Anything BUT Politics
A groundbreaking new podcast, Anything BUT Politics, is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers.
Anything BUT Politics
Peace Corps, Parenthood, and Political Life
Senator Rebecca Perkins Kwoka takes us on a remarkable journey from her childhood living above a family-owned Dairy Queen to her current role as Senate Democratic Leader in New Hampshire. With warmth and humor, she reveals how the practical lessons from her small business upbringing continue to shape her approach to both politics and parenthood.
"No one is coming to save you," she reflects, describing the self-reliance instilled by her early years decorating ice cream cakes and serving customers. This problem-solving mindset has proven invaluable throughout her career, from her time studying at Phillips Exeter Academy, Dartmouth College, and Cornell Law School to her transformative two-year Peace Corps service in Senegal, West Africa.
The conversation takes particularly fascinating turns when Senator Perkins Kwoka describes teaching business skills to women in her West African village and the profound perspective she gained on American opportunity. Now balancing life as a senator, renewable energy company lawyer, and mother to three daughters under six, she brings a refreshingly practical approach to public service.
Housing affordability emerges as her signature issue, stemming from her concern about New Hampshire's aging demographics and her desire to create communities where young families can thrive. From conducting zoning audits as a law student to championing comprehensive housing reforms on the Portsmouth City Council and now in the Senate, her commitment to practical problem-solving transcends partisan divides.
The senator's stories about involving her young daughters in politics—from bringing her infant to city council meetings to her five-year-old meeting Vice President Kamala Harris—highlight her belief in exposing children early to civic engagement. As she bridges professional ambition with motherhood, her perspective offers valuable insights for anyone navigating multiple roles while seeking to build stronger communities.
Have you encountered a leader who brings such diverse life experiences to their public service? Share your thoughts and join the conversation about how we can all contribute to building more connected, affordable communities.
Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Eddy.
Tom Prasol:And I'm Tom Prasol.
Tiffany Eddy:And we'd like to welcome you to another episode of Anything but Politics. And we are so excited to not talk politics again today with our very latest guest, who is an incredible woman.
Tom Prasol:Yeah, she really is. So she's in her third term in the New Hampshire Senate. She's a real leader. She is the current Senate Democrat leader and also serves on the Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee and the Rules Committee. But we're lucky to be joined by Senator Rebecca Perkins Kwoka.
Tiffany Eddy:Thank you for having me, thank you for coming on. So it's such a pleasure. So I'm going to start easy, because you and I were talking a little bit about this before, but we're both moms, so could you tell us a little bit about your kids?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, I mean, I think any mom can do that. So I have three little girls. My girls are five, three and one and you know we have a busy little calendar. A lot of people say to me how do you do all of this?
Tom Prasol:Yeah.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:You know, and I think, as with anything you kind of give, if you want anything done, give it to a busy person, Right. And so I often talk about just all the kind of balance we have to do. But my kids, I think, are just. They enjoy it. We have a really interesting and busy life where they get to learn all about things that go on outside their house. So my oldest one is learning to read. She actually is working on great eggs and ham. That's what she did with my wife the other night.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:And then my littlest one I keep telling folks has just started saying yeah, which seems somewhat unremarkable, but you have to see her do it because it's really cute. I'll get home from a long day at the state house and I say, did you have a good day today? And she goes yeah. And I'll say, do you want to have some dinner? She goes yeah. And then, um, you know, if she gets a little frustrated, I'll say are you a little frustrated right now? She goes yeah, so it's very cute. Um, but they're, they're just um, the apple of my eye and I think when you get home they just kind of recenter you on some of the things that really matter.
Tiffany Eddy:Oh, that's wonderful.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah.
Tiffany Eddy:Kids do have that way of keeping us all honest and keeping us busy and sometimes trying us a little bit. Not that mine would ever do that, but those are great ages. People would say you're probably in the weeds right now. Right.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:People say that to me all the time, and it's the only thing I've ever known. You know, I've been in elected office for about 10 years and in that time I've gotten engaged, married. I've had three babies, two of them since I've been in the Senate, and so we've always had this life full of all these different pieces that are in the mix. But you know, as I often say to people, my kids are little. They still think I'm the coolest and they can't wait to hang out with me. So I again, I kind of think, when you get home, at the end of the day, it's just nice to have someone who's so happy to see you be in a friendly space.
Tom Prasol:That's great. Well, you know, speaking of childhood, you are a lifelong Granite Seder, correct?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I am, I am.
