- Hi, I'm Hermene Hartman with N'DIGO Studio.

Guess who's joining us in the living room today.

You may not know him, but you definitely should.

Because in January of 2021, Emanuel Chris Welch became the 70th Speaker of the Illinois House of Representative.

He made history, the first African American to hold the position.

He is a powerhouse.

A graduate of Proviso West High School, Northwestern University and the John Marshall Law School.

Now, he came into education by way of education.

He went back to his school to serve on the board.

He became eventually, the board president, and under his leadership, Proviso gained national attention as Proviso Math and Science Academy.

He's a member of the Illinois House of Representatives since 2013, and today we are going to have a conversation on politics.

N'digo Studio N'digo Studio For more information about this show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Funding for this program was provided by Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

The Chicago Community Trust, Sin City Studios, Lamborghini Chicago, Gold Coast, and Downers Grove.

Blue Cross, Blue, Shield of Illinois, Commonwealth Edison, and the Illinois Health Plan.

In the.

Studio.

- Welcome Mr. Speaker of the House.

- I finally made it.

- You finally made it.

- I'm sittin' with Hermene Hartman.

- Your sittin', hey, we are together.

Alright, now I wanna start off with something that people don't know, and that is before politics there was media.

Tell me about WGN.

- Yeah, that was a definitely a different time in my life.

I was actually the weekend assignment editor at WGN TV.

I got to work with Bob Jordan and Jackie Bange and Joanie Lum and a whole host of folks that people know across the country.

But I was the weekend assignment editor sending them to their news stories.

- Did you have fun?

- I loved it.

I loved it.

But I also studied law during the day working on that desk and goin' to law school that night.

- Okay, so that was the job to get through law school?

- That's right.

- Let's talk about how you got into politics.

You entered politics really through education.

- I still have a passion for education.

I ran for my local school board.

I didn't realize that that was politics though.

I thought it was just gettin' involved in your community.

- You thought it was education?

- I thought it was about education.

- (chuckling) Okay.

And then you became the board president?

- I was a board chair.

I was on the board for 12 years.

My first two years I was the board vice president right when I got elected, and then I became president for the last 10 years.

- Now you go to the House and you pushed elected school board to Chicago.

Tell me about that and why you think it's so important.

- Well, you know what most folks didn't realize was that the city of Chicago was the only community in the entire state that didn't elect it's school board.

And coming from an elected school board, I know the power, the voice that the community has and what the school board does on a monthly basis.

And so that was easy policy to get behind, to put the people of Chicago in charge of their school district.

The mayor of Chicago has historically appointed the school board and basically dictated everything that happens at the school board.

Now the people will get to run their school board.

- So it's a combination now?

The mayor appoints, and we have what, 10 elected?

- Well, under the current law, the mayor appoints seven.

- Okay.

- But under the new law that takes effect after the November 2024 election, there will be half of the board will be appointed by the mayor.

Half will be elected in November of 24 and two more years.

The other half that were appointed by the mayor.

Total.

They come up for election and then the whole.

Board.

In perpetuity will be a fully elected school board.

You that that's being phased in.

So will we be better off with the elected school board than with just the mayoral appointment?

I think when you have democracy involved, when more people have a say in what goes on, you will be better off.

Will it be more expensive?

Elections cost money.

But I think we will be better off because the people will have a say every two years.

And who's on that school board?

So the elections will be every two years.

Half of that board will come up for election every two years.

Wow.

Just like it does in the rest of the state.

Okay.

I know education is a passion and a real interest for you.

What do you think about AI in the classroom?

You know, that's still an evolve in technology.

You know, the verdict is really still out.

I don't think we can avoid it.

So in the House we have several members who are tracking it.

They're passionate about it.

They want to make sure we get the technology right.

We want to make sure we protect people's privacy.

Because what we're seeing already with entertainers, in the fake images and the fake commercials and fake voices that are are out there.

We have to make sure there's some proper regulation around it.

And that the technology is used properly.

This is what makes me nervous.

Kids will be able to write term papers, but will they be able to write?

Kids be able to quote Shakespeare?

But will they know Shakespeare?

That's.

I'm a little nervous.

I'm beginning to use it.

But I use it for maybe an emphasis, maybe for a historical reference or something.

But are these kids going to be able to really write and use an AI?

Because you can tell I write me a term paper on, say, a subject and bam!

- Change is always gonna come.

- Yeah.

- It's how we adapt to that change that's important.

You know, people have said, are kids gonna still know how to do math when they invented the calculator?

And teachers had to adapt in how they taught lessons.

You know, then came the iPhone and then came these Apple watches and all that stuff that you have to be concerned whether or not cheating is gonna take place in the classroom.

They've been able to adapt.

