DAVIS, Calif. — Eric Jones is mounting a challenge to longtime Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson, arguing that entrenched political power, corporate money and a Democratic establishment he says has failed working people have left voters increasingly distrustful of government and pessimistic about their economic future.
In a Zoom interview with the Vanguard, Jones framed his campaign around challenging special interests, lowering costs for working families and bringing more federal investment into the district. He said his own path from a low-income family to a successful career helped convince him that opportunities once available to people like him are disappearing for the next generation.
“This country has given so much to me,” Jones said. “And I grew up with very little, a welfare family, enlisted military family, an admirable teenage mom who raised three boys.”
Jones said his mother nevertheless believed that education, hard work and commitment would provide him with opportunities.
“And she was right,” Jones said. “Now I have two young kids and I am so concerned with the future of our nation, the reality facing young people in this country, the lack of hope, and the complete lack of trust in government.”
Jones said he wants his children and others growing up today to have the opportunities he had and to once again believe government can work on their behalf.
“I want us to have a political system and elected officials that we’re proud of again,” Jones said. “And I want us to get to a reality where every person in this country can have the American dream.”
But Jones said that opportunity is increasingly difficult to obtain.
“I think those opportunities are few and far between,” he said. “And I think that our political system and the corruption in that system along with all the corporate greed and special interest greed that we’re seeing is responsible.”
Jones’ background in Silicon Valley potentially presents a challenge for a candidate running against establishment politics, particularly as prominent figures in the technology industry have moved politically to the right.
But Jones rejected attempts to define his candidacy through traditional ideological labels.
“Labels haven’t been helping our political reality for quite some time,” Jones said. “So I can tell people who I am. I can tell people how I’m going to help, and I can tell people what I bring to the table.”
What he brings, Jones argued, is independence from a political structure that he believes increasingly serves corporations and special interests rather than constituents.
“If you are dissatisfied with politics today and don’t think that your government is working for you and don’t believe that your electeds are focused on you, but they’re focused on producing more profit for corporate interest for corporations or serving their special interest benefactors, then you should take this campaign, our campaign very seriously,” Jones said.
Asked to identify the biggest problem in Washington, Jones answered succinctly: “Legalized corruption.”
“The fact that the American people and people in this district, in this community, their desires are not being heard,” Jones said. “DC and Sacramento are both machines designed to reinforce the power of the political parties, keep those who are there in power and funnel money from special interest groups right into the pockets of those elected officials.”
Jones said public service has been displaced by the pursuit of wealth and political power.
“Washington has become a place that people go to get rich,” he said. “Washington has become a place that people go to get powerful. Washington is no longer a place where people go to serve.”
Jones argued the problem extends beyond President Donald Trump and cannot be solved simply by Democrats defeating Trump politically.
“If you don’t like the word corruption, I would use the word corrupted,” Jones said. “It’s a corrupted system.”
“When Donald Trump is out of office, we will have to address all of the underlying issues that still exist in our country,” he added. “The fact that the working class is being left behind, the middle class is shrinking and losing hope, that young people don’t believe this system of government works for them and they are choosing to opt out.”
Jones said Democrats need to offer voters more than opposition to Trump.
“The Democratic Party needs to put forward a vision that people can believe in, they can buy into, and they need leaders that they trust,” Jones said. “And just saying running a party based on not Donald Trump is insufficient. It has to be more than that.”
Jones said a newly-elected member of Congress can make an immediate difference by focusing on constituent services and federal investment.
“It starts with serving your district,” Jones said. “And by the numbers, this district has been woefully left behind in terms of federal investment.”
Jones pledged to approach the office differently and said he has signed a 12-year term-limit pledge.
“This is not a caretaker seat,” Jones said. “You’re not there to keep a seat warm. I’ve taken a term limit pledge of 12 years, signed it, because I believe that if I can’t do the job in that period of time, someone else should get a shot.”
He said federal investment should include large-scale water infrastructure, renewable and alternative energy and efforts to confront powerful corporate interests.
“A million dollars for a bike path is nice,” Jones said. “But what about billions of dollars of water infrastructure to protect all the agriculture and the family farms in this community? How about massive investment in renewable and alternative energy so that we can ensure we have a reliable grid?”
Jones specifically targeted PG&E and the insurance industry, while accusing Thompson of accepting significant financial support from PG&E.
“I’ll be able to take on those interests because I am unbought,” Jones said. “And my opponent has taken more money from PG&E than any federal politician. And I will never take a dollar from PG&E.”
Asked whom he considers the political “bad guys,” Jones pointed toward industries financing senior Democratic officials.
