Thank you, Ellen and thank you to the fortune. Most Powerful Women team for having me back It's wonderful to be here. [ APPLAUSE ] [ LAUGH ] I Welcome their browser. You and I had the chance to chat in 2015 during your first term. Mayor Bowser is now officially after having won reelection last fall. The first female two term mayor of the district in history, and [ APPLAUSE ] And the first mayor to be reelected in almost 20 years. So congratulations >> Thank you. for those compliments and congratulations on the Nationals being in the world. hey [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] Also a first I think. So you've been busy the past couple of days? We've been very busy over the last several months, and many Washingtonians are sleep- deprived. Yes- Because we're staying out till midnight and 1 AM. Watching the Nationals win but as well worth it. And do you have to go everywhere and represent them? Well, absolutely. So our first two games are away. We're playing a fantastic team. We're up against one of the best pitchers in the world last night and we won. Are you a baseball fan? Absolutely. I'm a [ UNKNOWN ] No span, let me clear. Okay, that's great. So they won last night. [ LAUGH ] Yeah, they won last night was a big deal. So let's talk about this push for statehood. So this is one of your big priorities right now. Absolutely, The District of Columbia is a district it is not a state. And you have basically resurrected along, you know this is a historical push that has been mounted before but you've brought it back to the forefront. Tell us why? Why, is because I'm an American, I pay taxes, I'm subject to all the responsibilities of citizenship yet I don't have all of the benefits. Specifically, I don't have the fundamental benefit of having a vote in Congress. We have a delegate, she cannot vote. Imagine that on all of the important issues that come before the Congress, she cannot vote. We don't have two senators. We don't have senators at all, the important things that only the senate can weigh in on like confirming a Supreme Court justice or sending Americans to war. We have absolutely no voice. And we think that is counter to everything our country was founded on. And the only way to achieve representation in the Senate is by admission as a state. Now the founders didn't want our federal government to not be in a certain state. They wanted it to be in a you know, a neutral zone. So with this plan, preserve that? It would preserve it, but I think we all have to recognize that some things have changed since the founding of our nation. And then it was, states had something to be concerned about with a federal Federal government in states being overwhelmed by a federal government. Now we know the federal government is completely overwhelming. And so, that's not the big issue. But what our plan does is it preserves the federal enclave. There will still be a nation's capitol, still be a federal district But it will be smaller it will include all of our federal buildings. Americans coming to visit their nation's capital won't notice any difference still to free museums, great transportation, visits to the White House and capital and all of those things. So this movement has, you know, as been giving you live and you were given a hearing given a vote. Yeah, it Where does it stand now? We took to our residents. The question on statehood in 2016. One of the good things that came out of that election in my view and 86 % of DC residents voted for statehood. We had a hearing about a month ago, in the government oversight committee, we expect that committee to mark up the bill. We have more than 220 sponsors in the house, which means it can pass the House and we think we'll get a vote on the house. But then there's the Senate. I mean, Mitch McConnell has called this full bore socialism so, Well we know the Senate's not doing much of anything. And moving bills that are important, but that shouldn't stop us. That shouldn't stop us on comprehensive gun reform. That shouldn't stop us on comprehensive immigration reform, and it definitely shouldn't stop us on advancing statehood for Washington DC. Great. Another issue that has been close to your heart as a new maternal health summit that you have brought to the fore, tell us about that a little bit. Well, we are like many jurisdictions around the nation concerned about women dying in childbirth, and we think in our nation that shouldn't be a Huge fear. We know especially among African American women across all socio economic levels, the problem of maternal and infant death is significant. So we know in cities, we can do things that the federal government may not be doing. Or we can be the impetus for the federal government doing more. So I started two years ago, a national infant mortality summit right here in the district. Where we're bringing doctors, last year we brought elected officials, this year we focused on practitioners both nationally and locally. To talk about the problem of maternal and infant death. That's great. And speaking of maternal issues, you yourself became a mom in last year. I did. You adopted a baby daughter. I did. A baby girl. Yes, I did. Moranda Elizabeth. Yes. And you did that on your own. I do. You are a sinle woman and I am a single mother too. I just had a baby. Congratulations. In