Salud Carbajal
| Candidate Name: | Salud Carbajal (*incumbent) |
| Position Sought: | U.S. House – 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 this position? |
| 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 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and direct funding that I’ve personally delivered through recent federal budgets, the Central Coast is seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in investments to provide more affordable housing options, expand clean water and high-speed internet connectivity, improve traffic and transit options, 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 the two hardest issues facing the candidate who wins the office you are running for? |
| The biggest burden on Central Coast families, one that me and my own family face every week, is the rising cost of living. Our communities are facing higher prices on essentials, housing, gas and home energy, education, child care, and more. My number one priority is lowering costs for Central Coast families and small businesses, and that will continue to be my priority if reelected. As an immigrant who came to this country from Mexico as a child, I also know firsthand the importance of a working immigration system. In my time in Congress, I have continued to work to find common ground to begin fixing our nation’s immigration laws, address the overwhelmed systems dealing with surging migration at our Southern border, and provide stability and certainty to the immigrant families who have called this nation their home for decades – often since they were kids themselves. I’ve helped write and introduce bipartisan immigration fixes that would address our broken immigration system, and I will keep fighting to address this critical challenge in Washington if reelected. |
| How do you plan to address the issue of inflation and its impacts on your constituents if elected? |
| Inflation is my number one concern–as its impacts have been seen across our communities in recent years. Two years ago, I developed an Inflation Action Plan to comprehensively respond to rising costs, and I’ve helped get many of its provisions signed into law. First, we had to address supply chain disruptions and the impacts of the War in Ukraine. Then, we had to recognize the heavy burden that health care and prescription drug costs were having on our families - especially older Americans. We also recognized the need to make more critical components like microchips here in the U.S., to reduce our reliance on volatile foreign markets. And now, as we’ve seen the inflation rate fall two-thirds since its peak at the end of the pandemic, I’m working to build on those laws we already passed to tackle high housing costs, the rising prices of groceries, tackle corporate price gouging in sectors like oil and gas, and create more affordable child care options for Central Coast families who are often making employment decisions based on their ability to find reliable daycare. I will continue to work across the aisle to reduce the impact of inflation and its root causes, just as I have over the past two years. |
| What major crime issues do you plan to address if elected and how? |
| Every Central Coast resident deserves to feel safe in the community they live in. That is why I have been working since I arrived in Congress to address public safety issues both big and small, and deliver investments to our local law enforcement and first responders to help them do their important jobs in our community. I have worked to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a threat to our communities by promoting common sense gun safety measures like improved background checks and steeper penalties for gun trafficking. I secured these provisions to crack down on gun crime in the first federal gun safety package signed into law in 30 years, along with my bill to expand use of red flag laws to take a gun away from someone who is threatening themselves or others. I will work to expand these gun safety measures to ensure weapons of war like assault rifles are kept off our streets and out of the hands of criminals. I have also worked to increase federal attention to crack down on fentanyl trafficking through our ports of entry. Last year, President Biden signed a law I co-led to improve federal coordination at stopping this deadly drug from reaching our communities, and I also worked to get narcan more easily accessible to make it easier for communities to curb overdose deaths. I will also continue to focus on protecting our communities by expanding support for our first responders, protecting our region against the threat of climate change, wildfire, and drought, and investing in public safety upgrades. |
| How do you plan to address the issue of housing if elected? |
| The lack of affordable housing options on the Central Coast and across California is nothing short of a crisis, and it is a complicated issue that requires a number of solutions. In Congress, I have worked to deliver more than $500 million in federal grants, investments, and programs that help make housing more affordable and accessible on the Central Coast, including securing funds to help build new housing options in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. If re-elected, I will keep working to pass bills that I have worked on in Congress to create a new down payment tax credit for first-time homebuyers, expand and improve housing tax credits, incentivize the construction of more affordable workforce housing, and support families with children who are at risk of becoming homeless by improving services and access to housing vouchers. I will also keep working across the aisle to find solutions that support military veterans and other vulnerable populations from losing their homes, and improve the supportive services that can help those experiencing homelessness. |
| What do you hope to accomplish in your first year in office if elected? |
| If re-elected, I will continue fighting 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 push to push budgets that invest in our communities, in providing more opportunity, in growing our middle class, and protecting our neighborhoods from threats large and small. And I will continue working to defend the fundamental rights of all Americans, including the right to vote, the right to be who you are, and the right to make your own choices about your body - including choices about starting a family or having an abortion. Protecting our communities in these and other ways will continue to be my priority if reelected this November. |
| What actions do you plan to take to reduce political divide? |
| 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. At a time when Washington dysfunction is at an all-time high, I’ve remained focused on finding common ground and working across the aisle on common sense solutions, from tackling homelessness and the high cost of child care to delivering disaster relief for communities impacted by natural disasters. |
