The Progressive Super-Platform
Introduction
A "super-platform" for progressivism in the United States, assembled from the words of current and recent congressional candidates, along with a variety of general and issue-based progressive organizations. Every one of the 2,360 quotes below is verbatim, taken from a candidate's or organization's own platform and sorted by issue.
This is meant as a source of inspiration for candidates and activists: raw material for building up a platform or a campaign, congressional or otherwise. How the quotes are gathered, what earns one a spot, and why the page is deliberately not terse are all explained under how the Super-Platform is built on our methodology page.
There are blind spots here. Most subsections end with a short list headed Opportunities for candidates to address — issues that belong under that heading but that none of the platforms we read takes up. Some absences we can already name: nothing on this page comes from Puerto Rico, the other territories, or DC, whole regions barely appear — the interior West, the rural South, tribal lands, border communities — and the collection is stronger on what to stop than on what to build. We are also not confident we have captured enough of what matters to Black, brown, AAPI, native, disabled, neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ communities, on their own terms rather than ours. Candidates: these are open ground. Say something specific about one and you may be the first person here to do it. If you see a gap — in the quotes, or in our sense of what counts as a gap — let us know — that link is also in the footer of every page.
Candidates: We hope this provides some inspiration for adding to your platform page. If you expected to see yourself here but didn't, the most likely reason is that your website doesn't spell out your positions in much detail yet. Adding specifics — what you would do, and how — helps voters far more than it helps this page. Our candidate information page covers this, along with how to seek endorsements and which pledges to sign. If you have updated your site, tell us and we will take another look.
At the end of this page we highlight a handful of current and recent candidates whose platforms contributed the deepest and most distinctive ideas in this collection.
In addition to Democrats in the November general election :
Healthcare
Healthcare as a Human Right (framing)
“Healthcare is a human right. And anyone who says otherwise stands on the side of cruelty.”
“She supports amending the Constitution to make Medicare a right, removing healthcare from the battlefield of partisan politics once and for all.”
“In the wealthiest nation in the world, no one should skip medicine, delay care, or face bankruptcy because they got sick.”
“And the one thing insurance does cover — the catastrophic event, the car accident, the cancer diagnosis — turns out to be an expensive lottery ticket. We pay hundreds or thousands a month for the chance that if something terrible happens, we might be covered. Most of us will never hit the jackpot, and the ticket costs too much for most families to keep buying. So the biggest thing we're left with isn't coverage. It's worry and stress.”
“Getting in a car accident or getting sick shouldn't bankrupt anyone. Tram knows there is an entire for-profit industry built around people's bad luck or illness, which should never have been built in the first place.”
“We spend more per person on healthcare than any country on Earth, and still can't crack the top ten in outcomes.”
“Premiums and deductibles doubled while Congress cuts SNAP and Medi-Cal—programs that serve our elderly, children, and disabled. 29% of our district is on Medi-Cal; 10% relies on SNAP.”
“We already pay enough for universal healthcare! We are getting robbed. Americans spend more on healthcare than citizens of any peer nation but get worse coverage.”
“But our country’s broken healthcare system prioritizes profits over people , forcing millions of U.S. residents into crippling debt just to afford the care they need. Research shows that 90% of bankruptcies are due to extreme medical debt.”
“Americans pay more for worse outcomes than anywhere else in the developed world. That’s not a healthcare system, it’s a protection racket for insurance and drug companies.”
“We deserve a representative who understands that when our allies like Germany, France, and Canada cover a sick child without forcing parents into bankruptcy, our current system isn't an accident. It is a choice by corrupt policy makers sacrificing the health of families like mine for their own profit.”
“Healthcare is a human right and a practical necessity. No one should be punished for getting sick.”
“Guarantee affordable health care for every American and ensure that no family is forced into bankruptcy because they got sick.”
“Micah Lasher believes that health care should be a right, not a privilege. That's why he supports making health care available to all — through Medicare for All or a similar universal plan that guarantees a basic level of comprehensive care.”
“Good health is not a luxury; it's one of the essential materials that builds personal and community wellbeing.”
“Everyone deserves affordable, accessible health care no matter their income or ZIP code. I'll fight to lower prescription drug costs, cap insulin prices, expand access to generic drugs and restore funding for rural and suburban hospitals. Health care is a human right and I support a Medicare for All framework.”
Medicare for All
“fight for a universal, single-payer Medicare-for-all system, ensuring that all residents, including immigrants and undocumented individuals, have access to comprehensive, quality healthcare”
“Medicare-for-All is a single-payer system in which the United States federal government would administer healthcare financing, but delivery of care and medical infrastructure would remain privately or locally-controlled. Congress should consider moving toward such a system and also expanding dental, vision and hearing benefits under current Medicare.”
“My Day-One bill, the 'Healthy People, Healthy Democracy Act,' will: lower drug costs by expanding Medicare negotiation authority and conditioning federal research dollars on affordable pricing; expand Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs or community health centers) so that quality primary care is available in every neighborhood, regardless of insurance status, and make sure that safety-net hospitals are funded; and protect and expand Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA subsidies, while gradually lowering the Medicare eligibility age to achieve a universal single-payer system.”
“Nobody should be denied access to essential care because of their employment status, or spend more than 10% of their weekly paycheck on health insurance. I will advocate for accessible, affordable health care through a single-payer system that covers routine care, hospital visits, mental health services, reproductive care, and prescription drugs across all 50 states.”
“After eight years working on the Health Insurance Marketplace, it's clear that we need to move toward a single-payer system that guarantees coverage for every American and saves families billions in out-of-pocket costs.”
“I will fight to expand Medicare to cover all necessary healthcare, including vision, dental, and hearing, and extend it to every single American from cradle to grave without premiums, copays, or deductibles.”
“Reinstate and expand Biden-era drug price negotiation, oppose pharmaceutical price gouging, and lift the payroll tax cap so the wealthiest Americans contribute their fair share to universal healthcare.”
“Progressive healthcare contribution tax — a family earning $80,000 pays ~$46/month, replacing $600–$1,200/month in current premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs Covers medical, dental, vision, and mental health — no deductibles, no networks, no surprise bills, one card”
“we need to expand Medicare to cover all medically necessary care and make it available to every American, regardless of age, with no premiums, copays, or deductibles”
“As an EMT/Paramedic, Bernard has seen firsthand how a broken system forces families to choose between a doctor's visit and putting food on the table. ... His policy proposal, the American Healthcare for All Act, would establish a single-payor, universal healthcare system that covers primary and preventive care, emergency hospital services, prescription drugs, and expands urgent care and telehealth services.”
“I didn't adopt single-payer for this campaign. I've been organizing for it since before this race existed. ... Single-Payer Universal Healthcare Every person covered — no premiums, no networks, no medical bankruptcy.”
“Medicare for All Act...every resident of the U.S. will receive health insurance through an expanded Medicare program”
“Under Medicare for All, every American would be guaranteed comprehensive coverage, including medical, dental, vision, mental health, and long-term care, without premiums, deductibles, or co-pays.”
“Medicare-for-All: eliminate premiums, co-pays, and deductibles which puts thousands back in your pocket each year while saving trillions federally. Guarantee access to doctors, hospitals, and vital care, especially in rural areas.”
“We should have tax-funded healthcare systems like Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland who have equal access for all and emphasis on preventative care.”
“There would be no premiums, deductibles, or copays for medically necessary care... Medicare for All would lower costs for families, reduce administrative waste, strengthen rural hospitals, and ensure healthcare access no matter where you live.”
“Medicare for All would ensure everyone in this country has healthcare — no matter their employment status, zip code, race, gender, sexuality, or disability.”
“Create a Medicare for All, single-payer, national health insurance program to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care coverage, free at the point of service.”
“Fight for universal healthcare by implementing Medicare for All and ensuring Minnesotans don't suffer in the meantime - making government-funded health insurance available to anyone. Employment, marriage, or luck will no longer dictate your right to affordable, accessible, and quality care.”
“How is it that a citizen in the wealthiest country in the world has to choose between food and medicine? It's time to stop letting insurance companies and pharmaceutical conglomerates decide whether or not we can get the care we need and deserve. It's past time to move towards a Medicare-for-all system that puts people's health and financial well-being over private profits for health insurance companies and executives.”
“I support Medicare for All and remain committed to making it a reality. I supported HR 1384, which would guarantee health care for under a single payer system.”
“Medicare For All will expand Medicare coverage to include dental, hearing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, prescription drugs, long-term and disability care, and reproductive and maternity care.”
“Medicare has provided guaranteed health care for millions of seniors for more than 51 years. It's time we have a Medicare for all, single-payer health care system that would end health disparities, effectively control costs, and assure that everyone has equal access to an excellent standard of care.”
“Guarantee universal healthcare at no cost to individuals, including complete access to reproductive and gender-affirming care. Expand healthcare access and quality by investing in new public hospitals and clinics. Make all medical education and training public and free.”
Getting to Single-Payer: Phase-Ins & Buy-Ins
“Lower the Medicare eligibility age to 55. Medicare works. It's popular, it's reliable, and it provides quality coverage for tens of millions of Americans. Lowering the eligibility age to 55 would let more Iowans access affordable coverage during the years when healthcare costs typically rise the fastest, and it would relieve pressure on the entire insurance market.”
“Maria will work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 62 — matching the earliest age a person can receive Social Security benefits. This closes a critical gap for older workers who are between jobs, self-employed, or simply can't afford private insurance in their early 60s.”
“4-year plan of expanding Medicare to all within our country, with lowering the Medicare age from 65 to 55 and also covering everyone below 18 years old in the first year. lowering to 45 in the second year. 35 in the third year. Then continue to cover the rest of America in the final year.”
“Medicare as an option for everyone means Iowans will no longer be stuck with only a few expensive private plans. ... Large corporate health care companies such as Wellmark or UnitedHealth will have to compete with a reasonably-priced option and can no longer price-gouge Iowans – which will bring down premiums for everyone through greater competition. ... Allow Iowans to buy into Medicare at any age”
“No one should have to go bankrupt because they get sick. I support universal healthcare – and a Medicare for All system that enrolls all Americans by default and preserves private insurance if desired.”
“The AHCP shall be implemented over a 4-year transition period, during which: Year 1: Immediate enrollment for Medicare beneficiaries, Medicaid recipients, veterans, children, and uninsured adults. Year 2–3: Gradual expansion to all remaining insured individuals, replacing employer-based and marketplace plans. Year 4: Full implementation; all residents covered under AHCP.”
“On the date of full implementation, all duplicative private health insurance plans shall be sunset. ... Employers shall no longer provide private insurance; instead, contributions will support AHCP financing. ... Private insurers may only offer supplemental coverage for non-essential services not included in AHCP.”
“By increasing the tax on the top 1%, including the introduction of an unrealized gains tax, we can begin to adopt a Medicare-for-All system. ... Through a phased rollout based on age and need, we can responsibly expand Medicare coverage”
“building toward a single-payer plan like Medicare for All while preserving choice by gradually expanding the public option.”
“Ideally, Medicare would be expanded to cover all U.S. citizens. We could achieve this by incrementally decreasing the age of eligibility until we achieve Medicare for All. This is long overdue. This was a key component of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second Bill of Rights which he shared in his State of the Union address in 1941: The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.”
“allowing states to build systems with federal support and advancing a national Medicare for All program”
“Annually lower the age that Seniors can start receiving Medicare benefits – each year expanding the number of Americans covered by Medicare.”
The Case Against Private Insurance
“Medicare's administrative cost is just 1.3 percent, compared with 12 to 18 percent for private insurers.”
“The United States spends seventeen point eight percent of its gross domestic product on healthcare—approximately twice the average of other high-income countries—yet achieves worse health outcomes measured by life expectancy, infant mortality, and preventable disease burden.”
“This fear keeps people trapped in jobs they hate, prevents entrepreneurship and career mobility, and transforms the employment relationship into a form of coercion where workers cannot freely choose better opportunities.”
“Every year, 45,000 Americans die because they can't afford healthcare. Millions more ration insulin, skip medications, and avoid the doctor because they can't pay. This is not a healthcare system, it's a death sentence for the working class.”
“government-administered systems (Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP) already serve over 100 million Americans and are more efficient than any private insurer.”
“Medicare for All is a broadly popular proposal, but we hear very few advocates talking about how it would help lower your property taxes by reducing the gigantic health insurance premiums that school districts and municipalities pay to insurance companies to cover their municipal employees.”
“Our healthcare system isn't expensive by accident. It's designed by insurance giants to profit off working people instead of care for them.”
“I support Medicare for all. ... About 15% to 18% of healthcare premiums go toward insurance company administrative costs and overhead, with 3% to 5% of that being net profit. ... Medicare's fees run about 3%.”
“Medicare for All uncouples healthcare from your job. It allows everyone to receive quality care that is affordable at the hospital, pharmacy or doctor's office.”
“I support "Medicare for all". Medicare comes with deductibles through parts A & B. We pay into it our whole lives while simultaneously paying for private insurance or living without useful insurance. For qualifying low-income individuals, they would be eligible for Medicaid, that is Apple for Washington State.”
“We've tried for decades to save the private healthcare system from spiraling costs, and Republicans have fought to keep prices rising. Strong government intervention works in every other wealthy country to reduce costs by thousands of dollars per person compared to us. Our system is antiquated by comparison.”
“Universal healthcare Guaranteed. Comprehensive. As a matter of basic social infrastructure. No more medical bankruptcy, needless deaths, millions of hours wasted, or parasitic profiteering. Every other developed nation has figured this out. We can too.”
“insurance companies are financially rewarded for denying care. The fewer claims they approve, the more money they make. Let me be clear: it is more profitable for health insurance companies to deny the care you need than to provide it.”
“Medicare for All cuts the ties between healthcare and your job.”
“Aswar strongly supports Medicare for All to create a true national system that permanently de-links healthcare access from employment status.”
Medicaid
“Hold privatized Medicaid systems accountable. In Iowa, the privatization of our Medicaid program has led to an almost 1000% increase in denials of care prescribed by medical professionals, and has failed to demonstrate meaningful cost savings while insurance companies profit millions every year from tax-payer funding. The federal government should provide resources to help states transition to direct fee-for-service models.”
“Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country with 18% uninsured residents (national average is 7.9% uninsured). In the US, medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy. Expanding Medicaid is a cost-effective way to help Texans get access to quality healthcare. Governor Abbott refused to expand Medicaid when given the chance, which denied an estimated $100 billion in additional federal funding for healthcare.”
“Virginia's expansion of Medicaid allowed increased access to effective treatment for substance-use disorders and played a major role in reducing overdose deaths. With 350,000 Virginians soon to lose their Medicaid, "addiction treatment will be set back 20 years," according to Roanoke's Dr. Cheri Hartman, especially for young men disproportionately dying from overdose and suicide. Having written two books about the opioid crisis, including "Dopesick," I know treatment works when it's easier to access than dope.”
“extends Medicaid to all low-income people over the age of 42, making Illinois the first state in the nation to grant healthcare access to seniors”
“Donald Trump's tax law puts that care on the chopping block. To pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest among us, it cuts $911 billion from Medicaid, and independent analysts project as many as seventeen million Americans could lose health coverage over the next decade.”
“Reverse the Medicaid cuts to Iowa’s rural hospitals. The Medicaid cuts Hinson voted for are projected to strip $2.7 billion from rural Iowa hospitals over the next decade and force tens of thousands of Iowans off their coverage. ... I’ll push to move rural hospitals away from a volume-based reimbursement model toward upfront, operating-cost-based funding that gives critical access hospitals the stability to keep their doors open year-round.”
“Restore Medicaid and CHIP eligibility for immigrants; end exclusion of undocumented people from ACA marketplaces.”
“Repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal Medicaid funds from being used to cover abortion and related services.”
“Push for 100% federal Medicaid funding — remove the excuse that keeps Florida from expanding coverage”
“Expanding Medicaid is critical to our rural communities surviving here in Kansas.”
“Unfortunately, the passage of H.R. 1 in July, 2025 cut Medicaid by 21 percent which will have a detrimental effect on rural hospitals, healthcare costs, and people's lives. In total, over 135,000 Virginians will be cut from Medicaid and over 300,000 Virginians will lose their healthcare insurance over the next 10 years.”
“To make healthcare accessible and affordable, we need to roll back the massive Medicaid cuts Zach Nunn voted for this year, which will cause 86,000 Iowans to lose their health insurance, and close rural hospitals and clinics.”
“Tamika will expand Medicaid to close Florida's coverage gap, cap prescription drug costs for seniors and families, protect Medicare and VA healthcare, and ensure caregivers have the resources and support they need to provide care with dignity.”
“Families all over Alabama are opting out of health insurance because of the cost, yet they don't qualify for Medicaid.”
“Provide 12 months of continuous coverage for all adults who qualify for Medicaid and cover eligible children without interruption from birth until age 6. Continuous coverage protects families from losing health care because of missing paperwork or bureaucratic glitches.”
— UnidosUS
Prescription Drug Prices
“federal government manufacture generic prescription drugs at cost”
“Limiting out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses for families to $2,000 a year”
“Cap insulin at $35 for all Americans, not just Medicare recipients”
“End pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) price gouging that inflates costs”
“Lateefah will work to lower prescription drug prices by expanding Medicare drug price negotiation to cover all drugs, close the Medicaid coverage gap, expand Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing, and lower the Medicare eligibility age.”
“Authored the Affordable Prescription Drug Act to bypass Big Pharma and procure low-cost medicine from Canadian suppliers.”
“Expand Prescription Drug Price Negotiations: Build on successful Medicare drug pricing negotiations and extend lower drug prices to privately insured individuals.”
“Require Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate prices on all drugs – and require pharmaceutical companies to license the production of generic versions of certain expensive, taxpayer-funded drugs (so called "march-in" rights).”
“Hold drug companies accountable for price gouging by imposing tougher penalties for raising prices faster than inflation”
“$35 insulin cap so families don't have to ration medicine. Supported CalRx $11 insulin to bring prices down.”
“Expand Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices beyond seniors to all Americans”
“This bill will reduce price spikes by placing an excise tax on certain prescription drugs with quickly rising prices.”
“Make generic prescription drugs free for everyone”
“Cap insulin at $35 a month — for everyone. Insulin costs pennies to manufacture. There is no excuse for any Iowan with diabetes to ration a life-saving medication. Democrats already capped insulin at $35 a month for Iowans on Medicare. We need to extend that cap to every American, regardless of how they get their insurance.”
“A national drug formulary and negotiated drug prices shall be established, allowing the federal government to use its full bargaining power to lower costs. ... The administrative overhead of private insurers (averaging 12–18%) shall be reduced to under 3%, comparable to Medicare.”
“Support Medicare for All funded by fairer corporate taxes and a fair tax on the top 5%. Combat corporate greed that drives up costs while delivering worse outcomes. Expand Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices beyond the current 10-15 products per year.”
“When I got out of the ICU, I went to Walgreens to pick up my first 30-day supply of insulin. It cost me $684.”
“I later learned that it costs companies only $10 per vial to produce insulin, but Big Pharma boosts profits by price gouging.”
“Lower prescription drug costs by requiring that pharmaceutical companies offer medication at no more than the lowest price per drug in similar countries, like France.”
“However, the evidence contradicts industry claims. Countries with strong price controls continue to benefit from pharmaceutical innovation. National Institutes of Health funding drives most basic research underlying new drugs. Pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing and executive compensation than research.”
“Stop the pharmaceutical industry from ripping off the American people by making sure that no one in America pays over $200 a year for the medicine they need by capping what Americans pay for prescription drugs under Medicare for All.”
“Cap the cost of insulin to $20”
“Lower prescription drug costs: Advocate for policies so Coloradans can access life-saving medication, including combating price gouging, reducing out-of-pocket drug costs, negotiating federal program prices (including a $35 insulin cap), and encouraging state and local governments to implement their own solutions.”
“I introduced a bill to cap insulin at $20 a vial. I'll continue fighting for this in Congress and I'll go further by supporting Medicare drug negotiations, cracking down on price gouging, and breaking up monopolies.”
“PrEP should be widely available, affordable, and accessible to all”
“I will fight to cap the price of medical procedures and prescription drugs across the board to an affordable rate in line with other major countries.”
“Cut costs by negotiating drug prices , ending price gouging, and slashing bureaucratic waste from private insurers. We need a system built on care, not paperwork —and where the public sets the prices , not Big Pharma.”
Medical Debt
“remove medically necessary debt from credit reports ... the Restoring Unfairly Impaired Credit & Protecting Consumers Act, which reduces time negative credit stays on a credit report from 7 years to 4 years.”
“Take on the medical debt crisis. Medical debt is the single leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States, and one in three Americans carry it. That isn't a moral failing on the part of working families.”
“Ban predatory medical debt collection practices and increase transparency around debt collection to protect Americans from crippling medical debt. No one should be profiting off of Minnesotan's need for care.”
“We’ve got to bring down the cost of health care and prescription drugs by taking on insurance and drug companies. ... In 2025, Republicans voted to strip 25,000 people in our district of their health insurance, increase insurance premiums by up to 75%, and close rural hospitals and health care centers.”
“Nearly 1 in 5 adults have one or more medical debt collections listed on their credit report, which means they may be denied housing, transportation, or other necessities because of a sudden health crisis or visit to the emergency room.”
“As a nation, Americans hold more than $225 billion in medical debt. I think it shouldn't exist — and I erased it for upwards of 300,000 Michiganders in Wayne County. I favor abolishing it for every American immediately.”
“Canceling existing medical debt, wiping it off credit reports for good, and banning debt collectors from coming after patients for medical bill. Angie support senator Sanders’ bipartisan-backed Medical Debt Cancellation Act.”
“Maria supports stronger protections against unfair medical billing, greater hospital price transparency, and real relief options for families already overwhelmed by medical debt.”
“Research shows that 90% of bankruptcies are due to extreme medical debt. Thousands of Americans die each year just because they can't afford healthcare.”
“Roughly 100 million Americans — about 4 in 10 adults — carry some form of medical debt, totaling at least $220 billion nationwide. People aren’t going into debt because they made bad choices; they’re going into debt because they got sick, had a baby or broke a bone.”
“Forgive medical debt and expand coverage to include naturopathic and alternative medicine”
“Wipe medical debt off credit reports”
“No family should go into debt when facing illness. No shareholder should ever have a vote in your care plan.”
“End Predatory Billing: I will take on the hospitals and insurance companies that use "black box" pricing and predatory tactics to push working-class families into bankruptcy.”
Eliminating Copays / Deductibles / Premiums
“We fix it by: - Allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices - Capping out-of-pocket healthcare costs - Requiring real price transparency from providers and insurers”
“The AHCP shall: Provide comprehensive health care coverage to every U.S. resident from birth or date of residency onward. Replace all private and public insurance plans for medically necessary services, including Medicare, Medicaid, employer plans, ACA exchange plans, TRICARE, and CHIP. Guarantee free access at the point of service, no premiums, deductibles, or copays for covered services.”
“No one will pay more out of pocket for health care under AHCP than they currently pay for premiums, deductibles, and copays combined.”
“Eliminate prior authorization requirements and end all out-of-network billing.”
“A system where your tax dollars pay for the healthcare that you want and need. No more deductibles, no more “that’s not covered under your plan,” no more “out of network providers,” and no more insurance agents trying to get you the least possible care for the most possible money. Just you and your doctor in the room.”
“You struggle to get care even when you have insurance. Premiums are high, coverage is limited, and access keeps shrinking.”
“Cover mental health, dental, vision, reproductive care, and prescription drugs”
“create a public option to lower healthcare premiums through greater competition”
Fixing the Healthcare System
“To genuinely achieve this objective, we must simultaneously protect our public hospitals. Ideally a universal healthcare program would depend upon public hospitals to provide quality care at an affordable rate. Unfortunately, our public hospitals are being systematically privatized. Private hospitals create another means for private entities to profit from public programs. This is a direct threat to achieving cost-effective universal healthcare that can provide high quality care.”
“Americans pay more for health care than people in other wealthy countries because of policy choices that allow unaffordable prescription drugs, fragmented care and opaque pricing.”
“That’s why I’m proposing CitizenCare CORE — a universal foundation of preventive healthcare that ensures every American has access to essential care from birth to age 65. CitizenCare CORE focuses on keeping people healthy, not just treating illness. ... Think of it as the healthcare equivalent of public education — a strong baseline available to everyone.”
“But the ACA is still an insurance scheme. It brokers access to care instead of delivering it. The coverage depends on which program survives the next budget vote. ... Insurance still isn’t care. The insurance card and the treatment in the room are two different things, and the distance between them is where people fall through.”
“The problem isn’t that America lacks doctors, hospitals, or innovation. The problem is that we wait until people are sick before we provide care . That approach is both cruel and incredibly expensive ... Preventable illness is one of the largest hidden costs in the American economy.”
“I also support greatly expanding federal community health centers so that families in both rural and urban areas have access to medical and preventive care.”
“Displaced Workers: … There are 3 million medical code matchers at insurance companies and medical facilities, mean salary $30,000/year, ergo $90 Billion. They will be paid full salary for 3 years re-training, e.g. in tuition free public universities/trade schools”
“However, a study by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) estimates federal payments to Medicare Advantage Plans in 2025 exceeded the spending that would have occurred in traditional Medicare for those enrollees by 20%, which approximates $84 billion in additional spending. This raises the question of whether the additional spending is providing a better quality of care or simply increased profits for the Medicare Advantage private insurance companies.”
“cover interpretation and translation services as part of standard patient care”
“require a maximum number of patients per nurse, so we are putting patient care”
“Support safe staffing standards that improve both patient outcomes and working conditions. Strengthen workplace violence prevention measures and healthcare worker safety protections. Protect collective bargaining rights for nurses and healthcare workers.”
“Establish a National Black Men's Health Initiative and a White House Office of Black Men's Health”
“Introduced and re-introduced the Health Equity and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Community Inclusion Act , which will help ensure the experiences and needs of the MENA community are reflected in the federal government’s focus on public health.”
“Rid the government of vaccine conspiracy theorists: Support proposed legislation to protect the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) from politicization and ensure the panel relies on accurate scientific data.”
“A Just Transition Program shall support workers currently employed in the private insurance industry through: Job retraining and placement in the public health system; Wage replacement for up to 2 years; Pension and benefit protections.”
“Providers shall be paid through global budgets, negotiated fee schedules, or capitation models, designed to ensure fair compensation and control costs. ... The administrative overhead of private insurers (averaging 12–18%) shall be reduced to under 3%, comparable to Medicare.”
“And, good health demands clean air, inside and out. Carleigh will fight to restore the EPA's clean air standards and champion a bold new plan to promote indoor air quality by fighting for updated building codes, air quality monitoring, and the use of high quality personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of airborne disease.”
“universal access to gender-affirming care”
“Our healthcare system must prioritize patient safety over administrative profit. I will co-sponsor federal legislation to mandate safe nurse-to-patient ratios and protect our public care systems, including the VA, Medicaid, and Social Security, from any attempts at privatization.”
“a new, contains-cost and covers-all funding process for US Healthcare... Restoring clinical sovereignty is essential to reversing this crisis.”
“Work to put an end to predatory hospital billing practices”
“Health Innovation for the Public Good: Invest in publicly driven healthcare innovation —like telemedicine, universal electronic records, and preventive care—not to boost profits, but to improve outcomes and expand access. Tech should serve patients, not corporate shareholders.”
Claim Denials, Prior Authorization & AI
“Insurance companies made 53 million prior authorization decisions last year. They approved 92% of them, meaning the process existed to exhaust you, not protect you. Of the denials that were appealed, 80% were overturned. The system is designed to separate people from the care they need. Carleigh supports Medicare for All: a single-payer system covering medical, dental, vision, and mental health.”
“Keep Artificial Intelligence out of insurance denials. Simply put: we cannot allow health insurance companies to delegate decisions over whether an Iowan is denied medically prescribed healthcare to artificial intelligence platforms.”
“ensuring health care professionals can override automated medical decisions and are protected from retaliation”
“68,000 people die in our country every year due to the insidious tactics insurance companies use to avoid paying for essential care, including stretching out the claims process as much as possible for people with urgent medical needs and using artificial intelligence as a tool to automatically deny large numbers of claims.”
“Reverse the burden: the insurer must justify denial, not the patient justify need.”
“Federal ban on AI-only claim denials without physician review. Mandatory 24-hour prior authorization decisions for urgent care.”
“Ashley will legislate to end prior authorization abuse, ban coverage denials for medically necessary care.”
“I categorically oppose the use of AI to allow health insurance of any kind to second-guess decisions made by your doctor.”
“I will sponsor legislation to protect the ACA by permanently closing coverage-denial loopholes, while capping out-of-pocket costs and eliminating surprise five-figure emergency bills entirely.”
Private Equity & Consolidation in Care
“Ban Leveraged Buyouts of hospitals and essential healthcare providers by private equity and hedge funds. Private-equity hospitals have lower survival rates. Establish an Extended Exit Liability for Private Equity: This will claw back profits when investors bankrupt hospitals or abandon care.”
“Today, a single corporation can own your insurance company, your pharmacy, your doctor's office, and your pharmacy benefit manager — all under one profit-driven roof. This kills competition, drives up prices, and puts corporate shareholders ahead of patients.”
“Maria supports the Break Up Big Medicine Act of 2026, which would rein in these monopolistic structures and restore competition to the healthcare marketplace.”
“Prohibit health insurance companies and providers from being publicly traded. Removes businesses from healthcare management entirely.”
“Private equity firms buy hospitals, cut staff, reduce care quality, and extract profits by harming patients and workers alike. In Connecticut, Prospect Medical Holdings' bankruptcy showed the devastating cost — from nursing shortages and unpaid vendors, to the risk of local hospitals closing altogether.”
“Unfreeze and expand residency funding so we train the physicians we obviously need. Review and unwind the mergers that killed competition. Require every price and every rebate to be published. And add a public option whose job is to keep the market honest: a plan that can't be bought, can't be merged, and sets the floor everyone else has to beat.”
“Kick Wall Street out of our hospitals. Private equity firms have taken over hospitals, nursing homes, and medical practices. They promise to revitalize struggling communities and then turn around and pillage the hospital for profit, leaving workers unemployed and communities responsible to pick up the pieces.”
“We froze the pipeline of new doctors with residency funding caps from the 1990s, let hospital systems merge until whole regions have one provider, and built a layer of middlemen whose entire business is keeping prices unreadable so you can't shop and can't fight back.”
“Break insurance and other health care monopolies to ensure healthcare is driven by medical experts and not Wall Street monopoly returns. ... Require minimum staffing standards for emergency rooms, and mental and behavioral health services.”
“Rigorously regulate pharmacy benefit managers and private equity investors in our healthcare system.”
Rural Hospitals & Provider Shortages
“Establishes a multi-billion-dollar federal relief fund providing non-repayable operational grants to rural short-term general and Critical Access Hospitals to offset negative patient service margins and keep emergency doors open.”
“In Virginia, eight rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closure at a time when rural residents' lifespan is already two-three years behind urban residents'. Rural mothers are dying in childbirth at twice the rate of urban moms, a situation that will only make hospital closures more dire.”
“Basic health care is shrinking … A routine appointment turns into a day off work and a full tank of gas. A specialist means months of waiting. A 911 call doesn't bring immediate help. Clinics cut services piece by piece until the building is still there, but the care is gone.”
“Tennessee has recorded the most rural hospital closures per capita in the nation. 22 counties have no hospital at all.”
“America faces a growing shortage of doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals, with projections showing a shortfall of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036.”
“That’s why I will introduce legislation to establish training programs that will pay medical school tuition for doctors who will work in underserved areas, as well as fund assistance programs to keep hospitals in those areas open so they can focus on what really matters: helping patients.”
“East Gainesville has been identified as a primary health disparity area for over 50 years. ... That’s the Gainesville Paradox: Alachua County ranks #3 in Florida for clinical care quality and 31st in health outcomes. A hospital five miles away that we can’t reach — by cost, by transit, or by schedule — is functionally as far as one 60 miles away. The capacity exists. The connection doesn’t.”
“Mobile clinics operate across the country. North Florida Medical Centers already runs one in our region. Harvard’s Family Van documented $36 saved for every $1 invested compared to ER visits, over 30 years of operation. The funding already exists: FQHC grants, HRSA rural health dollars, VA community care partnerships under existing law. ... The legal authority is there. The operating model is proven.”
“Invest in emergency services: federally fund non-profit and municipal ambulance services and amend the No Surprises Act to include ground ambulances.”
“Tennessee has lost thirteen rural hospitals since 2010 - the second-highest rate of closures in the country ... Our rate of mothers dying around childbirth is dangerously high for a wealthy country, and it’s far worse for Black mothers.”
“Joshua will introduce the Rural Infrastructure Investment Act to fund hospital stabilization grants — not loans — for the most distressed counties.”
“Each mobile unit is a real clinic visit — not a screening booth. Exam room, basic lab, pharmacy dispensing for common prescriptions, telehealth connection to specialists at UF Health or the VA. They anchor at places people already know: churches, fire stations, community centers, college campuses. Same place, same day, reliable schedule.”
“Address physician and healthcare worker shortages by expanding funding for the National Health Service Corps, the Conrad 30 Waiver Program, and graduate medical education residencies. This will help incentivize doctors to practice in Louisiana and other underserved states.”
Addiction & Mental Health
“Expanding mental health crisis response teams so police aren't the only option when someone needs help, not handcuffs.”
“For too long, addiction and substance abuse have been treated primarily as criminal justice issues rather than healthcare challenges. Decades of drug-war policies have cost taxpayers billions while failing to deliver better outcomes for families and communities. Through Medicare for All, access to treatment, recovery services, behavioral health programs, and mental healthcare can be expanded.”
“Enforce true mental health parity. Insurance companies have been gaming mental health parity laws for decades — covering physical health one way and mental health another. That ends now. I will support tough enforcement of mental health parity requirements so insurers cannot deny, delay, or limit mental healthcare on a different standard than they apply to physical health.”
“Aswar strongly supports treating mental healthcare as a fundamental right, mandating "Continuous Care" models, banning AI-based therapy, and reinvesting in community recovery centers to treat addiction as a public health emergency.”
“Addiction treatment — fully funded, stigma-free Expand treatment access everywhere. Recognize addiction as a downstream consequence of the loneliness and belonging crisis devastating our communities. Isolation breeds despair. Despair breeds addiction. The solution is connection, support, and investment — not criminalization and punishment.”
“Aisha believes substance use disorder must be treated as a public health issue, not a criminal one.”
“Jillian will champion efforts to restore funding for the 988 "press 3" LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention hotline.”
“The United States loses approximately 20 veterans a day to suicide. Since 9/11, more U.S. service members have died by suicide than in combat.”
“Dramatically increase access to Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT) for Oregonians, including those incarcerated who continue to be denied access to constitutionally required care. Advocate for comprehensive criminal justice reform, prioritizing effective treatment over punishment.”
“Angela will fight to: Increase Medicaid reimbursement rates and federal grant funding for mental health and substance use disorder services Ensure these services are integrated into primary care and community health networks Expand access to peer support programs, housing-first recovery models , and culturally competent care”
“Modernize drug treatment & improve accessibility: Pass legislation to destigmatize, increase access and make opioid treatment options more affordable, including methadone and bupenorphine at pharmacies.”
“Free mental health care—counseling, crisis support, targeted outreach for veterans, LGBTQ+ residents, and others hit hardest, because no one should struggle alone.”
“Expand parity laws to cover mental and behavioral health treatments the same way as other physical health services.”
“Mental Health Crisis Response: Expand co-responder programs pairing mental health professionals with law enforcement to better address mental health emergencies.”
“Mental health and crisis response Fully funded mobile crisis response teams — trained professionals, not armed police, for mental health emergencies. Mental healthcare is healthcare.”
“Support evidence-based treatment, medication-assisted therapy, naloxone access, peer support and diversion programs for nonviolent offenses Support establishing mental healthcare inside jails, prisons and detention facilities.”
“Mental health, counseling, housing, and addiction services should be expanded due to the alarming rate of depression and suicide common in Missouri”
Public Health & Prevention
Opportunities for candidates to address
- what the country should have ready before the next pandemic
- the public health workers who quit or were forced out after the pandemic
- keeping vaccines available and free as public confidence in them falls
- keeping public health agencies’ findings free of political direction
- lead pipes and lead paint — a source of childhood brain damage we know how to end
Reproductive & Family Health
“Idaho has lost 43% of our practicing OBGYNs, and our district alone has lost 3 critical Labor and Delivery wards since the Dobbs decision.”
“Codify federal protections that require healthcare and social service programs receiving federal funds to follow evidence-based, science-driven standards of care, delivered by licensed and qualified professionals—free from religious or ideological interference.”
“Allow Planned Parenthood to Accept Medicaid: President Trump and congressional Republicans prohibited Planned Parenthood from accepting Medicaid in their 'Big Beautiful Bill'. We must reverse this provision to ensure that Planned Parenthood can keep providing care, no matter what.”
“Shield patients and providers from out-of-state prosecution by passing federal protections for those who travel across state lines to seek or deliver legal abortion services.”
“Establish a federal right to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies, shielding families from judicial overreach.”
“Ever since the Supreme Court ruled that states can ban abortion, Texas has become a dangerous place for women. 50% of Texas counties do not have a women's health provider. Infant mortality increased by 11% since the ban went into effect. This is not "pro-life," this is "pro-forced birth."”
“I'll push to end the Hyde Amendment so Medicaid can cover reproductive care, strengthen the Violence Against Women Act to better protect women from violence, and fight for insurance coverage of IVF so every person has the freedom, care, and support they need to start a family.”
“Repeal the Hyde Amendment to ensure abortion coverage is accessible in all federal health programs. Restore full federal funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides critical health services to over 2 million Americans every year.”
“Codify Reproductive Rights: write abortion rights and birth control into federal law, repeal the Hyde Amendment, and ban pregnancy crisis centers that spread medical disinformation.”
“Expand teaching programs that train clinicians to provide abortion and reproductive healthcare.”
