Jared Solomon (D) has been a State Representative for the 202nd District, covering part of Philadelphia. Prior to being an elected official, he was a securities and anti-trust lawyer. He also worked as a JAG officer for the Army Reserves. He has a slew of issues listed on his website, ranging from abortion and voting rights to public corruption to housing rights.

 

CLICK HERE to watch a full interview with Jared Solomon.

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What is a short job description of the office of attorney general?

Our Attorney General protects our most foundational fundamental rights and freedoms. In fact, that's why I'm running to protect and fight for those rights as they're going to be under attack in 2024 with Trump as the Republican nominee. Coming to Pennsylvania, we need someone that has the courage to take on those big fights and also the courage to win.

And I've demonstrated that throughout my whole career in revitalizing my neighborhood that had been left behind, without a voice in Northeast Philadelphia. In taking the fight to large corporate entities, corporate chiefs as a securities and anti-trust lawyer, going to Harrisburg and demonstrating my ability to push back against special interests and institutional power, break brokers, political leaders and the like to make sure that we held them accountable to us here in Pennsylvania.

That type of fight that work ethic is needed as 2024 looms large and our fundamental rights are on the ballot.

 

Why do you qualify to step into the role?

Because I have a track record of character showing my political courage and my ability to push back against very vested interests, and not because of concern for my own political outcomes, not a consideration of political expediency. But because each and every time I've stood up to those special interests, it has been the right thing to do.

And when Trump brings all of his folks to Pennsylvania, all of his cronies and special interests that are going to threaten our abortion, our sacred right to vote, we need someone that never plays politics, that has the courage and the work ethic to make sure we push those special interests out of Pennsylvania.

 

Can you list a few specific examples of for you what our special interests on both sides of the aisle? Because this is separate word speak, right?

Absolutely. To me, special interests, It's an all inclusive term. So, for instance, locally, I took on special interests and I pushed back against ghost gun manufacturers. They don't care about our neighborhoods in Pennsylvania. I drove money into the Gun Violence Task Force, a partnership between the attorney general and local DA to get illegal guns off of our streets.

Special interests are the very ones that I took on as securities and antitrust lawyer, fought against them to protect and hold them accountable to us in Pennsylvania. Like large pharmaceutical companies, opioid manufacturers who are devastating our communities, urban, rural and suburban alike throughout our Commonwealth. These are the health care industries that are colluding, engaging in vertical and horizontal coal integration and market allocation, not for us here in Pennsylvania, but to pad their own pocket.

I'm going to be there protect workers rights and to make sure that wages in health care access remain at high levels throughout Pennsylvania. This type of work of protecting against these type of special interests are really the work that people feel in the attorney general's office and can inspire confidence in government, because the work allows me, for instance, in the opioid manufacturers, not only to take them on, but then to use those dollars to drive addiction recovery treatment prevention programs in our communities that are so needed.

But special interests also encompass those in the political class, those that don't believe in the public trust, that take advantage of our communities, don't uplift them but degrade them. I've stood up to those folks as well. So when I talk special interests, I talk about them all because I've taken on them all and will continue to do that work as our next attorney general.

 

What is something about the current administration you would change and/or keep the same?

I want to talk specifically on this question to folks out in Erie. I know that folks in Erie, because I've been there many times, feel sometimes that they're left out in the shuffle, just like my community in northeast Philadelphia. They feel like they don't have a voice. They're not a core part of our commonwealth and our democracy. I understand that because I represented a community that felt left behind.

And in order to instill some of that community pride to really bring back to people to believe in Pennsylvania's great democracy, I want to be an Attorney General that's a community based Attorney General. I want to be in Erie. I want many different avenues for folks in Erie to access my office, whether it's me directly on the ground in Erie dealing with that community concerns that you have, whether it's actually a live person on the phone picking it up in the AG's office, which I will guarantee folks in your community or all different avenues to reach me, hours that are accessible.

That's exactly what I do as a state rep. Everyone has my cell phone. My staff is always available. I have evening and weekend hours. That's the type of community based approach and community based Attorney General I will be for us.

Do you feel like the current attorney general is not doing that?

I think in this Shapiro administration that, and a continuation under acting AG Henry, that has been done because for the first time in a long time, we see actual community outreach in this administration. But I want to greatly expand that role so people really feel the presence in Erie of what it means to have a community based Attorney General.

And I think a lot of that begins with presence, presence from me. Most importantly, the people that are going to be doing the training and outreach programs in my office, I want people to think of me as embedded in the Erie community. So my office becomes part of the fabric of civic participation and governance out in Erie, P.A..

 

What do you have that your other primary candidates do not?

Well, I think that what I talked about is accessibility. And an actual vision for my relationship with you and the folks in Erie, Pennsylvania, I think is primary. But I guess it's not just enough to say it. You need to look at a track record. A track record that I started when I ran in 2016 that I said to people, I'm going to have the courage to uplift my community.

I'm going to bring it back. I'm going to give it a voice. And I didn't just say it, Kara. I delivered. People are so sick of politicians just talking. The rhetoric, the double talk. People actually want an action oriented approach, not just to say it, but then to be action oriented and deliver. It's what I've done. So when I talk about the courage to stand up to special interests and corruption, I've done it.

I felt how that feels to take that heat to be someone that stands for what's right for the people of Pennsylvania. And then to keep coming back and doing it time and time again. That's what we need as our next Attorney General. Someone who has that courage and who will do it, do things because they're right. They're just and therefore they're in the best interest of all 67 counties. All folks throughout our Commonwealth.

 

What is a topic/discussion point around the office of Attorney General and what is your take on it?

I think it's to bring back to where we started. The attorney general's office, especially under our current Governor then Attorney General Shapiro, This became a national office. Where Governor Shapiro was as AG responsible for protecting, defending democracy against external attacks, to taking on the large issues. Look, at the courage he showed during the church sexual abuse scandal.

He really broadened and deepened the role. And what was primary and a thread throughout his whole time in office? Courage. And when it comes to these issues, these larger issues where folks are threatening our institutions of government, you have Trump and his special interest- They don't just threaten the rights that I talked about. They threaten the very institutions of our democracy that we so believe in.

Freedom of the press, the presidency, Congress, the very levers of government that for decades- generations- have been accepted and embraced by both parties. That's no longer the case. And I'm going to be an attorney general that understands that and that has the courage to fight for those sacred institutions.

 

A question from followers on our Facebook: Why can’t we have Voter ID?

We actually have a form of voter ID for first time voters. So if you're a first time voter in Pennsylvania, under the election code and Title 25, there are a whole list of forms that you need to bring in order to go in and register and vote on your first Election Day. I think that when it comes to voter ID, it's a balance, right?

We need to balance security of the vote with expanding and accessibility of the franchise. And if we get that right, there's a willingness and ability to do this in a bipartisan way. What we can't have happen is we can't allow any form of voter ID to suppress the vote to restrict access. So if we get that balance right, I think a voter ID law could become law in Pennsylvania. 

And as we know, and I'm sure that's one of the reasons that your viewer asked the question is that the vast majority of Pennsylvanians accept and want some form of voter I.D.