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Steven Sams
Steven Sams (Republican Party, Conservative Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent New York's 26th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Sams completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Steven Sams was born in Plantation, Florida. He served in the U.S. Army from 2003 to 2015. He earned an associate degree from Niagara University in 2020. His career experience includes working in retail management and as a U.S. Army combat veteran.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: New York's 26th Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House New York District 26
Incumbent Brian Higgins defeated Steven Sams in the general election for U.S. House New York District 26 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Brian Higgins (D / Working Families Party) | 63.9 | 156,883 |
 | Steven Sams (R / Conservative Party)  | 36.0 | 88,339 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 149 | ||
| Total votes: 245,371 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House New York District 26
Incumbent Brian Higgins defeated Emin Eddie Egriu in the Democratic primary for U.S. House New York District 26 on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Brian Higgins | 90.9 | 28,485 |
 | Emin Eddie Egriu | 8.7 | 2,731 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 109 | ||
| Total votes: 31,325 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Steven Sams advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House New York District 26.
Conservative Party primary election
The Conservative Party primary election was canceled. Steven Sams advanced from the Conservative Party primary for U.S. House New York District 26.
Working Families Party primary election
The Working Families Party primary election was canceled. Incumbent Brian Higgins advanced from the Working Families Party primary for U.S. House New York District 26.
Endorsements
To view Sams' endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Steven Sams completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Sams' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Bring our prescription drug and other manufacturing back to the United States
- Energy independence while working towards a cleaner future
- Support and defend constitutional rights
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.
Campaign website
Sams' campaign website stated the following:
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EDUCATION Education is the most important thing in society. Our K-12 schools are under attack by political activists. Politics has no place in the K-12 system. Instead of teaching our children how to be proficient in reading, writing, and math, they would rather teach our children about how we are in separate groups. One group is a group of oppressors, and the other group isn't smart enough or good enough to succeed. It is very important however that we teach our history, the whole history, but we don't do this by separating people into groups and teaching things from a political lens. I am not a proponent of free college for any degree. I am, however, in support of degrees and training that will make all our lives better: people like trade workers, truck drivers, mechanics, and nurses.
If you don't think your Constitutional rights are under attack, you have lost your mind. Look at what has gone on over the last 2 years... Big Tech deciding what is true and what is false. Big Tech deciding who can say what and when. Governors signing executive orders that led to the death of thousands and then covering it up. Governors creating executive orders causing thousands to lose their businesses. Government officials telling you where you can't go and where you can. Telling you how many people you can have in your own home. Telling you that you can't go places without a mask. Now these officials are moving towards taking away your ability to decide what is medically right for you and your family. No thanks, hard pass on that one slick. Our rights are granted to us by our CREATOR, not our Government.
The "Affordable Care Act" of 2010 gave people health insurance that didn't have it. It also made the cost of insurance for those that pay go through the roof. The Affordable Care Act is an OK start to providing people less advantaged with health coverage, but it doesn't go far enough. We need to do more for people to provide treatment and coverage for our people with mental health issues. I would also like to see dental treatment included. Having poor dental health can cause poor overall health, and as such we need to work towards getting people dental health treatment.
Covid-19 is one of the most contentious and divisive subjects that we have faced in a long time. People and even family members fight over mask or no mask, vaccine or no vaccine. For full disclosure, I received the Pfizer vaccine and I hope that other people get vaccinated as well, but I will never support any laws or legislation that takes away or impedes on anyone's freedom to do what they feel is right for them. Vaccine mandates are unacceptable.
Our Government is out of control with the spending going on. At the time of writing this the National Debt is $28,579,000,000,000+. That breaks down to $227,000 per taxpayer and $85,000 per every citizen. Does anyone have an extra $85,000 laying around? I know I don't. I've heard people say we can just print more money. Want to know what happens when you keep doing that? Your existing money and the new money loses value and causes the price of essential goods to go up. Our Government voted to send $1,293,000,000 to 4 countries overseas. $10,000,000 to Pakistan, $130,000,000 to Nepal, $453,000,000 for Ukraine, and $700,000,000 to Sudan because they are such "good friends" of ours. Do you know what 1.3 billion dollars can get us in the U.S.? That can pay for 14,693 of our kids to go to college and get a 4-year degree. That's 29,386 2-year degree or trade school students: 29,000 plumbers, truck drivers, road builders, carpenters, or mechanics. I know where I would vote to spend the money.
