CD1 Primary: Sarah Chadzynski Minisode

Every day this week, Liz interviews a candidate running in the Democratic Primary for the 1st Congressional District in New Hampshire. 

Today's guest is Sarah Chadzynski! 

CD1 Minisode rules and questions are below these very important links about voting in New Hampshire. The NH State Primary is on Tuesday, September 8! 

NH Has Issues does not make endorsements. Neither does Liz Canada! But Liz encourages everyone to do their research on who to vote for - and make sure to vote in both September and November. For more details about these CD1 primary episodes, make sure to listen to the Primary Prep episode from Sunday, 8/16.

Links:

• Voting in New Hampshire (NH Campaign for Voting Rights)
• Check your voter registration (NH Secretary of State)
• Find your polling location (NH Secretary of State)
• See a sample ballot (NH Secretary of State)

Schedule of CD1 Candidate Minisodes:

• Monday, 8/17: Carleigh Beriont
• Tuesday, 8/18: Sarah Chadzynski
• Wednesday, 8/19: Stefany Shaheen
• Thursday, 8/20: Maura Sullivan
• Friday, 8/21: Christian Urrutia

The NH Has Issues (Liz) Rules for these CD1 candidate interviews and minisodes: 

1. Three minutes per answer, just like how Liz gets 3 minutes at the State House in a public hearing. Yes, there will be follow-up questions!
2. No negative talk about any other candidates.

The three questions Liz asks each of the candidates (*they received the first two in advance*):

1. What's your best pitch for why someone should vote for YOU in the CD1 primary on Tuesday, September 8?
2. This podcast is called NH Has Issues - so what is THE issue you're ready to tackle if you're elected?
3. What do you wish people knew about you that doesn't fit into campaign mailers/ads/websites/social media? Who are you as a person?

Transcript

Liz Canada 0:11

You're listening to New Hampshire Has Issues, and I am your host, Liz Canada. Every day this week, there's a new mini stode with a candidate running for the first congressional district here in New Hampshire. I have a lot more detail about these conversations in the primary prep episode in case maybe you missed it or if you need some reminders. Quick overview though. For each of these mini sodes, there are two rules. Rule number one, the candidate gets three minutes to answer each question. And I chose three minutes because that's typically how much time I get when I go to the state house and testify in a public hearing to make my entire case. So the candidates get three minutes. The second rule is that there's no negative talk about other candidates running for this seat. Again, more information in the primary prep episode. New Hampshire has issues, does not make endorsements. Neither do I. But I do support getting the information you need to make the best decision for yourself so that you also can vote on Tuesday, September 8th in the New Hampshire state primary. In the episode description, I have information about checking your voter registration, finding your polling location, looking at a sample ballot that you will have at the primary, and finding your city or town clerk's information in case you need to contact them. If you would like to support New Hampshire Has Issues Podcast, please visit patreon.com slash NH Has Issues, and you can become a supporter for as little as $5 a month. Thank you so much for listening. And now on to the episode with Sarah Chadzynski.

Welcome to the show, Sarah Chadzynski

Liz Canada 1:50

On the podcast today, I have Sarah Chadzynski, who is running to be the next Congressperson from the first district here in New Hampshire. Sarah, welcome to New Hampshire Has Issues. So glad you're here.

Sarah Chadzynski 2:06

Thank you, Liz. It's wonderful to be here.

Liz Canada 2:17

So I'm delighted to get to have one-on-one time and share that with listeners so that they can make educated decisions coming up. So thank you so much for being here.

Sarah Chadzynski 2:26

Yeah, thank you for doing it. I think it's an incredibly important piece as someone who has a background in education, making sure that we have informed voters, engaged voters that know that their vote matters means a lot. That's why I'm in this.

Liz Canada 2:42

Listener, you're hearing it here first. Actually, you've heard this a lot. Your vote does matter.

Sarah Chadzynski 2:47

But we're gonna say it again and again.

Liz Canada 2:48

We're gonna keep saying it. So let's cover just the ground rules very quickly. Going to give you three minutes for each question. Then the other rule is no negative talk about any other candidates. All right, are we ready to jump right into it?

Sarah Chadzynski 3:01

I'm ready. Love those rules. Let's do it.

Liz Canada 3:03

Okay. All right.

Best pitch: why should someone vote for you in the primary?

Liz Canada 3:04

First question. You're running for Congress, Sarah. You want to represent the people of the first congressional district of New Hampshire. So give me your best pitch. Why should someone vote for you in the primary on Tuesday, September 8th?