“Someone unable to choose to discontinue a pregnancy is unable to freely choose a career, choose a partner, or plan a family on their own terms. Someone whose internet searches for personal medical information can end in jail is not a free citizen.”
“I refuse to endorse any term restrictions. Third trimester abortions are exceedingly rare and reserved for the most severe possible pregnancy complications. Even with exception carve-outs, the only thing these restrictions do is force dying patients and doctors to jump through legal hoops to get and provide basic medical care.”
“In Congress, I will push to pass bills like the EACH Act, which would repeal discriminatory laws such as the Hyde amendment. By putting essential abortion care out of reach for marginalized and low-income communities, these kinds of laws only exist to punish people for being poor.”
“Repeal the Comstock Act, which is an 1870s law Republicans want to use for a national abortion ban.”
“Codify access to the full scope of reproductive health care into federal law, including abortion, IVF, contraception, and medication abortion.”
“Protect reproductive health access: Codify the right to choose into law, guarantee access to contraception and abortion care by fully funding Title X and Medicaid family planning services, and safeguard reproductive health data privacy.”
“Democrats have had numerous opportunities to codify Roe v. Wade and failed. When basic rights are treated as political bargaining chips, women and families pay the price. I do not play politics with bodily autonomy.”
“Continues to advocate to get rid of the Hyde Amendment, which denies abortion coverage to people already more likely to be systematically underserved by our health system and struggling to make ends meet, including women of color, young people, transgender people, and non-binary people.”
“Gender-affirming care is healthcare: Guarantee nationwide access, require public and private insurance coverage, and protect patients, families, and medical providers from politically motivated restrictions.”
“I support robust federal investment in studies, treatments, and education focused on women's health particularly in areas that have been historically underfunded. This includes research into heart disease and stroke symptom differences, menopause care, breast cancer detection, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, menstrual health, and cervical cancer.”
“Carleigh will fight to protect the right to abortion, defend access to contraception, and oppose any attempt, state or federal, to roll back reproductive healthcare, including fighting to enshrine Roe v. Wade as federal law and repealing the discriminatory Hyde Amendment.”
Expanding What Medicare Covers
“Expand Medicare to cover long-term homecare services, vision, and hearing to help seniors and people with disabilities live independently.”
“Make Medicare cover consistent in-home nursing visits starting at age 65”
“Improve Traditional Medicare: Traditional Medicare still doesn't provide auditory, vision, dental coverage, or long-term services and supports (LTSS) for beneficiaries. If we want healthy, thriving seniors we must finally provide these services.”
“Expand Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing care. Expand Medicare to cover home health costs for family caregivers”
“Medicare does not cover common eldercare options like Assisted Living Communities, At Home Care, or care from a loved one.”
“Currently, seniors have to be impoverished down to $1,600 to be eligible for Medicaid to cover their long-term care. Long-term care is healthcare and must be covered under Medicare to eliminate the financial burden on families. It is time we stop forcing seniors out of their homes and into nursing homes because they can't afford to age in their homes.”
“Roughly 72 million Americans — more than one in four — lack dental coverage, and nearly 40% of those who have it still skip care because it's too expensive. Untreated dental or vision issues can lead to pain, preventable disease, and even life-threatening complications — yet our system treats them like afterthoughts.”
“Expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, hearing, in-home support services, long-term care, reproductive care, acupuncture, continuum of care (for homeless housing subsidies and drug treatments) and gender-affirming care.”
“Medicare for All would include coverage for dental, vision, mental health, reproductive health and abortion care. It would also include community-based long term support services, ensuring hundreds of thousands of disabled people are able to finally get the home care they need.”
“Expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing while capping out-of-pocket costs. Support home health care workers so seniors can age at home. Ensure that Medicaid cuts do not affect access to nursing homes. Reverse cuts to Social Security Administration funding.”
“All-Inclusive: That means dental, because your teeth are not luxury bones. Eye care, because you shouldn’t have to stretch those disposable one-day contacts over three days. Preventative and mental healthcare will also be included because they involve your health.”
“Expand Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing – the very things that deteriorate as we age. Address antitrust issues in the healthcare system that put the power in a few major corporations and provide consumers with little choice.”
“oral health care is part of – not separate from – a person's overall health”
Wages & Work
Labor Rights / Unions
“Democratize corporate boards with worker-elected representatives...at least 45% of the board of directors in any large corporation.”
“When public resources are used to support private development, communities should receive something in return. Diop supports federal standards that prioritize project labor agreements, prevailing wage requirements, registered apprenticeships, and local hiring commitments for projects receiving federal support.”
“Prioritize Union Labor on Federal Projects: Reward companies that have allowed their workers to unionize by providing them with preference for federal contracts.”
“union membership in the U.S. has fallen from about one-third of workers in the 1950s to roughly 10% today”
“Lowering costs and strengthening financial support for working families by allowing deductions for union dues and job-related expenses so people aren't taxed on the costs of doing their jobs.”
“Most people don't understand that unions raise everybody's pay, whether you're in a union or not. So the work that union members do, they are doing for every person earning a paycheck in America.”
“Reauthorize and expand the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) with funding for proven career pathways and apprenticeship programs, particularly in Black, Latino, and rural communities.”
“Support Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) initiatives, including in federal hiring, to recognize experience over credentials.”
“We're going to mandate worker representation on corporate boards.”
“Human labor is the base of the American economy and safe working conditions and stable pay create an environment where creativity and hard work can thrive. Free speech and the right to unionize for better pay and working conditions must not be interfered with. Diversion of taxpayer dollars into speculative technologies designed to reduce the size of the American workforce effectively damage the financial stability of families and the American tax base.”
“those jobs must pay a living wage, provide strong benefits, and protect a worker's right to organize for fair pay and good working conditions.”
“Any project paid for with federal dollars should support union labor. Leaving that out of recent legislation was a serious mistake, and I intend to fix it.”
“Provide apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and work-based learning opportunities in partnership with local employers, labor unions, and community colleges.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- government-worker unions after the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that let workers opt out of fees while the union must still represent them
- setting pay across an entire industry in one negotiation — the way much of Europe does — instead of one workplace at a time
- unpaid wages and stolen tips — more money taken each year than in all robberies combined
- states loosening child labor laws on hours, ages and hazardous work
The Right to Organize & Union-Busting
“We need to repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, which limits the power of workers and unions to fight and push for better working conditions.”
“Introduces legislation to completely ban mandatory anti-union workplace presentations, reclassifying captive-audience meetings as an illegal form of workplace coercion.”
“Then Trump issued a sweeping executive order that stripped hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, "the largest and most aggressive single act of union-busting in U.S. history," according to a Georgetown University labor historian.”
“When companies illegally fire workers for engaging in union organizing, the government must have the power to immediately reinstate those employees.”
“Punishments need to be strengthened for companies who engage in illegal union busting tactics. Too often, companies threaten and fire employees for attempting to unionize, or offer rewards for those who do not; while these tactics are illegal, companies realize they will only have to pay small fines as punishment. Such fines must be exponentially increased, to a level far higher than any costs a company may incur as a result of workers choosing to unionize.”
“Hold Corporations Accountable: I will work to break up monopolies in tech, energy, and food that price out local choices, and I will fight to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers and provide free legal support in cases of employer retaliation.”
“Jillian will ensure that workers, not their employers, should set union elections procedures. She will put an end to workers being forced to sit through anti-union meetings by their employer. And, if a worker is retaliated against for participating in union activities, Jillian will advocate for a timely process for that worker to be reinstated.”
“Deny federal contracts to companies that pay poverty wages, outsource jobs overseas, engage in union busting, deny good benefits, and pay CEOs outrageous compensation packages Provide unions the ability to organize through a majority sign up process and enact “first contract” provisions to ensure companies cannot prevent a union from forming by denying a first contract.”
“Walking the picket line in the dead of winter and standing shoulder to shoulder with workers from every department taught her a lesson she will bring with her to the halls of Congress: every worker deserves a union. That's why she will proudly sign on to the PRO Act and fight to restore collective bargaining rights to 1.5 million federal workers hurt by Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE disaster.”
“Aswar strongly supports passing the PRO Act and creating federal tax incentives that promote unionization while aggressively penalizing labor violations.”
“Defend and expand workers' rights by passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to ban union-busting, protect striking workers, and eliminate right-to-work laws”
“And it will finally end so-called "right to work" laws once and for all. These laws have been promoted by a network of billionaires and special interest groups in an effort to divide working people along racial lines and give more power to corporations at the expense of workers.”
— AFL-CIO
“Once workers vote to form a union, the PRO Act will require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to order that the employer commence bargaining a first contract. These orders would be enforced in district courts to ensure swift justice, avoiding the complex and drawn out process in the courts of appeals.”
— AFL-CIO
“The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act and legislation granting bargaining rights to firefighters, based on the previous Public Safety Employer Employee Cooperation Act, will provide public workers with a framework to organize and bargain collectively.”
— AFL-CIO
“Empower workers to come together and fight the boss. Protect, expand, and enforce the rights of all workers to form, join, and strike with their unions, regardless of industry. Support union members who organize reform caucuses, democratize their unions, and take political action.”
Enforcing Labor Law: NLRB, OSHA & Wage Theft
“Congress must restore and strengthen the National Labor Relations Board so it can effectively enforce workers' rights and hold bad actors accountable. Diop supports increased funding and enforcement authority for the NLRB, stronger penalties for union-busting activities, and passage of the PRO Act to modernize labor protections and strengthen workers' ability to organize.”
“In Congress, Elijah will introduce legislation to fully fund OSHA and expand their capacity to inspect more workplaces, hold bad employers accountable, educate workers and employers, and strengthen their alliances. Elijah's legislation will strengthen and increase penalties & fines, and create a Workplace Safety Prosecutor within the U.S. Department of Labor.”
“Triple the DOL Wage and Hour Division staffing — recovered wages pay for it within a year.”
“Crack down on wage theft, which costs American workers more each year than all property crimes combined, and which falls hardest on the workers with the least power to fight back.”
“Crack down on wage theft and make intentional wage theft a felony. Oppose non-compete clauses that trap workers in jobs. Promote sectoral bargaining so workers across entire industries can negotiate together. Guarantee every worker legal rights to bathroom breaks, water, and rest periods.”
“I will be an ally in congress you can rely on to oversee regular full-quorum NLRB sessions, and ensure labor courts have the resources they need to protect workers.”
“Profitable companies may not conduct mass layoffs. Mass layoffs are only permitted if a company is operating at a loss and has exhausted all other cost-saving measures, including pausing non-essential contracts and halting dividend payments.”
“Companies may not conduct layoffs if they have executed stock buybacks within the previous 365 days. In acquisitions, all employees must be retained for one year or provided with a years' severance pay.”
“Right to Negotiate Pay: Candidates may negotiate their offers without risk of rescission. Employers can make a revised offer or maintain the original terms by mutual agreement.”
“The PRO Act will modernize the NLRA by stiffening penalties for employer violations to bring them in line with other workplace laws, imposing financial penalties on companies and individual corporate officers who violate the law and giving workers the option of bringing their case to federal court.”
— AFL-CIO
Workers the Law Left Out
“National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to guarantee basic labor rights and protections in the workplace for domestic workers.”
“Our economy must center policies that create portability - so benefits follow all workers, not employers or job classifications.”
“Good Jobs for Good Airports Act to mandate that all sizes of airports provide airport service workers living wages and benefits”
“Oliver supports college student-athletes collectively bargaining for their rights as university employees to earn compensation and benefits.”
“I will propose a law to limit non-compete clauses for most businesses. This tool has morphed from protection for very specific industries to a catch-all that companies use to trap their workers from leaving on their own and fairly competing.”
“The future of work must include workers who have too often been left behind by existing labor laws. Gig workers, contract workers, freelancers, and other independent workers deserve greater protections, transparency, and a meaningful voice in shaping their working conditions. Diop supports exploring portable benefits, protecting workers from unfair deactivation practices, and creating pathways for collective bargaining that reflect today's economy.”
“I have already drafted bold pro-worker reforms, including: guaranteed rest days after seven straight days.”
“Raising the federal minimum wage to a real living wage, indexed to inflation, for every worker, including immigrant and incarcerated workers. Ending “right to work” laws and extending labor protections to workers historically excluded from them, including farmworkers and domestic workers.”
“I support eliminating the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers and guaranteeing the same base wage as everyone else, with tips on top - not as a substitute for fair pay.”
“The PRO Act will guarantee bargaining rights for working people who are misclassified as independent contractors—such as so-called “gig workers” for platform companies—as well as those who are misclassified as supervisors.”
— AFL-CIO
“We will win breakthroughs in long term care, cleaning/security, and fast-food -- industries impacted heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic depression. We will use our state power and organizing muscle to win sectoral victories through legislative or executive action.”
Minimum Wage
“If the minimum wage kept up with worker productivity over the past 50 years, it would be $25 an hour.”
“Ban captive audience meetings designed to discourage unionization. Eliminate subminimum wages for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, and youth.”
“We need leadership that will drive the charge for bold policies like 40 for 40 for 45, so that anyone working a 40 hour work week will make a guaranteed minimum of $45,000 a year with 40 hours of paid sick leave.”
“give 86 million Americans a raise of the federal minimum wage to $25, tie annual increases to the cost of inflation, and eliminate the so-called 'tipped minimum' wage of $2.13.”
“Tipped minimum wage policies hurt restaurant workers, who have earned only $2.13 an hour since 1991.”
“The Wage-to-Rent Indexing Act tackles America's affordability crisis by ensuring that full-time workers earn enough to afford basic housing where they live. Instead of a one-size-fits-all minimum wage, the Act ties wages directly to local rental costs, aligning pay with real-world living expenses.”
“End 14C certificates on the federal level, which allow for-profit companies to pay individuals with disabilities a subminimum wage”
“Over the past 40 years, CEO pay has risen about 1,400 percent while average worker pay has gone up just 18 percent. Things are too expensive, and people do not have enough money: for a home, school, gas, groceries, and healthcare. For too long, the wealthy have done better and better while the middle class shrinks and access to the American Dream slips away. ... But this is a policy choice – not an inevitability.”
“The average U.S. worker today makes about $40 a week less than he or she made 52 years ago. Over roughly the same period, nearly $80 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90 percent to the top one percent.”
“Someone working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at minimum wage will earn $15,080 - below the federal poverty threshold of $15,650.”
“$18/hr. minimum wage. Do It Now! (3 month Price Re-set for Labor Fraction of Cost) ... Fight for 15 started in 2012. That's $18 now.”
“Louisiana has never set its own minimum wage. Workers are stuck at $7.25 an hour, the same as in 2009.”
“Requires companies to pay double wages for overtime work, instead of the current time-and-a-half standard.”
“I have signed the One Fair Wage pledge, and I will support the Living Wage for All Act, which sets a federal minimum wage at $25 an hour.”
“All workers deserve to make a living wage and be valued for their contributions. Pass the Raise the Wage Act to bring the US minimum wage to $17/hr by 2030, phase out tipped wage systems, and eliminate lower minimum wages for youths and the disabled.”
“Increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour - which is just the start for creating living wages in our state - with a rolling implementation plan starting with corporate players first, midsize businesses and then small businesses.”
“Ruth will fight to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 an hour and tie wages to inflation, meaning when prices go up, people’s paychecks will go up. ... With a $25 minimum wage tied to inflation, every person who works full time will earn at least $50,000 annually AND their pay will go up annually to keep up with inflation.”
“Abolishing Poverty Wages and subminimum wages, fight for a $30/hr + tips for service workers”
“Raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in nearly 30 years. Closing the "salary loophole" that cheats workers of overtime.”
“There was a time in this country when working 40 hours a week meant you could buy a home, raise a family, and retire with dignity. But now, even folks working 60 hours a week are barely scraping by.”
“We need to fast track a raise in wages to a new minimum of $25 , but our efforts can't stop there. Congress must act to strengthen and defend unions, protect the right to organize, and make sectoral bargaining the norm again.”
“In Florida, someone working full-time at minimum wage takes home less than $30,000 a year, but the basic cost of living in Florida's 26th District is closer to $40,000 a year. That math doesn't work and it's not because people aren't working hard enough.”
“I support raising the minimum wage and implementing dynamic minimum wage adjustments where the minimum wage gets adjusted every year based on inflation. As housing, food, and basic expenses rise, wages should rise automatically without Congress or States having to pass legislation for increases every year.”
“Our current minimum wage of $7.25 / hour is a direct result of business interests owning our government and highlights exactly how effectively "bought" our current government is.”
“Raise the Federal Minimum Wage to at least $25/hour, indexed to inflation and cost of living”
“Raise the minimum wage to a LIVING WAGE! About $25 an hour now. Eliminate “Right to Work for Less” laws and guarantees the right to unionize for workers historically excluded from labor protections, like farm workers and domestic workers.”
“Raise the Minimum Wage to $17: The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour since 2009, failing to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Raising the minimum wage to $17 would especially benefit Latino workers, who are overrepresented in low-wage jobs, impacting 1 in 4 Latino workers and generating billions in additional annual wages.”
— UnidosUS
“The Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act … continue to direct Congress and the Secretary of Labor to discontinue issuing to any new profit, non-profit, or governmental entity special wage certificates (which permit individuals with disabilities, including individuals employed in agriculture, to be paid at lower than minimum wages).”
“We must secure a minimum wage of at least $20 that’s tied to inflation.”
Workweek & Vacation Reforms
“Make all federal positions 32 hours a week with no loss in pay”
“The United States is the only major nation in the world that does not guarantee paid time off...when most of the developed world guarantees at least 20 days!”
“Raise the non-exempt salary threshold for overtime to $100,000.”
“Joshua supports a four day work week, minimum wage increases, and workplace unionization. He also will engage the gig economy to close contractor/employee loopholes. He will support legislation to require standardized rest breaks across industries.”
“Guarantees every full-time worker two weeks of paid vacation time.”
“Expand public resources to support recreation, learning, and social spaces accessible to all. Establish paid family leave for all workers, a 32 hour work week with full pay and benefits, and a living minimum wage. Provide free, quality public education from pre-K to college and cancel all student debt.”
Price Gouging & Affordability
“Ban dynamic pricing for groceries, concert tickets, and airfare”
“Pass the Price Gouging Prevention Act to prohibit price gouging on groceries and other consumer goods like toilet paper and cleaning supplies, nationwide, with real penalties for violations. Pass the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act to end "surveillance pricing" and empower the FTC to hold big corporations accountable.”
“Enact a temporary, renewable negotiated national price cap on a "basket" of grocery essentials, modeled on the successful Mexican national policy”
“Congress needs to reduce the price of food by cracking down on corporate profiteering, preventing Big Ag from secretly colluding to keep prices high.”
“Robin will join the Congressional Progressive Caucus on her first day in office and immediately co-sponsor every bill in the New Affordability Agenda — 10 proposals to lower the price of prescription drugs, utilities, gas, childcare, housing, and groceries, plus guarantee paid vacation, double overtime pay, ban surveillance pricing, and abolish Super PACs.”
“Use a national Windfall Oil Profits tax to fund consumer rebates to put money back in drivers pockets Enact a temporary, renewable negotiated national or regional price caps on gasoline and diesel at the pump, modeled on the most successful emergency policies of other nations”
“Cracking down on corporate price gougers and their corrupt anti-competitive practices that are jacking up costs on groceries, everyday goods, and farming inputs like fertilizer and seed”
“Take on the big corporations driving up grocery prices, crack down on rent-price fixing, and ban hidden junk fees”
“The affordability crisis isn't an accident: it's the result of corporate monopolies, stagnant wages, and decades of policies that put profits over people.”
“Put People Over Profit: Ban price-gouging in healthcare, housing, utilities, groceries and essential goods.”
“He'll take on drug companies to end price gouging and reduce costs on life-saving prescriptions and treatment. He'll combat the rigged, monopolistic practices that drive inflation. Corporations shouldn't get to jack up prices on the backs of children, seniors, and veterans.”
“Economic security must be treated as a public good — not a privilege reserved for those with generational wealth.”
“I will fight to rein in price-gouging corporations, negotiate all prescription drug prices, and support strong antitrust and consumer protection laws. An economy that works for working people means lower costs, real competition, and putting power back where it belongs: in the hands of consumers, not monopolies.”
Universal Basic Income
“My Universal Basic Income (UBI) plan provides a guaranteed $1,000 every month to every American adult, no strings attached.”
“Angela will champion the launch of a Guaranteed Basic Income pilot program right here in CA-34. The pilot would be funded through progressive taxation and public-private partnerships, demonstrating a scalable model for future federal GBI programs.”
“the Automatic BOOST to Communities (ABC) Act to send $2,000 monthly payments on debit cards to every person in the United States —including undocumented immigrants, who’ve been left out of COVID relief.”
“it should put a direct stake in working families' hands, so the people pushed out of work by an AI economy share in its gains alongside the people who own it. One way to do that is a national fund that holds a slice of the upside and pays it back out to families, the way Alaska shares its oil money with every resident.”
“UBI recognizes a fundamental moral truth: AI training relies on humanity’s collective intellectual output, drawing on centuries of human knowledge, creativity, and labor embedded in training data. Workers deserve to share in the economic gains resulting from automation rather than shoulder displacement losses alone.”
“The program would be funded through a 2.5% tax on adjusted gross income above $30,000 for single filers and $60,000 for joint filers , with these thresholds adjusted annually for inflation.”
“He is a leading advocate for the Freedom Dividend, a $1,000 per month Negative Income Tax that provides a secure economic floor for every American family. Fully funded by redirecting waste from the $800+ billion Pentagon budget, this policy will protect working people through the AI-driven transition and ensure no one is left behind.”
“All wealth tax revenue dedicated exclusively to eliminating the national debt — projected within 25–32 years. Upon elimination, revenue converts automatically to the American Dividend: an equal monthly payment to every adult American citizen, estimated at $380–$480/month at initial distribution”
“The Peace Dividend is a $1,000 annual payment to every adult American, delivered at Thanksgiving, funded by redirecting a portion of our ever-growing military budget. Since 2020, Pentagon spending has increased by more than $140 billion per year — even as families face rising costs for food, housing, and healthcare. The Peace Dividend ensures that when our nation chooses de-escalation over endless war, the benefits are shared directly with the people.”
“UBI of $1,000 paid out once a month to every American adult, by the Federal government, unconditionally.”
“Provide $1000 annual payments to all, paid for by cuts to our bloated military budget”
“Her visionary economic legislation includes plans for a near-universal basic income without increasing public debt. Her proposal also includes creating jobs in a new Emergency Response Corps to check in on unhoused people and others in need.”
“My plan for a Freedom Dividend (UBI) and Universal Healthcare Access is based on a fundamental shift from a War State to a Citizen State.”
“A universal basic income ensures economic freedom for all by relieving the financial strain on workers”
“Guaranteed Basic Income pilot for working families, stronger protections for gig workers”
“While billionaires have rigged the system to create massive income equality in Michigan and nationwide, everyone deserves money in their pocket through a universal basic income. Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t fund our people’s most basic needs while the Elon Musks of America have managed to pay $0 in income taxes.”
Federal Jobs Guarantee
“A Federal Jobs Guarantee would create a baseline standard for employment that includes a livable wage (pegged to inflation), full healthcare, and child and sick leave for all.”
“Make the federal government the employer of last resort, through a National Employment Guarantee Program”
“Federal Job Guarantee legislation that would make good wages, strong benefits, union protections, and safe working conditions a legal right in America.”
“Funded by the federal government and implemented locally, in partnership with communities, federal job guarantee projects would provide public jobs for all adults seeking employment.”
“Multiple dignified paths out of poverty The public jobs guarantee and paid apprenticeship programs should be able to truly compete with military recruitment for poor young people. A uniform shouldn't be the only ticket out. Give young Americans real options — that don't require risking their lives to access a stable future.”
“The New Deal saw the creation of large federal employment programs like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Drew Cox will push for legislation to revive these programs for the 21st century, ensuring employment for millions of Americans while revitalizing and modernizing America's infrastructure with projects like developing high speed rail and public transit in our cities.”
“a Federal Jobs Guarantee focused on clean energy while investing in healthcare and infrastructure so that everyone who needs a job is guaranteed work that pays them a living wage.”
“Establish a federal jobs guarantee so any American looking for employment can be trained and hired to help strengthen our nation where we need them most, including healthcare, construction, and advanced manufacturing”
“Establish a Federal Jobs Guarantee: I will work to ensure every American who wants to work has access to a federally funded, local job that benefits their community—whether that is care work, infrastructure repair, or forest management here in CA-02.”
“The climate crisis requires a massive jobs program — and a federal jobs guarantee program through the Green New Deal would establish a baseline for wages and benefits”
Worker Ownership & Cooperatives
“Pass the American Ownership and Resilience Act, bipartisan legislation that makes it easier for Iowa workers to buy the companies they've spent their careers building. Right now, over 30 percent of U.S. corporate stock is owned by foreign investors — and as Iowa's baby boom generation of business owners retires, a historic wave of company sales is coming. This legislation would channel those sales toward the employees who know those businesses best, rather than to Wall Street or foreign buyers. Employee-owned companies are more productive, more resilient, pay higher wages, and stay rooted in their communities.”
“Create Tax Incentives That Build Wealth for the Middle Class: Reform the tax code so it rewards companies for sharing wealth — not hoarding it for shareholders. Replace tax breaks for corporations that suppress wages, exploit workers, or engage in predatory behavior with tax incentives that encourage businesses that practice profit-sharing, employee ownership, and real investment in workers' well-being.”
“From restoring the right to strike to securing worker seats on corporate boards and expanding cooperatives, we need to give back real power to working people. When workers have a voice in decisions, they can finally shape the economy they keep running.”
“Provide enhanced financing incentives for businesses that establish employee ownership and profit-sharing programs.”
“Draft an Economic Bill of Rights to protect Americans from exploitation by employers, landlords, and economic instability. Create a democratic economy that promotes employee-owned co-ops , strengthens labor unions , and supports communities through public banking and public utilities .”
“Create federal grant programs – not just loans – for small business start-ups, especially in historically disinvested areas.”
“Community Wealth Building (CWB) is an economic development model that transforms local economies based on communities having direct ownership and control of their assets. CWB takes progressive elements like community land trusts, worker cooperatives, public banking, and more and supercharges their power, systemically connecting and scaling them to change people's lives and the economic future of our communities.”
Gig Worker Protections
“If technology disrupts your job, you deserve advance notice, income stability, and a real pathway to the next opportunity.”
“Aswar strongly supports ending worker misclassification by app-based corporations, ensuring gig workers receive fair pay and benefits.”
“Federal ABC test for worker classification — misclassification as a contractor is a process violation, not a business model.”
“Angela will fight to guarantee the right to organize and collectively bargain for gig workers, push for portable benefits like healthcare and retirement savings that follow workers job to job, and ensure fair pay, protections against algorithmic exploitation, and clear worker classification laws.”
“Algorithmic wage-setting must be prohibited. Gig platforms increasingly use granular surveillance data, including acceptance rates, location history, and how little a given worker has been willing to accept, to calculate the lowest pay each individual will tolerate, so that two people doing identical work earn different, unpredictable, personalized rates.”
“Eliminate loopholes: Stop overtime and misclassification loopholes, including for farm workers, home health care workers, gig workers and more.”
“Gig workers are workers too, and they deserve fair wages, good benefits, and workplace protections. In Congress, Elijah will support guaranteeing a minimum wage, overtime, and the right to organize for a union for all contract and app-based workers.”
“For gig workers, freelancers, and contractors, health insurance plans are especially expensive. 70 million Americans fall under this category and are pushed onto high-cost marketplace plans or left uninsured altogether.”
“the right to organize, expand collective bargaining rights, and support an end to gig worker exploitation.”
“Flexibility shouldn't mean exploitation. Too many gig and contract workers are left without basic protections like fair pay, benefits, or workplace safety.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- software as the boss: it assigns the shifts, sets the pay per job, and can cut a worker off with no person to appeal to
Taxes
Taxing Extreme Wealth: The Case
“When the wealthiest one percent hold more than ten times the wealth of the entire bottom half of this country, something is broken. That is not a reward for hard work. It is hoarding at everyone else's expense.”
“Tax Extreme Wealth. Over the last 50 years, wealth inequality has exploded. We are the richest nation in history, yet thanks to deregulation and reckless tax laws, only a tiny number of people have reaped the lion's share of benefits. This concentration of wealth isn't just unfair—it's a threat to our democracy, allowing a small oligarchy to buy and wield incredibly outsized political power. To rebalance our economy, let's enact a 2% tax on wealth over $50 million and 3% on wealth over $1 billion. Revenue: $2.4-$3 trillion over ten years.”
“Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk now own the equivalent of half of all Americans' wealth. Meanwhile, more than half of Americans don't even have enough savings to cover a $40 emergency expense. A billionaire has 20,000 times as much money as you do, and that's just the guy with $1 billion. Do you think a billionaire is paying 20,000 times as much income tax as you are?”
“Americans with less than five-figure incomes pay an effective payroll tax rate of 14.1 percent, while those making seven-figure incomes or more pay just 1.9 percent.”
“Restore IRS audit capacity for high-income filers — $1 in audit enforcement returns $12 in compliance.”
“In 2024, the IRS reported it had collected over $1 BILLION in back taxes, by focusing on taxpayers making over $1 million with over $250K in tax debt. Thanks to the greed of Trump, DOGE and the GOP, all of those gains have been lost due to their radical defunding of the IRS. Pass legislation to return IRS funding to 2023 levels so that collection is enforced, the department is fully staffed, and wealthy tax cheats are held accountable.”
“The richest people control more wealth than ever before in history. When we demand full funding for our schools and infrastructure, we're told we cannot afford it. Yet, the rich receive tax cuts without anyone batting an eye while the national debt grows to $40 trillion. It's time to end their loopholes and make them pay their fair share like we all pay.”
“The tax code is riddled with loopholes that reward wealth over work and allow those at the top to avoid paying what they owe. We need a tax system that is progressive, fair, simple, and enforced. That means closing ridiculous loopholes, making it harder to shield huge fortunes from taxes for generation after generation, and ensuring the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations actually pay their fair share.”
“Raising taxes on billionaires and corporations could fund crucial investments our community needs for housing, education, clean air & water, fair paying jobs and healthcare.”
“Billionaires and giant corporations should not pay lower tax rates than teachers, nurses, or firefighters.”
“we need to tax the rich hundreds of billions of dollars a year to fund free healthcare for all”
“We can afford Medicare for All, free college, a Green New Deal, and everything else — if we make the ultra-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.”
“I am fighting to reverse the Trump-era tax breaks for billionaires, corporations, and the top 1%.”
“The most effective and fair way to increase government revenue is to tax the top 1% of income earners and wealth holders”
“Luke was born and raised on the Iron Range. While his family was never wealthy, they were able to get by with his dad's union job and government programs that help working people. Today too many Northern Minnesotans are suffering – good-paying union jobs are disappearing and the government safety net is under attack. Luke will fight to make the richest Americans pay their fair share, so working families can live and thrive in Northern Minnesota.”
“Creating an economy that works for all of us starts with a comprehensive tax system that benefits working people and ensures the top 1%, Wall Street, and large corporations pay their fair share. ... Instead of taxing the poor to fund more wealth for the rich, it’s time to tax the rich to end poverty.”
Wealth Taxes: Rates & Thresholds
“2% annual tax on household net worth between $50 million and $1 billion ... 4% annual Billionaire Surtax (6% tax overall) on household net worth above $1 billion”
“Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act to raise $3 trillion in revenue over 10 years from the top .05% in our economy.”
“Annual wealth tax: 0% under $10M, 2% on $10–50M, 4% on $50–100M, 5% above ... Closes the Buy-Borrow-Die loophole ... Restores the estate tax to Eisenhower-era rates: 77% above $500M”
“mandatory mark-to-market for households worth more than $100 million, ensuring unrealized gains on stocks, real estate, and private assets are counted as annual income”
“We will pay for the policies that will make housing, healthcare and education human rights for all Americans through a national wealth tax on mega-millionaires and by closing tax loopholes that favor corporations, the wealthy and the well-connected. By putting the excessive wealth of the top 0.1% to work and refusing to use the tax code to reward hoarders of wealth, we can raise over $3.5T over the next ten years.”
“Tax the Rich As a matter of basic fairness, economic stability, and national survival. America today has worse economic inequality than France did before the French Revolution. Historically speaking, taxing the rich is the peaceful option. ... Start with a 35% tax on wealth above $1 billion and close the carried interest loophole — no more hedge fund managers paying lower rates than nurses, teachers, and mechanics.”
“Pass the Ultra-Millionaire Tax: 2% tax on wealth over $50 million, 3% on wealth over $1 billion. Pass the Billionaires Income Tax to ensure billionaires pay taxes on their unrealized gains.”
“In addition to increasing tax rates on income over $1 million, we must levy a wealth tax. Such a tax would levy a modest percentage on total assets over $50 million in order to generate sufficient funds to address the growing deficit, fund essential services, and properly care for the American people. One current plan, The Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has nearly 50 co-sponsors and the support of nearly 40 community groups and labor organizations.”
“I support proposals like Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax , which would impose an annual tax on households with a net worth above $50 million. This tax would generate revenue to fund universal childcare, tuition-free public college, and expanded health care access. I also support Senator Bernie Sanders’ wealth tax proposals on households with wealth over $32 million”
“I support bold proposals like the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act from Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, which would tax extreme billionaire wealth and invest those resources back into working families.”
“We can fund crucial government programs and subsidize nonprofits through government grants by implementing a modest 2% wealth tax on Americans with net worths over $50 million.”
“levy a 2 percent annual tax on net worth above $50 million, plus a 1 percent surtax on net worth above $1 billion”
“Implement a 2-3% annual wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million through the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act”
“Pass a graduated wealth tax & raise the marginal tax rate on income >$100 million”
“I will introduce legislation to create a Wealth Tax and amend tax code so every dollar gained over a billion goes back into the social safety net.”
Top Income Tax Rates
“60% on income from $30 million to $100 million. 75% on income from $100 million to $500 million. 90% on income from $500 million to $999 million. 100% on all income above $1 billion.”
“making $1 million of income a year or more pay 70% to 90% in taxes, which would raise $800 billion”
“Apply a 3% surtax on annual income over $1 million, and an 8% surtax on income over $15 million.”
“Currently our top most income bracket for single tax payers begins at $626,351 and at $751,601 for married filing jointly. Income above those amounts is taxed at 37%. Historically, this tax rate has been much higher. In 1960, it was 90%. In 1980, it was 70%. The Reagan tax cuts passed in 1986 reduced this rate to 28%. According to the Federal Reserve, income inequality has significantly increased since 1980.”
“One possible solution is to simply create additional brackets with incrementally graduated tax rates on income over $1 million dollars. The number of brackets over $1 million (i.e. $1 million, $10 million, $100 million) and the various rates (i.e. 45%, 60%, 70%) would be determined after a comprehensive study. If approached in this manner, most Americans would not see any increase in their federal income taxes.”
“Tax high wage executives on a sliding scale for total compensation above 50x their average worker (including lowest paid positions).”
“Make our tax code fair by equalizing rates; taxing all income over $1 million at the same rate, whether it comes from wages or investments.”
“Joshua understands that the billionaires have gotten out of control. He aims to modify the tax code to 70 percent marginal tax rate in the district, and desires reforms to capital gains and inheritance taxes. Joshua supports tax hikes on earnings or valuations greater than one billion dollars.”
“Aswar strongly supports restoring 50%+ marginal rates on extreme income, closing capital gains loopholes, and establishing a wealth tax on ultra-large fortunes to reinvest in working families.”
“Go back to the tax rates for the super rich before Ronald Reagan changed them.”
Closing the Loopholes: Buy-Borrow-Die & Carried Interest
“Billionaires borrow against stock to avoid income taxes. Any loan backed by stock should be treated and taxed as income, just like wages.”
“donor-advised funds...should face real payout requirements modeled on the private-foundation rules Congress enacted in 1969”
“Hedge fund managers pay a lower tax rate on their earnings than most middle-class workers because of a provision called "carried interest" that allows them to classify their income as investment gains rather than wages. This is indefensible. Maria will fight to close it.”
“Billionaires don't get rich off salaries—they use a tax-avoidance scheme called "Buy. Borrow. Die." First, they buy a huge amount of stock and never sell it. Instead of paying taxes on their gains, they borrow against those assets to fund their lifestyle, paying only a low interest rate to their bank. And when they die, a loophole called "stepped-up basis" magically wipes out all taxes on those gains, so their heirs can start the same cycle all over again. We fix this by taxing massive unrealized gains like regular income, taxing gains above $5 million at death, or adding an excise tax on loans taken out against assets when not used to build a business.”
“I would put a surtax on the excess profits of the biggest AI firms, the companies pulling in enormous margins by replacing paid work with software. And I would close the loopholes these firms and their owners use to pay almost nothing, including the stock-buyback games, the carried-interest break, and the trick that lets the wealthiest pass appreciated assets to their heirs without ever paying tax on the gain.”
“A factory worker pays Social Security tax on every dollar they earn. An investor living entirely off dividends pays nothing. A billionaire's heir can inherit a $500 million stock portfolio the morning after the funeral — tax free. This bill says income is income. The laborer who plants deserves the same treatment as the investor who harvests.”
“Introduce a "Robin Hood" small tax on all stock transactions to disincentivize speculation and gamification of financial markets”
“I support taxing capital gains over $1 million at the same rate as ordinary income and closing the stepped-up basis loophole. I also support taxing inheritance greater than $1 million like ordinary income and imposing a progressive tax on wealth held by trusts.”
“We need to make sure the wealthiest Americans play by the same rules. That means taxing capital gains and unrealized wealth the same way we tax work, putting a vacancy tax on people who collect homes like trophies, and closing loopholes that let trusts and estates avoid their obligations.”
