Roger Dean Huffstetler said he is used to overcoming odds. The Democratic candidate for the 5th Congressional District spoke to an audience at Third Street Brewing and addressed issues related to weapons, working across the aisle and healthcare. He said he is a first-generation college student, served in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Marine Corps, and said his experience with the opioid addiction is firsthand as his father passed away from an oxycontin overdose.

“I’m running for Congress because D.C. is broken, but I don’t think that means America is,” Huffstetler said. He’s running for the seat currently held by Tom Garrett. About Garrett’s policies, Huffstetler said, “He continues to put his ideology over ideas to make the country better, the House Freedom Caucus over the country, and he puts special interests in front of us.” Huffstetler said he will work to help working people in the 5th District, particularly those affected by employment challenges and challenges from the opioid epidemic.

He spoke about his father’s passing.

“Not two minutes after I shared that in a room about this size, someone said to me, ‘my dad died of an oxycontin overdose too,’” Huffstetler said. “Working people in this country have never worked harder for less. The Democratic party needs to step up and make their lives better and make it possible for them to enter and change the economy.”

Regarding education, he spoke about attending college in Georgia through the Hope Scholarship, a program that allowed those with a B average to attend any state school with tuition paid.

“We need that kind of program in every Zip Code in our country so that working people can enter the changing economy.”

Regarding working across the aisle, Huffstetler said he noted veterans in Congress who are willing to work together to solve national issues, including Mike Gallagher, who has worked with different parties. In response to a question about issues related to firearms, Huffstetler said his father was a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) who worried about losing the firearms he owned. He said that there are soldiers being trained at the Parris Island base in Texas to safely use assault weapons.

“There are 70 days to train on Parris Island,” Huffstetler said. “They hand you an M16 on the first day … You do not even pretend to fire the weapon for 35 days.”

“A weapon that looks like that, it is a serious responsibility,” Huffstetler said, suggesting comprehensive background checks and repealing the Dickey Amendment among other actions. “It takes a lot of training, a lot of acumen, and you shouldn’t be able to get it in the mail. So we’ve got to bring some common sense to this problem. I think I can be that person. I want to have this discussion. I want hunters to feel safe. I want my dad to feel safe. But the bottom line is that we cannot have weapons of war to have easy access in our society.”

Regarding health care, Huffstetler spoke positively about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but he said the current government is reversing the positive effects.

“Individual mandate is extremely important for the premiums,” Huffstetler said, noting the provision of the ACA that mandates individuals sign up for an ACA plan or incur penalties or fees. “There are 10 things people love about Obamacare, and there’s one thing they hate … You’ve got to keep the thing we hate. It’s like eating our vegetables.”

He said he was unsure of the viability of a single payer healthcare system, known as Medicare for All.

“Medicare for All is not a magic wand where everybody wakes up and has a high-quality hospital and doctor nearby,” Huffstetler said, who said the questions of developing accessible and quality healthcare with the program makes the program complicated. “What Medicare for All does do is it does give you coverage.”

He said he supports Medicare-X, a plan supported by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine that allows for counties and individuals to receive a public option for their