Rafael Wolf
Libertarian | Michigan
Candidate Profile
Leans Liberal
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
Grace Bible College, Grand Rapids, BRE, 2000-
Davenport University, Grand Rapids, BS, 2000-
WORK & MILITARY
Candidate did not provide
AFFILIATIONS
Portage Rotary, Current Member, Paul Harris, Past Board Member
Buy Local Kalamazoo, Past Vice President and Past Board Member
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
Candidate did not provide
ENDORSEMENTS
OTHER (1)
Libertarian Party of Michigan
SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS
LIBERAL
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (0)
RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (1)
Ron Hawkins (2022)
OTHER INFORMATION
Rafael Wolf completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024.
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).
Strongly Agree
The federal government should be neutral in most things. Funding abortion providers should be perfectly legal and is a choice of every individual including those in partnerships / marriages. If the federal government discontinues wealth extraction through taxation, individuals would be better positioned to support themselves and the things they choose to support like abortion providers through voluntary monetary donation support.
Under what circumstances should an elective abortion be allowed?
None, it's nobody's business but those directly involved with the pregnancy. It is the individuals maximum right to make that difficult choice.
Human life deserves legal protection from conception until natural death.
Strongly Disagree
Maximum individual liberty is what this question is addressing. Once you coerce with government force (laws) that are up to an individual choice, you've committed the ultimate sin. It should not be in the interest of the government to regulate life or death because that life or death is not theirs to choose a direction. Again, life and death is for the individuals involved, not the state.
The lives of human embryos created through artificial methods ought to be protected from purposeful destruction.
Strongly Disagree
An embryo lacks personhood and rights. The state intervention in scientific research or fertility treatments violates individual property rights and bodily autonomy.
The Comstock Act, which bans interstate transportation of abortion-inducing drugs, should be enforced.
Strongly Disagree
The Comstock Act of 1873 is an alarming expansion of federal prohibition, government censorship, and state interference in private trade and personal medical choices. This is not maximal freedom, choice and options which Libertarians promote. It should therefore be abolished so individuals have more freedom, choice and options in their personal lives.
ECONOMY
What is your position on the minimum wage?
No minimum wage should be set. The problem here is that the "market" is manipulated higher through the money printing (monetary expansion) by the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury. It therefore dictates a "minimum wage". Stop money printing!
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Strongly Agree
Agreed however, currently, the federal government is used by enterprise to create legal motes that protect their market share. Until you make government smaller and less powerful it will be abused to manipulate markets in favor of large market players to protect their dominant market share (think AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile).
List your top 3-5 priorities to eliminate government waste.
Eliminate departments (education, housing, etc). Eliminate foreign wars. Reduce the police state and domestic spying. Reduce domestic military spending (police force support). Eliminate market protection laws for large corporations including tax breaks (corporate welfare).
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
What does "separation of church and state" mean to you?
The US federal government should not sanction any religious institution. That also means government should not be praying before meetings, have religious council in their chambers or sanction any religious institutions period. Any religious institution attempting to influence government or elections should lose their tax exempt status.
Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.
Strongly Agree
If you offer business in the "public marketplace" you should in fact be required to provide those services to all of the public. This is a market principle. Religion should have nothing to do with offering a service in that market place. If you'd like to become a "club" offering memberships that offers those services then you are no longer in the public marketplace. This seems clear and simple.
HEALTHCARE
What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D) Taxpayer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be defunded.
D) US and state government has destroyed anything that looks like a "market" here. They've consolidated and constrained the healthcare market to eliminate competition creating regional monopolies which was exacerbated by the ACA which closed many a small practice because of digital requirements. Government intervention has made prices go up, not down. An open market free of government manipulation is what will reduce prices by increasing competition in a real marketplace.
The government should keep a database of people with various ongoing medical illnesses to assess the economic burden of treatment.
Neutral
In extreme cases, not ongoing maintenance (annual health care needs) I'm neutral. I'd rather see the feds bail out severely sick people as to not bankrupt them and ruin their lives. The expense of healthcare is a direct result of government intervention and so as compensation for such high prices I wouldn't have a problem if the feds helped individuals out as a result. Government should help here.
NATIONAL SECURITY
The Chinese Communist Party poses serious military, cyber security, intellectual property, and global economic threats to the United States.
Strongly Disagree
Everyone is a boogieman to the Feds. They need an enemy to fight and they manufacture one. It was the USSR / Russia, then China, then N Korea, then Venezuala, Columbia, Canada, Greenland...when will it end? They use "threats" as an excuse, a pretext to launder money through the military industrial complex. This is a 100% scam perpetrated on the American tax payer which is perpetually robbed though inflation and spending our futures into the pockets of the wealthy.
Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?
No - why would the US care about another country if we're "self interested"? It's only because of religious extremists voted into office that they serve Israeli interests. You have many coups on the US government, a corporate coup is one controlling all your politicians to serve corporate interests and Israel has also perpetrated a coup on those same politicians to serve its interests, not the interests of the American public.
IMMIGRATION
I support the existence of sanctuary cities to protect undocumented persons.
