Peter Harrison
A candidate for the 3rd Congressional District of Washington is hoping his wide range of experience and a science-oriented mind will put him ahead of the game in 2018.
Peter Harrison, of Vancouver, is one of three Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives seat currently occupied by U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground. Harrison joins David McDevitt and Dorothy Gasque for the 2018 congressional race.
Harrison, 57, a self-described scientist with a varied career including working at Microsoft to volunteering as a chemistry educator at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), cites a mind aimed at “bringing the science perspective to the whole political process” as one of his distinguishing features as a candidate.
Harrison said that healthcare and climate change, along with more infrastructure investment, were chief among his policy focuses.
Regarding healthcare, Harrison said he had intimate knowledge of the system, having been diagnosed with a blood disorder early on in his life.
“I’ve seen the discipline improve, while the business of medicine has gone way downhill,” Harrison said, citing cost increases and the increase of necessary paperwork as chief reasons for a struggling system.
“If you go back just 15 years ago, when you went to the hospital you got a bill. Now when you go to the hospital, you may get a bill from the laboratory providers, from the radiologist, from the hospital, from the emergency room department … and the list goes on,” Harrison said. “We are being buried in paperwork and buried in administrative costs for no improvement of care.”
As far as a fix, Harrison said he was a proponent of Medicare-for-all, though he said there were other things that could be done, like reducing prescription drug and medical device administrative overhead which is burdening the system.
Climate change was another prominent issue, which Harrison said Herrera Beutler was not adequately addressing.
“Whenever she’s asked a question about climate change, she talks about something else,” Harrison said, adding that although she talks about protecting the state’s natural resources, the question never gets directly answered.
As a result to his medical condition that he said left him in debt to the donors who supplied blood when he needed, Harrison said he has a “pay it forward” attitude, mentioning he has volunteered at places like the Red Cross and OMSI. Another example was when in 2014 he was able to save a life using CPR skills, of which he has been certified since graduating high school.
When it comes to paying it forward with investments in the future, Harrison said a glaring deficiency in government is on infrastructure.
Harrison said that since 1982 there hasn’t been a bridge over the Columbia River built in the district, something he took issue with given the rapid population growth since then.
“The reason we became a great country in the first place is because we invested in our great country,” Harrison said. “Right now we are passing on the costs of those investments that will need to be made at some point onto our children instead of taking them on ourselves.”
“We are not paying it forward the way our parents and grandparents, and people who sacrificed for us in wars did. We stopped. We need to start again,” Harrison said.
“Let’s make this a country that our children can be proud of,” Harrison said.
