Editor’s note: Ahead of the March 17 primary, Growing Community Media is profiling the candidates running in the 7th congressional district in Illinois. Whoever wins the November election will succeed Rep. Danny Davis, who is retiring after nearly 30 years in the position. This week, GCM reported on Felix Tello.
Felix Tello’s platform in the 7th district congressional race is to be nothing but a voice for constituents. His new secure app, Vote Our Way, is available to download as a way for voters to submit to representatives their preferences on individual bills — in just 15 minutes a week from the comfort of their home.
“It’s not my job to come up with the agenda or the needs of the people. It’s the people’s job to tell me,” Tello said, adding that currently, constituents have little access to their representatives. “These congresspeople are bringing forward their agenda as they think the district wants. I don’t have an agenda. The people are my agenda.”
An engineer by trade, Tello had the idea for a platform like Vote Our Way over 20 years ago. When Richard Nixon was president, he started realizing how corrupt Congress is and wanted to find a way to change that.
“They make promises to the district to do something, and they get to Congress and they completely get assimilated. They get assimilated by the money, by the party, and they forget about who elected them, who hired them to do the job,” Tello said.
So about five years ago, Tello gathered 20-some people across the country to help him build Vote Our Way to allow constituents a direct voice in Congress by voting on every piece of legislation. After the primary election, Tello plans to further develop the app for state governments.
“If I don’t win, my journey hasn’t ended. I am here to represent the people, and to hold whoever gets to Congress accountable,” Tello said. “I know I can do it because I’ll have the data.”
Though Vote Our Way is now live, while door-knocking before its launch, Tello heard from constituents some feedback that spurred him to propose five new acts:
- The Democracy Forward Act would put provisions in place to prevent executive overreach.
- The Economic Engine and Jobs Act would empower non-union workers by funding skill improvement opportunities and having large companies allocate a certain percentage of profits to employees.
- The Immigration Reform Act would retain the economic power of immigration while addressing violent crime and ending mass deportation. “Not only is it wrong to treat people that way,” Tello said of how the Trump administration is dealing with immigration, “but it’s stupid with the economy. If you want to get the criminals out, go for it, but do it constitutionally. Don’t violate their rights to do it. You don’t want to take a broad stroke at it because undocumented people produce $350 billion in economic value nationally.”
- The Health and Human Rights Act would keep the government from interfering in anyone’s medical or health decisions. Tello is for universal health care and said Congress needs to appropriate more money to it by restoring Trump’s cuts to the Affordable Care Act. He also wants to create another entitlement program for those who don’t get health insurance either through their jobs or Medicaid.
- The Village Act would create legislation that lifts up those who are economically, physically, mentally or educationally disadvantaged. It would create a federal agency to oversee funds to charity, allow individuals and businesses to opt into a tax with full credit, and create programs for job training, mental health, housing and education.
In an interview the day civil rights leader Jesse Jackson died, Tello quoted him, “‘We’re not a perfect people, yet we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race.’ That’s what I want to turn my Village Act into, and I want to turn the Austin neighborhood first because they’re the furthest behind.”
Tello worked as an engineer for 37 years, many at Siemens, where he said he learned how to be an expert in change, identifying the goals and solutions for specific problems.
“I’ve got more experience and wisdom in doing that because that’s what I did for 37 years,” Tello said. “When I get to Congress, it’s not only my job to introduce the priorities and the legislation, it’s my job to make progress on that agenda and to negotiate across the aisle. … little chewable bites at a time. But the Democratic Party is all about one big elephant — swallow it all, Republicans, because we want it all.”
The 28th Amendment
Born in Colombia, Tello became a citizen at 21. Today, he carries around a pocket-sized version of the U.S. Constitution and considers himself a constitutionalist.
“The Constitution says, ‘We the people,’ starts with those three freaking words. ‘The people’ is gone. It doesn’t exist in this country because of Congress, because of the corruption that exists,” Tello said.
As a constitutionalist, Tello aims to educate voters across the country about the 28th Amendment, or Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
First drafted in the 1920s, both the Senate and House passed the amendment in 1972. In a preamble that’s not legally binding, Congress gave a deadline of 7 years for the standard three-fourths of the country’s states to ratify an amendment before it becomes national law. In 2020, the 38th state ratified the amendment, but the Trump Administration said the deadline to add the amendment to the Constitution had passed.
“Millions of people are suffering. They can’t get an abortion when they want. They can’t see their medical doctor. They can’t get married across the country. They can’t free the nipple if they want. They can’t breastfeed when they want,” Tello said.
Other Democratic candidates who have thrown their hats in the ring for Davis’s seat include Richard Boykin, Kina Collins, Melissa Conyears-Ervin, David Ehrlich, Anthony Driver Jr., Dr. Thomas Fisher, La Shawn Ford, Jason Friedman, Rory Hoskins, Anabel Mendoza, Jazmin Robinson and Reed Showalter. Republican candidates are Chad Koppie and Patricia Easley.