April, she's right there. [ APPLAUSE ] I think we have. And she's a star, she loves it. [ UNKNOWN ], I think we have pictures of both of these babies that we might be able to show up on the screen. Okay. But we're part of a small club called single mothers by choice. This means that we decided to go down the path of motherhood alone, and so What led you to make that decision and were you daunted by the challenge of being a single mother? I was daunted by a lot of it, one thing that motherhood has taught me is that I'm scared and anxious about just about everything when it comes to my daughter But I also knew that I just always expected that I would be a mom, and have a family, and life goes in a lot of different ways. And I was clear that there are many ways to make a family. And for me, I have the incredible fortune of adopting just the most beautiful loving little girl. And I will say I was making that decision for myself and my family personally. And what I've been struck by is how many people have been touched by that story or how many people have shared with me their own adoption stories, how many women who were like me who decided on a particular political course and then woke up one day and said, Hey, What about being a mom and others who won't make that choice and don't want to be a mom? And so those are a lot of different things that I've encountered over the last year and a half. And one of the things we learn as mothers is that you're not in control anymore, right? But you really, you had this in mind and you were hoping to You know, have, be able to adopt. But Miranda became available when you were least expecting it. You were in the middle of your re- election campaign. I was .>> So not ideal timing. So tell us how all that went down .>> Well, I. I was thinking about it, and kinda thinking about how things would roll out in my life. I didn't know that many people who had gone through an adoption process. I had very close friends who had. And everybody told me it could be a year or two years or even longer for the process to unfold. So I said I'd better get started. And I did get started. And I did have a great opportunity to adopt. And Miranda was born one month before my primary. Wow. Wow. When you're a mayor of a city, it's hard to be out of town, ever And so or hard to be off the, to be doing anything not For yourself? Yes, so I was probably down for two weeks, right before my election. Where did you have to go? I wanted to be with my daughter. Yeah. And so I did not want any time apart. Did you have to travel to get her, though? You had to leave the district. I was out of the district for a little while. Right. And then, you just took a few weeks off Really, I took two weeks off. Less than that, in some ways, because I had some issues in the city that needed my attention, and I had to address them. And it was very different for council members, for citizens Not to see me on the scene when something was happening, but then I. People didn't know, they didn't know what you were doing. I mean, they didn't. No, they did. They knew soon after Miranda was born. Okay. I let my folks know that the blast with opportunity to adopt her. And that I would be down just bonding with my daughter. And so, for the most part, I think people were very supportive. But at the same time, they want their mayor when they want their mayor. And I was able to manage that. Now, the difference is, I am able to manage it. I am my boss. I do make my schedule. And so having that time with my daughter was very important, but it also opened my eyes even wider to all of the decisions moms and dads make all the time about that time immediately after birth or adoption But every day after that childcare decisions and how you manage your schedule and how you manage your life. Because a challenge for anyone in this room who has children, just managing a huge career and children, I don't know how it's. It's been okay so far, but it's definitely an issue. So what are some specific things? How do you, you have help obviously, and your parents are nearby. What's your sort of scheduling hack that you find really helpful or how do you get through the day? My scheduling hack I like that is to try to be as consistent as I can to have reliable childcare that you can trust. And never when when I make a commitment to my daughter even though she's 17 months I try to keep it. That's great. We're going to go to questions in a minute but let's talk about some other issues. We are just a few blocks away from the White House. There's big election coming up. What your thoughts on on the 2020 election? I will be so happy when people start voting. it is it's for me and we are kind in the upset for many years for kind in the belly of the beast, where there's just so much chaos. And the tension and anxiety I think in the city and in a lot of different discussions is really high. And it's distracting from real issues that our Congress and president needs to be focused on all of our agency directors. When I think I have a city to run. They're 700, 000 bus with $ 15. 