“Eliminate tax loopholes for hedge funds, private equity, and carried interest, ensuring that income from investments is taxed at the same rate as wages. Crack down on offshore tax havens and corporate shelters that allow the wealthiest individuals and large corporations to avoid paying taxes. Close loopholes that favor inheritance for the ultra-wealthy, ensuring estates over $50 million are fairly taxed under proposals like the For the 99.5% Act”
“I'll work to remove the tax exempt status of mega - churches and religious groups”
“Maria supports reforming the tax treatment of investment income so that wealth is taxed at rates comparable to work — not at rates that reward having money over earning it.”
“Introduced by Representative Delia Ramirez (IL-03) on September 11, 2025, H.R. 5336 eliminates the preferential treatment of capital gains income (income from investments) over ordinary income (income from work), and closes the “stepped-up basis” loophole.”
Estate Taxes & Dynastic Wealth
“Inheritance Tax of 100% over a certain amount, say $15,000,000. No loopholes.”
“Unrealized capital gains should be taxed at death, closing the stepped-up basis loophole”
“Curb permanent wealth concentration by increasing the estate tax and ending dynastic trusts, so the ultra-wealthy can't shield assets that exist in perpetuity, indefinitely transferring wealth across generations while avoiding gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes.”
“a 40% 'exit tax' on the net worth above $50 million of any U.S. citizen who renounces their citizenship”
“tax on extreme wealth and restoring the robustness of our estate tax through his bill the For the 99.8% Act”
“40% exit tax on anyone worth $50 million or more who renounces their citizenship”
Income Tax & Working-Class Cuts
“cut taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans by expanding the Child Tax and Earned Income Tax Credits”
“Eliminate All Income Tax on the First $20,000 No federal income taxes on the first $20,000 earned ($40,000 if married filing jointly). That’s more money in your paycheck. Around $2,200/$4,400 per year. For a family earning $85,000, it’s an extra $108/month for groceries. For a single person earning $50,000, an extra $89/month towards utility bills. Permanent tax relief in every single paycheck for the rest of your working life. ... Cost: $1.5-$3 trillion over ten years.”
“Mary will fight to cut taxes for more than half of hardworking Alaskans and eliminate federal income tax entirely for working and middle-class Alaskans earning less than $92,000 per year, paid for by raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires.”
“Eliminate federal income tax for families earning under $150,000, allowing families to keep up to $17,000 more per year—that's a full year of groceries, 8 months of mortgage payments, or an entire year of homeowner's insurance for the average Florida family”
“If you work 40 hours a week, you should make at least $40,000 a year, and you shouldn't pay a dime in federal taxes on that first $40,000.”
“This plan eliminates income taxes entirely for anyone earning under $500,000. For income exceeding that threshold, a simplified 50% flat tax will be applied.”
“Increase the Child Tax Credit. Raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy so the nation can invest in infrastructure and opportunity. Address extreme wealth concentration that undermines healthy capitalism. Expand and modernize the Earned Income Tax Credit.”
“I support raising the marginal tax rate on earnings over $1 million and a billionaire tax on wealth over $1 billion. In addition, I support a cost of living exemption on federal taxes up to $50,000.”
“Make the first $20,000 of all income tax-free.”
“eliminate income taxes on first $150,000 made — effectively ending income tax burdens”
“Introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD) on March 12th, 2026, S. 4083 amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make certain modifications in relation to the taxation of income required to fund basic living expenses”
Corporate Taxation
“adjusting the corporate tax rate to 42%, corporate revenue will double from $497 billion to $995 billion.”
“raising the top corporate tax rate to 40% with a 95% excess profits tax. This would raise another about $700 billion.”
“Jillian would require large, profitable corporations whose full-time workers rely on public assistance to reimburse taxpayers for those costs. If a company has money for CEO bonuses and stock buybacks, it has money to pay its workers a living wage.”
“Make big corporations pay what they owe by restoring the corporate tax rate back to the pre-Trump rate of 35% or at minimum to 28%, while shutting down offshore tax avoidance schemes that allow corporations to dodge taxes by offshoring profits.”
“the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act , which takes on corporate greed by raising taxes on companies that pay their top executives at least 50 times more than the pay of a median worker.”
“A tax code that runs on paychecks cannot hold up when AI keeps moving income off of paychecks and onto the people who own the machines. The fix is to tax that income where it lands, in corporate profits and investment gains.”
“The tax code already favors automation investment through accelerated depreciation for equipment. Companies receive tax breaks for purchasing machines that replace workers, while workers who lose their jobs receive inadequate support. We must counterbalance these automation subsidies with taxes that fund worker transition and social investment.”
“South Korea provides an international model worth examining. That nation has implemented reduced tax deductions for automation investments that replace workers , redirecting the resulting revenue toward caregiving expansion.”
“Mega-churches, who bring in hundreds of millions of dollars annually, differ vastly from small churches that serve local communities on limited budgets, operating more like large corporations. Despite their wealth, they have same tax-exempt status as a neighborhood church struggling to pay its bills.”
“In the 1950s, the corporate tax rate was 52% . The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was the ultimate bait and switch for Pennsylvania families. It slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21% , the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to billionaires in history. Companies used the cash for $1 trillion in stock buybacks to enrich Wall Street.”
“Ensure the wealthy billionaires and big corporations finally pay their fair share by closing loopholes that let them hide income and stash profits offshore.”
“Establish a wealth tax on billionaires; raise corporate tax rates and close offshore loopholes; tax stock buybacks and excessive CEO pay”
“the richest 1% of Americans now own more wealth than the entire middle class. Dozens of the largest corporations pay zero dollars in federal income taxes.”
“Raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, expand overtime eligibility, and incentivize CEOs to pay fair wages by creating a special tax on corporations that pay their top executives more than 250 times their median worker's salary.”
“The revenue from automation taxes should support socially valuable work unlikely to face automation soon: Education - investing in the next generation Childcare - enabling parents to work and children to thrive Elder care - supporting our aging population with dignity Mental health counseling - addressing the crisis of isolation and anxiety Community-building initiatives - strengthening the social fabric”
“Implement a financial transaction tax, as proposed in progressive budgets, to generate revenue from high-volume trading and speculative activity. Strengthen corporate tax enforcement to prevent large multinational corporations from avoiding U.S. taxes, as outlined in Bernie Sanders’ corporate responsibility proposals. Require publicly traded companies to disclose CEO-to-worker pay ratios, promoting transparency and equitable compensation practices.”
The Safety Net
Social Security
“Two-thirds of America's senior citizens would live in poverty without Social Security.”
“Expand Social Security benefits by $2,400 a year and ensure Social Security is fully funded for the next 75 years”
“Many Americans don't know that the taxes they pay into Social Security ... are capped at incomes over $184,500. I will fight to eliminate the cap on Social Security taxes in order to ensure that wealthy taxpayers are fully contributing to ... cost of Americans' retirement.”
“We should end taxes on benefits and offset the lost revenue by eliminating the payroll tax cap so higher earners pay into the system on all of their income.”
“Strengthen & Protect Social Security: If Congress doesn't act, then by 2033 Social Security will be unable to pay out full benefits to beneficiaries. Seniors worked and contributed to Social Security for years and it's critical we keep that promise. We must raise the social security tax cap to ensure that billionaires like Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos pay a fair amount into the program while fending off Republican efforts to cut benefits, privatize benefits, and raise the age to qualify for Social Security.”
“Remove the Cap - "Donut Hole" Approach. Social Security payroll taxes apply up to $176,100. We add a resumption of payroll taxes beginning at $400,000, creating a "donut hole" that avoids taxing middle class families. Keep current cap at $176,100. Create a "donut hole" from $176,100-$400,000 (not taxed). Resume Social Security tax on wages above $400,000. This would generate $800 billion in social security revenue 10 years.”
“6% Social Security Tax on Investment Income Over $200,000. The top 3-5% of households in America have investments income that generates over $200k/year and are clearly wealthy enough to contribute to social security solvency. The vast majority of Americans (95%+) will NOT be affected by such a tax.”
“Maria will advocate for a permanent Social Security Lock-Box — a legislative firewall that prevents Social Security funds from ever being diverted for other purposes. The money workers pay into Social Security belongs to them. Period.”
“Make the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share Here is something most Americans don’t know: right now, Social Security payroll taxes stop applying above a certain income level ... Maria supports lifting or eliminating this cap so that higher earners contribute more”
“Currently, Social Security is funded primarily through wages, but wealthy Americans earn much of their income through investments, which are not subject to FICA contributions. Maria supports exploring ways to include more investment income in the Social Security contribution base, so that the burden of keeping this promise doesn't fall exclusively on working people who earn a paycheck.”
“That's why Mary will work to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits for the nearly 95,000 seniors in Alaska.”
“We can easily protect Social Security. Congress must simply raise the cap on income subject to the Social Security tax. Currently, wages subject to the tax are capped at $184,500. Raising the cap would not increase taxes on those who earn less than this amount. ... For example, if the Social Security threshold was raised from $184,500 to $300,000, taxes on the highest earners would increase by $7100. This amount is a small percentage of their overall income,”
“Protect and strengthen Social Security by raising the payroll tax cap to $250,000, helping secure benefits for future generations without reducing payments for retirees.”
“For people who work physical jobs — in manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and care work — raising the retirement age is a benefit cut by another name. Maria opposes it.”
“Removes the $184,500 wage ceiling so executives pay the same Social Security rate on every dollar as the worker earning $55,000”
“Scrap the cap. Right now, wealthy Americans stop paying Social Security taxes after their first $160,000 in earnings. Someone making $50,000 pays on every dollar. That's not fair. End that loophole and use the revenue to extend Social Security's solvency for generations.”
“Aswar strongly supports protecting current benefits by eliminating the payroll tax cap and adjusting COLA formulas to prioritize the financial security of middle and low-income retirees.”
“The cap on earnings was originally adjusted so that the Social Security payroll tax would apply to 90% of total income in America. In 2026, the threshold for taxable earnings is $184,500. This means someone earning $184,500 pays the Social Security payroll tax on their full income, while someone earning $2 million still pays the tax on only the first $184,500.”
“Jillian proudly supports the Social Security Expansion Act, which would impose the Social Security payroll tax on wages above $250,000, as well as a 12.4% tax on capital gains and business income. Additionally, the plan calls for an increase in retiree benefits, increasing benefits by $200 per month.”
“Applying the Social Security payroll tax to income above $250,000 asks nothing additional from 93 percent of American households while closing the loophole that allows billionaires to pay lower effective rates than nurses and teachers. A CEO earning $30 million should not pay less into Social Security, as a percentage of income, than the workers who make their company function.”
“as your Congresswoman, I will introduce legislation that extends Social Security’s solvency for the next 100 years, increase its payouts, and ensure it is updated for the cost of living, annually. Additionally, stay-at-home parents deserve the same payout as their partner, regardless of marital status.”
“supports … Ensuring no one retires into poverty by creating a new special minimum benefit”
“She believes the path to fiscal responsibility runs through a fairer tax code that generates adequate revenue, not through cutting Social Security, Medicare, or programs that working families depend on. You cannot balance the budget by taking from people who have nothing left to give.”
“I’ll support the Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 4583) , which strengthens the trust fund, expands benefits, and ensures every senior can retire with dignity.”
“Politicians like Mike Kelly are actively pushing to raise the retirement age—which is nothing more than a back-door benefit cut that hits physically demanding blue-collar jobs the hardest—while also looking at plans to privatize and expose your guaranteed insurance to the unpredictable swings of the stock market.”
“the trust fund is projected to run dry by the end of 2032, triggering an automatic 22% benefit cut unless Congress acts. This timeline was accelerated by 2025 tax cuts that drained trust fund revenue.”
“Push for action on Social Security now, while Congress still has time to phase in a fix gradually instead of waiting until 2032 that would force an immediate, harsher cut on retirees with no warning”
“Congress needs to stop ongoing attempts to privatize programs that have long been part of the American social contract, including Medicare and Veterans Administration benefits. Congress should raise the cap on Social Security taxes so the wealthy pay their fair share.”
“Melanie will fight to expand — not cut — Social Security benefits and make the program solvent for generations by lifting the payroll tax cap so the wealthy pay the same rate as everyone else.”
“Scrap the cap on Social Security payroll taxes, eliminate income tax on Social Security, and increase benefits”
“Maura will always protect Social Security benefits and fight for a long-term solution to keep the program solvent, including by ensuring the wealthiest Americans contribute at least at the same rate as teachers, nurses and working families.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the wait for disability benefits — people die before a hearing that takes years to schedule
Retirement Savings & Pensions
“Nearly half of Americans 55 and older have no retirement savings.”
“52 percent of Americans 65 and older are living on less than $30,000 annually.”
“A defined benefit plan typically is 49 percent more cost effective than a defined contribution account.”
“Workers are 15 times more likely to save for retirement if they can do so via payroll deduction and 20 times more likely to save if access to a workplace retirement plan is automatic.”
“A promise made must be a promise kept. John Paul will stand strong with labor and retirees to fiercely protect multi-employer pensions from corporate bankruptcy loopholes and cuts.”
“Protect pensions and retirement savings through stricter regulations on financial advisors and investment firms. Reestablish the funding for publicly supported housing that is close to expiring and incentivize the development of multi-generational housing.”
“In the richest country in the history of the world, a secure and dignified retirement should be available to every American, not just the extreme wealthy.”
Childcare Costs & Supply
“The cost of child care increased 263% between 1990 and 2024. For many Iowa families, childcare is now the single largest household expense — bigger than rent, bigger than groceries, bigger than a car payment. And unlike a mortgage, childcare doesn’t build equity. ... This is not a personal failing. It is a policy failure.”
“As a working father of four, I know how much it costs to raise a family and the status quo needs to change. My wife and I have spent nearly $300,000 on childcare over the years — more than our home, even more than my student loans. In Congress, I will fight for universal paid family and medical leave, just as I fought for paid sick leave in the Legislature. I also support capping child care costs at 7% of household income for middle class families, expanding the federal Child Tax Credit, and making sure child care workers are paid a living wage.”
“But in New Hampshire, childcare for two young children can cost nearly $32,000 a year, straining family budgets and making it harder for our small businesses to find the workers they need. In ... Congress, Maura will support legislation like the Child Care for Working Families Act to bring down costs for families and fight to expand the Child Tax Credit, invest in the childcare workforce and ensure childcare workers earn a competitive wage.”
“20 Weeks Fully Paid Family Leave so parents can care for newborns without risking their livelihood. Expanded federal childcare subsidies for more low- and middle-income families. Cap childcare costs at no more than 7% of household income. Invest in childcare centers - especially in rural communities and "childcare deserts."”
“Right now, the average annual cost of infant care in Massachusetts is over $26,709 – that is out of reach for most families.”
“The Economic Policy Institute's research shows that annual childcare costs in Maryland have surpassed college tuition rates. Childcare for a four year old costs around $13,355 a year, while it's $18,946 for infants.”
“Pass the Child Care for Working Families Act: Ensure no family pays more than 7% of annual income for high-quality childcare and address childcare shortages.”
“Childcare in Massachusetts costs upwards of $20,000 a year for many parents. Yet among the richest 41 countries in the world, many of which offer heavily subsidized or even free childcare, the United States ranks 40th in quality of care. This is ridiculous. The government must do more to subsidize childcare and make it free and universally accessible for everyone who needs it.”
“Universal Pre-School Care. Pre-school tuition can be over $1,400 per month. Universal pre-K would free up $17,500 for a family with one child going to YMCA. And studies have shown that quality pre-K care and education dramatically improves a child's student performance later on.”
“Families making less than $75,000 a year, will qualify for free childcare. For families making more than that, the cost of childcare will be capped at 5% of their total family income.”
“Guarantees that no family pays more than 7% of its income on childcare — under $10 a day for most families. (Childcare for Every Community Act, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)”
“paid medical and family leave, including up to one year for new parents, universal 3-K and pre-k through college”
“Expanding Child Care and Development Block Grant to subsidize child care costs for additional families.”
“The average cost of center-based childcare for two children is more than what many families pay in rent, consuming more than 20% of household income. ... When parents can't afford care, they can't work. When they can't work, families fall behind.”
“Fight to cap the cost of child care at 7%”
“Through subsidies and federal investments, we can create the universal, educational childcare programs that working families need.”
“Aswar strongly supports universal Pre-K and federal subsidies to cap child care costs at 7% of a household's income.”
“Aisha believes child care is essential infrastructure for a 21st-century economy, and that a universal system will strengthen families, empower workers, and drive long-term economic growth.”
“Universal, high-quality child care and pre-kindergarten for every family, regardless of income, capping costs so no family pays more than a small share of their income.”
“Make universal childcare and universal Pre-K a reality, so that families can afford to raise their kids here in Michigan.”
“Childcare shouldn't cost more than a mortgage payment—or anything at all. We must guarantee universal, no-cost childcare by dramatically expanding federal funding, paying early childhood educators a living wage, and ensuring high-quality childcare options in every community.”
“New Mexico just became the first state to offer universal, no-cost childcare to all residents, and expanding it nationwide would ensure parents can continue their careers without pouring all of their income into breaking even.”
“Cap childcare costs at no more than 7% of a family's income, creating a scaling fee system making quality care affordable for working families. ... Ensure childcare workers earn a living wage with full benefits because the people caring for our children deserve economic security too.”
“Invest in universal Pre-K and early education, centering universal access and affordability, so that every family, regardless of income, has access to high-quality care. Subsidize early education costs for low-income families and cap expenses for middle-income households”
Child Tax Credit & Cash for Families
“Mary will fight to pass the Expanded Child Tax Credit — $3,600 annually per child under age six, and $3,000 for children ages 6-17 — to put real money back in Alaskans' pockets.”
“Expanding the Child Tax Credit is one of the most effective tools we have to fight child poverty. When it was expanded nationwide, child poverty dropped by nearly 50% in just one year.”
“She will work to restore the Child Tax Credit and expand it further to provide up to $6,000 in tax cuts to families with newborn children - a critical relief for young parents who need to buy diapers, clothes, car seats, and more for their children”
“the End Childhood Poverty Act, which would create a universal, monthly child allowance of nearly $400 per child—including the lowest-wealth families who are traditionally left out of the tax credit system . The People’s Policy Project estimates that this bill would cut child poverty by 64% and cut deep child poverty by 70%.”
“Raising children is a form of labor and deserves to be compensated as such. I support federal implementation of programs to provide stay-at-home parents with a monthly stipend of at least $3,000, adjusted based on the number of parents and children in the household. Additionally, under my plan parents receiving these stipends would be able to use this income toward acquiring Social Security credits, a key step to guaranteeing a financially secure retirement.”
“Provide direct support to family caregivers, including tax credits, paid leave, and Social Security credits for those caring for children, seniors, or loved ones with disabilities.”
“I will introduce the Essential Worker Tax Credit: for public service workers enrolled in Public Service Loan Forgiveness, including nurses, teachers, first responders, and childcare workers, who have a child in licensed daycare and fall under an established income threshold, this credit will substantially reduce or eliminate their childcare costs. No credit like this exists today.”
“Enhanced Child Tax Credit: Make permanent the fully refundable Child Tax Credit that dramatically reduced child poverty, providing up to $3,600 per child to families regardless of income.”
“Increase EITC to put more money in working families' pockets Restore the expanded Child Tax Credit that cut child poverty by 40% Make both credits fully refundable”
“Make the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent, so raising kids doesn't push families to the brink. Lower childcare costs by increasing subsidies and expanding access to high-quality childcare so parents don't have to choose between work and family.”
Childcare Workers & Providers
“In 2023, child care educators earned a median wage of $15.62 an hour, less than half the pay of other similar industries. These are the people we depend on to hold our babies when we can't, to care for our kids while we work to be able to afford to put food on our tables and a roof over our heads. Thanks to the low wages and difficult working conditions, turnover among childcare workers is projected at 17 percent annually.”
“Parking lot attendants often get paid more to watch cars than childcare workers get paid to take care of our children. We should also make it possible to co-locate childcare and senior care facilities.”
“Child care incubators that provide training and dollars to incentivize start-up in our small towns and rural communities.”
“establish a grant program to create co-located affordable housing and on-site child care.”
“In Congress, I’ll fight to make childcare free for every child under 5 by treating it as essential public infrastructure. We’ll expand federal funding, raise childcare worker pay to match public school teachers, and lift the burden off working parents.”
“New Mexico has pioneered an incredible new model for universal child care. They jumpstarted the program using federal relief funds during covid-19. This model could be implemented nationally with another round of funding from the federal government dedicated to that purpose.”
“When we talk about the foundations of a strong economy, we often point to roads, good schools, and housing. But there's another form of infrastructure just as critical, one that supports every industry in New Hampshire: child care.”
“support childcare providers with fair wages and professional development opportunities”
Paid Family & Medical Leave
“guarantee workers the ability to accrue up to seven job-protected, paid sick days per year.”
“mothers would get at least 14 weeks of paid maternity leave. Fathers or second parents would get at least 10 paid days.”
“Jillian will work to enact a national system of paid family and medical leave that is funded by both employers and employees. Workers from employers of all sizes will be eligible for at least 12 weeks in a year of paid leave. The leave can be taken continuously, intermittently, or through a reduced schedule.”
“Mandate maternity leave, and expand leave to include miscarriage.”
“we must 1) implement a substantial child tax credit, 2) guarantee at least a year of paid parental leave, and 3) provide a monthly income and Social Security credits to stay-at-home parents.”
“Provide 6 months of parental leave for new parents , to match the standard in most other developed countries. Provide public subsidies and tax credits for quality childcare facilities. Enforce an “excess profit” tax on private care facilities.”
“Expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to cover more workers and provide financial support during leave periods. Insurance for new parents, and enabling parents to make up missed retirement contributions due to taking leave.”
“She helped pass Minnesota's paid family and medical leave program into law”
“establish a national 12-week paid family and medical leave program”
“Paid maternity and paternity leave that doesn't drain your PTO or sick time.”
“The lack of paid leave and affordable childcare is quietly pushing millions of women out of the workforce. We must establish comprehensive, federally guaranteed paid family and medical leave, and invest heavily in universal childcare so working families can actually get ahead.”
“I support establishing a federal paid parental leave program that guarantees all workers at least 8 weeks of paid leave. Every parent deserves the opportunity to bond with and care for a new child whether through birth or adoption.”
“No one should have to choose between caring for a loved one and earning a paycheck”
“Paid Family and Medical Leave: Establish a federal paid leave program so workers don't have to choose between their paycheck and caring for family members.”
“Diop will fight to establish a national paid family and medical leave program so workers can care for a new child, recover from illness, or support loved ones without risking their financial security, and to lower childcare costs by increasing federal support for childcare providers and working families.”
“Congress should pass a national paid family and medical leave (PFML) program, ensuring that low-income workers can take paid time off when sick, welcoming a new child or caring for a sick family member. The Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act would offer up to 12 weeks of partial income for workers who need time off, allowing the lowest earners to receive up to 85% of their wages, with the typical worker receiving around two-thirds of their income.”
— UnidosUS
Children & Youth
“Massachusetts is the most expensive state in the U.S. to raise a child, with costs for a preschooler exceeding $44,000 annually in 2025. We know there are better options out there and we must do better.”
“I support robust Federal grant and aid programs that will expand our existing public school systems to cover childcare starting from birth. This will provide a healthy educational and social environment to developing children as well as relieve parents to be able to work and build a better future for their family.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- cutting child poverty by a stated number, and being held to it
- foster care, placing children with relatives, and what happens the day they turn eighteen
- child-protection caseworkers carrying far more families than anyone can handle
- feeding children through the summer, when school meals stop
- homeless teenagers, and shelters that cannot take a minor without a parent
- cash assistance for the poorest families, and how little of the old welfare money still reaches them
Student Debt & Tuition
“College for All Act...eliminate undergraduate tuition and fees at public colleges, universities”
“Cap student loan interest rates at 1%”
“We will eliminate tuition for students who commit to careers as educators, nurses, social workers, or public safety professionals.”
“Cancels all federally held student loan debt — no income cap, no means test”
“a special program making low- or zero-interest federal loans to students in designated, critical fields that benefit America at large -- particularly in the medical professions and teaching.”
“Subsidize medical and nursing school tuition to assist underserved areas”
“Reverse Harmful Cuts Made to Graduate Student Loans: The 'One Big Beautiful Bill' put a cap on the amount of loans that graduate (medical and professional) students are able to take out, limiting the ability of low and middle class students to pursue higher education. Anyone who can get into graduate school should have access to the resources to make their educational endeavour possible.”
“Protect and Maintain the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF): Guard nonprofit employees from efforts by President Trump to revoke their PSLF eligibility.”
“Total student loan debt in the United States is approaching a staggering $2 trillion. ... The federal government should provide students with 0 interest loans to help finance their education, and use taxes on Wall Street and billionaires to forgive existing student loan debt.”
“We should double Pell grants, which helped me claw my way out of poverty by paying the full freight of my four-year tuition in the 1980s (whereas now those grants cover just 30 percent). Pell grants pay for themselves in just 10 years' time, through the grantees' increased income taxes.”
“Aswar strongly supports the immediate cancellation of all federal student loan debt, recognizing it as a predatory tax on social mobility. Beyond one-time relief, Aswar advocates for making all public colleges and universities tuition-free to ensure that future generations can enter the workforce without the crushing weight of interest-bearing debt.”
“Maura will tackle the root causes of rising tuition, increase federal investment in public higher education through a re-imagined Department of Education, expand the dollar amount available through Pell Grants, and ban corporations from profiting off student debt.”
“Ruth will fight to make trade schools and public colleges tuition-free for students from families earning less than $150,000 a year, indexed to inflation. This ensures that as costs rise, opportunity doesn't shrink.”
“Maura has lived firsthand the pathways to opportunity that national service provides. ROTC was her path, and while the military isn't right for everyone, we have the opportunity to greatly expand pathways to national service like AmeriCorps so more young people can serve their communities – whether in classrooms, clinics, or a climate corps – and earn an affordable education, build a career, and get ahead.”
“We need to make higher education accessible to everyone, not just those born into privilege. That starts with making community college tuition-free and passing the SAVE Act, so students aren't buried in debt before they even start their careers.”
“Deny federal funding to for-profit colleges which fail to provide graduates with living wages.”
“Raise San Francisco's Free City College program as a national model for free higher education and workforce development training for individuals living in their community.”
“Pass legislation making all community colleges and public four-year universities tuition-free, and Partner vocational-technical schools directly with local trade unions to guarantee graduates immediate, debt-free pathways into high-paying, unionized careers.”
“I support the College for All Act and will cosponsor it on day one. We must make public community colleges tuition-free for all students and public universities tuition-free for families earning up to $150,000. We must double Pell Grants so students can afford living expenses while pursuing their education. We must double funding for HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, and Minority-Serving Institutions that have been systematically underfunded. And we must pay for it all through a modest tax on Wall Street speculation.”
“Make college affordable again by capping student loan interest rates. Expand federal support for trades learning and technical schools. Support tuition-free community college and expand early college and dual-credit programs nationwide. Create incentives for states to guarantee universal access to community college and technical programs.”
“Advocate for full student debt cancellation of up to $50,000 per borrower , particularly for low- and middle-income individuals Support legislation to transition to tuition-free public higher education , including community colleges and public universities”
“About 43 million Americans now owe nearly $2 trillion in student loan debt. That’s about $43,500 per borrower, meaning people owe more for simply trying to get an education than they do on their cars or credit cards.”
“Cancel all student loan debt for the some 45 million Americans who owe about $1.6 trillion and place a cap on student loan interest rates going forward at 1.88 percent. In 2008, the working class bailed out the big Wall Street banks, now it is time for Wall Street to bail out the working class by paying taxes to eliminate student-debt and fund public education.”
“ensure students are able to cover non-tuition costs of attending school by: expanding Pell Grants to cover non-tuition and fee costs, tripling funding for the Work-Study Program, and more.”
“Make public college and trade schools tuition free so education opens doors for everyone instead of trapping millions in lifelong financial burden.”
“That means tuition-free community college and at least one tuition-free option for every student who wants to earn a four-year degree. The doors that higher education opens must be open for everyone — without leaving another generation of young workers buried in debt.”
“Tuition-free public colleges and universities, two year and four year Subsidized post-graduate education for federal employees, healthcare workers, public school educators, and other essential specialist workers Guaranteed access to workplace training and apprenticeship programs”
“Oppose taxing forgiven student debt as income because this is a policy that punishes borrowers for getting relief they earned.”
“It’s not a personal failure; it’s the predictable result of a system that treats higher education as a private commodity instead of a public good.”
“Aisha supports zero-interest student loans to make higher education accessible and affordable for every American. She also supports canceling student debt so people can build their futures, pursue opportunity, and contribute to a stronger, more equitable economy.”
“End tuition inflation: Support bipartisan legislation that caps student loan interest rates at no more than 2%.”
Food Security
“The Universal School Meals Act to provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to every student in America—without demanding they prove they are poor enough to deserve help.”
“End Childhood Poverty Act, ... a universal, monthly child allowance of nearly $400 per child—including the lowest-wealth families ... cut child poverty by 64%”
“Expanding nutrition assistance in schools and supporting the agriculture industry by reinstating and increasing funding for a federal Farms to School Meals Program that supports partnerships between local farmers and school districts.”
“I will open public grocery stores in rural and low-income areas, stocked with fresh, local food that SNAP, WIC, and EBT recipients can buy.”
“Already, more than 800,000 people in our state live with food insecurity, including nearly 250,000 children.”
“Pass federal legislation to guarantee free, nutritious breakfast and lunch for every child in public school, Expand USDA grants to connect local farms directly to community food pantries.”
“Government-run grocery stores are publicly owned outlets that offer affordable food by operating without profit motives, often in areas with high food insecurity or "food deserts." The U.S. military already operates such outlets, while New York City is exploring them to combat high prices. This idea already exists and could be an excellent way to combat ever-increasing grocery prices.”
“Start a national pilot program for public nonprofit grocery stores based on the best city and state models as well as existing military commissaries”
“The moment you get a raise should not be the moment you lose your benefits.”
“The Federal Poverty Level may sound like just another government statistic, but it determines who qualifies for essential programs like SNAP, Medicaid, and Head Start. The problem is that the current formula does not reflect the real cost of living. It was developed decades ago and is based largely on food costs, without accounting for housing, healthcare, childcare, transportation, technology, or taxes.”
“Universal school meals with no application required — Community Eligibility Provision expansion at the federal level. Auto-enroll every eligible student for school meals; no meal debt, no withheld activities.”
“Every American should have a legal right to food — just as we have the right to vote or to be treated equally under the law. The federal government should have an affirmative duty to ensure no one goes hungry through permanent, enforceable protections in law and, ultimately, the Constitution. Feeding people is not charity — it's the bare minimum our government should offer the people it serves.”
“Companies who force full-time employees to rely on SNAP — like Walmart and McDonald's — should have to reimburse taxpayers for the public assistance their business model offloads onto the rest of us. The best way to reduce reliance on SNAP isn't to cut benefits — it's to ensure people earn enough not to need them.”
“Jillian is proposing to make breakfast and lunch free for every student in public schools. Research from No Kid Hungry shows that schools serving breakfast to all students saw a 6% reduction in chronic absenteeism — meaning more kids in classrooms, ready to learn.”
“Expand eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for students pursuing higher learning.”
“Every $1 in SNAP benefits generates up to $1.80 in economic activity. In rural America, that support is often the difference between staying open and closing down.”
“Upon enactment, all existing student meal debt shall be forgiven, and no child shall accrue school meal debt under this program. ... Schools shall be prohibited from engaging in "lunch shaming" or any punitive measures against students with unpaid meal balances.”
“Peggy's family was able to make it because of hard work and help from public programs like Section 8 housing, SNAP, and childcare assistance”
“Darializa will fight to divest the billions of taxpayer dollars we spend on senseless wars abroad, and invest those funds in child tax credits, baby bonds, and more.”
“Urban agriculture and food sovereignty projects, including community gardens, co-ops, and composting hubs”
“SNAP and HUD should have judges to go before to plead a case when mistakes are made by them. ... All programs should have a non-partisan judge to go before for appeals, not an employee or legal team from that organization. ... More accountability for the owners of HUD Properties when receiving payments to repair items.”
“Jillian is proposing to modernize SNAP so it reflects the real cost of living and can't be disrupted by political gridlock. Benefit calculations should be tied to essential costs — grocery prices, housing, and health care — to avoid food running out at the end of each month.”
“Provide universal free breakfast and lunch to all students enrolled in public and nonprofit private schools, regardless of household income or immigration status.”
“Schools shall no longer be required to collect or verify household income information for the purpose of determining meal eligibility. ... Administrative savings resulting from the elimination of paperwork and verification requirements shall be redirected to improving meal quality and kitchen infrastructure.”
“It's not enough to just fund math and science; we must invest in programs like free breakfast and lunch.”
“Increase SNAP benefits to reflect actual food costs Simplify application processes Expand eligibility for working families”
“Rescind SNAP cuts, remove bureaucratic barriers, and improve access to healthy foods to low-income Americans by incentivizing partnerships with small farms.”
Corporate Power & Antitrust
Monopolies & Antitrust
“Cap CEO pay to no more than 10X more than the lowest paid worker including bonuses”
“entry-level worker's total compensation be less than 1% of the total compensation of that company's CEO”
“In excess of $200 billion is spent on corporate welfare each year. ... That money could cover the tuition for every undergraduate attending a public university,”
“Any company controlling 40%+ of a market is presumed to hold monopoly power”
“Amend the Clayton Act and Sherman Antitrust Act: Explicitly clarify that these acts apply rigorously to acquisitions of securities, asset accumulations, and other financial maneuvers that could substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly, even if traditional product market definitions are challenged by new business models (e.g., tech platforms)”
“Significantly increase funding for the SEC, FTC, and DOJ Antitrust Division”
“more granular disclosure by institutional investors of their voting records and engagement policies, particularly on matters affecting competition”
“The price of a new fire engine has more than tripled in a decade — from roughly $300,000 to over $1 million today, not because of inflation, but because a private equity firm systematically bought up competitors, closed plants, and now controls a third of the specialty vehicle market. Fire departments across Iowa are waiting years for trucks they can barely afford, and property taxpayers are footing the bill. That is not a market outcome. That's monopoly power at work.”
“Enforce anti-monopoly laws against the social media platforms that use their vast market share to gobble up competitors and degrade their users' experience.”
“Federal Contracting Integrity Act Eliminates misclassification, fraud, and loopholes in federal contracting to ensure fair competition and accountability. ... All businesses receiving federal contracts must recertify their business size annually through a simple electronic report of total payroll and employee count. ... Mandates annual audits of 10% of federal contractors near business-size thresholds, conducted by the GAO, SBA, and Inspector Generals.”
“Invest in Main Street Growth: Establish a federally backed Main Street Growth Fund that provides performance-based, forgivable growth loans to small and medium-sized businesses that hire locally, raise wages, and expand in rural and underserved communities — with strict transparency standards and no access for large corporations.”
“You feel squeezed because we let the biggest companies maximize profit at your expense and called it a healthy stock market. That is not capitalism working. It is capitalism with no referee.”
“Jillian would impose fines or targeted taxes on large corporations with extreme CEO-to-worker pay disparities. When the gap between corporate executives and workers grows this extreme, it creates real and costly problems for families, communities, and taxpayers.”
“I want to empower the FTC to retrospectively review mergers and acquisitions and grant them the power to break up monopolies in healthcare. I support the Break Up Big Medicine Act.”
“I support vigorous antitrust enforcement across the whole industry, from the AI models to the cloud computing and chips they run on, watching for the largest firms locking up the computing power smaller competitors need, favoring their own products, buying up rising rivals, and signing exclusive deals that wall off the market.”
“Consequences with teeth — bailouts come with prosecution, not bonuses”
“Billionaires cannot be allowed to use their wealth to consolidate control of information networks to further enrich themselves and convert their immense wealth into political power. Profits, whether those of billionaires or other shareholders, should never come at the expense of democracy, peace, or pluralism.”
“America is not a free market. It's a managed market that is managed for the benefit of the few at the expense of everyone else.”
“I stand for a muscular Federal Trade Commission that enforces anti-monopoly laws so the corporations can't price-gouge us.”
“We reject the failed politics of the past that prioritized the deregulation of financial industries and big polluters and tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations over the well-being of the public. ... Strengthening oversight of financial institutions. ... Protecting the federal government’s role in delivering essential goods, taking on monopolies, and disciplining markets.”
“Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. Enact aggressive wealth taxes on the richest individuals and corporations to spend on public goods and infrastructure.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the clause buried in a contract you sign that surrenders your right to sue — agreed to before anything has gone wrong, and enforced after it does
- a few airlines, railroads and shipping lines left, and what that does to prices
- the ticketing monopoly and its fees — the one most people have run into
- a handful of remaining defense contractors, paid in a way that rewards going over budget
Agriculture Antitrust
“Introduces sweeping antitrust legislation to forcefully break up vertical corporate monopolies within meatpacking, seed, and chemical cartels.”
“Break up Big Ag monopolies and strengthen USDA's tools to hold agribusinesses accountable. End discriminatory practices within USDA and ensure Black farmers are given the fair compensation they are owed.”
“Diop supports breaking up agricultural monopolies, expanding federal support for beginning farmers, and creating tax policies that make it easier to pass family farms from one generation to the next. Farmers should be rewarded for feeding our communities, not punished by a system that favors corporate agriculture and outside investors.”
“the government should buy the crops back to cover the cost of the loan and store extra crops in reserve”
“Preserve Family Farmland Program: When family’s pass their ownership to another individual and not a corporation, our plan exempts that family from the estate tax.”
“Restore and aggressively enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act so meatpackers can't retaliate against farmers who speak up, organize, or shop their livestock to a competitor.”
“Impose a moratorium on future agriculture and grocery mergers until the antitrust cops catch up with the corporate lawyers, and direct the DOJ and FTC to investigate, and where appropriate unwind, the mergers that never should have been approved in the first place.”
