Bob Hagglund

I completely oppose elective abortion. The baby is always innocent, no matter what the adults involved have done or not done. That must always be remembered when considering abortion. The desires of adults involved must not be allowed to supersede the life of a child. When a child is unwanted for whatever reason, adoption is the truly caring and compassionate alternative to abortion, saving children from the mistakes of adults. People involved in politics seem to always want to focus upon the rare conditions where an abortion procedure might be medically necessary to save another human life, where a girl is the victim of violent crime, or use the mental health or condition of an adult is used to justify killing a child. In the case of true emergency medicine, I am no expert in life-saving care, so I cannot judge those decisions in any competent way. In the other cases, I must always defer to the fact that the unborn baby is never guilty of anything and killing that person cannot be justified under the Constitution because he or she has done nothing wrong. Men benefit from abortion at the expense of women, victims of crime, and the always-innocent baby. When violence is involved, abortion can and has been used coercively to protect criminal men by destroying the evidence of their crimes, creating even more victims and allowing the criminal men to go unpunished and probably harm even more women. In cases of pregnancy outside of marriage, abortion also can and has been used coercively to kill innocent babies and victimize the women carrying these babies for the purpose of protecting men from financial and social responsibility, especially when these men are married to other women. Women, mothers, and babies are valued in our society. Men shouldn't be allowed to victimize women and use abortion to protect themselves from justice and judgment. Abortion protects dangerous and irresponsible men. Abortion harms women and benefits men in 21st Century Washington. At the time of this writing, the Supreme Court seems to be on the verge of overturning Roe. In Washington, like every other state and territory, that would put control of abortion under our state laws. I am no legal scholar, but I believe that would mean nothing would change in Washington and I doubt it would have any direct impact upon abortion here at home. It will definitely move the focus away from the far away Supreme Court, placing it on our elected Legislature and potential future initiatives. This is a good thing. We should openly debate this and decide if abortion is truly something that should be legally allowed or is even a Washington value at all.

Strongly Agree

Organizations that kill human life must not be funded by the people under any circumstances without exception.

Strongly Disagree

While I completely support medical comfort for the purpose of easing pain for people who are dying, the concept of helping people kill themselves or killing them for other reasons is dangerous and must not be enshrined in law.

The tax code should be as simple as possible and used only for the purpose of funding the essential functions of government, not used as a engineering tool for politicians who wants to reward constituencies or donors, not for government to steer society in the direction it chooses for us.

The real question isn't what should be cut, rather we should be choosing what efforts should be funded by government. If we budget government like we budget our own families, we would be choosing what is most important and funding that first. Everything else is elective spending, dependent upon what funds are available. If we follow this practice in choosing what government should or should not buy on our behalf, the budget will always be close to balance, preferably in surplus so we can save money for unforeseen needs or emergency use.

Strongly Disagree

We need to improve childhood education to the point that a kid graduating high school is well equipped to enter adult life by joining the workforce or military at the entry level, becoming an apprentice in the professional trades, or choosing to purchase additional training. There is no justification for extending childhood and government dependency into people's adult years rather than improving childhood education.

Strongly Disagree

People should always be able to choose with whom they want to do business or perform services. People or businesses who abuse will face the economic and social shaming penalty for their choices if they abuse this right of association, especially now with information quickly being shared via social media and news outlets.

I see no justification for government to close a house of worship.

Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. Both of these systems of taxpayer subsidy for health care must be reformed to create free-market choice to drive down the price of care as well as increase the value. Long-term, I would like to see the need for both go away and be replaced by consumers making their own choices in a normal marketplace, but I am enough of a realist to understand that completely changing the way we approach medical care requires an investment of time and effort.

Considering the recent abuse of children and public employees, with the pandemic as an excuse, I strongly feel we need to return to the values we held until 2020 where vaccination is a choice and accommodation of people who are not vaccinated is done wherever reasonable.

So long as people have free will, there is no way to eradicate terrorism. It is a technique rather than an enemy. What we can do is destroy our enemies whenever they attack or directly threaten us, not beat them back or temporarily neutralize the threats and stop there, but actually completely destroy them and make examples out of their destruction. This becomes very complicated when dealing with state terror actors who possess dangerous weapons of mass destruction, however this cannot be used as an excuse not to act because it only further emboldens our enemies. History has clearly documented this. The stronger we are, the less likely people will be to choose to attack us and our allies.

Strongly Disagree

People certainly should be free to choose to boycott or divest their funds from whatever or wherever they choose, but foreign policy is a duty of the federal government under the Constitution and should be left to diplomats. Government entities should do business and invest within the United States as much as possible and should never be allowed to pressure the public into submission nor discriminate against businesses or people who do not share the ideology of elected officials.

