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Hollister resident Peter Hernandez is running against incumbent Zoe Lofgren for the 18th Congressional District seat in the Nov. 5 election.
Peter Hernandez, 50, was born and raised in San Benito County. In 2018 Hernandez served as a county supervisor for one four-year term. He is also a small business owner.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Hernandez: I have a passion for public service and believe representation means you become the conduit for solutions while protecting the people from infringement of rights, and guiding the management of resources. In essence public service is a check of sanity on the government.
San Benito County frequently misses opportunities to receive federal funding. What can our local government do differently to secure funding?
When I served as county supervisor, the fundamental issue I learned is government only funds what it can control. Ronald Reagan once said, “This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.” The problem with federal grants is they come with many strings attached, and by the time they go through the bureaucratic process, you often end up with pennies on the dollar.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a perfect example of a huge stimulus bill which funds infrastructure projects but in the committee process, eliminated RURAL counties until the oversight was caught by a committee member. But even then, rural counties suffered by not receiving adequate funds for some needed updates. As one who was born in a rural community, I understand these needs and would have an eye out to make sure we receive funding as appropriate.
I would also make sure you kept more of your money on the front end by reducing regulations, simplifying regulations, cutting costs and leveraging my relationship with local governments, working on ways to increase local funding to address the critical needs of infrastructure and economic development. That way I don’t have to pick and choose who gets grants like brushing crumbs off of the king’s table, and I can make sure my whole district prospers!
When the executive branch and House are led by different parties, making progress on legislation is often quite difficult. If elected, how would you go about working with the administration of another party?
I disdain the divide of politics. Sometimes it seems that the worst in people come out after they are elected. I believe the strength of my desire to run is that I refuse to succumb to the partisan divide. Therefore, I carry the shield of my conviction to serve my constituents, using my entrepreneurial attitude to leverage opportunities, while letting the gatekeepers know that I can’t be “bought.”
This may make me a single-term congressman, but my promise to you is that I will not bend to foolish legislation that puts us further in debt, sends our precious children to war, depletes our energy independence, and makes us the confusion capital of the world. This is backwards in its priorities and deprives the needs of the people these legislators should serve.
San Justo Reservoir has been closed for several years because of the infestation of the non-native zebra mussel. Residents have been calling for it to reopen. How can Congress and the federal government assist in getting this done safely to ensure that vessels on the water do not infect other bodies of water?
The solution has been proposed over and over; I’m surprised Benito Link is not aware of it. When I served as county supervisor, along with my fellow supervisors I initiated a meeting with the Bureau of Reclamation to address this issue. The answer was simple: use a potash process that would eliminate the mussel, which then took $5 million and about a year of treatment, followed by an exciting grand opening of the park!
The problem with some of our legislators is they think the people are too disengaged, ignorant or will eventually forget. Two years ago, Representatives Panetta and Lofgren wrote a letter to the bureau asking them to “expedite the process,” and we’re still waiting. As your congressman, I will provide enough attention to these issues to keep the ball rolling. It almost assumes that the BoR has ultimate authority over that body of water, when in reality Congress has the power of life or death over administrative agencies being created or eliminated. It’s time for Congress to use the constitutionally granted POWER OF THE PURSE to fix this problem!
Depending on the outcome of the Nov. 5 election, access to abortion in all states could later be restored, or banned. If elected, how would you vote on this issue?
As the known fact checker in our community, Benito Link should understand that the Supreme Court didn’t rule on the legality of abortion, it only ruled that this issue does not belong in the hands of the federal government and instead should be decided by each state. The power to legislate this issue was not granted in the Constitution, therefore it is not a Congressional issue. Each state gets to create their own legislation. I have always been for informed consent where we trust the people to be fully informed of the implications of abortion, and therefore trust it is now where it belongs, in the people’s hands.
If elected, do you agree to certify the 2024 presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2025?
I’m glad you asked this question since the framing of it seems extremely oversimplified. It completely excludes the reality that the people have a constitutionally granted First Amendment right, “to redress their government of grievances.” Is this question to assume there is no First Amendment right to question an election? I’ll leave that there, but also to highlight that I firmly believe the people at the local level should be confident of their vote.
Right now, California has the most ambiguous, centralized, and hard to hold accountable election processes. I should know, as a county supervisor, I questioned the adjudication rate (error rate), which has been extremely high in the most recent elections with no apparent cause.
