Episode 18 • L3 IRL • Jennifer Todd

[00:00:24] Welcome to Left Leaning Ladies. Tonight with us, we have a very special guest. We're excited to sit down with Jennifer Todd, Democratic candidate for Illinois' 15th Congressional District.

[00:00:37] Jennifer is focused on the things that matter to working people in Illinois, especially in rural Illinois, including making healthcare more affordable, protecting reproductive freedom, supporting public education, lowering costs, strengthening rural communities, and fighting for working families and our veterans.

[00:00:59] We're going to talk about her top priorities tonight, why she decided to run for Congress, and what she believes needs to change for the people of Southern and Central Illinois. We're going to talk to her at length. We've got some great questions lined up. Voters really deserve to know from the people that are asking for their vote what they believe and what they're going to do for us, right? So welcome to the podcast, Jennifer Todd. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:29] We're so excited. We've known Jennifer over the past year and a half. We've all gotten to know her pretty well at all of the events, and so this should be a really exciting discussion. Great. All right, Jennifer, we're going to start it right off. Okay, Jennifer, so you've spent your career caring for people as a nurse. You've seen firsthand how policy decisions affect patients, families, and hardworking people.

[00:01:59] Was there a particular moment when you realized you wanted to move from helping people one at a time to fighting for people in Washington? Well, not necessarily that way, but it was more as in seeing that the people in the 15th were not being represented, and that they needed to have someone that will actually fight for them. And that's what I do as a nurse. I fight for my patients, so I'm going to fight for the people in the 15th.

[00:02:29] You know, they've been ignored for almost six years now, and we have to be able to bring the needed resources back to the district that will allow us to be able to be the district that we are supposed to be. And that's the major thing that got me into all of this. And then come July of 25, when the big, ugly bill passed, and the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, that is going to be devastating to this area and to rural health.

[00:02:57] Our rural hospitals, some of them are, if they don't get their Medicaid payments, they're not going to be able to make payroll. And that's going to end up closing a lot of our rural clinics and a lot of our rural hospitals that now people are already having to drive over an hour to get care. And we should have care at our back door, or at least close to our back door. You know, a good 30 minutes is good, but an hour to go see your doctor, that's not.

[00:03:28] And we need to be able to make sure that we have those resources here for the people of the 15th. Yeah, definitely. I mean, you speaking about rural health care, it's on all of our minds, especially around here where, you know, health care is sparse and we have very small hospitals that are greatly impacted. So I think that is on all of our minds right now.

[00:03:53] And another thing about our rural hospitals, they're starting to take away services. Now over in Jerseyville, they just closed their ICU. They're critical care. They just closed that. Where would that put them going? To St. Louis, Missouri. That's a ways. That's a drive. Yeah. If you only have that one ambulance, okay, they're going all over the county. If you have a car accident, you need multiple ambulances at times.

[00:04:22] You know, if you have somebody that needs to be transferred from the emergency room to St. Louis or to Springfield, well, there goes that ambulance. There's no coverage for the county. A couple hours possibly. Up to six hours, depending on what's going on. So these are things that are not being thought through because they rely on the Medicaid payments to be able to give those services to the rural communities.

[00:04:53] Out of this district has approximately around 700,000 people. Approximately 25% are on some form of Medicaid or the ACA. When you have that many people on it, and these are children, these are older adults, these are adults that are in the nursing homes that rely on Medicaid every day. And those cuts are happening. So what's going to happen to all these people?

[00:05:22] You know, they're going to drive further away for care. Well, that means mom or dad or grandma or somebody is going to have to actually take time off work to be able to drive to the doctor's appointment compared to it was just down the street. And with gas prices how they are right now? Some people don't have PTO to take the time off work. So then they just don't go to the doctor. Right.

[00:05:52] And PTO is something that Republicans have voted against repeatedly. Yes. And we actually have people that don't even get PTO vacation or sick time. There's so many facilities and jobs that don't offer that because the person's only working 20 hours a week. Offer that. But if you're working only 20 hours a week, you're maybe only working two or three hours a day.

[00:06:22] And that's it. And that way they don't have to pay benefits. So you've told us all of the things that Washington needs to know about these communities. But what is the plan for you to bring those resources back to Illinois? First of all, we have to make sure that we repeal the Medicaid cuts and the Medicare cuts to be able to bring those services back to what needs to be done here.

[00:06:54] That's where it's good about having a nurse in Congress that has worked in the hospital, has worked at the bedside, who can tell them, no, that's not going to work, and give them the reasons why it's not going to work. You know, the doctors don't know what goes on at the bedside. We have plenty of doctors there, but they have no idea. It's the nurses that save them most of the time.

