Cinque Mason

[{"question": "Ballotpedia survey responses", "answer_html": "<p>See also: <a href=\"/Ballotpedia%27s_Candidate_Connection\">Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection</a></p>\n<div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col-xs-10 col-md-6 col-xs-offset-1 col-md-offset-3\"><p><a href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia%27s_Candidate_Connection\"><img align=\"middle\" alt=\"Candidate Connection\" src=\"https://cdn.ballotpedia.org/images/8/88/Candidate_Connection_Logo.png\" width=\"90%\"/></a></p></div></div>\n<p>Cinque Mason completed <a href=\"/Ballotpedia%27s_Candidate_Connection\">Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection</a> survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mason's responses.</p>\n<p><span class=\"expand-all\">Expand all</span> | <span class=\"collapse-all\">Collapse all</span></p>\n<div aria-multiselectable=\"true\" class=\"panel-group\" id=\"accordion\" role=\"tablist\"><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-bio-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading-bio-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse-bio-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-bio-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWho are you? Tell us about yourself.\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading-bio-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse-bio-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tMy name is Cinque Mason. I am a progressive populist candidate from Denver, Colorado. I have lived the better part of 7 years in Fort Collins and Boulder. I earned a degree in Communications &amp; International Development from Colorado State University, where I ran for student body president and worked to ensure that students’ basic needs were met. I also hold a Master’s in Business Administration from CU Boulder. I’ve worked as a rancher across three states, a sheep shearer traveling county to county in Colorado, and today as a construction and handyman while living in Boulder. My humanitarian work has taken me far abroad, where I’ve partnered with Indian universities on development research, supported feeding programs in Ethiopia, built NGO capacity in Mali during dictatorship, and worked alongside refugees across North and West Africa. I’ve seen firsthand the costs of war in places like Kashmir, and the lasting damage of colonialism and unchecked consumerism across the globe. These experiences taught me a clear truth: truth, diplomacy, education, and capacity-building are far more powerful than militarization, coercion, or greed.\r\nMy background in service and advocacy has made me feel that CD2 is not being represented in DC the way it should be. From our representative in DC I have seen no pushback and fight against: israel's invasion of Gaza, corporate monopolies, and unchecked gov. power. So I stepped forward to challenge that failure and bring back our voice.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-key-message-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading-key-message-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse-key-message-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-key-message-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tPlease list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading-key-message-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse-key-message-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><ul><li>Cracking down on corporations — We have got to have a multi-industrial crackdown on the corporations that strangle our country (Big Ag, Healthcare, Defense, Tech, Oil, ski resorts, and real estate conglomerates, to name a few) and hold them liable for the costs they have incurred in our environmental, social, and financial degradation.\r\nThey have broken codes of ethics by keeping societally beneficial technologies to themselves — technologies that can reverse the decline of our environment, lives, and small business, all in their attempts to increase their profits. They have chosen a path of self-enrichment at communal cost. We must trust bust these entities and return the economic power back to the citizens.</li><li>Cutting the defense budget, stop all financing to Israel #FreePalestine, and stop our endless wars abroad are necessary actions of our government. Not only because this constant war identity was forced onto us by the War Mongering Elite that does not accurately reflect us Americans, but it is also does the opposite of what it claims. They say we must have a big defense budget for our enemies around the world. Our diplomatic and militaristic mishandling of Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen is what creates our enemies. There will be a time, if this continues, that when we need friends and allies there will be none because we have shot and bombed them all. Finally, I cannot stress this enough: Free Palestine at all costs.</li><li>Reducing executive power — It has become apparent to all that the president has too much power and sway over our country. Having the country on a pendulum of special interests, all depending on who is in office, is not the way this country was set up, and it’s not how it’ll survive. There needs to be a strengthening of our checks and balances, such as congressional wartime powers, freedom of speech, and the separation of personal business interests and politics. There also need to be new reforms, which I believe should be earmarked by democratizing the executive cabinet. The people should have the right to vote in and out who we want to see lead these influential domestic and international roles.