POLITICS

Edwards opens up on his bid for Congress

Republican highlights his commitment to service

Paul Steinhauser news@seacoastonline.com
Eddie Edwards, a Republican candidate for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, speaks with an attendee at a Rockingham GOP event in Portsmouth in December. [Paul Steinhauser photo]

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles interviewing the field of candidates running in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District. Articles on Lincoln Soldati and Maura Sullivan, can be found at Seacoastonline.com and Fosters.com. 

Eddie Edwards highlights his commitment to service and his resume when he’s asked about his campaign for Congress.

“I’ve dedicated my life to serve this country and serve this community,” the Republican candidate in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District said in a recent interview.

“I look back at my professional career in law enforcement and the military and I think I’m well-suited to represent the district,” he added.

And Edwards, of Dover, who would make history if he wins as the first African-American elected to Congress from New Hampshire, said his love of public service is a main reason why he’s running in the 1st District race to succeed retiring four-term Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter

“I really think that men and women of character, honor and integrity should step forward and begin to serve in public policy roles,” Edwards explained.

New Hampshire’s 1st District, which stretches from Manchester east to the Seacoast and north through the Lakes Region to the White Mountains, is one of the most high-profile and expensive swing congressional districts in the country. It’s flip-flopped between Democratic and Republican control the past four elections.

The purple district in a purple state is one of only 12 across the country controlled by Democrats that Donald Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. And for the first time in 16 years, there’s no incumbent running for re-election.

Edwards jumped into the race for the GOP nomination last April, the first candidate to launch a campaign.

“One of my goals was to come out early so voters would really have the opportunity to get to know me. And I think that’s really important,” he said.

Over the summer, conservative GOP state Sen. Andy Sanborn of Bedford announced his candidacy. And in recent days former state Sen. Mark Hounsell of Conway launched a bid. Dover resident and former New Hampshire GOP vice-chairman Matt Mayberry is also seriously considering a run.

There are seven Democrats running for their party’s congressional nomination.

They are Executive Councilor Chris Pappas of Manchester, state Rep. Mark Mackenzie of Manchester, a former fireman who served more than two decades as head of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO, Maura Sullivan of Portsmouth, a U.S. Marine veteran who served in the Iraq War and worked at the Pentagon in the Obama administration, Army veteran and Rochester city attorney Terence O’Rourke, retired Portsmouth trial lawyer Lincoln Soldati, a former Somersworth mayor who also spent 17 years as Strafford County attorney, state Rep. Mindi Messmer of Rye, an environmental scientist, and technology executive and community activist Deaglan McEachern of Portsmouth.

Asked about the job President Donald Trump’s done in his first year in the White House, Edwards said “I think the president is delivering on his promises to folks.”

“I think he’s trying. He’s not a perfect person. None of us are,” he added.

The president again sparked controversy just over a week ago after he reportedly derided Haiti and described African nations as “s---hole counties” during a White House discussion with a bipartisan group of U.S. Senate leaders regarding a possible immigration deal.

Trump denied he said the word, but Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who attended the meeting, said the next day that the president did say the vulgar comment.

Asked what he thought of the president’s reported comments and whether he felt they were racist in nature, Edwards didn’t defend or criticize Trump but said “it seems to me in this country, we let some people make comments and there’s a pass.”

But he added others who make similar comments are quickly judged and labeled a racist.

“I think if we’re going to have this conversation about racism, we need to be honest about it. We need to tell the truth about it,” he said. “And we need to hold all people accountable for their comments. If we hold some accountable, then we should hold everyone accountable for their comments.”

Edwards said he found it “concerning” that only white conservative men are labeled racists.

And he stressed “if folks are making comments and using divisive language, regardless of their race, their ethnicity, their gender, they should be held accountable for that.”

Edwards grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. His campaign put out a profile video on the web last month, which included him openly discussing childhood memories of how he witnessed his mother being beaten by his father.

“Learning firsthand the trauma that women face, who have been verbally and physically abused, it shapes your direction in life. I’ve seen drug use and abuse firsthand. Violence firsthand. It shapes your direction in life.”

And he praised his grandmother, saying “I thank God every day that my grandmother was involved in my life. Very few of us as men can say we were taught how to be a man by a woman. She just taught me the values of this country. She taught me how to love, how to forgive, how to be responsible and believe in independence and self-reliance. You want something in life, you work hard for it.”

When the discussion turned to policy, Edwards said the most pressing issue in the district is the opioid crisis. And he listed regulatory reform, national security and advocating for veterans as three other top issues.

Edwards strongly supports the congressional GOP tax cut bill that Trump recently signed into law.

“When you provide tax cuts to businesspeople, they have an opportunity to grow,” he said. “They have an opportunity to do wonderful things and we’re starting to see that happen.”

When it comes to the battle over the national health care law, Edwards was critical of Republicans in Congress for failing to scrap the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

“I was a little disappointed to see that for seven years we talked about repeal and replacement. And then we discover there’s a lack of courage to do what we said we were going to do. There was a lack of a plan,” he said. “I certainly believe and support a market-based system of health care. But clearly we have to take care of our vulnerable populations.”

Listen: Latest From the Newsroom