“Establish a Strategic Fertilizer Reserve modeled on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, so American farmers aren't held hostage by a handful of fertilizer companies — most of them foreign-owned — when planting season hits.”
“Stop the corporate takeover from farm to grocery shelf. Enforce the Robinson-Patman Act to stop big-box chains from using their size to extract lower prices from suppliers and undercut the local grocery stores that small towns depend on.”
“We need a federal Family Farm Authority that is empowered to do the following: Buy land from aging farmers at fair market rates and favorable tax treatment, giving aging landowners and their estates the retirement security they've earned. Build multiple pathways for young farmers. Lease-to-own programs let beginning farmers lease with an option to purchase over 15 to 20 years on affordable terms. Shared-equity partnerships provide down-payment assistance of 20 to 30 percent in exchange for a share of appreciation when the land is sold. Federal loan guarantees of 90 to 95 percent for beginning farmers under 35, with below-market interest rates and extended repayment terms.”
“Today, 55 percent of Iowa farmland is owned by someone who doesn't farm it. One in five Iowa acres is owned by someone who doesn't even live in Iowa — a figure that's climbed by over 50% in the past decade. This cannot continue.”
“'We're worse off today than when Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle,' said Jack Dixon, a Rockingham County farmer and school-bus driver, explaining that three corporations now control 68 percent of the nation's meat.”
“Crop insurance money flows to the biggest operations - which is also where the loudest lobbying comes from - so family farms get a program built for giant operations instead of for them.”
“Cracks down on big grocers who fix prices, and on companies that abuse seed patents to make farming more expensive.”
“Make it easy for factory farm operators (CAFOs) to transition to healthier, more humane alternatives such as pasture-raising animals or switching to organic fruit & vegetable production: Support the Industrial Agriculture Conversion Act (IACA).”
“Hold corporate mega-farms accountable for unsustainable water use”
“Agricultural policy should strengthen local economies, not corporate monopolies. We'll target subsidies to small and mid-sized farms and invest in local food systems so agriculture is resilient, community-driven, and fair for the people who actually work the land.”
“Enforce anti-trust laws to protect consumers in essential industries like food, seed, and fertilizer production, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, as well as social media and news media. Limit the buying power of private equity firms on housing and land.”
“Agricultural policy incentivizes conservation, dramatically reduces taxpayer costs, and requires big agribusiness to pay the farmers' real price for raw goods.”
“Farmers should receive funding and subsidies for conservation efforts such as adopting energy-efficient equipment, technology improvements, and land remediation.”
“commit to 1% of profits every 5 years to local farm stewardship programs”
“The American government must intervene to protect the American farmer from market instability, foreign takeovers of land and resources and monopolization by industries that will not bear the true costs of their damaging effect on America's environment, farmers, workers and food supply.”
“Jillian is proposing to end corporate control of food by enforcing antitrust laws to prevent and reverse consolidation, imposing massive fines for price gouging, and increasing federal oversight of contamination, worker safety, and executive compensation.”
“Four companies control 85% of the beef Americans buy. Six companies control what Americans watch and read. The farmer in Macon County takes whatever price the packers offer because there is nowhere else to go. The family paying more for ground beef in Clarksville never sees the farmer earn more — the spread goes to four corporations.”
“Support farmers, promote sustainable agriculture, and grow our economy: Defend legal industrial hemp production, clarify federal rules, protect non-intoxicating hemp markets, and prevent overbroad THC restrictions from destroying legitimate farmers and small businesses.”
“Real small Kansas farmers will be the ones directing my actions on Ag issues. Starting with Right To Repair bills, SNAP Benefits, Crop Insurance and CRP, I want to be the best advocate for what's best for the average Kansan.”
“In the parity years of 1942-1952, the price floor was set close to the cost of production, and farmers made a living wage.”
“The system, called supply management, created mechanisms for dealing with a large harvest so that it wouldn't make farm prices plummet.”
“85 percent of the beef market is now controlled by the top four meatpackers”
“Twenty percent of farms control nearly 70 percent of US farmland.”
“The Farmland for Farmers Act combats the corporate takeover of our food system by preventing corporations from purchasing US farmland.”
“NFFC demands a living wage for all farmers, ranchers, and fishermen, which means fair prices for their goods.”
“Agriculture is one of the most concentrated sectors of the US economy.”
“Reinstate and strengthen government authority over meatpackers”
“Re-establish supply management policies for agricultural products”
“Consolidation has reduced competition in farm markets and lowered prices paid to farmers”
“A handful of corporations now wield enormous power over American agriculture, at the expense of farmers, workers, and everyone who eats.”
Financial Regulation & Predatory Lending
“Credit Card Interest Rate Cap Act of 2025, which will limit credit card interest rates to 10 percent over 5 years, saving working Americans 100 billion dollars each year it is in effect.”
“advocate for legislation to crack down on predatory buy now, pay later loans, which take advantage of struggling Americans to lure them into a debt trap.”
“Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act to break up banks...larger than three percent of Gross Domestic Product”
“legislation to close the carried-interest tax loophole, restore the Glass-Steagall Act”
“The ruling class has created a rigged and exploitative system of predatory lending, excessive interest rates, and harsh punishments for failures to pay within unrealistic deadlines. Drew will advocate for legislation that limits the unfair credit interest rates and predatory loans that take advantage of the American people.”
“After the 2008 financial crisis, new banking rules were widely criticized as burdensome. Yet during the 2023 regional bank failures, those same rules were a key reason families did not lose access to their accounts overnight. When confidence breaks, the wealthy move their money in seconds, while the average person is left checking their phone in real time to see if their savings are still secure.”
“I support robust federal oversight of algorithmic lending systems, including mandatory bias audits, transparency requirements, and clear liability for discriminatory outcomes regardless of whether discrimination was intentional. Technology should expand access to credit, not perpetuate historical exclusion.”
“Funded by a financial transaction tax (0.5% on stocks, 0.1% on bonds) and a tiered endowment surtax on universities with assets over $1 billion — generates $150–210B/year against $104–126B/year in program costs”
“Hold Corporations & CEOs criminally liable for their actions. Pass legislation increasing accountability for major financial and environmental misconduct, including criminal - not just civil - prosecution.”
“Capping credit card interest rates to stop credit card companies and big banks from trapping Americans in a never-ending cycle of debt.”
“Create the American Small Business Grant Program providing grants of $5,000 to $25,000 for equipment, inventory, software, licensing, insurance, lease deposits, and other startup costs.”
“Establish the SBA Growth Line offering low interest loans, generally from 0% to 2%, with deferred repayment.”
“Hold big banks accountable for discriminatory lending practices and strengthen support for Black and minority-owned banks and credit unions. Raise SBA loan caps and expand microloan programs to help small businesses scale and hire locally.”
“no financial institution would be so large that its failure would send the world economy into crisis”
“Call for smarter regulation of a financial system that has become too corrupt and complex.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- a company spending its profits buying its own stock — which lifts the share price and executive pay — instead of on wages or equipment
Insurance Costs & Practices
“Insurance companies shall be required to provide clear, itemized disclosure to policyholders regarding the portion of their premium that is attributed to climate-related risk factors.”
“prohibit the use of non-driving factors in auto insurance rates, such as education, employment status, credit score, zip code, and homeownership status”
“An insurance company should not be allowed to deny or cut off your medical care based on an algorithm alone. When a treatment your doctor ordered gets denied, a qualified human professional should have to make that call. You should get a plain explanation and a fast appeal that a person reviews. Insurers should have to report how often they use AI to deny claims and how often those denials get reversed, so a tool that is wrong most of the time cannot keep running in the dark.”
“Direct financial assistance to offset a portion of the climate-related increase in homeowner insurance premiums”
“Tackle the homeowners insurance crisis with federal reinsurance support and stronger oversight... Crack down on corporate landlords buying up neighborhoods.”
“Home insurance premiums have increased 38% since 2023, especially since Category 4 Hurricane Ida. Meanwhile, Louisiana lost 70,000 National Flood Insurance Program policies between 2022 and 2024 as premiums spiked under FEMA's new risk-rating system.”
“For automobile insurance, eliminate discriminatory and predatory practices by companies that use information such as zip code, income, profession, credit score rather than driving record to determine the rate of the insurance premium”
“Explore ways to offer federal and public insurance options that institute caps on the premiums for consumers as an alternative to the private insurance market.”
“I support legislation to cap annual insurance premium increases so that insurance companies cannot raise rates faster than inflation in a given year. If costs go up 3%, your bill shouldn't go up 10%.”
“support federal legislation to stabilize and lower property insurance rates—and hold insurers accountable for predatory practices.”
“Hold Insurers Accountable : Push for regulations ensuring fair fire coverage while creating incentives for mitigation efforts, so homeowners aren't penalized for living in wildfire-prone areas.”
“Federal action on the property insurance crisis , including reinsurance backstops and stronger consumer protections, so Floridians aren’t priced out of their own homes by an insurance market that keeps failing them.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the rules that let a national brand call the people in its stores somebody else’s employees
Consumer Protection & Investor Fraud
“Hard 18% APR cap on all consumer loans — all fees and charges count toward ... Creates a mandatory predator-free buffer zone: no new payday lender, rent-to-own store, ... may open within five miles of a military installation”
“Empower the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take on Big Corporations: The FTC must be allowed to block mergers of large companies and prevent other anticompetitive business practices – all of which will reduce prices for consumers.”
“Ban surveillance pricing at the grocery store. Iowans are already getting squeezed at the checkout, and the last thing they need is big retailers using personal data to quietly jack up the price on the shelf just for them based on their shopping habits, their neighborhood, or what the algorithm thinks they'll pay.”
“Mary will work to increase supply chain transparency, requiring large grocery stores to disclose their profit margins, shipping costs, and pricing practices to ensure Alaskans are getting a fair deal.”
“Consumer protection End corporate exploitation, deception, and surveillance. No dark patterns. No fake cancellation flows. No burying class-action waivers in terms of service. No charging for features that used to be free. No selling your data to anyone who asks.”
“Filing your taxes shouldn't require paying a private company or navigating a maze of forms, it should be simple, transparent, and free. The only thing standing in the way is aggressive lobbying from tax prep giants like Intuit and H&R Block, who profit from keeping the process complicated. I support a system where most Americans can receive a free, pre-filled return from the IRS—review, sign, done.”
“Develop corporate citizenship rating for government contracting eligibility requiring livable wages, benefits and public disclosure of wages and demographics of all workers and fair access for small, woman, veteran and minority owned businesses.”
“Introduced three bills to prohibit the use of non-driving factors in auto insurance rates, such as education, employment status, credit score, zip code, and homeownership status . Right now, people with higher credit scores but DUIs pay less than people with good driving records but lower credit scores. That’s unacceptable discrimination and redlining, which punishes people just for being poor, and disproportionately punishes communities of color.”
“They charge 400% APR on a two-week loan. They rent a washing machine for three years until the family has paid five times its value and owns nothing. This is not a financial service. It is a trap.”
“Support the FAIR Act to restore your right to sue companies that break the law. Fight predatory financial practices including bank overdraft fees, junk fees, and exorbitant credit card interest. Support the Public Banking Act and Postal Banking Act for affordable credit access. Guarantee right to repair because you should be able to fix what you own.”
“Aisha will vote to restore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure every American is protected from financial abuse, fraud, and exploitation by keeping the financial services sector fair, transparent, and honest with consumers.”
“Cap interest rates nationally and close loopholes that allow predatory lenders to exploit vulnerable borrowers.”
“Fully fund and enable the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): A fully funded and staffed CFPB will ensure adequate financial protections and return more money to the pockets of wronged consumers.”
“Aswar strongly supports rebuilding a powerhouse CFPB to aggressively prosecute corporate price gouging and eliminate the artificial markups driving up the American cost of living.”
Trade Policy
“Tariffs raise prices on goods that ordinary people buy every day, from groceries to appliances to clothing. And these tariffs are being imposed without Congressional approval, in violation of the Constitution. Maria will fight to reassert Congressional authority over trade policy and end the tariff chaos that is driving up costs for families across Ohio's 14th.”
“The Resilient Supply Chain & Regional Prosperity Act lowers prices for American consumers by diversifying and shortening supply chains after the removal of all Trump-era tariffs. Instead of relying on distant, fragile, and expensive global supply routes, the Act encourages production closer to the U.S., where costs are more stable and predictable.”
“I support targeted, smart tariffs that would help protect Michigan manufacturing and incubate the industries of the future with unions at the forefront. These tariffs would focus on growth industries, rely on clearly communicated benchmarks with trading partners, and sunset as American manufacturers established themselves.”
“Angering our trading partners with frivolous tariffs has killed the revenue of farmers, and small businesses”
“The role of negotiating trade should return to Congress.”
“We need to shift the power of tariff-setting in the government from the White House to Congress so that communities can have a say in policies that impact their businesses.”
“Trade deals, like NAFTA, have been a disaster for American manufacturing and have rotted out our towns and destroyed communities.”
“Trade is a good thing, but we must begin negotiating fair trade agreements”
“As a member of Congress, I will invest in North Georgia's communities by ending Trump's tariffs and investing in renewable energy to decrease the cost of materials and energy while helping small business owners. By breaking up monopolies, I will also create more opportunities for small businesses to flourish.”
“Replace “free trade” agreements that exploit developing nations with fair trade agreements that benefit America’s working class. End proxy wars and work towards cooperation and lasting global peace.”
Housing
Housing as a Human Right (framing)
“Safe, affordable housing is a fundamental human right, and a critical determinant of health outcomes, economic opportunity, and social mobility.”
“Housing is healthcare because the conditions in which people live directly shape their physical and mental health.”
“The number one driver of homelessness today is the cost of housing. If people cannot afford to stay in their homes, nothing else works. Housing is not just an economic policy. It is about dignity, stability, and whether working families can build a life in this country.”
“Housing is infrastructure. When it fails, everything else breaks. In Illinois' 7th Congressional District, housing determines whether families can stay rooted, seniors can age with dignity, and young people can build a future in the communities they love. When housing becomes unstable, costs rise across the board, workers are pushed farther from jobs, and neighborhoods lose the people who hold them together.”
“Researchers now link housing instability directly to what are known as “deaths of despair” — suicide, overdose, and alcohol-related illness . When people are forced to choose between rent, food, and healthcare, the result is chronic stress, hopelessness, and, too often, tragedy. People without stable housing get sicker, die younger, and fall through the cracks of systems never built to catch them. As is so often the case, the root issue is not an individual failure but a policy failure.”
“I believe in these seven principals, in line with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Affordability: Housing costs should not threaten or compromise a household's ability to afford other basic needs like food and healthcare. Security of tenure: Residents must be protected from forced evictions, harassment, and other threats. Habitability: Homes must provide physical safety, adequate space, protection against the elements, and a non-toxic environment.”
“Reform exclusionary zoning so duplexes and small multifamily units can exist in places that outlaw them.”
“housing and housing stability are deeply tied to community economic development, safety, and public health.”
“The rising cost of housing is pushing families out of neighborhoods they've called home for decades and making it harder for young people and small businesses to plant roots in our communities.”
“Housing is a human right, not a commodity. Every Massachusetts family deserves the dignity of a safe, stable, and affordable home. We need an all-hands-on-deck response to the most urgent affordability crisis of our time—investing in new housing, supporting first-time homebuyers, and keeping people in their homes.”
“Housing is a human right. We must protect current occupants, repair public housing, and build new affordable housing.”
“Housing is a right, yet it's treated like a commodity.”
“should not have to choose between paying their rent or putting food on the table”
“Safe housing is a human right and no one should be living in the street, in the woods, or in their car because they can't find affordable housing.”
“A national homes guarantee would ensure every person safe, sustainable, and permanently affordable housing. ... we must repeal the Faircloth Amendment that has put a federal limit on public housing spending for over 25 years.”
Public Housing Investment
“Build and provide publicly owned Housing like Vienna where no one pays more than 25% of their income for housing”
“Claire will fight to ... fully fund the New York City Housing Authority and repeal the Faircloth Amendment so we can build beautiful public housing again.”
“The Homes for All Act... will fulfill the promise of a homes guarantee by investing $1 trillion in the construction of 12 million new public housing and private, permanently affordable rental units... making public housing mandatory spending like it is for other essential programs like Social Security and Medicare.”
“Mike secured passage of the first ever Cooperative Housing Fund, which will provide a structure for community organizations, ... new cooperative housing,”
“Becca believes this acute crisis requires bold, creative solutions. That's why in her first term in Congress she introduced the Community Housing Act. This comprehensive legislation invests over 500 billion dollars in affordable housing, renter protections, down payment assistance, and new construction.”
“In Congress, Rep. Jayapal has secured over $68.8 million in federal funding for 40 community projects in the district. ... $12.3 million for housing, ... 300 new units and emergency shelter for 200 people ... She is the lead sponsor of ... Housing is a Human Right Act to make historic investments in affordable housing.”
“As your representative in Congress, I will reintroduce the Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez "Green New Deal for Public Housing Act"”
“No new agencies are created. This plan strengthens and better targets the tools already available. ... Preserve at least 3 existing affordable homes for every 1 new unit built using federal resources ... Reduce eviction filings by at least 25 percent in targeted high-risk ZIP codes ... Secure long-term affordability protections on thousands of existing units”
“Oliver supports building 500,000 to 1 million new affordable housing units to serve the 3 million people who work with or within the U.S. military.”
“This is not means-tested poverty housing. It is high-quality, mixed-income housing of the kind that holds down rents across a whole city. In Vienna, where more than 60% of residents live in social or subsidized housing, that public supply keeps private rents in check through direct competition.”
“The Homes Act, introduced by Senator Tina Smith and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, would create a national Housing Development Authority to finance, build, and operate permanently affordable homes, funded at $30 billion a year and able to build or preserve as many as 1.3 million units with rent capped at 25% of a household’s income.”
“the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act would repeal the Faircloth Amendment, the 1998 provision that effectively bars the federal government from adding any net new public housing, and invest in rehabilitating and decarbonizing the homes we already have.”
“I’ll support the Affordable Housing for Seniors Act , which expands Section 202 housing programs and invests in retrofitting public housing for accessibility and energy efficiency.”
“Invest in social housing that is permanently affordable, de-commodified and community managed. Identify areas with high walking scores for higher density housing that will benefit seniors. Allocate funding for dormitories at community and state colleges and universities to lower the cost of housing for students. Rehabilitate abandoned buildings to increase housing stock. Tax vacant properties to provide an incentive to open up rental stock.”
“With less than the money we spend on the Pentagon’s budget every year, we could change millions of lives. We could build 8.5 million new public housing units, fund local development of 3.5 million new private, permanent affordable housing projects, and fund billions for public housing repairs, climate resiliency, and critical infrastructure upgrades throughout the country. In order to do so, we must repeal the Faircloth Amendment that has put a federal limit on public housing spending for 25 years.”
“In Congress, Joshua will fight to repeal the Faircloth Amendment so that we can build high quality public housing. Bristol will work to strengthen tenant protections against unjust evictions and rent hikes and fight to fully fund and modernize the NYC Housing Authority.”
“$20 billion in public housing projects to support municipal and state affordable housing efforts”
“I will support the implementation of a Federal Green Public Housing program to retrofit existing housing with insulation, heat pumps, and solar panels under strong tenant protections laws.”
“Back the repeal of the Faircloth Amendment, allowing KC and other cities to expand public housing options”
“Launch a major federal program to build millions of units of energy efficient affordable and social housing nationwide”
“Community land trusts Keep neighborhoods permanently affordable.”
“Housing is a human right. Build new, publicly-owned social housing, strictly regulate investment properties, establish universal rent control, and guarantee right to counsel for all tenants.”
Housing Tax Credits & Finance Tools
“Build more housing by expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Restore public housing — repairing and modernizing what already exists, no demolition without one-for-one replacement. End veteran homelessness by expanding HUD-VASH and its funding. End shell-company games, tax loopholes, and private equity in single-family housing, requiring disclosure of bulk ownership.”
“I support creating a Middle-Income Housing Tax Credit, building on the existing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit model.”
“Lateefah will uplift bills like the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act as key tools for addressing this issue. The bill expands and strengthens the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, encouraging more investment in the development and maintenance of affordable housing.”
“Require cities to spend allocated housing trust funds within 24 months or face clawback.”
“We should offer targeted incentives—like tax credits and subsidies—but only when developers guarantee long-term affordability, labor protections, and community benefit.”
“champions community benefits agreements so that development projects focus on addressing community needs, sharing profits with the community.”
“Expansion of federal community block grants that offer dollars for affordable housing projects, particularly in rural communities in west central Wisconsin where current housing is aging out or doesn’t accommodate growing populations. ... Help families buy their first home by deferring property tax payments for first-time home buyers for up to five years.”
“Co-sponsoring the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act to create more affordable housing”
“Fund a study of the relationship between the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the 2008 housing collapse, and the Faircloth Amendment... and the eventual homeless epidemic, and consider adopting remedial measures the study concludes are warranted.”
“Co-sponsor the Homes for All Act; increase funding for HUD Public Housing Program; implement the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit; strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)”
“Invest in new, affordable housing development and expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), and the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF).”
“Helped enact New York's $4.5 billion affordable housing capital program, the most ambitious in state history.”
“Expand the National Housing Trust Fund (HTF) to at least $45 billion annually to build and preserve deeply affordable, accessible rental homes.”
Vouchers & Rental Assistance
“Too many families are waiting years — even decades — for a Housing Choice Voucher. I support fully funding and expanding the Housing Choice Voucher program so that it becomes an entitlement available to every eligible household, not a lottery system.”
“Oppose the Faircloth Amendment that blocks new public housing construction. Support the Homes Act to create a public option for housing and reduce private market dominance. Push for federal rental assistance expansion for working families, not just the very poorest.”
“Secured $50 million HUD Choice Housing grant to revitalize Bedford Dwellings and the Hill district neighborhood.”
“Expand Housing Choice Vouchers and automatically enroll eligible workers”
“expanding emergency rental assistance and housing vouchers to supporting community land trusts”
“Full renewal of all existing vouchers: Congress must ... Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) contracts in the final spending bill for ... FY27. Without adequate funding, vouchers are lost”
Zoning & Housing Supply
“Congress should reward state and local governments that expand housing supply by modernizing zoning rules, building near transit, eliminating unnecessary parking mandates, and allowing accessory dwelling units. Congress should also curb private-equity speculation in housing and protect renters from abusive fees and algorithm-driven rent increases.”
“I support declaring a National Housing Emergency to unlock federal coordination and accelerate construction by: Reducing the cost of key building materials, Addressing supply chain bottlenecks, Expanding large-scale housing development”
“In the early 1980s, around 40% of all new homes constructed were under 1,400 square feet, but due to unjust and restrictive zoning laws, over 90% of all new homes being constructed are now much larger than this, and thus far more expensive for young families looking to enter the market. I will push to create a system of financial incentives and penalties that motivate states and localities to be more permissive toward the construction of starter homes and townhouses.”
“Build 4 million new homes nationally and 60,000 in New Hampshire. Invest in home construction through a National Infrastructure Bank”
“We made building illegal: minimum lot sizes, parking mandates, discretionary reviews that drag on for years. This isn't market failure. It's rules, written decades ago for a different world, that reward whoever can afford the lawyers to fight through them.”
“Use federal dollars as the lever: tie transportation and infrastructure money to zoning that allows starter homes, duplexes, and apartments near jobs. Streamline environmental review so it protects rivers instead of vetoing neighbors. And fund a serious trades pipeline, because legal homes still need framers, electricians, and plumbers to build them.”
“Aswar strongly supports massive supply increases through urban density zoning reforms, mandated fast-track reviews, and aggressive taxes on vacant, corporate-owned housing portfolios that treat homes as speculative assets rather than places to live.”
“The average home price has risen 78% since 2019, and wages have not kept pace. In Congress, Maura will work to lower the cost of housing by increasing federal investments in housing supply, cutting unnecessary barriers that slow construction, and by cracking down on corporate landlords that reduce inventory and price working people out of their own communities.”
“I want to require Big Tech companies like AirBnB and VRBO to pay special housing dislocation fees for the housing stock they occupy in local communities.”
“Empower New Hampshire's Local Builders: She’ll support new federal loan programs and accessible financing so small builders can compete again Invest in our Communities : She’ll push for funding that enables cities and towns to build necessary infrastructure like water and sewer systems and roads”
“The bipartisan Yes In My Backyard Act would require localities that receive federal community development funds to report the exclusionary land-use rules they keep on the books, bringing those barriers into the open.”
“Solution 2: Incorporate community enhancement features in housing projects to overcome NIMBY resistance. These might include: Dog parks Outdoor exercise parks Playgrounds Community gardens with plots offered to the whole neighborhood Meeting rooms available for use by the neighborhood”
“Establish a federal tax credit for developers who build mixed-income housing with at least 30% of units reserved for affordable or workforce housing.”
“We need federal incentives that actually build affordable housing, not luxury developments with a few affordable units slapped on.”
“Communities throughout the district are filled with vacant storefronts, abandoned industrial buildings, and underutilized properties that represent untapped opportunities. Diop supports expanding housing supply, encouraging adaptive reuse projects, assisting first-time homebuyers, and ensuring local communities have the tools they need to meet their own housing needs.”
“The cost of homes has been allowed to outpace local incomes because of zoning laws, tax incentives and lending practices that favor some neighborhoods over others.”
“Today, the process to build a house varies across nearly nineteen thousand jurisdictions. This creates unnecessary delays and confusion. I support federal incentives that encourage states and cities to adopt streamlined and digital permitting systems that cut red tape while maintaining important safety standards.”
“Rehabilitate mills, schools, and underused buildings into mixed-use housing ... Cap short-term rentals that hollow out neighborhoods ... Tax vacant properties held purely for speculation”
“Build 2 million homes a year — increase supply, ease the housing shortage, and lower costs”
“Congress should create incentives for state and local governments to enact reforms that pave the way for more affordable housing, including zoning reform. We need a representative who will do his or her homework and fight to build, not abandon, critical affordable housing when Roanoke and Harrisonburg each now have more than 4,000 people on a wait list for housing choice vouchers. The list is so large they're not even accepting new applicants.”
“Local governments must have the tools—and funding—to build the homes their communities need.”
“The HOME Act is paired with policies that increase housing production, streamline permitting, encourage workforce housing, support modular construction, and discourage institutional speculation.”
“Encourage transit-oriented development to increase mobility and cut down on traffic Incentivize zoning reform that promotes equity and affordability, and Invest in energy efficient, climate resilient housing that lowers costs for families.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- how much new housing a wheelchair user can actually live in, or even visit
- the cheap single-room housing that cities zoned out of existence
Rent Stabilization
“The Place to Prosper Act ... curbs rent increase for landlords who own 5 or more properties to just 3% of the preceding year’s rent or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index”
“Support the Homes Act to create a public option for housing and reduce private market dominance... Support community land trusts that permanently remove housing from speculation.”
“Greater Miami has become the most cost-burdened major metro in the country, harder on working families than New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. Nearly six in ten renters here spend more than they can afford on rent, and Florida is the most expensive state in the nation for homeowners insurance, more than double the national average, with Miami-Dade at the very top.”
“Require corporate landlords to offer lease renewals with reasonable caps on annual rent increases (e.g., CPI + 3%) in federally subsidized or financed properties.”
“Support bans on source-of-income discrimination, to ensure landlords do not refuse renters simply because they use federal assistance”
“On Council: expanded rent stabilization from 1,000 to 10,000 units, strengthened tenant protections, reduced homelessness by 22%, and held bad developers accountable.”
“Standard Rent Deduction: Create a federal tax deduction allowing renters to deduct a portion of their rent, providing relief to millions of households.”
“Senator Salim supports a comprehensive approach that includes reducing zoning and permitting restrictions to expedite home construction, enhancing protections for renters, and increasing funding and programs for low-income housing. His legislative proposals include legalizing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) by right across Virginia, banning algorithmic rent-setting programs, and adding Falls Church to the affordable dwelling unit program.”
“A national cap on annual rent increases, designed to prevent extreme year-over-year spikes while allowing reasonable adjustments. (This already exists in the US in states like CA and OR.)”
“Mary will fight for refundable federal tax credits for renters paying more than 30% of their income in rent, extending the same kind of relief that homeowners have long received.”
“Congress should pair that with a federal limit on corporate rent gouging, building on the 2024 proposal to deny tax breaks to large landlords who raise rents by more than 5% a year.”
“Offer tax incentives to small landlords (1–4 units) who keep rent affordable and agree to longer lease terms.”
“I'll fight for a federal rent freeze, a Tenant Bill of Rights, and deeply affordable housing—because homes should be for people, not profit.”
“We need legislation establishing a national cap on annual rent increases, restricting evictions without just cause.”
“In Congress, I will fight to cap excessive annual rent increases so families can plan their lives instead of bracing for the next jump. I will support federal investment and zoning reform incentives that encourage construction of affordable and workforce housing, paired with protections that keep that housing affordable over the long term rather than letting it flip to the highest bidder.”
“strong rent control with no rent increases above inflation for all rental properties”
“Create a national rent stabilization policy to limit annual increases, building on the most successful city and state policies”
“Cap annual rent increases to the national inflation rate Limit new lease pricing increases to 10% over the previous lease Allow tax deductions for rental payments . Impose additional taxes on investment firms and corporations that purchase residential properties. Enforce limits on the number of residential properties that can be owned by a single entity in an area.”
“We need to protect all tenants with better federal protections including nationwide rent control to cap annual rent hikes from corporate real estate conglomerates.”
“national rent control, price caps, and harsh punishments for corporate greed plus massive corporate taxes for affordable housing construction.”
“We must repeal the Faircloth Amendment and pass the Homes Act to unlock the development of permanently affordable housing”
“Secure homes with capped rents, tenant protections, and relief to end homelessness—no one should lose their home to corporate greed.”
“Pass Living Wage legislation, incentivize states with rent stability policies, ban short-term housing in communities with affordable housing shortages, and go after union-busting companies who are keeping wages artificially low.”
Evictions, Right to Counsel & Tenant Rights
“Seal eviction filing records until a final adverse judgment — ban tenant screening services from reporting dismissed cases.”
“The Eviction Right to Counsel Act, led by Senator Cory Booker and Representatives Summer Lee and LaMonica McIver, would fund a right to legal representation for tenants facing eviction and reward states that adopt just cause eviction standards, longer notice periods, and eviction diversion programs.”
“Introduced the Tenant Empowerment Act , bold legislation to strengthen HUD tenant protections and provide them with the tools necessary to improve the quality of their homes.”
“Expand eviction prevention, legal defense, and diversion programs in high-risk ZIP codes. Increase emergency rental assistance to prevent housing loss before families enter shelters. Enforce habitability and fair housing standards in federally assisted housing.”
“A voucher you can't use isn't help. It's a piece of paper. In a lot of Memphis neighborhoods, a Section 8 voucher is close to worthless, because too many decent landlords won't take it. The places that will take it are often run-down - below the quality standards the program is supposed to enforce.”
“Ensure Transparency and Fairness: I will support efforts to require landlords to disclose their identities rather than hiding behind LLCs, and I will fight to ban source-of-income discrimination so that no one is denied a home for using federal housing vouchers.”
“Give tenants the right to purchase their buildings before corporate developers. Ban corporate purchases of single-family homes. National rent control to stop price gouging by Wall Street landlords.”
“Landlords should be prohibited from sharing confidential pricing data with competitors through any intermediary, algorithmic or otherwise. Software companies should be prohibited from aggregating such data across competing landlords. “User groups” and “market surveys” that facilitate information exchange among competitors should be explicitly prohibited when they involve competitively sensitive information.”
“The transparency that serves consumers—public posting of rental rates, clear disclosure of fees, honest advertising—should be encouraged. The transparency that serves landlord coordination—sharing confidential strategies through algorithm intermediaries—should be banned.”
“A national rent stabilization standard, just-cause eviction protections, and the right to counsel in eviction proceedings.”
“Restrict the use of AI in rent setting and application screening.”
“We need legislation establishing a national cap on annual rent increases, restricting evictions without just cause, and guaranteeing a right to counsel for tenants facing eviction... to address utility costs, establish a utilities rate cap that will automatically cap all monthly utility bill payments at 2% of household incomes for every household.”
“NLIHC, National Housing Law Project (NHLP), and Tenant Union Federation (TUF) launched the National Tenants Bill of Rights, a policy agenda that would provide uniform protections for renter households nationwide, helping to ease the power imbalance between tenants and landlords that puts renters at risk of eviction.”
“Right to counsel – a legal guarantee that tenants facing the threat of eviction will have representation from an attorney in court – has ... enabled 71% of those Connecticut residents who utilized the program’s services to avoid an involuntary move”
Private Equity / Corporate Landlords
“The CLRA would prohibit landlords who own more than 1,000 units nationally from owning more than 0.10% of any city's rental market.”
“Large investment firms and Wall Street hedge funds currently own a staggering 26% of all single-family homes.”
“the End Hedge Funds Control of American Homes Act ... requires a 10-year phaseout of hedge-fund investment in single-family homes and mandates a $50,000 yearly tax penalty per house if they don’t adhere to a 10% reduction per year. Whether it is banning or taxing hedge funds, banning foreign investors from buying up residential homes ... providing lower government-backed first-time homebuyer mortgages, ... many actions can be taken to allow the middle class to begin to rebuild itself.”
“The Homes for Floridians Act restores affordability, limits corporate bulk buying of single-family homes, caps purchases at 25 per county per year, and places a moratorium on bulk transactions in high-cost areas. It offers first-time buyers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance and a 30-day head start over corporate bidders.”
“Corporations, REITs, and hedge funds shall be limited to purchasing no more than 25 single-family homes per year per county in the State of Florida. ... A 5-year moratorium shall be placed on bulk purchases of existing single-family homes (5 or more units in a single transaction) by institutional investors in counties where the median home price exceeds 4x the median household income.”
“Permanently bans corporations from owning single-family homes — existing holdings subject to mandatory 10% annual divestiture over a decade”
“Establish a tax penalty and roll back incentives for hedge funds purchasing single-family homes, funding downpayment assistance for first-time home buyers with the revenue.”
“Crack down on banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders that engage in discriminatory lending based on protected characteristics.”
“Crack down on algorithmic rent price-fixing. Corporate landlords have been using platforms like RealPage to coordinate rent increases across markets driving up costs for Iowa renters the same way surveillance pricing drives up costs at the grocery store. If it's illegal for companies to fix prices in a back room, it should be illegal to do it through an algorithm.”
“Protect manufactured and mobile home residents. Over half of Iowa’s mobile home parks are owned by large, out-of-state investment firms. When private equity buys the park and raises the lot rent, they have nowhere to go. I ... will fight for them in Washington including passing federal protections and a right of first refusal so residents have the chance to purchase their community before it gets sold out from under them.”
“Large institutional investors, hedge funds, and private equity firms are buying up homes at scale, driving up prices and pushing families out. I support: Stronger antitrust enforcement against monopolistic housing practices, Limits on bulk purchases of single-family homes by large investors, Increased transparency in corporate ownership of residential property. Housing should be for people, not just portfolios.”
“As of 2025, investors owned almost 20% of the single-family homes in the United States. Large institutional investors, like Blackstone and Goldman Sachs, own over 1.5 million single-family homes. I will take on these institutional investors and work to ban their national efforts to outbid young families and artificially inflate housing prices.”
“Predatory developers buy up whole blocks of run-down property at auction, then just sit on them and wait for the value to rise. And out-of-state investment firms are buying up manufactured-home communities, then jacking up the rent on the land - even though the families own the homes that sit on it.”
“That means taxing capital gains and unrealized wealth the same way we tax work, putting a vacancy tax on people who collect homes like trophies, and closing loopholes that let trusts and estates avoid their obligations.”
“The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act, introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative Adam Smith, would prohibit hedge funds and private equity firms from buying single-family homes and back that ban with a 50% excise tax on any home a large investor buys after the law takes effect.”
“Firms that already own single-family homes would have to sell their holdings over 10 years, at least 10% each year, with priority given to current tenants, nonprofits, and local governments.”
“Kick Wall Street Out of Our Neighborhoods: I will support legislation like the “Stop Predatory Investing Act” to strip tax breaks from large institutional investors and ban private equity from buying up single-family homes.”
“A 1% excise tax on corporate bulk home purchases over the 25-unit threshold, with revenue directed to the Build In Florida Housing Infrastructure Fund.”
“In Congress, Aisha will fight to break up corporate rental monopolies and rein in private-equity firms that mass-purchase real estate across entire cities, concentrating control of local housing markets in the hands of a few large investors.”
“Tax "Hoarded Housing": Higher taxes on corporations and hedge funds who buy up homes as investment strategy and price out families.”
“Balance short-term rentals for the tourist economy with the need for full-time residents. Private equity shouldn't price us out of homes.”
“Reform the tax code to drive out investors from treating housing as an investment vehicle.”
“Expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to spur construction of affordable housing. Provide a refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers. Reform the Rural Housing Service to help small towns build more homes. And ban companies from using anti-competitive algorithms to gouge renters.”
“Crack down on Corporate Speculation and Land Hoarding: She'll work to end tax breaks for hedge funds and private equity firms snapping up single-family homes and support caps on institutional ownership to protect opportunities for ordinary buyers and renters”
“I'll fight to build more affordable housing with good union jobs, ban large corporate landlords from buying up single-family homes, expand down payment assistance for first-time buyers, and protect renters by ensuring landlords can't discriminate against those using housing vouchers.”
“Civil penalties and excise taxes shall apply to entities violating this provision, including forced divestiture for repeat offenders.”
“I will work to stop corporate landlords and private equity firms from buying up homes and inflating prices, and I will push for strong antitrust enforcement to prevent both concentrated ownership in local markets and the algorithmic pricing cartels inflating costs to historic highs.”
“Corporate landlords are driving rents into the stratosphere while the cost of groceries, utilities, and healthcare keeps climbing.”
“homes sit empty owned by private equity firms building their wealth”
“Stop hedge funds from purchasing thousands of homes at a time — housing should be for families, not Wall Street portfolios. Ban institutional investors from bulk-buying single-family homes in residential neighborhoods.”