5 billion budget, and we deliver services. So we can't be sidelined by gridlock. But there are some things that The agencies, federal agencies are helpful to us on, or we need to partner with them on. Basic things in our city like the national parks. So, how we're gonna dispose of RFK stadium? How we're gonna work with all of the human services programs that are going through some changes. So we need federal agencies that work in people who have an agenda. To get done, so that's what I'm really looking forward to getting back to. What would you like to see happen in the in the election, the federal election? What I like to I would like to see a Democrat in the White House. Do you have any favorite that support statehood for Washington, DC have any favorites so far? I mean, I think that we have we're really blessed with a lot of talent in the Democratic primary. And I think that at this stage I, you know, total group of my constituents last night that I don't know where I'm gonna be. I love what Kamala Harris has done. She's been a great supporter of DC and me and women and office. And it's hard for women and I think we saw in the last election you can be the most prepared and still face some very significant challenges, in my view some unfair challenges. I really liked the campaign that Elizabeth Warren is running. I like that a Mayor is in the top tier of the candidates in Mayor P. Cory Booker, born in Washington DC, also a mayor has been, I think a tremendous, I think was most important to me is that we have a candidate that inspires people to go out and vote. And that focuses on Urban Agenda which affects my town. In into win. Who has a question for Mayor Bowser, anyone over here? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Thanks very much for being with us this morning Katie Couch. I wanted to talk about what you've done with the public. Public schools here in DC, if you could comment on how you've gotten enrollment to go up other progress and how we could scale that nationally. Now, thank you for that question. So yesterday, I was able to announce that we've seen 11 straight years of growth in our public schools, but these are traditional public schools, and our Public charter schools 11 straight years our traditional public schools in fact saw a 4 % increase over the previous year. So now we have about 94, 000 kids in public education. Our population is growing and more people are choosing public schools. And I think, over 10 years, our taxpayers, DC taxpayers have said to every elected official, do everything that you can to transform public education, and we're gonna be right there, behind you. Our teachers are the best paid in the region. And we have a competitive Process to evaluate teachers, and retain highly effective teachers. So teachers have made a huge difference. We spent $ 4 billion transforming our facilities, so when you walk into one of our environments, you see that we value Our children. And we put very engaging content in front of them. We have a public charter school sector that is doing what that sector should do, keeping innovative schools open. And when schools aren't working, they are they're shutting those schools down. So I think we have a mix of things that are working in our city, but we have work to do. One of the things I pledge, when I became mayor was I will focus on our middle grades. And over the last two years now we've seen our population in the middle grades grow up. We're also focused on making sure we have a variety of options for high school, strong neighborhood options. But also early college we just opened barred early college in our city, a two year degree associate's degree our children will receive upon graduation. [ UNKNOWN ] $ 75, 000 a year, says $ 150, 000 value for a family. So that's what we're doing and we're going to keep doing it. That's great. Thanks. [ UNKNOWN ] It change us, it transformed our city. It's great. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] Well, we're just about out of time, I'll just ask you one more thing. What can we look for for your protocol future? What are your aspirations? Well, I'm surprised that how frequently people asked me because you know I'm only in the first year of a four year term. [ LAUGH ] And everybody, somebody asked asked, are you running again? Are you running again? Are you running again? There are no term moments in Washington D. C. and And I feel as long as we are inspiring DC residents that I'm going to look forward to serving DC .>> Do you have aspirations for any other office in the future and a larger, bigger platform ?>> I think this will be mayor of DC will probably be my last elective office. Unless Somebody call me with something else interesting. Unless Maria has an opinion about that. She may have some thoughts. She may. She may. She may. What's she like? She is beautiful, loving child. She's very, very vocal. She moves around a lot. She lives around too much effect. Now she has a nice little Shiner on her forehead for moving around a lot and she's very observant and she I think she gets That we are in office, that she saw. [ LAUGH ] I think she gets that. They do, sounds like we have a future, most powerful women in the making. So congratulations to you, thank you for being here. [ UNKNOWN ], thank you, thank you [ UNKNOWN ], thank you. Congratulationa to you. Thank you, thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

How Muriel Bowser is Trying to Bring Statehood to DC

Leadership

She’s the first woman to serve two-terms in the nation’s capital. 