Disagree
Those people here on US soil should be treated with dignity and respect but also deported back to their place of origin when possible. Some might be "stateless", meaning, their country no longer exists. I don't think that local government has any obligation to help the Feds round people up, that's their job and local government has a local obligation with local priorities none of which is immigration enforcement. Cities can be "sanctuary cities" but that means nothing.
EDUCATION
I support eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and giving control back to states and communities.
Strongly Agree
Education is a joke in the US and it would be great to have 50 states experiment with what works best. Decentralization is a strength not a weakness. In Michigan the state ranks 44th nationwide in K - 12 education. It would be nice to unshackle the education system and release the power of market based competition among educational institutions.
Foreign governments should be prohibited from funding American education.
Neutral
I'm not certain why a foreign government would be interested in funding American education, that seems odd. If you have a well educated society they then have the tools to be rational, logical and self determined including taking funding from a foreign source. The US also mucks around with funding foreign education systems. Smart people should be able to detect BS regardless of source and that includes the BS from our own funding sources domestically.
VALUES
Government should recognize and support the fundamental right and essential duty of parents to direct their child's health and educational well-being.
Strongly Agree
Individual liberty (freedom), options and choice, yes!
Attempts to physically or socially transition a child to the opposite sex constitute child abuse.
Neutral
There are exceptions of when "puberty blockers" should be used from a medical perspective. Look them up and educate yourself. This is a politically divisive issue and question. Certainly it should be well scrutinized when a parent is coercing their child / children to change genders. I don't really know how often this happens. I hesitate to criminalize anything on this issue but leave it open for those abused in that way to hold their guardians accountable.
Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.
Strongly Disagree
This presumes "God". This is a religious institution not one of government. The only reason governments, state governments, got involved in marriage is to prevent blacks from marrying whites, known historically as anti-miscegenation laws (know your history). Government should exit stage left on regulating marriage. The fight about this is absurd on its face because people don't understand the history or the greater context. Nobody's relationship affects me personally.
I support the expansion of gambling in my state.
Neutral
Markets people! If you have a well educated society that understand the basic of statistics, they're less likely to gamble because gambling is a losing proposition! You don't need to regulate gambling, educate people on how it works. It'll expand to the size the market deems. The less educated the society, the more inflation your government creates, the more people will chase gambling as a stop gap to money debasement and the debasement of their purchasing power.
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
Atheist with a degree in religious education. My values are maximization of an individuals own interests and it's nobody elses business how that individual, or groups of individuals, live their lives. If you want to be super religious, good for you and if you don't, good for you too! To each their own!
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Disagree
Who doesn't have a photo ID? This is another made up issue so you'll hate your neighbour. Roughly only 1% to 3% of voting-age U.S. citizens lack a valid photo ID. This represents approximately 2.5 to 7 million adults. It's up to them as individuals to get one if possible. On the rare exception it isn't possible special accommodations should be provided to help them. There is a strong correlation that those percentages equate to it being homeless populations without ID.
EQUALITY
Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.
Strongly Disagree
The entire US population should be given reparations for what the Federal government steals from every paycheck throughout their life. If it's race based, no. That's a silly idea.
Biological males should not be allowed to participate in women's sports or occupy biological women's spaces whether it be bathrooms, locker rooms, sorority houses, women's shelters, or prison.
Strongly Agree
This is simple - strongly agree here. Regardless if you made a choice to transition from one sex to another, your biological sex should determine what your participate in and perhaps we make a third sport category, third space, third bathroom, third locker room, third sorority / fraternity house, third shelter and prison, etc to accommodate this small minority of person. I'm OK with that.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Man-made climate change is a global threat and requires urgent political action.
Neutral
Climate change has become a political topic and divisive. There's no doubt mankind pollutes and extracts from the natural world. This does effect the ecological makeup of ecosystems. The political action should be to protect the natural world and prevent certain over extraction of our natural world otherwise, left up the "market" which I prefer, it will in fact be destroyed to bolster profit margins. The common good of the natural world should be protected.
What do you believe is the most reliable energy source that will supply the growing demand for electricity?
This is the dumbest question so far, everyone knows nuclear energy is the cheapest and densest form of energy known to man. More nuclear please!
ABOUT YOU
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?
Moderate
FFS, I'm a "classical liberal" but questions like this only focus on "left vs right" nonsense. They continue informing the public that "liberal" means Democrat and "conservative" means Republican. That's not true because conservative liberals exist! These are all fake labels because when it comes down to it every conservative and every liberal will sell the American people out for their own gain which is why you need a small and powerless federal government!
Have you ever been penalized for sexual misconduct in either civil or criminal court? If so, please explain.
No
Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, please explain.
No
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
What should be the goal of the criminal justice system?
To protect the constitutional rights of every accused person and not severely punish victimless crimes.
Government has a responsibility to protect children from sexual exploitation during online activities.
Strongly Disagree
The government is not there to raise your children. This is an absurd notion that leads to more censorship even censorship by algorithm.
Sharia law should not be accepted or incorporated in any form within the legal framework of the United States.
Strongly Agree
Why this is even a question anyone would disagree with is laughable.
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
None. There should be no restriction on gun ownership. You either have a right to bear arms or you don't.
