Activist Profile: Elena Hung of Little Lobbyists
Image: Elena Hung speaks in a microphone while holding her daughter’s hand in front of a group of Little Lobbyist activists. (Courtesy of Elena Hung)
The following profile is an excerpt from my book, “From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Activists and How to Get Started.” It’s one of six profiles about mom-advocates who I felt embodied important aspects of advocacy. Elena Hung’s section is called “Telling Stories to Power” because that is at the core of everything she does with the organization she co-founded, Little Lobbyists.
When I interviewed Elena, her daughter Xiomara was about six years old. Now, Xiomara is 10 years old and still lobbying with Elena on Capitol Hill during yet another critical fight to maintain Medicaid benefits for kids with complex medical conditions and all people who rely on it. They are telling lawmakers how Medicaid helps pay for home assistance, medical equipment, help for kids to attend school, and more. Medicaid means they can live at home with loving families instead of living in institutionalized care and receive quality education. It’s so much more than doctors’ visits for the families of Little Lobbyists.
You can read about their current efforts in this New York Times article and take an immediate on-line action with MomsRising to tell Congress “No cuts to Medicaid”…but do it quickly! The Medicaid decision will come up quickly possibly this week in the last days of June 2025. Call both of your senators with that message ASAP!
PROFILE: ELENA HUNG, TELLING STORIES TO POWER
As the executive director and co-founder of Little Lobbyists, Elena Hung advocates to protect and expand the rights of children who have complex medical needs and disabilities. Elena’s advocacy grows from her role as the fiercely loving mother of Xiomara.
When I interviewed her mom, Xiomara was a spunky first grader who loved playing with her big brother, watching Sesame Street, and going to the library. She had spent her entire life battling several serious medical conditions affecting her airways, lungs, heart, and kidneys. She experienced tracheobronchomalacia, which means her airway and lungs were floppy and collapsed when she breathed. She relied on an ever-present tracheostomy tube to deliver air to her lungs and a feeding tube to deliver all her nutrition.
Elena didn’t set out to become an activist and certainly didn’t intend to start an organization, but in 2017, she watched with fear as Congress attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). She believed their actions would endanger her daughter, as ten pre-existing conditions would make it hard to receive medical insurance, without the ACA’s protection for people with such conditions.
In a moment of hope and desperation, Elena thought, “We have to do something. Just show up.” She knew senators would never fight for anyone like Xiomara if they had never met anyone like her. Elena lived in Maryland, close to Washington, D.C., and she was also part of a nationwide community of families with children like hers. Most of those families lived too far away to access offices of U.S. senators.
In a late-night discussion, Elena and her mom-friend Michelle Morrison formed a basic plan. The parents who lived near D.C. would visit legislators in support of the ACA, sharing pictures and stories of kids with complex medical needs who lived all over the country. When they delivered their message, they would bring along their own kids, so everyone in a senator’s office could personally meet disabled children with trach tubes, ventilators, oxygen, wheelchairs, walkers, and feeding tubes. They wanted lawmakers to come face-to-face with children who desperately needed the continued protection of the ACA and access to Medicaid and hear stories about other kids in similar situations all over the country.
Elena and the other parents planned their efforts carefully and intentionally, but they had no idea how they would be received. Members of Congress were generally surprised by the presence of these tiny visitors and all their accompanying medical equipment. Elena explained, “Children are not your usual visitors on Capitol Hill. It’s historically filled with lobbyists; powerful men in suits and powerful women in suits and high heels. The first reaction is usually, ‘Oh! What are you doing here? Are you lost?’ I don’t mean that in a positive or negative way. It’s just something they’re not used to. The more often we go, the more welcoming it is among the members who have gotten to know us.”
In a dramatic vote a month after those visits, the Senate voted down the ACA repeal, protecting Xiomara’s health insurance and access to Medicaid—for the moment, at least. It was obvious to Elena that more work was needed, so she and Michelle continued to collect and deliver stories from parents. They visited Capitol Hill repeatedly with their kids and became friendly with influential politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren. The more often they visited, Elena discovered, the more they were welcomed by members who grew to know them.
Image: Elena consults with a colleague in a senate building in Washington D.C. while receiving a hug from her daughter. (Courtesy of Elena Hung)
In 2018, Little Lobbyists became an official nonprofit 501(c)(4) lobbying organization. The nature of the visits changed a lot in the years after the summer of 2017. Those first meetings were very urgent, Elena recalled. “It was like, ‘You have to vote this way now!’ There wasn’t a whole lot of room or space to develop a relationship.” Over the next few years, the Little Lobbyist families realized that building relationships can be an important step toward impactful change. The families concentrated on telling powerful stories about their kids’ lives, getting to know aides and members of Congress, and learning how to work together with legislators instead of focusing on a certain vote.
Elena wants members of Congress and their staff to understand these children with complex medical needs and disabilities and to recognize how those needs impact families. She also wants legislators to call on her as a resource if they face questions about such issues. “I have this wealth of knowledge and personal experience that you cannot get from policy experts or data analysts.”
Even though Elena has a background as an attorney, she doesn’t speak in complicated legalese when she wants to make a point. Instead, she uses her sincere mom voice to describe her family life and share her hopes and fears for her child’s future.
As Xiomara’s mother, she offers a valuable perspective no one else can provide, and she considers a continuing conversation a kind of victory. When a legislator ends a discussion by suggesting a future meeting, Elena feels very satisfied. “That feels hopeful like we are working together toward something larger that is sustainable and working toward more permanent change.”
How to Purchase My Book
My book, “From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started,” is a warm and witty guidebook helping moms to make a better world for all of us. It provides inspirational stories and step-by-step instructions for new and experience activists to get more involved in advocacy!
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COMING SOON: My next book “Advocacy Made Easy: The Handbook for Turning Civic Frustration into Powerful Action” will launch summer 2025! Subscribe to my newsletter at www.changyit.com for updates.