[00:07:20] So we have to make sure we have more nurses in there that are doing health care, that are being able to say, no, that's not going to work, and give the backing why it's not going to work. Oh, do you think that people that are making decisions for health care should be in health care, perhaps? I do. Wild concept. Crazy idea. Who would have thought? The reason why, right now, there are three nurses in Congress currently right now.

[00:07:49] Three or four. No, four. I believe there's four. That's the reason why we need so many more. The doctors in Congress are certainly letting us down. Look at Cassidy's vote for RFK. Right. Where that was going. Yes. And I think it'll be so important for you coming from a rural hospital and the rural setting to help Washington understand exactly what we need and not just a general blanket of what we need for health care.

[00:08:17] Part of Medicaid also covers transportation to and from doctor's appointments. And yeah, and that would be so helpful, especially around here, because most people are going to Springfield, the capital, or they're going to St. Louis. Both are, they're relatively close to us, but they're 45 to 50 minutes away. That is a far drive. And like you guys said about taking time off, caretakers just don't, it's not possible sometimes.

[00:08:44] Well, you've already answered some of this, Jennifer, but as a nurse, you've seen the health care system from the inside. What would you prioritize to lower prescription drug costs, protect Medicare and Medicaid, and keep rural hospitals open? And how would you respond to people who worry that changes to federal health care programs could threaten their own coverage? It is going to threaten their coverage. Not if. Yeah. It's going to threaten the coverage. And we have to take a look at the whole person, not just bits and pieces.

[00:09:13] We need to make sure that we have physicians talking to physicians and making sure that the medications that are being prescribed aren't working against the ones the other doctor is doing. Yes. That's the big thing right there, is making sure that everybody talks to each other.

[00:09:31] Now, because we have EMR, the electrical medical records, that helps a little bit, but we still have to make sure that the offices and the doctors and the nurse practitioners and physician assistants, they're all up to date about what that person is taking. It's difficult sometimes because you do have patients that do physician shopping, doctor shopping.

[00:09:55] But we still have to have that, be able to keep that cost low and not prescribe two pills where one could take its place. Or you have taken two pills and you have to have four pills to be able to help react with the two pills.

[00:10:14] And that's what's happening a lot of times because they're not talking to each other, making sure that, you know, the dermatologist and the cardiologist and the pulmonologist, they're all on the same page. And we're having, you know, we've had that, we've had that problem for years and it's not anything new, but it's just something that needs to be taken care of. Yes.

[00:10:37] So we, you know, you see that a lot when you have patients come into the emergency rooms, especially our older, older family members is that they get toxic with their meds because they've been over prescribed or they're not talking to each other. I know some people who have to essentially be like their own case managers or case managers for their family members. Yes. Because they have so many different specialists and none of the specialists talk to each other.

[00:11:06] So they have to try to manage all of that. And if you're not working in the healthcare system, you don't really know what you're doing. Right. Right. And sometimes it's difficult for those who are working in the healthcare system to be able to get, keep all that straight. Right. He's just, this is where, this is where the, you know, the EMRs help that, you know, you can go into like, like my chart and Epic that you can go into and there's your list of meds.

[00:11:34] But we just have to make sure those lists of meds have been kept up correctly. And if someone has stopped a med, make sure it's stopped in the, in the record. Because when you pull up, pull the meds up, the doctor says, oh, you're on this, this, and this, and this. But unnecessarily, you're not on five of them because they've been, they've been stopped and changed or the dosage has been changed. We have to just make sure that those are all up to date.

[00:12:00] I have never gone to a doctor's appointment where they printed out my med list and it was correct. Right. Yeah. It's never. It happens all the time. Well, I know I have three different apps for the doctors I see. So are those apps communicating with each other? Like follow my health, Memorial Health? Not necessarily. So is that, how do we fix that? How, what are you going to be able to do to fix that? We need to make sure that the EMRs can interface with each other.

[00:12:27] Now, you know, we have a lot of the big healthcare systems that use MyChart. You have some of the healthcare systems like Memorial has their own system that they use. We just have to make sure that they can interface with all different facilities. And that is something that needs to be worked on and needs to be done. We need to make sure that, you know, if you're a vacation in Florida or your vacation, you know,

[00:12:54] in California or somewhere, that your medical records can be brought up on a computer to be able to get what you need, especially if it's in an emergent situation. Is that legislation, do you think? What would that look like? It could be legislation. Just healthcare safety. Yeah, definitely. It's definitely doable with the technology that we have today. Oh, for 100, we could absolutely make it happen.

