David Hedrick: Constitutional Conservative Republican for US Congress Let's let Washington DC know that Southwest Washington State is done with the status quo.

I am a life member of the NRA and I fully support the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. When looking at the writings of our nation’s founders, I find their interpretation of the right to keep and bear arms quite clear. I agree with them in virtually every regard with respect to this amendment.

When the Second Amendment states “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”, it means, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Period.

When in Congress, I will never vote for any piece of legislation that infringes an American’s right to keep and bear arms and I will actively advance legislation that supports this right.

For an illustration of my support of the Second Amendment, please take a look at the Q&A section of this website.

In a great act of wisdom, our founders created a Constitution that placed strict limits on the power of the Federal government. These visionaries were all too aware of the intoxicating allure of power and its effects on central governments. In writing the Constitution, our founders limited the scope of the Federal government to the specific enumerated powers contained therein.

The Federal government did not create the States. The States created the Federal government. It is time to return our out-of-control Federal government to its rightful place, once again making it subordinate to the will of the States and to the rights of the people.

I was opposed to bailouts back when Bush was in office and I'm absolutely opposed to them today! Call it whatever you want to; it is wrong to take money from hard working Americans and give it to special interest groups.

I'm coming out on top of every single forum. The Tea Party guy is winning every single forum. Elections are not cheap. I am not for sale and therefore I am the only candidate not taking special interest money -- which means I need your support! If I become just like everyone else and take that money then I've already failed you! 100% of my money is coming from regular Americans.

Any nation that lacks the ability or political will to provide for the energy needs of its own people is a nation that will find itself at the mercy of foreign governments.

The U.S. has a tremendous amount of untapped oil, coal and natural gas resources as well as the potential for the use of safe nuclear power. New discoveries of plentiful supplies of energy providing fossil fuels and minerals are being found at an accelerated pace. By some estimates, the U.S. has more unused natural resources capable of producing energy than any other nation in the world, and larger quantities of oil than even the Middle East.

For our country to wean itself off foreign supplies of energy, we must increase the use of resources found right here at home. Burdensome government regulations based on phony science has prevented our nation from achieving energy independence for far too long. As a Congressman, I will fully support an energy plan that greatly eliminates restrictions on U.S. energy exploration and production.

We're fighting for our Constitutional Republic and Individual Liberty. Fight with me!

Where is the Fed in the Constitution? It is a danger to our Country, our Dollar and our Liberty.

Our elected representatives on the national stage have abandoned any pretense of fiscal responsibility. Instead, they are behaving like teenagers with their parent’s credit card. They demand increased taxes at every turn, and all the while write checks that the treasury department can’t afford to cash. Our nation does not have an earnings problem. It has a spending problem. As it now stands, the word trillion is common place when referring to our nation’s debts. In spite of this, today’s politicians insanely demand that the cure is yet more Federal spending.

This egregious debt accumulation borders on criminal conduct, as it robs future generations of Americans and destroys their hopes of prosperity. Our children and grandchildren have done nothing to deserve being enslaved to a debt brought about by this government’s largess. It is time to reign-in out of control government spending. We must adopt the same strategy that so many families in this nation have adopted to get out from under their own burdensome debt. If we can’t afford it, we don’t buy it.

When looking to curb the rising cost of healthcare, we must not forget the lessons of the past. Government run health care systems have been tried all over the world and they all have one thing in common: they all failed their supposed beneficiaries.

While searching for solutions, we must not forget that most of the problems with our current health care system are, in fact, government created and/or facilitated problems.

Costs in health care could be easily reined-in by:

Ending government restrictions that prevent insurance companies from competing across state borders.

Ending the abusive practice of limitless non-economic lawsuit claims by trial lawyers, who in exchange provide politicians with generous campaign contributions.

Ending government practices that act to prevent health insurance plans from being purchased by individuals in favor of employer driven plans that reduce competition.

A government based on individual liberty and free enterprise cannot nationalize entire industries. Hostile government takeovers are the actions typical of both communist and socialist, but not capitalist nations. Taking the basic steps outlined above would dramatically reduce health care costs without moving down that dark path towards socialism. Health care costs can be reduced without an unaffordable, unconstitutional and unilateral government takeover of our entire health care system.

I absolutely oppose illegal immigration and any attempt to reward illegal immigrants with amnesty.

Our Constitution specifies very few, specific things that the Federal government must do. I find it more than a little ironic that those serving in our Federal government do so many things they are prohibited from doing by our Constitution, and at the same time, abdicate their responsibility to do things such as border protection that are specifically required by that same document.

The notion that illegal immigrants do work that Americans won’t do is absurd. This lie has been told for some time. In this economic environment the truth is becoming more clear: illegal immigrants are stealing jobs from unemployed American workers and depressing wages across the nation. They are also risking our national security with their lawless border crossings. This must stop! I fully support using U.S. troops to defend our border.

