Rita Hart visits Osceola Saturday morning

Rita Hart, candidate for congress in the Iowa second congressional district visited Osceola Saturday morning. The event was hosted by the Clarke County Democrats and put on at Bruce Harris’ home.

Hart spoke to around a dozen audience members about her campaign and what she believes is important to take with her to Washington. First Hart gave her list of credentials and attributes including her years as a teacher, a farmers wife and her time in the Iowa Senate. Listening and working together was the main theme of Hart’s address. She noted the divide between parties in Washington and around the nation.

Some of Hart’s concerns were high insurance premium rates, expanding broadband, access to health care centers and environmental and recreational improvements.

“We need to listen to all the voices that I’ve been listening to all across this campaign who are saying we are tired of this division,” said Hart.

After a ten minuted introduction about herself and her goals Hart took questions from the audience.

Why aren’t you disputing the incorrect advertisement about you that says you voted for a healthcare bill that doesn’t cover pre existing conditions?

“That did not take one person’s health care away... That was the only option on the table and I will vote for the thing that’s best for the people I represent... To be criticized for being bipartisan and going along with the only option controlled by the Republican Party is very hypocritical... It’s very hard to combat negative ads... I’ve tried very hard to be as positive as possible,” said Hart.

We are all living in echo chambers. How does it stop? How do we fix it? ​

“It’s about making money, figuring out who you are, what you’re tendencies are, what you want to believe and then funneling you the things that lead you down that path further. It’s a concern for radicalization of people... Some of the people who are the movers and shakers of the technology world are concerned about this and are proposing ideas to fix this. It took us a while to get here and technology and communication things like this move at warp speed so to kind of reign that in and learn from what we’re experiencing is not going to be easy... But we’ve got to elect people who recognize it and who will roll their sleeves up,” said Hart.

What would you like your legacy to be?

“I’d like to vote on a bill that would do something about campaign finance reform. We’ve gotta get money out of politics, ban congress people from serving as lobbyists, we’ve got to do something about special interests and ban congress people from having personal individual stocks and eliminate gerrymandering. When people don’t think their vote counts they opt out and we don’t hear their voices,” said Hart.