People will adapt.

- They'll adapt.

- And that's why I think it's important that we study and get it right.

- During the Democratic National Convention, which was wonderful in Chicago 2024, you had a party to celebrate Black excellence.

And you wanted to celebrate the seven Black Speakers of the House.

Why was that important to you?

- Well, you know, first of all, most people didn't even know we had seven Black speakers in the country.

And who name some name, the states that they represent.

Obviously, I'm the first black speaker of the state of Illinois.

When I got elected, I was just the third in the country.

At the time, it was New York.

Speaker Carl Hastie was elected in 2015 and 2021.

2019.

Adrian Jones in Maryland was elected.

And then I got elected in 21.

And subsequent to that, we've had speakers elected in the state of Maine Rachel Talbot Ross, Michigan, Speaker Joe Tate, Pennsylvania.

Speaker Joanna McClinton.

And most recently, we saw my alpha brother, Don Scott, elected in the state of Virginia, all first in our state's history.

All for so this is historic all seven.

This is historic seven at one time is one.

So we got a chance to interview some of them, and we're going to show what they told us.

Okay.

First question for you, as a three time black history maker and speaker of the House, what legacy do you and to make for young politicians following behind you?

So the first and foremost priority is like our vice president said to be the first does not mean you'll be the last.

I lead in such a way that many women will follow me.

I said, if 141 men preceded me as speaker, it shouldn't seem odd that 141 women follow me as speaker in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

With this political landscape continuing to the wall, especially with younger generation to speak of a more formal one announced, but they're full of events.

How do you plan to engage and address the concerns of young voters in Michigan?

You have to meet them where they're out.

I think that's going to be the most important thing.

How are you able to bring young people into the fold?

And, and to inject the other, into engagement.

So how do you get them out to vote?

How do you get them, to comments as a shape or different pieces of legislation?

And and really snake weight, you know, get them to have ownership because eventually they're coming to take over.

So you're the first black speaker in Virginia's history could project 2025 be a reality in Virginia?

Well, I look at pride at 25.

Pride day 2025 is like the same as project 1619, when this country was started to bring in people to hurt people, and take us backwards and everything that they say.

And there's their playbook to hurt people.

Everything that they say is a playbook to hurt folks economically.

The hurt, the hurt people bully people, hurting LGBTQ communities.

Sad.

People of color backwards.

They want to take us in a, in a way that we don't need to go forward.

And I think at the end of the day, they know in 2025 that if they can attack, the biggest thing that they attack was education and public education.

As the highest ranking African-American politician in Maine, as well as the first African-American speaker of the House for the state of Maine.

How has your identity shaped your approach to leadership in the speaker of the House?

Well, I get it, honestly.

I come from a family that's always been involved in, moving issues of civil rights and human rights forward.

I follow in the footsteps of my father.

When, 45 years before I was elected to office.

My father was the very first African-American ever elected to state office, in 1972.

So I grew up with a father who worked two jobs and served in the Maine State Legislature.

In order to make sure that me and my sisters knew that public service was a profession and that we should always try to give back.

So my identity comes from a legacy of public service and knowing that Black people in Maine, the whitest state in the country, had something to give and were valued.

- Let's talk about Speaker of the House.

What are the duties of the Speaker of the House?

- You know, the Speaker of the House, you're the CEO.

You are the person that runs the House.

- You're the CEO of the House?

- You are the Chief Executive Officer of the House of Representatives.

- What do those duties entail?

- Well, they are laid out in the state constitution.

You are a constitutional officer.

You are elected by the members of the body to be the CEO of the chamber.

You are in charge of setting the calendar.

You're in charge of making appointments to all committees.

You are in charge of determining what bills get heard or not get heard.

You are in charge of making sure the governor is invited to present a budget to the General Assembly.

The governor is required to present a budget to the General Assembly, and he has to come do it in the House.

- So the balancing of the budget, is that for the governor or is that for the speaker?

- Well, it's for the legislature.

- Okay.

- And the legis.... - The entire body?

- The entire body.

The governor presents his budget to the legislature in the House at the invitation of the speaker.

That's in the constitution.

He has to do it by a certain date in February.

And then after he presents his budget, the legislature is the one that appropriates a budget.

And so, before we adjourn, typically by the end of May, the legislature will pass a budget to the governor for his signature.

- So if there's something in the budget that you question, you do it at the time the governor presents?

- Absolutely.

- So this is about the money?

We talk.

We talk before he gives the speech.

I give him my ideas before he gives a speech.

I give him my ideas after the speech.

We talk constantly.

So this is about the money?

- Well, it's about helpin' people.

- Okay.

- You know, and we need money to help people.

And our communities have been historically disadvantaged for a long time.

