>> Hi, I'm Joanne Webster, president and CEO of the North Bay Leadership Council.

We're so proud to support NorCal Public Media's candidate town Hall forums, bringing candidates and people of all ages together for an important civic conversation.

The North Bay Leadership Council is a collective voice of employers who advocate for sound public policy, demonstrate and grow leadership within the region, and collectively work for more resilient, prosperous and equitable future.

Nblc is proud to support NorCal Public Media's Candidate Town Hall forums and support civic engagement across our region.

>> I'm Donna Roper, president of the League of Women Voters of Sonoma County.

The league is proud to partner with NorCal Public Media on these candidate town hall forums.

As part of our commitment to informed and active participation in our democracy candidate forums, give voters an opportunity to hear directly from those seeking public office.

Learn where they stand on issues affecting our communities, and make informed decisions at the ballot box.

Thank you for taking part in this important civic conversation.

>> With delightful crowd.

Thank you all for being here.

Good evening and welcome to tonight's Candidate Forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Yolo County.

This evening's forum was prepared in partnership with colleagues from both the Sonoma County and the Napa County local leagues.

My name is Michelle Famula, and I have the privilege of being the president of Yolo County League of Women Voters.

The National League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago in 1920, just six months before the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Formed by suffragists.

So we could do stuff like this.

Formed by suffragists, the League began a mighty political experiment created to help millions of newly enfranchised women take on their responsibilities as voters.

Today, the league's mission is to encourage all citizens to participate in voting and government actively and with good information.

The League is a nonpartisan organization.

We do not endorse candidates or political parties.

Candidate forums such as tonight's are one of the ways we provide nonpartisan voter education to encourage citizen participation in representative democracy.

Our forums follow guidelines established by the League of Women Voters of California.

These guidelines are designed to provide a fair and informative opportunity for candidates to share their views and for we, the voters, to learn more about the candidates and the issues.

We appreciate everyone joining us this evening.

We recognize that these are challenging times with many different perspectives and opinions.

We ask that everyone here treat one another with respect and appreciation.

We value the beliefs and opinions of all members of our community and ask that all dialog and actions remain constructive.

Anyone engaging in disruptive or disrespectful behavior may be asked to leave.

Tonight's forum is being live streamed and televised by woodland TV, channel 21.

The event is also being recorded and will be available on our league website dot org and at woodland tv.org until Election Day, November 3rd.

Tonight's candidates are running to represent California's Congressional District four in the U.S.

House of Representatives.

Following the passage of proposition 50 in 2025, the boundaries of district four were redrawn to include all of Colusa, Napa, Sutter and Yuba counties and parts of Lake Placer, Sacramento, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

The two candidates here tonight were the top two winners of the California primary election on June 2nd.

Seated on your left is Mike Thompson, and seated on the right is Eric Jones.

Each can.

Each candidate will have an opportunity to introduce themselves and talk about their candidacy.

They will then respond to questions from the league and from members of the audience.

The moderator for tonight's forum is Komal Hak, a member of our Yolo County League.

Take it away Komal.

>> Thank you.

Michelle.

Thank you Michelle, and welcome everyone to tonight's program.

Our forum will follow this format.

Each candidate will have 2.5 minutes for an opening statement.

Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to each of the four questions developed by members of the Yolo County League and approved by our board.

Following their initial responses, both candidates will have the option of a 45 second follow up response.

The order in which candidates respond will alternate with each question.

Our timekeepers Judy Higgerson and Judy Wolfram, will notify candidates when 15 seconds remain and when their time has ended.

For all statements and responses, the questions will be followed by audience submitted questions.

Audience questions will be screened and prioritized by league volunteers to avoid duplication and ensure a range of topics and issues.

Each candidate will have a minute and a half to respond to those questions, with an optional 45 second follow up response.

Due to time due to time constraints, we may not be able to use all audience questions.

Following the questions, the candidates will have 2.5 minutes for a closing statement.

To close, the moderator me will make some brief remarks.

Please refrain from applauding or in any other way demonstrating support or nonsupport for any candidates until the end of the forum.

Attendees causing disruptions will be asked to leave at the end of the forum.

We will ask for applause for both candidates.

As you came in, you had the option of picking up a question card.

The guidelines for submitting questions are printed on the back of your cards.

If you did not receive a card and would like to submit a question, please raise your hand now and keep it raised and a volunteer will bring one to you.

When writing your question, please keep your question brief to allow time for more questions from the audience, make your question.

Make sure your question is relevant to the Office of Congressional Representative for district four, and that it applies to both candidates.

Our question sorting team will review the questions, combined questions that are similar and remove questions that are inappropriate, including those containing negative or disrespectful comments, rude language, or personal attacks.

Once you've written your question, please pass it to the end of the side end of the aisle.

Volunteers will collect questions throughout the first part of the forum until approximately 6:59 p.m.

Thank you for helping us keep the question period fair, respectful, and focused on the issues relevant to this office.

And so now we will move on to our candidates opening statements.

Prior to this, we did a random pick for who will go first.

And we are going to start today with Mr.

Eric Jones.

Thank you.

>> How about M. Yes.

Okay, great.

Thank you, everyone for being here.

And thank you specifically to the League of Women Voters.

At this moment in our country, it is more critical than ever that communities get to hear directly from the people seeking to represent them.

One of the absolute wonderful gifts this campaign has been moving my mother to Napa.

She's right over there in the corner.

My wife works 60 hours a week.

She's right here in the front.

She's a wonderful mother, but we need some grandma power when the campaign started.

Which means I'm also getting some childhood stories.

And my mom's reminded me of this story a few times, and I'd like to retell it here.

We grew up in a welfare household.

My father was an opioid addict and a disabled veteran, and there were times when our house was a little rough.

But one of those nights, my mother pulled me aside and she said, Eric, I know it's challenging right now.

I know this is very hard, but I guarantee you that your future will be very different.

Now, this is my mom speaking, but she was speaking to something greater than me.

This was the 90s and she was speaking to a belief in our country, a belief in America.

Frankly, my mom was right.

I was the first in my family to go to college.

I went to Yale University on a full scholarship.

I spent a year in New York City.

I went on one date.

I met my wife, Rachel, and then we both moved to California.

We were 22.

We both have had incredible careers, and now we have two young children.

In fact, my daughter's birthday is today and.

When I go home tonight, I would love to be able to make to her the exact same promise that my mother made to me.

That the future for her in this country is bright.

But I can't honestly make that promise.

Our future is too uncertain, and the American dream, the idea that my mother believed in so dearly that she focused on so intently every night at her household when things got tough.

The American dream is dying.

Lobbyists control our democracy, and affordability is crushing the next generation.

Political corruption and corporate greed have drowned out all opportunities for hope.

And you see it all across America, which is why we need to fight corruption.

We need to lower the cost of living.

And most importantly, we need to protect our future.

Stand up to Big tech.

Stand up to corporate America and make sure this community is available to all of us for generations.

Thank you.

>> Thank you.

Mr.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

And now to you, Mr.

Mike Thompson.

>> Thank you very, very much.

Thank you to the League of Women Voters for hosting this forum tonight and for what you do 365 days a year for democracy.

I appreciate it very much.

And thank you to all of you who took time this evening to come out and to hear this discussion about where we're going and how we're getting there.

I'm proud to tell you that I was born, grew up, and still live in our congressional district.

My wife, Jan, in the front row, and I raised our family in the fourth Congressional District.

Jan works at the same hospital in the fourth Congressional District where I was born.

