In the ladies’ room today, we have US Congressional Candidate, Cathy Kunkel, who is running as a Democrat in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. Cathy has defended West Virginians against monopoly electric utilities, analyzed the economic and financial impact of natural gas drilling and pipelines in the region, researched absentee land ownership in West Virginia, and fought electric utility corporate bailouts. She’s is the co-founder of Advocates for a Safe Water System in the aftermath of the January 2014 Freedom Industries chemical spill. She is the co-founder of Rise Up WV, an organization that advocates for healthcare for quality public education, better services for those suffering from addiction, and many other issues we’ve discussed on this podcast.

Cathy discusses her stance on healthcare. Specifically, in West Virginia, the coal industry that is now leaving and shrinking because of financial and environmental reasons has left a lot of former coal workers with black lung disease. Even though, many coal workers are entitled to help from getting this disease at work. they are struggling to fight big lawyers working against them. Now that many West Virginians have lost their coal mining jobs, they are being left without health insurance. She goes through her plans for helping the environment and health insurance if elected to Congress.