Strongly Agree

It is inhumane to allow the southern border to remain as it is now. It is a magnet for hazardous illegal activity, especially dangerous for women and children. We need an effective physical barrier along our southern border to eliminate treacherous illegal crossings, cut off the supply of drugs that are killing our people, and destroy the business of human trafficking that is responsible for the deaths and abuse of countless people who try to enter the country by land via Mexico.

When considering immigration, it is our duty to consider its impacts upon American citizens first, with the desires of foreigners wanting to come here secondary. We should always be a refuge for people in need, but those people need to approach us to ask to come here through proper channels, not by showing up at our border seeking entry or by finding other ways into our country then asking to stay. There is no right for others to enter the United States without a visa or other invitation. People demanding entry should be turned away, people wanting to become Americans should be always given consideration, people fleeing bad governments should be helped to stay home and solve their own problems, and people in economic need should be helped to stay in their homes based upon our charity. We are a giving and compassionate people, but we cannot allow ourselves to be used by the world, nor must we put our own people and children's needs behind the needs of others.

Strongly Agree

The free market always creates the best value. This is also true in education, especially where special needs must be met.

Strongly Agree

Christian values are the foundation of American civilization and serve the public well including people of different beliefs.

Strongly Disagree

Non-discrimination laws have had their place and time, but they now are being weaponized and used to discriminate against people who do not follow trending new belief systems and ways of life that are contrary to their own values.

Strongly Agree

Marriage is defined in the Bible very clearly. It is not subject to government redefinition. If people want to form whatever civil unions or associations they want, that is completely up to them. That said, government should also not grant special privileges to married couples. Laws that do this, while well-intended, should be altered, not the definition of marriage, to re-establish equal treatment of people as called for in the Constitution.

Strongly Disagree

The idea that the United States is fundamentally racist is ridiculous. Racism does exist and must be addressed, but the fact we are even having this conversation as a people is indicative of the fact that our society does not accept racism and is fundamentally against it.

I am a born again Christian doing my best to follow the model of life Jesus demonstrated for us by living among us as a man, dying on the cross for our salvation, then rising from the grave to live with us for all eternity.

Strongly Disagree

While I support provision ballots, subject to identity and qualification verification, nobody should be allow to cast a ballot and have it counted without providing identification as an American citizen.

As Secretary of State, working with our citizens and Legislature, using only American labor not more globalism, I commit to improving and replacing election systems and processes as needed to guarantee every Washingtonian who can legally vote can easily vote, people who legally cannot vote do not vote, and implement a voter identification system and routine independent audits to protect the integrity of our elections. Compared with accuracy and transparency requirements for engineering, banking, and healthcare, our elections have been completely substandard. We deserve and will build an election system that earns our trust. I fully support the slate of initiatives being sponsored by Let's Go Washington which includes an initiative to improve our current voting system. I-1505 is a step in the correct direction, addressing some of our concerns with the current voting system. While we build a 21st Century voting system that everyone can trust, we need to take steps to close the gaps in our current system, including cleaning up the voter registration database, making sure only living American citizens are given ballots, adding routine and thorough independent audits or procedures and results before elections are certified, and opening the system up to the public so everyone can see what is going on from the point ballots are distributed until the election is certified without exception.

Racism is and always will be a threat to the security of our people. Like other forms of hatred, racism is a motivating factor in crime and will always be one of many things that is used to justify acts against other people. The best way to reduce racism is to stigmatize it and not practice it individually or as a society.

Strongly Disagree

There is no justification for passing the burden historical sins on to children who had no part in past offenses. This just creates more division and hatred.

Stricter environmental laws and regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy. We can have everything the American people need and probably almost everything they want while still protecting and respecting the environment we all need and love.

Strongly Agree

American energy independence is a national security need that must be met. I do support reducing the emission of all forms of pollution and would like to see our country lead the way in the use of renewable energy resources, I also accept the reality that we need carbon-based fuels today and it is best to have those energy resources produced domestically, following our environmental standards, giving us the best choices when dealing with foreign governments.

Government exists to protect the individual lives and liberties of its citizens as described in the Constitution.

Conservative

While I think that labels are generally a bad idea, I self-identify as conservative when I must do so. To me, that means I stand for life, liberty, and other traditional American shared values. I am a Christian and a member of a very traditional Christian and Missionary Alliance church. I feel that government that governs the least usually governs the best. We need to reduce foreign entanglements such as dependence on imported oil.

