August 13, 2024 • 33 mins
In this episode, Liz sits down with Congressman Eric Sorensen from Illinois' 17th District. As the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois and a former TV weatherman, Eric shares his unique journey from meteorology to politics.
Discover the story behind Eric's nickname, "Tornado," and how his career as a meteorologist prepared him for his role in Congress. Eric opens up about his personal life, including his supportive partner Sean and their two dogs, Petey and Oliver. He also reflects on the importance of trust and transparency, both in weather forecasting and in serving his constituents.
Join Liz and Eric for a heartfelt conversation that explores the human side of politics, the challenges of running for office, and the joys of public service. Don't miss this inspiring episode filled with humor, warmth, and insightful anecdotes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:10):
Hi, I'm Liz Hershnoff-Tolley, and welcome to the Capital Coffee Connection podcast.
And on this podcast, we talk with elected leaders about their heart,
their humanity, and we try to steer clear of politics and policy because our
goal is to actually have conversations about the human and their character.
And even though we are on virtual, we are having coffee.
(00:32):
I have my iced coffee here, and my guest, Eric Sorensen, has his tea. I assume that's a T.
It is. It is. With a little simple syrup and then just take the edge off.
Good, good. Well, enjoy. And thank you for joining me.
And Eric is Congressman Eric Sorensen from Illinois' 17th District.
He is a freshman in the United States House of Representatives.
(00:55):
That means this is his first term.
And Eric is also notably the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois,
which while we say when people are there first, I'm excited that you're the
first, but that you shall not be the last.
And Eric is a former TV weatherman. And, you know, as a congressperson,
I know he's very serious, but I also know that he has a great sense of humor.
(01:16):
And so I thought I would just start with a little homage to Steve Carell's Brick
Tamland from Anchorman and just introduce you and say, the wind is really...
Windy.
Well, let's say thank you for having me with you today.
It's great to be with you. And you know, the thing about the weather is it's
(01:37):
something that we all share, you know, unless you're going to live under a rock
for the rest of your life, you know, we're all going to be underneath the atmosphere
and dealing with the same stuff.
Yeah. And I think through this conversation, we'll figure out there's a lot
of parallels to what you did as a weatherman and and what you're doing now.
And the first thing I just wanted to ask you is you have a nickname, which is Tornado.
(01:58):
And could you talk about that a little bit? Because that's an interesting one.
Yeah. So here's the thing. So I got that nickname from my team when I was running for Congress.
Right. You know, it's just kind of, it was a funny nickname because,
you know, when they were like texting each other, like, you know,
instead of, has Eric made it to the event, it would be just letting you know, the tornado touchdown.
(02:22):
So that meant that I had arrived or the tornado is in route, right?
Which meant that I was on the way to where I ever I needed to be.
So, so I'll still, Hey, tornado.
I'll still look at it. I like it. And, and I also think about like meteorology
and like that it changes every day and probably the work you do changes,
not necessarily the subject,
(02:44):
but the dynamics are always changing in D.C. and at home.
You know, it's like for the, you know, when I was a kid, the only thing that
I wanted to be was the meteorologist.
And so I had no aspirations of being in Congress until I realized that,
wait a minute, maybe my previous job as a meteorologist was earning the trust
of the people to be their representative.
(03:06):
That's where I am today is everything is changing.
But you know what? People back home, they just need somebody that they can trust
is just going to tell it the way it is.
Yeah. And I obviously assume as a weather person, weatherman,
you did your best to tell people the truth,
what was happening, not just with the exact weather at that moment,
but just about climate and what was happening, you know, in terms of why it's
(03:30):
raining more or why it's raining less or different things.
Because people are very cognizant of what they're going through.
And if you tell them something that doesn't go with that, they know you're not
being straight with them. Right.
And I had this obligation, I feel, inside of me.
So working in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois, I'm the chief meteorologist
(03:53):
at the number one TV station.
And as I am learning it, the climate is changing. We're causing this to occur,
but nobody's talking about it.
And I never wanted to get to a position where my kids or my grandkids would
ever look and say, dad or granddad, you were a meteorologist on TV.
Why didn't everyone talk about what was going on?
(04:16):
I couldn't ever let it be, oh, I couldn't talk about it because of our ratings.
Your ratings? No, we have an obligation.
And here's the thing is people have a hard time understanding something that is going to happen.
And so when we talk about climate, A lot of what is going to happen will be
(04:39):
a product of what we are doing or a lack of what we are doing to get us the
extreme weather that is.
And so what I was just doing was explaining that the things that were occurring,
seven of the top 10 floods on the Mississippi River here, seven of the top 10
have happened since the great flood of 1993. 93.
(05:00):
And so when I start talking about it in that way, people have a moment.
And then especially in my district in Western Illinois, they're farmers.
They're having a hard time.
It affects their crops. It affects everything, their ability to make money.
Right. And then you, even with the technology that we have today,
I mean, I'm case example where I changed career fields. Okay.
(05:21):
But if you're a farmer and you have been on that same land for seven,
eight generations now, and you can't make a go of it, even with the technology that we have today,
there are too many farmers that look at their kids and they say, I'm a failure.
And so they can't quit their jobs. They quit their life.
(05:42):
And so we have to understand that this is happening.
Right. And we have to take care of them. Yeah.
And talk a little bit more about your district because you have farmers and
what other kind of people and a little bit about the people in Illinois in general.
Like what makes Illinois special?
Maybe a couple of our greatest claims to fame. Everybody remembers the movie
(06:03):
A League of Their Own. And so my hometown, I have a Rockford Peach shirt, by the way. Okay.
And I think when that movie came out, that was when I started my maturation
with Madonna, but that will be a different- That's another story.
Okay. A different podcast.
But Rockford, Peoria, Illinois, a lot of people have heard of the phrase, will it play in Peoria?
(06:25):
It is a bellwether for everything. Right now, I live in Moline with my partner.
We live in Moline, Illinois, which is the place where a guy by the name of John
Deere started a tractor company.
And so, you know, that's this part of the Midwest where we make the things that
everybody uses and we grow the crops that, you know, really kind of feed the
(06:48):
world when you think about it.
So you're from this area. You're from Rockford, Illinois.
Yeah. So I was born and raised there. And being the weatherman on TV was the only job I ever wanted.
And you know what? I got to live my childhood dream. by being the meteorologist there for 11 years.
And then moving from Rockford, Illinois to the next TV market over in Moline,
Illinois, we're right on the Mississippi River. I...
(07:08):
Worked here for so many years, and it's in the same congressional district.
Right. I mean, I can't explain why these two places are connected in one congressional district.
I can't explain why for so many years I was sitting there on television, listening to the news.
I had the earpiece in my ear, and I was the number one consumer of our product.
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So I knew what was going on in people's homes.
And so that's where I really started to think about where is my place.
And that's what brought me to run for Congress. And now I'm honored that I get to work there.
Yeah. It's just interesting that, I mean, first it's like, it's an interesting journey.