And now we're not just at the table, we're at the head of the table.

And so I wanna make sure in a very unapologetic and very intentional way, that we make sure our communities get what they deserve.

- You told me off camera, your daughter told you something.

Tell me what your daughter told you.

- My daughter told me she's gonna be the Speaker of the House.

How old is she?

She's ten.

Okay.

I didn't even know she was the.

Even though she knew she said she going to be speaker I love.

And I said speaker.

Honey.

Speaker.

You think you can achieve.

There you go.

- In politics, we've seen movements.

We've seen civil rights movement, we've seen labor movement, we've seen women movements.

Tell me how movements influence politics.

What's the significance of the role?

- If you can create a movement, you know, you can create some real policy.

You can make history.

because you're, you're going to turn out the vote.

It's all about counting if you know how to count.

That's what this business is all about.

And movements help move numbers.

- How do we get young people, that's the lowest voting population that we've seen.

No vote.

Don't vote.

Just disregard politics.

Don't trust the political system.

What do we do about that?

How do we encourage young people to get involved in the political process?

- I think we start by going to them.

Not talking at them, but listening to them.

Gettin' them involved in the process.

You know, people will doubt what you say, but they're gonna believe what you do.

And young people are the first ones that's gonna doubt what you say, but believe what you do.

And so we have to listen to them first and then show 'em through our actions that what they're telling us really matters, and get them involved in that.

You know, what I have done in my role as committeeman out in Proviso Township is tapped into young folks in the high school and gotten them involved and let them know that they're a critical part of this process.

- In politics, as your first term as speaker, And so we have to tap into that excitement, because once you get them involved, they're likely to stay.

Involved in politics.

As your first term as speaker.

You passed the assault weapon ban.

Tell me about that.

And what's the what's that impact through legislation?

You know, the assault weapons ban was something very personal to me.

And I will tell you, as a kid growing up in Chicago, my family is just like many families that was impacted by gun violence.

My my parents had three boys.

It was a family of five.

And my, my mom had a sister.

My Aunt Joyce had three girls.

And one night my aunt was killed in front of our church.

Oh, 40 years ago now.

And that murder has never been solved.

But my parents, took my cousins, and they were little, little girls at the time.

And raised them as daughters.

They're my sisters.

They became your sisters?

Yeah.

So we were like the Black Brady Bunch.

Three boys, three girls.

But it all happened because of gun violence.

My parents and all of a sudden start making more money.

They still made the same amount of money when they had three boys.

My dad, a year or so later, his job moved to a one of those workers right states, right to work states, 'cause they didn't want unions.

And we didn't wanna move.

So my dad all of a sudden, had to go work in two jobs to make what he was making at one union job before it left the state.

You know, and so a lot of what happened because of my aunt's murder helped shape who I am today, and particularly around assault weapons.

Those are things that are not needed on our streets.

Bring some change, to bring some, some real justice to it.

Do you think black politicians have a greater scrutiny than white politicians?

I think, you know, being black in America, we always looked at different.

You know, and I think we have to be conscious of that.

We're going to always have the scrutiny, but I think you should always, act in public the same when you act in private, particularly when you're in these high profile positions.

You should always know, particularly when you black in America.

That we're another stand in.

You always have to be conscious of it, don't you?

We're going to have a heightened scrutiny.

- Your career has been fast tracked.

You've risen to leadership.

You go entry and then leader.

You don't do middle steps at all.

In your political career, and now you are Speaker of the House, what legislation would you like to see that you would bring forth maybe in this season?

- I wanna make sure our community always understands how important the budget is.

You know, Illinois, in May of '24, we passed a $50 billion budget.

That's the biggest budget we've ever passed in state history.

They don't get smaller, they get bigger.

And we have to make sure that people understand that's a moral document.

And that's the biggest thing that we do every year as a legislature, is appropriate dollars that go all over the state, that impact our schools, that impact our local communities directly through funding at the municipalities, through libraries.

You know, that's the most important thing we do.

And we have a lot of effort goes into that.

And so I take great pride in the fact that we've presented balanced budgets since I've been speaker that continue to invest in communities all over the state, but particularly Black communities.

- Any particular things that you want to see in terms of the growth and the equity investment, if you will, in black and black communities and I'm thinking particularly of small businesses doing business with the state, like you just said, biggest budget ever.

$50 billion.

And I wonder how many black contractors, professional as well as professional services.

What do they do?

What's the what's the measure?

What's the equity?

Does it exist?

Well, we want to make sure, you know, we are funding our schools better K through 12 because we know education is at the forefront of everything.

We want to make sure that, our kids have access to go to college if they want that opportunity.

So the dollars we put in the budget that help low income kids get into college is very important.

Having job opportunities when they get out of college was very important.