She's a great nurse practitioner.

I left high school early at 17, joined the Army, and served a tour in Vietnam in combat with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, where I was wounded, and I learned a very important lesson in my time in combat.

And that was we leave no one behind.

And that's the guiding principle that motivates me today.

Leave no one behind.

And right now, families are being left behind.

Working families are being left behind.

Millionaires and billionaires, they're doing just fine.

Corporations are doing fine.

So I work daily to try and change that.

I'm fighting the tariffs that are causing our prices to go up, hurting farmers and agriculture.

I'm fighting against the forever wars that are costing us in both lives and treasury, and that is important.

And quite honestly, I was shocked last night at the debate that I was in with my opponent when he said that he thought we should bomb Iran every three months.

That is the definition of a forever war.

I'm for access to quality, affordable health care.

I believe we need to debate and pass a single payer health care system.

I'm for getting the cost of drugs down and have a track record on that.

And I don't own, nor do I trade stocks.

And I think everyone in Congress and in the administration should hold to that same standard.

I think that emergency aid to farmers has been something that I have been able to deliver most recently, just a little bit ago.

I'll continue to work for our district.

If it's the 1500 homes that I was responsible for funding to have built the South Davis Library, the woodland interchange on I-5, and 113 or many more, and I'll get to them in the text of the in the body of the debate.

So thank you.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson, for your statement.

And now we shall move on to questions from the League of Women Voters.

The first question will be to Mr.

Thompson.

You.

What will be your top three priorities for the next Congress, and where will you focus your time and effort?

>> Thank you very much.

My top three priorities will be affordability, everything from gas to groceries, housing to utility costs.

I will focus on health care, the cost of health care, and the fact that this administration and this president, with the passage of H.R.

one, really put health care on a bad track, taking $1 trillion away from health care to fund tax credits or tax cuts for billionaires, millionaires and corporations.

And that added $1.4 trillion to our debt.

I will fight for our democracy to make sure it is strong.

The same democracy I fought in combat to protect.

And I will fight against forever wars.

These are dangerous times.

We need to protect the retirement of seniors and the security of seniors.

We need to protect veterans benefits, and we need to protect every one of our communities.

And what we can't do is we can't propose and support silly legislation that would put retirees, veterans, or our ag community in danger.

And sunsetting federal programs.

Is one of those a sunsetting Social Security and Medicare is the first step in privatizing Social Security and Medicare.

That's wrongheaded.

It can't be done.

It does the same thing for crop insurance and for veterans benefits.

Everyone there worked hard to earn those benefits.

They deserve to get those benefits.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Same question.

>> Thank you.

I couldn't agree more with the congressman as it relates to Social Security.

Three big priorities when we get to Congress, one money out of politics.

We need to do this at the state and party level.

Hawaii and Montana have both shown that they can pass legislation that prohibits PAC money and prohibits corporate money in their political system.

The DNC has already said that for presidential primaries, no PAC money allowed, they could go as far as to say for all elections with two Democrats, no PAC money, we need to get money out of politics that we can move towards a world of 12 week elections.

We can all go about our days insanity, not the insanity of we living every day with these year long political slogs.

Get to something fair and free that feels, again, like a democracy.

Two we attack the working and middle class.

Today, America's largest corporations only pay 12% tax, and it's never been lower 12%.

They're supposed to pay 21, but many pay zero, and the average of 21 and zero is about 12.

Big pharma, Big tech, real estate, PGE these are the companies that do not contribute today to our country.

And it's why it feels like we don't have enough money.

And it's true because America's largest corporations are not paying their fair share.

And that's why we have 20 lobbyists for every one member of Congress in DC.

They go to work every day with one intention, increase corporate profit, and deregulate their industry.

We need to take on big tech.

We need to take on corporate America.

It's no longer just about fair taxation.

It's about our future.

If we can't say no to Big Tech clearly and affirmatively, how can we say no to flock cameras?

How can we say no to data centers?

How can we say no to AI and social media destroying our children's lives?

We need people in Congress who stand up for us and protect our future.

>> Mr.

Thompson, follow up for 45 seconds.

>> Thank you very much.

I agree there's too much money in politics, but it needs to come out for everybody.

We can't have a situation where rich people can airdrop into a district and try and buy a congressional seat, a Senate seat or an assembly seat.

We need to have campaign finance reform.

We need to start with getting the dark money out of politics, and we need to reverse the Citizens United measure.

I'm proud to say I've voted for and I've co-sponsored legislation that does just that, and I will continue to fight against that.

>> Mr.

Jones follow up.

>> Unfortunately, just talking about Citizens United will not get the job done.

This is not just a federal issue.

It's a state issue.

It's a national issue.

It's a Democratic Party issue, and it's an individual issue.

We need to put people into office who reject all corporate PAC money, who reject all lobbyist money, and who go to Congress with one mission to fight for their district, not to fight on behalf of America's largest corporations.

I'll be honest, it seems like we've got three quarters of our government that goes to work every day advocating for trillion dollar businesses.

Yes, I asked this room, do they really need the help?

Who's protecting us?

>> Second question, Mr.

Jones.

You'll be first, given the diversity of the urban, suburban and rural communities in district four, how will you determine and address the needs of the residents?

>> It starts with listening to everybody.

So by the end of this campaign, we will have hosted close to 200 town halls.

I've knocked on thousands of doors, answered thousands of emails, and I offer a one on one phone call to any member of the district.

And because we aren't taking money from lobbyists, we get to have direct input from citizens.

And day one, we will be establishing citizen advisory councils in the district by topic and by region.

It's a nine county district, as you saw up there.

It's pretty big and the issues are varied.

And I want direct, direct feedback from the people who matter most to this campaign.

And that's the people who live in this district.

When lobbyists tell you what to think, you forget which way is left and which way is right.

And when.

The problems get really complicated, like AI is, it's hard to know what truth is anymore because they go to office, they go to the office every day fighting to put more corporate profit into the pockets of their corporate benefactors.

I live in this community, and importantly, my kids are growing up in this community.

A five year old and a two year old, we moved to Napa when our son was born because he was sick, and we needed to be a place that was safe and where he could recover.

And the community has given so much back to us, and I won't forget that.

I won't forget Northern California.

My wife's family is from here.

Her grandmother went to Davis and was a rodeo queen.

We have generations spanning over 100 years in this area, in this district, and it's been beautiful to be able to raise my family and give back.

And we're going to work with every county a little bit differently.

And YOLO, I'm speaking with members of the education community about a universal child care provision in Sutter County.

We're debating a tax measure to fund the police and Yountville.

I'm working with veterans to repair their historic veterans home.

I'm talking to health centers across the district to make sure that we're ready in 2027, when the funding cuts come through.

I'm fighting every day already.

>> Thank you.

We are out of time on that point.

Let's hear from Mr.

Thompson.

>> Thank you very much.

I've always represented diverse districts.

I've represented districts that have gone from Yolo County across to Sonoma and up to the Oregon border.

I've represented districts that have gone from Sonoma through Napa up to Glen Colusa, Butte to Shasta and Siskiyou County.

I've represented districts that include Contra Costa County all the way up to the Oregon border.

So I know about diversity, and I work with anyone who's willing to work with me in order to get things done.

And I think it's fair to say that I've always punched above my weight.

And you can look at the results that I've had.

Look at $500 million that I got passed through legislation for fire victims who lost their homes and were being taxed on their settlement.

