In the News

Kendra Horn is the new lawmaker no one saw coming. An upset victory in Oklahoma sent her to Washington, but she’s actually been here before.

Back in 2004, between stints as a lawyer and a nonprofit executive, the Democrat briefly served as press secretary for Rep. Brad Carson.

Did she disagree with her boss? Sometimes. Did she bring her dog to work? Definitely. Through it all, she worried about her student loans, like so many other staffers on the Hill, where rent is high and pay is, well, not.

We caught up with Horn earlier this month to ask about her Capitol past.

Q: Student loan debt was one of your big campaign issues in 2018. Did you have student loan debt back when you first came to Washington?

A: I still do. I graduated from law school in 2001, and I am still paying for my student loans every month.

When I was [a staffer] on the Hill, I had deferments because I wasn’t making enough to pay my student loans. I know that’s true for a lot of people. … My student loans were higher than I could afford with the salary.