People wonder like, how does somebody become a Congress person and what was
(07:54):
their journey and yours is unique.
And I just think about like that you as a child knew what you wanted and that
was to be a weatherman. And that's pretty incredible.
Like, were you like in class, you know, in elementary school going,
okay, I'm going to tell these kids what the weather is going to be like, how did you know?
So I was total, total weather nerd, but I will tell you, and I'm going to date
myself for a minute, but this is in days before the, there was internet or computers or cell phones.
(08:20):
When I was in college in my door or outside of my dorm room,
I had a white marker board and it was Eric's five day forecast.
And so there were so many of my students that lived on the floor,
they would all run over and look and see what I had forecast.
Or if I forgot to update it, I'd get a knock on the door, and I'd be like,
(08:44):
what's going on? And they're like, you need to update the weather, man.
Oh, my God. It's great. It's great. That's kind of where it started.
And I'm like, okay. So still to this day, I watch the weather.
I pay attention to what's going on. But that also means that now instead of
knock on the door at my dorm room, now I actually get text messages from members of Congress.
Okay. Yeah. Asking you the weather. Yeah. Or I'm connecting through Phoenix
(09:08):
or I'm connecting through Denver.
And what should I do? And I'm like, hey, have your scheduler connect you through Dallas instead. set.
That's funny. Yeah. Well, listen, it takes a village. It takes everybody.
And talk a little bit about when you were growing up, like family life,
what was special about your family and what did your parents do?
Yeah. So my dad is an aerospace engineer. And so a lot of, for us three kids,
(09:34):
we didn't really know a lot about what dad did.
But I will tell you, when I was 10 years old and we watched in,
you know, in my classroom in the third grade, you know, in Space Shuttle Challenger,
when we watched the first teacher in space go up and, and that tragedy unfolded,
my dad didn't come home because Sun Strand Aerospace in Rockford,
(09:55):
Illinois made a lot of the components that were on the space shuttle system
and the O-rings that failed,
they produced some of them, but they did not produce those.
And so that I kind of led me to try to figure Figure out the why do things happen.
And then we need an explanation of the why things happen so that people understand it.
(10:18):
And so it wasn't just that, but I guess that's what caused me to really want
to be the meteorologist.
And your mom, was she a mom at mom? My mom was at home raising us and trying
to raise us right so that we didn't get into trouble.
Because one day we're going to, you know, she didn't know, but one day,
(10:39):
you know, she's going to have a Congressman for a son.
I will tell you there was one time though, you know, and I think what's great
about her is she pulled me out of class once and this was in 1984 and she didn't
tell me why, you know, it was one of those things where, you know, the,
somebody came to the door of the classroom and said eric
(11:00):
your mom's here okay i don't know
why yeah so she she pulled me
out of class i was like what games mom and she goes no
come get in the car and so we went to the rockford airport and i remember hanging
on this green chain link fence okay and she didn't tell me what was going on
but there were other people there crowding too and then pretty soon Soon you
(11:23):
could see coming in the distance and flying right over us was Air Force One.
And the president was coming to town.
Yeah. And she thought, you know, this is a cool thing. This is a historic thing.
And I need to make sure my kid experiences it, sees it. It's me that chills
to hear that. That's beautiful.
Yeah. So, and this is 1984. So, I mean, we can figure out which president it was.
(11:46):
President Ronald Reagan. He actually is from Northern Illinois.
He was going back to his boyhood home of Dixon, Illinois.
Fast forward to 2023, okay?
I'm now a member of the United States Congress.
And I was able to fly on Air Force One with President Joe Biden.
And when we landed at the Rockford Airport, I was able to talk with the president.
(12:12):
And I said, Mr. President, I want to be able to speak a very quick story.
And I told him that story. I said, my mom pulled me out of class.
Yeah. And I said, first of all, we haven't had a president land at this airport since 1984.
But if my mom would have been able to tell me the next time Air Force One lands
(12:34):
at this airport, you're going to be on it with the president.
I mean, there is no way that she would have been accurately describing what
I am able to, in my capacity, do as an adult. hold.
And what was really great was, you know, the president Biden was so moved by
it that, you know, about an hour later, you know, so we, we go down the stairs,
(12:55):
you know, there's a procession, a motorcade, you know, I'm in like the 15th car.
And so we get to Belvedere, Illinois, and, you know, I go through my security
and I go down to the stairs before the president's going to speak.
And, and I'm like, here's the president hanging with my mom and dad.
And it was my mom and my dad and my partner, Sean.
(13:16):
And I went up to him and I said, Mr. President, I see you met my VIPs.
And he goes, I wanted to meet the woman that took you out of school in 1984
because she made good decisions. Wow. Yeah.
That's a beautiful story. I'm a little teared by that. Just the thought that
your mom thought to do that.
And yeah, that's what parenting is.
(13:38):
That's what a good mommy does. And you don't know what your kid is going to
be capable of, you know, and that's the great thing.
You know, I just taught the fifth graders on the Capitol steps from my district,
from Erie, Georgetown, Illinois.
And I'm like, I said, do you guys think that Abraham Lincoln or George Washington
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ever thought when they were alive that they were ever going to be our ancestors?
Think about that. Yeah. They didn't know they were important when they were alive.
They just did the job the way that we were, they were supposed to do it.
Yeah. And I'm like, think about whether or not in your life you're ever going to become an ancestor.
(14:20):
Yeah. That's a big one. We don't have time for that, but that's huge because
it thinks it kind of makes you think about, and everybody can do it differently,
but what do you do while you're here on this earth and what,
and how do you help And I think, look, at the end, if you can change lives or
you can help people with their lives,
that's the goal of a public servant.
It doesn't matter where you are or which party you are or where you come from,
(14:43):
but that is the true role that if you go back to Jefferson and Lincoln,
that they believed in and you believe in.
So it's special. Okay, I'm going to ask you another thing about who influenced
you. Teacher. Did you have a special teacher somewhere along the way?
Yeah. So Mrs. Powell, she was my math teacher and she helped me because I'd
(15:04):
struggled through math, of course.
And I ended up getting a minor in math in college. But there is one thing that I remember.
And it was probably in fifth or sixth grade. And I remember I got the answer
right and I didn't get the credit.
She just took her red pen and scribbled it out.
And I put my hand up. I said, Mrs. Powell, Mrs. Powell. I said,
(15:25):
I got the answer right. And she came over and she looked down and she goes,
congratulations, you got the answer right.
And then she walked away back to her desk. And I put up, I remember putting
up my hands like, you know, what gives?
Right. And then I raised my hand again. I said, Mrs. Powell,
you didn't give me the credit. And you know where I'm going with this story.
Because she said, I'm not going to give you the credit because you didn't show me your work. Right.
(15:48):
Okay. So, so ever since that, you know, I've kind of felt like,
you know what, to get the credit, it's not just getting the answer right.
We have to show people what we're doing. And that's one of the things I do as a member of Congress.
