Two-term Republican incumbent Dan Meuser and his challenger, Democrat Amanda Waldman, weighed in on topics from gun control to election integrity, abortion and the Select Committee on the January 6th attack in a bid for the state’s 9th congressional district.
Meuser is a northeastern Pennsylvania businessman who started a motorized wheelchair company with his dad and brother, leaving the family business to seek public office in 2008.
Waldman, who mentioned that she is a single mom who has often had to work paycheck to paycheck, works as a financial representative in the Medicare industry. She said this was her first debate.
The two didn’t clash on all topics, even agreeing on aspects of support for Ukraine and increased enforcement of existing gun control laws.
But on the January 6th hearings, they disagreed. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi kicked Republicans off the committee that didn’t align with her views, making the hearings unfair, Meuser said.
“The Jan. 6 Committee, I thought would be a reasonable transparency for the American people, that’s what we should have,” Meuser said. “But, that’s not what it turned into.”
Waldman said she watched all of the televised hearings and agreed with how they were carried out.
“I did not see a partisan attack,” Waldman said. “I saw evidence, and I saw witness and person involved after person involved after person involved.”
Waldman said she thought former President Donald Trump should testify before the Select Committee, who issued him a subpoena on Friday.
The 9th congressional district encompasses the entirety of nine counties – Bradford, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Sullivan, Columbia, Lebanon, Montour, Northumberland and Schuylkill – and parts of Luzerne, Lycoming and Berks counties.
View the full debate here.