Look at the the utility, the renewable energy bill that I passed in the last Congress, 400,000 new jobs in the country, $400 billion worth of investment, and the most significant climate change bill to ever pass the legislation that I passed that was responsible for building 1500 new homes in our district.

Flood protection, most notably for Yolo and Napa County, combined $950 million to keep people safe.

And that's why I'm supported by everyone from sheriffs to supervisors to mayors.

Four Republican mayors in a new district have endorsed me.

Four Republican supervisors and independent supervisors have endorsed me in the new district, California Farm Bureau and the Sierra Club.

So I've got great support, and it's because I know how to represent diverse districts, and I deliver for those diverse districts.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> Endorsements are funny, right?

Because you can go online and read all of them.

What I think we should focus on today is actual plans for the future.

This district has missed out on billions and billions of dollars of federal funding.

By the data, we are among the least well funded districts in all of California when it comes to receiving federal funding.

And that's an intentional choice.

The congressman has chosen to be on a very powerful committee, ways and means, but that's a powerful committee in D.C.

it allows you to be at the fulcrum of corporate money and lobbyist money, but it doesn't allow you to bring back money for agriculture and for transit and for housing and for water.

And that's what this district needs.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

>> Follow up.

That's correct.

I am on the most powerful committee in the Congress, and it allows me to deliver for our district.

And it is absolute nonsense to suggest that our district gets less than everyone else.

As a matter of fact, the dean or the chair of the California delegation, Zoe Lofgren, wrote a letter to all the press in this district, pointing out that Mr.

Jones is inaccurate in the in the data that he's using, the data that he's using Undercounts Social Security that comes to our district by two thirds.

That's the exact amount, he says.

We're short vis a vis the other counties.

And let's face it, if you're a member of Congress, you have no power over how much Social Security money comes to your district.

That's a function of who lives in your district.

That data is wrong.

He knows it, and he continues to.

>> I'm out of time on that point.

We will be moving on to the next question.

Mr.

Thompson, you will answer this question first.

The third question is, given the variety and economic importance of agriculture, agriculture across district four, what legislation or policies will you propose to support California farmers?

>> Thank you very much.

We have an AG district and it's become an even bigger ag district.

With redistricting.

We feed the state, we feed the nation, and we feed the world.

And it is important that our AG gets the support that it needs.

No farms, no food, no water, no farms.

I have a long history of delivering on water for north of the Delta, for both agriculture, for fish and wildlife, for the flyway, and for the businesses and the people who live here.

Just in this session of Congress, I was able to get an earmark for floodplain forward, and that's timely because of the El Nino that's coming.

We need to be able to ensure that we use that water in order to recharge our areas.

I just got $9 million in disaster relief for peach farmers who were harmed by the Del Monte bankruptcy.

And just last week, $4 million for Glassy Wing sharpshooter.

That's affecting a big part of our of our agriculture.

I'm working hard on immigration reform because not only is that the humane thing to do, but it is important for our workforce.

It's important for our consumer force as well.

And I just introduced legislation with Congressman Gallagher that addresses the need to help small farmers and family farmers stay in business by providing tax credits for folks who transfer their agricultural property to a young family member.

To start out, these are the types of things that we need to do.

That's why I'm endorsed by the California Farm Bureau, the Napa Farm Bureau, the Sonoma Farm Bureau, and farmers and ranchers from across our country.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Same question.

>> Thank you.

As a young person in America, I'm a little tired of those in power claiming data provided by the government is false.

I'm just going to throw it out there.

The congressman's comments this is USA spending.gov.

This is the data that we all rely on.

It's factual.

It's true.

We have people in this room who actually prepared the data, who can speak to that.

But more specifically on water, we have about a 9.5 million acre gap in water capacity in California sites.

Reservoir would fill about a million and a half of that.

And it's critical infrastructure that we need to fund, but we're about $12 billion behind.

And we need that because the average family farm in this district is 120 acres.

And right now, corporate AG is hiving off our water resources and putting farmers into bankruptcy, which is why my plan calls for sustainable regenerative agriculture grants $100,000 to each farmer.

The average family farm of 120 acres received that support, and then $25,000 a year to turn a farm in two years from a CO2 emitting operation into a CO2 capturing operation.

That's not just important for the environment, it's necessary with where fertilizer and nitrogen prices are today.

We can't afford to farm the way we have historically.

We can also help out by ending this war in Iran.

And look, just saying words isn't going to stop this war.

We need to say no to bombs.

I've been very clear since day one.

No more funding to the Middle East, no more taxpayer dollars going to Israel.

No more bombs, defensive, offensive.

These are all bombs that kill kids.

And until we stop this war, we're not going to see our farmers recover.

Lastly, we need to figure out a way to permanently subsidize farming in California.

The EU spends $65 billion a year helping family farms.

We do very little.

That has to change and we can do it.

It's a new era with new leadership, and we need to value more than ever the food that we put on our tables in this community.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

Follow up.

>> Yes, I just want to say that that is not false information for the chair of the California delegation to go to the extreme to write a letter calling out this misrepresentation is pretty significant.

The General Accounting Office called it out as well.

And I'm all for helping farmers.

But, you know, it's it's more than just a pipe dream or an idea in the moment to get legislation passed.

For instance, $100,000 grants for family farmers.

Well, think about this.

Kendall, Jackson, Gallo and Constellation are all the three biggest wine operations in the world.

Are all family farms.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> Absolutely.

Look, there'll be a lot of talk about numbers this evening.

When I look at the US government today, I don't have a lot of trust in those in power being able to do numbers properly.

They haven't balance the budget in a few decades.

And they've left us in 40 trillion of debt, 40 trillion of debt.

That's because of endless wars.

That's because of endless corporate tax breaks.

And that's because we've conceded control of our democracy to corporate interests in America.

We all know it.

We look at our country today, and it doesn't feel like the America that we used to live in.

Something feels wrong.

The answer?

Those in power, the billionaire class and America's largest corporations are not paying their fair share.

Those in power have worked hand in hand with lobbyists to make that so.

>> Thank you both.

>> Okay.

All right.

>> Attention, everyone.

Let me bring us back to our lead question segment.

The final question prepared by the League is as follows and will be answered by Mr.

Jones.

First, what should Congress do to ensure the solvency of Social Security?

>> Corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans have been pillaging Social Security for years.

We know this.

It's been talked about a lot.

What for?

For war and for corporate tax cuts.

We need to tax the ultra wealthy in order to fund Social Security.

We need a federal wealth tax, and we need to get rid of the corporate tax cheats.

And we need to remove the tax exemption on Social Security for the wealthiest Americans.

If we simply do that for those making more than $500,000, we will fund Social Security forever, which is important because it's not just about seniors today.

It's about my generation and the next generation, because right now, most people my age, they don't think they'll ever have access to Social Security, and their kids.

No way.

Well, if you can't believe in a country that's going to take care of you when you get older, why would you invest today?

And that's what we're seeing all across the country.

That's why the American dream feels so unattainable.

Homeownership, Social security, we need to fund these programs today permanently, and we need to tax corporations and the ultra wealthy to do so.

You'll hear a lot of fear mongering from both sides.

The reality is nobody really wants to cut Social Security.

It's a core part of our country.

But politicians do like to frighten you.

They like to say, oh, they're going to do this or they're going to do that, but what they haven't done is actually fix the problem and it's fixable.

You got to have the courage to stand up to corporate America and say, you know what?

We're going to raise taxes.

We're going to raise taxes on billionaires.