Sarah Chadzynski 3:21

Thank you, Liz. So I am a candidate who is not another politician talking about what it's like to live everyday life here in the Granite State. We live it. We're a working class family. I have a background in education, nonprofit work. My husband's a firefighter right here in the district. And we live paycheck to paycheck. That's very real for us. And I'm also one of the three candidates that has actual DC experience. And why that's important right now is that nothing in DC is business as usual. I think we all know that. And I'm the only candidate with actual Hill experience. With the work that I jumped in to do, not because I was paid or appointed to do it, but because it was the right thing to do, I was able to build a national coalition. I was able to support legislation being drafted, co-sponsored, and passed. I was able to get discharge petitions signed and through. And we were able to get $60 billion worth of aid through Speaker Johnson's office. So not only do I have the understanding of what happens when legislation that's made in DC hits the road here at home and impacts our daily lives, I actually have the ability to do something about it. I have the skill sets for the job. And I'm stepping up to offer myself in this moment as an option to be of service to this district, to the people. It would be an incredible honor to serve the people in this manner and to actually deliver the change that we also desperately want to see when our country is in a time of crisis. And honestly, Liz, this isn't left or right. It's about right or wrong. And it's about having a principled leader step in and bring us back together.

Liz Canada 5:11

So you worked on the hill specifically, is what I heard you say. Tell me more about that. Like what was the role? What were you doing? What was what did you do? Because that seems like very uh important experience to the job of being a congressperson.

Sarah Chadzynski 5:28

Well, I'll tell you, Liz, I never planned to run for Congress. This was definitely not, I joke with my husband, this was not in the marriage contract at all. And we have a good laugh about that.

Liz Canada 5:36

So many things aren't in the marriage contract.

Sarah Chadzynski 5:39

But you know, we roll, we support each other. We've known each other for 30 years, been married for 10, but um, we've known each other for a long time. And when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine happened, I kept trying to figure out how to offer my support in some capacity. And so I jumped in as the pro bono executive director of an organization that was documenting the atrocities and eyewitness accounts on the ground in Ukraine. We got those stories into the news and the media. And then in front of decision makers around the world, from Boris Johnson all the way to every member of Congress on the Hill. I went on from there to be a founding board member of the American Coalition for Ukraine and the Ukraine Action Summit chair. And under my guidance, we brought over 3,000 people from diverse backgrounds to the Hill over the course of two and a half years. We had over a thousand congressional meetings, and we're able to have a huge impact. So when I say your vote matters, when I say your participation matters, I've seen it. I've seen it firsthand. And I can't know that I have the network on the hill, the people that I've worked on with there, as well as the people hanging on in the Department of State, my friends over at USAID who are ready to rebuild. I can't know I have this ability to stand up and do something and sit on the sidelines. It's just not in my nature. And I never expected to be in this position. If you had asked me two years ago, 18 months ago, if I would be running for Congress, I would have done exactly that. I would have left. You know, uh this was not on the docket. But when it was reflected back to me after we saw this administration blow through all the guardrails of the foundations of our democracy. And I said, How am I best served in this moment? And I had friends and colleagues and people here in New Hampshire say, Sarah, step up, run. We need leaders like you. And I think the most uncomfortable thing in this whole process is learning how to talk about myself and pitch myself. But I really care about the people. And I really care about standing up for what's right and amplifying voices of the people. Marginalized, the working class, folks that are not represented at the table. And Liz, we don't need another millionaire represented in Congress. There's enough. We need everyday folks to have our voice at the table where decisions are being made that impact our lives. And I can't know I can do something and sit on the sidelines. So I have to offer myself as an option.

Liz Canada 8:07

All right.

What is THE issue you want to tackle if you’re elected?

Liz Canada 8:08

So Sarah, this podcast is called New Hampshire Has Issues. You want, I I hear you that you want to get in there and do something, right? So if you're elected to Congress, what is the issue that you're most prepared to tackle once you get there?

Sarah Chadzynski 8:23

So I don't think that this is a one-issue election. I think that it's about affordability, accountability, and integrity, building trust and faith between the people and those elected to serve them. But I think the number one thing that's a through line for everyone and that I'm hearing on the ground here at home is healthcare. We need real healthcare reform immediately. It impacts our education system, which then impacts our property taxes, which then impacts the housing system, right? Our health insurance went up to $2,600 a month this year. That's over $30,000 a year. That doesn't include the deductible. My eldest is a brain tumor survivor. We need health insurance. I understand how important this is. And it is something that is impacting everybody from state workers, unions, all the way down to families like mine. And so we've talked a lot about, you know, in this race, Medicare for all, what that looks like. And one of the things that is really important to me is I'm never going to tell anyone that I can do something that I don't think we can do. And I will absolutely put my name on a Medicare for all piece of legislation. But that was submitted in 1970. We've been working on this for 56 years, right? And we need relief now, right now. I know we do, and I know listeners do. So I'm proposing that the federal government take over re-risk insurance, which is an insurance that our insurance companies buy for high-risk patients, that our federal government takes out over, drives our monthly premiums down. Then we move on and put guardrails in place for insurance companies as they dictate how medical care providers care for their patients. My mom's a family physician. She went back to school after I was born. She graduated when I was 14. I saw her go through all of that work. She slept in the library some night so that she could be there for a lab or an early exam the next day. And then you have health insurance companies telling my mom how to care for her patients, or they're gonna pull their contract with her, and then she won't be able to care for any of those patients that have that insurance. That's not okay. So we need to put guardrails in place for that immediately. And then we need to take the time to transition our medical system over to a nonprofit model. Medical care facilities should not be closing maternity wards because they're not profitable. I graduated high school as an EMT and I remember doing the training for birthing in the ambulance, but never had to do it. And now you have emergency responders delivering babies in transit or having babies at home without the medical care that individuals need because there isn't an accessible location. And that's happening right here in the United States in a country that is the wealthiest in the nation. That's not acceptable to me.