</li></ul></span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse1-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading1-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse1-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse1-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWhat areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading1-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse1-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tI am most passionate about governmental and constitutional reform — reframing the government that fits our context and our lives to work for us. You see, the Constitution and government were not founded to be permanent and totalitarian. They were created to be quite the opposite: to be ruled by the masses and amended (changed) over time in a diplomatic fashion. To fit our context and needs, although, our government has not had a reform in the people’s favor in a very long time, leaving us unequipped for our battles against government control, corporate greed, and environmental degradation.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse2-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading2-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse2-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse2-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWhat characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading2-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse2-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tThat is, to the best of one's ability, to vote the will of the people. Elected officials need to be as transparent as possible to their constituents, disclosing every detail of their work back home. In this day and age, it is easier than ever to vote as the people want to vote. With modern technology, it is easy to know what the people actually want. We can pioneer direct democracy from CD2 to DC upon winning, and that is by creating a secured app or website where my constituents, upon verification of identity and residence, can vote on bills. I think this is one of the most progressive things we can do, allowing us, the voter, to make decisions in DC beyond just voting for a representative.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse3-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading3-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse3-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse3-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWhat qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading3-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse3-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tIs that this position was created for the common man to represent the common man. The founding fathers saw this as a way to keep intellectual and financial elites more at bay by giving a democratic option of representation to the common man. I think this is an incredibly symbolic position of class ownership over their country that should be held at the highest degree of respect of democratic competition.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse4-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading4-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse4-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse4-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tDo you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading4-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse4-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tWell, I am an outsider with no past government experience, so I think the answer is yes and no. I believe it is beneficial if it is what the constituents want—for example, sustaining a status quo. In the event of needing to sustain, then previous experience is great, but I also think in the event of reform it is great to get fresh ideas and new representation in there so that the old power dynamics are not being overly represented amidst the change of society.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse5-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading5-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse5-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse5-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWhat do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading5-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse5-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tI believe the greatest challenges to the nation will be corporate autocracy, degradation of human and environmental health, and mistrust in our government. It is quite clear to many the path we are on of unchecked greed will erode this planet and financial system. If the government does nothing to stop this, the people will have no faith in the government, making it defunct.<br/><br/>\r\nWe must protect the land and the people. For a long time that was interpreted as foreign invaders, but for America, the threat is within. The chemical/industrial waste output and corporate greed that takes advantage of our behaviors and freedoms will extinguish America.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse6-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading6-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse6-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse6-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tDo you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading6-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse6-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tSometimes, but not as much as they say. Like, do I need to compromise my moral and ethical values to support Israel for a blank check for my campaign so I can be in office to \"make the change that matters\"? Absolutely not. I fully believe the ends do not justify the means. If you corrupt yourself in the process for money, then there is always an amount of money to buy your decision-making and voting process, which I firmly don’t believe in. The greedy have the most money, so they will always pay the most to ensure they keep the most. Playing by their rules will always make you a servant of them. I believe a healthy compromise means if my district needs a hospital and the neighboring district needs a hospital, the compromise is to put it in the place of best utility for both of our constituents. Because at the end of the day, Wyoming District 1 just above us in Colorado has a lot in common middle ground. So the compromise I am willing to make is: where can we best put infrastructure, innovation, and scientific research that helps everyone everywhere, not just high-population centers and high-wealth areas?