We're going to make everyone in America pay their fair share so that we can fund Social Security forever.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

Same question.

>> Thank you.

Social security is the most successful and most important program of the federal government has ever passed.

It provides for the security of people in retirement and provides for the security of survivors.

It is critically important that it is funded for the next 91 years, as it has been for these 91 years.

Social security has never missed a check and it never will miss a check.

And the fact of the matter is, it's survival and.

And fully funding Social Security has nothing to do with corporate taxes or wealthy taxes.

This is funded by itself.

The only thing that needs to happen is you need to get rid of the cap and the problems fixed.

And it is something that can be, should be and will be fixed and in very, very short order.

I think it's important to note that some folks are trying to privatize Social Security.

And I mentioned earlier my opponent's proposal to sunset all federal programs.

If if Social Security were sunsetted, it would never come back again.

It would be too hard of a lift, given the number of Republicans in Congress that would like to see it go away.

And the reason they want a sunset or to do away with it is there's $2.5 trillion in the Social Security trust fund.

And that's like letting the fox guard the henhouse.

We do not want the billionaires, millionaires, San Francisco venture capitalists to get their hands on that $2.5 trillion.

That's our money we paid into it.

And that needs to go to ensure security in your retirement age or when you are a survivor or need those benefits if you're disabled.

I will never vote to privatize Social Security, and I will continue to be a strong supporter.

That's why the Committee to Protect Social Security and Medicare has endorsed my campaign.

And me.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

Just to.

>> Clarify, this is what I was talking about.

None of that is true.

I never talked about sunsetting Social Security.

I was very specific as to where we should see cost cuts in our government.

And that's the military industrial complex in the Pentagon, which still cannot pass a budget.

But yes, the fear mongering you hear from my right, you hear it all the time.

It's the same political football that makes you afraid, that angers young people, that creates division in our country.

And it's done defensively because I have a quote here right in front of me from the Napa Register.

Yes, I want to privatize Social Security, but I'd like to do it in moderate pace so as not to affect the stock market that was recorded in the Napa Register.

And the quote is attributed to Congressman Thompson.

>> Thank you.

We are done with the follow ups.

Oh just kidding.

Sorry about that follow up for you, Mr.

Thompson.

>> I'm sure I'll have time.

>> No.

Yes.

Yes, it's your time for follow up.

It was my mistake, I apologize.

>> That was not my quote in the Napa register.

And I have never voted for, nor have I ever advocated for privatizing Social Security.

And it would be absolutely wrong to do that.

And the fact of the matter is, Mr.

Jones on his website did say that he wanted to.

He had a policy to sunset all federal programs.

It wasn't until he was called out by veterans and by Social Security advocates.

Did he change that to clarify that he didn't really mean Social Security and Medicare.

That website with his policy positions is like an Etch a Sketch.

He writes them down.

As soon as somebody calls him out, he shakes it out and rewrites it.

That's what he said.

That's what he meant.

>> Thank you.

Thank you both.

And now we will move on to the question submitted by our audience.

As a reminder, each candidate has 1.5 minutes to response, a minute and a half to respond, and has the option of a 45 second follow up response.

I will reread this question for each candidate.

The first question answer will be by Mr.

Thompson.

How might you speak to the ongoing war and violence in Gaza, West Bank and Ukraine?

>> I think what's happening between Israel and Gaza is absolutely tragic, and we need to bring about immediate, negotiated cease fire.

I am a coauthor of Ban the Bombs and a coauthor of Silver Shield.

That would prevent any offensive weapons from going to Israel.

I also am a co-sponsor of the legislation that increases humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

I think that is incredibly important.

I think the Netanyahu regime is terrible.

I think he's the problem, and I think we need to move beyond and work for and achieve a two state solution between those two areas.

It is extremely important, and I support a two state solution.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

The question is, how might you speak to the ongoing war and violence in Gaza, West Bank and Ukraine?

>> So this one means a bit to me.

As a child, I had a job.

Most mornings I would wake up, I would enter the living room in our 750 square foot home, and my father would be passed out.

He had a television on in a chair, pills splayed out to either side.

He's a disabled veteran who saw suffered greatly from the cost of war.

I was a caretaker for my grandfather, another disabled veteran.

I cleaned his colostomy bag.

For those of you know who that is, my brother was enlisted at 19 years old and was deployed on nine over 11.

My entire life we've been at war in the Middle East.

And we have 40 trillion of debt.

Again, war and corporate and billionaire tax cuts.

That's what that 40 trillion comes from.

And I've heard politicians my entire life say one thing and do the other.

If we can't say no to this war, if we can't say no to bombs, to Israel, if we can't say no to the killing in Gaza, clearly, who can we believe what reality we're living in?

Why are we at war today?

Think back to the special interests and the corporate interests controlling our country.

And look at the record funding package after funding package, funding bombs with your taxpayer dollars for war that nobody signed up for, I'm still trying to figure out the difference between an offensive bomb and a defensive bomb.

They both kill kids.

>> Thank you.

I do want to make a note before our follow up for audience questions, please feel free to stand up and address the audience.

So, Mr.

Thomas.

Mr.

Thompson, follow up.

>> Yes, thank you very much.

Well, my father and both of my grandfathers were veterans, but more important and more relevant to this discussion.

I'm a veteran.

I'm a combat veteran.

I was a teenager at war, I was wounded.

I know how tragic war is.

I know how violent war is.

And I know that war should always be the last option ever put on the table.

And I believe strongly in what President Kennedy said, that mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

I voted against those wars that my opponent is talking about, added to the national debt, and I voted against the four tax cuts that added to the national debt, two under the Bush administration, two under the Trump administration.

Bad policy, I voted no.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

>> We can mix words or we can look at reality.

Reality is on December 17th, 2025, while we were illegally bombing boats in Venezuela, the congressman voted to continue to fund the Pentagon.

That was the National Defense Authorization Act on January 14th.

That was seven days after Rene Goode was murdered in Minneapolis.

He funded the National Security Appropriations Act, which sent money to Israel and gave Ice more surveillance powers to legally deport Americans.

That's just the record.

>> I believe we already went through the follow up.

>> Well, if we're going to cite records, it ought to be accurate.

>> I need to stop you there just so we can stay with the program and on schedule.

But in your next follow up, you can address this.

The second audience question is going to be for Mr.

Jones to answer first, how would you address housing affordability and availability for all residents in district four?

>> This is an important one.

So I'm a big believer that once we decide to build housing, once a community has gone through the painful work of getting it done, we should build it affordably and quickly.

From the federal government.

There's one major idea that would help that a national housing construction bank, $1 trillion of federal loan capacity that goes directly to small and medium sized developers in local communities to build attainable, affordable and workforce housing.

It's a real plan.

We already do it under HUD, but we have to consolidate all these disparate programs and be targeted.

And importantly, we need to focus on small projects and local developers who live in their communities.

Right now, the issue is that the only one who can afford to build in California are the mega developers from out of state.

They fly in, they plop something down, and then we all suffer.

But that's not community.

Second, we got to get people into homes who deserve to be in homes.

That's not corporations, that's not foreign buyers.

That's not second home buyers.

That's not private equity.

Home buyers, first time buyers, young families.

And we can do that by offering a 0% down credit, pardon me, 0% down mortgage product for first time homebuyers.

They already offer this to the VA and the USDA.

It'd be huge in reigniting the American dream, getting young families into homes, and making sure that people who grew up in this community can afford to stay and live in this community.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

I will read the question again.