Tom Prasol:So tell us a little bit about growing up where you grew up. What was that like?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, so we grew up. I lived in Stratum. Well, initially we lived in Exeter because we actually had the Exeter Dairy Queen. For those who might remember that, it was, you know, sort of located right on the border between, and when my parents bought it in 1980, they actually built an apartment on top. So when I was born my crib was in sort of the closet of the office at the Dairy Queen.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Sounds amazing I know, it was an interesting little childhood and we stayed there until I was two. But, you know, because my parents are small business owners, we were just around the store all the time. There's a lot of pictures of me like in a little play pool out back behind the restaurant, you know. But we, I think for that reason also just met a lot of different kinds of people. You know, we often had employees back in those days. You know who.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:This was sort of their full-time job and they were able to raise a family, you know, by working for us. We also had teenagers from different circumstances where, you know, maybe mom or dad wasn't around and so they had to work with us to have money to eat or, you know, kind of provide for themselves, and so we worked really hard, you know. But I can run a drive-through and decorate an ice cream cake and, you know, sort of fix your hamburger just the way you like it. So those are. It was just a big part of growing up and we had that all the way until I was done with college. So it was, you know, we were just kind of a small business family.
Tom Prasol:Do you ever tell your kids like well, you know, I grew up in an ice cream store.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yes, I do, I do. And, uh, people always ask me like, uh, when I'm on the radio they'll sometimes say, where do you get ice cream? And I was like, well, you can't tell anyone. I did this growing up. But we used to go to Lagos, you know um. But yeah, we just, and you know, in Stratum I think it was a nice place we lived um, we were like in a neighborhood, you know, it's sort of a circular neighborhood. There were kids there and we were just outside all the time. Stratum was a lot less crowded then, so it was, I think, just a really idyllic little New Hampshire way to grow up.
Tiffany Eddy:Any favorite ice cream flavors.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I usually get coffee Oreo now.
Tom Prasol:It's one of my faves.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I know I go all over the place. When I was pregnant, I liked strawberry. So who knows my faves? I know I go all over the place. When I was pregnant, I liked strawberry.
Tom Prasol:So who knows, it's so true about a small business. As a small business owner in your family, it's all hands on deck. The whole family gets involved. I know my wife's family owns a pizza place and hooks it. It was always on the phone hey, can you come down, can you do this? I think they grew up there. The only difference is that she doesn't like pizza as much anymore, and I'm like I married you because this is my favorite food.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:So it's good to hear that you still like ice cream. Yeah, that's true. I know we used to, I think, eat it every day, and my kids are carrying on the tradition of being ice cream lovers.
Tiffany Eddy:So I wonder, does that kind of background like growing up being sort of that hands on with the business like? You knew how to create burgers, flip the burgers. You knew how to make the ice cream cones. It was such a huge part of your life.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:How does that pull into you now as as someone who's in the Senate? Yeah, it's a great question, and I think when you're a small business owner, you know that no one is coming to save you, you know, and so really everything kind of rested on us and if you wanted something done, you just got it done, and everything was about sort of trying to find some kind of creative solution to a problem. And you know we didn't usually have enough money to have a plumber come in to fix a toilet or, you know, hire someone to clean the store. So it was just a lot of taking care of things yourself and also, you know, I think it's an attention to detail that really is kind of part of running a small business.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I can remember being in high school. You know I went to Philip Sextor for high school, so I would get out of class at around six and I would go over to the Dairy Queen to kind of close the store and, you know, sometimes do my homework in the dining room when it was slower. And you know I would like get up early, bring my brother to the bus, go to high school, go to work, get home, you know, maybe still have a little bit of homework to do, and, and mom would go through the list of, like, all the stuff. You know, did you wash this dish? Did you? Did you flip the lettuce into a new pan? You know, did you close the hamburger bun bag? You know, did you wash this down with warm water? And sure enough, you know, when she'd go in the next morning I'd hear about like the one thing yeah, it's always the one thing, yeah.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:So, um, you know, I appreciate that about just sort of knowing that it's, you know, it's all these little details that kind of add up to a big picture. Um, and like, lastly, I'd say, work ethic. You know, I mean we worked really hard and, uh, that's part of what we need to do now to kind of make sure we're getting all the results we need and the work we do, but also just to kind of honor all the commitments I've signed up for. You know, like I'm a Senator, I'm a mom, I'm an employee still, I still work as a lawyer, and and I think my mom taught me from an early age you know, if you want something like you just got to work really hard and make it work.
