Leslie Cockburn
Leslie Cockburn (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Virginia's 5th Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Elections
2018
General election
Denver Lee Riggleman III defeated Leslie Cockburn in the general election for U.S. House Virginia District 5 on November 6, 2018.
General election
General election for U.S. House Virginia District 5
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Denver Lee Riggleman III (R) | 53.2 | 165,339 |
 | Leslie Cockburn (D) | 46.6 | 145,040 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 547 | ||
| Total votes: 310,926 | |||
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- Note: John Hargis ran as a write-in candidate in the general election.
Democratic nominating convention
The 5th Congressional District Democratic Committee held a nominating convention on May 5, 2018. Leslie Cockburn received a majority of the votes to secure the Democratic nomination.[1]
Republican nominating convention
The 5th Congressional District Republican Committee held a nominating convention on June 2, 2018. Denver Riggleman was chosen by the party to compete in the general election.[2]
Campaign themes
2018
Campaign website
Cockburn’s campaign website stated the following:
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HEALTHCARE In Virginia’s 5th district, the proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act will devastate Virginia families. In one clinic alone in Nelson County, The Blue Ridge Medical Center, 20% of families are on Medicaid. 2000 people could lose their healthcare including 1600 children. Medicaid loss means that special needs programs in the district schools may be shut down. Older Virginians in nursing homes could lose their care. Nearly two thirds of all nursing home residents' care is financed by Medicaid. Jobs in the healthcare industry will be slashed. Transportation for Medicaid patients will disappear, a profound loss for people in rural districts without buses, trains or taxis. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the bill Republicans put forward would strip 23 million families of Medicaid. Leslie wants to guard the rights of Virginians and preserve the best of the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that people with pre-existing conditions get care and that those low- income families who can now afford coverage will continue to receive that coverage. Right now, Virginians aged 50-64 can be charged no more than 3 times what a 21 year old would pay. The House bill that our congressman voted for would have allowed insurers to charge the oldest among us 5 times more, a change that the AARP Public Policy Institute says would increase monthly premiums for a Silver Plan by 22%. She will work to ensure that any government subsidy for opiates abuse clinics does not go to fly-by-night private providers who profit from addiction without real treatment, as has recently been exposed in Florida. She thinks it is wrong that Congress gets the “Gold Plan” for its own members while legislating deep cuts for others. She supports “single payer” healthcare, which means Medicare for all. Leslie will add her name to the Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act (HR 676). She will fight to reduce the extortionate cost of drugs changed by Big Pharma, in some cases a thousand times what it costs to buy the same drug in Canada. She will fight the fraud and waste in the medical industry where a hip part costing a few hundred dollars can be tens of thousands of dollars on a hospital bill. She wants to address the opioid epidemic that is ravaging the 5th District by making the opioid pushers feel the pain. Big Pharma must be held accountable. Several states are suing opioid producers that have profited from the destruction of families and communities. Every day over 90 Americans die from opioid overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the cost to the country of opioid addiction is 78.5 billion dollars a year. Not only must the drug companies be challenged in the courts and in Congress, insurance companies must be forced to stop the practice of making opioid prescription costs lower than non-addictive pain killers. Treatment in rural counties must be generously funded. THE ENVIRONMENT Rural Virginia is vulnerable to the schemes of large, out-of-state corporations that despoil the land without a stake in the consequences. Fracked-gas pipelines crisscross the district and two more are on the drawing board. High-pressure gas pipelines are a ticking time bomb for the communities they pass through. Explosions and poisonous leaks that foul the waters are all too common. Several counties are in pitched battles at the moment over new pipelines. A report from the Southern Environmental Law Center concludes that the pipelines are completely unnecessary for Virginia’s energy needs. Leslie will ensure that on the federal level, FERC will abide by the law and address the serious concerns of The Fish and Wildlife Service about the pipelines’ effect on over a thousand waterways, forests and scenic mountains that will be scarred with mountain-top removal. She met recently with the two generations of farmers who own the sustainable family farm, Four Corners, in