Salud Carbajal
| Candidate Name: | Salud Carbajal (*incumbent) |
| Position Sought: | Congress – District 24 |
| Website / Social Media: | www.saludcarbajal.com Facebook: CarbajalForCongress Twitter: @CarbajalSalud |
| Why are you running for office? |
| It has been my privilege and pleasure to represent the Central Coast, the place that I have called home for almost my entire life and where I have been proud to raise my children. I have worked to lower your cost of living, to bring jobs and new investments to our region, to keep our communities safe, and to defend the fundamental rights of everyone. I am running for re-election to continue that work on behalf of everyone who calls the Central Coast home. |
| What makes you qualified for the job? |
| I am proud of my record of delivering the investments and policies that will help grow our economy and create new jobs and opportunities up and down our coast. Through measures like our recently-passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and direct funding that I’ve personally delivered, the Central Coast is already seeing millions of dollars in investments to provide more affordable housing options, expand clean water and high-speed internet connectivity, and create new jobs in clean energy and other industries. I have worked across the aisle to deliver on these and other important wins for the Central Coast, and I believe I am the best person to continue delivering for our region in Congress. |
| What are your two main priorities if you win? |
| My number one priority in Congress is lowering the cost of living for every individual living on the Central Coast. I developed an Inflation Action Plan to help deal with the supply chain disruptions and other root causes that are driving up the cost of your food, gas, housing, child care and more. If re-elected, I will continue to build on the policies that we’ve already passed to expand affordable housing, lower your health care, child care, and energy costs, and make the Central Coast a place that everyone can afford to call home. I will also continue to focus on protecting our communities from threats large and small. I’ve championed bipartisan legislation to expand support for our first responders: including our law enforcement officers and firefighters. I helped write the first federal gun safety law in thirty years, and continue to work to curb gun violence on our streets and in our neighborhoods. I helped pass laws that will protect our region against the threat of climate change, wildfire, and drought–and dramatically lower carbon pollution over the next decade. And I have fought to defend your fundamental rights, including the right to vote and right to seek an abortion. Protecting our communities in these and other ways will continue to be my priority if reelected this November. |
| How will you collaborate with other governments? |
| Before my election to Congress, I served my community for more than a decade as a Santa Barbara County Supervisor, working to promote economic growth, environmental protections, and improve our quality of life while representing the place that we all call home. Every day that I serve in Congress, I draw on that experience to work with our local officials, advocates, and community groups to ensure that the Central Coast is represented well and that they are best positioned to take advantage of new federal investments in our infrastructure and economic development that I helped get signed into law. |
| What do you think are the two biggest issues that need to be addressed right away? |
| My number one priority is lowering the cost of living for Central Coast middle class families, and that will continue to be my priority if reelected. I’ve helped create new laws that will lower the costs of prescription drugs, health care premiums, and home energy prices, but I know there is more work to be done. We need more affordable housing options in our communities, we need to reduce our reliance on foreign oil markets that have driven up the price of gas, and we need to lower the cost of education and child care–including the cost of college. I am also dedicated to reversing the erosion of basic rights that has been perpetrated by our radical Supreme Court and states across our nation. This year, we saw a devastating ruling that overturned 50 years of precedent on reproductive freedom and women’s health care. I’ve backed legislation to codify a right to an abortion, and I will not stop pushing to get that bill to the President’s desk. I am also dedicated to improving guardrails that protect voting rights in our country, and to improving protections for LGBTQ+ individuals and other marginalized populations who call our nation their home. |
