Robbie Goldstein is hoping to leverage his experience as a physician on the campaign trail in his effort to unseat incumbent Rep. Stephen Lynch in the Massachusetts 8th Congressional District Democratic primary.
Goldstein, a 36-year-old physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, has made his support for a single payer health care system central to his campaign against Lynch, who originally voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
"I launched my campaign because of what my patients told me visit after visit, clinic session after clinic session, about the challenges they're facing. We were talking certainly about health care access and I'm definitely in this race to have that conversation about how we expand health care across the country," Goldstein told Boston Public Radio on Monday. "But we were also talking about food security, housing, transportation, and jobs, and all of the pieces that go into making sure people can live a healthy life."
Goldstein presents himself as a progressive hopeful and said he thinks he better represents a district that has changed demographically — and geographically — since 2001, when Lynch was elected.
Goldstein often calls out Lynch's long-held pro-life position on reproductive rights; though Lynch has sought to reframe his beliefs and has consistently received high marks from NARAL Pro-Choice Americain recent years.
"When Stephen Lynch was first elected, I do think he represented the folks of this district," Goldstein said. "But in the past 19 years this district has changed ... It's a district that is resoundingly pro-choice, it's a district that is in favor of a single payer health care system, it's a district that wants to see us deal with the racial injustice that is present on our streets every single day, it's a district that's out of step with its current representation."
