What are the differences between congressional candidates Ted Howze and Josh Harder.? Here are the facts so you can be the judge of who your candidate is.

Police, riots, and anarchists:  Howze has publically supported the police and condemns the violence in America. On the other hand, on June 25 Harder voted against a resolution condemning violence and against supporting additional funding for law enforcement training. Harder has been photographed kneeling in solidarity with those actively calling for the defunding of the police.

Support Peaceful Protest Act: Howze supports the bill, which calls for prison time for violent rioters’ criminal acts.  Harder, on the contrary, has not supported this bill.

Border Security: Howze supports securing our border, E-Verify, and has called for an end to “sanctuary cities.” Conversely, Harder has endorsed Joe Biden and his open borders platform. On Sept. 27, 2019, Harder voted against a national Emergency Declaration for border security and refuses to take any position on E-Verify.  Harder is on record fully supporting “sanctuary cities.”

Veterans & VA Hospital: Numerous local veteran groups support Howze and have teamed with him to secure medical treatment for veterans like Sam Satariano, a 100-year-old World War II veteran.  Harder takes credit for the Veteran’s Hospital in French Camp, which was the signature legislation of Congressman Jeff Denham when approved in 2015. Harder voted for HR 3532 on Sept. 26, 2019, which creates better healthcare records for illegal immigrants than our veterans.

Social Security/Medicare:  Howze supports saving Social Security and Medicare by cutting waste, fraud, and abusive payments to ineligible recipients. Most importantly, Howze has said he wants to increase benefit payments to rightful recipients and exempt 100 percent of benefits from income tax. Harder’s plan is his endorsement of Joe Biden’s plan, who is on the record to provide Social Security benefits to non-citizens and raise the eligible retirement age for all Americans.

Healthcare: Howze supports competition and transparency to lower healthcare and drug prices. He supports protecting those with preexisting conditions and a patients’ bill of rights, which puts all patient care decisions in the hands of doctors, not insurance companies. (Howze lost his first wife after a health insurance company denied testing that would have diagnosed her treatable heart condition. He’s vowed to protect others from suffering the same fate.) Harder, in contrast, supports eliminating private health insurance and replacing it with single-payer health coverage for all, including non-citizens. Working-class Americans currently receiving health insurance from their employer would lose their non-taxed benefit for government coverage they will be taxed for.

Abortion: Howze is pro-life. Harder, however, fully supports abortion up to the moment of birth and is heavily funded by the abortion lobby. Harder also voted against the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act on Feb. 28 which would have prevented the intentional killing of surviving babies who are born alive.

Illegal Voting: Howze fully supports a national voter ID, a federal voting holiday and voting in person for all but those physically incapable of doing so. Contrarily, Harder voted for HR 1 on Sept. 11, 2019, which defends localities to allow illegal immigrants to vote in local and nonfederal elections.

Taxes: Howze, who has never voted for a tax increase, is opposed to raising taxes.  Harder, nevertheless, supports Joe Biden’s tax plan, which would raise Americans taxes by $4 trillion annually.

Education: Howze believes in school choice and providing parents options of where to send their children to school.  Harder opposes parental options of school choice.

Right to Bear Arms: Howze supports the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Harder, not surprisingly, has an “F” rating from the NRA and wants more restrictions including gun confiscation of firearms he feels are necessary.

Local Support: Howze has the endorsement of an overwhelming number of mayors, local elected officials and businesses in the 10th congressional district. His support is local and grassroots. Harder, on the contrary, raises more than 90 percent of his campaign cash in San Francisco and Washington D.C., which is why he votes with Nancy Pelosi 97 percent of the time.

This election is the most important in America’s history. Choose wisely and carefully! As for me, I’m voting Dr. Ted Howze for Congress.

Frank Aquila is president of the San Joaquin Stanislaus Conservative Patriots and author of the book, “Sarah Palin Out of Nowhere” and can be emailed at mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com