How would you address.

>> I've got the question.

Let me just go to pointing out there's a difference between an authorization bill and a funding bill.

I voted for the authorization bill, which also took away authorization for use of military force from this president.

I thought that was important.

He does not need to have the privilege to go to war without Congress saying that he can go to war.

In regard to housing, I've already mentioned that I did a low income housing tax credit carve out for disaster areas.

That Bill 1564 new units of home in our district.

I have the American Affordability Act legislation in Congress right now.

And one component of that is housing.

It's the first time home buyers credit.

It's tax credits to convert commercial real estate to residential.

It.

It grows the cap that that people are excused from paying taxes on the first.

If you're an individual, the first $500,000 on capital gains.

If you're a couple.

The first million dollars on capital gains.

And that will do a lot in order to get people to move out of houses that they've their family may have shrunk.

They want a smaller house that'll put a lot of houses on the market.

And I worked very closely with those small builders.

As a matter of fact, Burbank Housing in our district is doing a number of projects.

I just visited one over in Sonoma, 170 units.

Great work.

And it's because of the low income housing tax credit that goes through my committee.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> I like standing.

We do have to look at record.

And it's not just one person.

It's the entire Democratic establishment.

Look at California.

Look at most blue states.

We have not been effective at building housing.

It's just the truth.

That's why our housing prices are sky high.

That's why young families are leaving California.

We need a new approach.

We need a new approach that respects local communities but is aggressive so we can actually get people in homes, young people, families, not corporate buyers, not the ultra wealthy young families that actually need those homes.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

Follow up.

>> Yes, Congress just passed and it became law without the president's signature, the 21st century road to housing, which made it a lot easier to build houses in California.

And I referenced that because it's important that we do that.

But that became law.

At the same time, the National Council of Mayors was in Washington, DC.

Whenever they're there, they come about once a year, and some of the mayors from our district always come in and see me.

This is the first time that I had a huge delegation of U.S.

mayors, including the head of the of of the U.S.

mayors.

And they came in to talk about my American Affordability Act, just the housing component.

They said that with the 21st Century Road to Housing bill, when my bill passes, it's going to supercharge that bill, and you're going to see a real bust, a real blooming of house building across the state.

>> Thank you.

The next question, Mr.

Thompson, you'll be first.

What should what should be the key components of immigration reform?

How does ice factor in that reform?

>> Well, I think the key component should be people.

And we need to be we need to be ethical.

We need to be moral.

And we need to understand that these are human beings that we're talking about.

I, I voted against the creation of Ice.

And at the time I said I was doing that because there wasn't proper oversight and there weren't proper guardrails.

And sadly, I was correct.

We've seen how ISIS has gone rogue on the problems that they have in fact, created, including murdering U.S.

citizens.

We need to make sure that Ice wears body cameras, Ice are properly trained, and before they can go into your house and drag you out the front door, they need to have a judicial warrant.

I believe we need to have immigration reform that ensures that people can come to this country in a way where they can work or visit and stay and have a road or a path to citizenship.

And we need to focus on the DACA folks who are here in in America.

These are people who were brought to America when they were babies, small children.

They have no understanding of any place.

But the United States of America has home and they are important to us.

We have a 10,000 teacher shortage in Calistoga in in California, we have 6000 DACA recipients who are teachers in our K-12 schools.

This is critical.

>> We are out of time on that point.

Mr.

Jones, same question.

What should be the key components of immigration reform?

How does Ice factor in that reform?

>> This is another one of the areas that I've been hearing about my entire life to no real impact.

Both sides.

Everybody's been trying, but the Democrats have made it their priority and they haven't figured it out.

So if we keep sending people to Washington who still haven't figured it out, we're probably not going to get anywhere.

What we need is a secure border.

Yes, we need a path to citizenship for dreamers.

We need to make sure that convicted felons leave the country.

And for everybody else who contributes, who pays taxes, they need a pathway to get in line and have status.

Of course, for those who contribute and those who give back, that's the humane and right thing to do.

It's the American thing to do.

We should be really clear about that.

>> Thank you.

We are out of time on that point.

Mr.

Thompson, follow up.

>> I think I covered everything that I had to say.

It's important.

We need to do it.

And it's about human beings.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> Words, actions.

Right.

So January 7th.

January 7th, 2025.

Pardon me.

This year, Renee Goode was murdered.

Seven days later, the congressman voted for the National Security Appropriations Act, which funded Ice and the aforementioned bombs to the Middle East.

Just the day before he held a rally.

And I believe it was around here about impeaching Cristina.

So if on a Tuesday, you're going to hold a rally to impeach Kristi Noem on a Wednesday, you're going to vote for more powers for Ice.

At some point, you should look herself in the mirror and ask, what's the truth you're telling yourself.

>> Thank you.

>> I'm not voted for any funding for Ice.

>> Thank you.

The next question, Mr.

Jones.

You'll go first.

Both of you talk about lots of programs.

National debt has exploded.

What is your approach to address the debt?

>> Definitely stand up for this one.

All right.

So we have $7 trillion budget.

We have 1 trillion goes out the door day one for interest payments.

1 trillion goes to our military, 1.5 trillion to Social Security, 2.6 trillion to Medicare, Medicaid and human health Services leaves 900 billion for everything else.

That's 7 trillion.

But our revenue is only 5 trillion.

That's $2 trillion of the budget deficit that we got to deal with that my generation has to deal with 40 trillion in debt.

Someone needs to be responsible for that.

And here's the plan.

Actually enforce the corporate tax code, go after corporate tax cheats and enforce the aforementioned 21% statutory rate.

Keep it simple.

No one pays zero.

Everyone pays their fair share.

In doing so, you'd collect about $700 billion.

On top of that, we've seen a structural staffing of the IRS.

Well, today the IRS has a $600 billion annual tax gap.

That's money they should be collecting from people.

And they don't add those two together.

That's $1.3 trillion.

That's 60% of the way to closing the budget deficit.

We freeze military spending until the Pentagon can show all of us that they can fight a modern war, and they can actually pass not in.

Seems like they can't do either.

Today.

Numbers.

A plan holding America's largest corporations accountable.

>> Thank you.

Same question.

Both of you talk about lots of programs.

National debt has exploded.

What is your approach to address the debt?

Mr.

Thompson.

>> Thank you very much.

And I have a record on that.

I carried the House amendment in the in the majority when when Democrats took the majority to impose a pay as you go rule, meaning that everything passed had to be paid for or offset.

That was the law.

When Democrats first To control the house when I was in the house.

And remember, I've been in the minority.

75% of the time.

But I passed that rule, and it stayed into effect until the Republicans came back into control, and they amended it so it could only apply to programs.

They excuse taxes.

So didn't have to be paid for taxes, don't pay for themselves.

They cost us money.

And as I said, the biggest contributors to our national debt are for tax cuts.

Two under the Bush administration, two in the Trump administration and unfunded wars.

So that practice needs to stop.

When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.

As far as corporate taxes, it was the committee that I'm on that passed the minimum corporate tax rate, and we passed a tax on stock buybacks, and we funded the IRS.

So they would be on equal footing with the rich people and the huge cadres of lawyers that they have to figure out how to exploit and get around the tax laws.

It's this administration, H.R.

one, the Maga enablers who have taken that money back from the IRS.

We need to put it back in.

>> Thank you.

Follow up, Mr.

Jones.

>> Why are we cheering for ourselves?

PayGo never worked.

