The complicated Laurie MacDonald won’t back down
The people who live in her district have no families, they live in squalor,” Democratic candidate for Congress Laurie MacDonald said last Sunday about the district she wants to represent, the “her” being incumbent U.S. Rep. Summer Lee. Ms. MacDonald seemed surprised when the crowd began to boo.
Attendees of the 2024 Barbara Daly Danko Political Forum were shocked to hear one of the candidates denigrate the over-700k people of an entire congressional district. Videos of the statement went local-viral in minutes.
Former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner shared the clip and noted that “if we want to tell the whole truth, this is how A LOT of politicians on both sides of the aisle feel about disadvantaged communities. They usually don’t say it out loud, though.”
Why say this? Out loud?
Why would a candidate for office say such a thing? Out loud? And then, when confronted with the shock of the crowd, why would she double down on the statement?
“I don’t need to take that,” said Ms. MacDonald, the president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Center for Victims, to an increasingly upset audience. “My record speaks for itself. I’ve walked the walk, I’ve talked the talk. I help families; I help everybody. I don’t have a prejudiced, white, black, purple, pink bone in my body. I love everybody. And I love all of you too, even if we disagree.”
Ms. MacDonald remained quiet after the debate. Her account on X, with only 32 followers, posted no statement. Her campaign issued no response.
Unable to contain my curiosity, I emailed Ms. MacDonald and asked to speak with her. She immediately responded herself, noting that I was the first journalist to contact her. “Nobody, nobody follows up with me at all. They’re trying to pretend I’m not in this race.”
When I asked her what happened during the debate, she focused on how distracting the audience was that day, cheering for Ms. Lee and “waving a Palestinian flag in my face.” Sure, but what about her response to the question, “what should the role of Congress be to support individuals seeking access to [gender affirming] care?” when she said people in the district live in squalor?
“I meant to say that. They do, but that’s not my point. What I meant to say was [that] they have no family support. Their district is a hot mess. I work over there. These moms [told] my staff [how] they tried to build a playground. They tried to take a school and make it an after school place for kids. [Ms. Lee] wouldn’t give them a penny. She wouldn’teven talk to them.”
I asked her what she thought she meant by “district”? “[Ms. Lee’s] community, her neighborhood where she came from… North Braddock. Rankin.” When I explained that the 12th Congressional District includes most of the
Pittsburgh region, she fell quiet for a moment.
Supporting the marginalized
Ms. MacDonald is a new candidate, but she’s not new to politics. She has deep ties to the nonprofit sector, and she has fundraised extensively for important causes, including victims of the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting.
But not every nonprofit executive is fit to serve Congress. And Ms. MacDonald’s inexperience in this realm shines through — from her lack of social media engagement to her lack of media training. She only has a few weeks to get her campaign in order — beginning with the Feb. 10 deadline for petition signatures — if she wants to stand a chance.
And she has no plans to apologize.
“What I was trying to say is that… that playground and that beat up old school? That is squalor. I don’t care what anybody says. It’s what it is. And a lot of these people don’t have family support.”
“You know, if we can’t sit, if we can’t talk to each other and if we can’t listen to our neighbors and friends… we’re doomed,” she continued. “We’re doomed. [The crowd’s disruptive] behavior was ridiculous. And I was really taken back by it. I’m not gonna lie to you. But what I was trying to say is [my opponent] doesn’t take care of her own community.”
As far as taking the opportunity to answer the original question, Ms. MacDonald remains steadfast in her support for marginalized people. “I’ve lived here all my life. I employ LGBTQ people. I was the first person to employ a trans woman in my organization, first woman to elevate a Black woman to the level of director,” she said.
“I understand diversity [and] inclusion. It’s my life. … I get annoyed when people wanna try to paint me to be something else because again, I walkthe walk. I do more than that.”
She feels hurt by the accusations of bigotry. But no one, even the poorest and neediest among us, enjoys having their communities referred to as “squalor.” She resists the idea that her statement was offensive, though. For Ms. MacDonald, the brouhaha feels like an attack on her integrity.
“My best friend,” she began, and paused. “I have so many gay friends and it’s just outrageous that they would paint me like that. Because anybody who knows me and works with me knows that’s not true.”
She’s staying in the race
Ms. MacDonald has time to change public perception of her and to professionalize her campaign. Credit where it’s due, she’s certainly on people’s radars as the antithesis of Congresswoman Lee.
How Ms. MacDonald will do against Congresswoman Summer Lee and Edgewood Borough Councilwoman Bhavini Patel is up to the people of this district — squalor and all. Still, Ms. MacDonald intends to keep fighting.
“I’m not getting out of this race. I’m in for all the right reasons. I’m not gonna be a member of the squad. I’m not gonna go up there and pretend I’m somebody, I’m not. I’m an advocate and that’s what I believe government should do.”