It's, it's not so much that I make certain votes on Capitol Hill,
right? I have to be in the district.
(16:09):
I have to be in Canton, Illinois and Freeport and Sterling and Bloomington to
make sure that the people there know that I'm doing the work.
I shouldn't just get the credit or just get a vote.
I should prove to them that I'm worthy of it. Yeah, that's a good story.
I hadn't thought about that. But yes, I was also told in life that I had to
show the work on my math and I didn't. And I'm sure that's a common thread.
(16:32):
I think, you know, we talk about on this podcast, like, how do people,
what do people have more in common than what separates us?
And that might just be one of the best things I've heard about what is we have
more in common than what separates us.
So thank you for sharing that one. Talk a little bit about your partner,
Sean, because that's a lot to have a partner who is traveling back and forth
(16:55):
to D.C. as a congressperson.
It's a huge commitment. And then I know you have two dogs, Petey and Oliver.
It didn't get up when you said that. Nope.
Okay. Well, they can join if they like. We've had some animals join.
But how does Sean balance? Because that's a lot.
Right. I was the meteorologist, you know, here in Moline, Illinois.
(17:16):
And I remember one day I said to him, you know, he knew that I wasn't going to work there forever.
And I said to him, I said, you know what, honey, I think I'm going to quit my
job and run for Congress.
And he goes, that's nice. Let's talk about that in the morning.
He was just kind of one of those that. Whatever. Okay.
It's an interesting, you know, stance. But, you know, I remember,
(17:40):
you know, right over here having coffee the next Saturday, you know, the next morning.
And he's like, so what do you want to talk about?
And so then I started explaining what had gone through my head. Right.
And, you know, I'll go back to.
Like our first real date that we had. I was probably like at a Chili's or something. I don't know.
(18:02):
I remember we are on our very first date and then there was somebody that came
up. So I was on TV for 20 years.
Right. So somebody came up and they're like, Eric Sorenson, how are you?
Oh my God. I watch you on channel 13.
This is great. And I'm like mortified. Cause I'm like, Oh my God,
this guy, I'm on a, you know, like I'm trying to make a good impression.
(18:23):
And so they're like, Like, hey, can we get a picture? So we got a picture.
And then I came and I sat down and I just looked up at him and I said,
I'm really sorry that happened.
And he goes, you would have been more sorry if you would have treated them like a jerk.
But you treated them and they are your viewers. You wouldn't have your job if you didn't have them.
(18:46):
And so I think he always knew that this was much more than me.
It was about who do I serve? Who are the people that need me to do this job?
In some respects in my head, I don't feel like they're that completely different.
Yeah. No, I like that. Yeah. And Sean obviously gets that there is, that is your calling.
(19:07):
Yeah. What I had to do, Liz, was I had to quit my job.
You know, I wasn't allowed to be on TV, you know? And so, you know,
my contract was coming up. I quit my job.
You know, he was, you know, the breadwinner in the family. So now,
you know, we don't have two incomes. We have one income.
We went through all of our savings because running for Congress,
(19:28):
you still have all of your bills and you're not taking a paycheck.
I don't want to take a paycheck from the people that are investing in my campaign. That's not fair.
And then getting to a point where we won a seat in Congress in November and
then realizing, oh my God, I'm not going to get paid until February.
What are we going to do now? But you see, Eric, that's like the reason like
(19:51):
this podcast is unique is like...
That's not something in a two-minute piece on CNN or MSNBC you get to share.
And I think that people have to realize there are those moments where you're
like, oh, I have no paycheck.
Oh, I mean, I talked to another one of your colleagues, and he had to drive
Uber to pay for his campaign, to pay for his life during his campaign.
(20:12):
So I get it. It's one of those things, certainly now that I'm in Congress,
if I'm in committee and I talk about a story that I hear from somebody in the
grocery store, When I was pushing a cart, you know, I'm like,
I'm cognizant of the fact that most of the people who are in Congress,
they don't do their own grocery shopping.
They don't have conversations with people at a grocery store,
(20:35):
you know, and so after running this first campaign and now running for reelection,
you know, we need to make it so that there are more people of modest means that
are running for Congress that aren't just, you know, the wealthiest people,
you know, being able to spend their own money.
Money to tell people why they're the best. Yeah.
(20:57):
So yeah, I think that is very true. And listen, representation.
So people need to be represented by people that the similar stories and struggles,
but also the diversity of the leadership has to represent whatever it is,
but the people that are voting and the people that are sending you all to do the work.
What is the worst advice you ever
(21:18):
received and what is the best advice you've ever received
the best advice that i ever received i
think it was probably to be yourself yeah
you know the the best advice was to to not come up with a i don't know i i don't
have an ego i didn't come up with a personality being on tv it's just you know
(21:43):
this is me this is how i am yeah right and so there's so many people that,
you know, whether it's Hollywood or it's in local TV news,
you got to know that the person that you're seeing is a real person.
For worst advice, I will give you this, this, I don't know if I've ever shared this. So here we go.
(22:03):
You know, my very first job was in Tyler, Texas, and I had a little bit of a higher voice.
And I, at the time we had a consultant and this consultant said,
Eric, do you smoke cigarettes?
If so, you need to continue to smoke That's a good fact.
And he's like, you need to lower your voice. Oh, that's so funny.
And his way of lowering your voice was to smoke cigarettes.
(22:25):
Right, right. I'm like, oh my God, are you kidding me? No.
And so then I just kind of settled my voice in and now I'm obviously 25 years
older, but it was terrible advice.
But that same guy also told me, he goes, the first half of your career in television,
you're going to spend trying to look older.
And the second half of your career in television, you're going to try to look
(22:47):
younger. And for that part, he was right.
There's truth and some humor to that statement.
Right, right. Yeah. On that one, we're going to now go to some rapid questions
just to get to know Eric. And feel free to answer, however. What is your favorite sound?
My favorite sound is the waterfall on our backyard pond. What is your favorite color?
Blue, obviously. Yeah, yeah.
(23:11):
Favorite scent or smell? Lavender. Mm-hmm.
And who is your biggest cheerleader? My biggest cheerleader?
I would say my partner, Sean, just to be able to be supportive of something
that he didn't know and I didn't know that I wanted to do.
Basically, you're just jumping out of an airplane before you even had time to
(23:32):
put the parachute on to know that this was ever going to be something that we can do.
Right. Because we had to take a lot out of our relationship. relationship
i'm gone now 60 70 percent of the time i
love that you talk about we because again you couldn't
do this if if sean didn't support and wasn't your partner in this
no no and this this is such you
(23:55):
know i don't want to you know bemoan there are so many people that are working
hard but this is a very very challenging job and you know i'm not even talking
about the politics of the job it's making sure that we do what's right for our
neighbors across the street because Because in this type of district,
in this type of place, this isn't an overly partisan place. It's a nonpartisan place, actually.
(24:20):
I've got to know that we're doing what's right for the community,
for our neighbors across the street. Yeah, that's lovely.
