United States Representative, District 4

Mike Thompson has served in the U.S. House since 1999 and is seeking another term. He is a decorated Vietnam War combat veteran. In Congress he is a top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, where he focuses on tax policy and health care. He has authored bills on affordability, rural health care, and agriculture support.

Thompson says he is running because costs are rising and he wants to keep fighting for the district. He was long known as a moderate Blue Dog Democrat, but he says his approach has hardened under the current administration. He voted against a bill on ICE oversight, saying it lacked proper guardrails.

Thompson promises to keep working on lowering costs for housing, energy, and child care. He backs gun violence prevention, expanding health care, and support for veterans and seniors. He also promotes water and farm policy for the district, including the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. He points to a bipartisan bill he wrote with a Republican colleague to boost rural health care and farm support.

Eric Jones is a businessman and nonprofit executive running for Congress for the first time. He grew up poor in rural Maine. His mother was a nurse and his father was a disabled veteran. He was the first in his family to finish college. By his account, he went on to build health care companies, including women's health and virtual mental health services. He also founded a nonprofit called the American Dream Institute to boost civic engagement.

Jones says he is running because he is fed up with a government that he says is robbing families of their future. Thompson's campaign has run ads saying Jones invested in gambling ventures and in companies that were investigated for targeting seniors. Jones says those were decisions made by his former employer, not by him. A political group not run by his campaign also spent money to support him this year. Jones says he did not know about the group at first, even though he has pledged to turn away corporate PAC money.

Jones promises to fight corruption in Congress. He wants to ban corporate PAC money, set term limits, and stop lawmakers from trading stocks. He also wants to lower costs for families, including utility bills, prescription drugs, and rent. He supports expanding Medicare and adding dental, vision, and hearing coverage. He says he wants to protect family farms and expand homeownership.