Nonetheless, my opponent, along with Rep. Cheney, authored the Presidential Election Reform Act which raises the threshold to question an election, limits local governments in questioning an election, and pretty much federalizes the election process, which goes against the U.S. Constitution. To be clear, according to Article 1 Section 4, “The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the Legislature thereof.” Per the Constitution, the federal government is banned from overriding local authority. Remember, it’s the states that make the federal government, not the other way around. That is why the federal government is supposed to have enumerated or limited powers!
Zoe Lofgren, 76, is a lifelong Bay Area resident, a mother and a grandmother. She is the incumbent in this race and has served in Congress since 1995.
BenitoLink: Why are you running for office?
Lofgren: I am dedicated to public service, and I am running to continue representing my country and the people who live in the 18th District. As someone who was the daughter of a truck driver and a cafeteria cook and was the first in my family to go to college, I want to ensure that people in families like mine have at least as good an opportunity as was offered to me. I want to continue to defend the U.S. Constitution, reform our broken immigration system, transition to a clean energy future, ensure that housing is affordable, and promote innovation and entrepreneurship. I fight for resources for our community so everyone has a fair chance to not just get by, but to get ahead and have a better tomorrow. With your support, I hope to continue this fight for another two years.
San Benito County frequently misses opportunities to receive federal funding. What can our local government do differently to secure funding?
I understand that tracking all of the federal funding that’s available to county and local governments can be challenging—and thanks to laws like the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law that House Democrats passed last Congress, there’s lots of funding currently available! That’s why every week, I send an email to elected officials in the 18th District with all of the funding opportunities that the Biden-Harris administration announced that week. In the last two years, I’ve helped bring more than $123 million in federal funding to San Benito County, including $91 million for badly needed road projects; nearly $23.5 million for water infrastructure; millions for healthcare, funding for Hollister Airport and much more. I will continue working collaboratively with the county to secure every last penny to meet the needs of San Benito communities.
When the executive branch and House are led by different parties, making progress on legislation is often quite difficult. If elected, how would you go about working with the administration of another party?
While I certainly hope that Donald Trump will not be elected again—because if he is, I fear irreversible damage to our democracy—I would continue to focus on the basics: bringing resources we need to our communities. This Congress, I have served as the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and nearly every piece of legislation we have passed has been bipartisan. I have a proven track record of working across the aisle to strengthen the American workforce and our communities. At the same time, I also know how to stand up to administrations should they threaten Americans’ rights or the well-being of our communities.
San Justo Reservoir has been closed for several years because of the infestation of the non-native zebra mussel. Residents have been calling for it to reopen. How can Congress and the federal government assist in getting this done safely to ensure that vessels on the water do not infect other bodies of water?
I know that expanding outdoor recreation opportunities is important to the county and its residents. While neither the reservoir nor the surrounding lands are owned by the federal government, I have repeatedly pushed the federal Bureau of Reclamation to provide technical assistance to local officials as they consider various options to address the zebra mussel infestation and reopen the reservoir to recreation. That assistance includes having had the Bureau of Reclamation prepare an eradication plan, based on the eradication of zebra mussels in other bodies of water, that local officials could then execute, should they choose that option. I know there are ongoing conversations about how best to proceed, and I will continue to be a partner in those efforts.
Depending on the outcome of the Nov. 5 election, access to abortion in all states could later be restored, or banned. If elected, how would you vote on this issue?
I firmly believe women must be able to make our own health care decisions without government interference. I oppose the draconian restrictions on abortion that we have seen in so many states following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. That terrible decision was the culmination of years of Republican efforts to place one right-wing ideologue after another on the court. I’m proud that California voters responded to the ongoing assault on women’s rights by the Supreme Court and many state legislatures by enshrining the right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution. I will continue to fight to protect their fundamental rights.
If elected, do you agree to certify the 2024 presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2025?
I intend to follow the Electoral Count Act and certify the election. The very foundation of our governmental system is that the decision of who the president (and other elected offices) will be is up to the voters, not up to Congress. I was in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and after the attempted insurrection, I served on the January 6th Select Committee that investigated that assault on our democracy. I also led efforts to amend the Electoral Count Act to make the type of mischief that election-denying Republicans attempted after the 2020 election much more difficult to pull off.
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