‘My ministry is service’: Michelle Louise Bicking is Connecticut’s Green Party candidate for governor

Michelle Louise Bicking doesn’t want to be known as a politician.

“I’m not a politician,” Bicking said. “I am a social worker. My ministry is service — that is the hill that I die on.”

Bicking, the Green Party candidate for Connecticut governor, said that she can offer something that the state needs — a focus on people, not profit.

“I do believe I can be governor of this state. And perhaps they do need a social worker more than they do a businessman because a businessman is looking at those quarter benefits. They’re not looking exactly at how that actually affects the day-to-day lives of working people — that is my life’s work,” Bicking said.

Bicking described her political ideology as one that revolves around social justice, human rights and a global perspective of humanity. She supports equitable school systems, expanded public transportation, affordable housing, universal health care, paid parental leave, environmental conservation, renewable energy, banning styrofoam and the cancelation of fossil fuel subsidies, to name a handful of the many issues Bicking hopes to tackle as governor.

Bicking said that unlike her Democratic and Republican challengers, Gov. Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski, she understands the struggles of the Connecticut people.

“To me, Stefanowski and Lamont are the same in terms of their value system and their priorities. They’re rich white men who are incredibly and completely removed from this,” Bicking said, gesturing to the city streets beyond a Hartford coffeeshop at the intersection of the Clay Arsenal, Asylum Hill and downtown neighborhoods.

‘I grew up in this’

“I know nothing but this. I grew up in this. They have no idea in their nice, pristine little bubble of privilege, what it’s like to have to make Uber runs on the weekends so I can pay my water bill. They don’t know what it’s like to be homeless, post-surgery with no services in a hotel room with your son and not knowing what to do, or how you’re going to manage, or what you’re going to eat for the next day. They don’t know what that’s like,” Bicking said.

Bicking said that it’s time to address the cracks that have been eating at Connecticut’s progressive, blue wall for decades that policymakers have either overlooked or failed to act on.

“When you actually pull the curtains back and you see all of the devastation, economic, financial, when you see the political estrangement, you see the disenfranchisement of families, it’s really disheartening,” Bicking said. “We have a facade. It’s a very nice facade. It’s durable, but there are cracks in it. If our leaders [and] those who have the ability to push policy, don’t actually address those cracks, it will fall.”

Bicking said that education will be a key focus if elected. Although Bicking is a resident of Newington, she sends her 6-year-old son to school in Glastonbury where his father lives so her son can attend better schools. She said that in Connecticut, your zip code should not define the quality of education you receive.

“I think we need to divorce the system of having schooling funded by our property taxes,” Bicking said.

In addition to taking on education, Bicking wants to reinvigorate and expand the state’s public transportation system to provide a statewide commuter rail that decreases reliance on motor vehicles.

Bicking envisions each town’s station as a hub for business, dining, public parks and culture that provides affordable housing options and supports a mixed intergenerational community.

“We have freight rail systems that crisscrossed the entire state that can be totally repurposed for commuter rail,” Bicking said. “I want Connecticut to be its own freestanding model of what mass transit should look like.”

Additionally, Bicking would want the state to implement a single-payer health care system that provides coverage for physical and mental health and dentistry while allowing people the option to choose to remain on their private insurance.

For more than a decade, Bicking, who is also a certified birth doula, has worked as a social worker, serving “children from ages 2 to 102? in marginalized communities. But even before that, Bicking’s life was marked by a desire to serve.

Born to immigrants

The daughter of immigrant parents from Barbados and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Bicking grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. As a young girl, Bicking, a pro-choice Catholic, said she seriously flirted with the idea of becoming a nun, but scrapped her plans following a high school romance.

After receiving a bachelor’s in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Denison University, Bicking enrolled in Rutgers University’s nursing program but ran out of money to complete her degree. She ended up receiving a master’s in Public Administration from the school before pursuing a master’s in Social Work at Springfield College.

Bicking said that it’s important that her constituents know that Bicking isn’t someone who feigns interest to get votes — she cares and she is present. Bicking criticized politicians who use promises that are “sexy in the moment” as the hallmark of their campaign without following through.

Bicking said that she focuses on connecting with people where they are.

“You’re too ashamed to have me in your house? OK. Can I meet you outside on your stoop? Happened many times. Oh, you don’t want me to come into your neighborhood because there was a shootout? Well, I’m used to that. Want to meet at the Dunkin’ Donuts down the street? I’ll meet you where you are. That’s what makes a difference. And I’m not scared to go into neighborhoods with people who don’t look like me,” Bicking said.

‘An uphill climb’

After a failed run for U.S. Representative in 2018, Bicking said she is “running to win” this November and plans on securing her victory “one person at a time.” But even the path to inclusion on the ballot has been fraught with roadblocks.

By Aug. 10, Bicking needs 7,500 signatures to show up next to Lamont and Stefanowski on the ballot. These signatures must be collected in-person on double-sided, legal size paper. Additionally, the petitions are broken down by location, so registered voters can only sign the petition paper specific to their town.

So far, Bicking said her party has collected about 2,000 signatures.

“It is an uphill climb in the rain in the dark,” Bicking said. “It’s been very, very difficult.”

She said that the biggest misconception she encounters is the belief that the Green Party “steals” votes from Democratic candidates. Bicking said that she seeks to engage disenfranchised voters.

“I see the disillusionment. I also see the hesitancy to be involved in anything that identifies as a party,” Bicking said, adding that the Green Party “is not so much providing an alternative. It’s just showing you that a functioning democracy needs all voices present and must be resonant in order to take care of each other. Otherwise we all fail.”

Despite the challenges, Bicking said that she hopes her campaign will show others that you don’t need to be an insider to be a leader.

“I also want to remind people that this could be them,” Bicking said. “They don’t have to wait for some superhero that doesn’t even have any physical roots beyond the Fairfield County border to come and rescue them from their fight. This is you. We are what we have been looking for all along.”

More information on Bicking’s campaign for governor is available at the website roomatthetable.us. Anyone interested in signing Bicking’s ballot petition may contact Bicking at bicking.michelle@gmail.com or Connecticut Green Party Secretary Ronna Stuller at rstuller@snet.net or 860-772-8439.

Alison Cross can be reached at across@courant.com.