KVNO News

Kara Eastman, Wanting to Represent The Secound Congressional District in 2020

By Gabriel Escalera, KVNO News

September 23rd, 2020

OMAHA – In what she called “perhaps the most important election ever in the United States,” recent polls show Kara Eastman leading incumbent Congressman Don Bacon by a small margin, and Eastman said she was feeling hopeful. In her second attempt to unseat Bacon, Eastman said she attributes her campaign’s recent success to her team. 

“We purposely built a team of people who have worked in the community and lived in the community and really understand the needs and who are out there every day talking to people. I say we because it really is a collective effort. It’s not just me appointing people to positions. We do things very democratically during our campaign and that’s how I intend to be as a member of Congress,” Eastman, said.

Eastman got involved in politics in 2014 when she ran for the board of Metropolitan Community College. Two years later, Eastman’s mother was diagnosed with cancer for the fifth time and prescribed a $2500 medication.

“I still have a hard time believing that a pill could be $2500. And it got me thinking about healthcare and I started having discussions with people about healthcare. At the time people would ask me if I was interested in running for higher office and…I like to get things accomplished, first of all, and it doesn’t seem like a lot of politicians are able to do that,” Eastman, said.

While healthcare and prescription prices are her top priority, Eastman also has her sights set on other issues she believes deserve more attention.

“I’m also in favor of providing people with a livable wage because one of the things we see in the pandemic is that some people are actually making a little bit more having unemployment than with their work and that’s crazy. That means that they weren’t making enough,” Eastman, said.

Eastman worries that once a vaccine for coronavirus is created and available to people, many of them will not be able to afford it.

“It’s possible that the coronavirus cure – or even the vaccine – will cost people thousands of dollars, and with so many people out of work who have therefore lost their health insurance, or with people who are underinsured or people who just don’t have health insurance at all even before the pandemic, we are going to see a real crisis in our country – we already do,” Eastman, said.

Outside of her focus on healthcare and the pandemic, Eastman said she and her team have attended some of the recent peaceful protests here in Omaha. 

“It’s amazing to see the cultural shift that is a direct result of people expressing their voices – that’s the most American thing we can possibly have and it’s time for all of us to acknowledge that this is systemic racism that exists in so many institutions including within policing, including within our criminal legal system, including with our education system,” Eastman, said. 

Eastman said she would like to remind voters that even though they may feel like their vote won’t make a difference, everyone deserves to have their voice be heard.

“And then we need to make sure people are actually filling out their ballots.People need to let their voices be heard this election. One of the things that I tell people all the time is that I understand that a lot of people feel like their voices aren’t heard and that their vote doesn’t really count. Well, I came up short by just 4,945 votes in 2018 – those votes absolutely matter. We actually just had a recent county board election where there was a three vote difference that decided the election. Everyone’s vote counts,” Eastman, said.

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