Harrisonburg Democrat joins race against Goodlatte

HARRISONBURG - Sergio Coppola, a Harrisonburg Democrat, has joined a growing field of candidates challenging Republican Bob Goodlatte for his seat representing Virginia's 6th Congressional District in the 2018 midterm elections.

Coppola is the third candidate thus far to announce a run against Goodlatte, who's been in office since 1993 and intends to run for a 14th term next year. Peter Volosin, a Roanoke Democrat, and Michael Frend, a Waynesboro Independent, have also launched campaigns.

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The reason Coppola's running is simple: he sees a health care landscape that is growing more dire by the day for many families and he wants to get to Congress so he can put together a solution.

This is something that affects everyone and rising rates have taken a toll on his family too, he said — "the money doesn’t go up, but the bills do — astronomically."

“If you can lower the expense of health care, you just changed someone’s living situation month-to-month," he said — that's why he thinks this is the most important issue heading into 2018.

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The 33-year-old is a recent graduate of James Madison University, where he studied computer science, business and politics. This is his first foray into running for elected office.

“I wanted to have a stronger influence in making policies that affected everyone," he said. “I really just want to start helping people right away and how much experience do you need to help people right away?”

His idea is for a dual care system, which would give people the option between finding their own private insurance through their employer or elsewhere, or contributing to a federally organized health care system. What you pay for health care would be based on a percentage of your household income.

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Coppola researched how other health care systems around the world compare to the U.S. in formulating this plan and he's gotten insight from his wife, Jennifer, works for an insurance broker, on what the top issues facing the insurance industry are.

He thinks at the end of the day having more health care options to choose from under his plan will help get people on board.

Coppola says he just wants to help people — “It sounds cliché which is sad," but in the current political climate "you have to question if career politicians are in it for people."

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He thinks he's a candidate most people can relate to — he grew up in Bridgewater, attending Turner Ashby High School, and then moved on to work at his dad's pizza restaurant, Sergio's Pizza, for several years before he got his degree. 

Coppola wants people to think, "he has my back," when they think of him as a candidate, he said.

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