Like serving on jury duty, I believe people should offer their service, serve well, then return to private life. For this reason, I do not have a long trail of public information about my life. I am not a big user of social media, nor am I a political activist. I am a normal citizen who sees a need to serve.

I have never been involved in any court or other disciplinary forum for sexual misconduct, violence, or theft. As a teen, I was involved in a property dispute with a previous employer and had to deal with the criminal justice system, but that was eventually resolved in the courts. My life experiences have equipped me to better help people in need and to better understand the need to protect the rights of citizens to be properly represented when dealing with government.

As Secretary of State, working with our citizens and Legislature, using only American labor not more globalism, I commit to improving and replacing election systems and processes as needed to guarantee every Washingtonian who can legally vote can easily vote, people who legally cannot vote do not vote, and implement a voter identification system and routine independent audits to protect the integrity of our elections. Compared with accuracy and transparency requirements for engineering, banking, and healthcare, our elections have been completely substandard. We deserve and will build an election system that earns our trust. We need a strong voice of the people serving in Olympia, someone who has a record of actually getting things done, not just another government career builder, not a liberal political agitator rebranded as one of us, not an activist trying to build name recognition. We need innovative, free-market solutions proven in the real world. My successful career was built outside of the swamp of government. Like serving on jury duty, I will serve our people, taking responsibility, deliver what I promise, then return to private life, and never make excuses. I am not a newcomer to the Republican Party or traditional conservative values. There was a time early in my life, shortly after high school, that I felt very defeated and disillusioned with life and the world we live in. Since then, after returning to my Christian roots and learning to follow the teachings of Jesus once again, I have spent my entire adult life building a successful career outside of government and serving my family and community. I was born and raised in Everett in a loving family of conservative blue-collar Democrats, I was and still am an admirer of the late Senator Henry M. Jackson, also an Everett native, an elected servant of the people. At age 18, I voted for the first time, backing Ronald Reagan for a second term, recognizing Reagan and Jackson shared a love of the people. That’s the type of bi-partisanship we need and the model of public service I follow, people coming together for the common good of our citizens. That type of leadership is needed today more than ever. It’s the leadership model I offer to the people of Washington in 2022. My decades-long career in the private sector includes work in Data Science, Machine Learning, Missile Defense, Business Intelligence, Online Services serving the Health Care, Manufacturing, Logistics, Software Development, Information Security industries as well as government clients. I currently serves as a senior consultant and data scientist, leading teams of people delivering health care data science and analytic services for the purpose of improving the quality of life of customers as well as reducing costs through the power of the free market.

Strongly Agree

So long as police follow training and departmental policies, they should not fear personal prosecution and should be immune from civil suits and harassment. When training and departmental policies cause harm or infringe upon the rights of the people, those government entities must be held to account, individuals involved in dangerous decision making and policy be discharged from public service, and training and policies corrected when needed to avoid additional harm to others.

Disagree

I do not support defunding the police. We need police protection. What I do support is returning military equipment and tactics to SWAT teams, taking it out of general police use as much as possible, re-establishing police officers as parts of the community, not para-military enforcers of law. Mental health problems with individuals are the root of most property and violent crime we now face, something that must be funded and the problems solved without connection to law enforcement.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms must not be infringed as per the Constitution. For people who want to change that fact, there is an amendment process that must be followed. By definition, law abiding people do not commit crimes with guns. Those people are criminals and must be punished if found guilty in a court of law. When we decide to create so-called common sense gun control laws, we are violating a provision in the Constitution, making us also lawless people in the process. We are avoiding the true causes of violence as well, neglecting to solve the real problem. People who are mentally ill or violent in nature must be dealt with, helped or isolated, preferably helped. Dealing with mental illness and violence is more difficult than making grandstanding statements about firearms. It is already illegal to harm or kill people. Adding more restrictions and gun control laws does nothing to fix the real problem, therefore I am against it in almost every case. So long as we are warehousing children in unprotected schools, those children will be the target of mentally ill glory-seekers who want everyone to know their name. No sane person shoots children in school. Glorifying their heinous acts only increases the likelihood another deranged person will try to kill even more children. We protect our money, airplanes, and sporting events more than we protect our own children. We need to end the neglect of our kids and protect them from violence rather than being distracted by the politics of gun control advocates who care more about disarming the public than they do about protecting children.

Strongly Disagree

Using the civil courts to solve a criminal problem makes no sense and avoids the real problem of criminal violence that must be addressed in other ways that actually are effective. The gun doesn't commit the crime of shooting someone any more than a car does when it is used to run some one over. Focusing upon the tool used to commit violence takes the focus off of the actual criminal where it belongs. Criminals must be held to account for their crimes.