Name: Jacky Rosen
Office: Congressional District 3
Party Affiliation: Democratic
Website: www.rosenfornevada.com
Jacky Rosen is a Democrat running for Congressional District 3, which is a seat left by Dr. Joe Heck, who is running for Senate.
Rosen has lived in Southern Nevada for nearly 40 years. She is a former computer programmer and systems analyst. She recently served as the president of Temple Ner Tamid.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
Why did you want to run for Congress?
What I’ve lived in my personal life and what I learned across the spectrum, serving in a faith-based community, really spoke to me for running for Congress. Because what’s really important about Congress is the work you do in the district. You set up an office you really deal with constituents every day… I want to serve the community and take those voices to Washington. So, that’s what spoke to me about running for Congress.
Many people have felt a lot of fear and anxiety around this year’s election:
I’m hoping that when I win and when I go to Congress and others like me win we are going to put that away and we’re really going to begin to have some conversations about what is going to work for people and work in a positive way. Because fear-mongering, it’s great when you have a big rally like Donald trump is doing, and he’s doing it very well, but it doesn’t move America forward and it doesn’t help people.
How will you get past the partisanship going on Washington, D.C. and work together with Republicans?
People do have real concerns. They do want government to move forward. You can only do it if you sit down at the table together and you begin to talk about issues that are important. Whether you agree or disagree, when you start talking you can begin to find common ground to move people together. I hope there are a lot of lessons to be learned from what’s gone on in this unfortunately pretty bad election cycle at the top.
What is your stance on comprehensive immigration reform?
I absolutely believe we can secure our borders and have comprehensive immigration reform. We need tough, smart and thoughtful policies that again move everyone forward. Just building a wall and tearing apart families, that’s not an answer.
We have 11 million people here. We need to be sure to bring them out of the shadows. Let them work, pay taxes, pay into Social Security, pay into Medicare, volunteer at their church and their school, buy a home, buy a car, it is going to lift up our communities. They’ll be our next small business owners. Kids will be going to college, becoming our next teachers and nurses and all kinds of things. I think by doing that we can begin to create stronger and stronger communities. That is the fabric of America.
What do you think Congress can do, if anything, to improve race relations in this country?
You’re talking about the Black Lives Matter movement. That is really meant to put a spotlight on systemic discrimination that we have in so many communities around the country. On one hand, we have had communities that have had discrimination with in local law enforcement and judicial systems. On the other hand, we have our police officers, first responders who put that uniform on every day not knowing what they’re going to face in these incredibly stressful situations. A lot of it is a matter of education. I think there is a lot of community policing that is starting to go on. You create community centers, safe spaces to come and play and work, have computer centers, study centers for homework. When people build bonds, it makes communities safer.
What is your opinion on the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP?
I think this is where I differ from the president. I opposed bad trade deals. I’m going to oppose deals that don’t have level playing fields for American workers. Really that’s the bottom line. We have the best, most-effectively trained workforce in world. We want to be sure we protect their jobs. We protect that. When you ship jobs to other countries that don’t have the same laws or regulations or level playing field that we do, it hurts us here in America. It hurts our American workers.
Healthcare affordability and the price of prescription drugs are still issues. What do you think needs to be done about those problems?
I think the Affordable Care Act was an important first step in healthcare. No longer can women be discriminated against in healthcare. You can’t be denied coverage because you have a pre-existing condition. You can’t be dropped if you get cancer or you get some chronic illness. And the lifetime caps for people with chronic disease or chronic condition have been removed.
We need to continue to build on the successes and we need to look at the things we need to fix. We need to be able to improve on bargaining for drug costs, repealing the medical device tax. There is a lot of things we can look at.
What do you think about gun control efforts?
I think we can respect the Second Amendment and have common sense gun safety. I think, not just in Nevada, but across the country most NRA members even agree with that. If you’re on the No Fly list, you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun. If you have a history of domestic violence, I think a third of women who are murdered are murdered by their abuser. That is a pretty high statistic. We can protect families in that way. Certainly, if you are violently mentally ill, you probably shouldn’t have a gun. I think those are common sense safety rules that most people agree with.
Does a woman bring a different point of view or governing style?
I would like to think so. I’m actually really proud to say that on both sides of me this is the only congressional district in America that has women for president, for Senate, for State Senate and for State Assembly. We made history this summer. I hope we’re going to make history again this November.
What I think women do best is as their role of caregiver for their parents and in their families… I think we really learn about building consensus, about making friendships, about working across the aisle. Women will go out and have a cup of coffee with someone else, talk to them and figure out how to move things forward.
There are concerns that the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mtn. could be revived when Sen. Harry Reid leaves office. What do you think?
I think Yucca Mountain is a dead issue. I don’t think anyone here in Nevada wants nuclear waste in our backyard. I’m pretty sure that Sen. Dean Heller is also in agreement on that. This is some of the ways we can work across the aisle for the benefit of our state. We don’t believe Yucca Mountain is safe and secure. We don’t want nuclear waste here and we’re going to keep Yucca Mountain closed.
Some people in Nevada and around the West have expressed support for having federal land transferred to the states. What do you think?
If you pass that to the state, there is a huge cost. There’s managements, fire prevention, all kinds of things that would come back to the state. I’m not sure the state can take on that kind of responsibility. There’s lots of other land to develop for shopping centers and homes. I think we can worry about that first, develop that, grow our jobs and that should be more of a priority than the federal lands.
What have the people in the district said their concerns were?
I’m hearing from people they’re tired of obstruction. They’re tired of people going into their offices and slamming the door and not having a conversation. Everywhere I go I try to give people something to vote for.