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1A

'If You Can Keep It': The Former Feds Running For Office

1A

NPR

News

4.44.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over 210,000 federal workers left their jobs this year because of the Trump administration.

That’s according to the Partnership for Public Service Harms Tracker. For many, it’s meant walking away from, or being pushed out of, a decades-long commitment to public service.

And one trend that’s emerging? Fired or laid-off former federal employees and contractors are running for public office.

We feature the voices of several former federal workers to hear why they see politics as the next step, especially after being forced out of jobs that were always meant to stay apolitical. What does it mean for the future health of our democracy?

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This message comes from Bayer.

0:02.3

Science is a rigorous process that requires questions, testing, transparency, and results that can be proven.

0:09.5

This approach is integral to every breakthrough Bayer brings forward.

0:13.0

Innovations that save lives and feed the world.

0:15.8

Science Delivers.com. Over 210,000 federal workers have left their jobs due to actions by the Trump administration

0:30.8

this year. That's according to the Partnership for Public Service Harms Tracker.

0:35.3

For many, it is meant walking away from or being pushed out of a decades-long commitment to public service harms tracker. For many, it is meant walking away from or being pushed out of

0:38.6

a decades-long commitment to public service in search of something new. And what are at least some

0:44.5

of those fired and furloughed federal workers and contractors doing with their newfound free time?

0:50.6

They're running for public office. The reason that Congress urgently needs recently departed feds is that Trump is really gutting

0:59.2

essential systems in government.

1:01.4

You need real career feds who really understand the inside of government to rebuild what

1:06.5

Trump has destroyed.

1:07.6

VA employees deserve better, and I am not going to shut up about the impact that

1:12.2

they have had in my life and in so many others. That's when I decided to run for Congress.

1:17.7

The federal workers who say, you know, my job's apolitical. We're now in a time where you may not

1:24.3

think politics is for you, but politics thinks you're for them. If you're not going to

1:28.8

be part of discussion or at the table, decisions will be made for you. Former federal workers can

1:34.2

make a positive difference in today's political climate. We worked for many different administrations,

1:39.9

upholding laws and policies. But we took an oath to the Constitution, not a man or a party.

1:46.0

We served the American people.

1:48.0

If any other 3 million people in this country were treated the way that federal workers have been treated,

...

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