Candidate Profile: Jason Lewis For U.S. Senate
WOODBURY, MN — The 2020 election is heating up in Minnesota and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office. Eyes are primarily focused on the presidential election, but voters will also decide the outcome of seats in the United States Senate.
Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.
Jason Lewis, a Woodbury resident, is running for U.S. Senate.
Age: 64
Party affiliation: Republican Party
Family: Wife Leigh (a former St. Paul Police Officer), & 2 Daughters
Occupation: Former Broadcaster of 25+ Years, Former Small Business Owner (family machine & automotive aftermarket shop)
Previous elected experience: Former Congressman, Representing Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District (2017-2019)
Family members in government: No
Campaign website: https://lewisformn.com/
The single most pressing issue facing our state is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.
The most important issue facing our state and nation is the failure of government to uphold its first principles. The first duty of government is to protect life, liberty and property so that every man, woman and child is safe to seek opportunity and prosperity.
Our economy is locked down by executive order and our businesses are sentenced to die a slow death, threatening the livelihoods of millions. Law enforcement, rather than being allowed to protect lives and property, was ordered to stand down and miles’ worth of homes and businesses were allowed to be burned to the ground. Now we’re told we must defund the police which is “rotten to the root” as Ilhan Omar put it.
Mobs of ANTIFA radicals are allowed to roam our streets, burning and destroying free of consequence. We’re being pressured to conform into thinking and behaving in a “politically correct” fashion.
Radical Democrat politicians have failed you and I am not going to stand for it. The gift of self governance that the Declaration of Independence and Constitution grants us means we must elect leaders who still believe in defending the liberties that are given to us by God, but protected in those documents.
What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?
Senator Smith and I come from very different backgrounds and walks of life. I spent a lot of my early years working for the family business. We owned a machine shop and I spent a lot of time on the road selling automotive aftermarket parts. When my dad retired I took over the family business, later going into broadcasting and enjoying a long and successful career as a radio host discussing public affairs and hearing folks’ concerns each and every day .
Senator Smith has spent her career as a corporate executive, a former Vice President of Planned Parenthood, and has been a politician for the last 14 years.
I believe I have more real world experience and therefore a better perspective with which to help govern than Tina Smith does.
On an ideological level, I still believe there is far more good about America than bad. I believe there is no challenge the United States of America can not meet and face while still holding true to our values and principles.
Senator Smith on the other hand sides with the radical defund the police movement and says the role that police play in society is “dangerously wrong.” She would sooner throw her lot in with the Green New Dealers than stand in support of new logging, pipelines, and safe/responsible mines in the Northland. I helped President Trump cut taxes and regulations, Tina stands with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris who have pledged to increase our taxes by $4 trillion dollars. I have fought for fairer trade deals that will help our farmers and manufacturers. I will also get tough on China, while Senator Smith continues to raise campaign money from corporations that outsource jobs there. I support confirming judges who believe in life, the Second Amendment, and protecting freedom of speech. Senator Smith does not.
What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?
If we are to use the metric of bills passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, the 115th Congress, of which I was a part, was one of the most productive sessions of Congress in our nation’s history. I was proud to have helped pass historic tax cuts through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, I authored and sponsored landmark bipartisan juvenile justice reform, and I co-sponsored and passed a bill providing historic levels of support to Career and Technical Education. Too many young folks (and their parents) are going into debt to fund four year degrees that sometimes provide little utility. Growing the middle class means we need to provide more resources and encourage people to go into farming and the trades, and ensure they are able to thrive doing so.
What steps should state government take to bolster economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic for local businesses?
I was all in on “15 days to slow the spread” and its initial extension so that our health care infrastructure could shore up and “flatten the curve.” I have been proposing since April that the state lift once and for all this economic lockdown that has plagued and derailed what had previously been the best economy on record, thanks to the tax cuts I helped pass in Congress. In fact, I sued the state of Minnesota in federal court challenging their unconstitutional economic lockdowns. On a federal level, Americans indeed need more relief from the fallout surrounding COVID and the lockdown, such as SBA loan forgiveness which I support and my opponent opposes, based on her latest “NO” vote on COVID relief bills.
How will you address the calls for racial justice and police reform?
I know firsthand from marrying a St. Paul police officer that nobody dislikes a bad cop more than a good cop. But to paint with a broad brush and label an entire profession as “rotten to the root” as Ilhan Omar did (who my opponent enthusiastically endorsed), is not only wrong, it’s dangerous. Bad cops must be held accountable--that’s why I spoke out in favor of Senator Tim Scott’s and Congressman Pete Stauber’s reform bill, the “JUSTICE Act” while Senator Tina Smith voted against it. But we owe it to the men and women who risk their lives to keep us safe, to stand behind them and support them, and I do. That’s why I’m proud to have been endorsed by the Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police and the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association.
List other issues that define your campaign platform:
One issue that needs to be addressed and one that my opponent is woefully out of line with Minnesotans on is the issue of health care.
I am proud of my efforts in Congress to reform ACA and lower premiums, deductibles, and drug costs. We now have two competing visions of what direction health care in America should take. A market-based system of private medicine with a safety net, or a heedless slide into a single-payer government run system.
Democrats now insist the only way to fix the skyrocketing premiums and deductibles that have been foisted upon us by Obamacare (which conservatives like me warned would happen) is to embrace a single payer style healthcare system such as “Medicare For All.” Plans such as those supported by my opponent Tina Smith could force up to 50 rural Minnesota hospitals to close.
Lest you believe that more government is the answer to the issue of healthcare, ask Canada and Europe how their care rationing and months-long waiting lists are working out for their citizens.
What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?
As a husband and the loving father of two daughters who are now all grown up and out of the house, I want to be a force for order and for good in the midst of all the chaos and turmoil that is unfolding in our state and country. I want to leave Minnesota and the United States a better state and nation than I found it, for your kids and grandkids and mine. I would be honored to have your support.
Also read: Candidate Profile: Tina Smith For U.S. Senate
This article originally appeared on the Woodbury Patch
