20 | OCTOBER 15 • 2020
E
ric Esshaki is running
for the House seat in
Michigan’
s 11th District
against incumbent Haley
Stevens. Esshaki, a Chaldean,
has a background
in nursing and
earned his law
degree from the
University of
Michigan. He
worked at a New
York law firm before returning
home to Birmingham in 2018,
where he lives with his family.
He told the JN he’
s running
because “we have politicians
who care more about advancing
their own political career than
they do about talking about
policies that will actually make
the lives of Michiganders and
Americans better.
”
Here are highlights of the JN’s
Zoom interview with Esshaki
(edited for clarity and length).
HEALTHCARE
We need a policy that’
s focused
on bringing costs down. One
way is to have more free market
principles involved in healthcare
and more competition based on
cost. I also think we need to get
back to risk-based premium set-
tings so people can choose the
plan that works for them.
COVID-19
All levels of government lacked
leadership in dealing with
COVID-19 ... We closed 100%
of our economy when we knew
only about 20% of the popula-
tion is at very high risk from the
virus. Simultaneously, we did
little to protect that vulnerable
20%. We need to focus now on
keeping our economy going and
continuing to open things up
safely.
IMMIGRATION
We need to make legal immi-
gration easier by creating a
path without current hurdles
and expenses. I also think we
need to make illegal immigra-
tion harder, which requires us
to first ensure we’
re securing
our border. Prioritization for
immigration should be given to
those suffering persecution as
religious minorities.
ANTISEMITISM
It’
s important that we treat
everybody with dignity and
respect. But there are other steps
we must take as a government,
particularly when it comes to
the boycott movement that we’
re
seeing on college campuses.
We should ensure that federal
contracts and federal funding do
not go to institutions that pro-
mote racist culture in any way.
RACIAL JUSTICE
No matter who you are or
where you come from, you may
have obstacles. But part of the
American dream is the fact
that you can overcome these
obstacles. We’
re doing ourselves
a huge disservice when we say
there’
s a couple of bad apples
in law enforcement, so all law
enforcement must be that way.
The notion that we should be
defunding police when we’
re
facing civil unrest across this
country, largely by folks who
are using race as a pretext to
advance a political agenda, that’
s
just wrong.
More at www.thejewishnews.com.
Eric Esshaki
Republican newcomer in the 11th district
talks to the JN about his priorities.
SARAH WILLIAMS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Eric Esshaki