There are just over 5,000 people in Rye, New Hampshire.
Messmer, who had worked as an environmental consultant for 30 years, called Tom Sherman, who was her representative in the state legislature, to discuss what she feared was an environmental crisis.
Though she was a Democrat running in a heavily Republican district, Messmer won the seat in large part by focusing on water pollution and cancer.
Now Messmer is hoping to bring her focus on the need for clean drinking water to Washington.
She’s not even the only midterm candidate who’s focusing on PFAS chemicals.
Matt Morgan, who is running for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District, recently sent out a campaign email focusing on the PFAS compounds, which have contaminated water near several military bases in his district.
“I fish with Democrats and Republicans alike who are gravely concerned about that.” Morgan may be right that some Republicans may be willing to cross party lines for environmental issues in the upcoming congressional races.
Since then, ongoing concerns about the PFAS chemicals have seeped into the race to represent the state’s 7th Congressional District, which includes Wilmington, where water has been polluted with GenX and other PFAS chemicals.
“There is a fundamental culture that lacks transparency when it comes to big corporate polluters,” said Horton, who sees North Carolina’s GenX crisis as having “everything to do with Fortune 500 companies like Dow, DuPont, and Chemours, which get 100 percent of what they want because they’re doing fundraisers to make sure they’re in the ears of our politicians every day.” (DowDuPont contributed $278,750 to candidates running for House seats in the midterm elections, as of May 21.
Water issues are infusing her race — as well as Morgan’s and Messmer’s — because their districts are among those hardest-hit by PFAS contamination.