Questions for U.S. Congressional Candidates — Districts 1 and 5
MyHammond.com is a local community website serving Hammond, Ponchatoula, and Tangipahoa Parish. As part of our nonpartisan election coverage, we invited candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in Louisiana’s 1st and 5th Congressional Districts to respond to six questions about issues affecting our community, Louisiana families, and the nation.
The questions address the Trump administration’s agenda, the cost of living, healthcare and Social Security, insurance and flood protection, federal spending and the national debt, and accountability to constituents.
Our goal is to help readers better understand each candidate’s stated positions and priorities before voting. Below, you’ll find the questions submitted to the candidates, followed by their responses and summaries of their answers.
Our coverage is intended to provide information that helps voters make their own informed decisions.
Summaries of Candidates Responses
Editorial Disclaimer: The candidate summaries published here were prepared with assistance from artificial intelligence (AI), based on responses submitted by the candidates to MyHammond.com. AI was used to analyze, organize, and summarize the candidates’ stated positions. These summaries are intended for informational purposes and do not constitute endorsements. Readers are encouraged to review the candidates’ full responses and campaign materials to form their own opinions.
The full questions and responses from each candidate are listed below summaries.
Michael Echols: (5th. District)
Key Positions and Priorities
Michael Echols says he would support President Trump’s agenda on border security, domestic energy production, lower taxes, American manufacturing, and reducing federal bureaucracy, while speaking up when policies negatively affect Louisiana. His priorities include lowering living costs, expanding oil and natural gas production, making housing more affordable, reducing prescription drug costs, protecting Social Security and Medicare benefits, and reforming flood insurance. For Tangipahoa Parish, he emphasizes coordinated drainage improvements, regional flood-control projects, and faster disaster recovery. He also supports reducing government waste and improper payments while strengthening fiscal oversight. Echols says he would maintain regular communication with constituents and proposes a regional office in downtown Hammond, regular community meetings, and assistance navigating federal agencies.
Editorial notes
- Trump’s agenda: Echols explicitly supports several major Trump priorities but says he would speak up when policies need to change.
- Healthcare and benefits: He opposes cutting earned Social Security and Medicare benefits and emphasizes prescription drug costs and healthcare payment reforms.
- Local relevance: His response specifically mentions a proposed downtown Hammond office and flood-control efforts affecting Tangipahoa Parish.
- Important distinction: The office locations and proposed constituent services are plans he describes, not completed actions. The summary presents them accordingly.
Lauren Jewett: (1st. District)
Key Positions and Priorities
Lauren Jewett says she would oppose parts of President Trump’s agenda that she believes hurt working families, including cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, broad tariffs, and reductions in federal agency services. A former special education teacher, she supports Medicare for All, lower prescription drug costs, protecting Social Security and Medicare, raising the federal minimum wage, and expanding paid family leave. She proposes federal action to address rising homeowners insurance costs, strengthen flood protection, fund coastal restoration, and improve disaster recovery in Louisiana. On federal spending, she favors higher taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, closing tax loopholes, and reconsidering military spending overseas. Jewett also supports greater congressional accountability, regular public communication, constituent assistance, campaign finance reform, and a ban on congressional stock trading. She pledges to hold public events throughout the district, including Tangipahoa Parish.
Editorial notes
- Trump’s agenda: Jewett explicitly opposes several of the administration’s policies, particularly those involving healthcare funding, tariffs, federal agencies, and immigration enforcement.
- Healthcare and economic policy: She advocates an expanded federal role in healthcare, including Medicare for All, and policies intended to strengthen worker protections and social safety nets.
- Local relevance: She highlights homeowners insurance affordability, coastal restoration, disaster recovery, and outreach to Hammond and Ponchatoula residents.
- Government accountability: She supports campaign finance changes, restrictions on congressional stock trading, and more direct constituent services.
Candidates: Full Questions and Responses
Michael Echols: (5th. District)
- The Trump Administration’s Agenda
President Donald Trump has proposed and pursued a wide-ranging agenda on taxes, immigration, federal spending, healthcare, and government operations. Which parts of his agenda do you support or oppose, and why? If elected, how would your position influence your votes in Congress?
I support President Trump’s efforts to secure our border, unleash American energy, keep taxes low, bring manufacturing back home, and hold the federal bureaucracy accountable. Those priorities matter to Louisiana families who are working hard and wondering why Washington keeps making life more expensive.
