Newly elected Democrats listen and bring voters’ concerns to Congress
Accessibility isn’t just a talking points for newly elected House Democrats, it’s an important step toward finally changing Washington to make sure it answers to the American people. That’s why House Democrats spent their week at home listening to voters and sharing their commitment to the issues that matter most: making health care more affordable; connecting workers with good paying jobs; investing in infrastructure that will spur economic growth in communities that need it, and much more.
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What they were doing back home:
CA-10: FOX 40 News: Turlock’s Young, Democratic Congressman Discusses His Time on Capitol Hill
By Nikki Laurenzo
The freshman representative from Turlock is one of the youngest lawmakers on Capitol Hill — a fresh face looking to spark change.
“Affordable health care, real immigration reform, more jobs in the valley are the right set of priorities and now it’s time to actually get something done,” Harder told FOX40.
“It’s clear that the pace of us actually solving problems is nowhere close to the rate of the challenges we have,” he said. “We need to be doing a lot more to bring down prescription drug costs, to push for infrastructure funding and I spend every week getting breakfast with 10 Republicans, 10 Democrats looking for opportunities to find common ground. I think we’re going to have to work together in order to accelerate the pace of change that’s really needed.”
CA-49: The Capistrano Dispatch: Congressman Levin has Coffee with Constituents
By Shawn Raymundo
Levin, a resident of San Juan Capistrano, spent one-on-one time with locals answering their questions.
Last month, the freshman congressman held a town hall meeting in San Juan where he outlined some of his goals such as getting homeless veterans off the streets and removing the spent nuclear fuel from San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
By Luke Nozicka
“As a mother, all I want for my children is to be happy, healthy and successful in life,” Steele told U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne during the congresswoman’s first town hall Saturday. But without the medical care, “that would not be possible.”
Through tears, Steele thanked Axne for co-sponsoring the Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act, which would require insurance companies to cover the treatment she said her seventh-grade daughter, Alli, needs. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican, also co-sponsored the bipartisan bill.
“Right there is exactly why there needs to be a change,” Axne told more than 100 people at Valley High School in West Des Moines, where she graduated. “It comes from people stepping up and saying they’re going to get something fixed.”
By Cat Reid
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids covered everything from healthcare to the Mueller Report on Sunday during her first town hall since taking office earlier this year.
“Especially during the campaign, people were eager to hear from their representative — not just to hear from their representative, but to be able to ask the questions and kind of voice their opinions and their ideas and concerns,” Davids said.
“I am really focused on making sure that I’m working on policies or working on pieces of legislation that we can get bipartisan support on, that we can move forward on right now,” Davids said when asked about a single-payer healthcare system.
ME-02: WABI 5: Golden holds Town Hall in Farmington
By Brian Sullivan
A health-care focused Town Hall meeting in Farmington gave area residents a chance to speak directly to their Congressman.
Second District Representative Jared Golden held the event at Franklin Memorial Hospital Tuesday night.
“Right here at the hospital in Farmington and certainly there are some other rural hospitals in this area and I think that a lot of them struggle to keep the doors open,” said Golden. “We’ve got to make sure that primary care is accessible in rural areas of Maine. A lot of our older residents live in rural areas of Maine. We’re talking about how people can have access to healthcare. That’s clearly a top of mind concern for rural Maine residents.”
MI-08: Detroit News: Freshman Slotkin takes on health care, drug prices
By Mark Hicks
Since taking office this year, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin notices how many constituents approach her about their greatest concern: prescription drug costs.
That is why one of the first bills the freshman Democratic lawmaker co-sponsored was to address predatory or exorbitant prescription pricing.
“Health care and the cost of drugs are top issues I’m working on in D.C.,” Slotkin told an audience of about 200 people Thursday night at Oakland University.
MN-02: Northfield News: Peterson, Craig talk farm issues in Red Wing
By Elizabeth Dunbar
Immigration — and finding a way to address the farm labor shortage — was one of several issues that came up during the event with U.S. Reps. Peterson and Angie Craig Friday. Others included health care, trade, mental health and low commodity prices.
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Health care was another topic. Some farm families have had to rely on off-farm jobs just to get affordable health care, while others have paid steep premiums or gone without.
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Craig brought up the stress and mental health concerns that have been increasing in farm country and encouraged people to reach out for help if they need it.
“It often doesn’t come up in these forums,” Craig said, “but we all know it’s there, and I just want us all to be there for each other.”
NH-01: Conway Daily Sun: Pappas addresses health care, road concerns
By Daymond Steer
Congressman Chris Pappas addressed a gamut of concerns from health care to roads to climate change Thursday morning at the North Conway Grand Hotel.
“With respect to health care, I have deep concerns about where we are,” said Pappas. “As long as the for profit insurance companies remain in the driver’s seat we are going to continue to see on optimal outcomes for folks.”