That's why we have $40 trillion in debt.

And on three occasions we have had full control of the House, the Senate and the presidency.

When Congressman Thompson's been in office and actually under the Biden administration, we had just that.

We promised to repeal the corporate tax cuts.

We had full control.

That was in our power.

Corporate Democrats and the corporate establishment of the Democratic Party said, you know what?

We don't want to raise corporate taxes.

That would hurt our benefactors.

That would hurt the people who put money in our pockets.

So despite promising to do that, promising to repeal, we all remember repeal the Trump corporate tax cuts.

They never tried.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

Follow up.

>> Yeah, I'll just say that if you're going to run for Congress, you ought to know what Congress does and what the rules are.

And we passed a lot in the House that went to the Senate.

That wasn't taken up, because in the Senate, it takes there's 100 members of the Senate, takes 51 votes to pass a bill in the Senate, but it takes 60 votes to take up a bill in the Senate.

And it is extremely difficult if you don't have bipartisan support to get those 60 votes to vote for cloture and bring the bill up for a vote.

So to suggest something wasn't done because it was the Democrats fault in a case like this is is naive.

>> Thank you.

Next question, Mr.

Thompson.

You'll go first.

What are your specific plans to meet the water crisis in California?

>> Well, thank you very much.

As I said, water is the very important ingredient to growing food for the fisheries and for our Pacific Flyway, north of Delta.

Water has always been in trouble.

There's been major attempts to circumvent the Delta.

Send our water south.

I have fought those successfully.

Every time I was the first funder for Cites reservoir and continue in the last administration, we were able to get tens of millions of more dollars for Cites.

Reservoir and I just got a community funded project to do Flood Plain forward, which is important to our area to move water and high water times off into the agricultural areas to do recharge.

That's why I'm supported by farmers and duck hunters and everybody else who understands how important water is north of of the delta, and I will continue to work on that.

I just sent a letter on behalf of Cites reservoir and on behalf of the Northern California Rural Water users to ensure that we get proper regulations in in regard to unimpeded flows during high water time.

So we're able to capture some of that and store it for use here.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

The question is, what are your specific plans to meet the water crisis in California?

>> There is a big difference between 1 million and 1 billion.

You have about a thousand million and a billion.

So yes, a few, a few millions, tens of millions have been secured for Cites guys.

Cites is going to cost 15 billion.

We cannot applaud getting 0.001% of the way there.

We've been talking about this project for 20 years.

Where's the funding?

We have a 9.5 million acre feet shortage of water in California.

Cites would get us about 1.5 million acre feet of the way there.

Call it 17%.

So we need a lot more.

We're going to need billions of dollars.

And you're going to need a congressman who goes in day one, who really understands the difference between 1 billion and 1 million and fights for the big stuff, recharge patients, aquifers.

Potter.

Shasta.

Colgate sites, a lot of water infrastructure we need in this district.

And this is why committee selection is really important.

If you look at the districts that have received federal infrastructure funding, like Marin to our West or the late Doug LaMalfa district up north, they are Congressionals were on the appropriate committees to secure funding.

Jared Huffman on the Transit and Infrastructure Committee alongside the Natural Resources Committee.

That's why he has brought billions of dollars back for his district while we've been left behind.

I will fight from day one and focus on this issue because I know how important it is for our farmers.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson, 45, second follow up.

>> Yeah, I just like to point out that Sites reservoir is not going to be built with all federal funding.

This is a partnership between private sector and the public sector.

So the money that the federal government got, the money that I helped the federal government deliver to sites reservoir is one component of that.

This isn't just you go to Congress and decide what projects you're going to going to fund.

There's a process, and the people on the ground have a responsibility in this and a say so on this.

So they're the ones that are working through how this is going to work, who the participants are going to be, how the funding is going to be split up, and people in the southern part of the state that are going to get that water, they're going to have to pay for that water.

And that was a long negotiation, and it's coming to a close.

We look, I think, very well positioned on regard to sites reservoir, and it'll be the first reservoir we've built in a long time.

And I was very helpful in the expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir, which my district at the time.

>> We're out of time on that point.

And.

Mr.

Jones 45 second follow up for you as well.

>> Yeah.

Again, I just want to talk about where reality is today.

We haven't done the necessary water infrastructure upgrades that our community needs.

It's why we're having issues today.

Every time we look to build housing, we don't have water.

Every year, our farmers pay higher and higher prices for water.

And every year, those in the Democratic establishment allow mega-farms corporate farms to privatize the water interests in California.

It's been happening.

You know who the Resnicks are?

The wonderful company.

I'm sure your farmers, you know who I'm talking about.

It's happening every day, and no one's protecting the little guy.

This is a problem we've run into in the Democratic Party.

We don't protect small business.

We don't protect the family farm.

We become the party of big corporations.

>> Thank you.

Next question will be for Mr.

Jones first.

What should Congress do to lower costs and expand accessibility to health care?

>> Great question.

So.

I told you guys about my mom early on.

Right.

The warrior of a woman.

Well, later in life, my mom got her associate's degree and became a nurse.

And she did that because she believed that God put her here to take care of people.

Health care is extremely important to me.

UCSF performed a miracle on my son.

Heart surgery today was born that only cost about $1.5 million.

Here's the plan.

Medicare expansion to cover vision care, dental care, and hearing aids for all seniors, as well as in-home nursing care.

We've tried this in California with a program called Pace Unlimited Nursing Care in Your Home, and we actually saved money.

And seniors live longer, and they got to stay with their grandkids and they were happier.

That's the future of health care.

It's care in your home.

It's care in your community.

It's not care provided by the insurance industry.

And if you want to fix health care in America, you better send someone to D.C.

who knows what they're talking about, who deeply cares, and who doesn't take money from the insurance industry and put it in their pocket every year.

It's just hard to do those two things at once to fight for united health care and to fight for this district.

>> Thank you.

Same question, Mr.

Thompson.

What should Congress do to lower costs and expand accessibility to health care?

>> Thank you very much.

The first thing Congress has to do is reverse the cuts from H.R.

one.

Taking $1 trillion out of Medicaid is going to be devastating for all aspects of health care.

And there's other things we should do, such as my telemedicine bill that is now law, which provides better access to health care.

Health care is should be a right.

And I think we need to have a single payer health care system in order to better deliver health care.

But I'm very cautious about sending someone to Washington who says he's an expert in health care and wants to fix health care.

When the companies he was associated with in his venture capital business were fined hundreds of millions of dollars for denying care, for inflating prices and for violating privacy laws.

I don't think that's something we need in Washington building our health care system or getting involved in our health care system.

This is your life, your health, and your safety.

We need health care that delivers for the American people, not puts a bunch of money in the pockets of investors and venture capitalists.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> So that's simply not true.

My company, my firm was never find once, not once, $0.

These attacks keep coming up.

And I want to extend a little bit of grace here, because I don't think these attacks came from the congressman.

They came from PG and E the insurance lobby, Big Pharma, big tech.

Those are the industries and the corporate facts.

PACs funding the campaign against me.

And that's normal.

I don't feel bad.

For me, that's the reality.

When you stand up to corporate interests, this is what happens.

And they have been feeding these attacks to the congressman's campaign, his team.

And again, like, I think it's wrong.

>> Thank you.

Next question.

>> May I respond to that?

You said I was not telling the truth.

>> Yes.

So your follow up will be 45 seconds.

>> Carbon health care fined $4 million.

Good.

Fined a million and a half.

Oak Street Health fined $60 million.