Or if they don't even go to college, opportunities to get into the trades and things of that nature.

All of those things are dollars we're putting into the budget.

But we also have to create the job opportunities.

We have to make sure small businesses have dollars to thrive.

We've created small business programs.

The Back to Business Program, the Business Pro, the Build Business Program that we built through DCEO, these are things that we've invested in in the last four years that have helped small businesses at record levels in the state, but particularly Black business.

We've also created other initiatives like childcare programs that allow single moms to go to work and do things that they weren't able to do because childcare is a real issue.

For the first time in this year's budget, we put a $50 million child tax credit into the budget.

That's gonna help low income families, particularly folks from our neighborhoods.

- So now let me ask you a tough question.

There's a wide spectrum of things.

Large society at large.

Right there in that one document.

That's why it's such a moral document.

What about abortions?

I know we did something in our state that others are debating.

Tell us about abortions in the state of Illinois.

I think Illinois is the safe haven.

I mean, if you look all around us, the red states, and they're banning abortions and, making it difficult, for women to have access to health care.

And what people don't realize is abortion is health care.

And Illinois has made, it safe, legal, private to come here and have abortions.

We make sure you have access to contraception, access to IVF.

We make sure that in this state, women know that we trust them.

That's a decision between a.

Woman and her.

Doc.

I was about that.

That was my question.

Do you think politics should enter abortion conversation in the first place?

I don't think my wife or my daughter would want me.

Bravo.

In that decision with that.

You know, that's between them and their doctor.

So now, let me ask you a tough question.

We have seen.

A madman run for president, and we have seen what we thought we would never see in our country at this time.

Is there anything that we can do with legislation to avoid such extremities in a politician?

You know, in, in America?

A country with, you know, freedom of speech and freedom of association and the right to run for office.

I think it's extremely hard to, to ban someone from running for office.

Couldn't we do something legislatively with who is eligible to run for president of United States?

35 years old and citizenship.

Those are qualifications.

I think.

One that folks are talking about that I would be interested in listening more to, is maybe, the age, you know, in terms of how old you can be.

- Older or younger?

- Yeah.

Well, 35 I think is a good age.

- That's the age.

- To start.

- Okay.

- But, you know, 80 might be a little too old to run.

- Oh, you wanna put a retirement age?

- A retirement age.

A mandatory retirement age.

- Mandatory, okay.

Just like you have on a job, right?

- Correct.

- What would you tell a budding young politician looking at this show?

That 10-year-old, that 10-year-old daughter who wants to go into politics, what would you really tell her?

- Well, the 10-year-old, I would tell 'em you can be anything you wanna be.

You know, look at me.

If you believe it, you can achieve it.

And my daughter believes she can be Speaker of the House, and I tell her, go for it.

- Yes you can.

- She sees it.

She can achieve it.

- She sees it.

Yeah.

- You know, the adult, I would tell 'em know your why.

What's your passion?

Why do you wake up in the morning?

Why do you wanna leave the house every day?

Why do you wanna spend a lot of time away from your family?

If you know the answer to that question, you're gonna love what you do.

- Let's say the world is yours.

You can do anything you want politically.

Name three things you would do.

- I would end homelessness.

- Yes.

- I would end poverty.

And, the third thing I would wanna do is anyone and everyone who wants to get it, one trip to Disney World.

- Everybody should go to Disney World?

- It's the happiest place on Earth.

You gotta go to Disney World.

- What's it about what's about Disney World?

- It's about creating that mindset where people are happy.

So what's your favorite thing in Disney World?

Just being there.

Just being there.

You know.

So happiest place on earth.

How many times you've been Disney World?

Oh, I've been.

Did you take your kids?

That was an excuse.

Get to do it.

I've been there three times.

Twice with my kids, once without them.

I agree with you.

All right.

Now, we've been talking to the speaker of the House.

Understanding how you get to be the speaker of the House and what the speaker of the House does.

And the speaker of the House wants to go to Disney World, and everybody should go to Disney World if he had his druthers.

That's the big thing.

Then he would do.

I think that's just absolutely marvelous.

That's wonderful.

You know what I did the day Donald Trump was getting inaugurated to be president?

You went to Disney World.

I went to.

That was a good that was I find that was a good thing to do.

That was a good place to be.

Thank you so much for being with us and sharing your insight.

Your career and your passion.

My pleasure.

Honor was.

Honor was mine.

Thank you.

For more information about this show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Funding for this program was provided by Illinois Student Assistance Commission, the Chicago Community Trust.

Sin City Studios, Lamborghini Chicago, Gold Coast and Downers Grove.

Blue cross, Blue shield of Illinois, Commonwealth Edison and the Illinois Health Plan.

N'digo studio.