Liz Canada 11:41

And it's happening here in New Hampshire. We've seen the stories about maternity words that are closing. All those stories are happening right here in our own state. So, Sarah, you're talking about reform, you're talking about like short-term, long-term. But how are you actually going to get it done? How do these changes actually happen if you're elected?

Sarah Chadzynski 12:02

So, one of the most important things to remember is that here in New Hampshire, we know how important relationships are. That's how we get a lot done here. We are a person-to-person state, we are a person-to-person political space. Um, and that's something that is echoed on the hill. You need to have the relationships to be able to get things done. And that doesn't mean you agree with everybody, that doesn't mean you like everybody. But folks on the hill know who I am and they know I'm showing up to find a solution. And right now we need individuals that are elected because I'll tell you what, Liz, it is not going to be an easy two years no matter what. Even if we, the Democrats, as we, you know, take back the house. We have a tough two years ahead of us to log jam what's happening and to actually deliver some relief to people here at home in the Granite State and folks across the country, right? So you need to actually have legislation plans that you can get other people on board with, right? And I've already been doing that work. I still go down to DC, I still meet with folks. People have asked, how do you do that, Sarah? Well, on goodwill and wishes, the supportive community, um, you donated miles for airlines, sometimes, you know, uh push it putting a tank of gas in the car and throwing the kids in if we can't pay for all the tickets because it's expensive, right? And I go down there because it's really important to be in the room where those decisions are being made. And if we don't have folks like us, like me, working class families at the table where those decisions are being made, our voices are not represented. Our voices don't matter. And our voices need to matter in these decisions. And being able to build that coalition and actually get things done like we're seeing Congressman Ro Khanna do, again, we don't even have to like each other. We're there to get a job done. We're there to deliver change and relief and progress for American people and if I'm elected, for the people of the Granite State.

What do you wish people knew about you as a person?

Liz Canada 14:12

All right, non-political question for you, Sarah. What do you wish when people listen to this, what do you hope they know about you that might surprise them about you?

Sarah Chadzynski 14:19

I think one of the things that um comes up is the actual decision to run, right? And to get involved in the political space, a space that I kept arm's length from for a long time. Um I have people in my family that joke that we're accidental Washingtonians. My um great uncle was the journalist who released the Pentagon Papers and wrote a bright and shining lie about Vietnam. Um, so I have a bit of a lineage in my family of holding individuals and leadership positions accountable.

Liz Canada 14:55

Wow.

Sarah Chadzynski 14:56

And um yeah, and my and my cousin was the now former direct essentially the director of ethics and compliance at the FBI and was uh retired a year early last year. And so for me, the conversation about politics itself and getting involved is that this is sticky business and we don't talk about it. People don't want to comment, people don't want to get involved, people are exhausted by it. And I'm here showing up because I believe we can change that. And I believe we need to change that. And it takes getting involved and being a dartboard and being involved in the sticky mess of what politics is, having the difficult conversations, holding each other accountable to show that we can, I hope, do this differently. And so the question for me, Liz, really is at this midterm, are we ready to vote for that change? Are we ready to vote based on a candidate who can truly represent the majority of the people? Are we ready to vote for someone who's showing up to be of service, not for a career? Are we ready to vote for someone who's showing up to do the work but doesn't have the power of the purse behind the campaign? Are we ready to make that change? And it may not be at this election. It might not, but I'm not giving up. I'm here for it.

Liz Canada 16:32

Sarah, thank you so much.

NH Primary Reminders

Liz Canada 16:34

I want us to remind listeners that the New Hampshire State Primary is Tuesday, September 8th. Links are in this episode's show notes so that you can check your voter registration, you can see where your polling location is. And of course, we do want everyone to vote in November, but we have a minute until that happens. First is the state primary on September 8th. Sarah, thank you again for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate you being here and good luck out there.

Sarah Chadzynski 17:01

Thank you, Liz. I appreciate you taking the time to do this and bringing the candidate voices to the people. It's really important. Thanks so much. Happy to do it. Thanks, Sarah.