As a builder and business owner, I know what happens when government gets out of the way and lets people work, invest, and create jobs. I also know that cutting government requires understanding what works and what doesn’t. We need to eliminate waste while protecting earned benefits, rural healthcare, and infrastructure that keeps our communities safe.
I will support the President when his policies move Louisiana forward, and I will speak up when something needs to change. Any trade policy, for example, needs to account for the impact on our farmers and the markets they depend on. My responsibility is to deliver results for the people who elected me.
- Cost of Living and the Economy
What specific federal policies would you support to help Louisiana families manage the costs of groceries, housing, utilities, and other everyday necessities?
Families need more money left at the end of the month. That starts with affordable energy, lower taxes, and a government that understands the cost of doing business.
I support expanding American oil and natural gas production, strengthening our electric grid, and speeding up responsible permitting. Energy costs show up in everything we buy, from the diesel that moves groceries to the electricity that keeps a restaurant open.
We also need a Farm Bill that supports producers, dependable roads and ports that get their products to market, and stronger competition throughout the supply chain.
On housing, I bring the experience of someone who actually builds. I support making federal housing programs easier to use, reducing unnecessary federal requirements that increase construction costs, and expanding access to financing for workforce and rural housing. We need more homes that teachers, nurses, first responders, and young families can afford.
- Healthcare and Social Security
What would you do in Congress to address healthcare and prescription drug costs while protecting the long-term future of Social Security and Medicare?
I have spent my career helping grow physician practices, healthcare services, and access to care. I have also fought pharmacy benefit managers and worked to make prescription drugs more affordable. I want to bring that experience to Congress.
Too much of our healthcare dollar gets absorbed before it reaches the patient. I support requiring prescription drug discounts to benefit patients, stopping abusive PBM practices, and protecting independent pharmacies that serve our communities.
We also need health plans built around primary care, early treatment, telehealth, and better management of conditions like diabetes. Doctors should be rewarded for keeping patients healthy, and savings should help lower costs and improve care. Insurance companies should have to demonstrate what value they provide for the premiums families pay.
Social Security and Medicare are promises people paid into throughout their working lives. I oppose cutting earned benefits. Protecting those programs requires strengthening their finances, stopping improper payments and overbilling, and working toward a long-term solution that protects current beneficiaries and future generations.
- Insurance and Flood Protection
Louisiana residents face high homeowners and flood insurance costs, along with recurring flood risks. What federal actions would you support to address these challenges and strengthen local flood protection?
People should be able to afford to insure their homes. I support reforming the National Flood Insurance Program so premiums are transparent, mitigation receives meaningful credit, and homeowners have a fair way to challenge inaccurate property assessments.
We should also help families strengthen their homes through roof improvements, elevation, and other proven measures that reduce losses. Federal mitigation dollars should produce improvements people can see.
For Tangipahoa Parish, flood protection means looking at the entire watershed. I will push for coordinated drainage improvements, maintenance, and progress on the Comite River Diversion and other regional projects that reduce flood risk. One community’s drainage solution cannot simply become the next community’s problem.
I will also support stronger oversight of disaster recovery spending and faster delivery of assistance. Communities need projects completed before the next storm.
- Federal Spending and the National Debt
With the national debt and federal budget deficits remaining major concerns, what specific steps would you support to improve the nation’s financial outlook?
Washington needs the discipline that families and businesses use every day. You cannot keep borrowing without eventually paying a price.
I support reviewing federal programs for results, eliminating duplicative programs, recovering improper payments, and putting enforceable limits on spending growth. Congress should pass budgets and appropriations on time and take responsibility for individual spending decisions.
We also need to examine federal contracts and healthcare payments more closely. Taxpayers deserve to know what they are buying and whether they are getting their money’s worth.
Growing the economy is part of the solution. More people working, more businesses expanding, and more American energy production strengthen our tax base. But growth does not excuse waste. Congress has to encourage economic opportunity and control spending.
- Accountability to Constituents
If elected, how would you keep residents informed about your votes and legislative activities, and how would you ensure that the concerns of people in your district—including those in Tangipahoa Parish—are heard in Washington?
Tangipahoa Parish will have a seat at the table in my congressional office. My plan includes regional offices in downtown Hammond and Monroe, along with a mobile office serving Alexandria and Central Louisiana. Our mobile office will bring constituent services directly into communities so residents can meet with our staff closer to home.
