plan permanent and she was prominently featured when President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged her at a Wednesday rally in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
So why are supposed political experts like Rachel Maddow only waking up to Congresswoman Underwood now?
The answer, unfortunately, has to do with the structure of the 21st-century American media landscape. Each night, network news anchors have to compete with each other for viewers. More viewers mean more people watching advertisements. More advertisements being sold mean more money for the parent company. More money for the parent company means increased salaries and exposure for the network anchors. It's a cycle where network news hosts have an incentive to book guests and politicians they think will be big draws. They have the autonomy to reach out to any of the 535 members of Congress to whom they choose. The days when certain unknown candidates might have been given a chance to introduce themselves to a national audience are long gone. Now, all the network anchors look for are the Congressmen and women they know have a face and a name that their viewers will immediately recognize.
At more liberal MSNBC, this, unfortunately, has led to anchors playing favorites with the prime example being how Bernie Sanders becoming a practical co-host alongside Chris Hayes. For two election cycles, Hayes served as the mouthpiece for the Sanders campaign, providing him with free airtime that would have cost millions of dollars elsewhere. It got so bad that in 2020 Sanders turned to Hayes and Hayes alone when he felt that other MSNBC anchors were treating him unfairly. Hayes was more than happy to oblige and even went so far as to proclaim Sanders as the overwhelming favorite after having won the Nevada caucus. Never mind the fact that Black voters hadn't had their say yet, Hayes was almost giddy over the fact that his candidate of choice was seen as the frontrunner. Objectivity be damned, Hayes was proud to be a Bernie Bro and he wanted his entire viewing audience to know exactly where he stood.
The obvious problem here is that when news anchors inject partisanship into their work, they fail to do properly do their own job. Sixteen months later, can we honestly expect Chris Hayes to bring on an "Establishment" Democrat who he sees as the antithesis to what Bernie Sanders represented? Even Rachel Maddow has become enamored with the Squad and constantly has their members on, even though their members have proven to be ineffective legislators. But they draw ratings, which is all Maddow needs. It wasn't that someone like Lauren Underwood just popped out of nowhere, it's that Lauren Underwood was legislating rather than serving as her own PR manager on social media. Underwood has six times fewer Twitter followers than AOC and doesn't waste her time hyping up her debut on TikTok. Instead, she buckles down and gets to work for her constituents, which is exactly how and why she chose to become a congresswoman in the first place: to make a clear and measurable difference for the people in her district.
What we should take away from Congresswoman Underwood is that there are many unsung heroes in Congress who don't make the nightly news rounds or appear on the Sunday shows. Just because they don't have half a million Twitter followers doesn't mean they aren't doing the job they were elected to do. This is why the 2022 midterms will be so critical. Because they are dozens of Lauren Underwoods out there, quietly burning the midnight oil to make lives better for their constituents while at the same time not being prioritized by MSNBC or the network news. Instead of hopping on All In With Chris Hayes, they're instead going all-in on writing a bill on infant mortality that they hope to get out of committee and onto the floor for a vote this legislative session. Instead of being on the Sunday shows, they're showing their staff the statistics regarding the latest achievement gap in their local school district. And instead of posting to Twitter, they're busy positing a theory as to how and why the brownfields in their community were built so close to neighborhoods of color and what they can do as elected officials to fix the problem.
This type of work isn't sexy. It doesn't draw headlines. But it's the essence of legislating. It's what true legislators did prior to network TV and social media. Today, certain legislators see themselves as products rather than politicians. They feel they have a "brand" to maintain. They greatly benefit from their weekly appearances with their news anchors of choice. But for those legislators that get it, that truly get it, they know that every hour gained on national TV is an hour lost doing the critical behind-the-scenes work that is so paramount in governing. These are the ones that don't seek the spotlight but rather seek solutions to their constituents' most pressing needs. These are the ones we all need to identify and support in swing districts, especially those like Lauren Underwood. Because at the end of the day, they are the ones who are truly moving the needle on critical legislation that helps us in our very own backyards.
It's up to all of us to reward them by working as hard for them as they are for us.