march 2–15, 2020 | new york 41lep had also been posting intimate photos of Hill on vari-
ous websites, which Hill said she knew about at the time.
Her face wasn’t visible, she said, and she wasn’t thinking
about any future consequences. “I was a fucking college
student, you know? And it was like, Okay, well, I’m down
to try, right?”
Hill began a career in the nonprofit sector, first work-
ing at an organization that helps at-risk youth, then at
People Assisting the Homeless (path), where she was
employed for eight years. Hill worked her way up to exec-
utive director, managing a $50 million budget and earn-
ing $174,000 a year. Heslep briefly held a job as an EMT
and also worked at path in a role Hill said wasn’t under
her purview. But from 2014 on, he was unemployed.
They bought the small ranch where Heslep grew up, and
while Hill worked, Heslep tended to their dogs, goats,
and chickens. The couple tried to have children, but Hill
said she was diagnosed with endometriosis and had to
have an ovary removed.
Hill never thought about a career in politics until Presi-
dent Trump’s win. But she did have relevant experience:
At path, she’d worked on a $1.2 billion bond measure to
provide homelessness relief in the Los Angeles area, which
gave her a taste for legislating. She had management
chops and genuine roots in the district. At the Women’s
March, among pink hats and feminist signs, she saw an
opportunity. “I knew there was going to be an advantage
to being the first one in the race,” she said, “and generating
excitement as the young woman running.”
To kick off her campaign for Congress, Hill, then 29,
organized a meeting at a local Chili’s with family mem-
bers and close friends to talk strategy. “I hate to say it,
but I don’t think anyone thought that it was ever going
to happen,” says Stevenson. Hill not only made it
through the primary but went on to defeat the Repub-
lican incumbent, Steve Knight—in a district that had
been represented by a Republican for more than two
decades—by 9 percentage points.
Even in the earliest weeks of her campaign, Hill proved
to be a charismatic natural, able to position herself as both
progressive enough for the resistance and palatable
enough for moderates and independents. She was openly bisexual
but married to a man. She supported gun-safety legislation but
owned a gun herself. Hill sold herself as a “pragmatic progressive,”
the scrappy daughter of a Republican who would cut through the
bullshit in Washington and work across the aisle.
To talk about the opioid crisis, she wrote a piece for a local paper
about her 17-year-old half-brother’s drug use, detailing how she’d
helped him recover. To address her views on health care, she wrote
a story for BuzzFeed about how Heslep’s lung had collapsed on
the day of her bridal shower, putting the couple $200,000 in debt.
In reaction to Knight’s voting for a 20-week abortion ban, Hill
posted a video to Facebook, detailing how she’d had an unplanned
pregnancy at 18. In the video, Hill, who is pro-choice, says she
contemplated having an abortion—only to suffer a miscarriage
while deciding whether to continue the pregnancy. (It’s a narrative
that also doesn’t alienate either side of the abortion debate.) When
#WhyIDidntReport began trending on Twitter, Hill shared a
video about surviving sexual assault. On World Suicide Preven-
tion Day, she tweeted that it was the second anniversary of a
friend’s death from suicide by gun.
“I guess it was a conscious decision in the beginning when I
decided to run. I wanted to share the stories I felt like people
needed,” Hill told me. “At some point, people were like, ‘She’s just
got a story for everything,’ and it feels a little ridiculous, but this
happened to me, and it just keeps adding up.”
Hill’s team was young and ambitious and had a tendency to run
fast and loose, with messy results at times. Before the primary, a
senior Hill staffer posted on Facebook that California lieutenant
governor Gavin Newsom (later the governor) had endorsed one of
Hill’s primary opponents over her because “Hill won’t sleep with
[Newsom]. I know this for a fact.” The staffer posted an apology
about the false accusation the next day, writing, in part, “I’m an alco-
holic and have a long and troubled history with addiction.”
But such missteps were overshadowed by the campaign’s strong
fund-raising and ground game. Hill began building an army of vol-
unteers and came close to matching both her (male) primary oppo-
nent and Knight in early fund-raising. From there, excitement
around what she called the “most millennial campaign ever” snow-
balled. She earned endorsements from major groups like Emily’s
List and Planned Parenthood as well as support from celebrities
(Kristen Bell, Alyssa Milano) and politicians (from local lawmakers
to President Obama). The Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee, impressed more by the candidate than her team, sent
resources and staff. She went on CNN andThe Late Late Show With
James Corden.Vice sent a documentary-film crew to follow her
around as part of a series on women running for office. She appeared
with other first-time female candidates on the cover ofTime.Hill’s
campaign eventually raised an impressive $8.4 million.Top: On Election Night in 2018. Bottom:
At her swearing-in with Heslep.