\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse7-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading7-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse7-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse7-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tHow should the U.S. House use its investigative powers?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading7-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse7-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tTo demand accountability and answers for many of the problems that plague us.<br/>\n<p>Just some of the things I would want to investigate are:<br/><br/>\r\nThe war on drugs<br/><br/>\r\nGlobal war on terror, and give answers to the veterans and citizens of our country, our allies, and our former foes on our false claims of WMD, and our hyper-militarization in Afghanistan, Yemen, and others<br/><br/>\r\nShortcomings of DOJ—Is there a better path than current punishment for rehabilitation of people convicted of crimes?<br/><br/>\r\nWhy are so many people that are going to jail ending back up in jail?<br/><br/>\r\nWhy are so many veterans homeless and in destitute financial positions after discharge?<br/><br/>\r\nWhat have been the shortcomings of BIA, and why is there such high drug usage and low life expectancy on Native American reservations?<br/><br/>\r\nWhy is there such high drug usage in Appalachia?<br/><br/>\n</p>\nWhat are the causes of high crime within inner-city youths in the Midwest and Deep South?\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse8-368404-2025-09-27\" id=\"heading8-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse8-368404-2025-09-27\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse8-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWhat is an accomplishment that you are proud of?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading8-368404-2025-09-27\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse8-368404-2025-09-27\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tHitchhiking through 'war zones' in Kashmir with India and Pakistan, and then Mauritania with JNIM. Both were extremely grueling, physically and mentally, but also an extremely eye-opening experience that showed me those who call for and instigate war are rarely the ones affected. The ones affected usually have the least financial and social mobility and are seen as disposable.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div></div>\n<div class=\"small\" data-nosnippet=\"\"><p><i><b>Note:</b> 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.</i></p></div>", "answer_text": "See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection\n\nCinque Mason completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mason's responses.\nExpand all | Collapse all\nWho are you? Tell us about yourself. My name is Cinque Mason. I am a progressive populist candidate from Denver, Colorado. I have lived the better part of 7 years in Fort Collins and Boulder. I earned a degree in Communications & International Development from Colorado State University, where I ran for student body president and worked to ensure that students’ basic needs were met. I also hold a Master’s in Business Administration from CU Boulder. I’ve worked as a rancher across three states, a sheep shearer traveling county to county in Colorado, and today as a construction and handyman while living in Boulder. My humanitarian work has taken me far abroad, where I’ve partnered with Indian universities on development research, supported feeding programs in Ethiopia, built NGO capacity in Mali during dictatorship, and worked alongside refugees across North and West Africa. I’ve seen firsthand the costs of war in places like Kashmir, and the lasting damage of colonialism and unchecked consumerism across the globe. These experiences taught me a clear truth: truth, diplomacy, education, and capacity-building are far more powerful than militarization, coercion, or greed.\r\nMy background in service and advocacy has made me feel that CD2 is not being represented in DC the way it should be. From our representative in DC I have seen no pushback and fight against: israel's invasion of Gaza, corporate monopolies, and unchecked gov. power. So I stepped forward to challenge that failure and bring back our voice. Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office? Cracking down on corporations — We have got to have a multi-industrial crackdown on the corporations that strangle our country (Big Ag, Healthcare, Defense, Tech, Oil, ski resorts, and real estate conglomerates, to name a few) and hold them liable for the costs they have incurred in our environmental, social, and financial degradation.\r\nThey have broken codes of ethics by keeping societally beneficial technologies to themselves — technologies that can reverse the decline of our environment, lives, and small business, all in their attempts to increase their profits. They have chosen a path of self-enrichment at communal cost. We must trust bust these entities and return the economic power back to the citizens. Cutting the defense budget, stop all financing to Israel #FreePalestine, and stop our endless wars abroad are necessary actions of our government. Not only because this constant war identity was forced onto us by the War Mongering Elite that does not accurately reflect us Americans, but it is also does the opposite of what it claims. They say we must have a big defense budget for our enemies around the world. Our diplomatic and militaristic mishandling of Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen is what creates our enemies. There will be a time, if this continues, that when we need friends and allies there will be none because we have shot and bombed them all. Finally, I cannot stress this enough: Free Palestine at all costs. Reducing executive power — It has become apparent to all that the president has too much power and sway over our country. Having the country on a pendulum of special interests, all depending on who is in office, is not the way this country was set up, and it’s not