As a U.S. Congressman, I will be on the front line in the fight against any attempt to grant amnesty to any individual whose first act in this country was to break our laws by entering this country illegally.

Illegal immigrants should not be rewarded, they should be deported.

We are fortunate as Americans to have the greatest military in the history of the world. The United States armed forces stands unrivaled in its ability to protect the citizens of this nation from those who would do us harm. No other nation has the capabilities of our military largely because our military is an all volunteer force made up of men and women who believe in our Constitution to the extent that they are willing to give their lives in its defense. This is a remarkable trait and it puts our ability to defend this country head and shoulders above any other nation in the world. No other country can match the honor, courage and commitment of our men and women who serve. These brave warriors are without a doubt our greatest military asset.

To safeguard these men and women, it is essential that we maintain a military that has the training, equipment and technological capabilities to give them the greatest degree of protection and ensure their successful defense of our nation when war proves inevitable. We must never put troops on the ground in harm’s way when the job could have been accomplished effectively from a distance through the use of military technology and hardware. When we have no other choice but to physically commit our troops to the battlefield, it is our duty to ensure that they are protected by the most up-to-date and technologically advanced equipment possible. We must do everything we can to protect these brave warriors so they can be united with their families when hostilities end. We must only commit them to battle as a last resort and for defensive purposes, when all other honorable avenues to resolve the conflict have proven fruitless.

In regards to military spending, we must take steps to ensure fiscal discipline and commit to spending military funds in the most efficient manner possible. We must stop funding excessive military bases around the globe and outdated military equipment that offers no strategic defensive advantage. Instead these dollars should be used in a manner that supports military bases that confer a strategic defensive advantage and on equipment that will allow us to confront threats and hostilities against our nation with overwhelming strength and superiority. After these demands are met, any remaining funds should be returned to the taxpayer allowing us to safeguard our economy so that we can fund a war, should it prove necessary.

I will do everything in my power to make sure this horrible bill is repealed!

I am an unapologetic pro-life candidate. I strongly believe that life begins at conception and not at some future date someone finds more convenient. When I serve in the U.S. Congress, I will never vote for any piece of Federal legislation that supports abortion in any way.

Roe v. Wade was an abomination and a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution. I will do anything and everything I can to hasten the overturn of this remarkable feat of judicial activism.

I don't support the Federal Government having anything to do with our children's education. I do support parental control and I want the state and local government to support these parents. Vouchers would create an environment of competition and ensure our money is spent wisely and that our children will receive the best education available to them. I am also a big supporter of homeschooling and believe this is a great option for families.

I'm a big proponent of Term Limits. I've already made this commitment in my campaign. I will not serve more than three terms. George Washington set this example for us. I believe in a nation of citizen leaders; we serve and then we go home.

Our values will be destroyed if we take part in a global government. The United States must stick to its principles and protect the Constitution. I absolutely support sitting down and having a discussion before entering conflict, but I do not support paying for an international group that attempts to run other countries.

Every free and independent nation has the moral right to declare and wage war to defend its own people and the freedom of its citizens when it must. This never requires approval from the international community or any other nation in the world. Our ingenious founding document supports this principle. Wisely, it also places restrictions on our government’s ability to declare and wage wars. This was not done with the intent of rendering impotent the ability of our government to protect the freedoms of its citizens or defend them from a hostile threat. These restrictions were instead put in place to strengthen our liberty by ensuring that our government never subjects the free citizens of this nation to war unnecessarily, and that all wars entered into have the binding commitment of the elected representatives, and the support of the American people. There is perhaps no better way to make certain that wars, once entered, would be supported until their successful conclusion.

To ensure that wars are not entered into for transient or self-serving purposes, our founders adopted a Constitution that strictly bound the actions of our leaders. If our elected officials feel strongly enough that war is justified to defend our nation, they must have the courage to declare that war according to the provisions outlined in the U.S. Constitution. If they can not muster up the determination and courage to make such a declaration, the threshold has not been met and the war must not be entered. When they do, however, make the commitment to fight through a declaration of war, we must as a nation conduct a campaign that seeks absolute victory and destroys the ability of our enemy to pose a threat to our citizens any time in the foreseeable future. Once the enemy threat has been utterly dismantled, it is incumbent upon our leaders to bring our brave men and women home as quickly as possible to be united with their proud families and accepted back into the arms of our nation as the returning heroes they are.

I look at their motive. Why are they running and will they represent the Constitution?

I believe in what I'm doing. When I was in the Marines I made an oath to protect this country and I intend to honor that oath and put Americans back in charge of their own lives.