Franklin County. Their highly successful operation has been adding jobs in Franklin and is a much-loved part of the community. The Mountain Valley pipeline, owned by corporations from Florida and Pennsylvania, will tear up their back field. If the pipeline is built, Four Corners Farm will close its doors. The temporary jobs of pipe fitters and excavators cannot replace the sustainable employment of a growing farm and its related businesses. Leslie has traveled the route of the Atlantic Coast pipeline through Nelson County. Profitable new businesses that provide hundreds of jobs will be adversely affected. Cideries, breweries, a ski resort and several wedding venues will have a high-pressure pipeline in their backyard. The pipeline is also slated to go through an area that was washed away in severe flooding last century. Such an event could cause catastrophic damage. In Buckingham County, the historic freedman community of Union Hill is facing the nightmare of a pipeline compressor station that could ravage their neighborhood. Even the Monacan Indian Nation is facing the invasion of one of its most sacred sites by pipeline crews. Land conservation must be supported in Congress. Leslie will back scenic easements to preserve family farms. She will support low taxes for farm use. She will fight to restore streams protection, so that coal ash and the five heavy metals it contains cannot poison out water. Those heavy metals can cause spontaneous abortion and severe developmental problems in children. She will vote to restore the power of the Environmental Protection Agency, under siege by Trump and his allies, to ensure clean air and water for future generations of Virginians. Leslie will support efforts by the League of Conservation Voters to protect our land and the farmers whose livelihoods hang in the balance. The United States is now the only nation on earth not committed to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Yet the US government's own assessment of climate change, the recent Climate Science Special Report, is a forceful indictment of the perils of inaction. According to the report, all US government agencies involved in the assessment have "very high confidence" that the world's oceans are absorbing more than a quarter of the CO2 emissions every year from human activity which is making the oceans more acidic. Scientists are reasonably confident that "the rate of acidification is unparalleled in at least the past 66 million years." The US government report says the current rate of sea level rise "is greater than any preceding century in at least 2800 years." The culprit is "human caused climate change" which has been a major contributor to sea level rise since 1900. Scientists expect sea levels this century to rise as much as eight feet. The consensus is that the world's ice is melting. "The mean thickness of the arctic sea ice during winter between 1980-2008 has decreased between 4.3 and 7.5 feet." We must resume our place at the table as a leader of the Paris Agreement. Otherwise, we are endangering the earth. I support the US Climate Alliance, made up of 14 states including Virginia. This Alliance pledges to advance the objectives of the Paris Agreement with or without the White House. EDUCATION The Trump Department of Education under Betsy Devos wants to spend $250 million dollars on school vouchers. Two new studies cited by Time magazine in June say voucher programs do not improve student performance on standardized tests. Leslie supports strong public education and will fight any initiative that strips funding from public schools. She does not support diverting funds for vouchers. In some Charlottesville charter schools, the teacher turnover is 1.4 years and there is little oversight. Too many 5th district schools are so strapped for funds that they have closed programs for gifted students. They are nervous about losing Medicaid for special needs children. (A cut to Medicaid would mean massive costs to local government.) Their teachers are so underpaid that one educator in Charlottesville recently cited a case of a colleague who had to quit to work as a baby sitter because it was more lucrative. Leslie has met with teachers in Bedford County and Franklin who are barely getting by. Teacher pay must be addressed if schools are to improve. Also, the tyranny of testing since the Bush years is killing innovation in the classroom. These policies should be reviewed at the Congressional level. Otherwise, great programs like the Gereau Center for Applied Technology and Career Exploration in Rocky Mount, where students are exposed to fields like aviation, forensics, architecture and engineering will wither and die. Leslie supports strong pre-K programs and wants to expand pre-K education. Every $1 spent on pre-K saves $7-8 dollars in future intervention. She is a strong supporter of free community college for all Virginians. She will work hard to change the rules on student loans that are turning students, parents and grandparents, into debt slaves. Leslie will fight to reverse the bankruptcy laws inserted into legislation by bank lobbyists, forcing people, in many cases, to takes these debts to the grave. She will fight to reduce interest rates for all student loans. WOMEN