Audrey Denney, one of four candidates running to replace Doug LaMalfa as the district representative, addressed the Chico State Democratic Club Thursday.

Denney detailed issues she hopes to tackle in the district if elected, including providing affordable healthcare, improving internet capabilities and infrastructure and utilizing regenerative agriculture.

A former Republican who now considers herself a progressive Democrat, Denney stressed that she will be a candidate for everyone in the district.

“I’m not going to be a rubber-stamp Democrat when you send me to Washington, you can’t be in this district because that doesn’t represent the needs of this district,” she said. “I’m going to represent every single constituent, and I’m going to work to remind all of us that we have more in common than we have separating us.”

Audience question: “How will you get Republicans in the district to vote for you?”@audrey4congress: pic.twitter.com/6tEQTQUJTB

— josiah_theorion (@JTheorion) March 2, 2018

Denney said bipartisanship isn’t helping solve any problems in this country.

“The polarization that we’re seeing is such a threat to our democracy,” she said. “The more that we’re afraid of them and the more we point our finger at the political opposition, the more that we’re not fighting to protect democracy.”

Denney studied agriculture education at Chico State and graduated in 2007, going on to teach agriculture at Chico State for almost six years. She is currently the president of the board of Cristosal, a human rights organization based in Central America.

In order to win the district’s Democratic nomination against the current representative Doug LaMalfa, Denney must defeat candidates Jessica Holcombe, Marty Walters, and Larry Jordan in a primary election.

Josiah Nicholl can be reached at [email protected] or @joey_theorion on Twitter.