Okay, now most important, going to talk about food. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
My favorite ice cream comes from a place called Whitey's Ice Cream in Moline, Illinois.
Very, very historic place. It's the best ice cream in the Midwest.
(24:43):
And they have Graham Central Station.
It's delicious. What is Graham Central Station? Oh, my gosh.
It's got some like graham crackery crust in
there and like if you really really the only so shawn
and i we don't there's a whitey's ice cream like right down the street yeah we
won't go there unless there's somebody visiting us because otherwise
we would be there like every day and so i'm like even the manager knows she
(25:06):
asks me she goes eric who's in town and then i have to go there so if you're
if you're really going to skip a whole meal okay then you go over and you get
Graham Central Station and then you get key lime pot on top of that because
it's got the little bits of graham cracker in it.
And forget Ben and Jerry's, the
chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream was invented in Moline, Illinois.
(25:28):
Wow, I learned something. Thank you. Becca Ballant, Congresswoman Ballant and
I, you know, we're going to have an ice cream throwdown one of these days.
She represents, of course, Vermont. Yes, exactly.
Okay, well, let me know how that one goes. And if you were going to have one
meal, you're on a deserted island in and somebody said you get one meal is going
to be served, what would that be? It would be lasagna.
(25:50):
It's a weird thing. I grew up
with Garfield the cat and his favorite was lasagna. Lasagna. Okay, good.
Do you work out? Do you have time for exercise? I have an e-bike and I very
rarely have time to get any time in,
but I will tell you I'm one of the probably, I would say the few because I don't
see too many people on my walk into work, But when I'm in Washington,
(26:13):
D.C., little known fact,
I either walk or take a scooter to and from the office because it's just another thing.
Personally, I'm like, I can get myself to work.
I shouldn't need, there shouldn't be a necessity to have someone stop what they're
doing in the office to come and drive me where I need to go. Yeah. Okay. It's nice.
And do you have music, specific music that you love to listen to?
(26:37):
So I don't listen to music enough. enough
so i'm stuck in 1986 who
are you stuck with so i'm like all right so here's another thing this was one
of the best dates i've ever been on with sean one of the there was a time where
i'm just like oh you know who's coming to the quad cities i'm like it's air
(27:00):
supply i love air supply Yeah.
They're like from the early to mid 1980s. And so I surprised Sean and I took
him to an air supply concert and he.
As God is my witness, we had such a good time that we became air supply fanatics,
and we have driven to air supply concerts before.
(27:21):
I love it. I love it. Got to follow your passion. I will never be all out of
love. Yeah. Okay. Good line. Gotcha.
Favorite household chore? My favorite household chore is probably,
I don't know, laundry actually isn't that bad.
Okay. We're one of those weird people that, you know, we've actually got a laundry line outside.
(27:44):
There's nothing better than putting your clothes out on the laundry line.
I don't know. It's weird.
And superpower. What is your superpower? What's Eric Sorensen's superpower?
My superpower is probably explaining the unexplainable.
That's a good one. Right. I mean, we could talk about, so in the subcommittee
(28:05):
on science or on space, which I am a ranking member, I could talk about the near Earth orbit,
the low Earth orbit, and what we need to do with the International Space Station
to be able to de-orbit in the next seven, eight years.
No biggie. It's just going to cost some money, and we've got to get it down safely.
That just went right over my head, just so you know. But thank you.
Okay, if you and Sean were going to travel to someplace without regards to work,
(28:30):
just for the fun of it, where would you go? Where would we go?
We actually stay here a lot. But I think if there's any place that we would
probably go, it's close to home.
You know, I'm like, there's so many places around here.
You know, I'll tell you the first time that I ever went overseas was with Sean.
And it was, you know, last year and we were able to actually fly to,
(28:51):
you know, and observe Israel to be able to go on an Israel congressional delegation.
And thankfully, it was before October 7th so that we could see life as it was supposed to be there.
Nice. Nice. That's a good place to visit before October 7th.
Yeah. So I have a last question that I've asked all the leaders and it's,
(29:12):
I love the answers. So the question is, what is joy?
How do you, what is joy to you? What brings you joy?
And if you have joy, how do you share that joy? Joy to me is it comes being content.
I had to go through, you know, a lot in my life, you know, and personally,
2016 was a terrible year for me, you know, medically.
(29:35):
And so, you know, I had different perspective coming out of 2016,
where I was thankful that doctors were able to fix me because for a while,
you know, it was not a given. But then I understood that not,
worry about the things that I'm not, I don't have control over,
you know, and to not overly stress the things that I can't control.
(29:56):
And so when I started doing that, I realized I had more joy in my life.
I think there was just greater perspective that I didn't have before.
You know, when you're running a crazy life all of the time and you don't take
any time, then it's not good. And then how do you share your joy?
(30:16):
Just by being such a nice person to be around. Right, Sean?
He gets laughing. I don't hear anything. Well, he's laughing in the kitchen.
He's laughing at you or at what you said. I don't know if he's laughing at me
or laughing with me. So we just, I don't know. I'll make it with that.
Okay. Well, I thank you. And look, it's been a joy to speak with you.
(30:37):
But one of the things I was thinking about is, you know, with regards to the
weather and, you know, this analogy of like, you know, we live in this world
where we are, you know, just wondering what the weather is going to be like tomorrow.
And sometimes I think working in DC and doing the work you do,
you wonder what it's going to be like tomorrow.
But I also know, you know, one of the things that you've done is like made me
(30:59):
smile and made me cry a little bit about your mom there and taking you to the airport that morning.
And that President Biden an hour later was like talking to your mom.
I mean, that's just beautiful.
But I just think about like temperature. And you know, one of the things on
a gray day, I'm here in New York on a gray day, you kind of feel down.
And then on a sunny day, you really feel happier.
And I just think like with all that we're going through and everything that
(31:24):
we have to deal with, just for people to get to know you and people like yourself
that are actually out there making a difference.
And again, we didn't talk about policy or politics, but we talked about that
giving that is sunshine, that is illumination.
And I think that is what I would like from this and from all these podcasts
for people to understand that, like if we give of ourselves and that we share
(31:46):
ourselves, that we actually bring sunshine warmth.
And through that, I think we can help with people who are stressed and anxious,
like you said, like not stopping to express that, to enjoy the moment.
So I just want to thank you because this is what you have been able to give
me. And I hope others in this conversation.
I appreciate that Liz. I'll just end with, with one quick story.
(32:06):
Please. The city of Rockford, Illinois, away, population 150,000,
my hometown just had its very first pride parade.
It hadn't occurred until this year. And there was very heavy rain the whole time.
And so, you know, I had an umbrella up for the first, you know,
probably the first five blocks.
And then I thought, you know what, screw it. I'm just going to,
(32:27):
you know, it's, it is what it is, you know, and we turned around the corner
and there are so many people that were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
people That we're there, you know?
And so one of my favorite sayings is those who say sunshine brings happiness
have never danced in the rain.
