Skip to content
Editor’s note: This is the third in a three part series on Julia Peacock, Candidate for California’s 42nd Congressional District
For me, one of the saddest aspects of Trump’s candidacy and election is the meanness that enveloped citizens in the U.S. and its effect on the most vulnerable. After the election, Julia Peacock went to school and saw and heard how the students, who are 89.3% Hispanic, felt. She describes that day: “They were tired, scared, exhausted. Some of them had been up all night with their parents talking about what they would do if their undocumented parents got deported. What if their residency papers were no longer valid? That’s the kind of fear and vitriol Trump spread his entire candidacy. I told them they were safe in my classroom; that I would protect them and NO ONE would take them off our campus.”
I then asked if she felt Trump created this atmosphere or if he made it okay for people to voice the worst parts of themselves?
I think the answer is quite a bit of both. I believe his campaign and now his presidency gave people permission to be as ugly and as hateful as they want to be. Racism and us vs. them have always been there. He just made it acceptable for people to take to the streets with torches and pitchforks and argue about white male oppression as something legitimate and real. That helped create The Resistance; when you look at what happened in Alabama [Democrat Doug Jones’s Senate victory], Trump could have been the catalyst for the wake up call the rest of us needed, just like me, to go from being voters to activists to even candidates.
Unlike Trump and incumbent Rep. Ken Calvert, she is a progressive and a proponent of tuition free college. She articulated how this can be accomplished: “California is working with an organization on what is called the $48 Fix. Turns out, if every household put as little as $48 per year based upon income into an education fund on Tax Day, every child in California could attend college for free. The biggest hurdle is the idea that the Republicans bank on every voting cycle: Keep the electorate ignorant. We can’t afford to do that. College, like healthcare, should be a right, not a privilege.”
Part of her progressive platform includes advocating Medicare for All. I questioned how she proposes to transition to this system?
Instead of high premiums paid to insurance companies by employees and employers, they pay into a healthcare fund at much less what we are paying now (study by the University of Massachusetts on CA’s plan suggests a 3-8% decrease in premium costs by employees and 9-13% decrease in cost for employers). Then, add pregnant women and children. Stabilize the market, realizing that negotiations for providers and pharma MUST be part of this mix. Then you can add 55+ and age increments of 10 years until every American is covered…We must take CEO, shareholder, and corporate profits out of the mix almost completely because no one should ever profit off the sick and dying.
Recently, one of the most controversial topics is the passage of the Republican Tax Plan and who it actually benefits. Julia’s analysis of the plan is this:
My husband and I will make money until 2027 because of our income. People making more than $250k will make exponentially more. Over $500k. WOW, these folks are the lucky ones! However, when I ran the numbers on a family of three making $40-$75k per year, itemizing, filing jointly, in CA., they will take a hit. On top of this, trickle down economics has never worked. In fact, they’ve served to begin the Great Depression and the Great Recession. I am also appalled by the GOP Congress who ignored constituents across the country, even constituents in their own party, to pass this bill. It’s a windfall for big business and corporations, but not for small and medium sized companies and individuals. Even if there is a .4-1.4% increase in take home for some families, these expire while the benefits to the wealthiest are permanent.
Like most women, she is a #Metoo and feels that sexual harassment training videos are not helpful. To help change our acceptance culture she believes in an “accountability system that bypasses ignorance in the workplace, even if, it means having a special unit at a local police station. And we have to stop talking about how ‘No means no’ and get to place where ‘Only yes means yes.’ Empowering our young women to stand up for themselves will go a long way as well.”
The current Republican incumbent, Ken Calvert, possesses astonishing questionable ethics as reported by Howie Klein in a HuffPost blog (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/howie-klein/rep-ken-calvert-is-an-emb_b_327679.html). Unlike Rep. Calvert, Julia has “run a clean campaign” and declares that his “record tends to speak for itself.” She informed me that he “recently supported the expansion of the 91/15 freeways toll road. He has 7 properties within a 1-mile radius of this project…His property values have reportedly gone up about 1.5 million dollars in combined value since the expansion was completed…He also voted resoundingly on every GOP attempt to destroy the ACA, despite having 80,000 families in our district who benefit from the program…He has his own self-interests in mind when he votes and when he proposes legislation.”
California’s 42nd district is heavily Republican, so she has spoken with disgruntled Republicans to reach across the divide. They have “provided incredible insight into how to deliver a message to Republicans who might be ripe for a change.” In addition, she’s working with an organization and two immigration lawyers to “help our Latino friends and neighbors gain their citizenship and register to vote.” She acknowledges that flipping the district won’t be easy, but explains that “if we merely flip 9% of his 17% former voters, we can win without adding another registered voter.”
Finally, to the 42nd district’s constituents, she expresses why they should vote for her in the June 5, 2018 primary and, if she wins, the November 2018 election:
I believe our district and her amazing residents deserve real representation in government. From traffic to schools to jobs to infrastructure to healthcare, there are many issues in our district that my opponent has either ignored or manipulated to his own financial gain. I am taking only clean money; no PACs or corporations who don’t protect workers and the environment. The 42nd needs a new voice; a voice of integrity. No more career politicians. No more bought-and-sold millionaires. No more corruption. We deserve better; all of us. I will be that new, powerful voice for working families, immigrants, business owners, the elderly, the LGBTQ+ community, and all constituents. It’s time. I am the right voice for the 42nd.
To learn more about Democratic Candidate, Julia Peacock, for CA-42, please go to: http://peacockforcongress.com/
Scroll To Top
