Congresswoman Donna Shalala has had a lot of different jobs.

First of all, Representative, how shall I refer to you?

Representative, Secretary, what do you prefer?

Oh, my God.

I have so many titles.

You do.

I guess for the moment, this is representative.

For the last couple of years, Shalala's represented Florida in Congress.

Before that, she ran the Clinton Foundation, led three different universities,

and spent eight years as the Secretary of Health and Human Services under Bill Clinton,

the longest tenure on record,

as far as I can tell.

Yeah, probably no one will ever meet that again because I was confirmed the day after the president was sworn in, and no one gets to do that anymore.

I was speaking to one of Slate's political reporters about this interview before we did it,

and he said, you know, I've always had this question for Donna Shalala. Why Congress?

Like, why did you want to go there after your long career?

You know, I sort of got pissed off with what was going on in Washington. I'm a political scientist.

I'm interested in the legislative process. So as an academic, it was fascinating to me. But mostly it was because I just got pissed off of what was going on in Washington. And the seat was open. And I figured what the hell. I'll just take a chance.

Shalala lost her seat this year. She's one of 11 House Democrats who are going to be replaced

by Republican challengers come January, leaving Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a dwindling majority,

heading into a Joe Biden presidency. Shalala's seat had been reliably Republican for years before she wanted,

but plenty of people assumed she was safe in 2020.

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