Leslie believes it is time for women to be treated as full citizens. They deserve equal pay. It is disturbing that women still receive 20% less pay than men, 80 cents on the dollar. Women of color receive even less. This kind of discrimination is illegal. John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law in 1963. But it must be strengthened and given teeth. Too many women are heads of households and breadwinners. We must not defund the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and must allow the EEOC to collect pay information through the Employer Information Report. Otherwise, we operate in the dark. Leslie supports the Paycheck Fairness Act. Gender wage discrimination has a severe impact on older women. According to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, 22 million older women receive Social Security benefits but receive, on average, $300 a month less than men. Leslie wants to help change that and supports the Eleanor's Hope initiative to promote women's retirement security. She also wants to equalize Social Security rules for disabled widows. Women’s reproductive rights are under threat from the Trump administration and its allies in Congress. The irrational attacks on Planned Parenthood mean cruel and unusual punishment for millions of poor women. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that denying Planned Parenthood federal funding for one year will result in thousands of unwanted pregnancies. It will increase Medicaid spending by 21 million. Under the Affordable Care Act, contraception was provided to poor women for next to nothing. Because of this, as of 2014, abortions declined to a record low. For the first time since 1975, the abortion rate in the US fell to under a million. Publicly funded family planning visits saved state and federal governments over 13 billion dollars a year. Let’s respect a woman’s right to choose. Leslie wants to end Trump’s global gag rule. The rule denies US foreign aid to NGOs that provide sexual and reproductive health services, such as contraception and HIV testing, to women abroad. This is barbaric and should be reversed. The proposed bills to demolish the Affordable Care Act have casually slashed maternity and newborn coverage, now regarded as essential care. This affects at least 9 million women. Whatever the final bill is, Leslie, a mother of three, will work to restore this coverage. THE ECONOMY The 5th district needs jobs. The flight of tobacco and textiles has left a blighted economy in some areas, particularly Southside. However, Leslie believes, from her many interviews in the region, that the obvious solution is new energy. The skills required to install and maintain solar and geothermal energy are already present in every county. If you can dig a well, repair a metal roof, mend a board fence and bushhog a field, you can easily learn to work with solar panels and geothermal pipes. Training is already available in Franklin County at the CEEB center in Rocky Mount. This program needs to be refocused for adults, enhanced and extended to every county. Leslie will work to secure federal funding for this program. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, there are now 4 million new energy jobs in the United States. Solar jobs are growing at a rate 12 times faster than the rest of the US economy. Virginia deserves some of those jobs. The other clear path to jobs creation is the model of Nelson County. The natural expansion of the tourist and leisure industry from one resort to a myriad of businesses can be duplicated elsewhere. Also, farmers can grow crops to meet the needs of local business. Breweries want local hops and malting barley, very profitable crops. In order to bolster farming in the district, Leslie wants to make sure the massive cuts to the Farm Bill proposed by President Trump, upwards of 250 billion dollars, do not go through. The Trump plan slashes 29 billion for crop insurance. We need to increase crop insurance, not cut it. She will look closely at the farm bill with local farmers to see where it can be better tailored to the needs of the district. 5th District farmers want more funding for conservation. Leslie also wants to make better compost available to farmers so they do not have to rely on industrial waste. There are three missing pieces for a sound economy in the 5th district. One is the shameful minimum wage, a dollar fifty less than West Virginia. Two is transportation. In the Southside counties, there is woefully little access to public buses. In Bedford County, there is no train stop. For a thriving economy, Leslie believes, the district needs better transport. Three is broadband. Without broadband, rural Virginians are shut out of the modern economy. The broadband issue has a long and checkered history. What we need to secure is federal funding that has flowed to other states. Virginia needs to be next in line. Virginia also needs to lure companies like Microsoft, that want to be part of a rural broadband renaissance. Microsoft’s data center is already in the district and the company is thus a natural partner for the 5th. CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM Virginia schools refer more students to law enforcement in the “school-to-prison-pipeline” than any other state. Although not all of those students go to court, the trend of turning to police rather than just a visit to the principal’s office is a disturbing trend. According to a recent report by Virginia Tech, African-American students make up 23 percent of the student population in Virginia and 49 percent of the referrals to juvenile court. Many states, from Texas to New York, have adopted criminal justice reforms that reduce unnecessary incarceration and keep families and communities safe and intact. Virginia and the federal government lag far behind. Leslie will work with legislators to promote smart, safe reforms at the federal level such as rewarding states that stop jailing people too poor to pay bail and limiting the government’s ability to take property away without a conviction through asset forfeiture reform. She will also investigate solutions to support healthy options for opioid addiction, preventing children from entering the criminal justice system maze and ensuring that people are not unfairly prosecuted. It is wrong for poverty and race to play such a significant role in determining who gets a conviction. Leslie wants to help America invest in the future –in good schools, clean water and air and an economy that works for everyone-not in spending billions to incarcerate. FOREIGN POLICY BREAKING NEWS! Leslie was endorsed by JStreetPAC, which organizes and mobilizes pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the Jewish people. Working in American politics and the Jewish community, J Street advocates for policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For more information about J Street and JStreePAC visit https://jstreet.org.
Virginia’s 5th District The 5th District of Virginia stretches from Fauquier County in the north to Danville and the North Carolina border in the south. It covers 10,000 square miles, an area larger than New Jersey. There are 21 rural counties in the 5th, with the City of Charlottesville at its heart. The Cook Political Report has labeled it a “lean Republican” district, and Swing Left calls it a swing district. The Republican incumbent, Congressman Tom Garrett, has announced he will not run for reelection. The replacement candidate, Denver Riggleman, a whiskey distiller handpicked in June by the local Republican party, has vowed to join the Freedom Caucus. Charlottesville was the scene of the white supremacist rally last August that traumatized the city and, in particular, the Jewish community. Neo-Nazis, the KKK, and others gathered by torchlight on the campus of the University of Virginia and chanted “Jews will not replace us." The following day, the congregation of a local synagogue was alarmed to find armed men outside shouting “sieg heil." The events demonstrated the danger of a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the age of Trump. (Congressman Garrett had been photographed in his office with the organizer of the rally, Jason Kessler.) The fact that hate groups on the right felt emboldened by the Administration to demonstrate openly, some of them heavily armed, underscores the need to support the Jewish community and to respect that community’s profound attachment to Israel. The U.S.-Israeli Relationship Israel was founded as a refuge for Jews who were the victims of genocide during the Holocaust, as well as Jews facing persecution in other countries. The special relationship between the United States and Israel goes far beyond the deep emotional ties shared by the two countries. It dates back to the vision of Reuven Shiloah, Ben-Gurion’s brilliant Chief Advisor on Intelligence and the first Director of the Mossad. It was Shiloah who, in 1951, made the key recommendation that Israel should build a strategic military alliance with the U.S. He forged the first connections to American intelligence, a bond that has weathered foreign policy shifts over the years and remains steadfast today. The intelligence agencies and military establishments of both countries are profoundly intertwined. As a member of Congress, I will respect that relationship and do everything in my power to encourage its most productive and creative use to promote peace in the region and a two-state solution. Israeli Security The United States Congress is committed to supporting Israel’s security both militarily and financially. As a member of Congress, I will stand by that commitment. From the early days of helping Israel to build its now highly-advanced weapons systems, to the years of supplying the Israeli Air Force with state-of-the-art fighters and our current efforts to combat terrorism, the U.S. has been there, overtly and covertly, for Israel. At the same time, Israel has also been staunchly committed to the U.S., offering its services in the Middle East and around the world. Security, of course, cannot be maintained with guns alone. During the First Gulf War, I stood on a balcony in Tel Aviv (not in a sealed room) watching the Scud missiles raining down on the city while Patriot battery commanders did their utmost to intercept them. In a Middle East gorged with sophisticated weapons, we must encourage diplomacy. As a member of Congress, I will do what I can to help facilitate a dialogue with Israel and its