And we danced in the rain and it was singing and dancing in the rain. It was great.
(32:53):
Thank you so much, Eric. Thank you. This is good to be with you.
Hi, it's Liz. Please join me every Tuesday for coffee to talk about heart and
humanity with our elected leaders.
Remember to hit subscribe to get an alert when a new episode is live and for
exclusive content. Ciao.
Music.
(00:10):
Hi, I'm Liz Hershnoff-Tolley, and welcome to the Capital Coffee Connection podcast.
And on this podcast, we talk with elected leaders about their heart,
their humanity, and we try to steer clear of politics and policy because our
goal is to actually have conversations about the human and their character.
And even though we are on virtual, we are having coffee.
(00:32):
I have my iced coffee here, and my guest, Eric Sorensen, has his tea. I assume that's a T.
It is. It is. With a little simple syrup and then just take the edge off.
Good, good. Well, enjoy. And thank you for joining me.
And Eric is Congressman Eric Sorensen from Illinois' 17th District.
He is a freshman in the United States House of Representatives.
(00:55):
That means this is his first term.
And Eric is also notably the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois,
which while we say when people are there first, I'm excited that you're the
first, but that you shall not be the last.
And Eric is a former TV weatherman. And, you know, as a congressperson,
I know he's very serious, but I also know that he has a great sense of humor.
(01:16):
And so I thought I would just start with a little homage to Steve Carell's Brick
Tamland from Anchorman and just introduce you and say, the wind is really...
Windy.
Well, let's say thank you for having me with you today.
It's great to be with you. And you know, the thing about the weather is it's
(01:37):
something that we all share, you know, unless you're going to live under a rock
for the rest of your life, you know, we're all going to be underneath the atmosphere
and dealing with the same stuff.
Yeah. And I think through this conversation, we'll figure out there's a lot
of parallels to what you did as a weatherman and and what you're doing now.
And the first thing I just wanted to ask you is you have a nickname, which is Tornado.
(01:58):
And could you talk about that a little bit? Because that's an interesting one.
Yeah. So here's the thing. So I got that nickname from my team when I was running for Congress.
Right. You know, it's just kind of, it was a funny nickname because,
you know, when they were like texting each other, like, you know,
instead of, has Eric made it to the event, it would be just letting you know, the tornado touchdown.
(02:22):
So that meant that I had arrived or the tornado is in route, right?
Which meant that I was on the way to where I ever I needed to be.
So, so I'll still, Hey, tornado.
I'll still look at it. I like it. And, and I also think about like meteorology
and like that it changes every day and probably the work you do changes,
not necessarily the subject,
(02:44):
but the dynamics are always changing in D.C. and at home.
You know, it's like for the, you know, when I was a kid, the only thing that
I wanted to be was the meteorologist.
And so I had no aspirations of being in Congress until I realized that,
wait a minute, maybe my previous job as a meteorologist was earning the trust
of the people to be their representative.
(03:06):
That's where I am today is everything is changing.
But you know what? People back home, they just need somebody that they can trust
is just going to tell it the way it is.
Yeah. And I obviously assume as a weather person, weatherman,
you did your best to tell people the truth,
what was happening, not just with the exact weather at that moment,
but just about climate and what was happening, you know, in terms of why it's
(03:30):
raining more or why it's raining less or different things.
Because people are very cognizant of what they're going through.
And if you tell them something that doesn't go with that, they know you're not
being straight with them. Right.
And I had this obligation, I feel, inside of me.
So working in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois, I'm the chief meteorologist
(03:53):
at the number one TV station.
And as I am learning it, the climate is changing. We're causing this to occur,
but nobody's talking about it.
And I never wanted to get to a position where my kids or my grandkids would
ever look and say, dad or granddad, you were a meteorologist on TV.
Why didn't everyone talk about what was going on?
(04:16):
I couldn't ever let it be, oh, I couldn't talk about it because of our ratings.
Your ratings? No, we have an obligation.
And here's the thing is people have a hard time understanding something that is going to happen.
And so when we talk about climate, A lot of what is going to happen will be
(04:39):
a product of what we are doing or a lack of what we are doing to get us the
extreme weather that is.
And so what I was just doing was explaining that the things that were occurring,
seven of the top 10 floods on the Mississippi River here, seven of the top 10
have happened since the great flood of 1993. 93.
(05:00):
And so when I start talking about it in that way, people have a moment.
And then especially in my district in Western Illinois, they're farmers.
They're having a hard time.
It affects their crops. It affects everything, their ability to make money.
Right. And then you, even with the technology that we have today,
I mean, I'm case example where I changed career fields. Okay.
(05:21):
But if you're a farmer and you have been on that same land for seven,
eight generations now, and you can't make a go of it, even with the technology that we have today,
there are too many farmers that look at their kids and they say, I'm a failure.
And so they can't quit their jobs. They quit their life.
(05:42):
And so we have to understand that this is happening.
Right. And we have to take care of them. Yeah.
And talk a little bit more about your district because you have farmers and
what other kind of people and a little bit about the people in Illinois in general.
Like what makes Illinois special?
Maybe a couple of our greatest claims to fame. Everybody remembers the movie
(06:03):
A League of Their Own. And so my hometown, I have a Rockford Peach shirt, by the way. Okay.
And I think when that movie came out, that was when I started my maturation
with Madonna, but that will be a different- That's another story.
Okay. A different podcast.
But Rockford, Peoria, Illinois, a lot of people have heard of the phrase, will it play in Peoria?
(06:25):
It is a bellwether for everything. Right now, I live in Moline with my partner.
We live in Moline, Illinois, which is the place where a guy by the name of John
Deere started a tractor company.
And so, you know, that's this part of the Midwest where we make the things that
everybody uses and we grow the crops that, you know, really kind of feed the
(06:48):
world when you think about it.
So you're from this area. You're from Rockford, Illinois.
Yeah. So I was born and raised there. And being the weatherman on TV was the only job I ever wanted.
And you know what? I got to live my childhood dream. by being the meteorologist there for 11 years.
And then moving from Rockford, Illinois to the next TV market over in Moline,
Illinois, we're right on the Mississippi River. I...
(07:08):
Worked here for so many years, and it's in the same congressional district.
Right. I mean, I can't explain why these two places are connected in one congressional district.
I can't explain why for so many years I was sitting there on television, listening to the news.
I had the earpiece in my ear, and I was the number one consumer of our product.
(07:33):
So I knew what was going on in people's homes.
And so that's where I really started to think about where is my place.
And that's what brought me to run for Congress. And now I'm honored that I get to work there.
Yeah. It's just interesting that, I mean, first it's like, it's an interesting journey.
People wonder like, how does somebody become a Congress person and what was
(07:54):
their journey and yours is unique.
And I just think about like that you as a child knew what you wanted and that
was to be a weatherman. And that's pretty incredible.
Like, were you like in class, you know, in elementary school going,
okay, I'm going to tell these kids what the weather is going to be like, how did you know?
