Democratic Candidate for Congressional District 3 Carolyn Long Hosts Drive-In Town Hall in Chehalis

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Democratic candidate for Congressional District 3 Carolyn Long hosted a drive-in-style town hall meeting for Lewis County residents in a grass field outside of the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis Thursday night.

Like a drive-in movie, cars pulled into the grass field in rows as Long stood on the bed of a pickup truck fielding questions via text as well as volunteers of her campaign running around the lot, picking up questions from people in their cars.

Approximately 35 cars were parked in the lot for Long’s town hall that lasted a little more than an hour.

Long fielded a wide range of questions that were on the minds of Lewis County voters, including topics that touched on the environment, affordable healthcare, broadband internet, the economy, issues pertaining to veterans and congress’ response to COVID-19.

Crediting her campaign team for the idea of the drive-in town hall, Long expressed that she was excited to be doing a town hall where she could see peoples’ faces in some capacity, rather than the virtual town hall meetings she has done in the past, noting that with Lewis County’s internet issues, not everyone can attend in an online format.

Long said that with the election being 32 days away her town hall meeting was the beginning of her “in-district bonanza” where she says she will meet with constituents of the 3rd Congressional District for the following weeks leading up to the election.

“I want to tell you a little bit about how I’ve been spending the last couple weeks with a couple plans I put out, then the remaining time is yours,” Long said as she opened up the town hall.

Long referenced a 21-page pandemic recovery plan, which can be viewed in its entirety at her website at electlong.com/pandemic-recovery-plan/, that she says will provide affordable healthcare, childcare and paid sick leave, adding that these are “things that we should have had far long ago and that we desperately need now.”

Additionally, Long said her plan will “look forward” by making “transformational investments in infrastructure.”

“Every dollar that you put into the community investing in roads and bridges and broadband internet, which I am going to get to in second, comes back to as $2.20 back into our economy, it creates jobs, investments in infrastructure creates jobs,” Long said.

Long said three years ago, when she first did a town hall in Lewis County, the first question she was asked was regarding broadband internet access. Admittedly, the question surprised her because she didn’t realize how bad the issue was.

Since then, she said, she has done her homework on the lack of broadband internet in Lewis County and said it will be a focal point of her call for “transformational investments in infrastructure.”

Long would later add that if elected, she intends to serve on the House Agriculture Committee, which she says tackles issues like broadband internet in rural areas and rural housing.

The first question Long fielded was, “What will you do for voters about the environment?”



Long said first and foremost, it starts with taking climate change seriously.

“It’s real, it’s human caused and it's leading to these terrible problems we are having with extreme weather, intense forest fires, flooding in the Chehalis basin,” Long said. “So many of the problems we see are connected to climate change and the fact that we don’t have strong enough environmental protections.”

Long also used the question to fire off a shot at her competitor and Republican incumbent  Jaime Herrera Beutler.

“Let me tell you why I am going to be the best champion for the environment, because I have not taken $170,000 in corporate PAC money from the fossil fuel industry like my opponent Jaime Herrera Beutler.”

Regarding healthcare, Long was asked, “the Affordable Care Act may be in jeopardy, how do you propose to protect those with preexisting conditions?”

Long said the best way to protect those with preexisting conditions is to protect the Affordable Care Act and said Republicans aren’t being honest when they say they want to help the population with preexisting conditions yet they oppose the Affordable Care Act.

“I hear politicians saying ‘I want to protect preexisting conditions’ from the president to Republican members of Congress,  and I’m like, ‘guess what, we already took care of that, it’s called the Affordable Care Act,” Long said.

“But if (the Affordable Care Act) doesn’t make it, we’re going to fight like hell to get it back,” she added.

Regarding the economy, Long was asked why wages have not gone up?

Long said it is because of an erosion of strong labor unions as well as simple “safety nets” like increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour. But also, Long said she does not view economic success by how well the stock market is doing, rather, how wages are doing.

“I’m tired of hearing politicians tell me how great the stock market is, how great the economy was before COVID, because my answer is, not everybody owns stock,” Long said.

After an hour of Long answering questions about her stance on various issues, she made one final pitch to prospective voters

“What I saw three years ago is what I still see today, is a lack of leadership in Southwest Washington,” Long said. “I saw a representative that frankly doesn’t show up, I saw  representatives who are more willing to meet with corporate donors than you. You will never have to stand in line behind a corporate donor or a lobbyist to see me in Washington D.C.”