We’ve heard already this week from Democratic candidate Lisa Brown and Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
Thursday, we have Rob Harris’ interview with Jered Gavin Bonneau. He has announced he will challenge McMorris Rodgers in the Republican Primary.
Q: The first question is the perfect one to kick it off. It’s from Bud on Facebook. And he asks what made you decide to run for the 5th district seat.
A: So, I’ve been interested in running for politics for a while. I’ve been involved in politics. I’ve been a political activist. I’ve rallied in support of the Bundys, and rallied for LaVoy in Olympia, ‘We Will Not Comply’ rallies, stuff like that, at the Spokane courthouse and stuff. And so I decided that in order to bring the constitution back over establishment politics, that I should run for that office for that seat.
Q: Carmen on Facebook: What are the two subjects you are the most passionate about that differ from McMorris.
A: So, I am a very strong constitutionalist. You know Cathy, she supports the Constitution. She supports our country. But, the votes not just from her but from other congressional members, they always vote mostly along party. Whereas I’m going to support the Constitution 100%. 110%. I vote only based on the constitution. Constitutionally sound politics.
Another thing I’m very passionate about--I think that Monsanto and Bayer are destroying our farming communities. They’re destroying our health. You know, glyphosate, and Roundup, the seed population, genetically modified crops. We give them corporate subsidies--millions and millions of dollars in corporate subsidies--which I think is insane.
Q: I gotta say--your in-person persona feels a little different from your social media persona. You’ve maybe heard that before. So, Andrew on our Facebook, he posted a screenshot of a post from you calling David Hogg a Nazi brown shirt. You’ve tweeted things like “liberalism is a mental disorder.” So, obviously you’re entitled to opinions and disagreements with these people, but my question is: if you’re elected don’t you see it as a role to be a uniter of people from a lot of different backgrounds here in Eastern Washington?
A: As an elected official, I see that as a job as being a public servant. An elected official is a public servant, they’re a servant of the public. And given that, they’re also supposed to uphold the constitution. That is their main focus. And right now we have a constitution that is under attack. We have our rights that are under attack.
We have individuals like David Hogg who has been launched into these media platforms, and for a while I just let him vent I didn’t make comments, I didn’t make anything for a while he was out there because I work in the mental health field. I know it takes for people to relieve their anger of certain situations and he went through trauma that was very sad and so did his fellow classmates. And so I just let it go, I let it slide. And then the continued attack, continued to rise on ‘we need high capacity magazine bans, we need assault weapons bans, we need to make all these limits and restrictions on your Second Amendment.’ And then his vulgarity continued to increase. And so when somebody like that continues to push, there’s a point where you need to push back.
And it’s not just him, but it’s a lot of the extreme far left continues to push against us. Against the American people and against the constitution. And at some point, it’s time to push back and that point’s now.
Q: You announced last week that if you were elected, you would be donating $30,000 of you paycheck back to the homeless population here. What was the inspiration behind that.
A: I used to be homeless. I know what it’s like to have nothing, and without support, without people coming together and helping you and lifting you back up on your feet it’s next to impossible to get out of that. And our homeless community--they don’t have the proper support. We need to do what we can to give them that support, to lift them back up on their feet. Give them another chance. Get them back into society. Get them a job. Get them shelter. Get them a home. It’s pretty sad: in America we have children and homeless families that are living and dying on the streets and that’s unacceptable.
Q: Rose on Facebook wants to know where you stand on illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.
A: I do not agree with sanctuary cities. We’ve seen an epic fail in that system. The illegal immigrant that murdered Kate in California, you know he was in a sanctuary city and he got off with time served. And to top that off we’re feeding these illegal immigrants funds in the billions of dollars when we could be using those funds to help our own citizens here that need help.
And when it comes to immigration, I think we need immigration reform. I have friends that are immigrants. When they came here, they followed all of the proper channels, and it took them about five years and thousands of dollars to attain citizenship while they were here legally, working and giving into this community and paying taxes. Five years. That’s insane to me on another level. These people came here legally. You know we need to find a way that we can vet these people, get them in here faster and make it easier for them if they want to come here legally.
As for the illegal immigrants that are already here, I think if they are working and they are giving into the society--you know we have illegal immigrants that have served in our military, that have families here, that are working and have jobs and pay taxes--give them a pathway to citizenship.
Q: A lot of the posts on our Facebook post about you were calling you an underdog with Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Do you see yourself as an underdog?
A: Yeah, absolutely. I am an underdog. I don’t have the millions of dollars. Cathy’s brought in quite a large sum of money and so has Lisa. So I am an underdog. I’m coming in as a nobody. I’m just here to represent the constitution. I’m representing values that have fallen on deaf ears in Congress. I’m here to fight for the people and to bring ‘We the People’ back to the forefront of Congress, and that fight is usually an underdog fight when it comes to pushing back on establishment politics.
I asked Bonneau if he doesn’t end up winning the primary, what are his plans for the future. He said he would consider third party runs in future races and either way you’ll see him again in 2020.
Full Interview:
Catch up with Democratic candidate Lisa Brown here.
Catch up with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers here.