[00:13:20] And these are just things that, you know, we don't want people to monopolize them. This is something that's going to be for the greater good. Right. And we just have to make sure we keep that in mind. This is going to be for the greater good and not monopolized by certain companies. Yes. Because they all need to be able to work together. And this would be a part of universal healthcare. Correct. Yeah. Correct. Yeah.

[00:13:51] You know, Medicare for all, putting all that together. Well, that can be the system right there. Yes. All the medical records are, you know, you still have to have your HIPAA laws and you still have to have your, you know, consent to be able to do all that. But it helps be able to get the medical records that you need in an emergent situation. Yes. Bernie Sanders would love to have you on board.

[00:14:21] That man has been preaching about universal healthcare since I can remember. Yeah. Well, maybe she can pick his brain. She's got, he'll, he'll get Jennifer with him and they will, they will move mountains. Sounds good. That's the reason why it takes people with medical experience. Yes. Nurses particularly. Yes. Need to be in there. What we also need physical therapists that are in, in, in Congress. We need all medical professions. We need more firefighters. We need more police officers.

[00:14:51] We need, you know, paramedics that can tell you, no, that's not going to work. That's not how it works out in the field. Just even with just working experience. So right now we're seeing like an epidemic of lifelong politicians and, you know, how many years has it been since they've actually worked in private sector or public sector? Are they really making the best decisions for the American public? So I definitely agree with that.

[00:15:18] And you are so knowledgeable about healthcare, but we are going to switch gears now. So. You know, that's kind of my thing. Yeah. Well, you've been a nurse for over 33, almost 33 years that I keep my bragging rights is I took the last written exam before they went all to computerized that. So I sat in Carbondale for two days to take my nursing boards. You went to Carbondale? Well, that's where I took my, that's where I took my, well, I did graduate from there, but. Oh, so did I.

[00:15:47] But that's where I took, that's where I took my boards at. Was in Carbondale. Nice. At the, at the, um, student center. Yeah. Big ballroom. Go Salukis. That's my first bachelor's degree. The second one is from Edversville. Nice. Both the SIUs. Cool. Well, you kind of touched on the cost of healthcare in our area, but generally affordability is a big problem in Illinois 15 right now.

[00:16:16] Um, I constantly hear people talking and posting about their high, um, heating or air conditioning bills. Um, we all know fuel prices are high. Um, a box of cereal at the local grocery stores over $6 and that's not the jumbo box. So what do you think can be done to help bring some of this under control and give people a little breathing room in the budget? Well, I understand the part about gas and all this.

[00:16:42] My campaign pocketbook has been hit hard with, with gas prices and with this mass, massive district that I'm going into, but it's all, it's going to be all worth it in the end. Affordability to me is like, it's a big, huge umbrella term. We have everything underneath it that we have to work on. We have to work on energy prices.

[00:17:07] We need to work on getting rid of the tariffs that has, has actually, you say decimated, decimated. Right. It has actually, you know, pretty much put everything on hold because you can't do the things like you used to six months ago. And decimated partnerships. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, take a long time to recover from that.

[00:17:33] The big thing is we have to bring back those services that they got rid of to be able to help, especially for our farmers. We have to make sure we get back USAID. A lot of our farmers, not just here in the 15th, but in the, in the whole United States sold a lot of their harvest, a lot of their products to them to be able to be put out towards the world.

[00:18:01] The United States is an overproducer. And that's what we need to be able to get back to, to be able to feed the world. A lot of people say, why are we feeding the world? Because we can. I think an amazing number of people don't realize, even in our area, that USAID helps our farmers tremendously. Right. I think a lot of people don't realize that the SNAP program helps our farmers tremendously.

[00:18:27] They seem to have not learned that somewhere along the way. When you have some of your smaller farms, your small organic farms, you have even your beef and cattle and pork ranches and farms. That helps our schools. Yes. That helps our local economy. And when you can't get that out with, you know, beef prices going down, not being, or going, you know,

[00:18:57] it just, they're not getting to where they can keep their livestock. And right now, the herds are so small that they're trying to replenish most of their cattle to be able to have beef. And then we, you know, we have to make sure we have USDA doing their surveillance. Yes. Because we had the screw worm coming up from South America.

[00:19:25] You know, we are just probably one thing away from hopefully not having another, you know, bird flu and all the chickens. And the egg prices are going to go up again. And so these are things that we have to make sure that we continue to do, but we have to make sure that we have the resources to do it. If we had our surveillance back in place, a lot of this wouldn't be happening. Exactly.

[00:19:54] And the same thing with the measles that's going on right now. Exactly. If we had our surveillance and if we had making sure people understand that vaccines are safe, we need to be able to have someone in that position to be able to reiterate that it is safe and someone with a medical degree. Yeah, absolutely. That seems like a reasonable job requirement for that position. Absolutely.

