Independent state Senate candidate Lisa Mair appeals to pandemic frustrations, health concerns

WORCESTER — Lisa Mair could be facing an uphill battle in November as an unenrolled state Senate candidate in a historically Democratic district, but she believes there is dissatisfaction with pandemic policies and Democratic overreach among voters.

"I've been doing a lot of (door knocking) and the first question I usually get is, 'What party?' and I say I'm an independent and they say 'good' with a lot of enthusiasm," Mair said. "I think that right now because of all of the division and polarization, people are saying we've had it."

Mair, 54, faces Democrat Robyn K. Kennedy of Worcester in the Nov. 8 election to succeed state Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester. There is no Republican candidate on the ballot.

However, Mair held a fundraiser event with a few Republican candidates: Lt. Gov. nominee Leah Cole Allen, congressional candidate Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette of Shrewsbury and state representative candidate Michael A. Vulcano III of Northborough.

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Background

Mair is a Berlin resident who has previously lived in Worcester, moving to Berlin around 1998  She was raised in Holyoke by German immigrant parents and moved to Worcester in the early '90s. She said her parents had modest means during her childhood.

"We didn't have any frills, we didn't have any luxuries and we really just focused on working really hard on our educations," Mair said.

She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as an undergraduate and got her master of science degree in food science and nutrition from Framingham State University.

After graduating, Mair said she worked for a business that created robotics for the pharmaceutical industry and decided to focus more on nutrition and wellness education.

After operating several small businesses with her husband, Glen, Mair started to focus more on wellness education. She said she is a nutritionist, health coach practicing functional medicine and program leader. Her career in "holistic medicine" has influenced her worldview.

"For years I have been just looking at the world and seeing how everything is stacked against our health and well-being," Mair said. "If we are healthy, it affects everything. Physical health is intricately related to mental health and all of that is related to our wealth and mental stability."

She worries that public health services and institutions are oriented around pharmaceuticals and less so on improving the overall health of patients, adding that she believes the pharmaceutical industry and other large industries have too much influence on health policies.

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Her time to give back

With both of her children out of the house, Mair said she felt it was her time to give back to her community by pursuing public office.

Mair said she was a Democrat, even being a supporter of left-wing U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns. However, she has moved away from the party citing disagreements over COVID-19 pandemic policy and calls from some activists to defund the police during the 2020 racial justice protests.

"We need the police to help us stay safe and if we defund them, who's going to come when you call 911 when someone's breaking into your house," Mair said.

While she said that there will be "bad apples" in law enforcement, the best approach is policies and training to root out officers who are racist or abusive.

While she is no longer a Democrat, Mair said that the concerns she had about community health, opposition to oppression and support for the environment from her time as a Democrat remain.

The issues

Mair said she supports expanding green energy initiatives, calling for solar panels to be placed over parking lots and not over fields where trees would be cut down.

In addition, Mair said Democrats have failed to support working people by not repealing the state's gas tax when gas prices soared.

During the pandemic, she said her eyes were opened to many issues with the public health system. Mair said that she realized the country has long neglected people with chronic diseases and that there needed to be more promotion of improving overall health.

Mair said that public health institutions should have promoted the use of vitamin D and zinc. She added that elderly citizens taking more vitamin D could have prevented many nursing home deaths from COVID-19, a claim that has been controversial in mainstream health.

She also said that doctors were being suppressed for promoting certain off-label drugs as treatment for COVID-19. She said her own Facebook account was removed after sharing a study that stated chloroquine is a potent inhibitor for SARS-CoV-1.

"Doctors were being smeared and censored, also kicked off of social media, for sharing this kind of information and I found that very disturbing," Mair said.

Chloroquine is a Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, but the agency has advised against its use for COVID-19.

Supporting the constitution

Such regulation by social media companies as well as the closings of religious institutions during the pandemic have led Mair to believe that elected officials need to better know the state constitution.

"(Elected leaders) need to take an oath to get in office to support the Massachusetts constitution, and the country's constitution," Mair said. "I think we need to do a better job of actually upholding that oath."

COVID-19 mandates

As a state senator, Mair said that she would end any COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the state, saying that people losing their jobs from mandates causes significant harm to their general health.

The City of Worcester has ended its employee vaccine or testing requirement and the City of Boston has lifted its vaccine passport requirement, but Mair pointed to a requirement for a vaccine at her son's school, UMass Amherst.

Mair said she is not vaccinated, saying that she has sufficient protection from a prior COVID-19 infection.

She also wants to help small businesses flourish by reducing expenses, taxes and regulations, saying they were unfairly closed while big box stores remained open during the pandemic.

School lunch program and housing

In addition to her COVID concerns, Mair said she is worried schools are serving lunches that are riddled with heavy metals that impact childhood development. She cited a study from Moms Across America, a group that has opposed the use of GMOs in crops.

On housing and the rising costs of rent, Mair said that it is urgent to have affordable and accessible housing and some zoning requirements may help, but she worries regulations that go too far on zoning requirements for new affordable units may lead to developers pulling out from Worcester projects.

"More units is desirable. It provides more housing. So we don't want to disincentivize them from building here in the city," Mair said.

School curricula

When asked about debates over school curricula, Mair said that there are legitimate concerns about curriculum. On the teaching of race and racism, she said that education should acknowledge the realities of the past while also trying to uplift students on continuing progress.

"We definitely need to be teaching history the way it happened and not whitewash it in any way," Mair said. "However, I am concerned that telling these young kids that they are oppressors or victims based on the color of their skin may have long-term psychological impacts on them."

On sex education, Mair said she wants to learn more from child psychologists and that transgender children need support. However, she said there is a valid concern that talking to children about gender and sexuality at a young age may put wrong ideas in their head that could have consequences.

She wondered if learning about gender or sexuality may be better as an after-school program where parents can opt in.

Abortion debate

Mair said that both sides of the abortion debate focus too much on their own perspective, but that anti-abortion supporters tend to focus on the health of both the child and the mother.

"While pro-choice groups seem to consider only the rights of the mother," Mair said. "Pro-life advocates prioritize the well-being of both the mother and the baby."

She added that she worried the desire to expand abortion rights could expand the eligibility to the point where a baby may feel pain from an abortion.

Kennedy, a former YWCA of Central Massachusetts executive with extensive experience in state government, had a strong primary victory against Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty and has secured the support of both Petty and Chandler. Worcester, which makes up a large portion of the district, has also voted strongly Democratic for several election cycles.

However, Mair said she believes she can appeal to Republican voters, unenrolled voters and even some Democrats who want a change in government and are angry with both polarization and pandemic restrictions.

She said there is a space for someone who does not play by party politics.

Mair characterized Kennedy, who was considered the more progressive Democratic primary candidate, as "far-left."

The First Worcester District includes part of Worcester, Boylston, West Boylston, Berlin, Northborough and Bolton.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Independent state Senate candidate Lisa Mair talks issues on COVID, health