“Crack down on corporate investors and private equity firms that buy up neighborhoods and drive up housing prices. Increase funding for housing voucher programs and affordable rental assistance like Section 8. Convert vacant and underutilized properties into affordable housing opportunities.”
“Corporate landlords and private equity firms are buying up our neighborhoods, driving up rents and pricing families out. We will ban corporate speculation in single-family housing and protect tenants from predatory evictions. A home is a human right, not a stock portfolio asset.”
“End speculation in housing and block private equity, big corporations, and foreign investors from buying up and owning large portions of our housing stock”
“Prohibiting hedge funds and private investors from buying up Iowa's family homes and land and artificially raising rents”
“Crack down on corporate landlords who collude, jack up costs, and use A.I. to artificially increase rents; and eliminate the hidden fees that make rents even more unaffordable.”
“I want to ban large corporations that speculate on our housing stock from owning homes at all. And I will support federal legislation to ban algorithmic rental price-fixing software that allows corporate landlords to collude to raise rent.”
Homeownership & First-Time Buyers
“Establish the Florida Homeownership Priority Program (FHPP) to provide: Down payment assistance grants up to $25,000 for first-time buyers earning under 120% AMI. Closing cost assistance and favorable FHA/USDA loan terms for teachers, first responders, healthcare workers, and veterans purchasing homes in the district. Right of First Refusal to local buyers on homes entering the market before corporate entities may bid.”
“Borrowers qualify under existing 30-year underwriting standards. Income, credit, employment, debt-to-income ratios, and appraisals remain unchanged.”
“The interest rate and total repayment obligation are fixed at closing. Borrowers choose a 40, 50, or 60-year payment schedule without increasing the total repayment obligation because of the longer schedule.”
“Private lenders originate and service HOME mortgages. Treasury-backed housing bonds provide liquidity while participating lenders receive targeted federal tax credits.”
“Qualified heirs may assume the mortgage without a forced refinance or interest-rate reset, preserving family stability.”
“Community land trusts (CLTs) are one of the most powerful tools we have to take housing out of the speculative market and put it into community hands. CLTs allow communities to own the land collectively, while individuals can build equity in their homes — ensuring permanent affordability and local control.”
“She's also challenging Detroit's discriminatory property tax system that taxes the least expensive homes at six times the rate of the most expensive homes.”
“The median first-time homebuyer age in America is now forty years old. The National Association of Realtors projects that the roughly ten-year spike in the average age of first-time home buyers results in about $150,000 in lost equity over that gap.”
“Gives veterans cash-offer competitiveness, appraisal gap elimination, and a 72-hour priority bidding window before eligible homes hit the open market”
“Support community land trusts that permanently remove housing from speculation. Support making rent payments tax-deductible and level the playing field between renters and homeowners.”
“Require listing platforms to flag and prioritize resident buyers over corporate or out-of-state investor offers for the first 30 days of listing.”
“First-time homebuyer zero-dollar down mortgage — help young renters become homeowners”
“The median age of a first time buyer is now 40 years old compared to 31 years old in 2014. In 11 years, housing has become even more unattainable for the working class and America's young people.”
“By the end of a typical 30-year mortgage, the majority of the money spent by homeowners simply goes to the lender.”
“Builds millions of new homes, offers every first-time homeowner $20,000 in downpayment assistance, and expands rental assistance.”
“Support first-time home buyers with low interest loans and developing more starter homes intended for first-time buyers and not as vacation homes Expand workforce housing, making sure those who work here can actually live here”
“Support federal reinsurance backstop programs to bring down the cost of homeowners insurance in high-risk coastal states like Louisiana, addressing the root cause of soaring premiums rather than just shifting costs around.”
“Down Payment Assistance for First-Time Homebuyers, so Angelenos can buy a home by the age of 30.”
“Brandt supports aggressive federal investment in affordable housing, so that teachers, nurses, law enforcement and first responders who serve our communities can actually afford to live in them. This includes legislation that increases our housing supply, direct assistance to first-time homeowners, tax credits for renters, and zoning reforms. Because Florida's property insurance market is collapsing, Brandt supports a federal insurance backstop to stabilize premiums immediately.”
“I rented for 11 years before finally buying a home with the help of a tax credit. Everyone deserves the chance to put down roots and stay in the community they love. That means keeping housing affordable, stopping corporate landlords from squeezing renters, and making homeownership a real option again.”
“Solution 3: Provide rent-to-own opportunities as a first step toward home ownership. Solution 4: Provide supportive housing for people dealing with mental health challenges. Solution 5: Work with schools and unions to set up programs in high schools that provide opportunities for students to learn building trades.”
“Empower First-Time Home Buyers: Support low- to moderate-income families in achieving homeownership through a $25,000 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, FedHome Savings Accounts with tax-deferred growth and savings matching to help pay down payments and closing costs and a Starter Home Tax Credit to encourage the production of affordable entry-level homes.”
— UnidosUS
Opportunities for candidates to address
- taxing land by what it is worth rather than what is built on it, so sitting on an empty lot downtown stops being cheap
Homelessness
“Around 12 million seniors are spending more than half of their income on housing. In recent years, the share of older Americans experiencing homelessness has increased by almost 40%. ... We need to lower the cost of living for seniors, increase federal funding for senior housing, and expand programs to renovate and improve their homes.”
“I introduced the Unhoused Bill of Rights, a plan to end the housing crisis by building more homes, providing universal vouchers, and expanding funding for shelters, social services, and permanent emergency rental assistance.”
“Rather than responding to homelessness after it happens, we must build systems that prevent it entirely. I will advocate for a comprehensive federal review of homelessness risk factors, leading to early-warning systems using data from eviction courts, schools, and social services.”
“she will fight to leverage federal funds to transform empty government buildings like the old County Jail in Oakland into dignified emergency shelters for those living on the streets.”
“I support national expansion of rapid rehousing programs that include: Mental health care , including trauma-informed therapy and substance use support Workforce development and job placement services Childcare and transportation assistance for families transitioning back into stable housing Housing-first must also mean services-first — because no one heals from homelessness without support.”
“Shelter is a human right. I'll push federal policy to decriminalize homelessness, repeal the Faircloth Amendment”
“Guarantee Homes for Everyone through Housing First Model”
“Encourage Housing First HUD Policy: She’ll work with federal, state, and local partners to prioritize permanent housing solutions for homeless community members”
“Marianne will push for affordable and social housing and treat homelessness as a housing and health crisis.”
“she will aggressively pursue the $4.5 billion needed to build and operate permanent supportive housing for all homeless residents in the district”
“Fund legal assistance for tenants Support emergency rental assistance programs Encourage policies that stabilize housing during economic shocks”
“Safe housing should be a fundamental right, and it pains me to witness the harsh reality of many Oregonians living on the streets.”
“I’ll propose, support, and vote for legislation that guarantees housing, healthcare, and dignity for unhoused people—not punishment. That means funding deeply affordable housing, free mental health care, addiction treatment, and job training.”
“Fight to secure additional federal funding for programs that are targeted to people experiencing homelessness like HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants as well as mainstream programs that serve as a safety-net for low-income households like Medicaid and federal rental assistance such as Housing Choice Vouchers.”
“We're pushing back against laws that criminalize homelessness and advocating for humane, effective alternatives that prioritize housing and services.”
Climate
Green New Deal
“$400 billion in funding over the next ten years for clean energy research and development ... creation of a National Institutes of Clean Energy.”
“The Green New Deal represents our last best chance at mitigating the obvious effects of global warming. It contains many measures which, if implemented, will gradually reduce our dependence on fossil fuels without the need to sacrifice our lifestyle. ... We are seeing 100 year storms every 10 years.”
“Climate change is the smoke in our lungs, the fire risk outside our doors, and the rising bills hitting family budgets. As a former environmental consultant, I've seen the cost of delay up close: when government waits, families pay.”
“Climate Emergency Resolution would declare climate change a national emergency and require a massive-scale mobilization”
“The Green New Deal rejects this approach, instead combining direct public investment with strong regulations and justice-centered program design.”
“Building upon the Biden Administration’s proposal, I will seek to make permanent a civilian climate corps that regularly hires thousands of disadvantaged and young workers for insulation retrofits, natural restoration, and public transit expansion. All projects will use Project Labor Agreements to guarantee competitive wages and prioritize local hiring.”
“My grandmother, my mother, my brother, and I all have the same asthmatic cough that is all too common for anyone who grew up in the shadow of our city’s smokestacks and factories. I’m not willing to let another generation of my family or yours suffer the same fate that we have while the fossil fuel companies who are driving this crisis — like DTE and Consumers Energy — raise our utility prices, make record profits year after year, and buy our politicians’ inaction.”
“A Green New Deal transitioning to 100% clean and renewable energy, would protect our planet's future and create millions of good-paying green union jobs in Michigan.”
“Yassamin led the charge to pass the city's landmark Climate Action Plan, has fought for the protection of reproductive rights, and secured millions in free tuition for students pursuing community college and good jobs in the trades.”
“wage protection, retraining, pension security, and healthcare coverage”
“Massive federal investment in renewable energy infrastructure — solar, wind, and battery storage — that powers homes, schools, and public buildings”
“We must confront man-made climate change with urgency and purpose—not tomorrow, not someday, but now. Because clean air, fresh water, and healthy land aren’t partisan issues. They’re human issues. They’re economic issues. ... The science is clear, the costs of inaction are mounting, and every delay deepens the damage.”
“When I am in Congress I will support legislation to achieve 100% clean, renewable energy nationwide by 2035 and end all fossil fuel subsidies and redirect funds toward sustainable infrastructure projects, and clean energy investments that benefit our communities.”
“I endorse the Green New Deal , including the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps to create millions of good-paying jobs that will ensure a speedy and sustainable transition to renewable energy across the board.”
“We know the solutions: renewable energy, mass transit, regenerative agriculture, and a just transition for workers. What we lack is not technology. It is political courage.”
“Transform our energy system to 100 percent renewable energy and create 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis.”
“The climate crisis is an existential threat, and incrementalism is no longer sufficient.”
“The Green New Deal updated for AI”
“Aswar strongly supports the Green New Deal, treating the climate crisis with grave urgency and committing to the long legislative fight to refine and pass it without backing off.”
“We are demanding that candidates, members of Congress, and elected officials at all levels of government commit to serving our communities by using the full extent of their power”
“Workers must lead our democratic transition to a green future. Pass a federal jobs guarantee. Implement massive investment in sustainable, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure. Phase out the use of fossil fuels. Reclaim and repair our earth's resources for all.”
Clean Energy Jobs / Wins
“Secured nearly $400 million as part of a clean energy financing program loan for EOS, a clean battery storage manufacturer.”
“$1.5 trillion federal procurement commitment over the next ten years to purchase American-made clean, renewable, and emission-free energy products”
“A farmer in Perry County shouldn't have to wait eight years to plug a solar array into the grid. ... Wind turbines on a TN-7 family farm can generate $8,000-$15,000 per turbine per year in guaranteed income, inflation-indexed, for 25-30 years.”
“Helped secure more than $1 Billion to create a hydrogen hub on the Houston Ship Channel”
“build the green economy of the 21st century with good-paying, union jobs ... At least 40% of the funding ... disadvantaged communities.”
“These investments would create an estimated 10 million jobs over a decade, with wages, benefits, and labor protections guaranteed through federal contracting standards requiring union labor”
“ARPA-E works to advance high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment.”
“Rapid expansion of solar energy infrastructure, including requiring most large parking lots to feature solar panel shade structures, to leverage Arizona's sunshine to enable free or ultra-low mid-day peak solar period electricity rates (as Australia has achieved)”
“Right now, numerous developers are waiting for permission to connect their energy projects to the electric grid, with a combined capacity to generate and store 2,600 gigawatts of electricity. 95% of those projects are wind, solar, and battery projects capable of doubling our total electricity generation, meeting our growing demand, lowering prices, and significantly decreasing our emissions.”
“I'll work to accelerate a transition to clean energy that simultaneously creates good paying union jobs, combats climate change, brings down energy costs and uses federal infrastructure funding to build a clean energy economy and climate resilience. In the State Legislature, I was proud to co-author and voted for the 100% Clean Electricity by 2040 bill to push the state toward fully carbon-free power.”
“Every roof that wants panels should be able to get them at an easy financed rate and sell power back to the grid. This is climate policy and cost-of-living policy at the same time. We stop torching money on fossil fuels when the better, cheaper option is sitting right above us.”
“The financial benefits of solar on apartment roofs too often exclusively benefit landlords; renters should be able to benefit from clean energy without owning a home or paying for solar installation. Tenants can enroll in community solar programs, allowing them to reduce their environmental impact while lowering their monthly energy bill.”
“Agricultural interconnection fast lane: farmers hosting solar or wind projects get grid connection in 18–24 months instead of the current 8-year average”
“Cut Utility Bills for Renters, Landlords & Homeowners: Reestablish and increase residential energy efficiency incentives, requiring instant rebates rather than tax credits, improving accessibility to all Americans while decreasing bureaucracy.”
“Domestically, we must embrace a pragmatic energy portfolio that prioritizes the high-capacity, carbon-free potential of safe and modern nuclear energy.”
“As County Executive, Pat was a national leader in taking climate action, committing to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030, putting the county's first electric busses on the road, and starting the Ulster County Green Careers Academy at SUNY Ulster.”
“Invest in new green construction technologies to make Oregon a leader in the research, development, and production of emerging, environmentally friendly construction technology.”
“Unionized, family-sustaining green jobs that prioritize hiring in communities historically affected by industrial pollution”
“Any transition to clean and affordable renewable energy must guarantee that all energy workers have well-paid, secure jobs and better wages”
“Support legislation that moves the U.S. to 100% renewable electricity by 2035 and a zero-carbon economy by 2050.”
“we should empower the genius in working people to do living wage, unionized work that is both extremely urgent and socially beneficial, not trap them in the fossil fuel jobs of the 20th century”
“Combined with solar and wind, modern nuclear power can provide reliable power to transition off fossil fuels”
“Lateefah will work to streamline the energy transmission permitting process, which is critical to facilitating the development of clean energy infrastructure and reducing bureaucratic barriers, while also investing in clean energy research, development, and manufacturing to expand climate technology”
“Hawaiʻi is ideally situated to be a leader in renewable energy, harnessing resources like solar, wind, and hydropower”
“Expand clean energy tax credits and restore the Inflation Reduction Act”
“Reestablish and increase commercial and industrial incentives for solar, wind, and geothermal energy, and increase taxes and tighten regulations on polluting fossil fuel producers.”
“Prevent exploitation by requiring that all Green New Deal projects adopt strong wage standards and project labor agreements.”
Fossil Fuel Industry Accountability
“End Polluter Welfare Act would end generous tax breaks, ... saving American taxpayers up to $150 billion over”
“Work towards eventually nationalize the fossil fuel industry, as there should not be a profit incentive to destroying the environment.”
“On a federal level, we need to end the 45q tax credit that has been financially incentivizing carbon capture since 2008. ... we need new legislation to implement stricter definitions for “public use” to protect people from all forms of eminent domain abuse, not just as it relates to pipelines.”
“Fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal – are by far the largest contributors to climate change. They accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions.”
“prohibit banks from financing new or expanded fossil fuel projects after 2022 and all fossil fuel projects after 2030”
“tax Big Oil corporations on their excess profits—and send that money back to the people”
“BP, for example, was charged only $4.5 billion in criminal fines and penalties for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – the world’s largest accidental offshore leak. ... In contrast, the cleanup costs for the spill totaled tens of billions of dollars”
“Hydraulic fracturing [fracking] needs to be subject to the same environment regulations as other fossil fuel extraction techniques.”
“close Clean Air Act loopholes that allow certain oil and gas emissions to go unregulated”
“Strengthen Clean Air and Clean Water Acts: Update environmental legislation to explicitly grant the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and expand water protection jurisdiction.”
“Coal mining destroys the lungs of miners, poisons local water supplies, and pollutes the air, leading to disastrous health impacts. It produces alarmingly high emissions and costs more than wind and solar to maintain. Instead of bailing out rich coal billionaires, our government needs to focus on phasing out the industry, protecting community health, and helping miners and workers to find safer, high-paying jobs.”
“Hold Polluters Accountable: No more letting big industry poison communities and buy political protection — ban donations from private for-profit energy companies like Dominion Energy.”
“All this is all in service to corporate masters, right? The fossil fuel industry is a corporate driver of this military expansion.”
“At a time for solutions, he has joined Iran, Libya, and Yemen as the only countries rejecting the Paris Climate Agreement.”
“For decades, polluters have treated environmental fines as the cost of doing business. We need to strengthen enforcement, hold corporations financially accountable for the harm they cause, and elevate the Environmental Protection Agency to a Cabinet-level department to reflect the reality of what is at stake.”
“Jillian supports policies like Connecticut's proposed Climate-Change Superfund Policy which would require fossil fuel companies to pay for climate-adaptation and restoration projects. This proposal would ensure that fossil-fuel companies pay for their damages, so that the funding burden does not fall on taxpayers.”
“That means codifying the Endangerment Finding into law, so no future administration can strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases by executive order.”
“Charges big oil companies a tax on extra wartime profits and refunds the money to consumers. At $100/barrel, most families would get $324 back.”
“Ban oil and gas leases on all federal lands and waters, and end federal oil subsidies”
“A designated portion of the CIGTR Fund shall be allocated to ... accelerate the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy”
“The U.S. Military has a bloated budget and is also the world's biggest polluter”
“Elijah Manley seeks a ban on oil drilling in the Everglades and will work with tribal leaders and stakeholders to advocate for a ban on drilling in the Big Cypress National Preserve.”
“Ban new development of fossil fuel infrastructure both on public lands and offshore.”
“A Climate Superfund that forces fossil fuel corporations to pay for environmental damage. Allocate those funds to rebuild infrastructure, protect working-class communities, invest in resilient transit and clean energy, and safeguard vulnerable areas like coastal and industrial regions.”
“Require full transparency on corporate disclosures: what companies knew, when they knew it, and how they responded and hold them criminally or civilly liable for deliberate deception.”
“Oliver has proudly signed the No Fossil Fuel money pledge to reject money from the corporations destroying out planet.”
“We owe it to them to make their families and communities whole as the economy transitions away from fossil fuels, through direct provision of five years of wage and benefit guarantees”
“Banning fracking everywhere is crucial. If we don't, the fossil fuel industry will lock us into climate chaos for decades. There is no such thing as safe fracking.”
“It's a future that leads to more gas plants, more leaky pipelines, more compressor stations, more processing plants, more dangerous storage facilities, and more public health crises.”
“Today, more than 12 million US residents live within a half-mile of an oil or gas well or facility.”
“We know the only way toward a clean, renewable energy future is to ban fracking and to stop all new fossil fuel development.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- methane leaking from wells and pipes, and gas burning in our kitchens
Microplastics / Consumer Pollution
“Aggressively accelerating cleanup at federally designated contamination sites such as Halaco, the Pacific Coast Pipeline corridor, and the Santa Susana Field Laboratory”
“The Zero Waste Act, which aims to end the use of toxic landfills and creates a federal fund that localities can tap into in order to invest in zero waste initiatives and recycling infrastructure.”
“As a Co-Chair on the PFAS Task Force, she continues working to protect communities from the threat of these forever chemicals”
“which would reduce single-use plastic packaging in landfills by 75%.”
“Take on the agricultural chemical companies poisoning Iowa. I will fight to strengthen EPA review of the most dangerous pesticides, including paraquat, which is banned in more than 60 countries and linked to Parkinson's disease, close the loopholes that let chemical companies keep products on the market for decades after safer alternatives exist, and invest in independent research on agricultural chemical exposure that isn't funded by the companies selling the chemicals.”
“One approach would be to put the responsibility for reducing or eliminating micro plastics in our food chain on manufacturers of disposable plastics and packaging. Make them accountable for the harm caused by products they produce, as well as the companies that use plastics to package and sell their products. Hopefully, this would encourage them to use materials that are safer for our environment.”
“Carleigh will fight to restore the EPA’s clean air standards and champion a bold new plan to promote indoor air quality by fighting for updated building codes, air quality monitoring, and the use of high quality personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of airborne disease.”
“Ban 'forever' PFAS chemicals from consumer goods.”
“Eliminate loopholes that allow pollution by ag corporations and CAFOs.”
“Pollution is always about shifting costs from a company's books onto the public. These costs end up in our lungs, in our water, and in our children.”
“Require real-time public notification systems for all algae bloom events, including water testing data accessible to the public.”
“reducing single-use plastic waste and promote stronger recycling and manufacturing standards”
“Create a national task force on microplastics to research regulations and potential solutions.”
Clean Water & Public Lands
“Restoring the full intent of the Clean Water Act of 1972 so every river, lake, and stream receives the protections it deserves.”
“Maria will be a fierce and unrelenting advocate for Lake Erie in Congress. That means fighting for strong clean water standards, increased federal investment in algal bloom research and prevention, accountability for agricultural and industrial polluters, and restoration of shoreline and wetland ecosystems.”
“Maria supports conservation programs that are voluntary and practical — things farmers can actually use. Cover crops, buffer strips, better ways to manage nutrients. The goal is simple: keep runoff out of Lake Erie without making it harder to run a farm.”
“pushes back against plan to sell millions of acres of public land”
“Oliver will fight to restore Florida's ecosystems by buying out Big Sugar operations and sending water south from Lake Okeechobee to repair the Everglades, Big Cypress, and Florida Bay.”
“PEOPLE FIRST in Water Security This congressional district sits on top of the country’s largest fresh water aquifer, and it’s running dry. ... He'll expand federal grants for water desalination and clean water infrastructure.”
“Corporate polluters have been recklessly dumping PFAS forever chemicals into our waterways for decades. We must enact zero-tolerance, federal bans on these toxic chemicals, force the corporations responsible to pay for the massive cleanup, and upgrade our public water infrastructure so every community has access to safe, clean drinking water.”
“Thousands of Detroiters have had their access to water shut off, whether because of lead contamination or inability to pay skyrocketing water bills. Meanwhile, Nestle pays pennies to pump millions of gallons of clean water out of Michigan and into CEOs' pockets.”
“Introduced the Water is a Human Right Act to end water shutoffs, reconnect water services for people whose water access has been shut off, and assist low-income families with paying their water bills — with over 70 members of Congress co-sponsoring the bill.”
“Mandates replacement of all 9.2 million lead service lines nationally — rural Tennessee counties receive first-priority federal funding”
“Hold ALL corporate polluters accountable to protect public health: End exemptions for data centers, mega farms, and other industrial polluters that are poisoning drinking water, and ensure homeowners with well water receive equal protection from microplastics and other health-endangering chemicals like those on public water systems.”
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shall establish enforceable numeric nutrient criteria for nitrogen and phosphorus levels in these waters, superseding inadequate state standards.”
“Direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revise the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM) to: Prioritize public health and water quality for downstream communities over sugar industry irrigation preferences.”
“Increase civil and criminal penalties for corporate and agricultural polluters who exceed nutrient discharge limits, including daily fines and mandatory corrective action. ... Authorize citizen suits under the Clean Water Act to allow residents and NGOs to hold polluters accountable in federal court.”
“Fully fund Chesapeake Bay restoration and strengthen clean water protections.”
“Fully fund restoration of Apalachicola Bay. Hold polluters accountable.”
“Work with stakeholders to lessen phosphorus and nitrogen runoff from industrial agriculture. Negotiate expanded buffer zones between sugarcane fields and wetlands.”
“Ban all non-essential uses of toxic PFAS and invest in research and development of ways to safely destroy PFAS to ensure access to safe water, soil, and air.”
“Require mandatory nutrient management plans for all large agricultural operations in the Lake Okeechobee watershed, subject to federal inspection and penalties. ... Prohibit biosolids spreading (treated sewage sludge) in areas draining into the Treasure Coast watershed unless nutrient-neutral technologies are used.”
Climate Resilience & Adaptation
“Climate change will impact Missouri’s farmland significantly. ... drought, floods, invasive insect and fungal species, more fertilizer and heavy metal contamination in groundwater and soil,”
“A federal report released in 2024 finds that climate change costs the U.S. around $150 billion each year, an estimate that doesn't account for loss of life, healthcare-related costs, and damages to ecosystem services.”
“a $3.7 billion package to combat climate change, authored the bill to create OneShoreline to fight sea level rise.”
“Strengthened wildfire protection by pushing to make Cal Fire a year-round service, so we're not “off season” when fires don't take a break. Took on utility price gouging—holding utilities accountable and challenging CPUC-approved rate hikes that hit working families and seniors the hardest.”
“nature‑based solutions (wetlands restoration, urban tree canopy, green stormwater infrastructure) to address sea‑level rise”
“Strengthen Forest Management ... science-based thinning and prescribed fire Increase staffing and funding for federal land agencies ... Incentivize home hardening to lower insurance costs ... Deliver faster, more reliable disaster assistance ... Build a year-round workforce for fuel reduction and fuel breaks”
“In Congress, Elijah Manley will urge the federal government to establish and invest in a National Climate Health Corps to prepare hospitals, clinics, schools, and other essential entities for extreme heat, wildfires, hurricanes, and other climate events.”
“In order to ensure accountability, federal agencies will be legally required to publish emissions data & progress reports online. A public “Climate Scorecard” will be used to show whether agencies met annual goals.”
“Funding for community parks , urban forests , and green corridors to reduce extreme heat and improve air quality Investment in rooftop gardens , green schoolyards , and permeable infrastructure to reduce flooding and boost neighborhood cooling Prioritizing these investments in census tracts with high asthma rates, low tree canopy, and extreme heat exposure”
“Champion disaster resilience in rural communities: Increase funding to not only care for communities after natural disasters and hold insurance companies accountable, but also enhance sustainable preparedness measures so residents can make protective improvements to their homes or relocate outside of flood zones without being bankrupted.”
“Climate change makes governing a seaside community increasingly complicated and expensive. Saltwater from flooding corrodes fire trucks. Sea walls get battered by storm surges. In Hampton, the town planned solar on its capped landfill to lower energy bills and ease pressure on property taxes, but when federal incentives get pulled back, projects everyone supports become harder to make work.”
“Increase funding for agencies studying climate change, including the EPA, NASA, NOAA, and the Department of the Interior. Support locally-driven research in states and municipalities most impacted by climate threats to identify solutions tailored to community needs.”
“Push for a long-term, dedicated federal coastal restoration trust fund that doesn't rise and fall with oil lease auction results.”
“Support a real transition plan for coastal communities facing managed retreat, including funding and infrastructure for communities like Isle de Jean Charles. We cannot have relocation without a real plan or resources.”
“I'll fight for aggressive climate action, investments in clean energy, forest health, fire prevention, and disaster recovery that actually meet the scale of the crisis.”
“Mike doubled the number of state firefighters and invested billions in wildfire prevention”
“we must bolster federal disaster aid including increased funding for FEMA. Any cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association by Trump must be reversed, and more research into climate, weather, and environmental science should be funded by the federal government.”
“Invest in Infrastructure : Support initiatives like undergrounding power lines, upgrading water systems, and creating defensible spaces around homes. Strengthen Land Management : Partner with federal, state, and local agencies to conduct controlled burns, remove hazardous vegetation, and improve forest health.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- a heat standard for people working outdoors and in warehouses
- buying out homes in places that cannot be protected, and helping people move
- Americans moving away from fire, flood and heat, and where they go
Carbon Tax
“Amended to include a Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax ... Initial Rate of $200 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, CO2e ... All revenue returned in UBI format”
“Making polluters pay through bold carbon pricing mechanisms like progressive carbon taxes and democratically accountable cap-and-dividend systems—not Wall Street’s cap-and-trade scams.”
“reduce carbon emissions significantly over time by placing a price on carbon and returning revenue directly to American families”
Immigration
Abolish / Replace ICE
“ICE has operated without accountability, terrorized families, violated due process, and wasted billions while making no one safer, so the agency must be abolished and those responsible prosecuted.”
“Redirect ICE's $170 Billion budget to schools, healthcare, and housing.”
“Seventy-one percent of independent voters say ICE has gone too far. This is not a radical position. It is a bipartisan one.”
“End the current immigration enforcement system by dismantling ICE and its detention and enforcement operations, which have too often led to abuse, family separation, and a lack of oversight. Replacing it with new, accountable structures that prioritize community safety, protect civil rights, and uphold fair labor standards.”
“ICE cannot be fixed. The culture is broken, the tactics are lawless, and the institutional contempt for due process and human dignity runs too deep to patch up with new leadership and a fresh coat of paint. ... Melt it down. Build something from scratch that follows the Constitution, obeys the law, and treats human beings like human beings.”
“seek to completely defund ICE, subpoena its leadership to appear before House committees, and issue criminal referrals to the Department of Justice for ICE and other federal immigration agents violating our constitutional rights.”
“ICE as it exists today cannot be allowed to persist. We should dismantle and abolish that agency, which has been bloated with untrained recent recruits, and reassign the responsibility for domestic immigration enforcement to a different part of the government or a new agency that is prepared to comply with the Constitution.”
“Cut ICE funding immediately to pre-Trump levels, then Replace ICE with a federal immigration agency that Americans can trust”
“I think we should abolish ICE. As an agency, it has only existed since 2003. For the first 150 years of this country's existence, we had open borders, and the country certainly didn't fall apart.”
“Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill” made ICE the most well-funded federal law enforcement agency in history. Congressional Republicans have continued to turn a blind eye to the lack of respect for due process and sheer brutality of the agency. We must go beyond a bumper sticker slogan and take steps to rein in, defund, and abolish the federal agency that is executing American citizens in our streets.”
“Unite Democrats Behind the Goal of Defunding and Abolishing ICE: Democrats must stand united and not vote for any bills or budgets that allocate another penny to ICE.”
“Abolish ICE; restructure DHS America spent 225 years without ICE and DHS. We will be fine. Upholding the Constitution comes first.”
“Pass legislation to abolish ICE and transfer its functions where they belong: criminal investigations to the FBI and DEA; visa enforcement to a new civil agency with transparent standards and robust civil rights protections; and border management to CBP with meaningful Congressional oversight.”
“Donald Trump has made ICE one of the most well-funded militaries in the world. Congress shouldn't give ICE another penny until we've stripped it to the studs and completely rebuilt the organization.”
“No more masked agents going door to door asking Americans for their papers, profiling people based on the color of their skin, and arresting and detaining hard-working people without warrants or cause. I've outlined a plan to stop ICE's lawlessness in the short term while working to abolish and replace or rebuild ICE from the ground up in the longer term.”
“An agency designed by the Bush administration to apply the logic of the Global War on Terror to immigration enforcement cannot be reformed.”
“ICE's budget has nearly tripled in a single year. In fiscal year 2024, ICE had roughly ten billion dollars. This year, after Congress passed the reconciliation bill in July, ICE now has twenty-eight point seven billion dollars at its disposal.”
“ICE has become a tool for autocracy. Its culture of aggression, impunity, and disregard for the rule of law cannot be reformed or retrained. It must be abolished. And I believe that ICE funds should be repurposed to build out the legal infrastructure of courts to create a clear pathway to citizenship for those who are stuck in limbo.”
“Pass the CLEAR ID Act and pursue further legislation to bring accountability and transparency to ICE, including voting NO on funding for ICE and CBP until both agencies end unconstitutional raids and fully restore due process for all immigrants.”
“Dissolves ICE's interior enforcement functions and redistributes them to FBI, U.S. Marshals, and Department of Labor — a judicial warrant is required for all arrests”
“ICE was created in 2003 by Congress. ICE can be broken apart by Congress. But that will only happen if there’s a Congressmember willing to lead the charge — that’s me. What does “breaking ICE” look like? It means taking the two core responsibilities of ICE and giving them to much better-suited, better trained, and better supervised departments. The two core responsibilities currently given to ICE are “Enforcement and Removal Operations” (ERO) and “Homeland Security Investigations” (HSI). In my plan, ERO will be handled by the US Marshals, and HSI will be absorbed by the FBI. ICE will no longer exist.”
“Abolish ICE and replace it with a narrowly scoped agency focused on criminal investigations with full civil rights oversight. End courthouse detentions. Mandate public reporting on all deportation operations, including legal basis, country of origin, and outcomes. Repeal the Alien Enemies Act and other outdated laws being weaponized for mass deportation.”
“Defunding ICE is not about eliminating immigration enforcement. It is about dismantling a system that is producing documented harm and rebuilding one that is aligned with the rule of law, clinical standards of care, and constitutional protections.”
“ICE is a threat to the American People. There is no 'fixing ICE'. I would enact legislation prohibiting states the ability to impose false authority to ICE agents. ICE currently has approximately 10 minutes to 47 days of training with no de-escalation skills. We cannot allow someone who is required to have less training than an Ohio Nail Tech any authority over our law enforcement.”
“End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents' brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.”
“Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) should be abolished and replaced with an agency whose first mission is human rights, fairness, and family unification.”
“Its detention and enforcement model cannot be reformed into something humane. ... Build what comes next Replace enforcement with immigrant rights, due process, and community safety.”
Agent Conduct & Accountability
“End "qualified immunity" for ICE agents, ensuring that those who violate civil rights or separate families are held personally and legally accountable for their actions.”
“Implement Common Sense Reforms: Require arrest warrants and IDs for agents. Ensure that agents do not wear masks and utilize non-lethal force only. Get ICE out of our cities and investigate and prosecute.”
“In the Senate, he is carrying legislation that gets rid of 287G agreements that prohibits local law enforcement from working with ICE, legislation that prohibits federal authorities from arresting or detaining individuals at a courthouses, as well as legislation that prohibits federal law enforcement from wearing face masks when performing their official duties.”
“No arrests or entrance without real Judicial warrants signed by unbiased judges, instead of Administrative warrants written by ICE themselves.”
“Ban federal agents from detaining or arresting people without probable cause or a judicial warrant”
“Ban federal agents from wearing masks in the course of their duties ... Require federal agents to identify themselves, their agency, their mission, and charges when detaining or arresting someone.”
“ensure judicial warrants are used when conducting search and seizure of homes and businesses. No exceptions.”
“ensure ICE agents are liable in court for violating the constitutional rights of residents”
“Federal protections against ICE surveillance in sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, and courthouses.”
“ICE must also be required to show their faces and wear body cameras at all times. The public must be able to access untampered body camera footage in a timely manner. Congress must also demand that ICE stops profiling schools and places of worship.”
“Banning the use of facial recognition and other invasive surveillance technologies by immigration enforcement agencies, and eliminating the legal shield that protects federal law enforcement officials from consequences when they violate constitutional rights.”
“This bill allows ICE and CBP to give themselves “prior approval” to enter into the following protected spaces, without any warrant from a judge: any school any hospital any medical facility any mental health facility any other health care facility any place of worship any place where “children gather” any place “providing social services””
“The act, to be drafted in collaboration with experts and other lawmakers, and will cover the following: remove qualified immunity for cases of excessive or lethal force; the right to record any public federal enforcement action; the right to medically support anyone in distress during a federal immigration enforcement action; the right of the public to receive footage from bodycameras within 72 hours of any firearm discharge in a federal immigration enforcement action; ban the use of unmarked vehicles; ban masks; require ID numbers; require coordination and authorization from local law enforcement; raise the legal standard from “reasonable” force to “necessary” force; ban firing into moving vehicles; ban deployment of chemical agents against protestors.”
“Prosecute federal agents who violated the law and human rights in Trump’s authoritarian mass deportation campaign, including senior officials who issued directives and created policies which mandated or caused such violations”
“Calling for abolishing ICE, an agency that has lost the trust of the communities it operates in. Pushing to ban federal agents from wearing masks and rein in their out-of-control behavior as a cosponsor of the No Secret Police Act.”
“Ending cooperation between local police and ICE to foster a safe environment for immigrant communities to report crimes.”
“Ban federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks or tactical military gear during routine law enforcement activities”
“We need to end programs like 287(g) that deputize local law enforcement as federal immigration agents. These partnerships undermine community trust, divert local resources, and create fear that makes neighborhoods less safe.”
“Anyone who has violently and egregiously violated the law as an ICE agent underneath this administration should be charged and prosecuted. Lastly, we should bar any federal entity from obscuring their identity from the people they serve.”
“Debbie is fighting to make serious reforms that ensure ICE follows the same rules as other law enforcement agencies, like no masks, mandatory body cameras.”
“Overhaul and reform ICE to ensure the agency and its officers follow constitutional due process protections, require clear identification and ban the use of facemasks. End the unaccountable violence and chaos in our communities.”
“Invest in modern technology and infrastructure Make use of our existing border agents, judges, and asylum officers to process cases quickly AT THE BORDER, not terrorizing the people of our communities.”
“End the collaboration between local police and ICE and CBP through programs like 287g and Operation Stonegarden.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- immigration checkpoints far from any border, and who they stop
Detention & For-Profit Facilities
“Ban private detention centers, where human rights abuses are far more prevalent than public facilities, and end profiteering in the detention of human beings”
“I sponsored an asylum seeker through months of inhumane ICE detention. I'll support constituents through existing pathways to citizenship, protect those without status, hold ICE accountable, and end the $200/night detention system that cost at least 31 lives in 2025.”
“Ensure Due Process Protections Eliminate detention quotas which treat individuals as profit centers.”
“Improving conditions and accountability in ICE detention by establishing strong national standards, conducting in-person inspections and oversight, calling for a ban on the use of solitary confinement, and working to end inhumane conditions in immigration detention facilities.”
“Introduced the Ban Warehouse Detention Act to end the Trump administration’s expansion of immigrant detention and prohibit the use of warehouses for immigrant detention. Also introduced the Family Unity Act to protect immigrant families by ensuring due process in certain immigration removal proceedings.”
“The bill creates at least three mass concentration “campuses” where anyone seeking asylum must be detained for months on end. (Section 1501) CBP has full power in running these camps, with ICE as second in command. (Sec 1501.k.1) CBP’s parent department, DHS, has exclusive oversight authority. (Sec. 1501.k.2.c) They themselves decide if they are providing “sufficient” medical care, hygiene products, legal access, living space, and more.”
