Antonia Eliason is the Democratic candidate in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District. Since 2013 Ms. Eliason has been a professor at the University of Mississippi, School of Law. She is the state’s first ever Democratic Socialist candidate focusing on environmental justice, universal healthcare and workers’ rights.
I called her on the phone because I discovered in her CV that she speaks Hungarian. Our conversation was cut short because she is in the middle of teaching a class; she would like to get back with me after the election. When I mention that I’ll write about her in the Hungarian Free Press, she remarks that her political agenda is more important than her Hungarian roots.
Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District is solidly Republican. Her opponent is 54 year old incumbent, Rep. Trent Kelly, a Mississippi-born ex-District Attorney who is also a Brigadier General with the National Guard.
According to the campaign literature, Eliason’s mother was born and raised “in Stalinist Hungary” and came to the US “to escape the oppressive system.” She notes that “when she was a child, her parents were imprisoned and tortured for opposing the totalitarian Communist regime.” Eliason makes it clear that the Democratic Socialism she supports “has nothing in common with this.” Her ideas support collaboration, community and grassroots movements to enhance democratic control of economic institutions and to improve workers’ rights.
Before teaching law Eliason spent several years working in London, Hong Kong and clerked at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. She speaks several languages, has impressive academic degrees and work experience.
When she was asked about her top three campaign messages, she listed: Medicare for all, a Green New Deal for Mississippi and Workers’ Rights and she is also in favor of legalizing marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. As a Socialist politician “I’m not going to take your property, I’m not going to take your guns” but will fight for accessible medical care to those who need it. “I want you to live and to have dignity.”
Watch her introductory video here:
György Lázár