Matthew Hoh, candidate for U.S. Senate

Name: Matthew Hoh

Political party: Green

Age as of Nov. 8, 2022: 49

Campaign website: https://www.matt4senate.org

Occupation: Disabled Marine Combat Veteran

Education: Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University in 1995.

Have you run for elected office before? No, I am a first-time candidate.

Please list highlights of your civic involvement: I was in the Marine Corps for 10 years with the State Department. I was in both the Afghan and Iraq wars twice. Since 2009, I have been central in a number of nonpartisan anti-war and human rights efforts. I participate in local community work, especially with veterans and homeless communities, and I have worked as a peer support professional. I serve as an officer on multiple local, national and international nonprofits.

What are the three issues that you see as most important to your constituents and what will you do to address them?

Across North Carolina, I hear the same three issues: health care, housing and the harm caused by the “War on Drugs.” I am the only candidate in this race calling for Medicare for All. Likewise, as rents in North Carolina increase by more than 50%, I am the only candidate calling for rent control. The destruction of individual lives, families and communities by the “War on Drugs” through mass incarceration must end, and we need to treat substance abuse and addiction not as a criminal matter, but as a public health issue.

What action by Congress would you support to help reduce inflation?

Food and energy price increases are a result of climate change and war. Droughts, floods and wildfires will continue to impact our economy, as will foreign wars, while our dependence on fossil fuels will keep us at the mercy of U.S. and foreign oil companies. We need a Green New Deal to address these causes. Supply chain shortages, resulting from decades of infrastructure neglect, are another reason for inflation. Federal interest rate hikes, meant to cause unemployment, are not the answer.

What federal legislation would you support on abortion?

Other: Abortion, like other reproductive rights, is health care, and health care is a human right. Abortion is ultimately the sole decision of a woman. Like all other forms of health care, abortion should be available through a universal single-payer health care system available to all people without cost at the point of service. Abortion should be available without conditions and judgment. We must ensure women and their families have all the resources they need for healthy and productive lives.

Should members of Congress be banned from owning and trading individual stocks?

Yes.

What changes in U.S. immigration enforcement and restrictions would you support?

My grandparents were immigrants. If any other nation were treating people at its border the way the U.S. treats people at its southern border, we would decry it as a crime against humanity. The bipartisan border policies have not only been failures but are massive human rights violations. We must treat all people with dignity and address the systemic reasons why people leave their home countries.

What legislation would you support to make Americans safer from crime? What legislation would you support to make mass shootings less likely?

Prohibition and poverty are, and have long been, the primary root causes of crime. End the decades-long, failed, counterproductive and shameful “War on Drugs.” We must address the deep state of poverty by ensuring all people are paid a living wage and have health care and access to free public education from pre-K through college (including trade/vocational programs). A thorough in-person licensing and training program should be a requirement for possessing a firearm, especially outside the home.

What, if anything, does Congress need to investigate?

If elected, I will pursue investigations to achieve accountability and justice for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the repeated financial collapses and subsequent bank bailouts, the mass spying and surveillance of the American people by U.S. intelligence agencies, the CIA’s torture program, congressional inaction on climate change, corporate media manipulation and the buying and selling of stocks by congressional members, their families and staffs.

Do you accept the results of the 2020 presidential election?

Yes.