So I was total, total weather nerd, but I will tell you, and I'm going to date
myself for a minute, but this is in days before the, there was internet or computers or cell phones.
(08:20):
When I was in college in my door or outside of my dorm room,
I had a white marker board and it was Eric's five day forecast.
And so there were so many of my students that lived on the floor,
they would all run over and look and see what I had forecast.
Or if I forgot to update it, I'd get a knock on the door, and I'd be like,
(08:44):
what's going on? And they're like, you need to update the weather, man.
Oh, my God. It's great. It's great. That's kind of where it started.
And I'm like, okay. So still to this day, I watch the weather.
I pay attention to what's going on. But that also means that now instead of
knock on the door at my dorm room, now I actually get text messages from members of Congress.
Okay. Yeah. Asking you the weather. Yeah. Or I'm connecting through Phoenix
(09:08):
or I'm connecting through Denver.
And what should I do? And I'm like, hey, have your scheduler connect you through Dallas instead. set.
That's funny. Yeah. Well, listen, it takes a village. It takes everybody.
And talk a little bit about when you were growing up, like family life,
what was special about your family and what did your parents do?
Yeah. So my dad is an aerospace engineer. And so a lot of, for us three kids,
(09:34):
we didn't really know a lot about what dad did.
But I will tell you, when I was 10 years old and we watched in,
you know, in my classroom in the third grade, you know, in Space Shuttle Challenger,
when we watched the first teacher in space go up and, and that tragedy unfolded,
my dad didn't come home because Sun Strand Aerospace in Rockford,
(09:55):
Illinois made a lot of the components that were on the space shuttle system
and the O-rings that failed,
they produced some of them, but they did not produce those.
And so that I kind of led me to try to figure Figure out the why do things happen.
And then we need an explanation of the why things happen so that people understand it.
(10:18):
And so it wasn't just that, but I guess that's what caused me to really want
to be the meteorologist.
And your mom, was she a mom at mom? My mom was at home raising us and trying
to raise us right so that we didn't get into trouble.
Because one day we're going to, you know, she didn't know, but one day,
(10:39):
you know, she's going to have a Congressman for a son.
I will tell you there was one time though, you know, and I think what's great
about her is she pulled me out of class once and this was in 1984 and she didn't
tell me why, you know, it was one of those things where, you know, the,
somebody came to the door of the classroom and said eric
(11:00):
your mom's here okay i don't know
why yeah so she she pulled me
out of class i was like what games mom and she goes no
come get in the car and so we went to the rockford airport and i remember hanging
on this green chain link fence okay and she didn't tell me what was going on
but there were other people there crowding too and then pretty soon Soon you
(11:23):
could see coming in the distance and flying right over us was Air Force One.
And the president was coming to town.
Yeah. And she thought, you know, this is a cool thing. This is a historic thing.
And I need to make sure my kid experiences it, sees it. It's me that chills
to hear that. That's beautiful.
Yeah. So, and this is 1984. So, I mean, we can figure out which president it was.
(11:46):
President Ronald Reagan. He actually is from Northern Illinois.
He was going back to his boyhood home of Dixon, Illinois.
Fast forward to 2023, okay?
I'm now a member of the United States Congress.
And I was able to fly on Air Force One with President Joe Biden.
And when we landed at the Rockford Airport, I was able to talk with the president.
(12:12):
And I said, Mr. President, I want to be able to speak a very quick story.
And I told him that story. I said, my mom pulled me out of class.
Yeah. And I said, first of all, we haven't had a president land at this airport since 1984.
But if my mom would have been able to tell me the next time Air Force One lands
(12:34):
at this airport, you're going to be on it with the president.
I mean, there is no way that she would have been accurately describing what
I am able to, in my capacity, do as an adult. hold.
And what was really great was, you know, the president Biden was so moved by
it that, you know, about an hour later, you know, so we, we go down the stairs,
(12:55):
you know, there's a procession, a motorcade, you know, I'm in like the 15th car.
And so we get to Belvedere, Illinois, and, you know, I go through my security
and I go down to the stairs before the president's going to speak.
And, and I'm like, here's the president hanging with my mom and dad.
And it was my mom and my dad and my partner, Sean.
(13:16):
And I went up to him and I said, Mr. President, I see you met my VIPs.
And he goes, I wanted to meet the woman that took you out of school in 1984
because she made good decisions. Wow. Yeah.
That's a beautiful story. I'm a little teared by that. Just the thought that
your mom thought to do that.
And yeah, that's what parenting is.
(13:38):
That's what a good mommy does. And you don't know what your kid is going to
be capable of, you know, and that's the great thing.
You know, I just taught the fifth graders on the Capitol steps from my district,
from Erie, Georgetown, Illinois.
And I'm like, I said, do you guys think that Abraham Lincoln or George Washington
(13:58):
ever thought when they were alive that they were ever going to be our ancestors?
Think about that. Yeah. They didn't know they were important when they were alive.
They just did the job the way that we were, they were supposed to do it.
Yeah. And I'm like, think about whether or not in your life you're ever going to become an ancestor.
(14:20):
Yeah. That's a big one. We don't have time for that, but that's huge because
it thinks it kind of makes you think about, and everybody can do it differently,
but what do you do while you're here on this earth and what,
and how do you help And I think, look, at the end, if you can change lives or
you can help people with their lives,
that's the goal of a public servant.
It doesn't matter where you are or which party you are or where you come from,
(14:43):
but that is the true role that if you go back to Jefferson and Lincoln,
that they believed in and you believe in.
So it's special. Okay, I'm going to ask you another thing about who influenced
you. Teacher. Did you have a special teacher somewhere along the way?
Yeah. So Mrs. Powell, she was my math teacher and she helped me because I'd
(15:04):
struggled through math, of course.
And I ended up getting a minor in math in college. But there is one thing that I remember.
And it was probably in fifth or sixth grade. And I remember I got the answer
right and I didn't get the credit.
She just took her red pen and scribbled it out.
And I put my hand up. I said, Mrs. Powell, Mrs. Powell. I said,
(15:25):
I got the answer right. And she came over and she looked down and she goes,
congratulations, you got the answer right.
And then she walked away back to her desk. And I put up, I remember putting
up my hands like, you know, what gives?
Right. And then I raised my hand again. I said, Mrs. Powell,
you didn't give me the credit. And you know where I'm going with this story.
Because she said, I'm not going to give you the credit because you didn't show me your work. Right.
(15:48):
Okay. So, so ever since that, you know, I've kind of felt like,
you know what, to get the credit, it's not just getting the answer right.
We have to show people what we're doing. And that's one of the things I do as a member of Congress.
It's, it's not so much that I make certain votes on Capitol Hill,
right? I have to be in the district.
(16:09):
I have to be in Canton, Illinois and Freeport and Sterling and Bloomington to
make sure that the people there know that I'm doing the work.
I shouldn't just get the credit or just get a vote.
I should prove to them that I'm worthy of it. Yeah, that's a good story.
