We have asked candidates running for various offices to answer questions for our Voter Guide. While full responses are available at AmarilloVotes.com, we are offering you an excerpt in “Candidate Comparisons” ahead of the July 14, 2020 primary runoff election.
Each response below came directly from the candidate’s questionnaire provided to the campaigns before the March 3 primary election. Candidates have continued to have access to the link through the July 14 runoff election. Each response is unedited and appears as submitted by the campaign, except in the case in which a candidate did not respond to the questionnaire, which is noted in the candidate’s responses.
Trujillo/Photo by Campaign
Gus Trujillo
Occupation: Office Manager
Q: What are your top three priorities, if elected?
My first priority would be to help the middle class grow. Our middle class is shrinking and it’s due to the concentrated wealth that has gone to the top where companies, and not people, are rewriting the rules. These rules are limiting the middle class from succeeding and improving their generations for the future. I am a firm believer in capitalism as that is what helped our country become the greatest superpower on earth, however the rules must be fair so that there are opportunities for everyone to succeed. America is the land of opportunity where everyone should be able to start from nothing and create something great that will then create more opportunities for others to succeed.
My second priority would be to support legislation that allows the people a choice to either keep their existing corporate provided healthcare plan or to enter into a public option that is affordable and provides quality coverage. A medicare for all plan should not be imposed onto those who don’t wish to accept it. The freedom to choose a private or public option should be left up to the people and not the government.
My third priority would be to bring more job opportunities to our district. The younger generation in our area continues to dwindle because they find better opportunities in places like Austin, Dallas, etc. There is no reason why our district cannot have those same opportunities. We have an advantage with space and we have the talent that can take on the many new jobs of the modern economy. I will work hard to persuade companies to invest in the 13th District with modern jobs that will be here for a lifetime.
Q: Do you plan to host town hall meetings in the district during your first term in office? Why or why not?
I definitely plan to host town hall meetings in my first term in office. The whole reason that this office exists is because it is indeed the official voice of the people in our nation’s capital. I will make every effort to listen to as many constituents as I can so that I can effectively vote for things that they care about the most. This office is not about me, it is completely about the constituents of District 13.
Q: Please explain what reforms Congress should enact, if any, regarding the healthcare system.
Congress should enact reforms that make it easier for people to have the choice of either keeping their existing corporate provided healthcare plans or to enter into a public option that is affordable and provides quality coverage. A medicare for all plan should not be imposed onto those who don’t wish to accept it. The freedom to choose a private or public option should be left up to the people and not the government. In addition to this the pharmaceutical industry must be reformed in order to make drug prices completely negotiable as they are currently ridiculously overpriced.
Q: Do you support President Trump's proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border? Please explain.
I am not completely opposed to a border wall however in some areas a wall will not work. There are many important wildlife migrations that are vital to the balance of our U.S. ecological system. Placing a wall in a place that blocks this essential animal migration would negatively affect our side of the environment with issues of overpopulation, underpopulation, fertilization, grazing, hunting, trading, etc. For areas where a wall is not effective we must utilize modern technologies that view and track immigrants at far distances long before they reach our borders. This technology would allow agents to effectively target key areas of movement rather than scan vast areas of inactivity.
Q: Why are you the best candidate for voters to support in the 13th District?
I am the best candidate for voters to support because I was born and raised here at our home. I want to make a real difference for our community because I know that we have the potential to do great things just like any metropolitan area does today. We can get the same attention and the same opportunities with someone who will prioritize those while in office. Many of my friends have moved on to larger cities because they find better opportunities. I have the chance to do that as well, but instead I’ve chosen to remain here where I grew up. I made that choice to stay because I have the passion to make my home an even better place for future generations to come.
Sagan/Photo by Campaign
Greg Sagan
Occupation: Retired management consultant
Q: What are your top three priorities, if elected?
Health care, economy, immigration reform
Q: Do you plan to host town hall meetings in the district during your first term in office? Why or why not?
Yes I would. I believe the Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has placed a megaphone in the hands of corporate CEOs and Board Chairs and has effectively muted the voices of their employees. Right now we are seeing the toxic results of this decision in the form of economic symbiosis between those who have the money to finance their political will and those in office who benefit from these enormous reserves of cash.
Q: Please explain what reforms Congress should enact, if any, regarding the healthcare system.
We must adopt some form of universal, single-payer health care. Our current system diverts too much money from delivering health care to compensating those who keep their institutions profitable, to stock holders, and to lobbyists and their means of seducing legislators into perpetuating the status quo. What we aren't hearing, but which is nevertheless true, is that competition in health care drives costs up, not down, and every Republican plan attempted or proposed carries, as an initial condition, some method for increasing competition. A study published last year by the University of Massachusetts - Amherst estimates that in the first ten years of Medicare for All the American economy would save $5 trillion. A recent article in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association - a juried professional journal) reported that of the $3.5 trillion Americans spent on health care in 2017, between $500 billion and $900 billion was wasted.
Q: Do you support President Trump's proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border? Please explain.
No. The whole idea is silly. The "border wall" - which is really a picket fence - can be scaled by teenage girls with no equipment in less than 20 seconds, and it can be cut through using hand tools commonly available for about $100. General George Patton once said, "Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man," and he was right. This "wall" gives no hope whatsoever that it will slow, much less stop, anyone determined to breach it. The reality is that most immigrants coming over our southern border are coming here for economic reasons, so the solution to slowing or stopping this flow must also be economic.
Q: Why are you the best candidate for voters to support in the 13th District?
I'm smart, I'm educated, I'm widely experienced, I'm hard to bluff and I can't be bribed or blackmailed.