Candidate Access 2006 offered each candidate up to five minutes to make a special appeal to voters. Views and comments expressed by the candidates are their own and should not be considered an endorsement by the television stations.

Hello, I’m Robin Hayes, your congressman from the 8th District.

It’s an honor to serve you in Congress. My goal each and every day is to work on the issues that are important to you and our community.

Whether it’s assisting a veteran with their individual health care issues or helping a community secure funding for critical infrastructure that will create jobs - there is no issue too small or too big for us to tackle.

I have often said that my top priorities are national and economic security. As your member of Congress, I want to create an environment that protects our existing jobs while attracting new ones by working with our local leaders to help them with their local priorities.

Since being elected to Congress, we have secured millions of dollars in funding for critical infrastructure and programs that benefit every county in the district. Whether it’s supporting the new biotech center in Kannapolis, better water in Stanly and Anson Counties, improving the Monroe airport, or securing funding for an anti-gang youth program in Charlotte – we are working with you to address the issues that are important to our community.

Economic security also means that your family’s budget doesn’t get stretched too far just trying to make ends meet. Healthcare and energy costs have been hitting our working families especially hard.

Right now, our nation is more than 60 percent dependent on foreign sources of energy. This growing and dangerous dependence threatens thousands of good American jobs, increases consumer prices, and creates vulnerabilities in our national security.

My long-term goal is to eliminate our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by increasing our ability to produce the fuel that Americans use on U.S. soil.

Earlier this year, I introduced The E85 Investment Act -- A bill that promotes and expands ethanol use by providing a tax credit to existing gas stations to install the pumps and tanks to distribute this alternative fuel. This bill not only provides an alternative fuel source to compete with gasoline, it’s a renewable source that can be grown right here at home.

Affordable health care is critical to our workers and their families. During my time in Congress, I have worked to support legislation that would address the affordability and availability of health care while ensuring quality. There have been recent announcements that private competition is keeping costs for prescription drugs lower for our seniors than previously thought. To date, 72,000 Eighth District seniors now have prescription drug coverage.

On jobs, our strategy for growth is two-pronged. We are working to protect jobs in our traditional industries, such as agriculture and manufacturing, while creating new opportunities in industries, such as defense.

Ultimately, we cannot attract quality jobs without quality schools. I have worked hard to expand technology in the classroom by bringing the vast assets of the library of Congress to our schools and working with the private sector to begin hi-tech training in middle school. I want North Carolina students to not only be ready to take a job, but to create jobs.

On a final note, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, I pledge that no one will be working harder than I will to ensure that our brave soldiers on the front lines have everything that they need to aggressively fight and win the War on Terror. And this commitment includes the loved ones who are left behind when soldiers are deployed.

I am proud of my record. There is still a lot to do, and I look forward d to serving the 8th District for another term in Congress. Thank you for taking the time to watch. I’m Robin Hayes and I am asking for your support and your vote on November 7.