I hadn't thought about that. But yes, I was also told in life that I had to
show the work on my math and I didn't. And I'm sure that's a common thread.
(16:32):
I think, you know, we talk about on this podcast, like, how do people,
what do people have more in common than what separates us?
And that might just be one of the best things I've heard about what is we have
more in common than what separates us.
So thank you for sharing that one. Talk a little bit about your partner,
Sean, because that's a lot to have a partner who is traveling back and forth
(16:55):
to D.C. as a congressperson.
It's a huge commitment. And then I know you have two dogs, Petey and Oliver.
It didn't get up when you said that. Nope.
Okay. Well, they can join if they like. We've had some animals join.
But how does Sean balance? Because that's a lot.
Right. I was the meteorologist, you know, here in Moline, Illinois.
(17:16):
And I remember one day I said to him, you know, he knew that I wasn't going to work there forever.
And I said to him, I said, you know what, honey, I think I'm going to quit my
job and run for Congress.
And he goes, that's nice. Let's talk about that in the morning.
He was just kind of one of those that. Whatever. Okay.
It's an interesting, you know, stance. But, you know, I remember,
(17:40):
you know, right over here having coffee the next Saturday, you know, the next morning.
And he's like, so what do you want to talk about?
And so then I started explaining what had gone through my head. Right.
And, you know, I'll go back to.
Like our first real date that we had. I was probably like at a Chili's or something. I don't know.
(18:02):
I remember we are on our very first date and then there was somebody that came
up. So I was on TV for 20 years.
Right. So somebody came up and they're like, Eric Sorenson, how are you?
Oh my God. I watch you on channel 13.
This is great. And I'm like mortified. Cause I'm like, Oh my God,
this guy, I'm on a, you know, like I'm trying to make a good impression.
(18:23):
And so they're like, Like, hey, can we get a picture? So we got a picture.
And then I came and I sat down and I just looked up at him and I said,
I'm really sorry that happened.
And he goes, you would have been more sorry if you would have treated them like a jerk.
But you treated them and they are your viewers. You wouldn't have your job if you didn't have them.
(18:46):
And so I think he always knew that this was much more than me.
It was about who do I serve? Who are the people that need me to do this job?
In some respects in my head, I don't feel like they're that completely different.
Yeah. No, I like that. Yeah. And Sean obviously gets that there is, that is your calling.
(19:07):
Yeah. What I had to do, Liz, was I had to quit my job.
You know, I wasn't allowed to be on TV, you know? And so, you know,
my contract was coming up. I quit my job.
You know, he was, you know, the breadwinner in the family. So now,
you know, we don't have two incomes. We have one income.
We went through all of our savings because running for Congress,
(19:28):
you still have all of your bills and you're not taking a paycheck.
I don't want to take a paycheck from the people that are investing in my campaign. That's not fair.
And then getting to a point where we won a seat in Congress in November and
then realizing, oh my God, I'm not going to get paid until February.
What are we going to do now? But you see, Eric, that's like the reason like
(19:51):
this podcast is unique is like...
That's not something in a two-minute piece on CNN or MSNBC you get to share.
And I think that people have to realize there are those moments where you're
like, oh, I have no paycheck.
Oh, I mean, I talked to another one of your colleagues, and he had to drive
Uber to pay for his campaign, to pay for his life during his campaign.
(20:12):
So I get it. It's one of those things, certainly now that I'm in Congress,
if I'm in committee and I talk about a story that I hear from somebody in the
grocery store, When I was pushing a cart, you know, I'm like,
I'm cognizant of the fact that most of the people who are in Congress,
they don't do their own grocery shopping.
They don't have conversations with people at a grocery store,
(20:35):
you know, and so after running this first campaign and now running for reelection,
you know, we need to make it so that there are more people of modest means that
are running for Congress that aren't just, you know, the wealthiest people,
you know, being able to spend their own money.
Money to tell people why they're the best. Yeah.
(20:57):
So yeah, I think that is very true. And listen, representation.
So people need to be represented by people that the similar stories and struggles,
but also the diversity of the leadership has to represent whatever it is,
but the people that are voting and the people that are sending you all to do the work.
What is the worst advice you ever
(21:18):
received and what is the best advice you've ever received
the best advice that i ever received i
think it was probably to be yourself yeah
you know the the best advice was to to not come up with a i don't know i i don't
have an ego i didn't come up with a personality being on tv it's just you know
(21:43):
this is me this is how i am yeah right and so there's so many people that,
you know, whether it's Hollywood or it's in local TV news,
you got to know that the person that you're seeing is a real person.
For worst advice, I will give you this, this, I don't know if I've ever shared this. So here we go.
(22:03):
You know, my very first job was in Tyler, Texas, and I had a little bit of a higher voice.
And I, at the time we had a consultant and this consultant said,
Eric, do you smoke cigarettes?
If so, you need to continue to smoke That's a good fact.
And he's like, you need to lower your voice. Oh, that's so funny.
And his way of lowering your voice was to smoke cigarettes.
(22:25):
Right, right. I'm like, oh my God, are you kidding me? No.
And so then I just kind of settled my voice in and now I'm obviously 25 years
older, but it was terrible advice.
But that same guy also told me, he goes, the first half of your career in television,
you're going to spend trying to look older.
And the second half of your career in television, you're going to try to look
(22:47):
younger. And for that part, he was right.
There's truth and some humor to that statement.
Right, right. Yeah. On that one, we're going to now go to some rapid questions
just to get to know Eric. And feel free to answer, however. What is your favorite sound?
My favorite sound is the waterfall on our backyard pond. What is your favorite color?
Blue, obviously. Yeah, yeah.
(23:11):
Favorite scent or smell? Lavender. Mm-hmm.
And who is your biggest cheerleader? My biggest cheerleader?
I would say my partner, Sean, just to be able to be supportive of something
that he didn't know and I didn't know that I wanted to do.
Basically, you're just jumping out of an airplane before you even had time to
(23:32):
put the parachute on to know that this was ever going to be something that we can do.
Right. Because we had to take a lot out of our relationship. relationship
i'm gone now 60 70 percent of the time i
love that you talk about we because again you couldn't
do this if if sean didn't support and wasn't your partner in this
no no and this this is such you
(23:55):
know i don't want to you know bemoan there are so many people that are working
hard but this is a very very challenging job and you know i'm not even talking
about the politics of the job it's making sure that we do what's right for our
neighbors across the street because Because in this type of district,
in this type of place, this isn't an overly partisan place. It's a nonpartisan place, actually.
(24:20):
I've got to know that we're doing what's right for the community,
for our neighbors across the street. Yeah, that's lovely.
Okay, now most important, going to talk about food. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
My favorite ice cream comes from a place called Whitey's Ice Cream in Moline, Illinois.
Very, very historic place. It's the best ice cream in the Midwest.
(24:43):
And they have Graham Central Station.
It's delicious. What is Graham Central Station? Oh, my gosh.
