MISSING PAPERWORK: What Nick Freitas Needs to Answer for in the Final Week of His Campaign

From the Democratic Party of Virginia:

MISSING PAPERWORK: What Nick Freitas Needs to Answer for in the Final Week of His Campaign

Richmond, VA — Before voters head to the polls on Election Day, Nick Freitas owes Virginians straightforward answers about serious problems in his campaign and his record of extreme votes in the General Assembly. Freitas has yet to adequately explain the discrepancy between his state and federal financial disclosures, his votes against Virginians with pre-existing conditions, his rationale against protecting Virginia children with autism, and whether he agrees with the dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 Senator Rand Paul spread at his event this past weekend.

With just a week left in his failing campaign, Nick Freitas owes Virginians an explanation about his past and his record.

“Rather than talking about the issues that matter most to the Central Virginians, Nick Freitas has spent his campaign recording a podcast in his basement and getting bailed out by special interest groups and conservative billionaires. Before voters head to the polls, they deserve honest answers from Freitas about what he’s hiding on his financial disclosures and why his health care plans would strip tens of thousands of people of their insurance. If he truly wants to serve as a representative for the seventh district, he should be able to truthfully answer these simple questions,” said DPVA Communications Director Grant Fox.

1. Freitas missed the filing deadline for his 2019 House of Delegates Race, relying on a $500,000 check from Roy Moore apologist Richard Uihlein to bail out his write-in campaign. This year, Freitas once again missed a filing deadline, this time for his 2020 Congressional campaign. Now, Freitas is potentially lying on one of his financial disclosure forms. Why is there a glaring discrepancy between his state and federal financial disclosures, and what is he hiding?
2. In 2019, Freitas cast the single vote against requiring insurance plans to extend coverage for autism to people of all ages, rather than cutting off coverage at the age of 10. Earlier this year, Freitas once again stood against the families of children with autism by casting the single vote against requiring insurers to provide coverage for autism. Previously, coverage could be denied for diagnosis and treatment. Freitas has struggled to defend his extreme votes against children with autism, going so far as to say his opponent (and those who work with children with autism) are lying about his record. Why did he cast the single vote against protecting Virginians with autism twice, and what point was he trying to make?
3. Freitas famously called the Affordable Care Act a “cancer,” and in 2018, he voted in support of a bill that would expand junk insurance plans that often don’t cover pre-existing conditions. Freitas also opposed Medicaid Expansion, saying that what struggling Virginia families actually need is more “innovation.” He has repeatedly advocated for the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, while still claiming he has a plan to protect Virginians with pre-existing conditions. According to one analysis, over 70,000 Virginians in VA-7 would lose their health insurance if Freitas got his way and the ACA was repealed. How can he advocate for the elimination of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Expansion and say with a straight face that he wants to protect seventh district citizens with pre-existing conditions?
4. Just yesterday, the Daily Beast reported that Senator Rand Paul told Virginians at a rally for Freitas that cloth masks “don’t work” and suggested that Virginia restaurants should create “a whole wing for senior citizens or for anybody who is worried about getting sick, and I would say, all my servers have already had it.” At publication, “Freitas’ campaign did not respond to an inquiry on whether he agrees with Paul’s statements at the rally.” Now that Freitas has had ample time to consider the merits of these statements made at his own event, does he agree with Senator Paul?