S2 Ep.5: ACROSS THE RIVER: BRIDGING CONVERSATIONS KIM JORGENSEN GANE | Candidate for Michigan State Senate

May 23

KIM JORGENSEN GANE is a midwestern mom, a speaker, author and community leader, a democrat, running for State Senate in Michigan’s District 20. For this candidacy, she leads with an approach of ‘care’, informed by her deep connection and understanding of the place she has lived most of her life and its complex politics. She brings her ‘every mom’ passion to issues of class, gender and race in her still deeply segregated state, helping the public connect to their values, stories and lived experiences with how they vote.

KIM JORGENSEN GANE BIO

Michigan State Senate candidate Kim Jorgensen Gane uses storytelling to connect her experiences as a sexual assault survivor, mom, and white woman in a still-segregated midwestern state, to facilitate an equitable future around the intersections of race and gender. She was a cast member (northwest Indiana, 2014) turned producer and co-director of a local (southwest Michigan, 2015-2017) version of the national storytelling show ‘Listen to Your Mother’. Kim is an activist leader in NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Michigan Action Council and has been a national storyteller with Planned Parenthood. A contributing author in the book 51%: Women and the Future of Politics (Sugati, 2016), Kim is a connector who tackles voting rights, reproductive freedom, paid leave, gender and racial equity. She offers creative, common sense solutions that come from the heart, drawing on her love for her hometown community and for Michigan.

To Donate: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/friends-of-kim-jorgensen-gane-start-strong
Website: FRIENDSOFKJG.COM
Facebook: Kim Jorgensen Gane
Twitter: KIMGANEPOSSIBLE
Instagram: KIMGANEPOSSIBLE
Linkedin: Kim Jorgensen Gane

DailyKos profile: https://www.dailykos.com/users/KimGANEPossible?filter=stories
Published on Planned Parenthood’s Tumblr: https://ppaction.tumblr.com/post/182011694688/i-am-not-ashamed-and-we-are-not-alone
Listen to Your Mother 2016, Southwest Michigan: https://youtu.be/jYQJ3T3cQiA
PechaKucha Profile: https://www.pechakucha.com/users/kim-jorgensen-gane

TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT

“Each one of those experiences informs my desire to run for this office for State Senate in Michigan, District 20. It's because I've seen the best that we can be. And, I've also seen the worst that we can be. I know that because of caregivers not really existing in our economy, and therefore not existing politically, there has been sacrifice. I don't see that any of us are really thriving the way that we should be, because there is this huge hole in how we count. It's profound to me to understand that I was not raised to understand that my existence is political, but when you're raised in an African-American community, in a Latin X community, when you're raised facing bullying not feeling safe at school because you're LGBTQ plus, you understand that your existence is political, because it's been politicized your whole life. I think that I was raised to unsee all of that in so many ways. You know, my parents are products of their environment. It's not like they did it intentionally. It's just, that was the way it was. It was, don't make any waves, keep your benefits. We've earned them. We deserve them. Just go along to get along, don't rock the boat. I'm not good at that. I'm not good at not rocking the boat.”