ASHLAND – The economy, healthcare and campaign finance were keys points of disagreement in the long-awaited U.S. 7th Congressional District debate between incumbent Republican Bob Gibbs and Democratic challenger Ken Harbaugh.
Eight days before voters head to the polls, the candidates faced off for about an hour in Ashland University’s Convocation Center. The debate was hosted by The Ashbrook Center and moderated by political science professor and Ashbrook Scholars program co-chair Jeff Sikkenga and Brad Dicken, editorial page editor of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.
While Gibbs drew a few dozen supporters, a majority of those in the crowd of a few hundred people seemed to favor Harbaugh, who has campaigned hard on a platform of “country over party.” Gibbs, meanwhile, has been repeating the mantra, “results versus resistance.”
In his opening statement, Gibbs said the country has “a booming economy by almost every metric,” and he attributed that success to regulatory reforms and tax cuts passed by Republicans in Congress.
“Are you better off now than you were two years ago?” Gibbs asked the crowd.
Harbaugh disputed that everyday Americans are better off, saying, “Wall Street is not Main Street, and I think Congress needs to be reminded of that. That wages have not kept up with inflation … we don’t have an investment in infrastructure that is going to provide that foundation for economic growth going into the 21st Century.”
In his own opening statement, Harbaugh focused on healthcare. He emphasized his desire to see that people with pre-existing conditions can obtain health insurance, and he accused Gibbs of voting 13 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with plans that would not protect people with pre-existing conditions.
“We need a system that guarantees protections for people with pre-existing conditions, that stabilizes the markets by funding the exchanges to finally bring down premium costs… We need a system that allows early Medicare buy-in for older Americans and I would go one step beyond that and encourage access to the Federal Employee Healthcare Benefit Plan for young Americans,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh met with cheers when he said, “You know who has the best healthcare in this room? Congressman Gibbs. You know who has the best pension plan in this room? Congressman Gibbs. Don’t you think we deserve a share of that?”
Gibbs refuted Harbaugh’s claims, saying he does want to protect people with pre-existing conditions and voted for a bill last year to do that.
The answer to rising healthcare costs, Gibbs said, is not more government, but more competition in the marketplace.
“What a lot of my Democrat colleagues in Congress are saying is let’s have Medicare for all, let’s get people out of the employer market and on Medicare for all. It would destroy Medicare as we know it and be an absolute disaster,” Gibbs said.
Another repeated clash throughout the debate was each candidate’s’ criticism of how his opponent funded his run for office.
Harbaugh suggested Gibbs is beholden to corporations and special interests because Gibbs has accepted money from corporate political action committees. Gibbs, meanwhile, received cheers from his supporters in the audience when he said Harbaugh’s campaign was funded by out-of-state “liberals and Hollywood elites” who want to buy the house seat.
Gibbs referred to Democrats of a party of obstruction and predicted what a Democrat-controlled Congress would do in the next term.
“They would hold impeachment hearings for (new Supreme Court) Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh and President Trump. They would repeal your tax cuts, abolish ICE, open borders and fund sanctuary cities,” Gibbs said, adding Democrats want to put everyone in a single-payer, government-provided health plan.
In response to a question about the drug epidemic, both candidates said more treatment centers are needed.
But as Gibbs spoke about the issue, he mistakenly referred to President Trump as President Obama, eliciting boos and shouts from the audience.
Gibbs then called the people interrupting him Harbaugh’s constituents.
“They’re your constituents, Congressman Gibbs,” Harbaugh responded. “You represent the entire Ohio 7th, both sides of this hall.”
Harbaugh later accused Gibbs of failing to listen to his constituents.
“It’s time to send a representative to Congress who works for us,” Harbaugh said.
The 7th district includes all of Ashland, Knox, Holmes and Coshocton counties, as well as parts of Richland, Huron, Lorain, Medina, Stark and Tuscarawas counties.
