Working To Find Common Ground. Steve Williamson, Karen McClelland and Stephen Hanks welcome U.S. Congressman Tom O’Halleran to discuss the issues and his campaign for re-election in a newly apportioned district in Arizona. The new district stretches from the Tucson area in southern Arizona to the Utah border, even larger than the district he currently represents. Yet despite the enormous territory, O’Halleran says he holds more town halls with constituents than the rest of Arizona’s delegation combined.
“My philosophy is very simple. We, as Americans, are a stronger country when we work together. And I’m the 28th most bipartisan member of Congress because I feel it’s important for us to come back together again as a Congress.” He explains that one of the consequences of divisive politics is that what once to a year for Congress to get something done now takes 10 years or more. As an example, he notes that it took 20 years to get an infrastructure bill passed.
Asked about the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade, O’Halleran says, “I’m for a woman’s right to choose” noting that the decision has created much confusion involving everything from a woman’s privacy to her healthcare and medication decisions to her freedom to travel. On the other hand, his Trump-endorsed opponent is against a woman’s right to choose with no exceptions.
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