Following Thursday’s Red, White and Blue event, a group of Democratic candidates and supporters gathered at Democratic Headquarters on Williamsburg Square to extend their excitement for this year’s election.
Making the gathering a bit more exciting was the appearance of 2nd District candidate Hank Linderman, who’s running for U.S. Representative against Republican Brett Guthrie. Alongside Linderman was his friend and supporter, actor Joe Spano, who is best known for his roles as Lt. Henry Goldblume on Hill Street Blues and FBI Special Agent Tobias C. Fornell on NCIS.
The Owensboro Times sat down with Guthrie three weeks prior to speak one-on-one about his campaign, which was largely focused on developing jobs across the Commonwealth and combating the opioid epidemic across the nation.
Linderman and Spano’s trip to Owensboro was largely focused on bringing citizens out to vote and getting them involved in the upcoming election. As far as campaign focuses, one of Linderman’s objectives is to make health care more accessible for U.S. citizens.
“That is the number one issue people are facing, is health care. And we now have, I think, even a majority of Republicans, saying they’re willing to talk about single-payer,” Linderman said. “Single-payer is kind of a broad concept, and the basic idea is we have to make health care less expensive, easier to use and, by easier to use, I mean anyone who’s argued with an insurance company on the telephone knows what I’m talking about.”
Linderman said health care should be focused less on profit and more on citizens’ health.
“We’re not against profit, but there needs to be some balance,” Linderman said. “Every other nation in the developed world generally does a better job than we do. They do it for less money. They have longer life expectancies. Our nation is the only nation in the developed world where life expectancies are declining. We have the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world.”
According to Linderman, Americans would benefit from looking at other nations who’ve successfully adopted cheaper, more accessible health care for their citizens.
Linderman also said elections are politically driven, far too often, by corporate political action committee (PAC) money, and that he’s received positive acknowledgment from both Republicans and Democrats who agree that PAC money shouldn’t influence who wins and loses an election.
Repairing the American family is another one of Linderman’s focuses. He believes the best way to bring healthy families back to America is by listening to and understanding the everyday issues facing citizens and families across the nation. By really listening to one another, Linderman says Americans can better solve the issues causing familial strife.
By bringing Joe Spano along to join his campaign for the week, Linderman said he hoped it would bring more awareness to the 2nd District in Kentucky, which includes Owensboro and Bowling Green on the western side of the state.
“That’s part of what we’re trying to do is introduce the 2nd District to people outside of the district,” Linderman said. “The 2nd District needs more opportunity, and we’re going to have to find that from outside the state.”
