Q&A • 10th District Republican Congressional Nomination
With the Republican primary set to take place on Saturday, here are Q&As with Republicans seeking office in Virginia’s recently redrawn 10th Congressional District, which now includes Rappahannock County. Included are: Loudoun County School Board member John Beatty, entrepreneur and farmer Caleb Max and U.S. Air Force veteran John Henley. Candidate Hung Cao was not able to be reached for an interview.
Q&As with other candidates appeared in print last week and in April. We also requested an interview with 10th District incumbent Jennifer Wexton (D), whose office had not responded as of Tuesday. Interviews were edited and condensed for both length and clarity.
Q: How should Congress support agritourism in small communities like Rappahannock? Beatty: Rappahannock News staff
• Lower health care costs for businesses by publishing the agreed prices between doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. Patients could help their employer by not only shopping on service but price, lowering the cost of health care for a small vineyard or farm.
Max:
• Get government regulation, especially federal government regulation, out of small businesses.
• There's an agritourism caucus in Congress — I'd join that and make sure I'm being an advocate for their needs.
Henley:
• Supports creating an office of agritourism and agribusiness within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Q: How can Congress help bring cell phone coverage to rural areas without cell towers to protect rural viewsheds? Beatty:
Laying fiber to more locations could mean more discrete units that could bridge the gap between more cell service and preserving the pristine mountain vistas.
Max:
• Should be mostly up to the locality with Congress playing a supporting role.
Henley:
• Congress could help with funding, but it should be mainly up to the locality.
Q: Is there any way the federal government can incentivise service workers to relocate to rural areas like Rappahannock? Beatty:
• Local land use and development planning should be left to the county or state.
Max:
• Making sure that there's a vibrant program for high schoolers to get into the labor market.
Consider affordable housing.
Henley:
• The Office of Personnel Management in Washington D.C. incentivizes federal workers to telework, but you have to have good broadband infrastructure.
• Congress has incentivized people not to work during the pandemic, so we have to be careful on what Congress does to incentivize anybody to do anything.
Q: What role, if any, should Congress play in supporting small family farms?
Beatty:
• Promoting organic farming will give small farms a way to charge more sustainable prices and to set them apart from bigger operations.
Max:
• Getting market transparency in the cattle markets.
Henley:
• Reform the subsidy programs and actually target them toward the smaller farms and provide low interest loans for small farmers to be able to thrive and survive and be able to write off a lot of those tax burdens.
Q: How would you address a lack of housing and affordable housing stock in Rappahannock and other similarly situated rural communities?
Beatty:
• Should be left up to the state and locality.
Max:
• Allow the competition in the housing market to solve affordable housing problems. Henley:
• Should be up to the locality.
• Government has tried and spent trillions of dollars on inner cities to have affordable housing, and it winds up not being affordable at all.
Q: Does solar energy have a place in Rappahannock County? Beatty:
• Solar energy is a bigger eyesore than cell towers. I would be in favor of smaller, compact, nuclear reactor designs that could provide energy for our families and businesses without marring the local landscape.
Max:
• We need to focus on energy that works and doesn't have significant environmental hazards on the tail end.
• Solar farms can create runoff issues, and who disposes of the panels once they’re dead?
Henley:
• I don't think Rappahannock has the topography to handle a solar farm.
Q: How much environmental regulation is necessary to protect Rappahannock’s streams and waterways, many of which empty into the Chesapeake Bay? Beatty:
• Promoting organic farming methods is the best way to limit fertilizer and soil runoff into the Bay. I think a moderate amount of regulations can help prevent dumping of toxins and waste into the waterways. Max:
• The best role to play is when an issue arises, making sure that you're supporting localities.
• Supports existing regulations, like the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act.
Henley:
• Supports regulations in place right now.
• Rappahannock has done a great job balancing economic development with the sensitivities of the environment.
Q: How will you balance the rural interests of Rappahannock and Fauquier voters against the suburban interests of Prince William and Loudoun counties?
Beatty:
• Pushing governance to the lowest appropriate level will help balance the urban/suburban/rural divide. If Congress can focus more on issues that are truly national, like defense, imports, exports, and interstate commerce, local jurisdictions and public servants will have the leeway to listen to their residents, and solve those problems specific to each county.
Max:
• The key is making sure that I'm keeping my ear to the ground, but specifically in Rappahannock County, make sure that even though they're smaller, that their interests are still being taken care of. There's no silver bullet answer to this question, other than making sure that you're somebody who is listening to the people, and then of course, that's a public servant.
Henley:
• My pledge, if I'm elected, is to hold monthly town halls all across the district, especially Rappahannock and Fauquier so that they're not ignored, because the ruralness of this district is what makes this district special.
• I would partner up with the local officials there, it'd be one team to make sure we preserve what's special about Rappahannock.
For coverage of Saturday’s voting go to