Tiffany Eddy:So yeah, that's really good advice and it's interesting. I didn't know you went to Philip Sexeter but your, your education, your pedigree education wise, I mean it's it's really impressive. So would you mind just telling us a little bit about where you went and and what led you in that direction?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, uh well, it was my folks. I, you know, I think they grew up, they graduated from college. They my mom was the first one to go to college in her family and they graduated to the simple fact that I was young, I was too young to go to local first grade. So they basically went and found a spot where you know they would take me at five and three quarters or something to go to first grade. So I went to Baroque Academy. From there I went to Phillips, exeter, I went to Dartmouth for undergrad and Cornell Law for law school, which you know is in retrospect kind of amazing even to me, but it was.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:It's definitely a story of sort of these institutions seeing something I maybe didn't really understand yet and we've had a lot of financial help through scholarships and other stuff to make that happen. But I think it just really inspires me to kind of think about. We all start on different starting lines, you know, but America really is an amazing place where you know you can go from sort of living up top of a Dairy Queen to being involved in big decisions that are happening in your state and kind of making a difference. So I feel really lucky to have gone to the places I've gone, but I don't know that I would have recognized that I was capable of all those things along the way. You know, I think that, um, I had a lot of really good mentors that kind of pushed me in the right direction.
Tom Prasol:But yeah, you know, I think it's also what you mentioned earlier the attention to detail, right that in the work ethic really helps you get uh, into those places. So what was your major in undergrad? Did you always want to be an attorney?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:No, I was a government major but I was all over the place. In high school I was really interested in classics so I studied a lot of like ancient Rome and Greece and I think I've always been interested in government because I'm just kind of interested in community and um and housing is interesting to me for the same reason. Sort of the way our physical spaces help create community. The whole idea that you can walk through downtown Portsmouth and kind of like run into people you know, which we do all the time. You know our life is very like we throw our kids in the stroller, we head downtown in Portsmouth on a Friday night, um, and we run into people we know, and that's I feel lucky for that.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I think there's a lot of um, there's a lot of folks that feel very kind of separated and isolated these days and you know we have a really amazing sense of community in Portsmouth. So I've always been interested in sort of how do we get together as a group and kind of like resolve and move towards things, and it's why I've so enjoyed serving in the New Hampshire Senate. But I think it's also why I'm a lawyer, you know, because to me what I do every day is try to solve problems at my company. Try to solve problems in terms of us moving our financial strategy forward or our business strategy forward. You know, it's really a question of kind of like looking at all the information in front of you and thinking, okay, this is really complicated, how does it all weave together and how can we kind of like bring it to a resolution, which I just think is fascinating work, you know so.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:And what kind of law do you practice? It's called kind of corporate and real estate. I've done a lot of different things, but I am general counsel of a small renewables company, so we build solar farms all over the country. We're in eight state markets, so we look for like an open field. We lease the field, usually about 35 acres in size, and we take it, you know, through the planning board and sort of get it connected to the grid and then sort of figure out how to get it built. You know what is the financing piece, the tax credits financing and sort of debt financing that will allow it to get constructed and get humming.
Tom Prasol:And so right out of law school. So you went to Cornell, right, and then you graduated from Cornell. What was the first job right out of college? Did you come back to New Hampshire? Did you stay?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I went down to New York City. I like did the big law firm thing.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:So I went to Cornell totally convinced I would go into public interest somehow, because I was just really interested in that. I had been in the Peace Corps and come home from the Peace Corps and served as a recruiter and then even my first couple of internships at law school. I had sort of worked in some roles that were public facing but I really loved. I did an internship at one of the private law firms and it was addictive because of its complexity and you know just kind of the numbers, the scale of numbers you were dealing with. You know I mean I had worked in the Peace Corps in essentially microfinance, if you guys remember, when that was sort of a big thing. It was, you know, just like groups of people financing each other to the tune of like $50, you know.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:And now it was sort of this opportunity to work in these big New York City skyscrapers working on billion dollar deals, you know. So I felt I felt like it was a really neat opportunity. The work was fascinating, but the hours were just like you know all the movies. It was like you roll into your New York office at 930 or 10, you're just there, you know, till two in the morning, sometimes even later. So I did that for a year in New York and a year in DC, and then I came back here.
