Elections 2024 | Farnham: Threat to democracy boosted candidacy in District 13

The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and a landmark Supreme Court decision on abortion access provided much of the motivation for Adams County Democrat Beth Farnham to run for the U.S. Pennsylvania’s 13th District in the United States House of Representatives.

A fatal riot occurred when supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump attempted to stop the process of transitioning power to Democrat Joe Biden, winner of the 2020 election. The current 13th congressman, U.S. Rep. Dr. John Joyce, R-Blair, objected to the certification of Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes when the process continued after the raid.

Later in 2022, the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, who had determined that there was a generally protected constitutional right to have an abortion.

Those have been two of Farnham’s main campaign issues as he sought to unseat Joyce in a district that includes all of Cambria County and a bit in northwest Somerset County.

“I would have made reproductive freedom my first mission, but if we don’t have democracy, nothing else follows,” Farnham said. “Our right to vote and have our votes counted are sacred, yet we are currently represented by John Joyce, who refused to certify our valid electoral votes in the wake of convicted felon Trump’s violent insurrection.”

Farnham referred to Joyce as “a drooling sycophant of convicted felon Donald J. Trump.”

“It’s clear that none of them believe in a peaceful transfer of power that the United States has known since its inception,” Farnham said. “I refuse to accept it as my only option for representation, so I had to run to give us the option to be represented by (someone else).”

Farnham said he would have supported the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan if he had been in office over the past few years. Advocates for universal healthcare and raising the minimum wage.

“These massive movements are needed to make a difference. … We need Democrats in Congress to improve our quality of life and reduce poverty,” Farnham said.

If elected, she would like to serve on the House Education Committee.

“I think it’s really important that our public education be the best it can be and that it ensures the continuity of the Department of Education, as opposed to convicted felon Trump’s Nightmare Agenda of Project 2025, which seeks to dismantle the Department of Education,” Farnham said. . “I believe in the net good of public education and that no tax dollars should be used for private or parochial schools because they do not have the standards of transparency and accountability that our public schools have.”

It also supports “gun safety that is aligned with responsible gun ownership,” such as safe storage, reporting of lost and stolen firearms, universal background checks, and extreme risk protection orders.

Farnham has served on the Adams County Democratic Committee and the Conewago Valley School Board. He ran a write-in campaign for the 13th District seat in 2022.

She is a lifelong Republican who voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, in the 2016 presidential election and officially switched parties in 2019, feeling that Trump’s actions were “extremely troubling.”