Katie Hill, a candidate for Congress, is addressing the camera.
That might be the only way Hill’s first campaign commercial is like other political ads.
As the 30-year-old Democrat speaks, she is perhaps 100 feet above flat ground, climbing a nearly vertical sandstone rock.
“This can be hard,” Hill says as the wind whips her ponytail. “Not as hard as running for Congress when corporations are backing the other guy. But here, where we’re from, we’re not afraid of hard work.”
Hill has been climbing in the closely watched contest for Congress in California’s 25th District against Rep. Steve Knight, R-Santa Clarita, and Democrats Bryan Caforio, Jess Phoenix and Mary Pallant.
But until now, her climb was only figurative, reflected in fundraising figures and polls publicized by her campaign — metrics whose meaning is, of course, disputed by Hill’s opponents in the June 5 primary.
In the half-minute video released April 24, the former head of the non-profit People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) directly or indirectly gets across several themes of her first bid for public office: That she’s a tenacious underdog against the well-funded Knight. That she’s a native of the district, unlike Caforio and Phoenix. That she’s experienced at tackling tough challenges. And that, it’s plain to see, she’s young and energetic.
It’s fair to say not many congressional candidates could have done the commercial, recorded by videographers and a drone at Texas Canyon near Vasquez Rocks park. It’s not far from where Hill lives, in Agua Dulce, with husband Kenny Heslep and a small farm full of chickens, turkeys, goats, dogs, cats and a horse. This kind of a sport climb is reserved for dedicated technical climbers, requiring preset bolts for the hands and feet and ropes to prevent what could be a fatal fall. Hill and Haslep have been climbing for 12 years, though less since her campaign began in March 2017.
“This ad is a great example of using a unique skill to gain attention,” said Erika Franklin Fowler, a professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut who studies political advertising.
In that way, Fowler said, the ad deserves comparison to a famous one by 2016 Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Jason Kander that showed the former Army intelligence officer assembling an AR-15 rifle — blindfolded — while talking about his support for background checks. (The Democrat lost the election to Republican incumbent Roy Blunt.)
But Fowler said Hill’s video is unique in one way, the first political ad she has seen that carries a warning: “Do not attempt without rigorous training and proper safety equipment.”
On YouTube, Hill’s rock-climbing video has averaged 1,800 views a day. By comparison, a traditional ad video released by Caforio’s campaign May 1 has averaged 140.
Haslep said the video conveys his wife’s “deeper sense of strength.”
Hill supporter Kendra Greenberg said it tells viewers, “She’s a bad-ass.”
Last Saturday, Greenberg and her husband Jeff hosted a Hill meet-and-greet at their Porter Ranch home, which actually is just outside the congressional district that covers parts of the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Simi and Antelope valleys.
Hearing how Hill presents herself, more than two dozen volunteers and curious neighbors get hints of her strengths as a candidate and what she still has to do to sway skeptics.
Hill describes a “people-powered” campaign that’s “different from politics as usual” — she vows not to take corporate political committees’ contributions. A man in the crowd asks her to go deeper into what she’s for, instead of what she’s against. If you think she covers a lot of rhetorical ground in 30 seconds on the side of a rock, you should hear how much the quick-talking Hill packs into two minutes in the Greenbergs’ den.
“I’m about real representation in government,” Hill says, and she’s off on a rapid verbal tour of her platform, supporting ridding politics of big-money campaign contributions, having lawmakers who really know their communities, and electing more women and millennials; making health care affordable, doing more to address substance abuse and mental health problems; taking care of seniors as aging baby boomers strain the social safety net; helping the middle class by promoting affordable housing and higher education, and creating good jobs and worker training.
Her questioner, a Democrat, says later he liked what heard but isn’t sure yet that he’ll vote for Hill.
“I appreciate the young person’s viewpoint, and more importantly, in this day and age, the woman’s viewpoint,” says Barry Krowne, 66, a CPA. “I think us men have managed to screw up the world, and the white men of the political establishment need to get the hell off the stage and pass the baton.”
But Krowne worries that Hill’s youth means she’s “naive” and the “sharks” in Congress would “eat her up and spit her out.” And he wants to hear more substance in Hill’s positions on the issues. “I heard the standard Democratic patter,” he says.
He might get his wish in upcoming Hill campaign ads.
Hill says they’ll be more about the issues.
