An introduction to Nik Heuertz
I begin a survey of Democratic candidates for Congress, with some clickable links. In this era of "social distancing" their web presence may be the primary way to get acquainted with candidates.
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| Nik Heuertz |
Nik Heuertz
Alex Spenser
John Holm
Alex Spenser
John Holm
Chris Vaughn
Jack Howard
Today, Nik Heuertz
Nik Heuertz He grew up in rural Jackson County outside of Central Point, then owned and operated Chat Cat, a mobile phone sales and repair business in the Medford area. He sold it. He filed for Congress in the fall of 2019 and has carried out an active campaign, most visibly in his Facebook presence, posting new material often. There is no public information available yet on fundraising activity.
Nik Heuertz has a typical suite of progressive Democratic political positions. A Democratic voter who likes Bernie Sanders would likely be comfortable with Heuertz. Among the five Democratic candidates he is the one whose language most echoes Sanders. Heuertz avoids the 1960's class struggle ideology that sometimes appears in Sanders' language, but Heuretz says America is at a tipping point where our democracy is endangered by "corporate overlords."
Heuertz presents his issues in a well designed, easy to navigate website. In an opening statement he writes:
"Our current system allows for corporations to purchase our government, and they have made a hefty down payment. We have an option to turn that around before it is too late and we lose our Democracy and become a Corpocracy; wholly owned by the business elite and not run by the people."
His policy positions:
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| https://nikforcongress.com |
He supports a "Modified or Enhanced Medicare for All or Single Payer System."
He supports rapid conversion to renewable energy, with 100% renewable by 2035, saying the buildout of this will create millions of new, good jobs. He opposes new energy pipelines.
He supports tuition-free public college and trade schools, free day care, paid sick leave, and a $15 minimum wage.
He supports "comprehensive immigration reform" including making DACA permanent, a path to citizenship for people here now, eliminating ICE.
He supports a suite of programs to change our democratic process including ending the electoral college, repealing Citizens United, ending gerrymandering, ending the filibuster, term limits, making election day a federal holiday, vote by mail, and more.
Other issues he mentions include:
Small business investment
Make private prisons illegal
Increase Corporate responsibility to stakeholders beyond stockholders
Expand gun background checks and implement an assault weapon ban
War and peace
Homelessness
Legalize marijuana
Drug addiction
Equality for women
Afro-American equality
Native American rights
Puerto Rico statehood
Rebuild Flint, Michigan
Impeach Trump
Stop the Forest Fires
Equality for people with disabilities.
Amid this long list of issues of concerns there is a brief section titled "Invest in Eastern Oregon" which states we should invest in renewable energy in the area to mitigate the consequences of diminished timber harvests and "changing times" generally. By what he addresses and does not address, Heuertz demonstrates his orientation toward national issues, issues of the kind that would be on the radar of Sanders supporters anywhere in the country or a consumer of national news. Heuertz lists positions on scores of issues.
It is the campaign of someone who reads the Washington Post and New York Times, not the Klamath Herald and News, the Bend Bulletin, or the Pendleton East Oregonian.
This is an untypical approach for candidates for this office. More typically candidates make a significant show of concern for wheat, wheat exports, farming, cattle ranching, irrigation, rural broadband, rural hospitals and issues that directly address the 60% of voters who live east of the Cascades. Aside from an origin story of growing up in Sams Valley in rural Jackson County, his web presence is unusual for how un-rooted it is in the particularity of problems of Eastern and Southern Oregon.
It is the campaign of someone who reads the Washington Post and New York Times, not the Klamath Herald and News, the Bend Bulletin, or the Pendleton East Oregonian.
This is an untypical approach for candidates for this office. More typically candidates make a significant show of concern for wheat, wheat exports, farming, cattle ranching, irrigation, rural broadband, rural hospitals and issues that directly address the 60% of voters who live east of the Cascades. Aside from an origin story of growing up in Sams Valley in rural Jackson County, his web presence is unusual for how un-rooted it is in the particularity of problems of Eastern and Southern Oregon.
Here is his personal page, one that includes political material: https://www.facebook.com/nick.heuertz.7
And his campaign page:
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| Click link below |
"The Democrats were fighting for more for the working family people and the Republicans were fighting basically for the rich corporate interests. . . . The Democrats did get something for the average working person. I think it is important at this time when people say that Democrats and Republicans are the same. I think it's important when we go to vote to note who was working for the American people, for the regular general public."
Here is a sample of ten short video presentations by Heuertz. These are well produced by Facebook do-it-yourself standards and they give Democratic voters a feel for him personally: https://www.facebook.com/NikHeuertzforCongress/videos/980683175680416/
I have seen Heuertz in-person twice, once in an interview, once in a candidate forum. He presents well and confidently. He has command of the issues. He is a plausible Democratic candidate.
Note: this is the first of several of these introductions to candidates.
4 comments:
-THis guy sounds good to me, and most importantly, he is young but is
acting and speaking with maturity. While to many he may sound like the embodiment of a Sanders clone, he seems to realize that however ideal some of Sander's ideas and policies might be they are unachievable at this point in our society. Let us not forget that basically, we are a nation of "boobs", a nation that elevated a cretin like Donald Trump to the presidency, an inept bumbler
who rejected science in favor of one of his "hunches" and allowed the Coronavirus to gain a foothold, perhaps a mortal one, in our nation.
