Benjamin Emard
From Ballotpedia
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Benjamin Emard (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 6th Congressional District. He lost in the primary on March 3, 2020.
Emard completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Benjamin Emard was born in Orange, California. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California in 2013.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: California's 6th Congressional District election, 2020
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 6
Incumbent Doris Matsui defeated Christine Bish in the general election for U.S. House California District 6 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Doris Matsui (D) | 73.3 | 229,648 |
 | Christine Bish (R)  | 26.7 | 83,466 | |
| Total votes: 313,114 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 6
Incumbent Doris Matsui and Christine Bish defeated Benjamin Emard and Sherwood Ellsworth Haisty Jr. in the primary for U.S. House California District 6 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Doris Matsui (D) | 70.2 | 119,408 |
| ✔ | | Christine Bish (R) | 14.3 | 24,321 |
 | Benjamin Emard (D) | 7.8 | 13,253 | |
 | Sherwood Ellsworth Haisty Jr. (R) | 7.7 | 13,137 | |
| Total votes: 170,119 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Kie'Marr Saleh (Communist Party)
- Ronald Muwereza Lutalo Sr. (R)
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Benjamin Emard completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Emard's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My name is Ben Emard and I'm running for the United States House of Representatives. I'm running to hold those in power accountable for the corruption and dysfunction that is prevalent in our government today. I'm running to drive action on climate change, which threatens humanity as a whole. I'm running to wrestle away the political power hoarded by the ultra-rich and the corporations and return that power to the people, where it belongs. I went to law school hoping to gain the necessary skills to do good and drive positive change in the world, and now realize the most good I can do is to lend my (very loud) voice to progressive politics. Let's change the world.
- To move to a single-payer healthcare system, so that we can achieve universal coverage in the most cost-effective way.
- To aggressively combat climate change by fighting for a Green New Deal.
- To address the issue of income inequality by improving the rights and working conditions of the working class.
I am passionate about climate change, because it is currently the greatest threat to humanity. Climate change, if left unchecked has the potential to impact other important issues like healthcare, homelessness, and immigration. We must deal with climate change if we want to have any chance at working on the other problems that our country faces. I am also passionate about criminal justice reform, because the United States has the largest prison population in the world. Our criminal justice system has issues with race stemming back from the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment. We must overhaul our entire criminal justice system to ensure that racism is removed entirely and that the emphasis is placed on rehabilitation rather than punishment. And I am passionate about improving public transportation, because it is a problem for most of California and because the solution would have an impact on peoples' daily lives as well as climate change itself. Transitioning to a green public transportation system will lessen the need for people to own cars, or at least to drive them to and from work/school on a daily basis, drastically reducing our carbon emissions. And a robust public transportation system will save people money while also cutting down on California's massive traffic issues.
I look up to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because they fight for the people that don't traditionally have a voice in politics, even though it has led to establishment politicians from both sides of the aisle slamming them and their policy ideas.
"The Conscience of a Liberal" by Paul Wellstone.
Authenticity, transparency, and policy that helps every American, not just the rich.
I am not afraid to challenge the status quo, even if that means pushing for policies that are popular with my constituents, but not my party's leaders.
Fighting for policies that will help that person's constituents. Too many elected officials use their office to help themselves and their corporate donors more than they help the people that elected them.
A brighter future for all Americans.
The first historical event that I can really remember is 9/11 and I was 12 years old when it happened.
I was a swim coach for 8 years.
"For the Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway, because it is about a principled and honorable fight for a lost cause.
Holden Caulfield of "The Catcher in the Rye".
"Turn Time Off" by David Myles
Dealing with anxiety and depression.
Unlike the Senate, which simply holds two individuals from each state, the House consists of representatives from much smaller districts. While your senators may never have even visited the city that you live in, your representative in the House has likely held town halls all across his/her district, giving everyone a chance to make their concerns heard by their representative.
I believe that it can be either a benefit or a detriment, depending on the individual. It is obvious that previous experience in the government can help to prepare a person for holding public office, but it is less obvious that such experience can actually make that person a less than ideal candidate. I believe that too much experience in the government tends to make some people too cynical to fight for the kind of big, systemic change that is necessary today.
Climate change. Nothing has the potential to affect every facet of life like the threat of climate change. If we do not act now to curb emissions and implement fixes to our infrastructure to mitigate the damage that climate change will cause, we risk an ever-increasing cost to human life and to the world economy. Climate change already has and will continue to affect other systemic issues faced by the U.S. including healthcare, homelessness, and immigration.
I believe that a two year term length is perfect.
I believe that there should be term limits on all members of Congress. I do no believe that elected federal officials should serve longer than 8 years. This may mean reducing the term length of senators to two four-year terms, or lengthening to one eight-year term. I believe that a higher turnover rate of Congresspersons would lead to more new ideas being introduced as well improve Americans' opinions on how Congress functions.
I believe that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be a model for everyone running for elected office. She ran against a member of her own party because she believed that the needs of her district were not being met. All political candidates should stand up to their party and the status quo just as readily as they stand up to the opposition party. Politics should be about helping people, not protecting the establishment.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook page
- Campaign Twitter page
- Campaign Instagram page
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 13, 2020
Senators
Alex Padilla (D)
Adam Schiff (D)
Representatives
District 1
Doug LaMalfa (R)
District 2
Jared Huffman (D)
District 3
Kevin Kiley (R)
District 4
Mike Thompson (D)
District 5
Tom McClintock (R)
District 6
Ami Bera (D)
District 7
Doris Matsui (D)
District 8
John Garamendi (D)
District 9
Josh Harder (D)
District 10
Mark DeSaulnier (D)
District 11
Nancy Pelosi (D)
District 12
Lateefah Simon (D)
District 13
Adam Gray (D)
District 14
Eric Swalwell (D)
District 15
Kevin Mullin (D)
District 16
Sam Liccardo (D)
District 17
Ro Khanna (D)
District 18
Zoe Lofgren (D)
District 19
Jimmy Panetta (D)
District 20
Vince Fong (R)
District 21
Jim Costa (D)
District 22
David Valadao (R)
District 23
Jay Obernolte (R)
District 24
Salud Carbajal (D)
District 25
Raul Ruiz (D)
District 26
Julia Brownley (D)
District 27
District 28
Judy Chu (D)
District 29
Luz Rivas (D)
District 30
Laura Friedman (D)
District 31
Gil Cisneros (D)
District 32
Brad Sherman (D)
District 33
Pete Aguilar (D)
District 34
Jimmy Gomez (D)
District 35
Norma Torres (D)
District 36
Ted Lieu (D)
District 37
District 38
Linda Sánchez (D)
District 39
Mark Takano (D)
District 40
Young Kim (R)
District 41
Ken Calvert (R)
District 42
Robert Garcia (D)
District 43
Maxine Waters (D)
District 44
Nanette Barragán (D)
District 45
Derek Tran (D)
District 46
Lou Correa (D)
District 47
Dave Min (D)
District 48
Darrell Issa (R)
District 49
Mike Levin (D)
District 50
Scott Peters (D)
District 51
Sara Jacobs (D)
District 52
Juan Vargas (D)
Democratic Party (45)
Republican Party (9)
