Eighth Congressional District Candidate Forum at George Mason ... >
May 5, 2014 - State Rep. Patrick Hope.

Opening Statement
...welcome to George Mason University; I was proud to support bringing this wonderful campus here into Arlington County, and again I want to thank you all for being here.  My name is Patrick Hope.  I represent part of Arlington, this part of Arlington in the Virginia General Assembly and have been a delegate for the last five years.  My wife Christa [phon.] and I moved to Arlington in 2000.  We have three little girls, Emma is eight years old in second grade, Patty and Lily are five years old in kindergarten.

Since being in the legislature, I founded and chair the Virginia Progressive Caucus, mainly because I believe government should stand up for people that are most vulnerable among us.  I've always championed those kind of causes.  You know I'm a Hubert Humphrey Democrat, and his quote where he said the role of government is to take care of those in the dawn of life, our children, those in the twilight of life, our seniors, and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.

The 8th District, where we're fighting to represent, is one of the wealthiest in the country, but there are so many people out there that are hurting.  There are families out there that are looking at their son or daughter, wondering whether or not they can wait just a little longer before they have to buy a new pair of shoes or wondering if they're sick enough to take their child to the doctor.  That's their reality.

You know what we need, and why I want to run for Congress, is we need a new economy here in this country.  We need to start taxing millionaires and billionaires, and to pay their fair share, and to take that revenue and start investing in America, start investing in education, investing in our crumbling roads and bridges, investing in transit.  We've got the Silver Line that's about to get on line very soon, but I think our next project, our next transit project in this region ought to be extending the Yellow Line out the Route I corridor, and I'm going to fight to do that.  The other thing is minimum wage.  There is no reason that for the wealthiest country on this planet, that someone who works 40 hours a day [sic. week] is still in poverty.  Let's pledge today that we raise the minimum wage.  And I'm going to fight to do that.

So thank you all for being here.  I look forward to your questions.  Thank you.
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