Hello everyone and thank you for watching Northwest Public Broadcasting's Vote .. coverage of the 4th Congressional District primary in Washington State.

That 4th District has been long held by Dan Newhouse, but after announcing in December he would not seek reelection.

That left a seat open for one of 11 candidates on the primary ballot.

My name is Matt Loveless.

Today we at Northwest Public Broadcasting in collaboration with AARP of Washington State and the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties and the League of Women Voters of Yakima County are helping you get to know some of these candidates.

Some newcomers, some familiar challengers, and we have some questions for them.

This is not a debate nor a forum.

We have taken the opportunity to schedule time with the candidates one-on-one.

We'd like our viewers and listeners to consider this a bit of a video voters' guide where we've collaborated on a series of questions.

Each candidate will get all of these same questions and the same opportunity to answer.

We'll time the responses here in our NWPB studio on the WSU Tri-Cities campus.

We thank you for watching.

Now our coverage of this 4th District primary continues as we introduce Jacek Kobiesa, a Pasco resident and design engineer in the Tri-Cities, not your first foray into a political campaign here.

You've been in the studio before.

We appreciate the time as we learn a bit more about your campaign, sir.

Thank you.

My first question, and we're starting with all of our candidates for this one about cost of living and affordability.

And everybody, including older adults facing rising costs for things like healthcare, groceries, gas, utilities, what federal actions would you prioritize to try to keep cost of living and affordability in the right place?

Well, the first step what I would do is get the government out of the equation as much as possible.

The rising cost of living is basically inflation.

And when I was in the same studio four years ago in 2022, I believe I was the only one at that time who said that inflation was rampant.

And the same thing what it is now.

I think the inflation is like 3.8% I believe.

It might be even higher, but people like to buy low and sell high.

This is cannot function.

This is almost impossible to achieve any positive market results.

Sometimes I hear people talking about Europe and I don't agree with some of those statements.

They're saying like Europe is socialism which is not.

Many of the Scandinavian countries are a market economy and we need to bring United States back in towards that direction.

We need to get, we need to free the business and let them do what they need to do.

They need to serve people and people need to be able to buy what they want, how they want.

And basically the free market economy is, is, that's the way to go.

All right.

Thank you.

Second question's about mail-in voting.

As we talk about elections and election security, state's got a long history of vote by mail offering other options for people as well.

How do you balance election security and people's access to voting?

I don't know how.

That's, that's a very good question.

If I, let's say I, I've traveled quite a bit.

Let's say I go to Pasco Airport and we're flying out of Pasco.

And the time I go to Pasco, they ask me for my ID.

And the same should be with, with voting.

So when I, when I become a US citizen I used to live in San Francisco at that time.

So in my first election I had to physically go and present my ID.

I had to present my voter registration card.

And I think we need to preserve this kind of system in place.

If people wants to go, you know, and do like a, a ballot voting okay, but you have to go to like the, the county officer or whomever.

You have to present your, your own credentials and there's a ballot which is going to be issued only in your name, one ballot, that's it.

It has, your signature has to be verified your ID, your credentials, everything has to be verified.

And I would prefer personally that you go to a voting booth and just, just check off the my candidates or, or, or problems I'm voting for.

And as soon as that I'm done, I present the ballot to somebody is being dropped and that's it.

And we need to focus on, on really preserving the security of our US election system.

That's plain and simple.

Yeah.

All right.

Question number three talks about Social Security.

And if elected, would you opt to strengthen it, protect it?

How would you do so?

And further, how would you do so not just for the people who use it now but for future generations?

So Social Security, many people they don't have any savings.

Let's say there's a proportion of United States doesn't have any savings for retirement.

So these people are counting on Social Security.

When, when I looked at the Social Security as, as, as a, as a whole that money is basically you, it's in a general fund, which, which it needs to be completely pulled out of general fund.

It needs to be kept in a separate entity if you, if you prefer.

And there's specific amount of time that you need to invest into Social Security before you can draw anything from it.

I don't believe like there's a people coming to United States.

I looked at the Heritage Foundation and they said like there's a people from let's say Afghanistan, you know Honduras, whatever country.

There's like a list of countries.

And they're saying that these people are basically collecting benefits from, you know, paid by US taxpayers.

That, that should be completely stopped.

The only benefits should be paid is a people who contributed to the system.

Once they contribute to the system it's that there should be no question about this people receiving any funds.

And yes, if elected, I will strengthen the Social Security fund as much as possible and prevent people who are, who are not supposed to be here, who are not supposed to be collecting any, any benefits from doing so.

Well we're continuing our conversation about aging populations here in this Q&A and one of them is about caregiving.

And if elected, how would you help ensure people caring for their loved ones may save time, may save some money as they do so?

Well first of all we need to kind of a look at the healthcare system as, as a whole.

We need to basically create like, like a, a simplified care system.

This state was trying to propose the long-term care but like only payable for like six months which, which is, which is really not sustainable.

But we need to get like a, like a, a basic clinics where people can go to and if there is a problem, they can address that problem.

Well I've got a, you know, a ingrown toenail.

Well let's, let's take care of that.

My father eventually from having a, you know, a ingrown toenail end up having a fully blown diabetes.

So there was like a, a precursor to a problem.

Nobody caught that problem until there was a time to amputate his leg.

And if, if, if we need to basically become like, like a, like a proactively looking at, at, at the aging population at the, like, like people as I said, you know, the, you have some indications about specific diseases.

And if that disease can be caught and addressed at specific time frame, it is, it is the, the outcome would be beneficial.

If that disease is being let go too far, the outcome might not be so, so good to, to the patient.

So we need, we need to look into more preventive care and more not just preventive care, but, but more basic care everywhere throughout the whole spectrum.

Excuse me.

And my final question has to do with tribal relations.

Certainly not entirely unique here in this district, but prominent when it comes to government to government relations.

What do you see your role as being in that relationship with the federally recognized tribes in Washington?

That, that, that is a really tough question.

I see sometimes on the Facebook, on the, on the X formally Twitter that's, you know, there are some, some, some of the Natives, you know, they, they, they, they, they venting, you know, this like you owe us this, you know, we are not receiving that.

And we need to work with these people because they're a part of this country.

You know it's, it's... I don't even know how to... We need to, we need to basically, what I would do, I would basically get with the, with the tribal leaders, find out where the problems lies.

You know, I would ask them for what would be their recommendation to solve that problem.

Once I know the position, what they have, then well, let's, let's, let's talk to people in Washington DC and try to remedy, try to maybe balance some of the the wants by the tribal leaders and needs by the DC to balance them out.

You know, so everybody, so we can have a positive outcome in both direction.

I mean, in situation like that, there, there's, there's never a clear winner.

You know, the, the, the tribes might say like, "We still didn't get what we wanted, but at least we're one step closer, maybe two step closers, you know, to, to solve a particular problem."

But it has to be talked about.

It has to be addressed on the, on a local level and then brought up to DC for remedial action.

Well, Mr.

Kobiesa, we could talk a lot more, but I appreciate the quick time here.

Thanks.

We thank you for being here in this campaign.

Jacek Kobiesa, campaigning for the 4th District.

Thank you.

We want to thank everybody for watching these conversations with candidates in the 4th Congressional District of Washington.

And a reminder, ballots go out beginning the 17th of July.

That begins an 18 day period to vote.

We encourage you to vote early as the top two candidates in this primary.

We'll move on to the general.

The official primary election day is August 4th.

On behalf of the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin County, the League of Yakima County and AARP of Washington State, we thank you for watching Northwest Public Broadcasting and our Vote 2026 coverage.