She may be a political novice, but Susan Boser is no stranger to social problems and policy.

In fact, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 15th District of the U.S. House of Representatives has taught social problems and policy for 16 years at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Before that, she worked in social services.

Boser is challenging incumbent Republican Glenn Thompson in the Nov. 6 general election. She was visiting Bradford on Wednesday and stopped by The Era.

“Deciding to run was really quite a big thing for me,” Boser said. “I’ve never run for public office before.”

Her background has taught her a lot, she explained, “about the connection between poverty and social problems.” Growing poverty in rural areas has triggered a rise in opioid deaths, suicide, and problems with domestic violence. “You can tie these kinds of things to a sense of despair and hopelessness. That’s connected to poverty.”

And she wants to do something about it.

Watching the actions and policies of Congress in the past few years, she’s noticed that “decisions that were being made were not aimed at helping conditions in rural areas. They were aimed at helping the GDP, the stock market. It’s making matters worse here and it doesn’t have to be that way.”

She talked about the stereotype of a Democrat, and assured that she isn’t one.

“When people look at Democrats, the stereotype is we’re going to take all your money and give it to people who don’t want to work; and we’re bad for business and we’re going to get your guns. None of that is true about who I am.”

Boser explained the issues which make up her platform — economic development, jobs, infrastructure development and healthcare.

She explained people need to have good jobs with a family sustaining wage, good benefits and retirement to really be secure. “People who are having to work two or three part-time jobs to keep the electricity on are people who are also desperate and are struggling and living right at the edge,” Boser said.

“That’s not sustainable,” she said. “So I am first and foremost about economy and I have a lot of ideas about what’s needed for that. I believe in developing small business through things like low-cost loans and good technical training in the trades.”

Small businesses would be helped with providing health care that isn’t through employers, but is through a single-payer model, she said.

“I also believe there are opportunities out there that could be developed, in the dairy industry or the supply chain for renewable energy or things like that,” Boser said, using an example of making parts for wind turbines.

She continued, saying infrastructure development is crucial to economic development.

“One of the biggest pieces is access to rural high-speed broadband internet. The absence of that in the rural areas, in my opinion, is inhibiting the development of business, the willingness of businesses to come here, the willingness of young adults to want to stay here — which is the strength and lifeblood of our communities, having families with multiple generations together.”

The fact that so many rural people do not have high-speed internet is a huge problem, Boser said. And so is the state of infrastructure in the region — aging sewer systems, stormwater systems and water lines.

She discussed her concerns with healthcare, too.

“I’ve been deeply troubled that for awhile Congress has been pointing fingers at and trying to tear apart the Affordable Care Act without offering a reasonable substitution or a better plan,” Boser said. “Yet they are dismantling what’s already there. The recent talk about getting rid of pre-existing conditions I think is terribly concerning.

“It’s something I think we need to address,” she said.

“For the short term I think we need to be replacing the supports to the Affordable Care Act that will keep as many people as possible insured in the shorter term, but there’s a lot of gaps and a lot of problems with the Affordable Care Act too,” Boser said. “I think the best way to address that is to move to healthcare for all or a single-payer system.

“And luckily there’s lots of models to take a look at in countries that have less expensive health care than we do and also get much better outcomes than we do, too.”

Boser’s website is SusanBoserForCongress.com

Thompson’s website is friendsofglennthompson.com