Oscar Health Care fined 568,500 from California and 10.2 million from in in the state of Georgia.

These are all health care companies that Dragoneer his company invested in.

Hard to dispute the facts.

And if you want to see the financial companies they invested in.

And we're fine.

I've got a list of those to block.

Inc fined $80 million.

Chime fined $3.25 million.

Robinhood fined $45 million.

Another 26 million from another state.

We don't want somebody like that doing our health care in Washington.

>> Mr.

Thompson, next question.

>> May I respond to that?

That was a little aggressive for the group.

>> Next follow up.

You can respond to that.

Next question for Mr.

Thompson.

You'll go first.

What is your position on construction of AI data centers in district four?

And please explain.

>> I believe that AI data centers that want to locate in our district, or any place else, need to go through a regular order in at the local level.

Local individuals need to have a say.

So this is not something that can be pushed through from Washington, D.C.

they need to go through all of the hoops, and then the local community needs to decide.

And the AI data center companies need to pay for their own water, their own electricity, and they cannot be allowed to displace important critical agricultural land.

Now, my opponent has an interesting position.

He might talk about it, but it wasn't that long ago.

On his web page, he wanted to direct federal funding to help build AI data centers.

I think that's wrong.

We do not need to spend your tax dollars to build AI data centers in our district or any place else.

>> Thank you.

Same question.

Mr.

Jones, what is your position on the construction of AI data centers in district four?

Please explain.

>> I've been consistent on this from day one.

No to data centers.

You can't say that simply.

Who can you believe?

No.

And I've always said no because I don't take money from Amazon.

I don't take money from Facebook.

I don't take money from the companies building these data centers.

It's a no.

It's a no to all the AI BS that's destroying our kids lives.

I really care about this.

I got a five year old and a two year old.

I'm going to have to live with this.

All the parents in this room will have to live with this.

This stuff is not safe.

We have trillion dollar companies in America that nobody is regulated.

Guys, $1 trillion, that's what they're worth.

One piece of regulation.

Has anyone seen it?

No, because they're paid to look the other way.

As it relates to the companies aforementioned, one of those I invested in carbon health and that was in 2021.

The rest are fabricated.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

Follow up.

>> Well, they're not fabricated.

I have a list right here.

It's in his financial disclosures.

I can provide all the background information and to suggest that somehow he's not getting contributions from the AI data center people.

How about Nick salmon, one of the biggest funders of AI data centers, is a max contributor to my opponent's campaign.

So just because it might not have come from a PAC, there are people associated with those political action committees or with the businesses associated with those political action committees that have given him a lot of money.

If you look at the donations, the overwhelming majority of his money comes from out of the district.

Only 2% from the district.

His average contribution is $4,700.

62% of my contributions come from the district.

Average contribution $400.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> Yeah.

There's this funny refrain going on right where I get attacked for something.

I give some facts, and then I get told I'm wrong.

Nick Salmon is an individual.

He's a good friend, and he's not a lobbyist.

He's an employee.

He's not a very senior employee.

He's he manages some folks.

The difference between an individual and a lobbyist is that everyone in this room is an individual.

I'm sure you've donated to political campaigns, and I'm sure you don't wake up every morning thinking about how you can call your congressman and get them to do your bidding.

If you work for a PAC, you have one job increase corporate profit and deregulate your industry.

That's your job.

Every day there is a clear distinction between people and corporate power, and to say otherwise is lying to you.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

You'll go first for the next question.

How would you characterize the U.S.

relationships with the international community?

What changes would you support?

>> I think we have a lot of work to do.

Rebuilding all the multinational relationships and trusts that have been, I guess, tossed in the trash as of late.

I'd like to highlight one specific relationship that I think has potential for great risk, and that's the relationship with China, right?

We hear a lot of fear mongering about China.

You'll hear from corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans, oh, we can't regulate AI.

We can't stop the construction of data centers because China's got their own.

What's China going to do?

The fear mongering.

It's just there to try to convince you to not regulate the things that are going to destroy our future.

That's the reality.

It's more of the same now.

What will cause damage to this community?

If we go to war with Taiwan, we go to war with China over Taiwan.

The reason why that would happen is because the Taiwanese can build leading edge semiconductors.

We can't.

We're about five years behind, so we need to immediately bring that technology to the U.S.

invest in high end jobs, invest in high end manufacturing, and actually build the technology that powers our economy.

That's a smart use of global trade.

That's a smart use of reindustrialization, because trust me, I do not want to see World War three because we couldn't figure out how to build a chip that goes into an iPhone.

But that's the reality of where we are today.

>> Thank you.

Same question, Mr.

Thompson, how would you characterize the U.S.

relationships with the international community, and what changes would you support?

>> Thank you.

We are not the great light on guiding light on the Hill.

In today's world, we have alienated not we.

But this administration has alienated a lot of our allies and hurt our standing around the world.

That needs to change.

So the quickest thing we can do is change administrations.

And that is incredibly important.

In the interim, we need to flip the majority in the House and the Senate and put at bay his mega enablers that allow this to happen.

I spent a term on the Intelligence Committee, so I've traveled to virtually every country around the world, working with our allies and our adversaries to ensure that we don't enter into World War three and trying ameliorate the problems that we face.

And there is a lot of interest amongst both our allies and in some of our adversaries in working together.

This president has exacerbated that gap, and it's a problem.

We need to get back to understanding that we're a better world when we work together, and we need to go out of our way to make sure that we build those relationships.

And that's going to be a 24 over seven effort to be able to do that.

And I look forward to being in this new majority where we can bring that change about.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> Well, I think I covered it.

>> Great.

Mr.

Thompson, follow up.

Wonderful.

So this.

Right on schedule.

>> We're here for you.

>> Great.

Well, this will be our last audience.

Question of the evening.

Before we move on to closing remarks.

So, Mr.

Thompson, you will be answering this question first.

What is your plan to ensure your constituency, your constituents, A have access to fire insurance and B can afford fire insurance?

>> Well, thank you.

Great question.

As you know, the insurance industry is regulated by the state of California.

But I was very, very disgusted with what was happening.

So I took kind of a, you know, a round the corner approach from the federal government.

And I plagiarized a program that worked really well in Alabama, and that was to create $10,000 homeowner grants to make your home resilient to fire.

And when Alabama did that for hurricanes, insurance companies had left.

They came rushing back.

And then I coupled that with another piece of legislation that I had to provide a 30% tax credit for people who own big tracts of property to do resiliency and prevention work.

It is a well received piece of legislation.

It has supporters on both sides of the aisle.

It was co-sponsored by Doug LaMalfa, who, like me, represented a district that lost thousands of homes in a fire and was experienced constituents were experiencing the same insurance problems that we're experiencing in ours.

He passed.

His successor, James Gallagher, has stepped up and took over the Republican side of that bill, and we continue to build on the coauthors.

And we have tremendous support from everyone from the home builders to the insurance advocates.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Same question.

What is your plan to ensure your constituents have a have access to fire insurance and be can afford fire insurance?

>> It starts with P, G and E, everyone's favorite company.

We're in a weird scenario in California where PG and E, which is supposed to be your local friendly utility, is our de facto fire mitigation agency.

They're the ones that are supposed to keep us safe.

And the reason why we can't insure our state is because PG and E isn't doing their jobs, and not a single insurance company trusts them anymore.

That's why we're stuck on the Fair plan.

My rates went up for X, I think 18 grand a year, right?