“End the cruel deportation of immigrants to dangerous and inhumane places like the CECOT gulag in El Salvador, closing these horrible facilities or ending our participation in them, and secure the release of all migrants who were unjustly deported and detained without due process”
“Private Prisons have been a human rights nightmare, and ICE detention centers are America's concentration camps. Pass legislation permanently banning federal private prisons, closing Washington's ICE/GEO Tacoma Detention Center, releasing all detainees and creating a reparations fund.”
“Continue to conduct unannounced oversight visits at Immigration enforcement facilities”
“This administration has detained countless people, most with no criminal background, and subjected them to crowded, inhumane conditions. It has unconstitutionally denied the due process that belongs to every person on American soil.”
“Fight to ensure that detention facilities provide proper access to medical care and legal counsel, and that the civil and human rights of all detainees are upheld. Work with colleagues to pass legislation that protects and codifies DACA, ends child detention, and establishes a clear pathway to citizenship for hardworking, law-abiding immigrants.”
“We cannot fix a system that was built to prioritize volume, detention, and deterrence over humanity simply by making minor adjustments.”
“Dismantle ICE and end for-profit detention”
“We need long-term investment in our immigration justice system to insure humane conditions in detention centers as well as timely hearings. A cooperative approach should be taken with our allies toward finding lasting solutions.”
“I want to be as clear as humanly possible: NO mass deportations, NO internment camps for immigrants, and NO backtracking on the best part of the American Experiment .”
“Ending all contracts between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and private, for-profit corporations.”
“Pass executive actions that also close the vast and cruel web of detention camps and not replace it with a practice of tagging people.”
“We can and must end the bureaucracy that makes immigrating to this country an impossible task for millions by reforming our asylum process, expanding our refugee programs, ending mass deportations, and banning private immigration detention centers that lock immigrants up for profit.”
Due Process / Immigration Courts
“Vote for the Restoring Access to Detainees Act to ensure noncitizens who are detained have due process and can contact lawyers and families.”
“Roughly three hundred fifty thousand Haitian nationals held Temporary Protected Status because it is not safe to send them back to a country still in crisis. They followed every rule this country asked of them.”
“drastically curtail or repeal the various laws that the Administration is currently invoking in asserting its right to deport noncitizens, such as the Alien Enemies Act”
“Right now, our court systems are overwhelmed, and when we have people showing up and doing the work to adhere to our immigration processes and then being disappeared from those court dates, it has a chilling effect.”
“prohibits the denial of benefits and protections under immigration laws based on a cannabis-related event”
“The majority of immigration problems in the country comes from a lack of legal capacity to handle large numbers. We need more judges and lawyers, not more masked thugs, in order to solve the process. Even if you agree with ICE's mission, its badly structured as an organization. Restructuring our immigration agencies is necessary to actually solve our immigration problems.”
“Increase funding for processing centers and enact statute-enforced timelines for asylum claims to ensure cases are resolved safely and expediently, ending the humanitarian crises caused by administrative backlogs, and Ensure that all individuals, including undocumented immigrants, can access the legal system, report crimes, and utilize public services without fear.”
“Provide reparations to immigrants who were injured and seriously harmed through grave violations of human rights, violence, or detention in dangerous places and facilities during Trump's authoritarian mass deportation campaign”
“Pass the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act to guarantee legal representation for unaccompanied children and expand access to counsel for all individuals in removal proceedings.”
“ICE is routinely violating the constitutional rights of citizens, legal residents, and undocumented immigrants alike, arresting without warrants, denying counsel, and detaining tens of thousands indefinitely far from family or legal support. These are constitutional violations that cannot be tolerated.”
“We should eliminate the one-year deadline for filing an asylum application and expand who is qualified for "derivative" asylum status to include the children of the spouse in addition to the grandchildren of the individual given asylum.”
“Reform the Temporary Protected Status program to insulate it from politically-motivated reversals. TPS status should be based on the stability and security of a refugee's home country not the whims of political appointees.”
“Evidence consistently shows that individuals comply with immigration proceedings at high rates when they have access to legal support and stable housing alternatives. Rebuilding from the ground up means designing a system where enforcement is targeted, proportionate, and transparent, not indiscriminate or profit-driven.”
“Protect immigrant survivors of human trafficking and violent crime by working to lift the federal caps on U-visas (violent crime victims) and T-visas (human trafficking victims), ensuring victims can safely report abuse and cooperate with law enforcement without fear of deportation”
“In the new concentration camps, “a panel of two asylum officers” are give the power to deny any asylum case, instead of an immigration court. Appeals are also handled by two agents. (Section 1502) The bill creates a two month timeline, but with current backlog in immigrations courts being approximate 3.5 years ( source ), this two-agent system is essentially a death sentence to due process for legitimate asylum seekers.”
“There is chaos at the border because we've systematically defunded legal pathways, overwhelmed ports of entry, and turned a processing problem into an enforcement crisis.”
“Invest in ports of entry infrastructure so asylum seekers can be processed legally, efficiently, and with dignity. Restore eliminated legal entry pathways, including CBP One and humanitarian parole.”
“Congressman Carson will not let up until every wrongfully-deported individual – who have not committed any crimes – are returned to their families.”
“Maria will fight for significant new investment in immigration courts — more judges, more staff, more resources — so that cases are decided fairly and promptly.”
“We should be cracking down on the cartels, not our communities. We should be deporting gang members, not small business owners. We should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies.”
“The legal framework for immigration hasn't changed since 1990”
“Maria will fight to end warrantless detentions, ensure access to legal counsel, and hold ICE accountable for civil rights violations. No more disappearing people into detention without due process of law.”
“Even before ICE deportations escalated nationwide, she funded the first-ever Immigrant & Refugee Coordinator position at the County level.”
“Elijah demands the immediate and full reinstatement of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants and Venezuelans.”
“Millions of cases are stuck in legal limbo for 5 years because immigration courts are underfunded. I've seen the flowchart for immigrating to the United States, and it doesn't make any sense. We need to unravel our overly complex system and replace it with a transparent pathway.”
“We need to hire more immigration judges, create clear timelines for citizenship, and provide universal legal representation in removal proceedings. I would propose shifting the budget allocated to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to immigration reform.”
“We must rapidly fund the staff needed to process citizenship requests, end the immigration court backlog, and treat migrants who are seeking a better life here with the respect they deserve.”
“eliminate the case backlog in immigration court”
“He'll also fight to increase funding for processing asylum applications so the system works faster and more fairly.”
“modernized and humane asylum processes with fair adjudication timelines”
“We must rethink enforcement practices so that immigration authorities are focused on serious threats rather than creating fear within communities”
“Allocate $865 million to clear immigration application backlogs that delay work permits, naturalization, and other immigration applications, hindering immigrants' integration and economic contributions.”
— UnidosUS
“Commit to providing guaranteed counsel for all while making immigration courts independent and free of political manipulation.”
“Constitutional protections must apply equally to all, but recent months have seen executive overreach threatening the rights of immigrant communities, international students, and others. OCA will fight to ensure that fundamental rights such as citizenship, due process, free speech, and privacy are protected.”
“For too long, Congress has funded this bloated, unnecessary, and inhumane immigration enforcement regime.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the years-long wait to bring a spouse, parent or child to the United States
Pathway to Citizenship
“As Ronald Reagan once said, "I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally."”
“in 2023, I led the introduction of the Dignity Act, the only bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill in over a decade ... The Dignity Act creates a pathway to legal status for long-term undocumented immigrants, protects Dreamers, expands legal pathways for workers and families, and improves how we process asylum claims.”
“remove barriers to social service programs (including free school meals, Social Security, and Medicaid) for undocumented immigrants and permanent residents.”
“America must restore/preserve legal pathways for permanent legal status and/or citizenship. Immigrants have always been a key part of America's story, and Virginia relies on them in particular for elder care and manual labor in agriculture and construction. And yet it has been 40 years since Congress passed significant immigration reform.”
“There are 11 million undocumented immigrants living in our country who work in a variety of industries that boost our economy. They pay sales taxes, many also pay income taxes. Estimates show that undocumented immigrants pay about $7 billion into Social Security.”
“She will work to create a fair and humane immigration system that would disentangle the criminal system from the immigration system and expand legal pathways to work authorization and citizenship.”
“Creates a rigorous earned pathway to legal status for individuals present 5+ years — requires back taxes, background check, and demonstrated community ties. This is not amnesty. It asks for time, taxes, character, and commitment”
“It is a fight that brings about an order for mass amnesty. One that leads directly into a strong and dynamic immigration system as we transform our undocumented neighbors into documented ones.”
“comprehensive, bipartisan, and humane immigration reform that pairs an orderly and clear pathway to citizenship for longtime immigrants with increased support for immigration judges and sensible reforms.”
“Democrats haven’t had a plan for immigration since 1990 — that’s 36 years of Republicans setting the tone and making the rules on this vital system. They have taken this opportunity to militarize enforcement and criminalize immigration.”
“Invest in Our Workforce: Pass legislation that streamlines and expedites paths to citizenship, empowers employers to hire asylum seekers and establishes an amnesty program for existing, law-abiding undocumented immigrants, similar to what was implemented under President Reagan in 1986.”
“a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented people in the U.S.”
“The system is broken, and cruelty is not a plan. Carleigh will fight for a real immigration system: a fair path to citizenship for people who have built their lives here, a functioning asylum and refugee process, and border security rooted in competence and humanity, not chaos and fear.”
“Updating existing laws to ensure family unity and economic stability, including the immigrant registry, the way undocumented immigrants for the last 100 years have secured lawful status based on their long-standing presence in the United States and Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows undocumented immigrants to adjust status through family-based immigration.”
— UnidosUS
“Fight for citizenship pathways for all undocumented people without harmful provisions and prohibitive and criminalizing requirements.”
“We must protect the 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country from deportation and provide them a pathway to citizenship.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the annual cap on refugee admissions — who sets it, and what it should be
- enforcement aimed at workplaces: the federal database employers must check before hiring, and what a raid does to the workers rather than the owner
- people living here legally for decades on a status renewed every 18 months, with no way to convert it into permanent residence
The Visa System, Backlogs & Legal Immigration
“Eliminate per-country visa caps for employment-based categories — end the 80-year wait for Indian H-1B holders who followed every rule.”
“Increase visas for family immigration categories that are severely backlogged. Allow longtime residents who are eligible to immigrate to adjust their status in the United States without being required to leave the country.”
“Immigration is really an economic issue. The solution is clear: match immigration with legal hiring needs. We need workers, and immigrants need jobs. Illegal hiring drives undocumented immigration. Rather than design a lawful, workable system, we spend billions on policies that chase symptoms rather than fix the cause.”
“The backlog of pending immigration cases has reached historic highs with over 11.6 million cases as of 2025. This is a system designed to fail. Citizenship increases wages, tax contributions, civic participation, and entrepreneurship.”
“As your Congresswoman, I will introduce legislation to remove all caps on refugee resettlement in the United States and welcome in as many refugees as possible, as well as increase funding to support the communities they’re in.”
“Criminal liability for executives who knowingly and systematically exploit undocumented workers — up to 10 years imprisonment, plus full disgorgement of ... Creates a rigorous earned pathway to legal status for individuals present 5+ years”
“The villain in the American immigration crisis is not the undocumented worker. The villain is the corporation that recruited them, transported them, housed them in substandard conditions, paid them below minimum wage, and called federal authorities when they complained.”
“Right now, the administration's mass deportation campaign is causing labor shortages in food production — driving up grocery prices for every family in every county in our district. Rounding up hardworking people doesn't make America safer. It makes your groceries more expensive and leaves crops to rot in the fields.”
“Maria supports expanding and modernizing legal visa pathways for essential workers — including seasonal agricultural workers, skilled tradespeople, and healthcare professionals — so that businesses can meet their workforce needs lawfully and workers have legal protections.”
“As part of this overhaul, we must prioritize and streamline visas for high-demand professionals such as doctors and nurses who are urgently needed in our hospitals and underserved rural clinics.”
“We need to invest in border security, increase the number of immigration judges to deal with the massive backlog of cases, and create a path to citizenship for hard working, taxpaying people in this country.”
“Create new legal pathways and processes for poor and working class immigrants and economic refugees to come to our nation and help strengthen our communities, with new programs to support successful integration and connection in their new homes”
“We should restore the efficient issuance of visas for those who qualify so that legal immigration pathways function as intended”
Dreamers, DACA & Temporary Protected Status
“A comprehensive immigration bill should also include: (a) protection and an eventual path to citizenship for “Dreamers” covered by the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act and young undocumented immigrants who received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protection; (b) preservation of the Temporary Protected Status program for individuals and their families from designated countries afflicted by armed conflict, environmental disaster, epidemic or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.”
“John Paul would support the DREAM Act, which he worked on as a congressional fellow many years ago. It would provide a pathway for the DACA kids, then he would push for citizenship for their parents.”
“Every year, Dreamers contribute millions of dollars in taxes to America's social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.”
“End ICE raids and abductions, reinstate DACA, grant DREAMers immediate legal status, and create a real pathway for immigrant families.”
“Protect and Expand DACA and TPS to provide immediate safety, work authorization, and stability for our Dreamers and the local Haitian, Latino, and other immigrant communities that keep our communities strong”
“A pathway for DACA recipients, TPS holders, and essential workers who have long contributed to our economy and communities Protections against arbitrary deportations and the permanent separation of families Legislative solutions that end reliance on outdated and punitive immigration quotas”
“Aisha supports an immediate pathway to citizenship for DREAMERS and other undocumented immigrants, along with a comprehensive modernization of our legal immigration system. Reducing visa backlogs, updating quotas, and streamlining processing will keep families together and ensure our employers have the skilled workforce they need to thrive.”
“Make immigration dignified again Path to citizenship for Dreamers and DACA recipients. Reinforce birthright citizenship. Welcome asylum seekers and refugees. Grant work permits immediately. Streamline licensing for internationally credentialed professionals — nearly one in three American doctors was born outside the US, and a projected shortage of 124,000 physicians by 2034 is not the moment to block qualified people from practicing.”
“Passing the American Dream and Promise Act or similar legislation to provide a path to citizenship to Dreamers, 530,000 of whom are at risk of losing DACA status as litigation against the program continues and Temporary Protective Status (TPS) holders, some who have lived in the United States for decades.”
— UnidosUS
“Pass immediate executive actions to expand DACA and other policies like TPS, parole, and DED to protect people from deportation.”
“Many TPS holders have called America home for decades and are integral members of our communities, and we support calls for Congress to pass legislation that offers TPS recipients a pathway to citizenship.”
Criminal Justice
Root-Causes / Anti-Incarceration Framing
“half back to the general fund and to victim restitution and the rest toward improving supervision, crime prevention, and community-intervention initiatives”
“Community Violence Intervention: Invest in evidence-based programs that prevent violence before it occurs, including community mediation and support services.”
“Texas has more prisoners than any other state with an incarceration rate of 443 inmates per 100k people (national average is 350 per 100k). Yet the top legal official in Texas has been under felony indictment for eight years and has not set foot in court. This does not demonstrate equality or justice.”
“The money for prevention loses to the money for policing. Every time. Most public-safety money flows to police departments. When money gets tight, cities cut prevention first.”
“A politician who gets called "soft on crime" pays a real price. A politician who quietly lets a prevention program die usually doesn't. So they make the safe choice, even when it's the wrong one.”
“Limit exploitative fees, including excessive charges for inmate phone services, so families are not financially burdened by incarceration. Reframe substance use as a public health issue, expanding access to drug courts, treatment, and support rather than incarceration.”
“Economically, the United States annually spends more on prisons than it does on schools — an allocation of resources that only causes the school-to-prison pipeline to strengthen, as more students are left behind and less equipped to achieve economic security through traditional education or careers.”
“End war on drugs – drug use is a mental health issue. Legalize marijuana for recreational use, clear convictions.”
“Real public safety means investing in mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and protections for survivors of domestic violence—not just tougher sentences.”
“Too many people experiencing mental health and substance abuse crises are met with handcuffs instead of care. Jail is not treatment, and punishment is not prevention.”
“Real public safety isn't just about the moment a crime happens. It's about everything upstream of it including mental health care, youth programs, quality and stability in our schools, strong public infrastructure, economic opportunity, and law enforcement that has the staffing and training to do its job well. Cutting those investments doesn't make us safer. It just moves the cost somewhere else, usually onto emergency rooms and jails.”
“Safety is a public health emergency. Every person deserves to feel safe in our community. We need care, not criminalization.”
“Real safety comes from strong communities, not over-policing or over-prosecuting. We must reduce violence by investing in housing, education, good jobs, and mental health care – the true foundations of stability.”
Policing & Qualified Immunity
“Co-sponsors and champions federal legislation to completely abolish the judicial doctrine of qualified immunity for all”
“End qualified immunity through the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to restore accountability for use of force.”
“As a State Senator, I passed bills making Organized Retail Theft a crime, deepfakes and pornographic images of children illegal, and officers must show their face, and ensure no one is above the law.”
“Aswar strongly supports the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, ending qualified immunity, and federal funding for co-responder models that pair social workers with police.”
“I'll push for a national standard for police accountability and ensure all correctional officers wear body cameras at all times, so our systems are transparent and accountable to the communities they serve.”
“I helped write the People's Response Act. This legislation would help transform how we keep communities safe, creating a new public safety division inside the Department of Health and Human Services.”
“I will work to end qualified immunity so that no public official is above the law, require warrants for all government surveillance, and permanently end the abusive practice of civil asset forfeiture that lets police seize property without due process.”
“This initiative, the first for a U.S. transit agency, in addition to its sworn officers, deploys non-sworn Transit Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists to provide welfare checks, handle Code of Conduct violations, and de-escalate situations. The PPCEB’s efforts have freed up sworn officers to respond to emergency calls faster—resulting in one of the region's fastest response times for tier 1 emergency calls, averaging just over 4 minutes.”
“Establish a US Commission on Criminal Justice, conducting a national review and issuing recommendations for systemic reform. Create a federally-mandated database of police shootings”
“Prevent military-style equipment purchases by local police departments with federal funding. Create and maintain a national database of police abuse reports and statistics. End the abuse of “qualified immunity” protections by law enforcement officials. Require police departments to deploy trained Crisis Counselors for non-violent situations .”
“Abolish qualified immunity for law enforcement. Require body cameras for any law enforcement agency receiving federal funds. Demilitarize local police departments and oppose federal programs that transfer military equipment to local police.”
“Support both our law enforcement and those suffering mental health crises: Incentivize states to create dedicated in-house behavioral health response program teams that empower officers to fight crime and allow clinicians to provide necessary emergency services that protect the public.”
“Real justice means no one is above the law — not presidents, not billionaires, not cops.”
“end mass incarceration and detention, address racist policing and surveillance”
“We need real accountability for government abuses. This means ending qualified immunity and enabling lawsuits whenever a government official violates any person's Constitutional rights.”
“Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor.”
“Law enforcement should not be a catch-all for all of society’s problems.”
“Black people are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites. ... Black men are five times more likely to be stopped without just cause than a white person. ... We provided policy recommendations to the Biden Administration to eliminate race-based discrimination in policing, courts, and incarceration. Accelerate compassionate release in federal prisons ... Address racial violence by police and impose national accountability standards ... Boldly and urgently transform the federal judiciary ... Reform federal prosecutorial standards to eliminate racial disparities”
— NAACP
“In following the lead of Black-led movements like the Movement for Black Lives, we believe that we must divest from brutally violent and discriminatory policing”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- an officer fired for misconduct can be hired by the next department over — taking the license away, the way a doctor loses theirs
Sentencing / Mandatory Minimums
“That means eliminating cash bail because our current system, which imprisons people based on their ability to pay, is a barbaric relic that punishes the poor for their poverty.”
“We must also transform our racist and broken criminal justice system by eliminating cash bail, ending mandatory minimum sentencing, and reinstating the federal system of parole.”
“Allow public defenders to represent individuals in civil cases, such as eviction cases”
“She will support legislation to prohibit the use of the death penalty at the federal level and require re-sentencing of those currently on death row.”
“Support the Juvenile Justice Reform Act , including amendments to raise the age of adult prosecution to 18 and end federal juvenile life without parole sentences.”
“62% of those who are held in jails, away from their loved ones and community, are only there because they can’t afford the tens of thousands of dollars that our cash bail system requires in order for their freedom — even though they have not yet been found to have committed any crime.”
“Incentivize states that invest in prison work programs that provide prisoners with marketable skills & training that support employment after release and reduce recidivism, AND introduce legislation to abolish the 13th Amendment's exception clause.”
“A restraining order should mean something, and people who violate them should face tougher penalties.”
“Jackson has called for sweeping reforms, such as an end to qualified immunity for police officers, increased reentry programs for formerly incarcerated individuals, and alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders.”
“Sentencing Reform: Address mandatory minimum sentences that have contributed to mass incarceration without improving public safety.”
“Ending cash bail for nonviolent offenses so people aren't jailed simply because they're poor.”
“Introduced the Dismantle Mass Incarceration for Public Health Act , which would require the release of many eligible incarcerated people during the pandemic and for a year afterward —because COVID-19 should not be a death sentence for anyone.”
“Address mass incarceration, promote alternatives to incarceration, invest in rehabilitation programs, and prioritize restorative justice.”
“We should not be jailing people simply because they are poor”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- shortening sentences for a whole category of case at once — everyone still serving under a law since repealed — instead of one plea at a time
Private Prisons
“Private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group make billions by warehousing human beings. They cut corners on food, medical care, and staffing to maximize profits.”
“The United States prison population has exploded over the last few decades. This country has many times the incarceration rates of other countries, and the African American rate is more than five times that of white Americans. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 is at least one bill that appears to enjoy a considerable degree of bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. On a related matter, this country also need to ban private, for-profit prisons; they are more expensive, more dangerous and less effective in terms of rehabilitation than comparable public institutions.”
“Private prison companies and their lobbyists have been at the forefront of pushing for "reform" that simply means giving them money to house our inmates versus keeping it in the public trust. They fight to keep our inmates in poor condition, uneducated and without services that can help them turn their lives around.”
“I will support all policies that ensure our prisons are publicly funded – safe for inmates and guards – and include training programs, social service programs and mental health programs to give our released inmates the best possible outcome once they come back into our communities.”
“The 13th amendment legalized slavery for incarcerated people, which has incentivized the disproportionate incarceration of black and brown Americans.”
“We have 5% of the world's population but 25% of its prisoners. And corporations are getting rich off this human suffering, lobbying for harsher sentences and more incarceration to fill their beds and boost their profits.”
“There’s a reason the first corporation to max out donations to Donald Trump’s campaign was GEO Group , one of the largest private prison corporations in the United States — the same corporation that ICE just awarded a $1 billion contract .”
“Current US prison labor programs use incarcerated workers to subsidize our bloated prison system. The incarcerated produce at $2 billion+ in goods annually, yet are paid pennies (if anything) for their labor, due to the “exception clause” of the 13th Amendment, which bars slavery except for people who have been convicted of crimes.”
“Abolish for-profit prison companies. The privatization of human incarceration is a matter I oppose as a fundamental human rights issue.”
“Ending private prisons and for-profit detention centers that profit from incarceration instead of reducing it.”
“End for-profit prisons and detention centers Human beings are not a revenue stream.”
“Ban private prison contracts at the federal and state levels, removing profit incentives from incarceration. Reinstate parole and strengthen early release programs, expand good time credit, and incentivize recidivism reduction programs.”
Drug Policy / Cannabis
“Decriminalizing narcotics opens them up to more rigorous study and potential new avenues for treatment”
“Casar ended all arrests and citations for personal marijuana use in Austin and helped support policies that reduced these arrests in San Antonio and San Marcos.”
“Legalize and fund programs like syringe exchanges, fentanyl test strips, and supervised consumption sites.”
“While we have the science to heal trauma, we lack the laws to allow it. Laura L. Dunn's campaign proposes a federal pivot: moving away from the thoughtless and racially discriminatory "War on Drugs" to the "Right to Heal."”
“Legalization of marijuana delivers economic, criminal-justice, and public-health benefits. It generates tax revenue and reduces spending tied to arrests and incarceration for non-violent offenses, which have historically targeted minorities.”
“Decriminalize cannabis sales and possession at the federal level. Expunge misdemeanor cannabis conviction records. Let states set and manage their own cannabis tax structures. Prioritize Wisconsin farmers and local businesses over outside investors. Expand hemp farming as an agricultural and economic opportunity.”
“Drug use is a public health crisis, not a criminal justice issue. All non-violent drug offenders should be pardoned and released from jails.”
“He will advocate for the removal of Cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, where it is currently listed in the same schedule as far more dangerous substances like heroin and cocaine.”
“Ensure that revenue from legal cannabis is reinvested in communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs. Decriminalize all drugs, legalize some. Instead of investing in mass Incarceration, we need to invest in our country’s future. End private/for-profit prisons Ensure the legalized cannabis industry does not turn into the new big tobacco”
“Addiction is not conquered through incarceration: it requires accessible treatment and rehabilitation options. Not only are offenders assigned to drug court 2/3 less likely to be re-arrested, drug court system costs on average 80-90% less to taxpayers than incarceration. Pass legislation to increase funding to states for drug court programs with proven success rates.”
“Legalize and deschedule marijuana, commuting or expunging federal convictions related to marijuana possession, while reducing incarceration and allowing states to regulate responsibly.”
“We support full federal legalization, expunging past convictions, and reinvesting tax revenue into education, infrastructure, and addiction treatment. Our policy ensures legalization benefits communities, not just corporations.”
“Treat drug addiction and mental illness as health issues, not crimes. End qualified immunity and empower civilian oversight bodies with real authority over the police.”
Reentry & Life After Conviction
“Casar passed Texas' first Fair Chance Hiring policy, which is an anti-discrimination policy that requires big employers to give people who have been previously incarcerated a fair chance at a job interview.”
“Reentry support and job training Real job training, placement support, and a clear path to dignified employment after incarceration. A criminal record should not be a life sentence of economic exclusion.”
“early release can be earned at a 17% reduction in their sentence through educational, vo-tech, drug and alcohol, or mental health programs”
“He passed legislation to assist returning citizens as they reintegrate into their communities by pausing any outstanding fees, fines, or taxes for a year”
“Jillian supports "clean slate" legislation, like that enacted in Connecticut, to automatically seal arrest and conviction records under certain circumstances.”
“She will champion guaranteed Department of Rehabilitation funding for higher degrees , ensuring that formerly incarcerated individuals have access to college as a tool for personal transformation and reentry. This approach not only reduces recidivism but also strengthens communities by investing in people’s potential, not their punishment.”
“I'll support substantial criminal justice & prison reform, including reduced sentencing, humane conditions, reintegration programs”
“focusing on fairness, reducing incarceration, and creating real paths to rebuild a life”
“In Congress, Christian will fight to end for-profit prisons and expand job training and reentry programs.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- counting incarcerated people as residents of home, not of the prison — where they are counted decides which district gets the seat and the funding
Civil Rights
Racial Justice
“And I will hold the state accountable. The Biden administration documented that Florida underfunded FAMU by nearly two billion dollars compared to the state's other land-grant university over three decades. The gap was identified. Now the work is making sure Florida actually closes it and makes Florida A&M whole.”
“Establish a National Reparations Commission (NRC) that begins working to close the racial wealth gap and invest in communities that have been systematically denied opportunity.”
“I am honored to join Senator Booker and Congresswoman Crockett in introducing a resolution to establish a U.S. Commission on truth, racial healing, and transformation... This resolution is a necessary first step to recognize and root out the structural inequalities and systemic racism that continue to impact Black communities.”
“Introduced the Justice for All Act , historic legislation that pushes back against decades of conservative court rulings to restore the original intent of our civil rights laws. It would combat intentional and unintentional discrimination against people based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, or national origin—and it would clarify the definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity, sex stereotypes, or any sex-related traits.”
“I would write the civil rights laws to cover automated decisions directly, across the places where they decide a person's life: jobs, housing, loans, insurance, health care, education, government benefits, and the criminal justice system. Building a system on biased data and then pointing to the computer should be no defense.”
“Bring a restorative justice lens to housing assistance by advocating for direct support to those impacted by redlining.”
“These structural choices, not individual failings, drive disparities in home ownership, housing quality and neighborhood resources.”
“Anti-racism must be an explicit federal policy priority because racial inequality in the United States is not accidental or isolated. It is the direct result of decades of deliberate decisions that entrenched white supremacy into our laws, institutions, and economic systems.”
“We need leadership that is committed to the work of ending generational poverty and uprooting structural racism, delivering on system changing policies like Medicare for All, Universal Basic Income, Reparations, and Universal Childcare.”
“Invest in wealth-building opportunities, including home ownership, small business development, and student debt relief.”
“For far too long, our country has ignored the historic, systematic racism that has plagued our nation that has led to the injustice we see within our communities today. The recent efforts to erase Black history from our schools, overturn criminal justice and policing reforms, and eliminate policies that protect our constituents from discrimination precisely demonstrates why this legislation is vital. If we are to heal and build on progress towards equality, then we must acknowledge our past, and this bill helps ensure we do just that.”
“AAIF supports the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would provide incentives for local governments to report hate crimes.”
“White families typically make 10 times that of Black families, one of many financial gaps that come from decades of discriminatory policies and nearly three centuries of slavery... Closing the revenue gap between Black and white businesses would generate an additional $290 billion for the U.S. economy... We advance policy, practice, and systems change to close the racial wealth gap.”
— NAACP
“America must reconcile with our past by creating a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission to lead our nation through a process that investigates the generational harms”
“THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urges federal, state, and local policymakers to implement and fully fund evidence-based restorative practices”
— NAACP
“Countering Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement We aim to close loopholes in DOJ and DHS guidelines that permit racial and religious biases within our law enforcement system”
“End the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Reinforce anti-discrimination laws. Honor all treaties and tribal sovereignty. Enact reparations and massively invest in good jobs, quality housing and infrastructure in neglected minority communities.”
“Supporting a truth commission and reparations to address and repair the continued effects of slavery and discrimination. ... Transforming our budgets and priorities to reinvest in Black, Brown, and indigenous communities and reimagine the role of institutions that exacerbate injustice and inequality.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- land passed down through generations without a will, leaving dozens of heirs and no clear owner — one reason Black families lost most of their farmland
- funding for historically Black colleges, and for the campuses that serve mostly students of color
- the census undercount, and the money and seats a community loses by it
- anti-Asian hate crimes, and government services offered in the languages people actually speak
- antisemitism and anti-Muslim discrimination in this country
Reparations
“Our rights are being stripped away and privatized. ... We must protect and uphold our rights ... Lineage-Based Reparations for Black American Freedmen”
“Fight to secure robust funding, aiming for at least $14 trillion spread over 20 years, to be invested in education, affordable housing, healthcare, economic development, and programs that expand generational wealth within Black communities.”
“The NRC, appointed by Congress and composed primarily of Black descendants of enslaved people, Black scholars and leaders will be tasked with designing and overseeing the fair distribution of reparations funds.”
“Reparations A debt long overdue. Reparations for slavery to Black Americans — for centuries of stolen labor, stolen wealth, and the inequalities that compounded ever since. Reparations for genocide and land theft to Indigenous Americans — for the deliberate destruction of nations and futures. This country cannot stand for justice while refusing to reckon with its foundational crimes. Reparations are not charity. They are accountability.”
“This resolution makes it clear that the federal government has a moral and legal duty to repair the harm from slavery, Jim Crow, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, lynchings, and race massacres.”
“I strongly support H.R. 40 – Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans , which establishes a commission to: Exclusively study the legacy of U.S. chattel slavery and its intergenerational effects on descendants. Develop proposals tailored to reparations for descendants of U.S. chattel slavery, including direct financial payments, targeted community investments, and educational and health initiatives.”
“Reparations must go beyond direct payments. I will advocate for community-based economic investments that target neighborhoods and families descended from U.S. chattel slavery: Homeownership programs to correct the historic exclusion of Black families from wealth-building opportunities through property ownership. Business grants and entrepreneurship support for descendants of U.S. chattel slavery to encourage generational wealth creation and local economic development.”
“African American families were able to obtain land as promised to the American enslaved of 40 acres and a mule. Due to white supremacy and an unjust American system that allowed land to be robbed. The NAACP demands the land unlawfully stolen be deeded back to those families at today's value of the land and/or the land/property itself... the NAACP demands the 117th U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden utilize all available procedural options to immediately establish a commission to study and recommend a comprehensive program of compensatory reparations policies for Black American descendants of persons enslaved in the U.S. for harms originating in chattel slavery and ongoing through multifaceted institutional and structural forms of anti-Black racism and discrimination.”
— NAACP
“Black and brown people DESERVE economic justice – restitution for past wrongs, and the support necessary to compete on the same level as all other races.”
Tribal Sovereignty & Indigenous Rights
“Tribal Nations are sovereign governments, not stakeholders to be consulted after decisions have already been made. The federal government has a responsibility to honor treaty obligations, respect Tribal sovereignty, and engage Tribal Nations as partners in policymaking.”
“Aswar strongly supports the full restoration of Tribal Sovereignty and the strict federal honoring of all treaty obligations. This includes a "Seat at the Table" mandate for any federal projects affecting indigenous lands, waters, or sacred sites, and a commitment to closing the funding gap for Indian Country healthcare, education, and infrastructure.”
“As a citizen of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Diop believes ... policy should be guided by stewardship. The Seven Generations principle teaches that decisions made today should account for their impact on future generations. That perspective is especially important when evaluating projects that could reshape local water resources, energy systems, and infrastructure for decades to come.”
“As your Congressman, I will work to make sure that no federal project proceeds without the free, prior, and informed consent of the relevant tribal community. I will also look to invest in community-led solutions, for example, funding to revive traditional water management and land stewardship practices.”
“Invests federal resources to end the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis”
“Universal healthcare means an empowered IHS to serve you and your family. I want tribes meaningfully connected into food production, transportation, and renewable energy!”
“Pays reparations to Native nations for past and current injustices”
“NCAI's legal and governance work is centered on defending tribal sovereignty, protecting the inherent rights of Native peoples, and expanding Native peoples' ability to exercise their own self-determination... NCAI's work in this area includes supporting litigation throughout the country, promoting Native nominees for judicial appointment, and scrutinizing the record of federal judicial nominees.”
“NCAI's many public safety and justice initiatives include advocacy for restored criminal jurisdiction, ending the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW), and supporting the survivors of domestic violence and abuse... NCAI advocates to strengthen tribal law enforcement, improve coordination between federal agencies working for and within Indian Country, and urge the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Interior (DOI), and all other federal agencies to live up to their trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations.”
“Advance Native Political Leadership (Advance) is the first and only national Native-led organization working to build an interconnected, research-informed approach to power building: leadership development, community and ecosystem investment, convening and relationship building, storytelling and creating impact. ... Our theory of change is ... Native Peoples lead, all communities thrive.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- returning federal land to tribes, and the slow process for putting land back into tribal hands
- the boarding schools that took Native children from their families, and a full federal accounting
Environmental Racism
“end water shutoffs, reconnect water services for people whose water access has been shut off”
“Our farmworkers are already 35% more likely to die from heat-related causes.”
“Archaic and racist zoning laws have placed landfills, industrial plants, and polluting facilities next to Black, Brown, and neglected communities, leading to higher rates of asthma, cancer, and chronic illness.”
“strengthen protections against environmental discrimination and allow affected communities to seek legal remedies when harmed”
“From 1946 to 1958, the US tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands. Generations later, Marshallese people are continuing to deal with the aftermath, including cancer and struggles with pregnancy complicated by radiation related birth defects. Living in the Marshall Islands offers a lesson that "half-life" is more than a scientific term, it is a metaphor for the ways reckless policymakers can rob generations of the right to a full and vibrant life.”
“It means strengthening air quality standards to account for the cumulative impact of multiple pollutants on vulnerable communities. After all, a child in Detroit breathing diesel exhaust, industrial particulates, and ozone simultaneously deserves a regulatory framework that reflects that reality.”
“she will work to guarantee new requirements for how Superfund sites are cleaned to ensure that climate change and impacts on vulnerable communities are considered, expand clean energy transition initiatives, and provide additional tax incentives for families to bring energy-efficient appliances into low and middle-income homes.”
“I will work to create a national task force of experts and community leaders dedicated to preventing lead exposure and reducing asthma triggers in schools and neighborhoods. Strong and swift investments in prevention, remediation, and community health programs can protect entire generations of children from lifelong damage.”
“Ensure health insurers cover care for pollution-related illnesses and advocate for remediation of Superfund and contaminated sites in disproportionately impacted communities.”
“Environmental injustice is not accidental — it is the result of policy choices.”
“Folks who were redlined into neighborhoods with high biohazards, communities dealing with fires at refineries, and people living in housing ill-equipped to deal with unhealthy air quality during wildfire season are still impacted and can't catch up.”
“One such bill is the Cumulative Impacts Act to protect frontline communities overburdened by air and water pollution .”
“But in too many Black and Brown neighborhoods, industrial plants, illegal dumpers, and landfills are allowed to pollute with impunity—often in plain sight.”
“The 37th district has always been plagued by environmental injustice, disproportionately exposed to hazards and lack of adequate environmental protection.”
“Environmental degradation isn't just a distant crisis, it's a daily reality in CA-34”
“40% for Frontlines At least 40% of decarbonizing investments—equating to at least $1.6 trillion over 4 years and $4 trillion over 10 years—must go directly to communities on the frontlines of pollution and historically excluded from investment.”
“For generations, discriminatory zoning, toxic industrial siting, and pollution from air, water, and soil have placed disproportionate burdens on Black neighborhoods... Making Polluters Pay: Holding corporations and industries financially responsible for the harms they cause. Ensure that polluter-pays mechanisms fund cleanup, equitable infrastructure, and community-led climate solutions worldwide.”
