Leading up to the state primary on Sept. 10, NHPR is speaking with the top candidates running in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District to learn more about where they stand on some of the biggest concerns we’ve heard from voters.
Read on for NHPR All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa’s interview with Republican Russell Prescott. He’s a former state senator and served on the Executive Council.
What questions do you have for the candidates running for Congress and governor in the 2024 election? What issues do you want them to address while seeking your vote? Share your thoughts here.
Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Transcript
Many voters we've talked with are concerned about the high cost of living here in New Hampshire. What kind of policies would you propose or support to make the state a more affordable place to live?
Well certainly, we have to look at how we got here. We have a $35 trillion debt. We have a problem with inflation because we're just borrowing more money than we have to spend. So we borrow more just because we want to accomplish things that have caused us this incredible debt that we're surmounted with, $35 trillion. And it's causing inflation and it's causing the housing costs to be an average of $500,000 here in the state. Around the country, it's even in the $400,000 range. If we continue on this same path, it's going to make housing even more unaffordable over the years to come.
And that's the reason why I'm running for office: to concentrate on fiscal responsibility, to take care of the inflation. We've got to start balancing our budget. We're having $1.5 trillion in deficit spending this year, and that is causing the inflation that's occurring. If we have an inflation rate of 4% in 10 years, we'll have double the cost of housing. So let’s correct that so the future is brighter for New Hampshire.
So your main focus would be balancing the budget. Any other specific policies you would recommend that would impact residents here in New Hampshire?
For sure. To get the price of gasoline and heating oil down, have energy independence again, just make America not dependent on foreign oil. And also correct the border difficulties. A lot of money is being spent there for the difficulties that come in with the drugs, and the problem with addiction. We want to make sure that we can correct that by stopping that stem of flow of illegals, accessibility of illegals, coming into our state and bringing drugs with them. We lower that cost. That helps us with being able to balance our budget as well.
So let's move to that. Immigration and border policy are a top concern with many voters as well. What's one specific immigration policy that you could point to that you would want to support?
More funding to our Border Patrol. They said years ago [to] please just fund us, allow us also to enforce the laws that are on the books. Unfortunately, the administration was not executing the laws of our country. If we could just execute our laws, do the job of an executive branch, which is to execute the laws. That's the number one thing we can do.
(Editor’s note: We followed up with the Prescott campaign to request clarification on which laws he’s referring to. His campaign said Prescott was referring to U.S. border policies.)
Republicans in Congress have voted along party lines to restrict access to abortion. Would you support any federal restrictions to abortion?
No, I would not.
Although Republicans in Congress have supported penalties for doctors providing access to abortion, keeping states from using federal funds for pregnancy crisis centers. [Are there] any policies that you would support on the federal level that could impact people in New Hampshire?
Oh, certainly. There were, you know, contracts for sexually transmitted diseases and making sure that we take care of women's and men's health, make sure that we continue to vote for those types of [laws aimed at] eradicating disease around our state. And the other issues are, we want to make sure that we have the states being in charge. Local control is the best way that we can really address any problems with health care here in New Hampshire.
We continue to hear from voters that they are tired of political polarization. Trust across party lines in Congress continues to dwindle. What about your background? What about your background qualifies you to work with members of all parties to do what's best for New Hampshire?
Well, it's a very, very good question, and it's the one that I've been answering for two years. We have to stop this divisive, negative campaigning and just name calling and trying to just divide us as a nation. With unity, we can accomplish more if we would just get along and not be nitpicking on different personal or political ideology. We should just concentrate on where we agree and work across the aisle and make sure we accomplish that. And I've done that in the Executive Council, I've done that as a state senator, and I will do that again as a congressman.
Unity: What does that look like to you?
Unity looks like just making sure that we are friendly towards each other, treat each other the way we'd like to be treated ourselves, and concentrate on where we unite and bring our country to a better place. We all have the same ultimate goal and make that a higher concentration, rather than just the current event of the day. Those usually work themselves out in the current atmosphere. We always need to concentrate on the future, and the future is we don't want higher housing costs in 10 years. We want lower housing costs. [We want] the American Dream being more affordable for all people. I have a real concern about my children and my grandchildren and the grandchildren and children of people here in our state. And if we do not address fiscal responsibility and make sure that we balance our budget, we will not have a Social Security system that is firm and able to be sustained. We have to concentrate now on our fiscal responsibility.
So I've heard you mentioned fiscal responsibility and budget. Were you to be elected, what's the first thing that you go for?
I believe that our government is way too large. It is not accomplishing enough for the people. And I believe if we bring that size of government down and return more power and money to the states to be able to locally direct the monies, it's more efficient and we'll be able to help our state in a much better way. I think that our government is way too large. We need to reduce it. We need a limited government to do just certain things, like defense and interstate commerce, but bring the rest back to the states.
