Pivoting from Electoral Loss

Most political candidates have good ideas, and they want to win. For the most part, they all mean well. But what happens to candidates when the vote doesn’t go their way? How do they restructure their lives after an electoral loss? We asked former candidate for US Congress District 30, Michael Feuer, a career politician, if he had a plan B in place in case he didn’t win.

“I always believe that things will go well, and so I never have a plan B,” he said. “I was very passionate about running for Congress. I wanted to change the world and serve the public. I threw myself into that race and gave every ounce of energy, determination, creativity and focus that I had. I thought we were doing very well, and then I didn’t win. After the election, there was some introspection and figuring out what I really cared about the most. But after the election, one moves on,” he said.

Feuer has learned a lot during his multiple elected office tenures, but he also took his own advice about introspection.

“Resilience is one of the most important qualities that anyone can have. And I learned it from my Dad. As a 21-year-old turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber in WWII, his plane was shot down, and he had to parachute from the crashing plane. He had never jumped and was severely injured. Captured by the Nazis, he ended up in Austria at the infamous prisoner of war camp, Stalag 17.”

“Being a Jewish prisoner of war was horrific,” he relates about his father.

“When the Russians were coming to liberate the camp, the Nazis marched the camp prisoners across Austria in the snow ahead of the oncoming Russian Army. My father couldn’t walk; his boots didn’t fit, and he struggled to use a makeshift cart he constructed to give him some stability. He didn’t think he was going to live through that experience. But he made it.”

“After the war,” continues Feuer, “he decided to pursue a career in education, which was not necessarily the most lucrative work, but he felt it was the most important. He became a teacher and then a public school principal in San Bernardino, where I grew up. His lesson in resilience has really stuck with me. I’ve often reflected that if my father could survive that experience in that Nazi camp, then I can get through anything and certainly get through losing an election.”

Feuer says he quickly pivoted after the election and has taken the last few months to find other avenues to serve people.

“I got some good advice from a colleague who advised me to be patient and decide what I was really passionate about. I’ve reconnected with the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, which does a lot of justice-related work, and with a group I co-founded, Prosecutors Against Gun Violence. I just finished working with them, organizing a two-day national summit regarding the most significant emergent gun violence threat right now,  which is gun conversion devices that turn semi-automatic guns into machine guns. I also worked with them to help get American-trained Afghan judges and prosecutors to escape to the US,” Feuer said.

His extensive resume is a legal employer’s dream. It includes expertise in solving homelessness, advocating for seniors’ rights, affordable and safe housing, preventing gun violence, women’s rights, the environment, advancing voting rights and, oh yeah, memorably defending democracy when, as LA City Attorney, he challenged the first Trump Administration’s executive order to detain refugees at airports. At LAX, Feuer was repeatedly denied access to federal detainees or an attorney who could discuss the situation with him.

His colleague’s advice for “patience” paid off when Inner City Law Center’s CEO, Adam Murray, reached out to Feuer and asked him to take a position on their public policy team as Senior Policy Advisor. Feuer assumed this new position on December 2.  

“Murray is one of the most innovative thinkers on homeless policy, housing issues, justice reform, and the justice system,” says Feuer. “This offer hit all the cylinders for me.”

“The people at ICLC are gems in the legal community,” he continues. “With so many choices in their lives, they decided to devote themselves to people who have nothing. It’s hard work, underpaid, gritty, and unglamorous. I tremendously admire everyone in the organization. They’ve chosen to devote their careers to some of the most important issues that humanity has to confront.”

“We agreed it would be a part-time position,” he continues, “because I want to have room for other projects. I’ll work with the ICLC on housing and homeless policy at the local and state levels and potentially at the federal level. They have a very innovative, thoughtful team devoted to representing individual clients and impacting major homelessness and housing policies designed to reduce homelessness to zero.”

Feuer has led a number of initiatives relating to the unhoused populations. These include going after the unlawful dumping and discharging of homeless patients; sending teams to the streets to provide mental health, nursing, substance abuse health care and other wrap-around services; and getting rid of outstanding warrants, citations and fines that can be impediments to the unhoused when applying for all types of services.  

“At ICLC, we’ll try to effectuate big changes to policies, but at the end of the day, it’s individuals who benefit from the actions we take. It’s not some academic exercise. It’s about helping human beings. ICLC helps thousands of individuals each year with housing, food, and living in dignity.”

“Retirement,” says the 66-year-old Feuer, “is for other people. There is so much work to do in the world. I thought I was going to be in Congress to do that work. That didn’t happen, so I had to identify an alternative that gave me the privilege of living my life the way I wanted.  A sense of purpose is far more important than how big the house is or how fancy the car is, right?” Feuer adds, “A sense of purpose is what drives people to be successful into their 90s.”

Feuer says he has no plans to run for office in the immediate future.

“I’m finding different ways other than running for office to make an impact on the world. I’m constantly trying to find the most impactful things I can do. They don’t need to be elected office opportunities. The point is we can serve the public in many ways, and I want to do that.”

“After Trump and the airport,” he continues, “I spoke at law school graduation ceremonies around the country about what democracy is, what authoritarianism is and what we needed to be doing with our lives. I challenged the students to think with deep introspection about what counts the most for them and to reflect on how they’re going to feel throughout their lives. Was there a moment when they could have made an impact, and they chose not to take it? I tell the story about my father and the precious moments I had with him. We have this tiny amount of time to burn really brightly, and then it’s done, so we better take advantage of it while we can.”