Candidate Surveys — U.S. House District 4

Affordability & Economic Fairness: Families in Central Washington are being squeezed from every direction, groceries, housing, health premiums, and tariffs that raise costs for farmers and consumers. My priority is to make life more affordable for working people. That starts with restoring congressional authority over tariffs, fixing a tax code that favors the wealthy over workers, and protecting Social Security from reckless budget proposals. Washington’s families deserve an economy that works for them.Healthcare & Rural Hospitals: Healthcare in Central Washington is growing more expensive and harder to access, especially in rural communities. I will work to keep rural hospitals open, restore ACA subsidies, protect and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid, and reduce waste in our system. Over time, I believe our nation must move toward universal healthcare, because no family should go bankrupt due to illness, and no community should lose its only hospital.Immigration Reform: Our immigration system is broken, and it’s hurting families, farms, and local employers. We need secure borders, yes, but we also need a fair, humane pathway to legal status and citizenship for people who have lived, worked, and raised families here. As a former civil servant, I’ve seen firsthand the failures of ICE, and I believe the agency requires major structural reform. America’s story is one of immigration, and our policies should reflect our values and our economic needs.

I am passionate about tax reform. The tax code is the tool with which the wealthiest 1% of Americans have waged war against the rest of us. I want to remove the “Stepped up Basis” and carried interest loopholes, but those loopholes are just the start. As a former military member and civil servant, I was required to uphold the highest ethical standards. I am interested in reforming ethics rules for all three branches of the Government. A civil servant should not be fired or sent to prison for something congressmen do legally with impunity. As a veteran, I’ve struggled with Veteran’s Affairs, and I would welcome any opportunity to listen to veterans and make improvements to the VA.

Benton Country Democrats, Grant County Democrats, Klickitat County Democrats

I believe climate change is one of the biggest threats facing our entire planet. We had a good mix of incentives bringing online solar and wind power, and those incentives have seriously damaged by the Trump Administration. Those incentives were working. I will work to bring them back! I strongly believe we also need to develop nuclear power to mitigate the worst impact of climate change, and start moving our economy off of carbon intense economy of today.

Removing the tariffs and working with agriculture to re-develop trade relationships is the single most important thing to protect our agricultural economy. The rising costs for fuel and fertilizers due to the war in Iran also need to be addressed and fixed immediately. In meeting with farmers from around the district, making sure the regulatory environment is stable and transparent is very important to our export markets.

This is a hard question. We know that regulation is at times overbearing and wasteful. Identifying those years is a real challenge. Step one, prevent industry from writing regulations. Today, industry incumbents in all sectors lobby FOR regulations that reduce competition and protect market share. This is bad. I would also like to incentivize government professionals to reduce regulatory burdens where possible. This will be a challenge, but today, the incentives are for ever MORE regulations. I would also like to change the structure of any regulatory regime so that it is based on evidence and/or some kind of cost benefit analysis.

Yes, keeping the most vulnerable out of detention is a priority. When the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, we regain power of the purse over the Trump Administration. We will seek to defund detention centers as soon as possible. Holding the government accountable will be a more difficult task. Today, the Republicans only seem to be ready to hold Democratic politicians and government people accountable. We will need help with the large number of reforms necessary to make sure everyone in the government is accountable and bound by the same laws.

I stand for a fast, fair, and affordable path to legal status for all immigrants who have lived here for more than 5 years and have positively contributed to their communities. These are valued members of our community, and central Washington’s economy is stronger because of them. The Trump administration immigration enforcement is immoral and un-American. They aren’t out for the ‘worst of the worst,’ they are catching anyone they can. They are even retroactively changing immigrants’ status, and are deporting them as they try to work through the system the ‘right way.’

Congress has ceded too much power to the executive branch. Congress should insist on oversight and public hearings to set specific, measurable and meaningful rules on what federal rule-making and decision-making are allowed in the scope of legislation. The most important thing is long term stability for the economy, businesses need time to understand the rules and regulations, and they shouldn’t change wildly because the Presidency or Congress changed partisan control. A strong economy should be a common goal.

AI has its place, and it’s not going anywhere - there’s no doubt about that. However, data centers, which house more than just AI technology, shouldn’t place burdens on the local communities or compete for vital resources. During my 24 years in the Air Force as an IT and Cybersecurity Officer, I was tasked with understanding and overseeing these types of systems. We don’t yet know what effects these data centers or AI will have on future technology and the subsequent effects on society, but I have first hand experience with the infrastructure and hardware. And as an avid outdoorsman and father, I have a vested interest in seeing that our current actions don’t negatively impact future generations.

I chose to run after getting the infamous Fork in the Road email. I didn't respond to that, but I did take early retirement as a result of the ‘DOGE’ cuts. The day after I signed, I was listening to a podcast, The Next Level. Sarah Longwell said, “It’s really driven when people feel personally like they cannot sit on the sidelines. Because things are so crazy they feel like they have to get in the game.” That was it, I started the next day.

Immediate fixes to the Affordability Crisis, real relief for working people, immediate fixes to the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid/Medicare, and protecting rural hospitals. Finally, get ICE out of our communities.

Look, this is always going to be difficult; humans are flawed, elected officials will NOT always do the right thing. That is why having a functioning system of checks and balances is so important. In this imagined world, elected officials would prioritize what is right for their constituents first, then for the country. Partisan politics would not be in this imagined world.