WPSU is interviewing candidates running for Congress in the 2024 election in our listening area. Democrat Beth Farnham is running for the U.S. House of Representatives, 13th District against the incumbent, Republican John Joyce, who did not respond to WPSU's requests for an interview. The district covers a large section of south-central Pennsylvania, including Blair, Huntingdon, Cambria and Mifflin counties.
Here is that conversation.
Anne Danahy
Beth Farnham, thank you so much for talking with us.
Beth Farnham
You're most welcome, Anne. Thanks for having me here.
Anne Danahy
You live in Adams County, which is on Pennsylvania's south-central border, and you served on the board of the Conewago Valley School District. Why did you decide to run and why do you think you're qualified to serve in Congress?
Beth Farnham
Thank you very much for asking me these very important questions. I decided to run because I was not going to roll over for the John Joyces of our Congress. Representative John Joyce is my current opponent, and he does not stand for women's rights. That's first and foremost. I saw that the Dobbs decision had overturned Roe v. Wade back in spring of 2022, and I was horrified. This was going to mean that not only would I not have rights over my own body as I had had my whole life, but neither would any any women or girls I knew, including my own daughter.
My question why I would run as I've only, as I've been a stay at home parent for the last 13 years, but I've volunteered a lot, and prior to that, I had put myself through college as a pharmacy technician, and that included working in a fertility pharmacy. So I was very intimately understanding of the bravery, the courage that it took to face month after month and to try through the fertility services, what that meant to people to use IVF or in vitro fertilization services. I worked as an administrative assistant for a scissor and boom lift company, and it turns out that one of America's leading boom lift companies is located, is headquartered in McConnellsburg, which is the county seat of Fulton County, which is also part of the 13th Congressional district. So I felt that that part of my life had come full circle. And then, prior to having the children, I had been a credit analyst for Bank of America, a large financial institution of the United States. So I felt that I had a very global perspective. And after, unfortunately, convicted felon Trump was elected to the presidency, I began my political career. I was protesting his presidency. I was at the Women's March in Harrisburg. And our current representative is proud to be endorsed by that convicted felon. Our current representative, John Joyce, is so tied to Trump that when Trump lost the 2020 election to President Biden, he sued several states' boards of election over his loss. He lost 60 out of 61 lawsuits. He had no evidence that there was any election fraud, yet my current representative still believed his lies of election fraud.
Anne Danahy
So you've said that you used to be a Republican, but then you switched parties to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Is that what made you switch? Was it a specific issue?
Beth Farnham
I did not switch parties at that time, but I did vote Democrat. What happened was, you know, Trump asserted his candidacy, and I heard him speak, and I just said, "Well, not that guy." And my husband, also a Republican at the time, an NRA member as a matter of fact, he said, "Well, not that guy." And I said to him in February 2016 I said, you know, if it ever comes down between Trump and Clinton, I think I'm voting for Clinton, and that's what happened. So with that election, we were very proud to vote for her, as well as every other Democrat, because the Republicans only supported Trump at that time. And after she lost, I was in deep grief. So I attended the Women's March, etc., and I just, I kept voting for Democrats because Trump's incompetency, his unfitness to serve as president, was just ongoing, and his his criminality was obvious, and there seemed to be no check on him from the Republicans whatsoever. They kept supporting him, left, right and sideways, and I kept voting Democrat, which made it extremely difficult in the primaries. I had to keep writing in Democratic candidates for the positions. But I just I kept voting Democrat, and after a few years, I said, You know what? I am a proud Democrat. I am registering this way, and that's what happened in 2019, and I've never wavered.
Anne Danahy
Are there still issues you see yourself agreeing with Republicans on or that you could work with Republicans on?
Beth Farnham
I'm sure there are some some middle-of-the-road issues. You know, certainly when it comes to providing for veterans and our nation's security, I believe that we should maintain a powerful presence in the world. But I need those Republicans to also work across the aisle and stop in their devotion, their slavish devotion to convicted felon Trump. So it's got to be working with Republicans who are fit to serve.
Anne Danahy
What do you see as the biggest issue facing Americans, and what would you like Congress to do about it?
Beth Farnham
Well, we have to start with democracy and ensuring our sacred right to vote. So expanding the Voting Rights Act, ensuring that there are multiple opportunities for voting, expanding absentee ballot access, as well as early voting in person. I believe these are important to that we never come this perilously close to losing our democracy to someone who promises a dictatorship on the first day, should he be reelected to the presidency and a bloodbath if he is not. And I would have made reproductive freedom my greatest priority, but nothing else follows if we don't have that sacred right to vote. However, I do want to touch upon reproductive freedom. I do believe in enshrining into law reproductive freedom, such as access to safe and legal abortion, birth control, in vitro fertilization, also known as IVF, as well as gender affirming care. You know, only when we can create the families we choose are we truly free.
Anne Danahy
Beth Farnham, thank you so much for talking with us.
Beth Farnham
You're most welcome, Anne, this has been my tremendous pleasure. Thank you.
Democrat Beth Farnham is running in the US House 13th Congressional District against Republican incumbent John Joyce. Joyce's office did not respond to requests for an interview.
