🌟 Welcome to The Politics Chicks Podcast🌟
🎙️ Before launching this podcast, we built our audience on Substack, where we share sharp commentary on politics, culture, and the forces shaping modern life. Now we’re bringing those conversations directly to you—with the same honesty, curiosity, and refusal to accept easy answers.
Here on the podcast, we take those conversations further by sitting down with the people shaping our communities, our politics, and our future.
In this episode, we talk with Trina Swanson, candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s 8th District, who is challenging incumbent Pete Stauber. Trina brings something Washington desperately needs right now: experience in public service, a working-class perspective, and a commitment to integrity over political theater.
Her campaign focuses on affordability, accessible healthcare, strong unions, education, protecting Minnesota’s natural resources, and restoring serious leadership in government.
But this conversation goes beyond campaign talking points. We discuss the deeper issues facing the country right now—the cost of healthcare, the erosion of unions, environmental protection, foreign policy, money in politics, and what real representation should look like in a democracy.
🧑💼 Meet Our Guest: Trina Swanson
Trina Swanson grew up in Hermantown, Minnesota, in a working-class family that shaped her commitment to public service.
Her mother worked as a nurse for 42 years, and her father worked as a carpenter and later at a paper mill. Watching her parents work hard while still struggling to keep up with rising costs gave her a firsthand understanding of the economic pressures many families face today.
After attending college and law school in St. Paul, Trina dedicated her adult life to public service.
She spent 25 years working for the U.S. government, including 20 years as a senior official with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Her career included international assignments in Frankfurt, Germany, and Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked on immigration policy, national security, and international cooperation.
Her work required balancing two responsibilities that sit at the heart of immigration policy: upholding American values while protecting national security.
Trina ultimately left government when political interference and ethical concerns made it impossible to continue serving in the way she believed the public deserved. She then launched an immigration law firm with former USCIS colleagues, continuing to advocate for fairness and due process.
Now she’s stepping into a new arena: running for Congress to represent Minnesota’s 8th District.
🎙️ In This Episode
Why Trina Decided to Run for Congress
After 25 years in public service, Trina found herself in a position no public servant wants to face—being pressured toward actions she believed were unethical or unconstitutional.
Rather than compromise her integrity, she chose to leave government.
Watching her district’s current representative consistently fall in line with national political leadership instead of advocating for Minnesotans convinced her that it was time to step forward and run.
Healthcare and the Reality Facing Working Families
Healthcare reform is one of the central pillars of Trina’s campaign.
She shares a deeply personal story about her mother suffering a stroke and losing employer-based health insurance after her FMLA protections expired—forcing her parents to rely on COBRA coverage costing nearly $1,800 per month.
Stories like that are not unusual in America, and Trina believes they highlight a fundamental problem with the system.
Her goals include:
- Fighting for Medicare for All or a single-payer system
- Lowering prescription drug costs
- Breaking up healthcare monopolies through antitrust enforcement
- Ending the dependence on employer-based healthcare
As she puts it, no American should be one medical emergency away from bankruptcy.
The Affordability Crisis
From groceries to housing to education, Trina argues that working families are increasingly being squeezed.
Many Americans now find themselves deciding which bills to pay each month while corporate profits and executive compensation continue to rise.
Her campaign focuses on restoring balance by:
- Strengthening the middle class
- Supporting good-paying jobs
- Ensuring corporations pay their fair share
- Ending tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans
Why Unions Matter
Unions played a major role in shaping Trina’s understanding of economic fairness.
Her parents relied on union protections in their careers, and she saw firsthand what happened when those protections disappeared.
Later in her own career at USCIS, she worked closely with unions while managing government offices and saw the role they play in ensuring fair treatment, transparent workplace policies, and stronger wages.
Trina argues that strong unions built the American middle class—and they remain essential to preserving it.
Education as Opportunity
Education is another key focus of her platform.
Whether students pursue four-year degrees, trade schools, or apprenticeship programs, Trina believes post-secondary education should be affordable and accessible.
She sees education as one of the most powerful tools for lifting people out of poverty and creating long-term economic stability.
Protecting the Boundary Waters
One of the most pressing environmental issues in Minnesota’s 8th District is the future of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The region is not only an ecological treasure—it also supports a major tourism economy and countless local small businesses.
Trina strongly opposes efforts to open the area to mining by foreign corporations that would extract minerals, ship them overseas for processing, and potentially leave environmental damage behind.
She argues that Minnesota can support responsible mining while still protecting one of its most treasured landscapes.
A Different Approach to Politics
Throughout the conversation, Trina makes clear that her campaign is not focused on personal attacks.
Instead, she wants to bring politics back to a place where leaders:
- Work with their neighbors
- Listen to opposing viewpoints
- Focus on solutions rather than division
As...