Tiffany Eddy:So and what was it? I want to go back a little bit, but the Peace Corps, we didn't ask you about that. So you you graduate from, was this before you went to law school or was this after law school? Yeah, between college and law school, yep, so what prompted that? I mean, that's fascinating.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, it was, and everybody should do the Peace Corps. I think it's a great retirement plan for people, but it's essentially this program where you go live with a family you know somewhere else in the world and you try to bring the knowledge you have to help them. And so I was a senior in college. There were all sorts of big political things happening, you know, the war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, and you know I had been studying just this whole idea of sort of like how do you take all these pieces and bring them together? And part of what I was interested in is just how economic development helps lift people to kind of empower themselves to take care of their own situation. And again, I think, coming from the small business background, I did, you know, I saw that there was just a lot of different kinds of opportunity, even in America. So someone said to me sometime during my senior year of college you know you would be a great Peace Corps volunteer. And I was like what does that mean, you know? So I applied and I had taken some French when I was really little, and so they were like we're going to send you to French-speaking West Africa to be a small business development volunteer. You know, and you know, I was 21 when I left. So it was just this complete mix of excitement for doing something new and adventurous and, just you know, complete fear and nervousness.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:But the way the Peace Corps does it, they bring you over with a group of about 40 other people. So you go, you know, we went to Philadelphia. We met sort of what they call your stage and you which a French word and um, and then fly you over to Dakar. You spend two or three months kind of in their training facility together as a group, getting used to the country, learning the local languages, um, and then they do kind of an assignment ceremony where you all learn where in the country you're going to live and then they send you off, essentially on your own, um, you know, they drop you off. I lived nine hours from the capital in this place called richard toll is on the border of mauritania and, uh, with a family and I, you know, I just kind of had to, from there, figure out how I could help.
Tom Prasol:It was awesome can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Tiffany Eddy:Yeah, because I'm like yeah, it's fascinating.
Tom Prasol:It is fascinating, my mind's a little blown you know, you took French as like a kid, and now you're like here. You're nine hours away from anybody else and good luck.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Right, yeah, there's a, you know, and I think and some of this people are a little bit familiar with the whole idea of like, when military folks leave the country and come back, you know there's some patterns of similar, just homesickness and sort of mental isolation. As you learn a language in a place like this because you really can't talk to anyone, you know fully your body is adjusting to all the sort of new germs and food and you know so you spend a lot of time sick and unable to communicate really, and so that period lasts for a little while. And in my case I was in a village where, you know to them, it was a city, but it was a place where they primarily spoke a language called Wolof, so there were some French speakers. But as it turns out, you know, a lot of the French speakers were sort of also those who are sophisticated at sort of the foreign aid game or having white visitors come, and so they weren't necessarily the people I ended up staying friends with long term.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:But you know, as you learn the local language, especially a language like that, that's not even a written language, right, it's just an oral language, and so you learn to speak it basically, just like they do, you know. And so this really kind of cool thing happens where over the course of your first year you start to really feel integrated. And then it's like you know, the Wolof are really sarcastic people and so they're a lot of fun because they're constantly joking around and poking fun at each other. But you didn't just have to learn the language, you had to learn how to give and get a little bit in the language.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:And so I think over that second year you really can kind of fully start to integrate as you find the people you really can help, which in my case was a lot of students and young women that were roughly my age, that were graduating from school and trying to figure out what they were going to do with their lives, kind of talking to them about the whole idea of business financing or a business plan or how to calculate profit and loss. You know how to use the trade they learned at a trade school and turn it into a business, those kinds of things. And then literally working with illiterate women who did have businesses and knew how to make change or, you know, converse enough to run their business. But you know that was different than sort of understanding the business fundamentals of reinvesting or buying new equipment or how to calculate what to do with a little bit of extra income. So it was a really fascinating time.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I mean, I think you have to be I know we use this term a lot but very much a self starter, because they do just kind of drop you off, and so you have to create your own role and your own schedule and your own work partners, and you have no grant money to do any of that with.