“You can start by looking at who funds the campaigns of the most senior members of Democratic leadership,” Jones said. “So in our district, that’s the insurance industry. Millions of dollars into the campaign coffers. That’s PG&E. That’s big pharma. And that’s big tech more recently.”
Jones was similarly critical of Democratic leadership, saying the party has continued relying on officials who have failed to produce results.
“I don’t know why we continue to roll out a losing team,” Jones said. “I don’t know why we continue to hand participation trophies to elected officials who by the numbers are poor, poor at accomplishing their objectives.”
Jones said he remains a Democrat but sees his candidacy as a fight over what the party should become.
“I am critical of both parties, but I am fighting for the best version of my party, the Democratic Party,” Jones said. “So I can speak to its failures and it is not representing us.”
Jones also resisted placing himself on an ideological spectrum between Democratic moderates and the growing Democratic socialist movement, arguing that the more important political divide is between an entrenched establishment and voters demanding change.
“People want change,” Jones said. “And that change is coming in a whole variety of forms.”
“If there’s a unifying feature, I would say it’s a movement of change and a movement focused on people from outside the establishment fighting for change,” he added. “And what the label on that is depends again on the place. And it’s not even a left or right idea.”
Jones said his platform begins with confronting political money and rebuilding trust in government.
“Fight corruption,” Jones said. “That’s taking on special interest money, taking on the lobbyists, the lobbying industry, attacking Citizens United.”
He also called for banning congressional stock trading, implementing term limits, combating partisan gerrymandering, reducing health care costs and providing tax relief to working- and middle-class households.
“It’s lower the cost of living,” Jones said. “That’s making healthcare more affordable for seniors on fixed incomes. That’s delivering a tax break for the middle and working class that people can actually breathe.”
Asked what legislation he would prioritize in Congress, Jones named a congressional stock-trading ban, anti-gerrymandering legislation, Medicare expansion and tax cuts financed by closing corporate loopholes.
On Medicare, Jones said he wants the program expanded to include vision, dental, hearing aids and in-home nursing care.
“The first three items are humane and they save us money long-term,” Jones said. “And the last, the in-home care is critical and it’s necessary.”
Jones said his fifth priority would involve supporting efforts in California to restrict corporate and special-interest financing of political campaigns.
“We should be taking on Citizens United at every angle and starting in California is a great place to start,” Jones said.
On foreign policy, Jones took a strongly anti-war position when asked about Israel and Gaza.
“No more blank checks for war that the American people haven’t voted for,” Jones said.
He connected that position to his family’s military history and his experiences caring for disabled veterans.
“Given my personal history of being a caretaker for my father and my grandfather and understanding what it means to live with a disabled veteran and see that reality, remembering the day when my brother was deployed on nine eleven, I am anti-war,” Jones said. “I am fully supportive of our veterans at home.”
Jones criticized reductions in Department of Veterans Affairs employment alongside increased defense spending.
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that we cut tens of thousands of VA jobs last year while increasing our defense budget,” Jones said. “And that to me is morally unconscionable.”
He argued that money devoted to overseas conflicts could instead be directed toward domestic needs.
“We have to stop fighting these wars,” Jones said. “We have to stop funding these.”
Jones said his political values ultimately stem from his upbringing and particularly his mother.
“I’ve been blessed to grow up with an absolute warrior of a woman,” Jones said. “My mother raised me and she’s a Christian. And I live by the golden rule, which is to treat others as you would want to be treated.”
Jones said service also runs through his family’s history.
“Men in my family have all served, and this is my opportunity to do so,” Jones said. “And that’s something that’s in my heart that I have to do. And I have to help.”
Despite his bleak assessment of Washington and the political establishment, Jones said he remains optimistic because voters — particularly younger voters — are becoming less attached to traditional political parties and more willing to demand change.
“Americans, we always do the right thing,” Jones said. “We just do it at the last possible moment.”
Through his work with the American Dream Institute, Jones said he has spoken with and surveyed young people across the country.
“Young people have never been, according to our data, less party aligned,” Jones said. “They want change. That’s first and foremost, their request.”
That disillusionment, Jones argued, creates an opening for a different kind of politics.
“Everyone’s saying that neither party is speaking to them, and that’s an opportunity,” Jones said. “It’s an opportunity for the Democratic Party to be better and speak to voters more effectively and speak to people in this country more effectively.”
For Jones, that demand for change is also the foundation of his effort to unseat an incumbent who has spent decades in public office.
“You have an unprecedented wave of challengers in the Democratic Party trying to take on the establishment,” Jones said. “And you’re seeing, again, people all across the country step up to run in this moment.”
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