Editor's note: The below excerpt from this interview is not the full transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full interview with Bill Hill by clicking on the audio link.
Matt Schultz: “Hi, my name is Reverend Matt Schultz. I'm the pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Anchorage, Alaska, and I'm running for Alaska's lone seat in the US House of Representatives. My whole life, I've wanted to be of service to my community, and that's why I got into ministry in the first place. And then, little by little, more and more people in my neighborhood, and my congregation, and especially my own family, came to me in tears, saying, this administration is attacking us and hurting us, and why doesn't anybody do anything to protect us? And so I raised my hand and said I will stand between the attacker and the attacked.
Davis Hovey, KMXT: What ideas do you have in mind specifically to improve the health care system, especially now that, yeah, we've seen substantial cuts to Medicaid within the last year, and costs on average are going up for all Alaskans and Americans?
Schultz: Those two things are not disconnected. I mean, when you start cutting a big part of the program out with a chainsaw, of course, the program is going to bleed, and people are going to suffer, and that's what we're seeing. So, we need to undo the damage that has been done by things such as the one big beautiful bill. Just like in any sort of triage situation, you stop the bleeding first, that means repeal the one big beautiful bill and the horrible harm it did. Then we strengthen and expand Medicaid and Medicare, make sure that everybody has access to these things. I said earlier, healthcare for all working Americans, and that was a bit of an error. Healthcare for all Americans. It doesn't matter if you lose your job for a while, you shouldn't then have to forego having life-saving medicine. That's not the way a compassionate country should function.
KMXT: Since you're here in Kodiak, obviously we're a big commercial fishing community….I know there is only so much Congress can do, but I am hoping you can share some of your priorities when it comes to the commercial fishing industry, and what you would do to help improve those economic factors?
Schultz: We need to treat these, our fishing industries and our fisheries all around the state, not only as an industry, which it certainly is, and not only as a matter of national security, which it most certainly is, but, and this is where some of my church background comes into play, a sacred way of life, a way of life that is built into the character and the culture and the spirituality of people who have lived here for thousands and thousands of years, and that deserves all of our protection.
KMXT: Here in rural Alaska, as I'm sure you're familiar, you know, we have sort of those extra logistical challenges, we, you know, bring in a lot of our groceries via barge or plane. We have, of course, the rising fuel costs, as you mentioned, and then all of those fees and surcharges sort of added on to that. From the national level, from the federal level, what are some of your ideas to just address cost of living across the board?
Schultz: Well, certainly the fuel costs play into it, and right now the fuel costs are spiking because the president chose a war, and we're seeing that happen. So that's one thing we can undo from the get-go. Right now, our tax structure is such that it is doing exactly what it is designed to do, and that's take money from us and give it to billionaires, and I think we need to change that all the way down to the genetic code of the tax code, because it needs to be a tax code that serves the people and serves the general public. Right now, it's not doing that.
So we need to change that whole structure up. In addition to that, I would love to see a change in the way that we are enforcing, or I guess I should say not enforcing, a lot of our antitrust laws, we're continuing to see a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few gigantic corporations.
KMXT: I was curious then about your stance on our federal immigration policies, and obviously there's been a lot of uproar in the last year about how some of those policies have been enforced and have drastically changed. I'll just sort of lay that out generally for you to answer as you wish.
Schultz: Sure, yeah. We all agree there needs to be immigration law, for sure. It's a very large and complex topic, and we need to have a process in place. I think we would all also agree that that process has to be fair and it has to be compassionate, and I want to use that word as often as humanly possible in this campaign, because I believe the current administration has jettisoned compassion and empathy as things that we should care about. Of course, we should. Of course, we should. It's part of who we are, and if we're forgetting to have compassion, then we don't deserve to be the most powerful nation on earth. And so I want to see an immigration system that is weighted toward being compassionate and kind and loving. One of my ongoing principles, not only in my ministry life, but also in the campaign, is love your neighbor, and that doesn't just mean the dude across the street, it means people from other nations as well. We need to show love for them while enforcing these laws. So, if somebody breaks a law while in the country, as in not yet a citizen, then sure, yeah, there should be consequences for that."
The primary election is Aug. 18 and voters will each pick one candidate. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will advance from there to the general election on Nov. 3.
The 15 candidates for U.S. House are:
- David Ambrose (nonpartisan)
- Nick Begich III (Republican) (incumbent)
- Lady Donna Dutchess (nonpartisan)
- John Foddrill (Libertarian)
- Eddie Goldfarb (Republican)
- Eric Hafner (Democratic)
- Bill Hill (Nonpartisan)
- James McDermott (Libertarian)
- Yaquelin Reynoso (Democratic)
- Melanie Salazar (Nonpartisan)
- Matt Schultz (Democratic)
- Clay Strickland (Republican)
- John Williams (Democratic)
- Matthew Williams (Undeclared)
- David Richey (Nonpartisan)
