Tonight, Patrick Nelson, a 27-year-old who studied genetic engineering, came to meet with the voters of Saranac Lake, New York, to discuss his campaign’s attempt to unseat Congresswoman Elise Stefanik here in the 21st district. Stefanik, meanwhile, is allergic to criticism and continues to hide from her constituents. We have called on her to hold a town hall for months. We have even made the headlines of our local newspapers with our urges. And yet, her likely opponent in 2018 has beaten her to it. About 50 people showed up to this event, by my estimate, which is exceptional turnout for a town of 5,000 people fourteen months before the primary.
Patrick Nelson was a delegate for Bernie Sanders during last year’s presidential primary, and he intends to build a similarly-styled campaign here in New York’s 21st district. Our district, and all of its counties, voted for Bernie by a wide margin. And it’s not just because he lives right across the lake from us. It’s that this part of the country is receptive to that kind of bold progressive message.
Patrick Nelson told us that he intends to “fight hard to get rid of crony capitalism and corporate welfare in this country”. He has sworn off all corporate money and SuperPACs, and intends to raise funds the same way Bernie did, by small donations from impassioned individuals. Time will tell if he can recreate Bernie’s success on that front, but you have to admire the attempt if you’re a progressive looking for a candidate who will prioritize you over the lobbyists. As of now he reports receiving donations from about 150 people, with an average of forty-something dollars each.
And he is really engaging with the people who support him. He’s making personal phone calls to every donor he has a phone number for, and he’s now zipping around the largest district east of the Mississippi to come meet us all in our towns. This man is working his butt off to try to start a movement. He is on Facebook explaining how he would vote on every piece of legislation that goes up to a vote in the House. He’s started a YouTube channel where he discusses current legislation and his proposals. Every indication is that this is a man who is interested in being transparent about who he is and what he thinks, a man who wants to have a real two-way conversation with the residents of the 21st district about the issues that affect us. It is a refreshing change.
Nelson’s background is in science, and one of the issues he likes to talk about most is climate change. He takes a long-term view of it, and understands that we are going to have to make sacrifices that hurt for us right now, on behalf of future generations we will never meet. “We have not been on this planet long enough to be considered a successful species,” he said. This was in response to a question about raising the gas tax, mind you.
Another one of his pet issues is health care. Nelson is a strong proponent of single-payer universal health care. He drew a comparison between our health care system and France’s. In the United States, we pay more than twice the amount (per person every year) they do in France on health care. And we ALSO pay more on average for government-subsidized health care, things like Medicare and Medicaid, than the French pay for their system. In other words, we could pay for two French systems with the money we spend on health care. We could potentially design a single-payer system that is cheaper than what we *currently* spend on government subsidized health care. Think about that.
Opioids are a big problem in this part of the country, and Nelson recognized the fundamental flaw in the way we are currently dealing with drug issues in this country. “Drug addiction is a medical issue, not a law enforcement issue.” He believes that the criminal justice system has no business being the mechanism by which we attempt to rehabilitate addicts. He admires the policies put in place by Portugal, where they have started to treat it like the public health problem that it is.
Elise Stefanik has a phrase she likes to use a lot: she advocates for a “fairer, flatter tax plan”. Nelson outlined the response he is going to convey to the voters of the 21st district: you can’t have both. If you want to make taxes flatter, you either have to raise taxes on the lower and middle classes, or you have to lower taxes for the wealthy. Either way, you take more money from the people who are struggling and give it to people who already have plenty.
I’m not affiliated with the Patrick Nelson campaign. At least not yet. I might have to change that. I walked away from tonight’s event very excited that we seem to have a genuine progressive with fire in his belly ready to fight the good fight in Washington. And he has a good chance of winning. It’s a purple district that we lost in 2010, and one that you’d expect to be swept up by a strong blue tide if that is indeed what we’re headed for in 2018. So go check this guy out!
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