It's got some like graham crackery crust in
there and like if you really really the only so shawn
and i we don't there's a whitey's ice cream like right down the street yeah we
won't go there unless there's somebody visiting us because otherwise
we would be there like every day and so i'm like even the manager knows she
(25:06):
asks me she goes eric who's in town and then i have to go there so if you're
if you're really going to skip a whole meal okay then you go over and you get
Graham Central Station and then you get key lime pot on top of that because
it's got the little bits of graham cracker in it.
And forget Ben and Jerry's, the
chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream was invented in Moline, Illinois.
(25:28):
Wow, I learned something. Thank you. Becca Ballant, Congresswoman Ballant and
I, you know, we're going to have an ice cream throwdown one of these days.
She represents, of course, Vermont. Yes, exactly.
Okay, well, let me know how that one goes. And if you were going to have one
meal, you're on a deserted island in and somebody said you get one meal is going
to be served, what would that be? It would be lasagna.
(25:50):
It's a weird thing. I grew up
with Garfield the cat and his favorite was lasagna. Lasagna. Okay, good.
Do you work out? Do you have time for exercise? I have an e-bike and I very
rarely have time to get any time in,
but I will tell you I'm one of the probably, I would say the few because I don't
see too many people on my walk into work, But when I'm in Washington,
(26:13):
D.C., little known fact,
I either walk or take a scooter to and from the office because it's just another thing.
Personally, I'm like, I can get myself to work.
I shouldn't need, there shouldn't be a necessity to have someone stop what they're
doing in the office to come and drive me where I need to go. Yeah. Okay. It's nice.
And do you have music, specific music that you love to listen to?
(26:37):
So I don't listen to music enough. enough
so i'm stuck in 1986 who
are you stuck with so i'm like all right so here's another thing this was one
of the best dates i've ever been on with sean one of the there was a time where
i'm just like oh you know who's coming to the quad cities i'm like it's air
(27:00):
supply i love air supply Yeah.
They're like from the early to mid 1980s. And so I surprised Sean and I took
him to an air supply concert and he.
As God is my witness, we had such a good time that we became air supply fanatics,
and we have driven to air supply concerts before.
(27:21):
I love it. I love it. Got to follow your passion. I will never be all out of
love. Yeah. Okay. Good line. Gotcha.
Favorite household chore? My favorite household chore is probably,
I don't know, laundry actually isn't that bad.
Okay. We're one of those weird people that, you know, we've actually got a laundry line outside.
(27:44):
There's nothing better than putting your clothes out on the laundry line.
I don't know. It's weird.
And superpower. What is your superpower? What's Eric Sorensen's superpower?
My superpower is probably explaining the unexplainable.
That's a good one. Right. I mean, we could talk about, so in the subcommittee
(28:05):
on science or on space, which I am a ranking member, I could talk about the near Earth orbit,
the low Earth orbit, and what we need to do with the International Space Station
to be able to de-orbit in the next seven, eight years.
No biggie. It's just going to cost some money, and we've got to get it down safely.
That just went right over my head, just so you know. But thank you.
Okay, if you and Sean were going to travel to someplace without regards to work,
(28:30):
just for the fun of it, where would you go? Where would we go?
We actually stay here a lot. But I think if there's any place that we would
probably go, it's close to home.
You know, I'm like, there's so many places around here.
You know, I'll tell you the first time that I ever went overseas was with Sean.
And it was, you know, last year and we were able to actually fly to,
(28:51):
you know, and observe Israel to be able to go on an Israel congressional delegation.
And thankfully, it was before October 7th so that we could see life as it was supposed to be there.
Nice. Nice. That's a good place to visit before October 7th.
Yeah. So I have a last question that I've asked all the leaders and it's,
(29:12):
I love the answers. So the question is, what is joy?
How do you, what is joy to you? What brings you joy?
And if you have joy, how do you share that joy? Joy to me is it comes being content.
I had to go through, you know, a lot in my life, you know, and personally,
2016 was a terrible year for me, you know, medically.
(29:35):
And so, you know, I had different perspective coming out of 2016,
where I was thankful that doctors were able to fix me because for a while,
you know, it was not a given. But then I understood that not,
worry about the things that I'm not, I don't have control over,
you know, and to not overly stress the things that I can't control.
(29:56):
And so when I started doing that, I realized I had more joy in my life.
I think there was just greater perspective that I didn't have before.
You know, when you're running a crazy life all of the time and you don't take
any time, then it's not good. And then how do you share your joy?
(30:16):
Just by being such a nice person to be around. Right, Sean?
He gets laughing. I don't hear anything. Well, he's laughing in the kitchen.
He's laughing at you or at what you said. I don't know if he's laughing at me
or laughing with me. So we just, I don't know. I'll make it with that.
Okay. Well, I thank you. And look, it's been a joy to speak with you.
(30:37):
But one of the things I was thinking about is, you know, with regards to the
weather and, you know, this analogy of like, you know, we live in this world
where we are, you know, just wondering what the weather is going to be like tomorrow.
And sometimes I think working in DC and doing the work you do,
you wonder what it's going to be like tomorrow.
But I also know, you know, one of the things that you've done is like made me
(30:59):
smile and made me cry a little bit about your mom there and taking you to the airport that morning.
And that President Biden an hour later was like talking to your mom.
I mean, that's just beautiful.
But I just think about like temperature. And you know, one of the things on
a gray day, I'm here in New York on a gray day, you kind of feel down.
And then on a sunny day, you really feel happier.
And I just think like with all that we're going through and everything that
(31:24):
we have to deal with, just for people to get to know you and people like yourself
that are actually out there making a difference.
And again, we didn't talk about policy or politics, but we talked about that
giving that is sunshine, that is illumination.
And I think that is what I would like from this and from all these podcasts
for people to understand that, like if we give of ourselves and that we share
(31:46):
ourselves, that we actually bring sunshine warmth.
And through that, I think we can help with people who are stressed and anxious,
like you said, like not stopping to express that, to enjoy the moment.
So I just want to thank you because this is what you have been able to give
me. And I hope others in this conversation.
I appreciate that Liz. I'll just end with, with one quick story.
(32:06):
Please. The city of Rockford, Illinois, away, population 150,000,
my hometown just had its very first pride parade.
It hadn't occurred until this year. And there was very heavy rain the whole time.
And so, you know, I had an umbrella up for the first, you know,
probably the first five blocks.
And then I thought, you know what, screw it. I'm just going to,
(32:27):
you know, it's, it is what it is, you know, and we turned around the corner
and there are so many people that were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
people That we're there, you know?
And so one of my favorite sayings is those who say sunshine brings happiness
have never danced in the rain.
And we danced in the rain and it was singing and dancing in the rain. It was great.
(32:53):
Thank you so much, Eric. Thank you. This is good to be with you.
Hi, it's Liz. Please join me every Tuesday for coffee to talk about heart and
humanity with our elected leaders.
Remember to hit subscribe to get an alert when a new episode is live and for
exclusive content. Ciao.
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