neighbors. I believe there are untapped resources to further peace. In other intractable conflicts, economic incentives have offered the means to reimagine relationships. In the meantime, U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority is essential for building the foundation that can lead to negotiations. The Two State Solution I believe the U.S has a critical role to play in encouraging Israel and the Palestinians to cease hostilities and find a two-state solution. As a member of Congress, I would support American engagement in such negotiations and vote for American financial support to guarantee secure borders and a workable agreement for peace. I would urge the implementation of a settlement freeze, as the expansion of settlements is the single greatest threat to the two-state solution. Checkpoints and settler-only roads have eroded Palestinian confidence that negotiations are even possible. A majority of Israelis oppose settlement expansion. Countless Israeli leaders have come to the conclusion that a two-state solution is the only way forward to guarantee the security of Israel, the future of the state and peace with its neighbors. A peace deal would have very positive repercussions for all American relationships in the Middle East and would significantly restore the leadership role of the U.S. abroad. Iran The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the Trump Administration has now abandoned, will have my full support in Congress if there is an opportunity to restore it. It unquestionably enhanced the security of both Israel and the United States. In exchange for the dramatic reduction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the agreement lifted some of the heavy sanctions imposed on Iran. The Iranians fully complied with their obligations and reduced their stock of enriched uranium to 300 kilograms, less than a third of what is needed to build a nuclear weapon. They reduced the number of centrifuges and put their plutonium production reactor out of service. International inspections of their facilities have been both highly intrusive and broad. The International Atomic Energy Agency certified several times that Iran had fulfilled its obligations. Carmi Gillon, former head of Israel’s General Security Service, the Shin Bet, wrote in Foreign Policy last July that “the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon is more remote than it has been in decades. Thanks to the agreement, Iran’s nuclear program has been defanged and all its pathways to a bomb blocked.” He praised the JCPOA for having removed the need to plan for potential military operations that “might have triggered a major escalation and cost many lives.” Gillon added that the major world powers “came together to ensure-without a single shot being fired-that Iran dismantled key nuclear infrastructure and submitted itself to thorough monitoring and inspection.” Once in Congress, I will encourage all members to restore this successful multilateral agreement. Foreign Aid Foreign aid to Israel is a pillar of U.S. foreign policy. I support both U.S. foreign aid to Israel and U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority. I also believe in open discussion of areas of disagreement such as settlement expansion in violation of existing agreements. I do not support U.S. foreign aid being used for settlement expansion. Our aid should be used to support a strong, democratic Israel with shared values: freedom of expression, respect for human rights, gender rights and rule of law. Israeli institutions that promote democratic values should be supported generously by Congress. As a member of Congress I would urge our continued support of the United Nations as our funding guarantees influence and the airing of American views that could otherwise be ignored or dismissed. Trump’s threat to withdraw U.S. aid from countries as punishment for their stand against the recent move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem diminishes U.S. influence rather than enhancing it. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital without a two-state solution is divisive and, as generations of statesmen have understood, will lead to violence. The U.S. must also restore funding to the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza must be addressed urgently. The U.S. should play a role in easing the blockade and rebuilding the economy of Gaza with its nearly 2 million inhabitants. |
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| —Leslie Cockburn’s campaign website (2018)[4] | ||
Campaign advertisements
The following is an example of an ad from Cockburn's 2018 election campaign.
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See also
- United States House of Representatives
- Virginia's 5th Congressional District election, 2018
- Virginia's 5th Congressional District
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Roanoke Times, "Cockburn receives 5th District Democratic nomination," May 5, 2018
- ↑ The Washington Post, "GOP picks Denver Riggleman to replace Rep. Tom Garrett as nominee in Virginia’s 5th District," June 2, 2018
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Leslie Cockburn for Congress, “Priorities,” accessed October 1, 2018
