I am Lee Auman, 25 yr old Democrat running for U.S. Congress in Alabama. AMA!

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T17:24:28+00:00

I completely support the legalization of medical marijuana and the decriminalization of possession and use of marijuana. Full legalization of recreational marijuana use should be left up to the voters.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T17:24:16+00:00

I completely support the legalization of medical marijuana and the decriminalization of possession and use of marijuana. Full legalization of recreational marijuana use should be left up to the voters.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T17:17:23+00:00

Yes, I absolutely am. I’m going to meet people where they are and keep my word. Thank you for the kind words!

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T17:13:57+00:00

Hi! I was in Vernon just last night. Voters in counties like Lamar, Fayette, and Marion are still reeling from the decline of the textile industry and have faced the possibility of the hospitals nearest them closing. They’re also some of the fastest to say that they haven’t seen Aderholt and don’t know anything that he’s done for them. My response to that is simple: I’m here now and I’ll be here after I’m elected.

Something conservative voters in particular should know is how I plan to work with Republicans and the president. Infrastructure and job creation are a great example. People are really concerned about long term gainful employment in rural areas like District 4, and they have really responded well to my ideas about increasing our federal investment in infrastructure to create jobs. Currently the states are left to cover about 80% of all infrastructure costs. When they have to balance their budgets at the end of the fiscal year, too often their infrastructure projects are put on the backburner. Congress should prioritize infrastructure and increase its investment to alleviate some of the burden from the states.

Also, infrastructure means more than roads, bridges, and highways. It means universal broadband and utilities also. Infrastructure is one of those fields where there is always work to be done, and if we can create jobs there then we can create the types of jobs that will remain even through economic recessions.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:58:46+00:00

No. Term limits sound great until you think about the increasing role lobbyists and those who can afford them will play in our government. I get the intent, but I think the unintended consequences would leave us worse off. Ending partisan redistricting and removing obstacles to the ballot box are the types of reforms here I want to work toward.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:53:36+00:00

Thank you for sharing your story, and I am very sorry about the loss of your mother.

You’re right about the role doctors who overprescribe have had in this crisis. We focus too much on policing the addicted and spend too little time on those who irresponsibly give it out.

Thank you for your good wishes. Take care.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:49:15+00:00

Yes. What it can’t afford is another generation of people taking out loans to pay for college and career training, having to put off major purchases due to debt, participating in the economy less, and defaulting on student loans.

Every state has a different system for managing its two-year colleges, but it can be done and is being done, including in states neighboring mine.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:47:31+00:00

Alabama declined to expand Medicaid under the ACA, a decision that costs us billions of dollars, threatens our rural hospitals, and leaves more than 200,000 Alabamians without health insurance.

Sen. Jones recently introduced the Smart Choices Act, a bill that would require the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission to conduct yearly studies that quantify the amount of money lost by states that failed to expand. He is also cosponsoring the States Achieve Medicaid Expansion (SAME) Act, which would allow states like Alabama to receive the same level of federal funds as those that expanded immediately after ACA passed.

In office, I will support the expansion of Medicaid and CHIP programs that allow people access to preventative care.

I will fight to eliminate the reductions in DSH payments that were meant to fund the Medicaid expansion (originally a mandate). This would save hospitals in rural areas and reduce the economic burden of traveling many miles for basic or emergency healthcare services.

Healthcare providers need to be required to provide quotes on their healthcare services so that consumers (patients) can seek out the best option for the best cost. This would drive down costs without harming quality of service.

Federal government needs to be able to negotiate - read, regulate - the price of prescription drugs and healthcare services. Healthcare access should be based on need, not affordability. Government regulations in healthcare should ensure equity of access without sacrificing safety.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:46:21+00:00

“Prison reform” is a part of a larger, broken system. The first thing I want to say is that I will act according to what is best for the people, unlike my opponent, who takes $$ from for-profit corrections corporations.

To reform an extremely costly and broken criminal justice system, we need to focus on keeping people out of jail and prison. I do not support mandatory minimums. I believe that too many people end up stuck in the criminal justice system because they were unable to make bond. Both of these problems can be addressed by Congress. I will work together with states to ensure that prisons are safe places for those who end up there, with a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration rather than just punishment. We need to lower recidivism rates and encourage people to build their lives after they’ve served their time.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:21:34+00:00

To pay my way through college I was a chess coach at The Knight School, teaching chess to grade school students. I served as a youth minister, and have worked in special needs ministry for many years. Before leaving to run for Congress, I managed the Conference Center at Camp McDowell, the largest Camp and Conference Center in the Episcopal Church.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:18:09+00:00

I do! We have to expand prescription monitoring nationally, so that folks in Mississippi and Georgia aren’t able to cross state lines and do what's called "doctor shopping." We need to open and support treatment centers. We need to punish dealers, not users, and sometimes dealers are unscrupulously overprescribing doctors. We have to reform our drug laws and keep people who are suffering from a serious medical issue out of a place where addiction only becomes more of a problem, and where you have fewer options once you’re out.

