Mary Allen is the the Democratic candidate for US House District 8. She appeared for the taping of “Shively and Shoulders” on Monday, and discussed several topics with hosts Pat Shoulders and Les Shively.
These ranged from feedback she’s gotten from her campaign travels, to the controversial campaign ad from her opponent, incumbent Republican Mark Messmer.
Allen said two topics keep coming up.
“If I were to put all of the comments and distill them down into two buckets, it is 'cost' primarily, and more recently — it has always been cost — more recently, 'corruption' has been brought up as well.”
When asked for clarification, she said the corruption with "the administration."
Allen said in her 45,000 miles of travel, she’s spent a lot of time in rural areas which make up most of the district, where people have been surprised to see a US candidate face-to face.
“We've knocked and called you know about 28,000 folks so far, and we plan on tripling that number ideally before November,” Allen said. “But they're like, ‘I have never had someone come to my house.’ Obviously, we won't be doing that as a congressperson, but the availability to show up in these rural communities where people completely feel forgotten …”
Including farmers who Allen said feel betrayed by the current Trump administration.
The hosts did ask her about international topics such as the conflict in Iran, involving the Strait of Hormuz.
Shively asked where she stands, “on this exercise in the Middle East.”
“It's so unfortunate,” Allen said. “They never were able to lay out an articulate you know justification, a cause for this conflict, for this illegal war, or or or way out of it … so here we're stuck, and now and we are paying the price not only with lives of our servicemen and women, but the cost here at home with groceries, gas, and and those are the things that we're we're hearing."
Allen said she would have voted to end the war. "Our congressman voted not to end it twice.”
Incumbent Republican Mark Messmer has been invited repeatedly to appear on Shively and Shoulders, and be interviewed by WNIN. The invitation remains open.
This episode airs again on WNIN-PBS at 10:30 AM on Sunday August 23rd.
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Full interview below: