Dan Ahlers' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
On The Ballot: Running, Democratic for Governor (SD)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
Additional Information: Click on this icon to reveal more information about this candidate's position, from their answers or Vote Smart's research.
Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
South Dakota Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| If a woman is the victim of a violent crime that results in a pregnancy, taking her choice away would make her a victim a second time. I hope that people will choose life, but it is not my place to make that choice for them. Providing better education and access to healthcare helps eliminate abortions. | |||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| If Congress is unwilling to cut Federal spending, then taxes will need to increase. Unfortunately, the tax cut passed by the current Congress is only permanent for corporations. The individual tax cuts fade overtime and will be eliminated by 2027. Social Security needs to be made whole. Congress borrowed from this program to pay down the deficit. The funding for this program comes from the individual and employer payroll tax. It shouldn't require additional taxpayer dollars. If this program was managed like the South Dakota Retirement System, it wouldn't be on the verge of collapsing. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Corporations should, as unions do, make public their political spending. Just as unions, a corporation's shareholders should have a vote on political spending, too. | |||
| Unknown Position | Do you support the protection of government officials, including law enforcement officers, from personal liability in civil lawsuits concerning alleged misconduct? | ||
|
|||
| Yes | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| Only as necessary for our defense. I think we need to re-evaluate military spending to ensure we are getting a good return on investment. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Increased federal spending can promote economic growth. However, it is important to weigh the benefit of investing vs. the ramifications of growing the deficit. Taxes for corporations have already been lowered. The CARES Act had good intent, but didn't offer clear guidelines to businesses. Guidelines continued to change after the program rollout. These changes caused confusion for many small business owners. The program should be flexible, so business owners can use the money in the most efficient way. Requiring 75% spent on payroll doesn't work for all businesses. It assumes the proportionality of expenses for all businesses is the same. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| I think it is important for states to work from the same general outline. A good national standard would give states the flexibility to create programs that address their state's needs and include local history. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Government should be working with industry to improve technology and protect our environment. Renewable energy offers a lot of potential for economic growth. Our country could be a world leader in this area. | |||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I do not advocate taking away an individual's guns or banning types of guns. I do believe we should be working to improve guns laws and close loopholes that allow people to bypass background checks. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| The Affordable Care Act provides many Americans with pre-existing conditions the health coverage they didn't have prior to ACA. For example, if insurance companies had been required to cover preventative care years ago, my close friend with diabetes wouldn't be on dialysis today. We should be working across party lines to ensure all Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare. In times of crisis, the Federal government should be working with businesses to provide paid leave. Businesses shouldn't have to cover everything. | |||
| No | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| We should be working on reforming our immigration laws. Sending every immigrant home isn't always practical and should be determined on an individual basis by the courts. | |||
| Yes | Should the United States use military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a weapon of mass destruction (for example: nuclear, biological, chemical)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts? | ||
| When diplomacy fails, use of force is acceptable. A reduction of our military forces in the Middle East is appropriate, if the area is politically stable. If we leave too soon, the power vacuum left in our absence will be filled by our enemies. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| We should be working on trade deals that are mutually beneficial to both countries. Our trade deficits are a concern. However, implementing tariffs, as we did with China, have resulted in an increase in cost for the American consumer. Our farmers and manufacturers suffered severely under these tariffs. Farm bankruptcies rose 20% in 2019 even with the federal farm bailouts. | |||
| 1) Improve access to affordable, quality healthcare. Access to affordable, preventative healthcare lowers the longterm costs of chronic disease. These early investments will reduce costs to our Medicaid and Medicare programs. 2)Promote strong economic policies. We need people that understand business and workforce develpment. Investments in programs like job training can strengthen our economy. We need to invest more in our countries infrastructure. Good roads and reliable utility networks will support and promote a strong economy. 3) Implement the LEAN process in government to find efficiencies and save tax dollars. Reinvest these savings into the projects above . |
Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.