KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Democrat Claire McCaskill is seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate, but she’s facing her toughest challenge yet. Republican Josh Hawley is leading in the polls.
The fight for the U.S. Senate in Missouri has been a heated one, complete with mudslinging. Attack ads have been flooding the local airwaves. If you believe them, he’s bad and she’s bad.
At times, it might seem like McCaskill and Hawley talk more about how their opponent would hurt Missourians than what they would do to improve voters’ lives.
So FOX4 asked them some straight-forward questions to get their take on key issues.
Health care
Hawley: “We have got to get more choices. Make insurance companies compete across state lines, get more plans so folks have more choice, protect people with preexisting conditions, mandate that in the law. Mandate that insurance companies protect them on the same terms as everyone else and protect young people on their parent’s insurance until age 26.”
McCaskill: “The other big piece of health care are pharmaceutical drug prices. I have gone after the pharmaceutical companies; in fact, I am willing to bet that they are paying for some of the ads against me that are secret, the dark money that is being spent. They don`t want me back.”
Border security and immigration
McCaskill: “They have to pay a penalty and a price for not abiding by the rules. We can never just wave away law breakers. They broke the law so there needs to be a price that is paid, but there are also things we can do to allow them to get at least a legal status.”
Hawley: “This is about the rule of law, and it’s about if we have a sovereign country or not. So we have to build that wall and secure that border, and for illegal immigrants, they should go back home and get in line if they want to become citizens of this country. It’s fine but they ought to go home and get in line and do it like everybody else.”
Gun violence
Hawley: “I think the thing we have got to start with is we have to fix the national background check system. We have a national background check system that has a huge loophole. It doesn’t include mental health records, mental health incidents.”
McCaskill: “Really common sense things, like universal background checks, like banning bump stocks, like looking at situations where we have identified terrorists in this country that we are worried about that have activities that concern the intelligence community. We won’t let them on our airplane, but they can walk into any gun show and buy and weapon they want. That seems weird to me.”
This is just a small portion of what the three candidates had to say. FOX4 also asked them a fourth question: What is the most important thing voters should know about you?
You can get each candidate’s answer to that question, along with their full interviews with FOX4, in the videos below.
