LAWRENCE GAUGHAN – 5th DISTRICT
Democratic Party
The candidates are separated by district and are placed in alphabetical order by last name within their districts.
The general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 4. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information on polling places, visit voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov.
Lawrence Gaughan, a Democrat, was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Lawrence D. Gaughan, a lawyer, and Margery Gaughan, the adopted daughter of a lumberjack. He has one older half-brother from his mother’s first marriage.
Lawrence Gaughan graduated from Albermarle High School in 1985. When the film “Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home” was being filmed in central Virginia, Lawrence Gaughan found work as a production assistant. After the film, he spent two years attending college in Virginia before transferring to the University of Montana, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts in 1994. Lawrence spent the next five years in Hollywood, California, before returning to Virginia, where he continued to work with film and stage productions.
In the early 2000s, Lawrence Gaughan became more involved with the Democratic Party. He worked for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and raised money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2006 midterm elections.
Between 2006 and 2009, his focus shifted back to the theater and directing movies. He amassed more than 40 stage readings and several full productions. In 2009, he co-wrote and directed a short film entitled “Circles of Life.”
In 2010, Lawrence Gaughan founded the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization GOV360, which is dedicated to reaching out to non-voters. He received several grants to conduct research into the crisis of low civic participation. Between 2012 and 2013, he attended Pepperdine University, where he received his master’s degree in social change theory. Lawrence Gaughan has now turned over the daily operations of GOV360 so he can focus his full attention on his campaign.
“We all know that Washington is broken,” Lawrence Gaughan said on his campaign website. “We cannot expect the career politicians to fix the problems that they helped to
create.”
Lawrence Gaughan stands for issues such as affordable higher education, affordable health care, environmental protection, immigration reform and streamlined
tax codes.
Q: Why should a college student vote for you?
A: In my work as the executive director and founder of GOV360.org, we found that leading studies concluded that roughly 80 percent of college students do not vote at all in non-presidential elections — for anyone. The highest turnout level for college students was in 2008 (more than 40 percent). But since then, turnout has fallen to
record lows. The fact that I reach out directly to college students with these statistics and with a message of participation should be reason enough for them to vote for me, but here are three other important reasons:
1). I will work to make higher education and vocational training more affordable. You should not have to come from a background of wealth and privilege to go
to college.
2). I will work to end this cycle of shipping good-paying jobs overseas, by cutting corporate tax loopholes and promoting our American brand — made in America — in the global marketplace.
3). I will fulfill the number one duty of a representative in Congress, which is to protect our national security and our sovereignty by making sure we create jobs here in America, provide fair and affordable access to a good education and follow the Constitution when it comes to the issue of war. I will never authorize the executive branch to send our men and women into harm’s way, unless there is a direct and immediate threat to our national security here at home.
Q: What, if any, legislation could be considered to give religious institutions, such as Liberty University, the right to be exempt from federal mandates that violate their conscience?
A: This question is not specific enough to answer. What mandates? It is arbitrary and capricious to engage in this kind of speculation or conjecture.
Q: What plans do you have or support to help alleviate student loan debt while simultaneously ensuring quality higher education?
A: Rather than double student loan interest rates (as my opponent did), I would lower them and provide incentives for employers to hire people with advanced degrees by giving them tax credits and allowing some debt relief in cases where the graduate is working to better their community.
Q: What is your position on abortion?
A: My position on abortion? I am not a woman. It is not up to me to have a position on such matters, unless we want to promote some sort of patriarchal tyranny in this country, to which I am strongly opposed.
Q: With the recent spread of terrorism, particularly ISIS, how do you think the U.S. should respond?
A: Let Congress take responsibility for this matter, and let us have a clean up and down vote on airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. I would vote for such airstrikes and for the presence of U.S. Naval carriers in the region. I would not vote to send 120,000 troops to the region (like they did in Iraq in 2003). We also need to rely more on the efforts of our intelligence apparatus (CIA, Naval Intel, Army Intel., FBI and Homeland Security).
Q: What are your thoughts on the use of executive action?
A: Again, this is a vague and unfounded question. What type of executive action specifically? I have already addressed executive action when it comes to sending troops, and I am opposed to that type of executive authority. This question is too vague.
Q: What are your top three priorities concerning congressional legislation?
A: 1). Close corporate tax loopholes in our trade agreements so that we finally end this business of expatriating billions of dollars and shipping good manufacturing and communication industry jobs overseas.
2). Fund early childhood development (Universal Pre-K). This has major future implications in terms of our ability to make America competitive again and in terms of promoting future prosperity for generations to come.
3). Pass a balanced budget amendment that ends corporate welfare and giveaways to billionaires. Support small businesses with incentives and tax breaks. By creating fairness in the tax code, we can bring down our deficit (and debt) while creating good paying jobs here in America.
Q: What separates you from other candidates?
A: People are sick and tired of the status quo. I am not a lawyer, a millionaire or a career politician, and I am not from a family of wealth and privilege. I am not a candidate who represents business as usual.