By Nick Muscavage
Rep. Tom Malinowski held his first official town hall on Saturday, fielding topics from constituents ranging from health care and infrastructure to the special counsel’s report and impeachment.
“I could not agree more that we have a health care access crisis and a health care cost crisis,” he said. “What I am for, and what I have signed up for, is in fact a Medicare choice, a Medicare buy-in legislation which says that if you have private insurance, you can keep it, it does not eliminate our system of private insurance in the United States, but it does give every American the opportunity to buy into a public option, a public plan,” he said. “I hope we all agree that health care is a human right.”
By Laura Lab
At the invitation of Caldwell Mayor John Kelley, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill attended a public forum at the Caldwell Public Library on Monday, where more than 150 residents and students of all ages as well as local officials took the opportunity to ask questions of the newly elected congresswoman.
Questions posed by the audience covered multiple topics, including the utilization of the current voting machines in New Jersey, national cyber security, improving the space exploration program and supporting NASA, restoring the SALT deductions to federal taxes, ICE concerns, the Williams Transco Gateway Expansion Project in Roseland and budgetary issues amongst other subjects.
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Kelley further noted that Sherrill “communicated a great deal of information about what is going on in D.C.” and also shared many of her personal experiences over the last few months as an elected congresswoman. After seeing the packed house at the Caldwell Public Library on Monday, Kelley offered to provide a larger forum for the next “Monday with Mikie” meeting in Caldwell.
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“I think the event was a great success,” said Schmidt. “So many people from all walks of life came to hear her speak. It was a small venue, but the event gave attendees the ability to meet with our congresswoman up close. This is something that has been lacking in the 11th District for years.”
NY-11: SI Advance: Max Rose tackles transportation, seawall, immigration at first town hall
By Sydney Kashiwagi
At least 200 Islanders packed into the St. Phillips Baptist Church in Port Richmond Monday evening to ask their newly elected Congressman Max Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) about his work in Washington, D.C. and get him on the record about key Island issues.
The first-term congressman made it clear he worked for the people of Staten Island.
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“What this is about is the fact that I answer to you … so I’m here today to ask you a very simple question,” he said. “How am I doing? And what else can we do? What matters to you?”
By Charles Pritchard
Continuing pledge to hold at least one town hall a month and visit every county in the 22nd district, Congressman Anthony Brindisi sat down with residents and students at Cazenovia High School.
“I think one of the things New York has done well, particularly through the Affordable Care Act, is its Medicaid expansion to provide people with coverage so they get that early intervention so they can cut down on those worse outcomes and treated earlier on.”
By Jasper Scherer
U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, continued to chart a moderate course on the Democratic Party’s top issues Saturday at her first town hall as a member of Congress, staying firm in her position that the Affordable Care Act should be built upon, not scrapped, and that the Green New Deal should not be “the only part of the conversation.”
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Fletcher said it’s “important that we are talking about the ideas in the Green New Deal,” then pivoted to her healthcare stance. In an interview, she later expanded on her views about the sweeping economic stimulus proposal put forth by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., noting that it is a resolution and a set of ideas, not legislation.
“Overall, we need to be leading the conversation on what our energy future looks like from this district and from this community, because — I keep saying it, but it’s true — it’s the energy capital of the world,” Fletcher said. “We understand how we make it, and how we deliver it, and how we use it.”
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During the town hall, Fletcher also fielded a question from a frustrated constituent who had flooded during Hurricane Harvey and discovered that she was ineligible for certain assistance because she did not meet the low-income threshold for aid required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fletcher said she sympathized with the concern and is looking for “additional ways to get funding streams coming here that won’t have those same limitations.”
VA-02: ABC 13: Congresswoman Elaine Luria holds first town hall in Virginia Beach
By Chenue Her
It was a packed house at Ebenezer Baptist Church to hear from Congresswoman Elaine Luria Monday night.
The topics ranged from voting rights to school safety to police-community relations. She got help from different experts in the city, such as Police Chief Jim Cervera.
VA-07: Culpeper Star-Exponent: 7th District congresswoman hosts coffee klatch in Culpeper
The second-floor event space at Raven’s Nest Coffee House in downtown Culpeper was a-buzz Thursday afternoon when some 30 people joined Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, for the U.S. representative’s second “Coffee with Your Congressperson” event held in Central Virginia.
“I was happy to hear directly from constituents over a cup of coffee and to discuss the key issues on their minds this week,” Spanberger said in a statement afterward. “As we continue these … community conversations, I hope to see many old and new friends as we work together to build stronger opportunities across Central Virginia.”
“The people in the community care and they care about legislative issues. It’s not just going to the polls to vote, but it’s ‘what are my elected officials doing for our communities and our children’ and ‘what are they doing once we elect them?‘” said Pastor Gatling.