[00:20:25] Well, also among our watchers, viewers, listeners, whatever they're called, reproductive health is a really big concern. Can we count on you? Yes. To fight to bring back reproductive choice? Yes. Yes. I personally want my own autonomy. So what I can say I will and will not do to my own body. And I know everyone else is that way. There's a lot of people that are not, which is fine. That's still a choice. Right. Yeah, exactly.

[00:20:55] That is still a choice. You choose not to want to have that done. Fine. But I choose that I might need it. Right. Or somebody else might need it. Yeah. And that all stems down to it is a choice. You're choosing to be able to do something or not do something. And that's where it has to be.

[00:21:20] And the men in Congress should not be allowed to tell us what we can and cannot do. Absolutely. I agree. Agreed. Illinois' 15th district includes communities and voters with very different perspectives. How will you stay accessible and accountable to your constituents?

[00:21:44] And what would you say to someone who has never voted for a Democrat but feels that Washington has forgotten their community? First of all, I'll show up. The bar has been low. It's been really low. And that's what I've been doing since January 25. I've been showing up into different communities. You have. You have. Everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. And there's more places that I need to go to.

[00:22:13] There's just not enough time to be able to do that. That's the reason why I'm on the phone between five and eight hours a day sometimes. Jeez. Reaching out to people in different parts of the district. We have to be able to communicate. Okay. And, you know, one time I made this comment, and it's still true today, that not all Democrats are extreme. We're just like everybody else.

[00:22:39] You know, we have some same views as someone who's on the different side of the political spectrum. But it all comes down to we want to make sure we can take care of ourselves and take care of our children and take care of our families. And have a good paying job to put food on the table. We all want that same thing. How we go about it is probably different.

[00:23:07] But it's still the same basic needs that we want for our families. Absolutely. We want our kids to be able to do better than what we did. Same thing like with our parents. They wanted us to be able to do better than what they did. And that's just how you continue. And how do you break that cycle? You need to make sure you have a good public education system. You need to be able to give kids the opportunity to be able to explore things.

[00:23:34] And to be able to, they have a thing for science. Well, we got to make sure they have that ability to be able to go forth and do things in science. That they're not just stuck doing one thing. That there are opportunities out there. We still need people that pick up the trash. We still need people that can get your hair done. We still need people that can get their teeth cleaned.

[00:24:03] But we also still need the lawyers. Do we still need the doctors? We still need those. And it should not be a shameful thing to be one of them, no matter what it is. Yes. Yes. And that's kind of what our society is right now. Is it's shameful to be the person who's picking up the trash. But it shouldn't be because they're providing a wonderful service. Absolutely. Right.

[00:24:28] And that we need that service or you would not be smelling too nice around here. Exactly. And those individuals that do that job, they do it because it takes care of their family. And we need to see more jobs like that. We need to make sure that they're celebrated just like everybody else is. Because they're just as important, if not more so.

[00:24:54] Well, and with AI, vocational jobs are not going to be taken over as easily with AI as office jobs. And that's also where we need to push or encourage the union jobs. Yes. The apprenticeship programs. Because that is a good way to make a wonderful working life.

[00:25:22] And people got away from that because they said, oh, you have to go to college. You have to go to college. Well, no, not everyone has to go to college. Exactly. Not everyone wants to go to college. But if you have someone who becomes an electrician, you can write your own, doing your own thing. And, you know, getting the union jobs and being able to help. Those are things that we need to be able to do. We will always need electricians. We will always need plumbers.

[00:25:53] And there's no shame in that. And plumbers make pretty darn good money, too. Like the song says, vote the same color as your collar. That's right. Well, around here, Jennifer, we like to have fun because we're left-leaning ladies. So we have fun together whenever we're together. We do.

[00:26:22] We'll do a little quick fire round with you. Uh-oh. You don't have to think too hard. Oh, good. Are you ready? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. All right. What is one thing that people would be surprised to learn about you? Well, you already know that. I crochet and I knit. I do needlepoint. I do. I've done cross-stitch. I sew.

[00:26:51] I haven't done it in a long time, but I can sew and I can read a pattern. And these are, you know, I'm still trying to keep a hold of the old traditions and doing things. Absolutely. Reading a pattern is a lost art. Yeah. There are days where I have my problems. And it depends on who made the pattern, whether or not it's easy enough to read. Because if you get a Vogue pattern, those are really hard to read. But if you get it, you know. Stick with those simplicities. Simplicity McCall is better, Rick. We're good. Absolutely.