— NAACP
“Advancing a Future that Centers Climate Reparations: NAACP will continue to advocate domestically and globally for climate reparations, recovery, and resources that reflects a recognition of the decades of extraction and disinvestment that created the climate crisis due to wealthy fossil fuel company decisions.”
— NAACP
“In response, industry and its proponents have often said that these reports of health impacts are just a few isolated "anecdotes." But communities and individuals living with oil and gas development know that's not true—and in recent years, clear evidence has backed this up.”
“Black and brown people DESERVE environmental justice – for too long our communities have lived in the shadow of polluters, on top of toxic grounds, and our health has suffered for it.”
Gun Safety
“We should regulate firearm possession at least as much as we currently regulate motor vehicle possession.”
“Close the gun show and private sale loophole — universal background checks for every transfer, no exceptions.”
“Federal safe storage mandate — no accessible firearm in a home with children without a trigger lock or safe.”
“the Centers for Disease Control must be fully empowered and funded to research gun violence as the public health crisis it is.”
“As a survivor of a school shooting, I've seen firsthand what happens when guns end up in the hands of people who shouldn't have them. We need strong federal Red Flag laws that empower our courts to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who pose a danger to themselves or others.”
“I have introduced the AMMO Act with Senator Elizabeth Warren to require background checks for ammunition purchases.”
“Further Regulate Ghost Guns: Build on current federal regulation and close existing loopholes surrounding the pieces needed to construct ghost guns.”
“The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA)shields firearm manufacturers, distributors, and dealers from most civil liability lawsuits when their products are distributed unlawfully and used for criminal activity. It's time to repeal this law and allow victims to hold gun manufacturers and distributors accountable when it is shown they have acted with negligence.”
“I would propose a 4.5% additional excise tax for manufacturers of firearms to support a mental health and community trust fund. Half of the revenue collected would go toward a trust fund to aid mental health education and mental illness recovery services, and the other half would go toward community and educational investment to rebuild communities that have suffered from gun violence and steer youth away from violence.”
“To get assault rifles off our streets, I would propose a buyback program using the funds already allocated to the military's bloated weapons budget. Gun owners who currently own assault-style weapons would receive financial incentives to donate their weapons to be used or disposed of by the US military and government.”
“I've cared for children who survived shootings and met parents who didn't get to take their child home from the hospital. Those are stories you don't forget. We can respect the Second Amendment and still protect our kids. That means: Universal background checks, Banning weapons of war from our streets, Safe storage laws that prevent unintentional shootings and youth suicides”
“Establish universal background checks for gun sales, prioritize the prosecution of firearms traffickers, require firearms to be securely stored around children in the home, and raise the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles with certain military-style features like high-capacity magazines.”
“Pushing to use financial crime detection tools to identify suspicious purchasing patterns linked to mass shootings, helping law enforcement intervene earlier and stop tragedies before lives are lost.”
“Stopping untraceable "ghost guns" before they hit our streets by banning the online distribution of gun blueprints and closing a dangerous loophole that allows weapons to be 3D printed, sold, and carried without serial numbers or detection.”
“Keeping guns out of the hands of children by banning firearm marketing that targets minors and holding companies accountable for irresponsible practices.”
“Ensure that guns come with mandatory safety locks, storage requirements, and insurance, just like cars. Work to ensure that there is a renewal of gun ownership and required coursework, and mental health screenings.”
“We must continuously strengthen and fully fund the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), close loopholes that allow domestic abusers to access firearms, and provide robust, federally funded support systems and housing protections for survivors of domestic violence and assault.”
“Close the “Charleston loophole” to ensure officials have time to complete background checks. Invest in state Red Flag laws, which have proven effective in preventing firearm suicides and mass shootings.”
“We must reject dangerous right-wing “solutions” to this problem, like arming teachers or building prison-like schools in the name of security. We must address the root of the problem, which is guns themselves.”
“Firearm death rates have increased by 29% since 2015, with firearms now being the leading cause of death of children. Introduce legislation to restrict militarized police equipment, close gun background check loopholes, and restrict bulk gun purchases that have been proven to deter gun trafficking.”
“Marni wrote the first law in California banning the sale of untraceable ghost guns — and won her lawsuit when the gun lobby sued her.”
“I do not support attempts to limit arms for law-abiding citizens. However, I do support common-sense measures to keep weapons out of the hands of those who have demonstrated they are a danger to others.”
“The Safer Communities Act: The first major gun safety law in over thirty years.”
“Universal Background Checks: Ensure that every person who buys a gun, from a licensed or unlicensed seller, undergoes a background check.”
“She believes we must treat gun violence as a public health issue rooted in communities that have been underfunded and ignored for too long. ... She supports common-sense gun legislation like Ethan's Law and banning assault weapons”
“Gun manufacturers & sellers can be sued (no more PLCAA). Criminal and civil liability to anyone who illegally provides access to weapons or knowing they will hurt themselves or others.”
“Christian will fight to ban assault weapons, close background check loopholes, and limit high-capacity magazines. He also supports restarting the federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention and banning bump stocks.”
“we must implement a federal assault weapons ban modeled after Illinois’ assault weapons ban, enact comprehensive universal background checks, require waiting periods, institute mandatory gun safety training, close gun show and ghost gun loopholes, and prioritize victims of gun violence above all else.”
“The gun lobby has used the Second Amendment as a smokescreen to protect the interests of manufacturers who profit every time these guns are used in a mass shooting and subsequently featured in the news.”
“We must close loopholes, mandate violent history checks, pass red flag laws, and ban assault weapons.”
“Push for safe storage laws to protect children and prevent accidental shootings. Invest in community-based violence prevention programs that save lives and strengthen trust.”
LGBTQ Rights
“Ban conversion therapy for minors at the federal level — documented harm is not a protected practice.”
“Support the Do No Harm Act, which would restore the original intent of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, protecting religious freedom without causing harm to LGBTQ+ individuals and other minorities.”
“Ensure Gender Identity is Displayed on Passports: Since coming back into power, the Trump Administration has implemented a discriminatory passport policy: newly issued passports must bear the sex an individual was assigned at birth. This harmful policy forces transgender and intersex individuals to hold passports that do not reflect the way they identify and must be overturned.”
“Restore access to and funding for PrEP: The Trump Administration gutted funding for PrEP which is a direct attack on LGBTQ+ folks. PrEP is effective and saves lives. It's time we restore funding for programs that have been proven to work in the fight against HIV.”
“Pass the federal Equality Act to explicitly add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, and education nationwide”
“Jillian wants to improve tracking of anti-LGBTQ+ violence by standardizing the optional inclusion of sexuality and gender identity on crime reporting forms to better track the prevalence of violence. She also supports mandating hate crime-specific training, including gender and sexuality identity, for law enforcement services.”
“Jillian will champion efforts to restore Medicaid funding for gender affirming care and expand Medicaid family planning services to explicitly cover fertility care for those in the LGBTQ+ community.”
“Jillian wants to increase protections for LGBTQ+ seniors in long-term care settings. She wants to see facilities implement proactive cultural competency training, enforce strict anti-harassment policies, and respect residents' chosen identities, pronouns, and chosen family members, rather than assuming heteronormativity.”
“Secured an amendment in the LGTBQI+ Data Inclusion Act to protect identifiable information. In the midst of the GOP’s hateful war on LGBTQI+ Americans, this critical amendment would protect individuals’ privacy and secure demographic data as agencies collect information to better serve the LGBTQI+ community.”
“The LGBTQ+ Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2025 (H.R. 4197), introduced by Rep. Chris Pappas, would bar the use of a victim’s identity to excuse violence.”
“Transitioning from a world that devalues queer and trans people to one that supports queer and trans people to thrive will require affirmative investments. Queer and trans people - especially youth - are disproportionately likely to be unemployed and unhoused. We will immediately need inclusive supportive housing and income support programs to make sure people will make it to the new America we are building.”
“Biden's order was not a permanent fix for LGBTQ+ marriage rights. Pass a Constitutional Amendment protecting same-sex marriage.”
“Codifying marriage equality: legislating Obergefell”
“I will codify access to reproductive care and gender-affirming care, standing with women, gender minorities, and trans San Diegans”
“Codify anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ folks across employment, housing, healthcare, and education.”
“Trans Bill of Rights to provide comprehensive protections for transgender and nonbinary people.”
“Pass the Equality Act: Provide specific non-discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ people in employment, housing, credit, education, and public spaces and services.”
“Enact a total federal ban on conversion therapy, outlawing the fraudulent and deeply harmful practice”
“Expand access to health services and lift prohibitions keeping people on Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health programs from receiving gender-affirming care. Ban conversion therapy nationally and increase federal funding for LGBTQ+ youth housing and mental health services.”
“I'll speak out against any overturning of same-sex marriage and I'll ensure that the Respect for Marriage Act (so that all same-sex marriage is recognized in every state) is respected and recognized.”
“Protections that can be revoked by a signature were never secure. I will work to repair the damage and build a freer future.”
“This means passing the Equality Act, amending the Civil Rights Act to include gender and sexual orientation, and creating federal legislation that specifically protects gender affirming care for all trans Americans because individual states should not be able to ban life-saving medical care.”
“Stop the assault on our trans community: Pass EEO protected class legislation codifying full civil rights protections for transgender Americans, including overturning the ban on transgender service members, protecting transgender kids in schools and healthcare, and ensuring access to gender-conforming identity documents.”
“LGBTQIA+ rights are a matter of life and death. As a member of the queer community, I refuse to allow bigotry and hatred to govern our policy, at home or abroad.”
“Expand access to PEP, PrEP, and gender-affirming healthcare to ensure everyone has power over their own body. Invest in youth mental health to support our LGBTQ+ youth who are significantly more likely to struggle with mental health challenges amid the ongoing attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.”
“Every time they strip away the rights of one, they are testing how much freedom they can take from all. That is why the fight for queer liberation is a fight for humanity as whole.”
“SB 6081 creates a public records exemption for sex designation information—including historical changes—in state records such as vital records and Department of Licensing files. For Trans people, exposure of gender history is not abstract—it increases the risk of harassment, discrimination, and violence. This bill is about preventing harm before it happens and reinforcing Washington's commitment to equity, dignity, and personal safety for all.”
“Socialist feminism fights for queer liberation and the freedoms of all working class women. Stop gender violence and end policies that oppress bodily autonomy and intimate life, including patriarchal restrictions on abortion, childbirth and childraising, gender expression and transition, marriage, and divorce.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- HIV prevention: the daily pill that prevents infection, and the federal program that treats people who cannot pay
- shelter for LGBTQ+ young people whose families put them out
- decriminalizing sex work, and what that would change for the people doing it
Equal Rights Amendment
“Certify the ERA as the 28th Amendment — 38 states ratified it; the archivists' refusal is political, not constitutional.”
“Advocated for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment , which would expand access to equitable healthcare including reproductive care; protect LGBTQI+ people; and strengthen legal protections against pay discrimination, gender-based violence, and unequal treatment in education, employment, and health care.”
“Support the Equal Rights Amendment. Congress passed it in 1972, all 38 required states have ratified it, and it should already be the law of the land. Over 50 years later, an arbitrary deadline that Congress itself created remains the only obstacle. I will push to remove it.”
“Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and extend its protections to include gender identity and sexual orientation ... Pass the Equality Act to protect trans healthcare and youth”
“Jillian will push for federal legislation, such as an Equal Rights Amendment, to codify and preserve established protections under Title IX and other nondiscrimination precedents.”
“Close the Gender Wage Gap: We must pass federal pay equity laws and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It is long past time we recognize the economic value of caregiving and ensure women aren't penalized for balancing work and family.”
“Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment: Support constitutional protection guaranteeing equal rights regardless of sex, ending discrimination in employment, property rights, and other areas.”
“As a party, we need to overturn Dobbs v. Jackson, end the Hyde Amendment, codify Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and support constitutional amendments to enshrine a woman’s right to control her own body.”
“As of January 27, 2020, the ERA has satisfied the requirements of Article V of the Constitution for ratification (passage by two-thirds of each house of Congress and approval by three-fourths of the states). Leading constitutional scholars agree that the ERA is now part of the Constitution. Because of issues raised about its unique ratification process ... the Archivist of the United States has not yet taken the final ministerial step of publishing the ERA in the Federal Register with certification of its ratification as the 28th Amendment.”
“On March 24, 2025, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley introduced H.J Res. 80 to the 119th Congress. The joint resolution calls for establishing the ratification of the ERA, notwithstanding the time limit placed on the amendment in 1972.”
“Equal Rights Amendment PDA unequivocally supports Equal Rights for all women, and will fight to make sure the Equal Rights Amendment is passed and implemented nationwide. ... A deadline for state ratification was set, then extended to 1982, but fell three states short.”
Gender-Based Violence
“NNEDV's 20th Annual Domestic Violence Counts Report found that 84,146 victims of domestic violence received services in one day. However, on the same day, 13,018 requests for services went unmet due to a lack of funding and resources. Of those unmet requests, 58% were for safe housing.”
“DELTA is the only dedicated federal funding source for the primary prevention of domestic violence. In approximately 45 communities across the nation, the DELTA program identifies effective strategies to prevent first-time perpetration and first-time victimization of domestic violence.”
“The VAWA transitional housing program provides survivors with 6-24 months of housing with supportive services. According to a 2024 report, after participating in this program 80% of participants moved into permanent housing of their choice and 88% reported a perceived lower risk of violence.”
“Administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), FVPSA is the only federal funding source dedicated to domestic violence shelters and programs.”
“The Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) is the only federal funding dedicated to the provision of direct services to victims of sexual violence. A recent report to Congress revealed over 55,000 survivors of sexual assault were served and over 300 advocate positions were supported by SASP during the reporting period.”
“The extreme dearth of affordable housing nationwide produces a situation where many victims of domestic violence must return to their abusers because they cannot find stable housing, while others are forced into homelessness.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- rape kits sitting untested for years in police storage
- gun laws that disarm abusive spouses but not abusive boyfriends or stalkers
- somewhere for a survivor to go when leaving means having nowhere to live
- harassment claims forced into private arbitration instead of court
Disability Rights
“Codifying disability rights: protecting Olmstead v. LC”
“Federal law promises a free appropriate public education to every child with a disability. The federal government has been quietly underfunding that promise for decades.”
“Full ADA enforcement — accessibility is a right; the DOJ backlog must be cleared.”
“We should shift disability benefits administration to the state level—with clear federal oversight, baseline standards, and strong civil rights enforcement—to improve efficiency, speed up decisions, and fix the communication failures that make the current system so inaccessible.”
“Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act over fifty years ago and promised to cover 40% of special education costs. It has never come close. Special education is now one of the single largest cost drivers in local school budgets, and these costs are federally mandated and almost entirely paid by local property taxpayers.”
“Under current policies, many who receive SSI benefits lose those benefits if their income levels change, including if they get married. Disabled individuals deserve full marriage equality and I pledge to fight for marriage to be a time of joy, not instability.”
“Defend Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act against legal challenges that could weaken core civil rights protections in healthcare, education, and federally funded programs. Fully fund and enforce the ADA, including digital accessibility standards that are now legally mandated but poorly enforced.”
“Support a gradual benefits phase-out so disabled people can earn more income without hitting a cliff where they lose everything.”
“Expanding disability rights by making disability status a protected class”
“The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guarantees a free and appropriate education to every child with a disability, but the federal government has never fully funded it. The solution is dedicated federal funding for special education — in addition to robust general public education funding, not instead of it.”
“In half of the states in the US, it is legal to pay disabled workers less than the minimum wage . This practice must be abolished.”
“Fight in Congress to make Home and Community-Based Services a mandatory Medicaid benefit, so that no one is forced into a nursing home simply because a state waiver ran out, a waitlist grew too long, or a future administration decided Olmstead no longer applies”
“while Medicaid is required to cover nursing home care, HCBS is still classified as an "optional" benefit and one that states can scale back whenever budgets get tight or the political winds shift”
“Fully fund IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Reduce special education teacher caseloads Provide assistive technology and individualized support”
“clarifying in statute that every individual eligible for Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) has a Federally-protected right to a real choice in how they receive services”
“Businesses have had almost 28 years to remove access barriers and remedy non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act”
“EVV is discriminatory, and it undermines consumer direction”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the right to live in your own home rather than an institution — the Supreme Court said so in 1999 and states still fall short
- a disabled adult choosing trusted people to help them decide, instead of a court handing control of their money and medical care to a guardian
- American Sign Language interpretation provided as a matter of course, instead of something a Deaf person has to request
- disability benefits cut off for saving more than $2,000 or for marrying — rules that make staying poor and single a condition of care
- autism policy that funds support for autistic people rather than searching for a cure
Black Maternal Health
“Black women are three to four times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related complication.”
“Bring Illinois' Birth Equity Initiative to the federal level to reduce maternal mortality and enhance birth equity nationwide.”
“No one should die from preventable pregnancy complications or be forced to give birth. I've led efforts on the county board to fund doula programs and reduce maternal health outcome disparities.”
“I support the Mothers and Offspring Maternal & Morbidity Awareness (MOMMA) Act , introduced by Representative Robin Kelly. This legislation tackles the alarming rise in Black maternal mortality by: Establishing standardized obstetric care protocols, Improving data collection systems, and Extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers up to one year postpartum .”
“Doulas, midwives, lactation counselors, and other paraprofessionals are essential yet underutilized resources in maternal care. I will fight to expand access to these services by: Licensing and standardizing care for doulas and midwives”
“I'm proud to announce our comprehensive plan to tackle the maternal mortality crisis — an issue that has disproportionately impacted Black women in Texas and across the country for far too long... For far too long, Black communities have been overlooked, undervalued, and taken for granted by both parties in this broken, corrupt political system. That's why we're centering issues like maternal health in this campaign.”
“The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation in the world, with women of color facing terrifyingly disproportionate risks. This is a national disgrace. We must mandate maternal health coverage expansions, hold medical systems accountable, and properly fund community-based care and midwifery to ensure every mother has a safe pregnancy and delivery.”
“Expand rural OB-GYN residency incentives and telehealth maternity care access for maternity care deserts.”
“THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP advocates for the adoption of the MOMNIBUS Act of 2021 and full funding to improve equitable birth and maternal health outcomes for Black mothers and families. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP ... will support efforts to study whether more African American trained pregnancy companions will have a significant impact on reducing Black maternal and infant mortality. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP will monitor and support federal and state efforts to adopt legislation that provide Medicaid coverage for care provided by trained pregnancy companions.”
— NAACP
Money in Politics
Overturning Citizens United
“When Gil returns to Congress, he will push for a Constitutional amendment that overturns the disastrous Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. He also supports increasing the transparency around money in politics and bringing an end to "dark money" by requiring full disclosure of contributors to any group that advocates for or against candidates.”
“I strongly support the We the People Amendment. It would end corporate personhood, overturn the Citizens United decision, allow Congress and the states to regulate money in politics, and require full public disclosure of political spending. ... corporations are not people and money is not speech.”
“He introduced the DISCLOSE Act to stop billionaires and corporate special interests from secretly buying our elections.”
“Proposes a constitutional amendment establishing that constitutional rights belong to natural persons, not corporations — money is not speech Creates the American Elections Fund — a 6:1 small-dollar matching program ... Requires real-time donor disclosure within 48 hours for all contributions over $200”
“Limit Donations to PACs. Severely limit donations to PACs that directly support or oppose candidates for office. They are free to talk about issues and advocate for causes and raise funds to do so. But if they endorse or denigrate candidates by name or image, then they are limited to no more than $100/year in donations from any individual or source.”
“Pass the Democracy for All Amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore Congress' ability to limit corporate and dark money in politics.”
“The MAD Act would end anonymous political spending in federal elections and extend disclosure requirements to the dark money that has been used to reshape the federal judiciary.”
“Dark money is political spending by organizations that are not legally required to disclose their donors. The most common vehicles are 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organizations, which can spend on elections as long as political activity isn't their "primary" purpose, and shell companies (entities created with no real business operations, used to funnel money to super PACs without revealing where it came from).”
“The Citizens United decision dramatically altered campaign finance rules, authorizing corporations and other groups to spend unlimited funds in elections. Corporations and billionaire-backed SuperPACs immediately began to pour billions of dollars into our elections to help elect candidates that serve their interests rather than those of the American people.”
“Two 2010 Supreme Court rulings - Citizens United and SpeechNow - built the machine that gave us Super PACs and unlimited outside spending. Outside groups spent about $4.5 billion in 2024, more than half of it from groups that don’t fully say who their donors are. ... That’s not the system breaking. It’s the system doing exactly what the Court said it could.”
“Big money in politics is the root of all our issues. It's the reason why we don't have Medicare for All because the health insurance lobby pours hundreds of millions of dollars into Congressional campaigns. It's the reason Israel gets tens of billions of dollars to bomb hospitals and schools when we can't afford to build hospitals and schools here.”
“Pass the DISCLOSE Act to require all political groups to reveal their donors and spending, no exceptions.”
“Creating a user-friendly online platform that standardizes and streamlines campaign finance data to further the public's interest in electoral transparency”
“In 2022, the 100 largest donors in the U.S. collectively spent 60% more money in the midterms than all small donors combined”
“According to a Princeton Study , a policy has an equal chance (~30%) of being adopted whether it is widely supported or opposed.”
“Jillian's proposal would place a graduated surtax on all disbursements by Super PACs and "dark money" nonprofits that spend more than $500,000 per cycle. This policy has two goals: to fund grants for candidates using the People's Election Fund, and to disincentivize outside groups from spending big to impact elections.”
“Under this plan, federal contractors and registered lobbying firms would pay a 1% tax on political ad spending, whether through direct contributions or coordinated efforts. If you benefit from public dollars, you shouldn't get to use private dollars to rig the system in your favor.”
“Jillian proposes a 5% excise tax on any contribution over $10,000 to any political committee that participates in federal elections — including Super PACs, hybrid PACs, and dark money organizations. This policy would target less than 1% of all donors, but would generate millions of dollars to be used by clean elections candidates.”
“Pass the American Anti-Corruption Act (AACA), which will make corruption ILLEGAL .”
“Immediately seek to overturn Citizens United and Buckley vs. Valeo , which argued that campaign contributions are “protected speech” and therefore cannot be limited.”
“Ban Super PACs –– no more unlimited political spending by billionaires and the 1% Ban corporate political spending. Period. End corporate personhood.”
“Passing the DISCLOSE Act to address dark money and require more comprehensive reporting of outside Super PAC spending”
“This is not democracy—it's an auction where billionaires and corporations purchase political outcomes while ordinary citizens are drowned out.”
“The rights and privileges protected and extended by the Constitution of the United States are the rights and privileges of natural persons only.”
“The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.”
“An artificial entity, such as a corporation, limited liability company, or other entity, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under the Constitution.”
“We have advocated for a constitutional amendment not only to overturn Citizens United, but to declare that corporations are not persons with constitutional rights and that money is not speech.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- foreign money reaching campaigns through American subsidiaries
Public Financing of Elections
“End ALL Donations to Federal Election Campaigns. No donations. Not ever. Not even from the candidates themselves. What do we do instead? Create a website governed by the FEC where all US Citizens can have a secure, verifiable account. Those who wish to run file the proper FEC forms and are given access to a Candidate's Account, where they can upload photos, videos, state their positions, fill out an issues survey and interact with potential supporters via private message or public comment. A year before the election, the candidate's pages are made available to the public, who are invited to compare the candidates and choose those they believe are worthy of a government funded grant.”
“Under this grant system, candidates will have to run on the strength of their ideas and the quality of their character, not the size of their campaign's bank account. Elected candidates will be directly accountable to the taxpayer BOTH financially and at the ballot box.”
“Establish public financing of elections so everyday citizens and working class candidates can run on popular support, building on the legacy of Clean Elections in Arizona and modeled on the best local systems like Seattle's Democracy Vouchers”
“Federal Democracy Account Act Every registered Voter receives a Federal Democracy Account to replace influences of large donors and dark money ... Grant a total amount of funds for each political office that can only be donated to candidates within your voting district - Each month from February to November, unlock 10% of those funds to spend on candidate options.”
“Maria supports a small-dollar matching system for federal elections. Under this kind of system, small donations are matched with public funds — turning a $50 donation from a nurse into $300 or more.”
“My plan: Democracy Dollars (Public Voucher Campaign Contributions): Give every voter publicly funded “democracy dollars” — $500 per voter, per election cycle”
“Every voter gets a $200 voucher account. To be donated only to candidates bound to take nothing else ... in their campaign, in their time in office. ... These Straight Arrow Candidates will be so designated on the ballot”
“Create public financing for elections. Campaigns should be powered by people and not dependent on wealthy donors. New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Arizona, and Maine already have versions of this.”
“Public financing through a small-donor matching system (6:1 match) — takes corporate PAC money off the table.”
“A clean elections program for Congress would allow candidates to qualify for public grants, empower small donors with a tax credit, and fund it all with a "sales tax" on the big money groups buying influence in Washington.”
“Donations of $200 or less to federal candidates participating in the People's Election Program would be fully deductible, up to $200 per taxpayer per year. This gives working people and those on low or fixed incomes a stronger voice in elections.”
“The median amount raised by House members for their reelection campaigns in 2024 was $2.1 million. The People's Election Program would give incumbents an alternative to the constant fundraising that is exhausting voters, diluting important messages about policy, and taking them away from responsibilities in the district.”
“Creates the American Elections Fund — a 6:1 small-dollar matching program for candidates who accept no corporate PAC money and no dark money Requires real-time donor disclosure within 48 hours for all contributions over $200 — no more quarterly reporting that hides donations until after the election”
“Give every citizen a voucher for them to be able to give to their preferred political candidates, the more popular the candidate, the more donations they receive.”
“National Voter Information Brochure Act Eliminate unsolicited campaign mail and provides voters with a free, government-printed brochure before every primary and general ... Mass mailer ban prohibits privately funded mass campaign mailers for all registered candidates - Create a digital voter guide program available free of charge - Brochures provide equal candidate space, reducing waste and spending while improving information directly to voters”
“Expanding and promoting publicly funded elections so the working class- not the donor class – are the foundation of our campaigns.”
“Public financing options for congressional campaigns to amplify small-dollar donations from ordinary citizens”
No Corporate PAC / Lobbyist Money
“Ban former members of Congress and senior staff from lobbying for a minimum of five years after leaving office. Prohibit lobbyists from fundraising for the members they lobby. Require public disclosure of all meetings between lawmakers and registered lobbyists. ... Create an independent office of congressional ethics with enforcement authority, not merely advisory power.”
“Today's system attracts and rewards a particular kind of person: those willing to spend half their time asking wealthy donors for money, those comfortable trading favors with lobbyists for decades, and those savvy enough to profit from insider information. The current incentives select for opportunists, not public servants. ... Public funding empowers normal Americans who wouldn't otherwise have access to the”
“Make donor capture and office accountability measurable: reject corporate PAC money, publish receipts, explain votes, and tie the campaign's claims to source-linked answers.”
“Josh is the author of the Ban Corporate PACs Act because his vote can't be bought and he believes no one should be able to auction their vote to the highest bidder. He is fighting to stop pay raises and special privileges for politicians, and he is a leader on reforming campaign finance so elected officials put families, not corporations, first.”
“To get big money out of local politics, he led the effort to pass the strongest local campaign finance reform in Florida, approved by more than 80% of voters.”
“will not take money from corporate PACs, AIPAC or its lobbyists and representatives, the NRA or lobbyists and executives from pharma, PG&E, fossil fuel or tobacco companies.”
“No corporate PAC money, ever — will not vote for any Democrat in leadership who takes corporate PAC money”
“I will never accept money from: AIPAC or similar political action committees that seek to influence foreign policy, Any foreign national or foreign government, as prohibited by U.S. law. My decisions will be made in the interest of the American people, not under outside influence.”
“I will propose a law that restricts how funds can be used from Leadership PACs and make their expenditure more transparent to the voters. These slush funds are a major source of legal corruption within our government and must be addressed.”
“No corporate PAC money. On the record before I even filed. No Super PAC support - not asked for, not accepted. If one forms anyway, I disavow it publicly and won't coordinate. No dark money. If a secret-donor group spends on my race, I call them out by name. Small donors first. Success looks like an average donation under $100. I take money only from people, never PACs.”
“Don is the first candidate in this race to refuse all Corporate PAC money, all Utility PAC money, and to call to ban Congressional stock trading. As a signer on End Citizens United's Unrig Washington pledge, Don commits to: Refuse Corporate PAC Money, ensuring his campaign is powered by people, not political insiders. Ban Stock Trading by Members of Congress. Crack down on Dark Money in our elections.”
“I will not accept campaign donations. Money will not buy my support. Big businesses cannot sway my vote. Only the voice of the people matter. Instead of donating to my campaign, I invite you to donate directly to your community instead and support my campaign through word of mouth or volunteering.”
“Committee members must not be able to receive campaign donations from the very companies they are tasked with regulating. Every election cycle, the healthcare industry gives an average of $270,000 to every member on the health subcommittees tasked with overseeing those very companies. It's plain to see that committee membership and leadership translate directly to political donations, which then influence and buy the votes of membership.”
“Require AIPAC to register as a foreign agent: Any organization lobbying on behalf of a foreign government must register under FARA. Ban members of Congress from taking foreign-aligned PAC money: End the corruption pipeline.”
“Ban weapons manufacturer donations to politicians No one voting on the defense budget should be taking money from the companies that profit from it.”
“In the State Legislature, I’ve fought to get big money out of politics, helping lead the introduction of a slate of bills in the State House that would ban monopoly utility corporations and government contractors from making political donations. I’m ready to take that same fight to Washington.”
“No Corporate PAC Money: Pledge to never accept contributions from any corporate PAC or operate a leadership PAC that accepts corporate money. Does not apply to PACs sponsored by labor unions or grassroots membership organizations.”
“Candidates should not be allowed to take money from foreign governments or corporations. Foreign governments rightly serve a foreign interest, not US interest. Corporations rightly serve a company's interest. Neither of their core missions are to serve the interests of US Citizens. My campaign does not and will not accept funding from either foreign governments or corporations because we work for the people who are voting for us.”
“We must end the stranglehold that AIPAC, defense contractor PACs, and billionaire-funded Super PACs have on our legislature. These entities have a direct financial interest in perpetuating endless war, genocide, and human suffering to line their own pockets.”
“This campaign accepts no corporate PAC money, no oligarch money, no AIPAC money, no weapons manufacturer money, no fossil fuel money, no crypto or AI donations. Every donation is publicly reported to the FEC.”
“Special interests like AIPAC, Super PACs, corporations, billionaires and foreign governments, have too much power and influence in our political system, ... Getting Money out of Politics ... Overturn Citizens United Require FARA Registration Prohibit Spending by Foreign Entities Ban Corporate Lobbyist Contributions Lower Contribution Limits Implement Public Campaign Financing”
“I will not take money from AIPAC, J Street, or any PAC that seeks to influence U.S. policy in ways that conflict with my commitment to human rights and accountability.”
“Michael "Mike" Soetaert boycotts ALL special interest political action committees, super pacs and canary pacs.”
“Reject AIPAC Money. Unlike too many politicians in Washington, I refuse to take AIPAC money. My campaign is powered by working people because Minnesotans deserve a champion who isn't beholden to any special interests.”
“Taking the pledge means a political candidate’s campaign must not accept any contributions over $200 from the corporate Political Action Committees (PACs), named executives, or lobbyists of Apple, Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Microsoft.”
“I pledge to put patients over profits and not take contributions over $200 from the executives, lobbyists, and PACs affiliated with the corporate health care industry”
“A refusal to take contributions from Fascism Funders—the techno-fascists of Silicon Valley, billionaire donors helping to enrich Trump and his cronies, cryptocurrency scammers, and AIPAC.”
“Every year, elected Democrats and Republicans take millions of dollars from a web of defense companies and foreign interest lobbies… AIPAC included. ... Once elected, they send billions of our tax dollars towards endless wars”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the election commission that deadlocks by design, so campaign-finance law goes unenforced
Congressional Stock Trading Ban
“Chris stood up to Democratic leadership when he called for a ban on stock trading by members of Congress and forced a vote on the House floor.”
“Ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks — and put my own holdings in a blind trust the day I'm sworn in. End dark money and shut the revolving door, so policy stops getting written for the few. Take no corporate PAC money and hold myself to a four-term limit — accountability starts with me.”
“Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act to prohibit any insider trading in Congress.”
“We need to ban Congressional stock trading and close the loopholes that let April McClain Delaney and others profit from insider information. This means passing H.R. 5106, the "Restore Trust in Congress Act," to ensure public service isn't for personal gain.”
“Ban prediction markets — they are corrosive to public trust and the social fabric, turning real-world events into gambling instruments that undermine our democracy”
“Maria supports requiring members of Congress and their immediate families to either divest their individual stock holdings or place them in a blind trust managed by an independent trustee. What is illegal on Wall Street should be illegal on Capitol Hill.”
“I will fight for laws that eliminate ALL stock trading by members of Congress and the Executive Branch, including their staff and families.”
“Cline is not a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Stock Trading Ban discharge petition, a wildly popular bill supported by 90 percent of Americans that would forbid members of Congress from trading stocks.”
“Ban the trading of stocks by all Members of Congress, Executive Branch Members, Supreme Court Justices, their spouses, and staff – including requiring divestment of currently-owned stocks”
“A 2012 law says members of Congress have to report their stock trades within 45 days. The fine for filing late is $200. ... They pay it and move on. That’s not a deterrent. It’s a parking ticket on insider trading. And they trade a lot. A 2022 New York Times investigation found that about one in five trades by members and their families were in industries that member’s own committee oversees.”
“No individual stock trading while I serve. Not me, not a spouse, not anyone in my household. Before I take the oath, any individual stocks get sold or moved into a blind trust. ... If I break this pledge, I resign the seat. ... Any buy or sale over $1,000 by anyone in my household gets posted here within 48 hours. The law gives members 45 days. I’m giving myself two.”
“I've authored legislation in Iowa to ban insider stock trading and impose term limits—because public service shouldn't be a pathway to personal enrichment. We need to ban corporate PAC contributions.”
“Ban members of Congress, their staff, and any government official with a security clearance from betting on predictive markets. No one should be getting rich using insider information – especially when it comes to our vital national security.”
“prediction markets now let people bet on wildfires as they burn.”
“members of Congress hold $720.42 million in stocks, impeding their policy-making by reordering their priorities from public welfare to individual financial success”
“The proposed Ban Crypto Corruption Act would prohibit the President, Vice President, members of Congress, candidates for public office, elected officials, high-ranking executive branch employees, and their immediate family members from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing digital assets including cryptocurrency, meme coins, stablecoins, tokens, NFTs, digital trading cards, and decentralized finance”
“End Insider Trading : Congress members cannot use insider information for stock trading, nor share with anyone outside of Congress. Members cannot trade stocks or other securities during their term, and any members found in violation will be expelled.”
“Ban congressional stock trading and support the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act (H.R. 4890) . Public office should not be used for personal gain. Require blind trusts for all members of Congress and their spouses.”
“Ban individual stock trading, trading crypto currency, or participating in speculative betting markets”
“Ban politicians from trading individual stocks. Neither me, nor my family, nor my staff will own, buy, or sell individual stocks while I serve in office. I'll pass legislation to hold every member of Congress to that same standard.”
“Mary will fight for legislation that requires all members of Congress to completely divest or place their personal assets in a blind trust, ensuring no one is casting votes to get richer.”
“Ban members of Congress from trading stocks because lawmakers should not be profiting off access to closed-door information.”
“Mary will fight against self-dealing and ban members of Congress from stock trading through the bipartisan Restore Trust in Congress Act.”
“Ban members of Congress and their immediate families from stock or cryptocurrency trading or prediction market bets.”
“supporting a ban on stock trading and ownership for members of Congress and the Federal Judiciary”
“Banning insider trading by Congress. Members should not profit from the stock market. I won’t wait for it to become law; I won’t trade individual stocks while in office.”
“Ban the Executive Branch and their family members from owning and trading stocks while in office.”
Elections & Representation
Voting Access
“Champions federal legislation mandating that all states provide at least two weeks of secure, no-excuse in-person early voting, including multiple weekend options.”
“Senator Mike Simmons secured passage of legislation that empowers 16 and 17 year olds to pre-register to vote”
“The Support Our Election Workers Act Would provide grants to improve pay, recruitment, training, and safety for election workers and help address threats and intimidation.”
“Safeguard Mail-in Voting: The Trump Administration is trying to force their SAVE America Act through Congress calling it a 'voter ID bill' but it is anything but. If passed, the SAVE Act would virtually eliminate the ability to vote by mail, jeopardizing seniors who rely on this method to make their voices heard.”
“Under the guise of preventing voter fraud, President Trump and some Republicans are demanding the passage of the SAVE Act. This Act imposes strict new voter ID requirements that could prohibit many eligible citizens from voting in upcoming elections, including the midterm elections this fall. ... Married women who changed their names, for example, could find themselves turned away at the polls.”
“Voting rights: protect and expand Protect mail-in voting. Automatic voter registration. Same-day registration. Restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people. Make Election Day a federal holiday. Every eligible American should find it easy — not hard — to vote.”
“Expand Iowans' voice and fight extremism in both parties by passing the Let America Vote Act to allow the 33% of Iowans who are independents to participate in primaries”
“Prohibit federal agents at polling places. Federal agents and the military have no place at polling locations. Voters should never be intimidated while casting their personal vote, nor should they be scared to go to the polls for fear of intimidation, harassment, or violence from agents of their own government.”
“American citizenship is not taken away during incarceration, therefore all citizens should retain the right to vote regardless of their record. Pass legislation to re-enfranchise Americans with criminal records or currently incarcerated.”
“Pass legislation allowing all US citizens be automatically registered to vote at 18 via secure eligibility verification systems that do not discriminate. Establish national standards for all Federal Elections related to early voting, ballot dropoff locations, vote-by-mail, and by establishing Election Day as a federal holiday.”
