‘If You’re Going to Hurt Me, At Least Know My Name’

A year ago, Ana Maria Archila confronted Jeff Flake in an elevator just when it seemed like everything was lost. It wasn’t.

The day after Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jeff Flake released a statement in support of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. As Flake tried to leave his office, Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher cornered him in an elevator. The moment was caught live on camera by CNN and went viral. Archila is the co-executive director of The Center for Popular Democracy, and she recently spoke to me about this, her activism, and her hopes for America one year after the Kavanaugh hearings.

I was in Washington, D.C., that whole week to protest. It was the first time I’d been away from my kids for that long. On Monday, a friend and colleague of mine, Ady Barkan, an activist who’s dying of ALS, organized a day of men showing up in solidarity with women. The form of protest we were doing involved disrupting with stories. We would show up to a senator’s office, and people would tell story after story after story. Then the police would come and arrest us; those who weren’t arrested would move to another senator’s office. We did this day after day.