Rep. Rosen touring Northern Nevada ahead of senate run

Jacky Rosen said Thursday she will make her pitch to northern and rural Nevadans by “meeting folks at their kitchen table and they can tell me what keeps them up at night.”

Rosen, eight months into her first term in the House of Representatives, has announced she will challenge Dean Heller for his U.S. Senate seat.

Heller is regarded as one of the most vulnerable Republicans facing re-election in 2018.

She said when you ask people what keeps them up at night, “number one is healthcare.”

She said that includes not only those who need healthcare but, “even if I have healthcare from my employer, is it still going to be there?”

She said it also includes being able to take care of their children and their parents.

“It’s a real anxiety about keeping those benefits those of us have for pre-existing conditions, lifetime caps, keeping kids on until they’re 27.”

The second major issue, she said people talk to here about is education. She said President Trump’s education secretary Betsy deVos, “doesn’t have our best interests at heart.”

Rosen said her qualifications are she, herself, has been there. She worked through college as a waitress, built a business as a software designer and helped her husband, a physician, build his practice. She said she has a daughter in college and took care of her parents as they aged dealing with Alzheimer’s, dementia, broken hips and other issues.

“I don’t need anybody to tell me the challenges you go through,” she said. “I know what’s important to people around the kitchen table.”

Despite her brief tenure in the House, she said she has participated in a variety of legislation and made friends “across the aisle.” She said she was one of those who put together the bill to protect first responders from losing pay in the event of a government shutdown as well as legislation to inspire young women and minorities and train teachers from pre-kindergarten through high school to “inspire kids to get into tech, science and math.”

She also pointed to her backing of the Veterans Choice Act that says veterans living more than 40 miles from a VA center or those who wait more than 30 days for care can go outside the system for medical care.

Rosen said she’s touring Northern Nevada, heading out to Elko this weekend to talk with voters.

She said she’s running because, “Dean Heller has been betraying Nevadans over and over.”

“He voted to take away health care for thousands and thousands of Nevadans,” she said. “I don’t think he’s been there for Nevadans.”