HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) — The following is a transcription of an interview conducted by WSVA and Rocktown Now with Congressman Ben Cline. The full interview with Cline, as well as opposing Ken Mitchell and Robby Wells can be listened to here.

Question 1
Why do you think you should be reelected to represent Virginia’s 6th Congressional District?

Ben Cline: “Growing up in the valley, the values that I’ve been instilled with faith, family, community, public service, have led me to serve the district, not only by working for my predecessor, Congressman Bob Goodlatte, but also working for Harrisonburg and Rockingham County and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office when I got out of law school, working for Marsha Garst prosecuting domestic violence cases and other cases but contributing and giving back to the community. The opportunity to go serve in a different way up in Congress has been the honor of a lifetime over the last six years and we’ve been fighting for those values which have been under attack, not only by Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat controlled house, but also by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in a Democrat administration. So, while we have the majority in the House right now it’s not a guarantee. We have to continue the fight to address the inflation that we’ve seen, to address the open borders that we’ve seen, to address the crime that we’ve seen and I’m anxious to get back to the fight for another two years if the voters will send me, I’ll go back and keep fighting.”

Question 2
What do you think is your greatest asset as a congressman?

CLINE: “Well, I think it’s the experience of growing up and living in the valley, raising my kids here, you know, finding my wife here. We have really invested a lot in this place, this special place, and the special people who live here. It’s, you know, it’s personal to me when the constituents who I represent are my childhood dentist or my, you know, my Boy Scout troop leader or the neighbors who maybe taught me how to drive when I was in high school. These are folks who I’ve lived with all my life and my service to them is very personal to me and I’m anxious to continue to serve the community and the people who I’ve grown up with and lived with just about my whole life.”

Question 3
Based on feedback from voters in the 6th district, what issue or issues are the most important to them in this election?

CLINE: “Well, you know the cost of living has been number one in the minds of voters over the last four years because the policies of the Biden Harris administration have resulted in the worst inflation we’ve seen in 30 years. So, nearing 10% cumulatively, it’s been over 20% now. Inflation has gone down, but that pressure on prices hasn’t. Prices haven’t come down. They’ve just kind of stuck at that high level. So, whether it’s the grocery store or the gas pump or if you’re a farmer and you have input costs or if you’re working, dealing with energy costs, you know, these are all impacting you and your salary is not going up commensurate with inflation. So, we’ve got a real pinch going on with the families in the 6th district and the very first thing we have to do, when we win the White House, when we win the House and the Senate and on November 5th is getting spending back under control.”

Question 4:
Many feel that Washington is broken. After your years in Congress, are you more optimistic or pessimistic that the serious problems this country faces can be solved in D.C.?

CLINE: “You know, I’m a happy warrior, so I’m always looking optimistically at the future. When I interview kids for our service academics, these are some of the best and brightest in our country and it just gives me hope for the future. But I’m also a realist, so I see that there are others out there who want to take our country in another direction, who want to take away the freedoms that we love, who want to make us into some kind of socialist alleged utopia. But we see what happens around the world when other countries try to adopt these socialist policies, like Kamala Harris is proposing, it drives up inflation. It makes the value of a dollar worth less, and it develops into scarcities for the people. So, we’ve got to fight against these radical leftist policies and whether it’s in the White House, whether it’s in the House of Representatives or the Senate, we need Republican majorities to set this country back on track, to secure our border, to lower inflation and to keep our communities safe. And I’m going to keep fighting to do that.”

Question 5:
If you are reelected, what will be one of your top priorities in the next Congress?

CLINE: “Well, it’s an honor to serve on the Judiciary Committee under Chairman Jim Jordan, which handles a lot of different issues. But immigration is one of those issues, and securing our border has been a priority for me ever since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took their oaths of office and reversed over 90 different policies of the Trump administration that had our border secure, but reversed it and opened up the border to what we have now. And so, that was why we passed HR 2. As soon as Republicans took control of the house, we passed aggressive conservative legislation to seal the border to put back in place those Trump policies. But to actually reform the asylum process, to stop people from coming across the border, to force them to remain in Mexico, to put those policies back in place–Joe Biden and Kamala Harris fought it every step of the way. It’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk, but with an order from Joe Biden not to act on it. And you know, Kamala Harris was the self-described or alleged border czar who did absolutely nothing but encourage more people to come up here, to come across the border, and now every community, like ours, is a border community, so working on the Judiciary Committee is a great honor and I’m going to continue to fight with Jim Jordan and others in Congress to make sure we seal the border, address inflation, and hopefully can make our communities safer and better places to continue to make them the great place they are to live, work and raise a family.”

More information about Ben Cline can be found on his website www.bencline.com.