Tiffany Eddy:So it's really just kind of figuring out what needs to be done and then doing it and getting it done and is there like goals that they set that you have to obtain, or is it just kind of you figure out what those goals are and work towards them?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yes, it's very much the latter, and I think different people respond differently to different kind of metrics, Like, for example, in health right there were volunteers who didn't do business. They did more like a public health focus and there would be different metrics and goals for them, because they'd be placed in places that had a certain vaccination rate or a certain percentage of the population that knew to wash their hands or you know had sort of been trained in sex safety, knew to wash their hands or, you know, had sort of been trained in in sex safety.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Um, but for roles like mine it really, you know, I don't think anyone really knew what or where the work was. So to kind of apply metrics to it was difficult. But, um, but you know, I had, uh, we had kind of the simplified game of Monopoly we would play. So it essentially simulated four weeks and, um, you would make a decision each week with the money you had, you know, should you reinvest it in your business, should you put it in the bank, or should you buy soda and cause, like, when you go to a wedding banquet you have to buy soda, and when you go to a funeral you have to buy soda, and uh, so there were choices to make and so, um, you know it was an iterative choice over the four weeks and if you made the choice to reinvest in your business every time, you know you would end up with the most money at the end.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:But we would play this game, like I mean literally what you picture, you know, when you sort of think of a rural place in Africa, like we'd be in a compound. You know there'd be a wall, there'd be dirt floor. You know there'd be like 20 women, babies, chicken, like whatever, and we'd have the materials up on the wall. And you know I'm just teaching and and there's a little bit of chaos, but they're paying attention and they're playing and they would like they would joke around with each other. You know cause, again, they're like a very sarcastic people and um, and so you know, if someone like bought too much soda and ran out of money or something, you know they'd be like what?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Just you know, picking on each other. There was this whole peer pressure element. You know that I didn't really anticipate but it was really cool. And some of the women and girls that were roughly my age, I mean they were close friends of mine. You know I would sit with them every night and kind of talk about America and all their different questions. So it was really it was a really neat experience it sounds really amazing.
Tom Prasol:Like what was. I mean, these sound like really great experiences, but what? I guess what's going to stay with you forever?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:like what was yeah was there a really exciting trip you took while you were there with them, or um, I mean, what stays with me is really I had a, a sister in my host family who, um, that was not her mom and dad, she was some kind of niece or cousin or something, and she had been given to the family when she was little, um, and she wasn't from there and where she was from was more of a catholic area, so was from was more of a Catholic area, so that was kind of a distinction. We were in a Muslim area and so she was kind of isolated and she was about a year and a half older than I was and I think just the difference in our lives was really striking, because here I came from this other place. You know I have my own. I mean, they were just fascinated by these things. Like, I have my own car. You know I had my own bank account.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I um, you know, was planning to go back and rent an apartment or, you know, buy another car. If I needed to, um, get a job, you know what did jobs pay? You Like we would spend all this time. You know kind of like, ok, well, if you're a waitress, what kind of American dollars would you make? And what does that mean in CFA? You know like converting it to their money, and they were super interested in all those kinds of conversations.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:But you know, then it was like she was my age but at some point soon she was probably going to get married and she would go from essentially what was cooking all the family meals and doing all the laundry in this household to doing that in a different household and like having kids, and and that was kind of going to be the big change in her life, you know, and there was just so much more that could be ahead for me that I think that that sticks with me a lot, because it was kind of a culture where, you know, like, as women, you know, I wasn't out after dark most times, so we would just sit at home and, uh, her room was across the hall from mine and we would just chat, you know, and uh, so it was hard to leave, cause you really you kind of make a place for yourself in these in this village and in this community and in these people's lives, and and then you leave you know and you are not in touch with them at all, or are you?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:we? Yeah, we have kept in touch. I mean, it's gotten easier, but it was really expensive for them to communicate with me right when I left. You know, um, but you know whatsapp kind of allows you to send an occasional text message or something. But yeah, they'll just say like hi, becky, what's up, you know?
Tiffany Eddy:sounds like my kids. How was it now? I would imagine like living in a culture like that and then coming back to the United States. That must have been a challenge too.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Right, yeah, it was almost harder than going for a lot of the reasons they talk about. You know when sort of veterans return, but you do. You know. You're just not used to living here again because you've been gone for two and a half years and it gives you an incredible appreciation for America and all of the ways that we have succeeded. You know the way that our rule of law holds, the fairness here, the way systems function. You know all the sort of public um like trash pickup and street cleaning and mosquito spraying, and you know like these very basic things that uh, create a quality of life here that I think is is really amazing, amazing, and also it just makes the abundance really, really stark to you when you first come back. I mean all those stories about like you go to a grocery store and there's 27 kinds of cereal those are very real, you know, and I can remember the colors being one of the things that jumped out the most because they didn't have a lot of like Kraft, macaroni and cheese, for example.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:It's like you pour out that orange powder and it's like, wow, it's a really bright artificial color, you know. But I think it. Also, when I got to come back, I ended up speaking at a bunch of things that were events for potential Peace Corps volunteers, which really helped. Because I came back to the seacoast of New Hampshire and you know people are like, oh, what have you been up to? You're like well, I just got home from two and a half years in West Africa and they're like I have no idea what to ask you. So it was good to be able to talk to people who were potentially interested in the experience, just to kind of even process it and sort of have a place to discuss that. But it is, it's a little isolating again, you know.
