David Baria, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee: In his own words

Baria

By David Baria,

U.S. Senate Candidate,

Baria
Baria

I’m David Baria, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. We have an historic opportunity to elect two Democratic senators in Mississippi this year. That’s why I am supporting Mike Espy in the Senate Special Election. You can and should vote for both of us.

I was born and raised in Jackson County, and I’m a proud graduate of Moss Point High School, the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Mississippi School of Law. I’ve been married to my wife, Marcie Fyke, for 26 years. We are the proud parents of Merritt, Bess and Max. We are members of Christ Episcopal Church in Bay St. Louis.

As the House Minority Leader in the Mississippi legislature, I’ve led the fight to fully fund Mississippi’s public schools, make corporations pay their fair share of taxes, develop a comprehensive infrastructure plan, and improve access to healthcare. I’m committed to Mississippi’s working families and will carry this commitment to Washington as our next U.S. Senator.

For too long, our leaders in Mississippi have been focusing on the 10 percent of things that divide us, instead of the 90 percent of things that unite us. For 30 years we have sent the same people to Washington and have gotten the same results. We are still in 50th place. That’s why I’m running for Senate – because to pull Mississippi out of 50th we need to come together and get our house in order.

When I talk to people all across our state, no issue makes this more clear than our broken healthcare system. In the greatest country in the world we should not have folks having to choose between paying their electric bill or paying for needed medications or a doctor’s visit. We can, and should, ensure healthcare coverage for all Americans so that our communities can be healthy and thrive.

But too often, politics get in the way of doing what is right for Mississippians. We have tens of thousands of hardworking Mississippians without healthcare coverage today, because of the purely political decision to not expand Medicaid. This decision by our failed state leadership has cost us thousands of good-paying medical industry jobs and led us to fall behind our neighbors in Louisiana.

My opponent, Roger Wicker, has repeatedly voted for measures that shut down community health care programs and to allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. Everyone has a friend or loved one with a preexisting condition. Before the ACA, wealthy insurance companies had free reign to jack up prices, deny services, or kick people off their health insurance. No matter how my opponent tries to spin this, removing this protection is bad for Mississippi and I will fight tooth and nail in the Senate to protect coverage for preexisting conditions.

These are all things that I will fight for in the US Senate. I will always fight for what is best for Mississippians, without concern for the consequences of doing the right thing for our state.

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