Lauren Underwood was running late, but she couldn’t not stop for a selfie. Or five.
A Democratic congresswoman from Chicago who represents the city’s western suburbs, she can’t go anywhere this week without being recognized as her hometown hosts her party’s national convention.
In Washington, where she is completing her third term, Ms. Underwood is known more for her policy work than viral moments. Though she is a co-chair of the House Democrats’ policy and communications committee, she largely blends in as a rank-and-file member.
But in Chicago, a city she has called home since she was 3, Ms. Underwood is much more of a household name.
“It’s different when it’s in your hometown,” she said in an interview inside the McCormick Place convention hall, where Democratic delegates are conducting business.
Her supporters this week include young liberal organizers and older convention volunteers. And perhaps most noticeably, sisters from her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, of which Vice President Kamala Harris is also a member. Several wanted pictures and hugs as they spotted her walking to a car outside the McCormick Place perimeter.
As she posed for photos with constituents and admirers, the sun shining on her blue linen suit, Ms. Underwood jokingly described herself as “very mindful” and “very demure,” nodding to a TikTok video that recently took the internet by storm.
“We’re supposed to just keep it nice, positive,” Ms. Underwood said, gleefully poking fun at some of the more stringent aspects of media training in Congress. “But then, you know, we add a little sass.”
Ms. Underwood, a 37-year-old registered nurse who is one of a handful of millennials in Congress, in fact describes herself as an introvert who prefers to talk policy with constituents over giving booming speeches from a stage. When she’s not in Washington or campaigning, she’s shopping for candles or treating herself to a solo lunch in her hometown. (She recommended the cafe at Restoration Hardware.)
And her parents, who are also her constituents, are part of her experience this week, serving as volunteers at the convention and joining her at the United Center for its evening programming.
And if she says she is not naturally inclined toward the spotlight, she is still ending up in it: Her Tuesday schedule included an appearance at a reception for House Democrats, a speech at a gathering for Democratic women and, later in the evening, an interview on “The Daily Show.”
Ms. Underwood, who was first elected in 2019, said she saw her political rise through the lens of her health care background. She is running for re-election this November and is heavily favored to win. She would welcome the chance to pursue higher leadership roles, she argued, if it would advance her goal of expanding access to affordable health insurance and lowering maternal mortality.
Asked if she would one day pursue a run for U.S. Senate in Illinois, she did not rule it out. But for now she seemed comfortable where she was.
“I am young and I have time to serve and grow the level of leadership and impact,” she said. “I have never had more power in the most straightforward sense of the word than I have right now.”
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