Dear Friends,

Most career politicians talk about being “in touch” with the common man. However, many candidates and sitting Congressmen are not average Americans at all. Instead, they are wealthy, well-connected career politicians attempting to reach out to a group they know very little about—the middle class. 

As your candidate for Virginia’s 9th Congressional District, I will not pretend to be “in touch” with middle-class Americans. I don’t have to pretend, because I am in the middle class. I struggle with the same issues as my neighbors right here in Southwest Virginia.

I live on a farm where I’m often repairing farm equipment, mending fences in the rain and doing all the things it takes to keep a farm going. It is common to find me covered in grease or dirt, wearing a torn and faded t-shirt.

Like many of you, I’m also a small business entrepreneur who works more than one job to make ends meet. And, because I’m a father of three who cares about his neighbors, I’m also active in my community as a leader and a volunteer. As a veteran of the U.S. Army, I am strongly committed to working to ensure the prosperity and safety of our great country.

You might ask, how does this prepare someone for Congress? The answer is quite clear. The majority of people sent to represent hard-working, middle-class Americans have not spent much time, if any, working with the middle class folks with whom they are supposedly “in touch.” They make policy decisions based on Ivy League theories about an abstract “middle class” and its hypothetical needs.

During those long days working on a farm, I often reflect on what has happened to America from a working man's perspective. I ask myself, “Who are these people running our country? How have we come so far from what our founding fathers envisioned for America?”

I look at my three young children, ages 7, 5, and 2, and wonder what kind of America will they inherit? Will it be a world of never-ending corporate and governmental greed? Will economic balance ever be restored so they can have a chance to earn a fair wage and not be burdened with an overwhelming national debt?

As a sociologist trained to look critically at how our economy and government function, I am not easily fooled by slight-of-hand political explanations. In fact, the solutions to the problems we are facing today are not buried under statistics and data, but in plain sight.

Common sense tells us if greed and fraud go unchecked and unchallenged, there will only be more of it. Unfortunately, greed has not only gone unchecked, it has proliferated—not only on Wall Street but also in our Federal regulatory agencies, financial institutions, corporations and our Congressional representatives.

As your Congressman, you will not have to question whether I am working for the people on Main Street America or if I am in the same boat.  I promise you, through thick and thin, I will be sitting beside you, rowing every stroke.

With Highest Regards,
Jeremiah Heaton



Paid for by Heaton for Congress - Jeremiah Heaton