I hope to hear more from this young man in the near future. He almost gives one hope that our nation will be salvaged and protected from the "boobs" in our midst.
Bob Warren
Of the candidates running for this seat, I am most impressed with Nick. That I cannot picture or do not know of the other candidates speaks volumes. He has reached out and friended people on Facebook and responded to posts by others as well as posting on his own. He has spoken out on issues as if he is already a legislator.
He cannot of course, travel throughout this big district right now and meet people face to face, but I believe that he projects the kindness and sincerity that will go over well on the east side when he eventually does. His knowledge and willingness to engage with people indicates a potential to win this race. His willingness to be a flexible democrat also is evident.
His republican opponents are already advertising on TV, so eventually availability of funds will matter. Jaime's run last time showed that the east side is not all gun-totin' screaming tea-partiers. Nick would not win over that crowd, of course, but he doesn't have to do so to win in this district.
Thank you for the write-up. I think that it is fair based on what you know of me so far. I will attempt to clarify here a few points for the public that I feel I have not made myself clear on.
I did sell off the AT&T Wireless part of my business a few years before closing the rest of the business for good. The main reason for closing my business was the fact that it was getting tougher and tougher to maintain a healthy profit in order to properly support myself, my family and my staff. The fact that the tax breaks were increasingly for the big monopolies and duopolies and that anti-trust laws were not being enforced against these monopolies meant it was near to impossible for small businesses to compete on price in retail. This was one of the impetuses for me to get involved with politics and run for office. Although I am no longer in retail, I still work as an independent political and business consultant; although I am currently focusing on my campaign.
Yes, I am a proud Democrat. Although my policies align largely with Sanders, I think my policies more closely align with Warren. Mostly due to the number of issues that she addresses and the amount of details that she provides. That said; I try my best to stay out of the tribal, popularity clubs.
National issues that affect people on daily basis are a passion of mine. While some people consume sports or…well, mostly sports (not that there is anything wrong with sports)…I find national “political” issues compelling. This is largely why I jumped into a national race. Should I be elected, I will be voting on national issues that affect people on every level.
That is by no means to the exclusion of Eastern Oregon. People in Eastern Oregon suffer from lack of affordable health care. They go without care or sometimes die because they cannot afford healthcare, just like the rest of us. The current Medicare for All legislation that is in congress would likely help the financial situation we have with rural hospitals. I will post more on this in the future, but here are a few links supporting that position:
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/487026-453-rural-hospitals-are-failing-medicare-for-all-would-save
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20191205.239679/full/
(My comment was too long to submit. Stay tuned for part 2.)
Part 2:
Renewable energy and jobs affect Eastern Oregon as much as anywhere else. There is a notion that rural folks do not care about the environment. They do care about the environment. Farmers care about the land they live on and want good paying jobs to take care of themselves and their families, just like the rest of us. As Peter mentions, I grew up on a small farm. My father grew up on a large farm. I remember my dad walking through the freshly tilled earth, picking up some soil in-between his fingers, bring it to his nose for a smell (and sometimes taking a little taste), before crumbling it in his fingers and returning it to the earth from which it came. I know now that he was testing the quality of the soil. He knew that without a healthy earth, there was no crop. Farmers care about the earth. They just don’t want to be left behind by a changing economy. We should take care of farmers, and others who work off of the land, who may be displaced from their job by technology. They should have first dibs at training and new jobs created by renewable energy and the new economy. Small and medium farmers should also have anti-trust protections from huge corporate farmers who hinder true competition, so that we can save as many small farms as possible.
One of my other proposals is to create a forest-care task force to prevent forest fires, preserve our wild lands, and harvest timber in a responsible way. Loggers are the logical beneficiaries of those new jobs. I see Oregon’s District 2 with less smoke and a vibrant new economy…both in the rural and more populated regions. They are not mutually exclusive.
I have been talking with farmers, people within the Klamath tribes, and biologists about the serious water issues that we have in Eastern Oregon. I will be releasing my thoughts on the issue before the primary election. It is not a simple issue, but it is also not without its solutions.
I also propose High-Speed Internet for All on my website.
I will sum up by saying that the issue that I hear with the most urgency from both rural and city folk is getting big money out of politics. The small rural farmer knows that their interests are not getting represented by a congress that is beholden to big money donors. The retail clerk, service person…the everyday working person…in rural and more populated areas know that they are not getting fair treatment. People all over the district want big money out of politics so that they have a voice in how we are governed. Again as Peter noted, I have a plan for that.
Thank you Peter for allowing me to elaborate on how I believe national and local issues are intertwined. I have spoken on it some, but I will make an effort to do it more in the future. I appreciate your writing on local candidates and your efforts to get people involved in all things political. Politics can be a dirty word to some, but in the end, it is what governs our lives. We do have a voice if we choose to participate in the process. Writing about politics and running for office are some examples of ways to participate. Voting is another way that people can be involved and exercise their voice. I urge people to be involved while we still have a voice to make the needed changes.
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