Watson brings faith-based campaign to senate race

Independent candidate Todd Watson hopes to bring a grounded, transparent approach to the U.S. Senate if elected in November.

Watson, a small businessman from Lincoln, is running a "faith-based" campaign stating that he believes that the country as a whole needs to get back to its spiritual heritage.

"For me, I think we've gone too far the other way when we have freedom of expression, freedom of exercise, and to me, these are being quelled every day. Openly being, you know, who we are in our conscience is very important and they're being suppressed right now," Watson said.

However, Watson clarifies that view, explaining that in running his campaign, he's not pushing for the church to have a place in the government or vice versa. Rather, Watson states that his faith and values inform the decisions that he would make from a legislative standpoint.

"There's a legislative level and a personal level. On a personal level, I have a biblical world view. Does that mean I'm establishing the religion? No, I don't. We're not a theocracy. We never want to be. We have freedom of religion. That's in our constitution so we have to uphold that value. But that also means that I have the right, personally, to hold the values I hold," Watson said.

These values influence many of Watson's views on proposed legislation, especially concerning the poor and immigration.

"Now I think the big phrase that democrats and republicans screw up the most is in our first paragraph of the constitution, which is, 'promote the general welfare'. I feel like democrats mess up on the promote versus provide definition, and I feel republicans mess up on the general welfare versus the corporate welfare part of the definition. So, that one definition defines a lot to me on understanding what promote versus provide is versus what's general welfare, to me it's the well being of all the people," Watson said. "I do care about the poor a lot. I think that's part of a faith-based background. But I don't believe providing helps. It's a perpetual handout. It keeps people perpetually dependent, and it doesn't help them advance. I believe work is more than about money. It's about dignity. It's about what that gives a man or a woman."

In thinking over immigration reform, Watson believes that in any case, whether it be sending illegal immigrants back to their own country or keeping them here, the one thing that should not be done is splitting up families or children from their parents.

"It goes back to biblical things. God created three institutions. He created the church. He created the family, and he created government. So the family is mission critical unit created by God. Children, when we talk about mental health, children that don't have a dad or a mom for whatever reasons, we've got to try to reduce that occurrence. And I don't care if that child is American or not," Watson said.

However, in any case, Watson believes that there must be consistency in whatever policy the country decides to move forward with and enforce.

"To me, the question is let's get an immigration policy that's consistent. Let's keep that family together. Let's move everybody back or keep everybody here. But we can not separate these kids and their parents. That is just damage to that child for their life that I don't want to be on account for later," Watson said.

Watson also proposes a path to residency for immigrants who have been in the country for at least a decade and have kept a clean record throughout that time.

When asked how the government can prove with absolute certainty that an immigrant has been in the country for the established time frame through documentation, Watson states that, with the digital age, the process should be relatively easy as he believes that everyone leaves an online trail of activity.

"I think that you have to look at records whether or not those kids are in school. You have a trail, especially in today's digital world. You have a super trail about where you've been, what you've done, etc. I think in today's day and age of digital, you create a trail," Watson said.

For critics who have stated that Watson's proposed reform would incentivize other illegal immigrants to enter the country to achieve residency through the new policy, Watson gives the simple answer of setting a retroactive date for the cutoff point for the 10 year stipulation.

He also states that any reform that occurs must take into account the multitude of people who have for years tried to legally immigrate into the country.

"There's a proper, respectful way to do things. And you know, if we have residency, again it doesn't mean citizenship. Citizenship is a huge privilege. We have people trying to get into this country to be citizens legally. To circumvent them and their rights first, that's just not proper. I've met people that are furious who have been trying to get into here legally the right way forever. So if they're trying to do the process the right way, everyone's got to stand in the back of the lunch line, no cutting and when it's your turn, it's your turn. But residency, there's not as many benefits, but then people don't have to walk around in the shadows," Watson said.

However, Watson states that immigration reform, and all that goes along with it, is seemingly a moot point unless we first take steps to secure our borders.

"We just have to. And until that's done, it's pointless. It's a rotating cycle. Whatever lens you have, people want to tie that to whatever offends them the most. They want to call it racist or talk about economics. To me, a lot of my issues including pipelines are all about national security. We need national security. We need to know who's coming in and out of our country. We need to control drugs in and out of our country. We need to be able to say, 'Okay, we can shut off oil from overseas' or 'We can stop with who's coming in or coming out.' It's all about being self contained," Watson said.

