Although they haven’t garnered much attention in most of Franklin or Hampshire counties, two Worcester County contestants are in a race for the GOP nomination for a 2nd Congressional District on next Tuesday’s Republican primary ballot.
Kevin Powers of Millville and Tracy Lovvorn of Grafton are running for the congressional seat held for 21 years by Democrat Jim McGovern of Worcester.
The district includes Amherst, Belchertown, Hadley, Hatfield, Northampton, Pelham, and Ware in Hampshire County, along with parts of Franklin, Hampden, Norfolk, and Worcester counties.
Powers, a Millville entrepreneur and small business owner advocating for term limits and better jobs, opposes sanctuary for illegal immigrants, supports strengthening U.S. borders and national defense and is a supporter of the Second Amendment, according to his campaign website, kevinpowersforcongress.com.
On his Facebook page, Powers says he has a “plan to pull America’s energy needs out from under the thumb of OPEC. (It) … would make the USA completely independent of foreign oil. Full completion would take 15 years, but the plan will have an immediate impact. In addition to energy independence, in Congress (he) will champion Social Security protections for seniors and working Americans.”
Lovvorn, CEO and founder of Evolution Physical Therapy, an outpatient physical therapy clinic in Grafton, has been a member of the Grafton’s Planning Board. According to her website, “I am exhausted from dead end political extremism in Washington, D.C., that leads to constant resistance and accomplishes little.”
Lovvorn’s call for immigration reform includes securing all borders, better tracking of visa overstays and more effective employment verification.
“I support the current administrations plan working to ending chain migration, ending the visa lottery program, and reforming our current immigration laws in support of merit-based qualifications,” according to her website. It also calls for improved childhood health and safety, reforming health care and Congressional term limits, as well as support for federal infrastructure legislation to repair roads, bridges and waste water treatment systems.
“These needs can no longer be neglected. Unfortunately, due to years of negligence the cost of these needed upgrades are astronomical,” she says. “This obviously cannot be funded solely on the backs of taxpayers, especially within a governmental system that has a history of years’ worth of red tape, spending $400 on hammers and commodes, and ending with questionable products. We need to partner with private industry in order to ensure a most cost effective and efficient implementation. We need to help cut red tape and stream line processes so that projects can be identified and actually completed timely. A comprehensive infrastructure bill would result in the creation of well-paying jobs and historically infrastructure investments, in time more than pay for themselves.”