Spencer Meline Challenges Schrier For Washington 8th Seat

Representative Kim Schrier is seeking a 5th term in Congress, representing Washington's 8th Congressional District as a Democrat. Wenatchee Valley business owner and Cashmere resident Spencer Meline is a Republican candidate hoping to flip the seat.

Schrier serves on the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Health, Energy, and Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. Schrier is an Issaquah pediatrician and served her residency at Stanford University and holds a B.A. in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley

Meline is a businessman with no elected experience and operates a fine dining restaurant in Leavenworth. His voters guide profile highlights a private sector background and history of creating jobs as a small business owner. Meline completed his formal education coursework at Edmonds Community College while pursuing business and career opportunities.

TownSquare Media (TSM) posed a series of questions to both candidates in the race.

Editor's note—Rep. Schrier chose not to provide a response to any of the questions, so this article only includes the responses from candidate Meline

TSM: Please describe three major pillars of your campaign. What should voters consider about your candidacy for this seat?

Spencer Meline--

My campaign centers on three major priorities: small-business opportunity, housing, and wildfire prevention and forest management.

First, I want to make it easier for ordinary people to start, own, and grow a small business. As someone who owns and operates three small businesses in Leavenworth, I know firsthand how difficult access to capital, taxes, regulation, labor costs, and rising operating expenses can make entrepreneurship. I want to reform and simplify SBA lending, expand access to startup capital, and create tax incentives that reward small businesses for investing, hiring, and growing. SBA's existing programs already support working capital, business acquisitions, real estate, and equipment, but I believe we can make access to that capital simpler and more useful for Main Street businesses.

Second is housing. We need to increase the opportunity for younger families to buy their first home while making it easier for seniors to downsize without taking an unnecessary tax hit. I support targeted first-time homebuyer tax relief and reforms that reduce barriers to putting existing homes back on the market.

Third is wildfire prevention and forest management. In Central Washington, this isn't an abstract environmental issue. It's about our homes, smoke in our communities, public lands, and way of life. I support more active forest management, including thinning, prescribed fire, improved access, and year-round prevention work.

Voters should also consider where I come from. I'm not a career politician. I'm a husband, father of four, and small-business owner from Cashmere who has never held elected office. I'm running because I think Congress needs more people who have signed the front of a paycheck, balanced budgets, created jobs, and lived under the laws our government passes.

Kim Schrier--

Rep. Schrier did not supply a response.

TSM: What is your position on immigration policy?

Sepncer Meline--

I strongly support legal immigration. Immigration has always been an important part of America's story, but a country also has the right and responsibility to secure its borders and know who is entering.

This is personal for me because throughout my career I've worked alongside immigrants, and today I have immigrants working in our businesses. Many are among the hardest-working, most America-loving people I know. They came here because they believe in the opportunity this country offers, and they work incredibly hard to build a better life for themselves and their families.

The American Dream doesn't belong only to people who happened to be born here. If you come to this country legally, work hard, contribute to your community, and embrace what America stands for, you should have every opportunity to share in that dream.

But supporting legal immigration also means having a legal system that means something. We need to secure the border, enforce our immigration laws, address abuse of the asylum system, and make it much harder for cartels and human traffickers to exploit weaknesses in our system. If you are in this country illegally, you should not be allowed to remain here simply because you entered or stayed unlawfully. Our immigration laws need to be enforced.

Kim Schrier--

Rep. Schrier did not supply a response.

TSM: Explain why you support or reject the policies of Democratic Socialist and progressive candidates around the country.

Sepncer Meline--

I reject the economic program of Democratic Socialists and a large part of the progressive left because it treats private business as the problem and the federal government as the solution. That is backwards. Lasting prosperity is built by workers, owners, and families who keep more of what they earn.

I have built small businesses. Costs do not vanish because government calls them “investments.” When labor, housing, energy, insurance, supplies, and compliance all become more expensive, something has to give. The owner raises prices, cuts hours, stops hiring, postpones investment or, eventually, closes. That is not a political point. That is a P&L.

I also reject policies such as government price controls that can discourage new supply, tax policies that make it harder to invest and grow a business, and federal programs that replace individual choice and private competition with greater government control.

I want an economy where more Americans can start a business, own a home, raise a family, build wealth, and become financially independent.

Kim Schrier--

Rep. Schrier did not supply a response.

TSM: What is your position on Medicare for All?

Sepncer Meline--

Healthcare is too expensive, but simply shifting every healthcare bill to the federal government doesn't address enough of the underlying reasons healthcare costs so much.

I support aggressive price transparency, so patients know what care actually costs; greater accountability for insurers and healthcare providers; more competition; and protecting Medicare for seniors who have paid into the program.

Longer term, I would like to see more options that allow individuals and small businesses to purchase straightforward, affordable healthcare coverage with protection against catastrophic medical expenses. The goal should be lower costs, more choices, and a stronger relationship between patients and their healthcare providers, not another enormous federal bureaucracy.

Kim Schrier--

Rep. Schrier did not supply a response.

TSM: What are your keys to lowering consumer prices?

Sepncer Meline--

There isn't one piece of legislation that is going to suddenly make groceries, housing, electricity, and insurance inexpensive again.

We have to attack the underlying costs throughout the economy.

That means producing abundant and reliable American energy, protecting affordable Northwest hydropower, reducing unnecessary regulatory costs, encouraging domestic manufacturing, improving supply chains, and creating a tax environment where businesses are rewarded for investing and expanding in the United States.

Finally, Washington has to take federal spending and debt seriously. Government cannot continually spend beyond its means and assume there will never be economic consequences.

As a small-business owner, I look at inflation from the ground up. When energy, insurance, ingredients, equipment, rent, and labor all become more expensive, the customer eventually pays for it. If we want lower consumer prices, we have to make America less expensive to build, produce, hire, and do business in.

Kim Schrier--

Rep. Schrier did not supply a response.

Contact the candidates;

Kim Schrier