Unlike AOC, Rep. Jahana Hayes takes guarded approach with media, colleagues during first two months

Unlike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Jahana Hayes takes guarded approach with media, colleagues during first two months in Congress


While they appear together on the cover of this month’s Rolling Stone, Connecticut’s Jahana Hayes is taking a more guarded approach in her dealings with the media and colleagues than her polarizing congressional peer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Hayes, who made history last year as the first black woman from the state to be elected to Congress, has given few extended one-on-one interviews during her first two months in office, a media coverage analysis shows.

The 5th District Democrat and 2016 National Teacher of the Year has, at the same time, been a national media darling since her arrival on Capitol Hill, appearing on the CBS Sunday political talk show “Face the Nation” with three of her colleagues and doing a question-and-answer piece with Rolling Stone about her path from growing up in public housing in Waterbury to being one of the faces of last year’s midterm elections.

Hayes has also tread carefully on which of her Connecticut colleagues’ bills she co-sponsors, signing onto four of them, which is tied with Rosa DeLauro for the least of the five-member delegation.

Read more: https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-jahana-hayes-media-20190305-pbrh3iosjbeflikuanzrciqsvu-story.html