California Congresswoman Karen Bass was a relative unknown on the national stage until just a few months ago. Now she is among the contenders to be Joe Biden’s pick for his vice presidential running mate.
A former community organizer and head of the Congressional Black Caucus, Bass led the Democratic effort to write sweeping police reform legislation.
A ‘Collaborative’ Approach
She says she evolved into politics after starting out as an activist in Los Angeles in the 1980s. At the time she co-founded the Community Coalition aimed at fighting addiction, crime and poverty in the community.
Rep. Barbara Lee, a fellow California Democrat, says she remembers meeting Bass in the ’90s. Lee was in the state Assembly and Bass was lobbying for liquor store regulations to keep kids from buying alcohol.
“She was really a community organizer,” Lee said. “But she also knew how to strategically work within the system, within the legislative body to get a bill passed.”
Bass describes feeling like she needed to create spaces where she could lead and train people to follow in her footsteps.
“I believe in working in a very collaborative, collective work style, which means that it’s team-driven,” Bass said in an interview with NPR. “It’s never personality-driven.”