U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer visited Bainbridge High School last week and spoke with students about public service, how he feels about Congress, and some of the issues facing constituents in District 6.

Kilmer said the reason he wanted to be a lawmaker is because he “didn’t want their future dictated by a completely messed up federal government.” Kilmer said he focuses on economic development, preserving the environment, providing a great education for all and making sure “that discrimination is a thing of the past.”

As for what he would do to change government, Kilmer said three things: voting rights, our democracy needs protecting, and there’s too much money in politics.

Regarding that last issue, Kilmer said that’s why he works on campaign finance reform to reduce the role of big money that “unleashed the floodgates of dark money into political campaigns” after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and he’s sponsored legislation to try to fix that.

“We’ve gotten it through the House, but it’s gotten jammed up pretty consistently in the Senate,” he said.

To protect voting rights he wants passage of the new Voting Rights Act. Regarding the actions of Jan. 6, 2021, he said, “The most important part of that day was not the awful things that we saw on the news in terms of the assault on the Capitol, and the assault on our democracy … it was the fact that after all of that happened, Congress went back to work and certified the electoral college vote.”

Kilmer said the country needs to demonstrate that elections aren’t decided by insurrectionists or by failed candidates. “Elections are decided by voters, but that only works if we actually protect voting rights,” he said.

As to democracy, he said it’s important to pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act to present abuses of presidential power, restore checks and balances and accountability and transparency in government, to defend elections against foreign interference, and for other purposes.

About 75 students attended Kilmer’s civics discussion, which also included tribal rights and senior needs. Kilmer’s parting thought for students to understand was “this democratic republic is really fragile,” and he encouraged students to exercise their right to vote if they are 18 and to use their voice if they can’t vote yet.

“One of the things I’m grateful for is, I’ve seen more courage out of high school students in this country than you’ve seen from a lot of members of Congress. On issues like climate change and reducing gun violence, and fighting for equality, your generation has shown a lot more courage… and my encouragement to you is keep that up, because we really depend on you in that regard,” Kilmer said.