Tiffany Eddy:So Wow, fascinating, an incredible story. Yeah, so then you, you go on to law school, correct?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:In New.
Tiffany Eddy:York City and then back to New Hampshire. Yep, what does? What made you decide to start getting involved in public service? What made you decide to start getting involved in public service?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I don't know the answer to this question fully and I've been asked it a million times. I just have always sort of felt a sense of duty to this place. You know, I've always felt like I had this incredible childhood growing up, like running around this little neighborhood and you know, my family was able to kind of improve their situation through this business and and I love New Hampshire, I think it's a very special place that retains a lot of incredible community. So I feel very invested in its success and and sort of being able to keep it a place where my kids can have that same kind of incredible childhood. And you know, I think they're on their way, I hope.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:But when I got involved in sort of this whole path that led to running for office, it was because people kept saying the state is getting older. You know like we have this great tsunami and the state's getting older and you know we're going to die on the vine and everyone's getting older. And I like went away to college and came back and I went away to Peace Corps and came back and it just felt like people were still saying this you know, like the state's getting older and older and older, and I was like, are we going to do something or are we just going to talk about it? You know, so maybe it was that small business attitude, I don't know. But I basically, when I was a second year law student, I was like I want to figure out what's going to impact this age, like aging, demographic, and quickly found my way to housing.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:And so, as a second year law student at Cornell, I was working with the Eastern Lakes Region Housing Coalition to do an audit of the 15 towns and their zoning ordinances in that region and advise on ways that they could be amended to create more affordable housing.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:So this was in 2008 or 2009, sometime back then, and that's when I sort of started working with Ben Frost at New Hampshire Housing. And then they passed the workforce housing statute in 2010, which created kind of a regional obligation to have affordable housing, and so I worked with a group of folks, including Ben, to edit the municipal guidance to implement that law as like a third year law student. And so then I got really interested in zoning and looking at all the different ways that that works, you know, nationwide. And then when I moved back to New Hampshire, I was already kind of in touch with some of those folks, and so I was. I got asked to be on the board of the Seacoast Workforce Housing Coalition. I got appointed to be a commissioner at the Portsmouth Housing Authority and then from there got asked to run for city council, since zoning was what I was working on and the planning board too right, it's all integrated.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, yeah. So that was as a member of city council. I was our representative to the planning board and, and you know I think people have said run for the office that you know there's a problem between you and it. And so city council passes zoning. You know, I saw zoning as a real key to kind of keeping Portsmouth as vibrant as it is.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:So I ran on this single issue of affordable and workforce housing for city council and we have that weird, we have this weird multi-candidate election, you know, where the top vote getters, the mayor, and the top nine get on. And so I came in third out of a field of 16 on this issue, um, and asked the mayor to form a housing committee. Um, you know, a second to last meeting of my first term as a city councilor, we passed comprehensive zoning changes across the entire city that allowed for um residential development inside our single-story commercial plazas, so like where there's a hannaford, you know, you could build a couple stories of housing above it. And so I think by that time I just I kind of felt like one person can make a difference and you know, I really felt committed to sort of doing what I could to help help steer our state, where I think it should go yeah.
Tom Prasol:And I mean in the seat that you serve in in the Senate. I mean it's. It was held by Senator Martha Floyd Clark forever. I mean she's a legend in this in the Senate. I mean it's. It was held by Senator Martha Floyd Clark forever. I mean she's a legend in this in the state Senate. Yeah, and I know you became pretty close with her, probably during your time on the city council, and so you know I think you've had big shoes to fill, but I think you're doing okay.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Well, thank you. They're huge shoes to fill and my relationship with Martha has always it's like one of my favorites because she reminds me completely of my grandmother. They're both from that generation of. Just like you know, they want to talk about what's getting done quickly, without a whole lot of muss and fuss, and we both really like land use and we both really like energy. So you know, we will spend two hours just talking policy on our sun porch, you know. So I feel really lucky to be trying to fill those shoes, yeah.
Tom Prasol:So where along the way did you meet your wife?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Ah well, stereotypically.
Tom Prasol:Not West Africa right.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:No, ah well, uh, stereotypically not west africa, right? No? So I met caitlin when, um, when I moved back here, uh, which I was working at oran reno, down the street this way, I think, um, and I had played rugby in college, so I joined the local just like club women's rugby team and, uh, that's where I met my wife I met my wife in a bowling league, so I mean she always jokes.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:She's like you saw me in those gray sweatpants and you were like gotta have it. And when did you get married? We got married in 2016.
