Theobald Campaigning for Rural Nebraskans

Third District seat candidate Paul Theobald wants to shorten the distance between Washington, D.C., and rural Nebraska, ensuring small communities are represented at the federal level.

Theobald, a Democrat, is competing against incumbent Adrian Smith, R-Gering. Smith was first elected to office in 2006.

Theobald stopped by the Sun-Telegraph office earlier this week.

He says he has always been close to agriculture and the rural lifestyle. His grandfather was a tenant farmer and he has taught in rural public schools. His website says he was born in Minnesota and is the grandson of farmers on both sides. His father was a rural mail carrier and rural life has always been a passion.

His platform addresses seven primary issues: net neutrality, agriculture, rural community revitalization, health care, education, the minimum wage and the environment. He says protecting the future of schools is important to rural communities.

“It is what the Third District needs,” he said.

Theobald says consolidating schools is counterproductive fiscally and for student success. He says studies have shown consolidated schools are not working. What consolidation does, according to Theobald, is reduce the sense of community. The question is how can financially struggling school districts with low enrollment survive. He added local property tax can’t do it, and the state is struggling as well. He suggested an urban-rural infrastructure fund to help school districts with capital improvement projects.

“That could provide some relief,” he said.

He also wants to stop the mega-mergers including pushing the Justice Department for an anti-trust investigation when a company leaves a community.

The Farm Bill needs reworked to favor the local farmer, Theobald added.

“We need a farm bill that will guarantee a reasonable income,” he said.

He said the country and Nebraska specifically needs a program that supports farmers and ranchers. He says on his website that farm income has not met the cost of production.

“We need to provide farmers and ranchers relief from corporate competitors. If we value a countryside composed of independent producers of food, we must reverse policies that favor corporations,” he said. “Our ancestors demanded it; it’s time for us to demand it as well.”

He says rural communities are the backbone of democracy.

Theobald is also interested in a Wall Street tax and an inventory tax for “box stores.”

Theobald also supports making the health care system less about profit and more about helping people.

“America’s egregiously expensive for-profit health care system is an enormous burden on Nebraska families and businesses,” he said on his web page. In a recent interview, Theobald said the U.S. needs a Medicare for all system.

“Everyone loves Medicare. Everyone will love Medicare for all even more,” he said on his website.

The minimum wage also needs to increase, Theobald said. He said when the minimum wage is increased, “every additional dollar will be spent locally, and it will then turn over many times.” He also said giving tax breaks to the super-wealthy results in money being invested all over the world.

“If the base is held constant, the best Americans can hope for is enough to keep up with the cost of living, and we rarely get that,” he said on his website.

Nebraska’s Third Congressional District covers most of the state, from the Wyoming border to just east of Grand Island, and the South Dakota border to Kansas. The Primary Election is scheduled for May 15 and the General Election is Nov. 6.