Angelita Morillo and I on our ride through inner southeast on Wednesday.
Morillo speaking at Bike Happy Hour.At just 27 years old and with no prior experience in elected office, southeast Portland resident Angelita Morillo is currently leading the entire field of 2024 council and mayoral candidates in total number of campaign contributions. And it’s not even close.
That fact alone should pique your interest in this rising political star who wants to represent District 3 on Portland’s City Council.
I started following Morillo on her popular social media channels long before she declared her candidacy. I appreciated how she deftly described detailed city policies, educated her (mostly young) followers about local government, and then encouraged them to vote and get involved. I didn’t know at the time she immigrated to Portland from Paraguay at a young age, or that she attended Lincoln High School. When I saw a photo of her, on her campaign website, standing in the middle of the school’s national title-winning Constitution Team in 2014, it all began to make sense.
I’ve since watched Morillo build a huge following on TikTok, and when she announced her city council run, I knew it was just a matter of time until we sat down for a chat. In the past few months, I’ve talked with her several times and have come away impressed. Her combination of smarts, life and work experience, communication skills and work ethic should make her someone to watch in local political circles for years to come.
When she recently asked to do a bike ride of her district and visit Bike Happy Hour, I happily obliged.
Scary crossing of SE MLK Jr. Blvd.
Enjoying the protected bike lane on SE Hawthorne.
On Wednesday I towed my wife’s bike (they’re the same height) down to Worker’s Tap on SE 12th and Ankeny (the worker-owned and “democratically run” pub is one of Morillo’s favorite spots.) From there, we did a 6.5 mile loop (route) before Bike Happy Hour and then I did a short interview with her at the event, followed by some audience Q&A. We were mic’d up for the bike ride and I recorded the Happy Hour conversations and turned all of it into this podcast episode.
Here’s a bit of what you’ll hear in the episode:
“My mom never had a car and she doesn’t know how to drive. So we grew up riding bikes, and then taking the bus. I moved to Portland when I was in middle school… I’ve never learned how to ride a bike for city riding.”
“It’s honestly been the cost of getting a bike that’s been a barrier. But I really need one, because the buses run so infrequently… I really do wish I had a bike for things like go to the grocery store.”
“There’s just been a lot of propaganda about bicyclists like, ‘Oh, they’re just annoying and entitled’,” and it strikes me very much as a millennial critique.”
Why do you think that’s such a popular narrative among your followers?
“I honestly just think we’ve had decades of propaganda around cars and car infrastructure. I was talking to someone else who was telling me they really feel like their car gives them a sense of freedom they don’t get otherwise, because they feel constricted by time if they have to take the bus. Or if they have to, you know, go on a bike, it’s not like they can carry the same amount of things.
And I was trying to explain to them that the reason they experienced that freedom is because being in a car is prioritized by all of the infrastructure.”
The moment she decided to spend her tax refund on a new bike!
Staring down the door-zone bike lane on SE 7th.
Post-ride smile.
“We’ll have to do more of these [rides] if you’re up for it.”
“Okay, [a bike] is gonna be my my tax refund purchase this year!”
“During my time at PSU [Portland State University, where she studied political science], I was homeless for a little under a year. And a lot of my schoolmates didn’t know that I was homeless… my high school teachers actually ended up finding out that I was homeless for that portion of my life, and they took me in, and if it wasn’t for them, I probably would not have graduated university.”
“I worked at City Hall where I did constituent services for former commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty… that’s where I learned people don’t know who is in charge of what decisions and they don’t know which bureaus are responsible for the messes that are happening. And because of that, we aren’t able to effectively organize and hold people accountable. So I ended up creating a TikTok to explain local government and policy to people who otherwise wouldn’t be informed about these issues.”
“I get very sentimental about the bus. I’ve seen people with their families. I’ve seen their kids grow up. I’ve seen people fall in love on the bus. So I think people have horror stories about the bus. I’m a young woman. So obviously I have horror stories about existing in a public sphere. But I think it was always something that I really deeply loved.”
“Mainly what I’ve seen is just the public being frustrated that our current city council really lacks political courage and imagination. So everything that they’re doing right now is to destroy things. They’re trying to destroy Portland Street Response, they’re trying to remove bike lanes, they’re trying to prevent charter change from being implemented. Right? So I think that what people are asking is for us to be bold, and to just have a different vision for the city.”
Listen to the full episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