Tiffany Eddy:Oh, wow, okay so, yeah, it's a while now, and then, uh, three kids three kids, yeah, which was complicated.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:We had to figure out how that worked. But yeah, we have three, you know, beautiful little girls and I was always the one who wanted to have kids, but as soon as we had the first one, my wife was into it. So she's she's really good at like reading the Internet on how we should talk about big feelings and telling me what to say.
Tom Prasol:That's important though.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, I think it is important and it's neat to watch them. They're sort of getting to a place where they really have a relationship with each other and I think a lot of times being up in the Senate or watching adults try to resolve problems amongst themselves really makes you realize how important it is to teach that skill early. So we're proud of them. So far, I mean, I've still got teenage years ahead of me, but well, it's.
Tiffany Eddy:It's interesting because I think my daughter in particular when, when she was much younger, I was working at channel nine and would take her, the only way to spend time with her really was to take her with me a lot of times out on shoots so she got exposed to so many different kinds of people and places because of that experience and I think it really benefited her. You can throw her into any situation and she'll just be absolutely fine, so it sounds like you're able to give your kids something similar.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, I hope so. I mean, it's good to. I always like these stories as a newer mom, you know, than others, but I tell this story from last fall because it was informative to me because, um, you know, ever since my oldest one's been little, you know, I had her when I was still a city counselor, and she would come to meetings in her little car seat, you know, and I would bring her up, you know, up to put her on a conference table or something somewhere, and it felt like I was doing that forever. And as she got a little older, she, you, we started to hit a stage where we'd be at a meeting or something. She'd be like Mom, this is so boring.
Tiffany Eddy:Can we?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:leave and I was like, I was like I think my time in public service is getting a little limited, you know. But last fall when Kamala Harris came to visit Northampton, we got to go, you know, to throwback and be kind of in the front row and we had talked a little bit about the election. But when Kamala came through, you know, she met my daughter, she gave her a high five and she was like are you going to help your mom with this? And Logan was like yeah, and she was just after that she was like over the moon, like she spent the whole day being like Kamala, kamala, you know. And so it was like, from that event on, she kind of was like what's happening with Donald Trump? You know, what's happening with Kamala Harris?
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:And on the morning after the election, you know, she cried a little bit. She was kind of invested in it. So it was just kind of interesting, like wherever you land on the political spectrum. Um, to me it was informative as a mom because I was like, okay, she's really starting to understand that there is this whole life outside of the home and I think that's an important piece for me is just for them to know. You know, it's. Our home should be a safe little place, but also there's a lot of other people out there and you know we have to be a part of that too, right and I think in I think in this day and age too, with social media and technology and whatnot that to have them care about something beyond that and to kind of get vested.
Tiffany Eddy:Is is pretty cool.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, Well, I'm working on it. That's the dream. No.
Tom Prasol:I always think. I always do think it is fun to get you know little kids engaged in politics. And I think it's probably just because it's my life and I want to have a relationship. But there's so many ways you can do it that they don't even realize. On election night, I always have my nieces and nephews take a map of the United States and whenever the news calls a state, oh, you get to color it in red or blue and learn about stuff like that subconsciously You're tricking them, but it is important because it's not something that a lot of people really get engaged in until you know later in life.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, I mean, I certainly didn't. And I think about what you said. You know it's just like my daughter will have all these opportunities and know all these things that I didn't know when I was her age, you know. So I think anything we can do to sort of set our girls up to just step right into life these days is important and um, so it just uh, it's added a layer to being a mom. I mean COVID and you're holding public office and all this. But you know, overall I think it's, it's been awesome.
Tiffany Eddy:I've really enjoyed it and I think you touched upon something too with um, your Kamala story. But in Hampshire we have just this incredible opportunity, with the first in the nation primary, that we have access to so many fascinating people and future leaders. And so I can remember I've taken my kids to a whole bunch of different town halls. Sometimes they're begrudgingly and you kind of pull them in, but I think they remember these and think you know finally like wow, that was really cool.
Tiffany Eddy:And we got to meet so-and-so, and so you do have this incredible opportunity with little kids who right now are captives and have to go with you.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:You're right. Yeah, train them early. Yeah, and they have pictures. You know, like, my oldest daughter has two pictures with Joe Biden. It's like you know what kid can say that. But it's actually a little special too, because my wife's grandfather, so way back in Providence, worked for the Providence Journal for 40 years and there's this picture of my mother-in-law, you know so my daughter's grandmother, and she's leaning over a rope to kind of give LBJ a kiss. And the way that it worked out with Logan and Kamala Harris like the pose is almost identical in terms of the pose of like Kamala and Logan and just kind of how it all worked out.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:So we created kind of a side by side, which is just kind of a neat. You know, it's like these parallels in history. So anyway, yeah, it's, it's been an adventure, it's for sure, but I really enjoyed it, that's awesome.
