Gwen Kirkland

Gwen Kirkland earned a high school diploma from Kickapoo High School and a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma Christian University in 2017. Kirkland's career experience includes working as a community organizer.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Gwen Kirkland, and I’m a Democratic Socialist, grocery worker and a labor organizer. I moved here from Missouri in 2023 to escape anti-transgender discrimination in the Bible Belt and finally get real healthcare for the first time in my life.

As a community organizer, I’ve knocked thousands of doors for universal healthcare and led canvassing for successful Democratic Socialist campaigns. As a labor organizer, I advocated against corporate grocery mergers, organized my coworkers to strike and fought back against systemic corruption. Together, we endorsed working class politicians against the wishes of billionaires, politicians and establishment leaders alike.

Facing people on their porches and at their workplaces, I promised that the policies I’ve always championed would pass with the people’s vital support for these candidates who share our working class values. Policies like Medicare for All, free education, and publicly-owned utilities and grocery stores are a necessity for working families to have any hope of an affordable future.

Sadly, the Democratic Party has no interest in fighting the billionaires and their fascist lackeys. This means we have to take over the Democratic Party first in order to guarantee we ever have democracy in this country. Complacency breeds corruption, and when our leaders fail us so completely, they cannot stay in office. Their failed leadership is what brought us to this point. Now, we must recruit new leadership for ourselves.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Working people are trying to make a living while the Epstein Class make a killing doing the most heinous crimes known to man. All of the wealth we generate from our own work is given away by our own government to corporations who spend it on “artificial intelligence” that will replace our own jobs. This is a system built for maximum profit, not maximum human flourishing. You cannot start a home and raise a family when you struggle to pay rent, student loans, groceries or fill your tank. The working class has been hollowed out from both ends—our wages get stolen and our cost of living is unaffordable. We can flip this rigged game upside down when we resolve to unite a huge mass of organized people against the machine of organized money.Human rights have been pared down one by one thanks to our brutally effective “two party” system. Republicans take as many rights away as they can get away with and Democrats let them get away with it until they need to win an election. This results in a hostage situation: one party will only “defend” your rights when conditions suit them and the other will take your rights whenever those rights do not suit them. Democracy has become a brand and defending a brand only requires messaging and public relations. Defending democracy requires an enormous undertaking to impeach Supreme Court Justices from the highest points of power in the federal government. We need a renewed Justice System that works for working people—not the Epstein elite.No democracy can exist alongside a genocide. Israel has killed innumerable people with the help of our tax money, our military industrial complex and our tech industry’s “artificial intelligence.” There is no stopping the spread of fascism if we do not put a permanent end to the genocides being committed in the interest of warmongering profiteers. We already feel the consequences of blowback in the form of ICE and police brutality and the bipartisan legislation being passed to revoke free speech and the first amendment. Protest is not “what democracy looks like,” but what its absence looks like. We have to take power in our government now or we will never have any voice—not in the halls of power nor in the streets where our neighbors live.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I believe in a new, holistic policy approach to address the many, interconnected issues facing the American people today. I call it the Holistic Economic Affordability Plan (HEAP), because, though it is a massive undertaking, it is made up of many smaller pieces. The domestic problems working people of this country face—housing and homelessness, healthcare and debt, childcare and education, infrastructure and transportation—impact our quality of life and our budgets directly. Yet, these issues are left to private corporations to own and operate our institutions for profit. We need a renewed New Deal that will invest in our economy and working families together instead of the invasion and bombardment of our neighbors and their families.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Bernie Sanders’ presidential candidacies were a sign that the working class was hurting. Sadly, the Democratic Party abandoned the working class to protect corporate power. I intend to take over the Democratic Party, and make it a democratic socialist party—then we can finally make the Republican Party a nonentity in our politics for good.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Anti-fascist and Pro-worker. There can be no splitting the difference between the Epstein Class and the Working Class. It’s a choice between continued genocide or fighting for democracy. Pick a side.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

We live in one of the top five most expensive districts in the country, so why don’t we have the leadership in the party that New York has? We have to fight for people power to win a voice in the capitol, and that means taking the fight to big tech and private interests at the highest levels of power. I’ll use that leadership position to run democratic socialists in every district from here in the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest, and from the Rust Belt to the Bible Belt all the way up the beltway.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I’m running for office so that I can make this country a place where I can raise and love a family of my own just like anybody else. Once everyone is free to do so, then I too shall be free. That’s when I will finally retire and spend my time with the family I have yet to meet.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was working the produce off of a pallet for Walmart. I worked for them for 2.5 years.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I’m a transgender woman from the Bible Belt, and I was regularly molested and sexually assaulted since I was 5 years old. I attempted suicide multiple times during my childhood. I am now a refugee in my own country because of the dereliction of democracy by the Democratic Party and the bigotry of the Republican Party. All I want is healthcare, housing, and a loving family—just like anyone else. I know what kind of sacrifices this will take better than most. That’s why I decided long ago to become President of the United States of America, even if it means death. Because a life worth living is worth fighting for together and somebody’s got to do it.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

We can quickly recirculate new blood through the halls of power straight from the heart of the working class. This allows bold, populist policy to be passed in greater numbers. The only thing stopping us is the current Democratic Party leadership. We can begin to remove money from politics when we get people involved in politics instead of genocidal corporations.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Fascism. We are run by genocidal pedophiles. We have to end the two-tier justice system and replace the one-party Zionist state with a one-party democratic socialist state. This will take massive recruitment of working class candidates at every level of political office while we still can.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

I compromise by advocating for life imprisonment of the Epstein class rather than the death penalty. When they’re in prison, healthcare CEOs—who denied people the life saving care they paid for—will receive the best healthcare that billionaires’ stolen money can buy. Splitting the difference between the working class and the Epstein class results in an appeasement mentality that won’t fight FOR democracy or AGAINST fascism.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

I’m a Democratic Socialist, a grocery worker, a member of UFCW 3000 and a member of our Political Action Advisory Committee. Together, we got UFCW and Rep. Pramila Jayapal to endorse the DSA candidate, Katie Wilson. This, even after Jayapal had already endorsed the incumbent, sex pest protector, Bruce Harrell. Whether her initial endorsement was out of loyalty or her political calculation, I’m glad my opponent changed her mind and followed our lead. Bernie Sanders should feel no shame in endorsing a progressive brand name politician alongside a DSA political revolutionary, like myself, because I will recruit working people into offices from the Northwest to the Midwest, from the Bible Belt to the rust belt, and all the way up the beltway.

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

I was seven years old when George W. Bush was “elected” president, and I knew then that we had no democracy. Less than a year later, I watched the twin towers come down alone in my grandparents’ darkened living room. I watched the endless wars ramp up in real time, and knew that my government had been lying to us before I went through puberty (the first time). That’s when I decided to become President of the United States of America.