So we need people who actually stand up to PG and E, we'll use Ferc, the federal regulator, just like Congressman Mike Levin is already doing to hold PG accountable.

It's possible we got to use the Justice Department and we got to use the FTC.

Just because PG is a monopoly does not mean it can abuse customers.

They are breaking the law and they need to be held accountable.

And you'll hear this refrain.

Well, you know what?

I'll just make it simple.

Please elect people who don't take money from PG and E, please, for all of our safety, it has to stop.

Thank God to stop abusing us.

And they've got to stop owning the political system in California.

It's gone too far in terms of specific things we can do.

We need to get wholesale insurance.

You got to go to New York, the Bahamas.

They got to go all over the world and get big buckets, about $10 billion of capital.

I've been working on this with Joe Nordlinger in Napa.

That's Napa Firewise.

We can insure Napa fully.

I say that because that's a small solution.

But we got to start with PG and E.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Thompson.

Follow up.

>> Yes.

I'd also like to say that we've been very successful in fire resiliency grants that have come to the different counties.

This administration clawed back some of the grants that came to our district two, in particular, Napa and Sonoma.

But they also clawed back some in Lake County.

And I was able to get those back.

And the money that came back to Lake County was deployed in an area that created a firebreak and a community home hardening project.

And right after they completed that work, there was a fire.

It burned right up to that firebreak and stopped.

It works.

We can do great work.

We need the money to do it.

The federal government needs to live up to its obligation, and we need to fight to bring those brick grants back.

>> Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

Follow up.

>> But again, why did we see the fires in the first place?

PG and E over 100 deaths.

They've actually pled guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter.

And yet their CEO has made $100 million in the past five years.

Over that period, our rates have doubled.

And we are no, we're not safe.

We're not.

And I keep getting told this is a state issue.

Well, if it's a state issue, why is PG and E chosen every single cycle for almost 30 years to donate to my opponent?

Why have they made him the most PG e funded federal politician in history?

There's a reason.

>> Thank you.

>> May I respond to that?

>> I'm sorry.

There are no follow ups to the follow up, but we are done with our audience question segment.

And thank you to everyone who submitted a question.

We really appreciate all of you.

And we are going to move on to our candidate closing statements.

As a reminder, this each candidate will have 2.5 minutes each for their closing statement.

To ensure fairness, we will begin with the candidate who gave the first opening statement to give our other candidate the final word.

Mr.

Jones, you are first.

The floor is now yours.

>> There's been a lot of discussion.

Honestly, this has been great.

I hope to do this a dozen, a hundred, a thousand more times.

Right.

And next time, I hope that we get real participation from the audience to, you know, have a back and forth.

This is what we need in America and this is what we lost.

Competition is good.

Democracy can work, but it needs to be saved.

It needs to be protected.

And right now, we're going in the wrong direction.

More corporate money, more buyouts of our politicians, less and less every day for the working American, for the middle class American and for American seniors.

But I started this evening talking about my daughter.

Her name is Margo Star, and I call her my little star.

And because it's her birthday today, I really hope that I can go home and with honesty, make her the same promise that my mother made to me 28 years ago, that she will have a future in this country.

I'm doing this for her, and I'm doing it for all the kids in America.

It's no one's fault.

It's no one person's fault.

But we are where we are.

The system has failed us.

It's not working.

We need change.

I'm here because I'm a dad.

My husband, I'm an American in this country, has given so much to me.

I was a welfare kid and no one expected anything of me.

But I had my mother.

And now I've got an amazing woman right over there.

My wife.

You know, Rachel, as a nationally recognized architect, cool cat.

Together we're raising our two kids with the big help of Grandma Jamma.

So please, everyone in this room, I know there's a back and forth, but I hope that I have been very clear tonight on where I stand, very clear about what our campaign is about.

And I hope it's very clear why I'm doing this.

Thank you everyone.

>> Thank you.

And now to you, Mr.

Mike Thompson.

The floor is yours.

>> Thank you very much.

P-g-a has never contributed to my campaign.

PGD employees have.

And there are 6000 PGD employees who live and work in the district that I represent.

These are the people who get in the truck when there's a disaster, when there's an emergency, and go out and make sure that our power comes back on.

I support those employees and I always will.

These are serious times, and we're going to have a new majority in Congress, and we're going to have a new district to represent in Congress.

And it's important that we have a representative who's battle tested, who is on an important committee and has a record of being able to get things done.

I have that record.

I mentioned a few things.

The fire victims, $500 million that I got for them, $950 million for flood, South Davis Library, Woodland Interchange, the list goes on and on and on.

I will go back to Congress.

My priorities will be lowering costs, extending and improving health care, and protecting our democracy, protecting our democracy, the democracy that I went to war and fought for.

It is that important.

I was willing to die for that democracy, willing to die for our country.

And I'm willing to continue to fight to make sure that every one of you, your children and your grandchildren have the opportunities that I had when I was growing up.

Everybody should have those opportunities.

This is the greatest country in the world, and I will work hard to make it even better and to make sure that working families across our district and across the country don't have to fight to get health care, to get a roof over their head, or to put gas in our gas tank or food on their table.

We can do this.

I look forward to working with you to make sure it happens, and I would be honored to have your support.

Thank you.

>> Thank you, thank you to our candidates for their participation tonight and for their thoughtful remarks and candidate responses.

Please join me in giving our candidates a well-deserved.

We are not done yet, so I'll ask the candidates to remain at their seats.

I do have a few informational remarks and closing remarks to make on behalf of the League of Women Voters, in addition to sponsoring candidate forums, the League of Women Voters sponsors Vote for one One, a nonpartisan online voting resource designed to provide in-depth information about your candidates and ballot measures.

Simply go to vote for 11.org and enter your address to find the candidates and measures that will appear on your ballot, along with important election dates and information.

Candidates are invited to provide information about themselves and details and responses to questions so voters can hear directly from them.

We do have a couple of acknowledgments as well.

We want to acknowledge our partners in this forum, without whom this program would not have been possible.

We would like to thank woodland TV, which is live streaming.

Yes, they deserve an applause.

Thank you woodland TV for live streaming, televising and recording this forum tonight, in addition to woodland TV has reached out to other public access stations across district four so that they may also live stream or replay the recording for the voters in their area.

Thank you to kids TV channel 16 in Colusa County, Lake County, Peg eight in Lake County, Napa Valley TV in Napa County, access Sacramento in Sacramento County.

NorCal Public media in Sonoma County, PC, TV in Petaluma, Yuba.

Sutter live in Sutter and Yuba counties.

The recording of tonight's forum will also be available online until after the election on November 3rd.

Look for the link at the League of Women Voters of Yolo County website or at woodland TV dot we would also like to give a big thank you to the City of Woodland for the use of this block of this.

Huge, heartfelt thanks to the City of Woodland for the use of this beautiful woodland community and senior center and the staff for their assistance.

Thank you to the candidates for coming and speaking to us tonight.

We are grateful for the opportunity to hear directly from our candidates, and we would also like to thank our partner leagues in Napa and Solano and Napa County and Sonoma County for their collaboration and planning and publicizing tonight's forum.

Last segment.

At last but not least, we would really like to thank all of our local league volunteers and members who have given us their time, energy and passion to make this event possible, and I would like to thank all of you, our audience here, and viewing online for your respectful attention, thoughtful questions.

Your informed participation is critical to our democracy.

To learn more about your local League of Women Voters, please visit our website.

Thank you everyone.

Have a great evening.