This Democrat Farmer is Running To Flip California’s 1st District

Why is this agricultural educator giving up her "tranquil life" for public service? Audrey Denney explained to Brut why she's choosing a calling over comfort and running for Congress

Downballot: Audrey Denney for Congress


Audrey Denney is running for Congress in California’s 1st district. She first ran in 2018. At that time, a personal health crisis put the U.S. healthcare system front and center in her mind. Expanding federal and state public health insurance programs is a major priority for Audrey Denney as more than half of her district's population uses these programs. Also, one in five residents in the district suffer from a physical disability, which is twice as high as the rest of the California.


She believes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Cases has helped her district in decreasing the uninsured rate and expanding important health protections. She believes that there needs to be an additional focus on reducing rising health insurance costs and increasing access to adequate health services in rural areas. Denney supports Medicare for All legislation that would guarantee universal healthcare coverage for all Americans. She also wants to increase the amount of federal healthcare spending her district receives. Now rural healthcare is key to her platform.


“My district is huge. It's just bigger than West Virginia and just smaller than South Carolina. It's rural. It's remote-rural, and the folks that live here aren't super well-off. Our median income is $47000, and so folks struggle. Last year alone, we lost 93 lives to wildfires with the Camp fire and the Carr fire. So, every single day we're talking about how we protect our communities from these massive wildfires, how we're resilient in the face of them. We're talking about nitty-gritty issues every day, like how do we fix the fire insurance problem. How do we keep folks from getting kicked off their fire insurance? We talk a lot about healthcare. I've got two counties where women can't deliver babies in hospitals because there's no access to rural healthcare. We talk about fixing the healthcare system to make sure that people don't go bankrupt because of a major health crisis.” the aspiring politician tells Brut.


While all eyes are on the 2020 presidential race, hundreds of candidates will be running in down-ballot races.


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