how it’ll survive. There needs to be a strengthening of our checks and balances, such as congressional wartime powers, freedom of speech, and the separation of personal business interests and politics. There also need to be new reforms, which I believe should be earmarked by democratizing the executive cabinet. The people should have the right to vote in and out who we want to see lead these influential domestic and international roles. What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? I am most passionate about governmental and constitutional reform — reframing the government that fits our context and our lives to work for us. You see, the Constitution and government were not founded to be permanent and totalitarian. They were created to be quite the opposite: to be ruled by the masses and amended (changed) over time in a diplomatic fashion. To fit our context and needs, although, our government has not had a reform in the people’s favor in a very long time, leaving us unequipped for our battles against government control, corporate greed, and environmental degradation. What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official? That is, to the best of one's ability, to vote the will of the people. Elected officials need to be as transparent as possible to their constituents, disclosing every detail of their work back home. In this day and age, it is easier than ever to vote as the people want to vote. With modern technology, it is easy to know what the people actually want. We can pioneer direct democracy from CD2 to DC upon winning, and that is by creating a secured app or website where my constituents, upon verification of identity and residence, can vote on bills. I think this is one of the most progressive things we can do, allowing us, the voter, to make decisions in DC beyond just voting for a representative. What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution? Is that this position was created for the common man to represent the common man. The founding fathers saw this as a way to keep intellectual and financial elites more at bay by giving a democratic option of representation to the common man. I think this is an incredibly symbolic position of class ownership over their country that should be held at the highest degree of respect of democratic competition. Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics? Well, I am an outsider with no past government experience, so I think the answer is yes and no. I believe it is beneficial if it is what the constituents want—for example, sustaining a status quo. In the event of needing to sustain, then previous experience is great, but I also think in the event of reform it is great to get fresh ideas and new representation in there so that the old power dynamics are not being overly represented amidst the change of society. What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade? I believe the greatest challenges to the nation will be corporate autocracy, degradation of human and environmental health, and mistrust in our government. It is quite clear to many the path we are on of unchecked greed will erode this planet and financial system. If the government does nothing to stop this, the people will have no faith in the government, making it defunct. We must protect the land and the people. For a long time that was interpreted as foreign invaders, but for America, the threat is within. The chemical/industrial waste output and corporate greed that takes advantage of our behaviors and freedoms will extinguish America. Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking? Sometimes, but not as much as they say. Like, do I need to compromise my moral and ethical values to support Israel for a blank check for my campaign so I can be in office to \"make the change that matters\"? Absolutely not. I fully believe the ends do not justify the means. If you corrupt yourself in the process for money, then there is always an amount of money to buy your decision-making and voting process, which I firmly don’t believe in. The greedy have the most money, so they will always pay the most to ensure they keep the most. Playing by their rules will always make you a servant of them. I believe a healthy compromise means if my district needs a hospital and the neighboring district needs a hospital, the compromise is to put it in the place of best utility for both of our constituents. Because at the end of the day, Wyoming District 1 just above us in Colorado has a lot in common middle ground. So the compromise I am willing to make is: where can we best put infrastructure, innovation, and scientific research that helps everyone everywhere, not just high-population centers and high-wealth areas? How should the U.S. House use its investigative powers? To demand accountability and answers for many of the problems that plague us. Just some of the things I would want to investigate are: The war on drugs Global war on terror, and give answers to the veterans and citizens of our country, our allies, and our former foes on our false claims of WMD, and our hyper-militarization in Afghanistan, Yemen, and others Shortcomings of DOJ—Is there a better path than current punishment for rehabilitation of people convicted of crimes? Why are so many people that are going to jail ending back up in jail? Why are so many veterans homeless and in destitute financial positions after discharge? What have been the shortcomings of BIA, and why is there such high drug usage and low life expectancy on Native American reservations? Why is there such high drug usage in Appalachia? What are the causes of high crime within inner-city youths in the Midwest and Deep South? What is an accomplishment that you are proud of? Hitchhiking through 'war zones' in Kashmir with India and Pakistan, and then Mauritania with JNIM. Both were extremely grueling, physically and mentally, but also an extremely eye-opening experience that showed me those who call for and instigate war are rarely the ones affected. The ones affected usually have the least financial and social mobility and are seen as disposable.\nNote: 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."}]