I plan to hold regular parish meetings with residents and local officials, provide a weekly newsletter explaining my work and major votes, and use radio, local media, and short videos to keep people informed.
Just as important, our office will help people resolve problems with Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, and other federal agencies. Every case should have someone responsible for following through.
I have served in local and state government, and I know that showing up matters. You should hear from your congressman throughout the year, and you should know how to reach him. That is how I intend to serve.
Michael Echols
Lauren Jewett: (1st. District)
- The Trump Administration’s Agenda
President Donald Trump has proposed and pursued a wide-ranging agenda on taxes, immigration, federal spending, healthcare, and government operations. Which parts of his agenda do you support or oppose, and why? If elected, how would your position influence your votes in Congress?
I oppose the parts of this agenda that make life harder for working families. Tax cuts that mostly benefit corporations and the wealthy, paid for by cutting programs families rely on, are the wrong priorities, and I would not vote for them. Cuts to Medicaid and the ACA mean rural hospitals closing, parents losing coverage, and kids and adults with disabilities losing services. After 17 years as a special education teacher, I’ve seen what happens when families lose that support. I will fight those cuts and work toward Medicare for All. I also oppose gutting federal agencies and dismantling the Department of Education, which hurts students with disabilities and slows the disaster response Louisiana depends on. I support efficiency, but not at the expense of services people count on. Broad tariffs raise prices on everyday goods and hurt the ports, farmers, fishermen, and small businesses our economy runs on.
I’ll work across the aisle on anything that lowers costs for families, like drug price negotiation, coastal restoration funding, and support for veterans. I’ll vote for good ideas no matter whose name is on them. I support secure borders and a functioning legal immigration system with due process and without cruelty, and I’ll vote for humane reforms that create pathways to citizenship. ICE has torn apart families and communities, funneled public money into private detention, and cost people their lives. I will vote to dismantle it.
- Cost of Living and the Economy
What specific federal policies would you support to help Louisiana families manage the costs of groceries, housing, utilities, and other everyday necessities?
Louisiana families are squeezed from every direction, and I would fight for policies that bring costs down. On housing and insurance, I’ll push for federal action to cap annual insurance rate increases, support a federal reinsurance backstop for high-risk coastal states, and expand first-time homebuyer assistance and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. I will also back renter protections and foreclosure relief during federally declared disasters. On wages, I am advocating to raise the federal minimum wage and index it to inflation. Louisiana workers have gone 17 years without a raise at $7.25 an hour, and I’ll support the PRO Act and national paid family and medical leave.
I will protect SNAP and WIC, which families rely on to put food on the table, and fight cuts to school meal programs. I oppose broad tariffs that raise grocery prices while enforcing fair trade standards so our shrimpers and crawfish processors are not undercut. I will make sure tech companies, not ratepayers, cover the cost of the power plants and grid upgrades built to serve data centers. For students and graduates, I’ll fully fund Pell Grants, oppose taxing forgiven student debt as income, and lower interest rates on federal student loans.
I’ll also end the war in Iran. Congress never voted on it, and families here are paying for it while our own needs go unmet.
- Healthcare and Social Security
What would you do in Congress to address healthcare and prescription drug costs while protecting the long-term future of Social Security and Medicare?
Healthcare is a human right. I will cosponsor Medicare for All so care is based on need, not profit, with no premiums or deductibles standing in the way. Until then, I will fight to expand the ACA, close the Medicaid coverage gap, and add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to Medicaid and Medicare. I’ll cap insulin costs, support drug price negotiation, and bring down out-of-pocket costs for essential care. More than 30 rural hospitals in Louisiana are at risk of closing because Washington keeps cutting their funding, so I will fight to keep them open. I would also expand community health centers and mental health services, and invest in the National Health Service Corps and residency programs to bring more doctors to Louisiana. I will fight to make Home and Community-Based Services a mandatory Medicaid benefit so no one is forced into a nursing home because a waiver ran out.
Social Security is a promise to every worker who paid in. The trust fund is projected to run dry by the end of 2032, triggering an automatic 22% benefit cut that would hit a retiree in Terrebonne or Lafourche just as hard as anyone. I will reject privatization, push for action now while a gradual fix is still possible, and adjust the payroll tax cap so higher earners pay in at the same rate as everyone else. Steve Scalise has had more power than almost anyone to bring a fix to the floor, and he hasn’t.
