In our interview with us, Kelly Cooper discusses why he is running and what policies he wants to pursue if he defeats incumbent Democrat Greg Stanton.
The newly drawn Arizona Congressional District 4 encompasses much of Tempe and parts of Chandler and Mesa. The district is lean to likely Democratic and a relatively recent poll sees incumbent Greg Stanton - who switched from a different district after the 2020 redistricting - ahead by 7 percentage points.
Republican challenger Kelly Cooper won his primary in August 2022. A total of around 70,000 votes were cast for Republican candidates in this primary. Stanton, who ran unopposed, received around 60,000 votes. Cooper hence has a chance, although he appears to be the underdog.
Why are you running?
I'm a small businessman in the hospitality industry. Today I own three restaurants and I witnessed how government Covid lockdowns decimated small businesses. I've always led a life where my individual efforts and work are about finding my own success. But during the Covid lockdowns government actions punished small businesses while rewarding big business.
Inflation and the economy
What we've done over the part 2 years with the Biden administration is to take a supply limited economy, limited by the Covid lockdowns, and then pumped in $ 7 Trillion of reckless spending. This led to the cost of all the products to go through the roof. This includes oil and gas and all this feeds into supply chain issues and inflation.
We need to go back to energy independence. That doesn't mean that we need to give up on clean energy, but while we work on that, we still rely on fossil fuels and we should not cut our own feet off from under us by rushing into technologies that are not fully ready.
Border security, amnesty and immigration
The border is a complicated issue. Many of the people who are enticed to come, come here to live a better life. I understand that. But unchecked migration leads to strained health care and education systems and problems with human trafficking, sexual abuse, indentured servitude and drugs. Once here, illegal immigrants aren't allowed to work, so how are they supposed to support themselves? So we need to have some sort of pathway to give them green cards so they can work here.
We need to secure our border and we need to have migrants come through our ports of entry where we can vet them.
We need to maintain a legal pathway for people to come here, but we need to stop illegal immigration.
I am not sure the exact answer to your amnesty question. I know people who have come here illegally when they were very young. I am not sure what would be the most humane solution.
Asylum seekers should apply in their country of origin or the current country they are in right now, similar to the remain in Mexico policy of the previous administration.
The need of America will dictate how many immigrants we should accept into our country. Criminal illegal aliens should not be in the country at all.
Education
Arizona has some of the best and most forward looking education policies, including school choice. Everyone should have school choice and the money should follow the student to the school of their choice. On the federal level the Department of Education, DoE, continues to make school choice difficult. One of my main tasks in Washington will be to take the DoE out of the equation as much as possible. School choice improves all schools, including public schools.
Regarding the role of parents, as a father of a second and third grader, the role of the parents is primary. I don't raise children to give up the responsibility of raising my kids to a government administrator. I want my children to get an education in the hard sciences so they can compete in the local and global labor market.
Quality and test result declines are due to Covid measures as well as schools getting distracted by equity and other things that are not math and science and similar subjects. While cultural issues are important, those should come from the parents, not the teachers.
Government overreach, lobbying
We have a 10th Amendment in our constitution that dictates how this should be handled. Any issues not specifically handed to the federal government are automatically the responsibility of the states. The federal government basically should only handle interstate commerce and matters of invasion. We fought a war of independence for individual rights, and yet almost 250 years later we find ourselves in a situation were the federal government dictates the life of individuals. I will fight tirelessly for the constitution.
Everyone who tries to influence a government official is a lobbyist. Representatives need to balance the needs of all people in their district and then come up with policies that are best for the majority of the people in the district.
Greg Stanton and chances of winning the election
My opponent is a big city politician who doesn't live in this district and doesn't understand the issues of the small communities we live in. in CD4 we have an even mix between Republicans, Independents and Democrats. Issues that people face are inflation, gas, retirement accounts being destroyed, the affordability of groceries. We are the richest nation in the world and it's a travesty that our people have to make choices like this. My opponent has been caught voting from a yacht in Utah while we were mandated to stay home. He voted for reckless spending bills, including the Inflation Reduction Act which actually increases inflation. He also voted to withhold funds from Arizona unless mask mandates are enforced.
I have a ton of endorsements including from law enforcement groups. An endorsement by former President Donald Trump has not happened yet and we'll see if it is coming soon. We have a great chance of winning. Voters and supporters can join our movement on my website.
Note from The Valley Telegraph: President Donald Trump is heading a rally in Mesa on the 9th of October 2022.
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