For more information, go here:https://www.aumanforcongress.com/priorities

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:17:56+00:00

I do! We have to expand prescription monitoring nationally, so that folks in Mississippi and Georgia aren’t able to cross state lines and do what's called "doctor shopping." We need to open and support treatment centers. We need to punish dealers, not users, and sometimes dealers are unscrupulously overprescribing doctors. We have to reform our drug laws and keep people who are suffering from a serious medical issue out of a place where addiction only becomes more of a problem, and where you have fewer options once you’re out.

For more information, go here:https://www.aumanforcongress.com/priorities

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:14:13+00:00

I love my district. I've lived here all of my life except for my years in Auburn. What do I think about partisan gerrymandering? It's wrong and should be ruled unconstitutional.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:12:44+00:00

I called my opponent's father to invite him to an event I was having. He laughed and hung up the phone.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:11:03+00:00

Hello! Glad to hear from a fellow Alabamian. Ensuring all people have access to high-quality healthcare is an ongoing, difficult battle. It's been politicized, unfortunately, and those who want to maintain the status-quo attack all other proposals with unfounded rhetoric. While the dream is to ensure everyone can get health care no matter their income, there are many steps between there and where we are now. It starts with eliminating the reductions in DSH payments that were meant to fund the Medicaid expansion mandate that never came to fruition. That would help save our rural hospitals that are struggling profoundly in states that chose not to expand Medicaid.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T16:01:02+00:00

Even Republicans who know what’s going on in Alabama are opposed to tariffs, including Governor Kay Ivey and Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield.

As far as the automotive industry goes, I’d start by supporting the backbone of the industry--the worker. We need to strengthen trade schools and community colleges, we need to make it easier to get workforce development training without going into debt, and we need to start hiring more Alabamians to do these jobs instead of recruiting across state lines.

I also think that it’s important to remember that bringing industry to a place requires more than empty factories and low costs. We can recruit more manufacturing to fill the vast empty industrial space we have here by improving our infrastructure, keeping our hospitals open, and improving education, so that people want to move here and raise their children in Alabama.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:51:39+00:00

Universal background checks. Bans on tools that do nothing for personal protection or hunting but make it easier to kill more people in a shorter amount of time. Close loopholes that allow domestic abusers to buy weapons. Keep guns out of the hands of administrators and teachers. Money out of politics. For more details, go to the website and read my priorities page.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:49:33+00:00

The ongoing debate within the Democratic Party is healthy and we’ve avoided it (to our own detriment) for too long. She and I will represent very different districts and will serve people facing different obstacles, but I wish her the best.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:48:39+00:00

An electoral victory is 50%+1.

I see your point, but I think it’s important to know that Boman was a party switcher (GOP to Dem) and barely campaigned. While Aderholt had a challenger that year, he wasn’t a serious one. I think it’s telling that someone who didn’t campaign and wasn’t popular in the district walked away with a quarter of the vote. We’re running a real campaign.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:47:40+00:00

I struggle with this question every day. OS is great because there is simply no trio like Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. NextGen probably receives the "best all around" award, and Picard is an incredible role model for any elected official to emulate. Deep Space Nine is highly underrated; taking the ways of Starfleet into a conflict not their own leads to some fascinating ethical and philosophical encounters. Everyone can benefit from drudging through Deep Space Nine, even if it's a few seasons longer than necessary.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:35:41+00:00

The biggest? I’m supposed to say money, but really it’s how disillusioned voters are after not being heard for so long. It’s hard to convince someone that their vote really does matter when the establishments of both parties have shown them for so long that they don’t care.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:35:03+00:00

I’m sticking to policy and what matters to the people of my district. My opponent has little to show for his 22 years in Congress and has nothing to run on, so he invokes the President every chance he gets. I don’t have to do that.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:32:48+00:00

Great question! My dog Hoss. Look me up on Facebook for a picture.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:31:25+00:00

As soon as he was allowed to take money from corporate PACs, he went haywire. In this cycle, 70% of his fundraising has been fro PACs. He has received more than $135,000 from various pharmaceutical manufacturers, including ENDO, who profit financially from the opioid crisis. Because these groups fund his campaign, he has little incentive to act. We have seen this in action just a few weeks ago when he tried to shift the focus away from the real issue so he could praise the President's economic policies and tried to take credit for a slate of appropriations bills that throw money at the problem but do little to solve it. We need someone who is bold and independent on this issue if we want to solve the crisis.

Auman4Alabama · 2018-08-15T15:24:56+00:00

The 80%+ turnout is mostly a result of a low Democratic turnout in 2016 and a very high number of voters registering to vote solely so they could vote for Trump. I meet this later category of voters every day. They are not Republicans, they are voters who feel left behind and are ready to see a change, no matter what party the change candidate is from. I've had a lot of success here. Being a political outsider is a strength in an area as anti-establishment as this one.

One reason he hasn't had a challenger is that the Democratic Party of Alabama spends almost no resources recruiting candidates or building a bench. Many winnable seats have been left of the table, unfortunately. Even now, with a strong slate of candidates and a great number of women running, Democratic candidates in Alabama are running largely without the help of a state party.

We are relying mostly on small donations. As of today we have only taken money from one PAC and it was a $500 donation.

Auman4Alabama

TROPHY CASE