Januari McKay, candidate for State Delegate in district 23B, Wants Government To Work For all.
“I’m suited for this position because I’ve been working in the community for such a long time – I understand the needs of community members, and I recognize what resources are needed to fill the gaps.” - Januari McKay.
Januari McKay has some people on her shoulders. They're not visible, but listening to her speak, you can envision them and understand who they are. In 2021, McKay spoke at the Progressive Maryland Slate Launch event about how she wants to continue to work on the behalf of her community, the influence of money on local politics, and how she wants to change it all. While listening to McKay speak, it became clearer who she is concerned about. It’s the children who quit school to financially support their families, the military veterans who find it hard to acquire benefits after serving their country, and families who live paycheck to paycheck. “I’m thinking about the state employee struggling to make ends meet because her salary doesn’t meet the cost of living standards,” she said in our interview. She sounds like a concerned citizen, an activist, and advocate whose convictions were shaped within a community, but ripened in the fire of experience, and has an assurance that local government can work on the behalf of the poor and working-class people of Prince George’s County. “Prince George’s County is my home, this is where my family lives, and I want to represent the community I feel so connected to.” So she is proud to run for state delegate so that she can serve the residents of district 23B.
Mckay said she is suited for this state delegate seat because of her work in the community. “I understand the needs of community members, and I recognize what resources are needed to fill the gaps. We need more people in political decision-making roles who are ready to work with, and on behalf of, the people,” said McKay, who’s received a joint endorsement from the Working Families Party, a national political organization that trains candidates for local political office and Progressive Maryland, a statewide advocacy organization that hosts the New Era PAC.
Mckay is running against five other candidates. One of them is Marvin E. Holmes, a Democrat, who has held the seat for about 20 years. To name a few, the middle-class cities and towns that are within district 23B are Bowie, Woodmore, and Upper Marlboro. However, towns like Croom, Marlboro Meadows, and Kettering, though also middle-class, have an average poverty rate of 7 percent.
The People Shaped Her
McKay attended three schools in Prince George’s County: Francis Scott Key Elementary School, Andrew Jackson Middle School, and Central High School. She was raised by a single mother. During her preteen years, she moved to Suitland, Maryland at 11 years old, before moving to Upper Marlboro, where she currently lives. She was raised by a single mother, who worked a full-time job. With her mother at work, McKay would be at home alone at certain times. However, neighbors would step in as part-time guardians to care for young McKay.
“My mom had strong relationships with our neighbors, who would make sure I got on the school bus every morning and would sometimes look out for me after school until she got home from work,” McKay explained. “This community support was essential to my upbringing.”
Advocating With and For The People
McKay has given her life to serving and advocating for the politically vulnerable populations in DC, Prince George’s County, and Baltimore. She has worked as an instructional aide alongside students with emotional and intellectual difficulties. She interned and later held a full-time position at Advocates For Youth, a national advocacy organization that connects with organizations to promote sexual health and reproductive rights. As a program coordinator, she taught informational workshops on HIV & AIDS in the D.C. Public School System. She has won community awards for advocacy in HIV & AIDS.
“In the process of these, I began connecting with organizations that showed me that this type of educational outreach went hand in hand with advocating for policy change,” Mckay said. “I came to understand that the fact certain schools refused to teach sexual health was a policy issue, which spurred me to get more involved with advocacy efforts. My work on HIV & AIDS has highlighted the importance of doing advocacy in a way that doesn’t only involve nonprofits and public figures, but actually engages regular community members who are affected by the issue.”
Currently, she works as a case manager for The Prince George’s County Department of Social Services. She works with 18 to 21 years-old, who are transitioning out of the foster care system. Her job is to help them to secure housing, to stave off homelessness, and to help them get job training or some kind of certification, so they can earn a livable wage. “This period of transition is incredibly challenging for the many young people who grow up in the foster care system without long-term connections or a sense of stability,” she explained. She told me via email that youth often transition out of the foster care system without mentoring programs. These programs are important because they help youth to build lifelong connections.
“My job is to help make this challenging transition as smooth as possible for these young people,” she said.
It is this connection to people, that makes her want to get involved in politics at a higher level, where, if elected, she will have the opportunity to positively help working-class people in Prince George’s County. She believes that her advocacy work, working alongside children with disabilities as well as helping youth build different lives for themselves and working closely with community members and organizations, has provided her with a skill set that is needed in Prince George’s County politics.
“I have approached the issues that affect our residents from different avenues and angles, and my experience of working with people directly in these settings allows me to bring a critical perspective to legislative work in education, social services, and public health,” she said.
“Ye, You Know How We Do, We Do It For the People” - Common, hip-hop artist, and actor.
McKay’s people-first approach to politics seems to be in direct opposition to how she perceives politics works in Prince George’s County. She thinks local politicians work too closely with the businessmen and women - “big developers,” she called them - passing legislation that works against the interest of those who have been marginalized. “Developers are exploiting their political connections to win contracts for massive projects with limited environmental regulations that are harming Prince George’s County’s ecosystems,” she explained. When residents feel as if elected officials are not attuned to their needs, they lose trust.
“This hurts governance in Prince George’s County because it means the profits of private companies and individuals have a greater influence in policy than the needs of regular people,” said McKay.
At that same forum, back in 2021, McKay mentioned that her grandmother’s quality of life was being hindered by big development. However, she said, that statement wasn’t only about her grandmother, but also about senior citizens and how local politicians have ignored their concerns. She said senior citizens have spoken out - via press conferences and given public testimonies - about redevelopment, deforestation, and environmental issues that sometimes can accompany redevelopment projects.
“The environmental issues created by the construction of these massive developments also contribute over time to health challenges, like asthma, that disproportionately impacts our most vulnerable populations,” she said.
McKay said, to avoid aligning herself with big money interests, she plans to continue to align herself with the interest of the working class in Prince George’s County. “I plan to always prioritize the needs of working people in my district and the state of Maryland first,” she said. “Any other relationships or resources need to align with meeting the needs of the residents”