The Green Party will have a new candidate running for the 12th district congressional seat in 2018.
After Paula Bradshaw ran in the past three election cycles, SIU-Carbondale Philosophy and Communication Studies professor Randy Auxier announced his candidacy Wednesday.
Auxier said he favors a single-payer health care system.
"If you want to compete in a global market, with countries that have universal healthcare and healthy workforces, then you have to have universal healthcare."
Auxier said he wants to resolve the lack of adequate housing in Cairo, which he calls a humanitarian crisis in need of aid from the United Nations.
"I honestly believe that we can house the people of Cairo. The problem is deep and it is entrenched and it is long term. Yet, it would not cost that much to solve it in the grand scheme of things."
He said his deepest wish for the district would be to get it off the fossil fuel grid by getting federal funding for a light-rail train to connect all of southern Illinois.
"This has got to be good for commerce. This has got to be good for education. This will solve the enrollment problem at SIU. That train, that's the future."
Auxier wants to build on the success of former candidate Paula Bradshaw.
"It's probably my turn to step forward and see what I can do, to put some real elbow grease into this party, which I believe in very deeply. Paula ran three times. She's gone above and beyond the call of duty."
He becomes the sixth candidate to join the race. The others are incumbent republican Mike Bost of Murphysboro, republican Preston Nelson of Benton, as well as democrats Brendan Kelly of Swansea, David Bequette of Columbia and Charles Koen of Cairo.
