Dem Collier says health, education are rights
This is one in a series of profiles of the Democratic candidates seeking the party’s nomination in New York’s 19th Congressional District.
Erin Collier says her lifelong connection to the area that makes up New York’s 19th Congressional District, as well as her experience working with policy at the federal level, separates her from the field of Democrats seeking to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso in the Nov. 6 election.
“I want people to know that I’ve worked really hard to accomplish what I’ve accomplished, and I really want to use those skills for the district,” Collier, a 34-year-old Cooperstown resident, said recently.
She said she grew up in a lower-income farming household, paid her own way through college, and then went on to become an economist.
Collier didn’t announce her candidacy until March 12, though she said she had considered running for about a year.
She said she was held back by how difficult it is for someone who is not from a wealthy and privileged background to mount a candidacy. That, she said, is among the problems of the American political system.
“We need more workingclass individuals to run for office,” Collier said.
Collier is one of seven Democrats seeking the party’s nomination to challenge Faso this fall. The others are Jeff Beals of Woodstock, David Clegg of Woodstock, Antonio Delgado of Rhinebeck, Brian Flynn of Elka Park, Gareth Rhodes of Kerhonkson, and Patrick Ryan of Gardiner.
A Democratic primary in the 19th Congressional District is scheduled for June 26. The winner will run against Faso, a first-term congressman from Kinderhook.
Collier is the only woman in the Democratic field, and she launched her campaign two weeks ago by releasing a video called “I’m Not Gonna Let Those Boys Beat Me.”
She’s not the only woman trying to unseat Faso, though. Mounting independent candidacies for the seat are former “Law & Order: SVU” actress Diane Neal, who lives in Hurley, and Luisa Parker, a resident of Callicoon in Sullivan County.
The race also just picked up a Green Party candidate: former New Paltz Board of Education member Steve Greenfield.
The 19th Congressional District comprises all of Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Sullivan, Delaware, Schoharie and Otsego counties; most of Dutchess County; parts of Rensselaer and Montgomery counties; and a small section of Broome County.
Collier said she believes health care and education are human rights to which all Americans should have access, and she also believes student loan interest rates should be cut.
She also supports a national $15 minimum wage, wants to reverse the Republican tax reform law adopted last year and wants to reverse environmental decisions made by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Collier said in a prepared statement that the country needs to institute “Medicare for all” in a responsible way, ensuring that people who currently rely on the
Affordable Care Act are able to keep their health care. She also said she is committed to protecting abortion rights, which means fully funding Planned Parenthood, removing the Hyde Amendment and “vocally opposing the anti-choice conservative judges this administration continues to put forward.”
“Whereas men in Congress have too often seen these issues as legislative bargaining chips, I see them as life or death,” Collier wrote.
Elaborating by phone, Collier said a bill put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is a good step toward providing Medicare for all. She said it would lower the age of eligibility each year until everyone would be covered.
She said, though, that small businesses must be protected from the having the cost of such coverage fall on them.
On education, Collier said she wants to protect funding for public schools, provide universal prekindergarten and ensure access to affordable daycare to help parents who work. She said some parents have to leave their jobs because the cost
of daycare exceeds their income. She also said the burden of child care disproportionately falls on women.
Collier also said she supports “immediately cutting the student loan interest rates” and that she wants “to see free tuition for lowincome college students.”
She also said reversing the tax reform law would allow the country to invest in small businesses and make it easier for them to succeed, and also invest in students.
“We need to level the playing field for working families while reversing the damage that [President Donald] Trump and the GOP are causing with their unconscionable attacks on the lower and middle class,” Collier said.
On the environment, Collier said she believes that “what the Trump administration is doing to the environment right now is nothing short of treason against the planet.” She said she has seen, first hand, the effects of climate change on her own family’s farm. Collier said the United States should rejoin the Paris climate agreement and do more to protect its own natural resources.
She also said she believes in continuing to protect the environment against hydrofracking.
On immigration, Collier said she has worked with people from many backgrounds and believes “diversity makes our country stronger.”
She said she feels strongly about protecting immigrants’ rights and in the country adopting a clean Dream Act.
Collier received a bachelor’s degree in development sociology from Cornell University in 2007 and a master’s
in agricultural, food and resource economics from Michigan State University in 2011. She currently works as an economist on a US Agency for International Development project, but she said she is not a federal employee. She said the project is managed by Chemonics International, which she lists as her employer. Collier said her work directly informs government policy on the federal level.