She is running against incumbent Ed Whitfield, whose most impressive list of missed votes would put the rest of Congress to shame (over 250 since 1997), and when he has bothered to show up and vote, he has voted with the republican party close to 90% of the time in the current Congressional term.
Here is a bit of background on Heather from her campaign website:
At the tender age of 10, I became politically active when I met Senator Tom Harkin and Presidential Candidate Gary Hart at an anti-nuclear proliferation rally. From that day on, my life has revolved primarily around political activity.
Toward the end of Operation Desert Storm I enlisted in the United States Navy. I served honorably for three years as a Yeoman Third Class Petty Officer. While stationed at NAS North Island in San Diego, California, the Navy afforded the opportunity for me to attend college at Chapman University while active duty.
Through the Montgomery GI Bill, I continued my education during my tenure in Civil Service for the Department of Defense until I finally became a full time student at Drake University in Iowa. Though a divorced single mother, I was awarded a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science in 2000; the first person in my family to attend and graduate college.
This was historically a Democratic district until 1994 when “Exxon Ed” won the seat, and there was nearly a 2:1 Democrat to republican margin in registered voters in 2006. Ryan’s website had a number of “video blog entries” and you should definitely check them out as well.
Here is what Heather has to say about healthcare:
It is an absolute travesty that 50 million Americans struggle without health care in the wealthiest nation in the world. What's worse is when our representative votes against improvements in access to health services for children and the poor. Unfortunately, these are both realities that we've experienced under the current leadership. I propose that health care for every American is more important than tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. It is time we had a representative who thinks about more than just how much money he can make when he helps pass legislation that benefits drug and insurance companies. As the leaders of the free world, it is an embarrassment that we are the only industrialized nation that does not offer health care for our citizens
And as a military veteran, here is what Ryan has to say about Iraq:
The American people were duped into an ill-conceived war under false pretenses and the administration continues to over utilize a national guard system which was never intended to be used for sustained combat missions. Congress must insist that an exit strategy be planned and implemented immediately. By the Bush Administration's own account, the nation will be forced to reinstate the draft system again should we continue to over-tax our National Guard with sustained combat. I am not a supporter of reinstating the draft for as history clearly shows us, the draft is merely for those of us who are not wealthy enough to buy our way out of active duty. We must not allow this ill planned and ill executed war to continue to destroy the brave men and women in our armed forces while simultaneously placing our nation at a heightened risk with a limited national guard.
Here is a link to Heather’s ActBlue page (one of three ActBlue pages for her), and you can also contribute through her official campaign site.
Heather is just what Kentucky’s first district needs to turn it blue once again.
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I recently posted a diary announcing a series of BlogTalkRadio interviews with Democratic Congressional candidates as furthering the majorities in Congress, especially with progressives, is a sure fire way to help our cause. Not only do I think this is a great opportunity to hear these candidates in their own words talking about their district, their campaign and the issues they hold dear, but also to keep some focus on Congress, because without more progressives in Congress who are willing to stand up and fight for the ideals that we discuss here daily, it really won’t matter if Clinton, Obama, Romney or McCain is in the White House because a progressive agenda would not even begin to be seriously discussed, nor would a right wing agenda be able to be thwarted.
Prior interviews in this series are below:
- Gilda Reed (LA-1) - the diary about Gilda is here. The link to her interview can be found here.
- John Laesch (IL-14) - the diary about John is here. The link to his interview can be found here.
- Dennis Shulman (NJ-5) - the diary about Dennis is here. The link to his interview can be found here.
- Barry Welsh (IN-6) - the diary about Barry is here. The link to his interview can be found here.
- Charlie Brown (CA-4) - the diary about Charlie is here. The link to his interview can be found here.
- Mark Schauer (MI-7) - the diary about Mark is here. The link to his interview can be found here.
We also have commitments from a few others, but no dates set. We will keep you posted, and if there are any folks out there who work on a campaign, or know someone who is either a candidate or works on a campaign who may be interested, we would love to hear from you.
I hope you can listen live, and if not, we will be posting the interview at Heading Left, which is BlogTalkRadio’s official website for progressive internet radio and podcasts.
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