[00:27:21] I love that. Do you take coffee or tea? Neither. Wow. No caffeine, huh? No caffeine. I have not had caffeine since 2015. Good for you. How do you do that? Please. It's called chocolate. Well, that's valid. That's valid. Early bird or night owl? Well, right now it's kind of a combination of both. Right. Before your campaign. Early bird. Early bird. Okay.

[00:27:50] I'm the one who's usually in bed by nine o'clock at night. Yeah. I get that. What's your go-to comfort food? Sweets. You just said it. Yeah. Yeah. Chocolate. Chocolate. Sweets of any kind. What song gets you on the dance floor is like your hype song? Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. Nice. Little meatloaf. Mm-hmm. What's one thing you would never leave home without?

[00:28:22] My daughter. Oh, fine. Even though she's already said she's not going to D.C. We can take her out there when we road trip there. Just to see you. If you could have dinner with any woman in history, who would it be? Who? Eleanor Roosevelt. That would be a good choice. Definitely. Mm-hmm.

[00:28:49] Because she did so much for community projects that that would be one person. Yeah. She was an excellent first lady. Mm-hmm. What's your favorite thing about rural Illinois? We know our neighbors. Yeah. That's true. Definitely. And we show up for each other. Mm-hmm. And it doesn't matter what side of the spectrum you're on. Yes.

[00:29:16] If there's someone that's had an accident or there's someone that's going through cancer treatment and you're doing a little fundraiser forum, a community fundraiser forum and all this, they still show up. Yeah. You're right. And chicken and beer dances. And I haven't been to one in a very long time, but that's definitely a Southern Illinois, Central Illinois thing is chicken and beer dances. And everybody goes to them. Everybody. Everybody goes to them. Everybody goes to them.

[00:29:46] That's so fun. Describe your campaign in three words. Uphill, informative, and listening. Very nice. Yeah. Amy and I attended a Democratic training and Jennifer was there. That was the first time we met her? Yes.

[00:30:14] Well, the first time I met Chelsea was at one of her rallies. Yes. Yeah. I went to Staunton for the rally at the courthouse. Oh, with Ishmael. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I was at that one too. And I got to speak there. So it's just, these are the little things. And it's the little things that matter the most. Yes. Yes. When you can remember the little things. It's like one time I had someone that I had talked to him before and he was having some issues and so forth.

[00:30:44] And when I called him back again to see about, you know, making sure that, you know, I'm going to get a vote and all this. I asked him about it. He says, you remember that? I go, yeah, because I took notes. So I knew to ask. See if it got cleared up. He says, it did get cleared up. So I'm thinking, well, good. Um, but that's what matters. And I think politicians aren't often seen as people because sometimes they don't appear in to, as a person with their constituents.

[00:31:13] And you have done an amazing job. Thank you. Being seen in the communities and our rural communities and fighting for the rural communities. So. And taking the time to get to know us all too. I mean, um, incredible, incredible work. And we know that you have some really packed nights coming up and days and all of the things. So we want to thank you so much for, for coming. 19 more days. And taking, 19 more days. 19 more days. 19 more days.

[00:31:43] When this comes out, it might be even less. It could be, it could be. It's just, it's just, it's, it's so surreal of it's almost over. Because of how far I started out in advance. You know, I started out when I found out the incumbent ran on a post. And that's what started the ball rolling. Well, we are so proud of you. Well, thank you. So incredibly proud. Thank you.

[00:32:12] And proud to know you. I'm proud to be, call you a friend. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll be proud to say that we've met our Congresswoman. That's right. When you win. And we'll be super proud to visit you in Washington, D.C. Well, I've come up, I've come up with this thing that I want to, I want to do is that, um, you know, the t-shirt quilts? Yeah. So I want to get a t-shirt from every county and make a t-shirt quilt to take with me to D.C. That's awesome.

[00:32:43] Oh, that's amazing. I love that. That would be my blanket. That is awesome. So that's just something, you know, granted, that's going to be a lot. That's going to be a big quilt. So I decided I need to buy all smalls, small t-shirts to be able to, because you cut them up. Yeah. But the smalls will make it a lot easier. That is awesome. You know, I just thought, I just came up with that idea. I think, oh, that would be fun. How many times? 35. Oh my God. Wow. That's crazy.

[00:33:11] And I share five of them with Nikki Buzinski in the 13th. That's so interesting. So McCoopin County is the only county she does not share with someone. So I call my district the fortune cookie. Because when you look at it, I'm looking at it and all this, it looks like a lopsided fortune cookie with the 13th in the middle. So I keep saying we're going to break this fortune cookie open.

[00:33:38] So I'm looking at it.