- Insurance and Flood Protection
Louisiana residents face high homeowners and flood insurance costs, along with recurring flood risks. What federal actions would you support to address these challenges and strengthen local flood protection?
I have been dropped by my home insurance company after a major storm and left to absorb much higher premiums when I switched carriers. Louisiana families shouldn’t have to choose between protecting their homes and putting food on the table. Home insurance premiums have risen 38% since 2023, and Louisiana lost 70,000 flood insurance policies between 2022 and 2024 as premiums spiked under FEMA’s new risk-rating system.
In Congress, I will increase oversight of insurance companies and push for federal action to cap annual rate increases. We need to push to collect data from insurers in states like Louisiana and Florida so we can understand what is driving premiums. I will also support a federal reinsurance backstop for high-risk coastal states and explore federal and public insurance options with capped premiums as an alternative to the private market. I will fight for mitigation funding so homes are more resistant to hurricanes and floods, and so those costs aren’t simply passed along to consumers.
I will oppose any lapse in the National Flood Insurance Program and any move to privatize it. I will push for reform and a longer-term authorization that makes flood coverage affordable and accurately priced for Louisiana homeowners and renters, and will keep payment plan options in place for working families. I will also fight to streamline FEMA and HUD disaster recovery funding so families displaced by hurricanes aren’t stuck waiting years for aid.
On flood protection, I will fully fund the Morganza to the Gulf project and other critical flood control work. I will fight to restore the NOAA coastal resilience programs that were cut, and push for a dedicated federal coastal restoration trust fund that doesn’t rise and fall with oil lease auctions. Protecting our coast is protecting our homes.
- Federal Spending and the National Debt
With the national debt and federal budget deficits remaining major concerns, what specific steps would you support to improve the nation’s financial outlook?
We improve our financial outlook by asking who has been paying and who hasn’t. Billionaires and corporations should pay their fair share. I’ll support wealth taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations, and I’ll oppose corporate tax breaks that never trickle down. I will also work to close the loopholes that make it easier for billionaires to amass wealth and harder for working people to get by. The 2025 tax cuts drained revenue from the Social Security trust fund and pushed its insolvency date closer. I’ll push to adjust the payroll tax cap so higher earners pay in at the same rate as everyone else.
Medicare for All would save our country money. Public Citizen’s analysis finds it would save trillions compared with what we spend now, while a public option would leave millions uninsured and not deliver those savings. We should also reconsider how much of our taxpayer dollars goes toward wars and conflicts overseas. I’ll fight to restore Congress’s war powers so we don’t commit troops or money to forever wars without a debate and a vote. I oppose sending military aid and tax dollars to fund foreign conflicts, and I’d redirect those funds toward the basic needs of children and families at home.
- Accountability to Constituents
If elected, how would you keep residents informed about your votes and legislative activities, and how would you ensure that the concerns of people in your district—including those in Tangipahoa Parish—are heard in Washington?
Representing this district is a full-time job that doesn’t pause between elections. I’ll keep residents informed with a clear, up-to-date website, a regular newsletter, and ongoing social media updates. These will explain how I voted and why, in plain language.
My office will do more than hand out a phone number and wish people luck. When someone needs help with a FEMA or VA claim, or with Medicaid or SNAP coverage, my team will guide them step by step. We’ll explain what documentation or appeal they need, and we’ll stay with them until the problem is actually resolved. People should also be able to get accurate information any time of day, without waiting on hold or guessing which office to call.
I commit to being present and reachable. I’ll hold an annual in-person town hall with at least 72 hours’ public notice, so people have real time to plan and raise what is affecting their families. I’ll add resource fairs and phone town halls that are easy to register for. I will hold events across the whole district, including Tangipahoa Parish, so that strawberry growers and dairy farmers in Ponchatoula and families in Hammond are heard in Washington. I’ll also be in Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes, where seafood industry workers can talk with us about the issues that affect their work.
I also believe members of Congress should be accountable in how they’re funded and how they serve. I take no corporate PAC money, and in Congress I’ll push to overturn Citizens United and support publicly financed campaigns. I’ll also work to ban stock trading by members and to put a five-year lobbying moratorium on former members. Government assistance exists because people need it, and when the system fails you, it’s my office’s job to make it work with urgency, respect, and follow-through.
Lauren Jewett
Additional candidate questions and responses will be posted as they become available.
