The Blue-Collar Democrat Who Wants to Fix the Party’s Other Big Problem

What may seem like a minor regulatory hiccup is to Gluesenkamp Perez emblematic of the disconnect between government and the governed that she has dedicated her short time in office to addressing. Too often, she believes, policymakers are not only disrespectful to people who work with their hands, but also ignorant of the reality of their day-to-day lives. “If the commission had had somebody who has worked in construction in the body, they would know that if you raise the cost of a table saw by $400, people are just going to put a circ saw on a sheet of plywood — and more people are going to lose their fingers,” she says. In April, she introduced legislation that would prohibit the commission from implementing the rule until five years after SawStop’s patent expires. (SawStop’s chief executive, Matt Howard, said that the company has promised not to enforce its patent once the rule is implemented.)