It’s about Finkenauer, her experiences

Abby Finkenauer's platform is personal, according to her. That's quite evident. The Democratic candidate in the 1st Congressional District cares about dissolving student debt, because she has student loan debt. She cares about labor rights, because her dad is a blue-collar laborer. She cares about women's rights, because she is a woman. She cares about health care, because someone close to her had a health issue. I agree; these are all policy issues that do need to be addressed.

Finkenauer, though, has not lived a real life outside her bubble. Her bubble suggests white privilege and general naivete. We never hear her speak about civil rights, the environment, or how many Iowans will secure jobs from the Bakken pipeline, since she accepted $500 from the company running the lines through Iowa.

Don't get me wrong. Her competitor, Rep. Rod Blum, lives in a bubble, too. I don't expect him to change. Rather, I expect Democrats to choose better than Finkenauer.

The DNC and DCCC were hot and heavy to endorse Finkenauer. Those organizations disregarded candidates with a more worldly, Robert F. Kennedy perspective.

I'd rather bear through two more years of Blum (who makes me regurgitate involuntarily) than deal with someone who will be in that position for eons and sell her vote as Finkenauer does. She's a symbol of the big- party machines - literally lapping up money wherever she can.

I'm waiting for 2020 to elect a Democrat in the 1st Congressional District who cares about all people beyond her personal space.

Paige Penningroth

Cedar Rapids