WFAE asked area candidates for the United States House of Representatives questions about why they should be elected (or reelected). Here are the answers we've received.
District 5
David Wilson Brown (D)
What are your top legislative priorities for the U.S. House in 2021?
Voting Rights; Health care for all; Education; Federal jobs program
What course of action will you take as a U.S. Representative to help lower the transmission rates of COVID-19?
Help enact a national testing/tracing plan and increase funding for PPE for health care workers and first responders.
What if any additional federal response should be done to help businesses and unemployed North Carolinians affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
Enact a program similar to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), giving every American citizen funds per month to boost our economy and be able to do a pre-planned lockdown to starve the virus.
What do you think the next Congress should do with the Affordable Care Act?
Strengthen while transitioning to Medicare for All.
What should Congress do to slow down the effects of climate change and protect the U.S. from the impact - such as coastal erosion and wildfires?
Get back in the Paris Accords and drive towards carbon zero by 2050 at the latest. Put people to work in a modern Civilian Conservation Corps to do environmental cleanup and clean energy initiatives to break our dependence on fossil fuel sources.
Additional information about David Wilson Brown can be found here.
Virginia Foxx (R)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Virginia Foxx can be found here.
Jeff Gregory (Constitution Party)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Jeff Gregory can be found here.
District 8
Richard Hudson (R)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Richard Hudson can be found here.
Patricia Timmons Goodson (D)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Patricia Timmons Goodson can be found here.
District 9
Dan Bishop (R)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Dan Bishop can be found here.
Cynthia Wallace (D)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Cynthia Wallace can be found here.
District 10
Tracey Debruhl (L)
What are your top legislative priorities for the U.S. House in 2021?
My experience from HQMC Quantico to Light Armored Recon in the Marines, my Construction Experience & Director with Trammell Crow & Jones Lange LaSalle, and all my charity, disaster relief, etc.
I have security programs to help our schools, law enforcement and public safety. I have the training and insight on how to stop the drug/sex trade along with our immigration issues. I know where billions are being lost and how to make our nation multi-billions! I have been working with a homeless initiative that's working and needs spread. And a medical program to help everyone along with our vets, disabled and legal reform. Where the courts are failing to follow judicial law!
Accountability, Clarity, Training, and some Operations Procedures that will blow your mind!
What course of action will you take as a U.S. Representative to help lower the transmission rates of COVID-19?
Make our country more money, so we have the resources to help doctors do a better job!
What if any additional federal response should be done to help businesses and unemployed North Carolinians affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
A lot! Namely if our nation is going to close businesses? Then we should be able to help reimburse their loses. And always be able to help our citizens get back on their feet! The drastic overspending and misspending contribute to these issues. Plus I know where an estimated $10-100 billion annual is sitting untapped!
What do you think the next Congress should do with the Affordable Care Act?
The whole "Obamacare" disaster needs to be revamped to what it was proposed as. And we should use the guidelines from the programs that are working overseas which sparked the idea in the first place! Yes taxes are high in those areas. And your gonna want me in office because I know how to counterbalance such expenses!
What should Congress do to slow down the effects of climate change and protect the U.S. from the impact - such as coastal erosion and wildfires?
Do you know how ridiculous it sounds to try to change the weather or erosion? God & Earth are beyond humans' "control". The most we can do is to be as green-friendly as possible! Use renewable instead of non-renewable sources etc. Yes they got sand machines filling the beaches and the trick on wildfires is getting ahead of how to stop them swiftly has been my disaster relief experience along with getting support and supplies to rebuild, and of course charging criminals that start them. I will encourage and help promote the sciences and education for advancements. But currently, we have to get our schools back to operations, fix the courts and cop issues tearing us apart. And I will simply let the climate experts do their jobs. While helping solve the issues I'm here to fix!
Additional information about Tracey DeBruhl found here.
Patrick McHenry (R)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Patrick McHenry found here.
David Parker (D)
What are your top legislative priorities for the U.S. House in 2021?
Universal health care phased in responsibly; rebuilding the economy in a post COVID-19 world; civil society; climate change; protecting Social Security and Medicare.
What course of action will you take as a U.S. Representative to help lower the transmission rates of COVID-19?
Leading by example on masks, social distancing, and public gatherings; enable states, school systems, and local governments to provide PPE; enable fair trade for PPE importation; incentivize domestic production of PPE and vaccines; enhance federal investment in research and development of vaccines; rejoin WHO (World Health Organization).
What if any additional federal response should be done to help businesses and unemployed North Carolinians affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
Extend unemployment benefits for working people; broaden the lending ability of, Small Business Administration (SBA) including an extension of PPP program; target
Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) forgiveness for small businesses employing less than 25 employees; enact Universal Health Care to remove the burden of health care premiums from small businesses that want to ensure their workers.
What do you think the next Congress should do with the Affordable Care Act?
Enhance ACA to expand coverage and work toward Universal Basic Health Care.
What should Congress do to slow down the effects of climate change and protect the U.S. from the impact - such as coastal erosion and wildfires?
Aggressively educate the public on the science of humans' impact on climate change; rejoin Paris Accords; treat the earth as sacred space; intervene diplomatically where wholesale destruction of the environment occurs, such as in the Amazon forest.
Additional information about David Parker found here.
District 12
Alma Adams (D)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Alma Adams can be found here.
Richard Smith (R)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Richard Smith can be found here.
District 13
Ted Budd (R)
Responses not yet received.
Information about Ted Budd can be found here.
Scott Huffman (D)
What are your top legislative priorities for the U.S. House in 2021?
Job creation, healthcare protection and expansion, pandemic response, and wealth gap issues, law enforcement and criminal justice reform.
What course of action will you take as a U.S. Representative to help lower the transmission rates of COVID-19?
I will lobby for mask mandates and more responsible public health practices to reduce the transmission rates. I will also push for invocation of the Defense Production Act so that we can produce enough testing supplies that will help us to ensure safety in public spaces. And finally, I will ensure that our municipalities and schools have enough resources to safely operate in a pre-vaccine COVID world.
What if any additional federal response should be done to help businesses and unemployed North Carolinians affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
Continued unemployment benefits until the job market stabilizes
Event-based gig workers with steady unemployment benefits until we can gather in large groups again.
Increased SNAP monies
Moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, and repossessions
Provide for those who lost their health insurance due to no fault of their own. Reopen marketplace to those who lost their jobs.
What do you think the next Congress should do with the Affordable Care Act?
We need to preserve the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that are working and, where possible, expand coverage options.
We must absolutely protect coverage for pre-existing conditions. We must decouple coverage from employer to employee and ensure coverage follows the individual in case of job loss. We need to root out collusive practices of price gouging between hospital systems and insurers so that individuals are not unfairly charged exorbitant amounts. The same price controls should also apply to prescription drug costs.
What should Congress do to slow down the effects of climate change and protect the U.S. from the impact - such as coastal erosion and wildfires?
Treat Global Warming like the pandemic.
Remove fossil fuel subsidies immediately. Big Oil doesn't need our tax dollars.
Prioritize upgrading power grid.
Incentivize private solar panel ownership on single-family homes.
Limit inventory for combustible engine autos.
Increase hemp production to decrease lumber harvests. Trees are essential to cleaning the air.
Additional information about Scott Huffman can be found here.