Tom Prasol:Well, an adventure, that's for sure, but I really enjoyed it. That's awesome, well, and I can say you know you touched on it earlier when you were talking about um, your time at Dartmouth and how you got engaged in in government- and bringing people together to work on something and just solve a problem and you know I can attest to the fact.
Tom Prasol:I've seen you use that at the, at the state house, when you're in a committee and you know things are really polarized in the world, but I've seen you work with folks to like let's find a commonality here that we can agree on. So thank you. And in the youth bringing, bringing youth to the state house is always important.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yes.
Tom Prasol:But given your youth.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah.
Tom Prasol:You know any future plans. I mean you know you got. The world is your oyster.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Thanks, Tom.
Tom Prasol:Anytime.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Senator.
Tiffany Eddy:Such a charmer I know, yes.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I've answered this question a lot lately, but you know, for now I just got to where I am and I, you know, I think there's just a lot of potential to, as you said, kind of be able to be a bridge builder. You know, from the role that I'm in and I think, having watched politics for as long as I have, you know even back to days at Dartmouth, you know it was different then, and even in the time I've held office, you know, I think, the way we campaign and the sort of expectation that you would be in person and that the voter is sort of entitled to understand your whole life, I think even that has changed, you know. And so that's how we live, you know, I think I think we try to just be members of the community. You'll see me at the grocery store buying milk or, like I said, you know, walking around downtown Portsmouth. They'll see me at the grocery store buying milk or, like I said, you know, walking around downtown Portsmouth.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:But I think that kind of campaigning is getting seeded in some ways to much more of a desktop operation, and so I really think there's a lot of potential in trying to play a role, in making sure that we are out in the community and that as elected officials, you know, we're sort of present in people's everyday lives and um, and so I think, being in the position I'm in, there's an opportunity to really look at how we do things and sort of what we're saying. And um, there's always opportunities for kind of political gotchas, but at the end of the day, um, you know, I think, getting things done for the people that depend on them is really, really important.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Housing's been one of those issues, you know, and I came up here and I was able to set up the Housing Champions Program, which you know I think is something that's been very bipartisan. But all that to say, I just see a lot of work to do from the role I'm in right now and that's important to me, so I'm excited to have the opportunity. Obviously, I would have liked to arrive here under a little different circumstances, as a Democrat, but but but I think you know, focused on this.
Tiffany Eddy:That's saying well, we're honored that you came on our podcast. I just have one last question.
Tom Prasol:Given you talk about going out in Portsmouth like every Friday night. I personally love surf.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah.
Tom Prasol:But tell me best. Out in Portsmouth like every Friday night. I personally love surf, but tell me best restaurant in Portsmouth that's a tough one. There's so many good ones.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:There is, and I can't choose favorites because I'll get in trouble.
Tom Prasol:That's a good point. That was a terrible question to ask.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:But yeah, we spend a lot of time in downtown. I have to put a little plug in because my friends just reopened River Run Bookstore as the book nook, so we've been spending a lot of time as our little group of friends like stocking bookshelves.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:I took care of the children's book section, so I know exactly how it's organized. Did the kids help? They did, they loved it. You know they tested out all the toys, stuff like that. But we on date night we like to maybe go to Massimo Okay, my kids really like a mango roll from Domo, but the decks are open right now, so we tend to go down by the water, you know, and have an ice cream at animals.
Tiffany Eddy:Yeah, I love that.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:Yeah, yeah, it's fun.
Tiffany Eddy:It's such a great community.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:It is, we're lucky.
Tiffany Eddy:Well, and we're lucky. So thank you for coming on. We really appreciate it, yeah thank you for having me. It was a pleasure to get to know you.
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka:You guys as well. Thanks for having me. This was fun.
Tiffany Eddy:Awesome.
Tom Prasol:Well, and I guess that's it, do you want?
Tiffany Eddy:to wrap it up, this one or you yeah, I mean you know again, thank you for joining us on the latest episode of Anything. But Politics, and we'll look forward to seeing you next time. Yeah, thank you so much, appreciate it. And again, thank you so much, senator, thank you for having me.