Thursday night, voters had a chance to meet three candidates running for the 3rd Congressional District seat.
Three of the four candidates spoke about hurricane recovery, civil unrest, and how the state will rebound from the pandemic. They also addressed who wasn't present during the debate. The fourth candidate, incumbent Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Lafayette), declined to participate, saying his record speaks for itself. Read more on that here.
One of the biggest topics was hurricane recovery, which hit close to home for the three candidates, who are all from the Lake Charles area.
Braylon Harris (D): "We need temporary housing on the ground immediately. I'm hoping the congressman that is not here today is using his car salesman skills to negotiate temporary housing and FEMA trailers."
Brandon LeLeux (L): "I think allowing the free market which was already progressing in the environmentally response direction is the best for this."
Rob Anderson (D): "The response was sub-bar and we know that because we live here. We see the debris piles, we see our congressman wasn't even on the video of Trump coming down."
Another topic was civil unrest in Lafayette this summer, including a controversial Facebook post by incumbent Congressman Clay Higgins.
Braylon Harris (D): "There is real change and real reform that is needed. Every community member knows it and every police officer knows it."
Brandon LeLeux (L): "Allow accountability, allow the lawsuits."
Rob Anderson (D): "If we want economic justice we have social justice first. My plan calls for police officers to get paid more and actually holding them to standards."
And finally, economic growth in a region devastated by hurricanes, but also a pandemic.
Rob Anderson (D): "We need to replace the I-10 Calcasieu river bridge because that creates jobs. We need to bring public wifi to the third district. We need everybody to be on the same page."
Braylon Harris (D): "We have to move past the point of competing with one another and relaize that our destinies are tied together here in district three. There must be a master plan that's take in the accountability of everyone's assets in order to utilize them in the best way possible."
Higgins declined to participate in the forum, but says he will participate if there's a runoff.
Watch the forum in full below:
For more election coverage, click visit katc.com/election-2020.
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