Here's a cold hard truth. There are not enough minority or women owned businesses. As a former business owner I can tell you that starting a business is not easy. We need to make the process of starting a business of your own an easier one, and give people just starting out every chance to succeed with more funding for small businesses and reduced taxes for those that make our economy as powerful as it is. Small business is the backbone of America.
I’m an unapologetic supporter of the 2nd Amendment which states, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The language clearly states it is an individual’s right to keep and bear arms and that right shall not be infringed upon. Anti-2nd Amendment groups think this is meant for the military only to own firearms. Nowhere in the 2nd Amendment does it say “military.” Military is referred to as “Land or Naval Forces” as in the 5th amendment. Land or Naval Forces is separate from the militia because “we the people” are the militia to be called upon to defend our Nation when needed.
The drug cartels are making BILLIONS (XXX,000,000,000) of dollars in the illegal drug trade. Fentanyl is a very dangerous substance, and it has been found in every single recreational drug consumed to include Marijuana. This has caused countless overdose deaths all over America. Our citizens are suffering from opioid addiction in every community. A large population of the U.S. uses marijuana recreationally, and many people have been put in jail for drug related charges. My state, NY, has recently LEGALIZED the use of recreational marijuana. I don’t condone the use of recreational marijuana or any other recreational drug, nor do I agree with the decision made. We are never going to stop people from using drugs if we condone its use and provide safe injection sites. We have tried for decades and have failed, and this is not going to help people beat their addiction. We need to keep our citizens safe from accidental fentanyl overdoes and end the opioid epidemic that is plaguing our nation. I would like to see my state commit to ending the dependency on illicit and illegal substances. I would propose this on a national level. The war on drugs has been improperly executed targeting low level offenses rather than tackling the larger issue being where it's coming from. It is way past time to secure our borders and cut the cartels out of the equation.
Our Northern Border has been closed for some time and is only open if you follow a bunch of overreaching and invasive procedures. There is no reason for our two countries to be closed from one another. There is no scientific or specific reason you can fly to the U.S. but you can’t drive across the border. Our representatives have done nothing useful. Writing a letter will not solve this. I will put pressure on our administration every single day until our countries can get back to common sense travel and trade.
Our southern border is out of control. People from more than 100 countries have crossed our southern border in recent months. They have been processed and released into the interior of our country with no knowledge of our country, our customs, our common language, or any money or ability to take care of themselves. This will undoubtedly cause a strain on our already underfunded and overused and abused services that are meant to help our citizens get back on their feet and give them help when needed. Our resources are finite, our services are finite. We cannot take care of the entire world. We are a nation of immigrants, but we need to control the amount of people crossing our border or our services will be overwhelmed and exhausted leading to us not being able to even take care of our citizens let alone all the new people needing help.
Our entitlement system is broken, completely and totally. People that don’t need it found loopholes to abuse it, and people that need it can’t get it because of bureaucratic red tape and a lack of funding do to overuse and abuse. Single mothers can’t get services for their family because they make $25 too much money? That’s insane. If a single mother or father that has humbled themselves enough to come and ask for help you should never say no. You should help them. I support a limited time period and then a reevaluation, but it should never be no. To many able-bodied people are out there taking up service that other people need and all they need to do is say they are looking for a job. They should be required to get Physical signatures from employers that they have interviews with. We will find out real quick who can’t find a job and those who don’t want to. Finding out which people truly can’t find a job will allow us to provide job placement and job training services appropriately.
