Karen G.H. Baker served her country for 30 years as a federal employee, and now is running for Congress in Virginia’s 9th House District.
According to her campaign, voters throughout the sprawling Southwest Virginia district are circulating petitions to get her on the ballot as a challenger to incumbent U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who has held the seat since 2011.
“I got into it kind of late,” and became a candidate the last weekend in February, said Baker, 72. “I was recruited” and encouraged by several people to run.
She decided to pursue the opportunity because it resonates with her life experiences.
“I have lived a life of service my whole life,” said Baker, who worked as a trial lawyer in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and eventually as the agency’s assistant general counsel for systemic litigation. Later she served 17 years as an administrative law judge for the Social Security Administration. Since moving to Floyd County in 2014 she has continued her legal career by providing pro bono assistance to individuals seeking disability benefits
Sandwiched in between, she also “became a nurse. After 30 years of sitting at a desk, I went to nursing school. I worked at night helping families, translating people’s needs into actions and I’ve always been for the little guy my whole life,” Baker said.
“I’m not going to congress to make a career for myself. I’m going for my district. To serve them … that’s the only reason I’m going. It is ingrained in me that this is what I do,” she said, and explained that when she was 4-years old, “I was told I needed to serve, and that my life didn’t exist just for me. It was to serve others, and that’s what I’m about.”
Owing to her careers in the federal sector, “I am aware of the bureaucracy. I understand how government works, I understand how federal budgets work and how agencies get their funding,” Baker said.
“Another large part is providing constituent services,” Baker said, adding “I think I would be effective at doing constituent services. I know what to do if I get congress and people need to have a voice.”
Ranking third on her priority list is listening to those in her district.
“I will listen to what they say, let people know what I have done” with respect to their requests/comments and “I will follow up with them,” she said.
She also would work to secure funding for broadband, healthcare and other services that are often overlooked in rural areas.
“One of the problems is that private industry would have done it if it was profitable,” Baker said of services like broadband. “The problem is we have a lot of geography and not a lot of people” to make providing the service attractive for those in the private sector.
“If it were profitable, we would have a lot of birthing centers in the district, but it’s not profitable,” said Baker, and added that the more rural parts of the district as a “maternity desert.”
Capitalism, she said, “is not a form of government. It’s just not. If we accept that all Americans should partake of healthcare, then we have to have government provide it like it does Medicare.”
Noting that “rural districts have a particular need,” Baker said, “we need improved rural healthcare, with emphasis on homegrown, community care, support for RNs to become nurse practitioners, comprehensive women’s healthcare, and a plan to let our seniors age in their homes.”
She also sees a need in the district for jobs and for skills training, so young people needn’t leave the area to find work: “Any comprehensive plan for job creation also requires a plan to provide broadband for all, more housing, and equity for our public schools.”
Baker added that “Southwest Virginia literally fueled the industrial growth and electrification of America. We have earned an investment in well-paying 21st century jobs, a robust rural healthcare system, improved housing, great schools, and protection of our land, water, and air. I will fight for the fighting 9th because we deserve the nation’s respect.”
Baker worked as a trial lawyer in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and eventually as the agency’s assistant general counsel for systemic litigation. Later she served 17 years as an administrative law judge for the Social Security Administration.
Baker’s late husband, Richard Kimm, was a 20-year Navy pilot who continued his aviation career with Eastern Airlines and other companies. At their farm in South Carolina, they raised horses and fostered rescue border collies.
With her husband’s health declining, Baker entered nursing school at Greenville Technical College, became a registered nurse in 2011, and was able to help care for him. Kimm died in 2014 with Lewy body dementia.
There’s more about her campaign at https://bakerforva9th.com.
