Rep. William Keating, who has represented the South Coast in Congress for more than a decade, will face Republican challenger Dan Sullivan, a hospital nurse, on Nov. 5 for the 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Sullivan has never held public office, and when she’s not working as a nurse at a state prison or local hospital, she campaigns throughout the district.
The two candidates met for the first time this month at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters in Falmouth. In 20 minutes, they touched on democracy, offshore wind, border control, reproductive rights, and climate change.
Keating, a Democrat, has served in the Massachusetts state legislature since 2010 and won about 60% of the vote in the last election in 2022. Sullivan lost the Republican primary for Congress that year and ran unsuccessfully for Plymouth’s school board in 2023.
In 2020, the 9th Congressional District, home to about 780,000 residents from Westport to Cape Cod and from Cohasset to Nantucket, tilted blue, with nearly 60% of its votes going to President Joe Biden. The region spans the South Shore, South Coast, Cape and Islands.
The Right spoke to Keating and Sullivan about why they’re running, what they think is the most pressing issue facing Americans and what they plan to do about it.
bill keating
Mr. Keating, 72, began his career in public service as a state representative in the late 1970s. He later served as a state senator.
“When I was a kid, at the dinner table in my hometown, my parents would always discuss government issues. … (They) would have a dialogue that I would just absorb,” said the Bourne-based the Democrat said. “Every job is important. …But the reality is that through elected office, we can legislate changes that other professions cannot directly make.”
Incumbent U.S. Representative William Keating will face challenger Dan Sullivan for the 9th District seat this year. Photo courtesy of Keating Campaign.
Keating earned a law degree and served as Norfolk County District Attorney for nearly 10 years. He ran and won in 2010 for the 10th Congressional District, which includes the Cape and Islands and South Shore. Keating became the South Coast representative in the 2012 election after merging the South Coast with Cape Cod and some South Coast areas to create the 9th District.
During his time in Congress, Mr. Keating served on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.
In interviews and a debate in Falmouth, Mr. Keating emphasized the importance of protecting the country’s democracy, which he argued was under threat from former President Donald Trump.
“We have a domestic threat to our democracy. …If we don’t respect elections, if we don’t respect people’s votes, everything else pales in comparison.” We don’t have a democracy,” he told The Light.
“I was there on January 6th…I know how dangerous it was. People came with guns, they came with knives…bear spray. and acid. This was not a peaceful protest. It was a riot to stop the vote,” he continued. “Then-Vice President Michael Pence was determined to uphold the Constitution. But too many people, including my opponent, have questioned this fundamental thing.”
Asked by The Right about the 2020 election results, Sullivan did not specifically say that President Joe Biden won. He said he has a “healthy skepticism” and doesn’t believe everything the government says.
“I will look into it myself. I don’t know enough about the results of the 2020 election. I know Biden is president…I have no interest in litigating again in 2020,” he said. told The Light. He also criticized early voting and voter identification measures as being lax.
On immigration, Keating said he supports a bipartisan border security bill and said the government needs to fix delays in a “broken” system for processing asylum claims.
On the South Coast, particularly in New Bedford, the burgeoning offshore wind industry is gaining advocates and strong critics.
Keating is a supporter of offshore wind and recently attended a waterfront ribbon-cutting for a new terminal in the Port of New Bedford that will serve both offshore wind and the fishing industry. (He said the new terminal would also be good for fishermen, allowing them to berth at a subsidized rate.)
He touted funding secured for the National Offshore Wind Institute (NOWI), also located on the city’s waterfront. The institute certifies people who work on and around turbines at sea.
“With offshore wind, we want to make sure we keep jobs here. Those jobs are skilled jobs and they require training,” he said. “My amendment sets aside $2 million for the National Offshore Wind Laboratory in New Bedford, where training will take place and make us an international center.”
Mr Keating said offshore wind power is not only clean energy but also a “jobs generator” needed to meet the energy needs of the state’s homes and businesses.
Mr. Keating wrote a letter to federal regulators expressing concern about Vineyard Wind’s blade failures over the summer. The councilor told The Light that he met with Vineyard Offshore’s CEO shortly after the failure and received assurances that the company would better communicate with the community.
Reproductive rights and abortion are other issues that Massachusetts voters are concerned about, according to the poll. Both candidates were asked about their positions at candidate meetings.
Ms. Keating supports abortion rights and voted in favor of codifying abortion through the Women’s Health Protection Act, which establishes a federal right for health care providers to provide and patients to receive abortion care. . To date, this bill has not been passed. Mr Keating pledged to vote yes again and that women should also have access to protected contraceptives.
Mr. Keating is a member of dozens of organizations, including the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the Sierra Club, Ironworkers Local 7, the Southeastern Massachusetts Central Labor Council, and the gun safety advocacy group Moms Demand Action. It has received support from several organizations.