Lets be clear. The “Defund the Police” movement is a foolish one. Our police officers are the only thing standing between us and terrible people trying to do terrible things. They are underfunded and overworked and asked to be perfect in everything and every situation. Cops are not omnipotent. They are regular everyday people that do a job not many people want to do. They are abused and belittled on a daily basis. There are bad cops that shouldn’t be cops, and we need to get rid of them. We need to make it easier for a union to fire a bad cop, and require them to do so as well. No more union protection for bad cops. We must also remember that there are many great, professional, and honorable law enforcement officers out there and we need to support them and give them the things needed to better serve their community and the citizens that need them. That’s why I stand with and support our Law Enforcement Officers.
I dedicated over 3500 days of my life, more than 900 of those days in combat in the service and defense of my Nation. I love my country and I’m proud to be an American. This was my choice to serve. We have an all-volunteer military and that’s a great thing, but less than 1% of our nation will raise their hand and pledge to defend our freedoms. However, 10.4% will go to college. I hear a lot of college students wanting their student loans paid off. If you want the government to pay for college, you should be required to earn it. That’s why I believe every citizen should be required to serve a minimum of 2 years in their states’ National Guard or in the Peace Corps to be eligible for student loans or loan forgiveness. Learn how to help others in your community and state before you learn Cultural Relativism.
America is the most powerful and righteous country in the world. We have done more good and helped or saved more people than any other country. We are not perfect, and we have our flaws from current and passed events, but we are a great nation. Being a strong and powerful Nation, we have certain responsibilities and requires us to be a light, hope, and example for the world, but we are not the worlds police. We need to protect those that can’t protect themselves, and help those that need it, but this does not include nation building like in Iraq and Afghanistan. We should not be sending our tax dollars oversea for things that aren’t in our interest of safety, economic growth, and international trade.
Our nation is strong, but she needs help. Our roads and bridges are in rough shape and in need of serious repair. Our cities are crumbling and our jobs are leaving along with our tax dollars. Our tax dollars should stay home and fix our own country before we send billions overseas for things like gender studies or whatever foolish thing party politicians can come up with. We need our industries to be at home, our manufacturing jobs for all industries. Our energy production needs to be domestic and not from overseas sources. We are making the world rich and our own country poor while losing thousands of jobs asking other nations to do what we could be doing right here in America. I will not support sending our tax dollars overseas for infrastructure projects in other countries, when every time we get a hard rain in our cities our homes are flooding due to improper infrastructure here. Most important is, we need to Build it here in America, Manufacture it here in America, and Buy it here in America.
80% of our prescription drugs are not manufactured in our country. Big Pharma sent manufacturing overseas to reduce the cost and increase their profits. This cost us jobs, security and, during the pandemic, an availability problem. I want to bring our prescription drug manufacturing back to America and reduce the cost overall.
Medicare and Medicaid are meant to be a safety net for those that need it, not a way of life. These programs have limited resources and limited funds. We need to increase the funding and coverage for these programs, but not the number of people on these programs. The more people in these programs the less coverage and services will be available for our people that have no other options.
Every citizen has a fundamental right to vote and we should be making it easier for them to vote. Voting in our elections is the most important thing we will ever do in our life, besides being a parent. Our citizens pick our leaders, and if you’re not a citizen, you shouldn’t be interfering in our elections. We need reform though. We need safeguards in place like requiring ID and paper ballots backing up digital voting so no one can question the integrity of elections. You need an ID to buy a car, buy alcohol, buy a gun, go to school, but not for voting? Something isn’t right with that. Secure our elections and stop continuing to make it and issue.
Our unions and the spirit of the individual worker are what made our country an economic powerhouse. Our Unions have protected our workers from being abuse and taken advantage of. However, it’s sad to say our unions have become way too political. I support Union workers, but I think we desperately need union reform. A system in place to get rid of bad members and keep unions focused on taking care of its members and not its politicians.[2] |
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| —Steven Sams' campaign website (2022)[3] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 3, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Steven Sams II for US Congress 2022, “Platform,” accessed September 30, 2022