Watson is also an advocate of repealing or defunding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare.

"It's popular to say you're against Obamacare, but I want to say that everyone knows that the system we had before Obamacare stunk too. It didn't stink from a service level. It stinks because it was going up 12 or 13 percent every year in cost. And a lot of it was perpetuated by protectionism, written through lobbying laws and protecting hospitals from competition, especially in metro areas. Rural areas have different issues, but especially in metro areas. Drugs from competition, they get to set their own prices. That's not conservative," Watson said.

When asked why he would rather repeal or defund the ACA instead of trying to fix the problems within it, saving both parties from having to seemingly suffer the costs of starting from scratch, Watson stated that it lies in the fact that the ACA was "an atrocious start".

However, Watson will concede that he does agree with some of the elements of the ACA, especially those concerning pre-existing conditions.

"No one chooses these situations, but you've come across those families that are born with that situation. The medical costs are tremendous. Insurance companies don't want to sign up to cover this. So, pre-existing conditions makes a lot of sense. And you know, how we cover that, that would be an augmentation, if that's where you're going. It's like, do we cover this under Medicaid/Medicare type format? High risk insurance pools seem to be the popular way to go. Administer it at the state. There are elements like that that I think the Affordable Care Act went after which was good. I think it was needed," Watson said.

If the ACA was effectively repealed, Watson would instead want to see a health care system that relies heavily on free markets and competition.

"We haven't seen a free market. We just haven't seen a market in health care for some time. Medicare's been running the show forever. So say we go back to a market. Well, that's not what we had. We need to introduce competition. And then we've got to take a look at our rural hospital situations out here in western Nebraska, we need to really amp up technology," Watson said. "In our major metro areas where a lot of our costs are, I want to see a lot of competition in them. I think the debate is what can we provide when there is no real competition in any areas, and how do we ensure the best possible care at the best possible price. To me, there are kind of two different scenarios there."

Watson is also an advocate for energy independence. However, Watson's focus lies in funding research and the science behind the newer technologies instead of investing in companies themselves, particularly concerning wind energy.

"The best standard I tell people is cheaper and cleaner. It's got to be both. Wind energy doesn't meet the cheaper element right now. That doesn't mean we don't do it. That just means we need, and Obama screws this up, gives money to companies and they run away with it or go bankrupt. We still need to invest in the technology, the science. Let's keep improving transmission, etc. With the wind we have in Nebraska, this year maybe it would have been profitable. The technology has to come further still to meet that cheaper and cleaner requirement," Watson said.

However, at the heart of Watson's campaign is a desire to get Nebraska residents, and voters in general, to start taking a closer look at the actions of the politicians that have been elected to Congress, not their words.

"If voters do the same thing over and over, which they've done, it's insanity to expect different results. They complain about the money. I'm the best option because I know I can pledge allegiance. I don't have partnerships. The number one mistake voters make is they analyze candidates on a stand-alone basis. They don't analyze partnerships. Partnerships matter in business, in marriage and every facet of human society. And they ignore them. They have to know that partnership with a party limits what they can do," Watson said.

Watson desires to serve as a voice to the people that will give transparency to what is happening in Washington and informing the people of where their representatives truly stand and how they truly vote on the issues.

"There has to be a loud voice saying here's what's going on, here's the lay of the land. And I started to think about proposing bills and putting people on the record saying you need to reform social security and Medicare, a big issue of mine. I don't care if you support. Support means nothing. Deb Fischer supported something. I want to know who's going to man up or woman up and propose something of substance, and I want to put people on the record or put that committee on the record," Watson said.

Watson states that if elected, being unaffiliated with either party, he will only answer to the people, not party leaders or partnerships.

"I don't look like a traditional candidate, which is why they should vote for me. I have no allegiances to the parties. They don't control me. They don't run me. That's the beauty of me: I work directly for the citizens. I'm out here in Kimball, Nebraska from Lincoln today. I was shaking hands down at the shed, up at the antique mall. There's no middle man between us. There's no money between us. There's no corporate interest out of Wall Street or something else. It's just me and you. There's nothing in between us," Watson said.

Residents seeking more information on Todd Watson can do so by visiting http://www.watsonforsenate.com.