See highlights from the candidates’ conversation below:
CBS: Three Democratic Congressional Candidates Join The Takeout
Christina Hines: I don’t think that Congress is actually working for working families anymore. I think, I say on the trail a lot, there are more millionaires in Congress than there are moms, just regular ordinary people that are trying to actually make it in this world. And I want to go and try to actually fight for working families, for the people that are struggling to be able to make their house payment, pay for gas. I mean, it cost me $73 to fill up our minivan the other day, and that’s really expensive when gas is over $4 a gallon in Michigan. So we need some actual fighters for working people.
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Zach Dembo: This Congress has sat by while tariff after tariff comes in and jacks up costs for Central Kentucky. I’m thinking especially of the bourbon industry in my district, already crushed by the tariffs. And then, most recently, we had this announcement of this 50% trade war with Canadian tariffs, which again is going to hurt the bourbon industry’s ability to go to its largest external market — all for no reason, in a way that’s hurting Kentucky consumers, adding $1,000 to their household budgets. So that’s something we can fix on day one because we already have the power, we just have a Congress that’s too spineless to stand up.
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Christina Hines: The trade war with Canada is directly impacting Michigan too […]. Our biggest industries are manufacturing and defense and aerospace, and these industries are being hurt so badly by this trade war with Canada, by the tariffs, and not only raising the cost of living, I mean, people in our district have paid over $1,700 more this year as a result of these tariffs, but people are losing their jobs. General Motors laid off over 1,000 people in our district as a direct result of these tariffs, and so not only are people struggling more than ever with their bills, but people all over our district, not only big corporations but small businesses are closing their doors.
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Marni von Wilpert: Congress needs to be laser-focused on lowering the cost of living for everyday Americans. I’ve already fought for lower costs. As a prosecutor, I went after price gougers who were ripping us off during the pandemic. In San Diego, I found out teachers were leaving our classrooms because they couldn’t afford to live there, so I started the first teacher down payment assistance grant program with private developer money to make sure they could buy houses in our district — and it’s working, they’re staying in classrooms. When I get to Congress, I’m going to fight hard to lower our costs by, one, voting against the tariffs, two, restoring affordable health care. We should protect Medicaid, Medicare, restore the Affordable Care Act so people can afford to see a doctor. And finally, we’re going to stop this corruption that’s making Donald Trump rich at the cost and expense of all of us.
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Christina Hines: Trump promised us America first. He promised us a lower cost of living. Hasn’t delivered on either of those things. And I agree with some of that criticism, for a long time, Democrats have not actually been doing the work of helping working families either, and so I think that it is incumbent on all of us to actually step up and not only fight for working families in our districts, but stand up to people in our own party when they’re not fighting for working families.
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Zach Dembo: Democrats can show up, not just in urban or suburban areas, but importantly, speak to rural voters too. And what it means is showing up, being an advocate for farmers, especially at a time where we have an anti-agriculture, anti-farmer administration in Congress; being an advocate for veterans at a time that I think we have an anti-veteran, anti-military Congress.
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Marni von Wilpert: For Democrats to win, we can’t just be against Trump, we also have to be for a better future for our country […]. This country hasn’t raised the minimum wage in decades. If we want to actually restore workers’ rights, we have to pass the PRO Act, protect the right to organize, which I helped write when I was a labor lawyer for Obama. We need people to have good jobs with good wages that are protected from tariffs, protected from Donald Trump’s attacks on our economy, and that’s what we as Democrats need to do, is step up and fight and govern when we get there.