Mr Keating had the following message for voters: “I respect your vote… it is at the heart of our democracy. When I say our democracy is at stake right now, I am right. Please.”
Dan Sullivan
Sullivan, a registered nurse, has made her profession part of her candidacy, wearing bright blue scrubs in interviews and campaign videos and having her title “Nurse” printed on her campaign signs. .
He keeps his day job while campaigning for Congress. He works double shifts many nights and said he is cutting back on sleep to spend several hours each day campaigning in the 9th District towns, including a stop in New Bedford.
Dan Sullivan, a nurse who is running as a Republican candidate, is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. William Keating for the 9th District seat this year. Photo courtesy of Sullivan.
The 58-year-old Plymouth resident switched from corporate sales to nursing after the Great Recession, working nights and weekends to earn her degree. He currently works at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton and the state prison, treating inmates.
Nursing “is one of the few professions where you can actually have a positive impact on people,” Sullivan told the Light.
He said he doesn’t want to be like career politicians, whom he describes as out of touch with the day-to-day struggles faced by his people.
“Our political leaders don’t care about us anymore. I work two jobs. I work two jobs and two shifts to make a living. I work with a lot of nurses, and I have friends who do side jobs to make ends meet,” Sullivan said. “People are working harder for less money. That’s a problem. It’s unsustainable.”
Sullivan spoke a lot about mental health and substance use disorders, drawing on his experience treating patients with mental disorders and drug problems, both incarcerated and hospitalized. .
He calls it an epidemic and, if elected, will use his position in Congress to increase the capacity of sobriety facilities and inpatient treatment centers, often measured by the number of available beds. He said he would secure a lot of funding.
“More money will be spent on treating the mentally ill and less money will be spent on foreign wars,” Sullivan told the Light. “I’m tired of endless wars.”
The other biggest issues Sullivan cited are affordability and immigration.
“What we need to do is figure out who’s in this country, legally or illegally,” he said, citing the recent arrest of five men in the country illegally on Nantucket. “Immigration inspections will be temporarily suspended.”
Last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and charged five Central and South American immigrants with violent crimes. Some studies have found that illegal immigration does not lead to increased crime, and that illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born American citizens.
Sullivan also said the government needs to close the southern border.
For the south coast and islands, Mr Sullivan highlighted offshore wind as an issue and expressed concern about the impact turbines would have on fisheries and coastal areas.
He talked about the blade failure. “Mr. Keating called it the ‘blip.’ I call this an environmental disaster,” Sullivan said at an event in Falmouth after a host asked both candidates to comment on climate change mitigation.
“I don’t know if the industrialized waters off Cape Cod and the islands are the best place for wind turbines,” he said in an interview with The Light. “I know that under Biden there are plans to industrialize the coastline from the Carolinas to Maine. I don’t know if that’s good policy (or) good environmental protection.”
Sullivan also expressed concern that electricity from wind farms could become more expensive for ratepayers. Future wind projects could reportedly cost Massachusetts ratepayers more than previous projects. (The state has not yet released expected electricity rates.)
Regarding abortion, Sullivan described himself as a medical professional who is “against abortion in every sense of the word.” He said that as a nurse, he didn’t want to see “any unnatural death”, but “at the same time, you have to think about things realistically”.
He said the Obama administration and Democrats failed to codify access to abortion and failed to provide themselves with issues to campaign on and “win elections.” He said the United States should look to European countries’ abortion laws as a model.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, European countries have different laws regarding abortion. Some have a restriction between 18 and 24 weeks of pregnancy (some as early as the first trimester). However, access will be granted later in all emergency situations.
In interviews, Sullivan said he supports legal abortion in cases of rape, incest, and cases where the mother’s health is at risk, and states that have outright bans on abortion and abortions in the third trimester. He said both states that allow it are “extreme” positions.
He said states should consider the viability of the fetus as an indicator, rather than specifying a specific gestational age.
“I think 24 weeks is more acceptable than legalizing abortion up to 40 weeks,” Sullivan told the Light.
He also spoke from personal experience.
“When I was in my 20s, my girlfriend and I got pregnant and I asked her to have an abortion. She said no. I respected her decision,” Sullivan said at an event in Falmouth. spoke. “Twenty-nine years later, I have a wonderful son. … I respect a woman’s right to choose, but I also acknowledge that there are questions about the viability of the fetus.”
Sullivan said he has received support from several Republican town committees.
Addressing voters, he said: …I hope you will choose change and progress like I did, instead of the status quo like Bill Keating. ”
Keating and Sullivan will debate on South Shore radio station WATD on October 29, both candidates confirmed.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
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