“The Post Office should be strengthened and defended so that everyone feels comfortable casting a mail-in ballot if they are unable to vote on election day due to work, illness, travel, or caring for a loved one.”
“End felon disenfranchisement –– the right to vote of Americans is sacred and inalienable with no exceptions”
“We need to make mail-in voting easier, continue to allow county-wide voting, have more accessible polling locations, and keep polling locations safe and fully stocked with the resources they need.”
“America has a long, democratic history of empowering states to oversee their own elections. I will work in Congress to ensure that no federal funds are used to support any effort by Trump or his administration to manipulate elections.”
“Voting shouldn’t be a privilege for those who can afford to take time off — it’s a right for everyone. I’ll fight to make Election Day a federal holiday so working people, parents, and students can cast their ballots without choosing between their paycheck, their classes, and their voice in our democracy.”
“Re-enfranchise the more than 6 million Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction, paid their debt to society, and deserve to have their rights restored.”
“Whether it's a literacy test in 1955, a redrawn map in Baton Rouge in 2026, or a new documentary-proof requirement in Washington, the pattern is the same: when the people in power are worried about who might vote them out, they make it harder to vote at all.”
“I would like to see the U.S. end criminal disenfranchisement nationwide.”
“Enact automatic and same-day voter registration”
“Expand access through automatic registration, early voting, and vote-by-mail options.”
“Support early voting and vote-by-mail (which Arizona already does well!) Oppose voter ID laws designed to suppress turnout Make Election Day a national holiday Restore the Voting Rights Act”
“Felony disenfranchisement has stolen voting rights from over 4 million Americans and a conviction should not take away your freedom to vote.”
“Requiring states to automatically register eligible citizens to vote when they turn 18. Automatic voter registration is already working in 22 states and Washington, DC.”
— UnidosUS
“Since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby v. Holder, the right to vote has been under attack. From restrictive ID laws to shortening registration windows to racist gerrymandering, the AANHPI community has much to lose through disenfranchisement.”
“Oppose the SAVE Act and other restrictive voter ID proposals. Protect language access under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act.”
“Extend full voting rights to all permanent U.S. residents and restore the right to vote for incarcerated people and people with criminal convictions.”
“More than a century after the right to vote was declared fundamental, that right is under attack. Efforts to make it harder for racial minorities to participate in the political process are proliferating across the country - and we're fighting those efforts in court. NAACP Georgia State Conference v Raffensperger ... NAACP v. Florida Secretary of State ... It wasn't until 1965, after years of intimidation, murders, and advocacy that the path to the voting booth was cleared for Black people with the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.”
— NAACP
“PDA continues to advocate, to organize, and to educate both voters and officials about transparency, increased voter access, and putting the “free” back in free speech”
Election Protection
“Guarantee ADA-compliant polling places and accessible voting machines (ramps, curbside voting, and audio ballots) at every precinct, not just some”
“Create permanent absentee voter lists for elderly and disabled voters so they don't have to reapply for a mail ballot every election”
“Our model bill, known as the Peace Act in the states and the Freedom from Intimidation in Elections Act in Congress, strengthens prohibitions against the intimidation of voters, election officials, and election workers. It would also establish a presumption that the presence of guns in and around our elections is intimidating.”
“We led the way in developing and promoting automatic voter registration, in which eligible voters are automatically registered when they have contact with government agencies, unless they opt out. It's a reform that has dramatically reshaped registration by making it much easier to get on the rolls.”
“Most states use electronic voting and tabulation systems that are at least a decade old, and many are no longer even manufactured. Election officials report that they must go to eBay to find replacement parts, which in itself poses a security threat.”
“The Brennan Center has outlined steps we can take to improve our election administration across the board, including replacing old voting machines, upgrading voter registration databases, conducting thorough audits of paper ballots, performing regular risk assessments, and fixing ballot design defects.”
“We also support passing the Freedom to Vote Act, which would implement a number of reforms to modernize and standardize our elections. These include early voting, including on the weekend and evenings, so that those who can't make it to the polls on Election Day aren't shut out. It also requires the option for same-day registration, which lets people register and vote in one trip, so arbitrary registration deadlines don't trip people up.”
“Congress should restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and states should supplement those protections.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the law setting out how Congress counts electoral votes, tightened after 2020 to limit a vice president’s role — and whether the remaining gaps still matter
- protecting local election officials who certify a result their party dislikes
- partisan control of the offices that run elections and count votes
- audits and recounts designed to settle a result rather than cast doubt on it
- the practical steps of handing over power, and where they can fail
Independent Redistricting
“The recent gerrymandering efforts by the Trump administration and the State of Texas prove that independent redistricting commissions – like the kind in Michigan – stop the corruption of gerrymandering and provide competitive districts that put voters in charge of elections, not politicians.”
“Congressional districts should be drawn by a federal nonpartisan committee of experts who are appointed for defined terms on a rolling basis.”
“We need federal legislation to establish independent redistricting commissions, restore the preclearance requirements that were gutted in Shelby.”
“Introduced the constitutional amendment to allow New York to redraw our congressional district lines, mid-decade, if another state (e.g. Texas) does so first.”
“A non-partisan federal computer system design for calculating district and county boundaries to stop gerrymandering, should be adopted. The lines should be permanent, but if the population gets too great in one area it should be split down the middle. But we must stop changing the district lines every ten years.”
“We will pass a federal redistricting law requiring independent, non-partisan commissions that draw maps to represent communities, not to favor either political party, with transparent criteria that comply with the Voting Rights Act. And we will ban mid-decade redistricting schemes designed to entrench partisan power.”
“In order to ensure the constitutional principle of one person, one vote, maps of political jurisdictions must abide by key elements. Districts must be compact; contiguous; of approximately equal population size; and protect communities of interest. Districts must not be gerrymandered to "pack" minority populations into too few districts or "crack" minority populations between districts to dilute their voting strength.”
“In May 2026, state Republicans redrew Tennessee’s map in a three-day special session. ... They showed it to the public the day before they passed it. ... The new District 5 ties Memphis to 17 counties of rural West Tennessee and the rich suburbs south of Nashville. The point was simple. Take the most Democratic city in the state and drown its vote in places that vote the other way. It splits Memphis, and its Black voters, into three pieces.”
“If Democrats ever get to draw Tennessee's map in my lifetime, I'll come out against it if they try to rig it too. It works both ways or it's not a real rule. I'll fight for an independent commission - regular people, not politicians, drawing the lines.”
“The gerrymandered redistricting of District 30 removed key economic engines, weakening access to jobs, investment, and infrastructure.”
“The Fair Representation Act would change how we elect members of Congress: Ranked-choice voting: Improve elections by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Multi-member districts: Larger districts that elect multiple representatives, which ensures voters have better representation. Independent redistricting: Nonpartisan commissions draw maps, not politicians.”
“Independent Redistricting Commissions: Establish nonpartisan redistricting standards across all states to ensure fair representation and prohibit mid-decade redistricting changes.”
“Establish independent redistricting commissions so that voters can choose their politicians — not the other way around.”
“Gerrymandered districts do not truly represent voters in MO, but rather marginalize voters for political gain”
“Maria supports independent redistricting commissions that draw congressional maps based on communities — not partisan advantage.”
“We need an end to racial and partisan gerrymandering and institute federal standards for independent redistricting commissions to create districts that actually represent communities”
Senate, House Size & Electoral College
“We've been stuck at 435 members since 1929, while the population has tripled. Each member now represents nearly 800,000 people. That's not representation.”
“I support the Fair Representation Act (H.R. 4632)... Ranked-choice voting: Improve elections by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Multi-member districts: Larger districts that elect multiple representatives, which ensures voters have better representation.”
“U.S. House seats have been capped at 435 since 1929, but population growth has led to each member representing more people than intended. Adding the number of seats to the House of Representatives is meant to grow committee depth, oversight, and policy expertise.”
“Since 1929, when the number of US House Representatives was capped, the US population has nearly tripled, and yet, our number of US House Representatives has stayed at 435. ... The happiest countries, which are also very healthy democracies, have multiple political parties thanks to proportional representation, or PR, where 3-5 candidates get elected per political contest, rather than just one,”
“End the Electoral College. In presidential elections, the votes cast in our least populated states have up to 3.5 times the weight of votes cast in our most populous states. This is simply unfair and undemocratic. The original reasons for an electoral college, which include giving more electoral power to slave states, are no longer relevant. In 2000 and in 2016, the candidate who got the most votes did not win the election.”
“The filibuster has been used by Senators to shield one another from having to take hard votes. I believe that it is antidemocratic and should be abolished.”
“Day one: Senate votes End the filibuster. Close the revolving door. Ranked-choice voting for federal elections. The long fight: amendments Age limits for federal office. Overturn Citizens United. ... The filibuster goes first because it's the load-bearing wall: homes and healthcare don't survive a 60-vote Senate.”
“The rationale is that large districts mute individual voice and skew power toward large donors and organized interests; smaller districts rebalance who has leverage over members.”
“The House of Representatives hasn't grown since the 1920s, even though America's population has more than tripled. With each member now representing over 750,000 people, it's time to modernize Congress so it better reflects the people it serves.”
“Reform the Congressional Review Act. It has been weaponized to gut regulations with a simple majority vote and it bypasses the legislative process it was designed to protect.”
“Repeal the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 and expand the U.S. House of Representatives before the 2030 census so each member represents a smaller, more accountable number of constituents. I support legislation such as the Equal Voices Act or equivalent formulas that automatically grow the House with population.”
“Most campaigns operate at the level of policy promises. But institutions determine outcomes more than policies do. If we don't fix the structure, every policy fight is uphill. That's why structural reform is my top priority, because nothing else works without it.”
“Congress is under-capacitated relative to the scale and complexity of federal policy”
“Casar advocates for ending the Jim Crow-era filibuster and expanding the U.S. Supreme Court, so that our democracy can work for everyday people, not just the powerful and rich.”
“Uncap the U.S. House: expand representation so Idahoans (and all Americans) have a stronger voice and a more accountable government closer to the people they represent. Stronger lobbying 'cooling-off' period: stop the revolving door by requiring members and senior staff to wait longer before becoming paid lobbyists.”
“Congress comes first. Article I created the legislature and vested all lawmaking power in it.”
“Our most basic institutes like the Electoral college and Congress were created in the 18th century , when only adult males were able to vote, work, and participate in basic civil liberties. It was anything but democratic and still is. It remains aristocratic and hierarchical, tied together by personal influence on people of wealth and power.”
“Abolish the filibuster so majorities can pass popular legislation –– just like our Arizona state legislature can”
“Ensure that every voice counts in Presidential elections, regardless of where they reside. Pass constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College.”
“The current number of House members was capped based on the 1910 Census. Each representative now serves ~750,000 constituents, ranking among the worst in modern democracies: Expand the House of Representatives to better serve their constituents.”
“I support repealing the Reapportionment Act of 1929 and adopting the Wyoming Rule, which would expand the House so that the representative-to-population ratio matches that of the least populous state. Under this proposal, the House would increase to approximately 575 members, with no district representing more than about 800,000 people.”
“Multi-member districts with proportional representation allow a party's share of votes to determine how many seats it holds, better representing all voters.”
“The problem is that Republicans and Democrats increasingly live in different places. When the minority is spread out and not packed together in one district, they have no chance to win.”
“When congressional districts have just one representative, Republicans in blue areas and Democrats in red areas have no representation.”
“Proportional representation ensures all voters have real representation, including the many Democrats living in "red" districts, the many Republicans living in "blue" districts, and the many independents and third-party supporters who currently feel they have no voice at all.”
“Fix Our House is a new education and advocacy campaign promoting proportional representation as an urgently-needed reform to pull politics out of its doom loop of polarization and dysfunction, sideline the anti-democratic forces threatening our democracy, and offer America's diverse electorate full and fair representation in the House of Representatives.”
“Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate.”
Ranked-Choice Voting
“Rather than allowing political parties to be gatekeepers that use endorsements and primaries to prevent outsider candidates from advancing to the general election while also shutting out Independents from being involved in the primary process, why not eliminate primaries altogether? And to ensure that so-called fringe candidates won't act as spoilers who split the vote, allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The candidate who gets the highest combined ranking wins.”
“Title VI of the MAD Act creates a voluntary federal framework for states to adopt alternative voting methods for federal elections. No state is required to do anything. But any state that wants to move beyond plurality voting would get financial support, technical assistance, and clear legal guardrails to do it. The bill recognizes two qualified methods: ranked-choice voting and STAR voting.”
“Plurality voting — the system where you pick one candidate and whoever gets the most votes wins — sounds intuitive. But it has a structural flaw that has shaped American politics for generations: the spoiler effect. If two candidates who share similar ideas both run, they split the vote and hand the election to the candidate the majority opposed.”
“Ensure federal election winners enter office fairly: with the support of over 50% of voters. Pass Ranked Choice or similar legislation for all federal primaries, and incentivize states who do the same for local elections.”
“Open Primaries with Ranked Choice Voting. Require voting machines have open source software.”
“Ranked-Choice Voting to reduce polarization and reward coalition-building. Independent Redistricting Commissions to end gerrymandering. Automatic Voter Registration to modernize participation.”
“Nationwide Public Ballot Initiatives , giving the people the right to petition and then directly vote on issues important to them. Ranked Choice Voting to allow 3rd party candidates an equal chance at winning.”
“Reform campaign finance laws to reduce the amount of big money in politics, ideally giving every candidate the same budget. Move towards ranked choice voting to reduce partisan politics.”
Term Limits
“I will vote to limit service to a maximum of 12 years total—6 terms in the House and 2 terms in the Senate.”
“Personally, if elected I plan to serve no more than three terms. I've no ambition for a career in Congress. But there are those who serve decades. There is wisdom to be gained from new perspectives and voices who are actually living and working in the community rather than career politicians who become too accustomed to the trappings of office. So I propose a limit of five terms for members of the House (ten years total) and two terms for the Senate (twelve years).”
“Term Limits Reform Act Four Terms for US House and US Senate Members “Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior — Out” ... We can offer advisory roles to outgoing Congressional Officers towards their incoming Congressional replacements for one year.”
“Term limits 14 years in the House; 18 in the Senate; mandatory retirement at 70. No seat belongs to anyone.”
“12 years in the House - 6 terms. 12 years in the Senate - 2 terms. After that, if you want to keep going, you mentor your replacement.”
“We're going to limit politicians to 3 terms in the House of Representatives (6 years total) and 2 terms in the U.S. Senate (12 years total). This goal requires a Constitutional Amendment.”
“Term Limits : Members of both chambers will be limited to a maximum of 12 years of service. House representatives will be limited to 6 terms; Senators will be limited to 2 terms. Age Limits : No person who will reach the age of 80 during the term they seek will be eligible to run for that office. Ban private sectory lobbying for 10 years after service.”
“Currently, voters are not allowed to recall their own Representatives or Senators, which takes away their power to hold them accountable. Pass legislation to allow states’ voters to recall sitting members of Congress who violate their oaths of office.”
“All congressmen and supreme court justices should have term limits adopted immediately. I propose both bodies of Congress and the Supreme Court should have a total of 12 years allowed in office, each.”
“12-year term limits for everyone — public service shouldn't be a 28-year career”
“Mary will fight for 12 year term limits in Congress, giving our representatives deadlines to deliver for Alaska.”
“I've proudly signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge because career politicians shouldn't have a monopoly on power. Real change requires fresh leadership and new voices. I'll fight for term limits in Congress—because our democracy should work for the people, not political insiders.”
“I fully support a national conversation about implementing term limits for Members of Congress and I pledge to serve no more than five terms in the House of Representatives if I'm elected.”
“People are tired of insiders putting themselves before the public. Me too. No matter your party, I think we can all agree government should work for the people who pay the bills. That means more transparency, more accountability, and reforms like term limits that keep our democracy rooted in service, not self-interest.”
“I support term limits to end the reign of out-of-touch career politicians. But they need to be fair—long enough for new leaders to make an impact, short enough to stop politicians from coasting for decades.”
DC, Puerto Rico & Territories
“Puerto Rico statehood immediately with automatic complete independence within max of 10 years - unless Puerto Rico election votes otherwise. This provides time to plan and be ready for independence.”
“Grant DC statehood and ban federal overrides of democratically-passed DC City Council legislation ... grant Puerto Rico the autonomy to choose statehood or independence”
“Make DC a state with full representation including at proportional members of Congress with full voting rights and two US Senators Hold a referendum for the people of Puerto Rico to decide on whether to become a state, to remain a territory, or to become independent”
“The islands of Puerto Rico and the Philippines became territories of the United States as a result of the 1898 Spanish-American War. Whereas the Philippines were granted independence (1946), Puerto Rico was not. The people of Puerto Rico deserve a say in determining their future. I will support the Puerto Rico Self Determination Act”
“Supporting DC statehood”
“Get money out of politics, end gerrymandering, end Citizens United, and make DC and Puerto Rico states.”
“Establish statehood for Washington D.C. and recognize the right to self-determination for all U.S. territories and colonies.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- statehood for Washington, DC — or folding it back into Maryland
- how a territory would actually hold a binding vote on its future, and who would run it
Government Integrity
Government Accountability
“Barring former fossil fuel executives and lobbyists from serving in key federal roles for 10 years”
“Introduce Law to Impose Lifetime Ban on Members of Congress from Lobbying”
“Wrote the RECOURSE Act, which allows our state to stop sending money to the federal government if federal funds are illegally withheld from New York. ... Wrote the Tariff Transparency Act, to shine a light on the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs on automobile prices.”
“No Salaries for Congress During Shutdowns. Neither the Congress or the Presidency should be paid during a government shut-down. And there should be an emergency fund to ensure highly essential government employees, such as air traffic controllers, continue to be paid.”
“Almost every issue on this website — healthcare, Social Security, tax policy, the environment — has a known solution. The ideas are not the problem. The problem is that the people with the power to implement those solutions are financially dependent on the people who benefit from keeping things broken.”
“Ban pay to all Members of Congress, Executive Branch Members, and their staff during shutdowns, with all such income used to pay down the national debt”
“When members of Congress run again, they almost always win. In 2024, 97 percent of the ones who ran kept their seats. ... And the only people who can pass term limits are the same people it would kick out. ... That doesn’t mean the fight isn’t worth it. It means I won’t lie to you about where it gets won.”
“Showing up for your constituents is important—whether they voted for you or not. I promise to hold monthly town hall meetings across the district so I can better respond to the needs of our citizens. Rep. Harris has only held two in six years.”
“Report back every three months. Posted right here on this site. What the office did, who it helped, where the money went, what worked.”
“If you support dismantling guardrails because your side is in charge, you are building a system your opponents will eventually inherit. Power in a republic always shifts, and as it does, the guardrails you removed will not be there to protect you.”
“A congressperson's real leverage is behavior, not legislation. I will refuse corporate PAC money, demand oversight hearings, and vote against continuing resolutions that fund executive overreach.”
“Congress is named first in the Constitution, but over the years, Congress has delegated much of its power to the executive branch. Decades of concentrated money and influence has resulted in consolidated power. Addressing this is my absolute top priority, because fixing this is the prerequisite for fixing everything else.”
“Mandatory Town Halls: Every member of Congress should show up, answer questions, and face the people they represent.”
“When I served on the anti-corruption task force in Afghanistan, I saw what it looks like when a culture of corruption takes hold in a country. The public loses all trust, a small group of well-connected people benefit, and everyone pays a heavy price.”
“When Democrats regain control of Congress in 2027, we must be focused on holding every individual responsible accountable for these flagrant abuses of the law through every legal means available. This includes impeachment proceedings against Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, and every other Cabinet official that has shown a clear disregard for human life.”
“Ban former members of Congress and senior federal officials from lobbying for five years after leaving office.”
“I will seek to pass an Accountability Act that will create a secure system where all public servants have clear access to the will of their people (through an app or a secure website).”
“Machiavellian politics promises speed. It tells you that by cutting through "red tape" like oversight and transparency, a leader can finally get things done. But what is labeled as red tape is the structure that prevents power from being used arbitrarily and ensures decisions follow rules rather than influence.”
“I'll publicly call out performative legislation, including from members of my own party, when it's designed to generate headlines rather than change. Press conferences and press releases are not an outcome on their own.”
“Government is not neutral. Every day, it either protects the people or it protects the powerful. For decades, it has chosen the powerful... That’s why corporations poison our air, banks take our homes, and CEOs buy politicians like they’re stocking a boardroom. This is not democracy. It is legalized corruption.”
“I will hold open, in-person town halls across every corner of this district—regularly, publicly announced, and open to every resident, no matter their politics. Politicians have a reputation for disappearing once they get elected. I won’t.”
“To ensure families are always heard, I will form a Parents Advisory Board made up of community representatives who can advise on policies that impact daily life.”
“Trump's reckless and dangerous actions are manifestations of a larger, chronic issue: the decline of Americans' trust in their government over decades. I refuse to accept this.”
“02 Government exists to secure rights — not to select targets. 03 A constitutional government does not rule by intimidation. A free society does not require fear to function.”
“We believe elected officials should be beholden to the people, not to wealthy donors and powerful CEOs. At the Progressive Caucus, we reject pay-to-play and revolving door politics and fight for a democracy where the power is in the hands of the people, not concentrated among the rich and well-connected.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the months when a proposed federal rule is open for public comment — who actually files them, and whether an agency has to answer
Executive Power & War-Making
“Revised the Posse Comitatus and Insurrection Acts to restrict the circumstances under which a President can send military forces or National Guard troops into states.”
“Weaponized the presidential pardon to reward loyalists, silence witnesses, and obstruct justice — the pardon power must be amended or reformed through constitutional action to prevent future abuse”
“End Presidential Pardons ... The power to pardon has become too political, too transactional, and is often used to shield government officials operating outside the law, free members of mega-donor families and to preclude investigations of of top people in government. It will take an amendment, but it has to end. If we must have pardons at the federal level, create an independent commission to review cases.”
“Impeachment trials should not be held in the Senate. After the House approves articles of impeachment, the Senate vote whether to advance it with a 60 vote majority (or perhaps a simple majority), not the current 67 vote super majority. If advanced, the governors of the fifty states convenes to decide whether to convict, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding. A simple majority vote would be required. That way the final decision would be from fellow chief executives, and allow all levels of our federal system to be heard from.”
“The Insurrection Act lets the President deploy the United States military against the American people. There is no time limit. There is no requirement to consult or notify Congress. There is no meaningful judicial review. The key terms ("insurrection," "rebellion," "domestic violence") are not defined anywhere in the statute.”
“The founders did not build a republic on the hope that presidents would always show restraint. They built one on the certainty that some would not.”
“Like pardons, the President should not be able to give out government contracts and American tax dollars to his friends, with no oversight. All contracts should involve a competitive bidding process, such that the company who can do the work for the least amount of money gets the job.”
“End presidential immunity. In 2024 the Supreme Court granted the president absolute immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed in office. This is unjust and must be overturned.”
“We must reclaim the power of the purse for congress, pocket rescissions and doge have caused fundamental harm to our republic.”
“revisiting laws passed by Congress delegating its authority to set tariffs to the President”
“Amend the Constitution to ban preemptive pardons and create a pardon board that includes the President, the Speaker of the House, and the Chief Justice of the United States. In addition, include a provision in this amendment that bars the president from issuing pardons to family and close advisors.”
“Require the President and close family members to divest all business assets and place the value of those assets in a blind trust, and require them to be covered by the same federal conflict-of-interest laws that apply to all federal employees.”
“Pass legislation clarifying that the Emoluments Clause forbids the President from personally profiting from private or public business dealings with foreign governments.”
“Require Congress to set clear standards when delegating to federal agencies. Decades of blank-check delegations have handed away congressional power conferred by Article I of the Constitution.”
“Reform the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to end presidential abuse of emergency economic powers. No president should be able to unilaterally impose tariffs or sanctions without congressional approval, as the Constitution gives Congress authority over trade.”
“Eliminate the broad power of presidential pardons that has been abused by presidents on both sides of the aisle.”
“The Constitution is clear: Congress comes first. Article I created the legislature and vested all lawmaking power in it. Article II created the presidency, not as a throne, but as an office to carry out the people's laws. Presidents are not empowered to spend a single dollar without Congressional authorization.”
“Support a proposed Constitutional Amendment to bar Presidents from pardoning themselves, family members, &/or members of their campaign or administration, who benefited the president personally for corrupt reasons, &/or carried out crimes ordered by the president.”
“Push back on executive overreach by opposing the use of executive orders and interagency "agreements" to bypass Congress and rewrite law without a vote as we've already seen with the dismantling of federal agencies and programs Congress created.”
“I'll demand that Congress provide oversight and limits on executive power.”
“Karen was one of the first federal workers to speak out against the Trump 2.0 regime's illegal Executive Orders”
“Currently there are few if any checks on Presidential pardon power, which has been misused to release dangerous criminals and corrupt associates of the President - including the J6 domestic terrorists who tried to overthrow the government.”
“Prohibit presidents from granting pardons to family, close friends, or themselves; using the office for personal enrichment; or exploiting government resources for campaign purposes.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- a president refusing to spend money Congress has already appropriated — which the law forbids, and what happens when it is done anyway
- emergency powers a president can claim indefinitely, with dozens of declared emergencies still open
- presidential records, and secrecy stamps used to hide rather than protect
Ethics Rules & Oversight Bodies
“Maria supports restoring and strengthening the Office of Congressional Ethics as a truly independent body with the resources and authority to investigate and hold members accountable — regardless of party.”
“By fully funding the Office of Congressional Ethics and establishing a new Senate Ethics Office, Mary will work to ensure that no one is off the hook for bad behavior.”
“Create a truly independent Congressional Ethics Agency with the power to investigate members for wrongdoing, so members of Congress no longer get to regulate themselves”
“We should expand the Government Accountability Office and roles of the Offices of Inspector General—agencies that already save taxpayers nearly $100 for every $1 of funding.”
“I will fight to fill all the inspector general positions that President Trump fired within two weeks of taking office. An act that Roger Marshall endorsed. I will fight to create protections to ensure these watchdogs are never allowed to be politicized again.”
“Ban on accepting personal gifts of more than $20”
“Require candidates and elected officials to disclose financial conflicts of interest in real time”
“Public Influences Earning Cap Act Establish an expansion to Ethics Prohibitions that lead to financial gain ... All Articles, Books, Media Appearances, Guest Speaking, Social Media - Restrictions not already in place, will be established during their tenure in office and for 5 years post-term.”
“Legislate a statutory set of program-specific key performance indicators (KPIs) at the point of authorization for every major federal program”
“Supporting the troops means protecting whistleblowers who expose fraud in defense contracting.”
“Five-year cooling-off period before any senior regulatory official can work for the industry they regulated.”
“There have been more prosecutions under the Espionage Act in the past six years than in the previous 90. While a need exists for some intelligence activities to be kept classified, leaving whistleblowers unprotected and worse, aggressively prosecuting them, removes an effective and essential check on government abuse.”
“Institute a permanent, lifetime ban on Members of Congress from becoming lobbyists. Ban immediate family members of Members of Congress serving as registered lobbyists for the duration of their congressional tenure.”
“Block pay for Members of Congress during government shutdowns.”
“If a private citizen knowingly lies to the federal government, it's a crime. If a politician knowingly lies to the public, there are often no consequences. That loophole enables corruption.”
“Nicole Locklin will work to establish enforceable standards for knowingly false statements made by elected officials in an official capacity, apply accountability to formal public communications, reports, and certifications, and clearly distinguish intentional deception from opinion or political disagreement.”
“Push for unionization for at-will congressional aides for more worker protection, enhance whistleblower integrity and protection, and mandate timeline for investigation and resolution, which will help curb corruption on Capitol Hill.”
“The goal of the Select Committee will be to bring so much evidence of intentional misconduct forward that ICE effectively loses its “qualified immunity” and an avalanche of lawsuits starts up in Minnesota and nationwide. ICE will effectively become bankrupt by the lawsuits, unleashed by Congressional evidence.”
“Reforming how Congress works: Require all committee votes to be public record. Limit proxy voting to defined emergency circumstances with full public transparency. Rebuild the Office of Technology Assessment so Congress has independent in-house expertise and isn't dependent on industry lobbyists to understand the technologies it's supposed to regulate.”
“Enforce the Johnson Amendment: Churches that engage in partisan politics should lose their tax-exempt status. Require churches and religious organizations to file basic tax returns, as other nonprofits do, to create transparency and improve accountability.”
“Pass Uniform Code of Public Servant Justice legislation to establish a higher standard of conduct and criminal liability for elected officials, political appointees, and any sworn federal officer or agent with arrest, detention, search, seizure, or removal authority, with mandatory minimum sentences for violations.”
“Corruption has run rampant due to the firings at regulatory watchdogs and similar organizations. Pass legislation to require Congressional approval for any action against independent agencies.”
“Create enforceable consequences for public officials, federal agents, judges, and presidents who abuse power.”
“Seat forfeiture for changing party after election, legal violation or job abandonment.”
“Ban accepting personal gifts of more than $20 by all Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, and Judicial Branch officials, including, but not limited to, the President, Vice President, political appointees, Members of Congress, and Supreme Court Justices.”
“Release the Epstein files. Prosecute every co-conspirator. No billionaire, politician, executive, or president —past or present—is above the law. If children or adults were trafficked, abused, or murdered, those responsible must face the maximum penalties under federal law. Justice must apply equally—no exceptions.”
“Require elected members of Congress to hold annual town halls, with at least a 72-hour public notice, and be responsive to their constituents in their district”
“Resist the politicization of the Department of Justice.”
“Fight for the release of the full and unredacted Epstein Files and for justice for survivors. Push for an overhaul of how Congress holds itself accountable when elected leaders are accused of misconduct.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- protecting a whistleblower whose own agency head wants them gone
- the law barring federal employees from campaigning while on duty or using their office to do it — and the fact that violations rarely bring a penalty
Government Transparency
“Fully codify the Constitution's Emoluments Clauses to safeguard against presidential self-dealing.”
“Bar members of Congress and presidential administrations from lobbying and for-profit corporate boards for a minimum 8 years after office”
“The MAD Act would change that by creating JEOS (the Judicial Executive Oversight System) a specialized court staffed by independent federal judges whose sole purpose is monitoring the official communications of senior executive branch officials.”
“Post-Service Lobbying Ban Act Enact a Lifetime Ban on Paid Lobbying after Leaving Office ... Bars members from engaging in lobbying activities in a paid or compensated capacity. -Around 40 - 60% of exiting lawmakers each year work directly in private sector jobs with federal influence, with some earning over $1 Million a year”
“I will propose a law that prevents ALL members of our government from lobbying for at least six years from leaving their offices. Until our politicians redirect their attention back to us – and not their funders – we will continue to see their votes reflect the will of those with the most money.”
“I will propose a law that removes all privileges to access within our capital for former members of government that become lobbyists. If an average citizen cannot access it, neither should a lobbyist.”
“I will propose a law that makes it mandatory that any industry group whose language is included in a bill be prominently highlighted for everyone to see, before a vote is taken on a bill.”
“I will work to create a federal mechanism where all public companies must disclose ALL their political spending in quarterly reports, including lobbying and to which candidates and PACs and make it available for us all to see.”
“Mary will work to pass the Shell Company Abuse Act to crack down on foreign influence in our politics.”
“Over the past 15 years, more than 350 outgoing members of Congress have become lobbyists; in one recent year alone, more than half of departing members joined the lobbying industry. And to protect themselves from scrutiny, they insist on regulating themselves, writing their own rules full of loopholes, and restricting investigations into wrongdoing.”
“Permanently ban all Members of Congress, their families, and their staff from becoming lobbyists, including retroactively”
“A former House member waits one year before lobbying Congress; a former senator waits two. Then the door is wide open. ... And the work happens in the dark. Lobbyists write whole bills and hand them over with no rule that says who wrote them. Meetings between members and lobbyists aren’t logged.”
“A lifetime ban on becoming a registered lobbyist after I leave Congress. Permanent. That is the standard I hold myself to. What I would write into law is a five-year wait for everybody - what Canada already does, and five times the one year we ask now. A pledge only binds whoever signs it. A statute binds the rest.”
“Title V authorizes the first mass digitization of the federal government's records — all of them — and puts over a billion dollars behind it.”
“We should strengthen the First Amendment rights of whistleblowers and journalists reporting information in the public interest, and narrow the Espionage Act of 1917 to be more targeted toward actual acts of espionage and not leaks made to the press about abuses of power.”
“Federal agencies need to post spending data in a standardized and downloadable format. We should ensure that government improves its standards so that data is not only available, but also machine-readable.”
“Every member of Congress can direct federal funds to specific projects back home - up to 15 of them each year. It's called an earmark. Every request is posted publicly, so you can see exactly what I asked for.”
“Every member of Congress who votes against a lifetime lobbying ban should be forced to defend that vote to constituents, to explain why former lawmakers should be permitted to multiply their salaries by 1,452 percent by selling influence to corporations.”
“Require public disclosure of FISA Section 702 query volumes and compliance violations — not buried in classified annexes, but in public reports the press and the public can read.”
“Mandatory Declassification Sunsets: Shifting the burden of proof from the public to the state. Under Fresh Start, government records, including those concerning UAP encounters and high-profile judicial archives, would be subject to automated “Sunset Clauses.” Information is released by default after a set duration unless the state can prove an ongoing, specific threat to national security.”
“Closes the revolving door between regulatory agencies and the industries they regulate — permanent ban for Cabinet-level officials, 10 years for senior staff”
“Support the Close the Revolving Door Act (H.R. 3554) , a lifetime ban on former members of Congress becoming lobbyists. Require full disclosure of all lobbyist contacts with congressional offices. Restrict former lobbyists from taking senior congressional staff or regulatory positions; the revolving door spins both ways.”
“End backroom deals. Require public reporting of meetings with lobbyists, enforce stronger ethics standards”
“Meta spent $25 million on lobbying in 2025.”
“Lifetime Ban on serving as registered lobbyists for Members of Congress and their immediate family members.”
“lifetime bans on former members of Congress lobbying for industries they oversaw”
“End the Revolving Door: Serving in congress should not be an application for powerful lobbying firms. No congressperson should be able to exploit their connections in capitol hill by joining a lobbying firm within five years of leaving office.”
“Mandate that the White House and Congress publish records of contacts from lobbyists and interested parties (federal contractors). Expand the restrictions and close loopholes on members of Congress from becoming lobbyists when they step down from their seats.”
“Advocate for a moratorium on lobbying for at least 5 years for congressional representatives following the end of their elected term”
“A ten-year ban on lobbying for former members of Congress, senior staff, and immediate family members”
“Ban lobbyist money and close the revolving door — a two-year ban on direct lobbying”
“Maria supports significantly strengthening revolving door restrictions, including longer cooling-off periods before former members of Congress and senior staff can become lobbyists.”
“Strengthen ethics rules, close lobbying loopholes, and extend cooling-off periods before former officials can become lobbyists, to break the revolving door between government and special interests.”
“Trust in federal institutions has eroded because the flow of information is a one-way street: the government knows everything about you, while you know increasingly little about the government.”
“A Moratorium on Lobbying: Washington insiders shouldn't use elected office as a stepping stone to a lucrative corporate lobbying career. I will vote for an at-minimum five-year moratorium before any former member of Congress can register as a lobbyist.”
“Pass legislation to fully uphold the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, preventing officials from selling influence or favors to foreign actors.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- public records requests, and the exemptions agencies use to refuse them
Supreme Court / Judiciary Reform
“All decisions must be by Super Majority, at least 7 out of 9”
“enforceable consequences for SCOTUS accountability measure violations through passage of the Judiciary Act of 2021”
“He supports establishing a binding code of ethics for Supreme Court justices, strengthening financial disclosure requirements, and exploring term limits to reduce the concentration of power in any single appointment. No judge, regardless of position, should be exempt from meaningful ethical oversight.”
“All Supreme Court justices must be elected and not appointed. I believe each state and territory should elect one justice for the court. Nine justices are not enough, in my opinion.”
“With 13 federal circuits and only 9 justices, the Court is stretched thin and increasingly politicized. It's time to modernize the institution to meet the needs of a growing and diverse country.”
“An Independent Attorney General of the United States. As in done in 43 states, including Pennsylvania, the Attorney General of the United States should be an independent elected office which operates as part of the Judicial Branch of the Federal Government. It's vital that this position is not under the control of the Presidency or Congress, subject to political influence or pressure. This is the people's national attorney, not the President's, and should be accountable only to to us.”
“Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act (H.R. 1074): This already-proposed bill would create 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices and schedule one new appointed justice every 2 years, ending the random, political timing of vacancies.”
“Institute retroactive 18 year term limits for Supreme Court Justices and expand the court to add new justices and redress the abuses of the current regressive super-majority”
“Supreme Court justices should not be able to hold or trade stocks, nor accept gifts such as yacht rides from billionaire donors with a stake in their decisions. They must be forced to recuse themselves from decisions when they or someone close to them has personal or financial ties to the case.”
“Supreme Court reform 18-year terms; mandatory retirement at 70; binding Congressional ethics committee with power to censure, strip bar licenses, force recusal, impose fines, or remove justices — same ethics rules as every other federal judge.”
“Add seats to the Supreme Court. Nine isn’t in the Constitution. Congress picked that number and has changed it seven times. ... Adding seats just takes a law and a majority - no amendment.”
“Supreme Court reform and expansion (to 13 - one per appeals district). No more shadow docket. Consider 2-3 panels or other procedure to increase productivity.”
“To depoliticize the Supreme Court, we must require a two-thirds Senate majority to confirm Justices, expand the Court to 15 seats, and implement 18-year term limits for Supreme Court Justices with appointments spread out evenly and fairly between presidential terms.”
“Expanding and transforming the Supreme Court to restore public trust and end the grip of elite ideological pipelines like the Federalist Society. No branch of government should be above accountability.”
“Term limits and ethics reform for the Supreme Court, including binding ethics rules for all federal judges.”
“It's not a question of IF, it's a matter of HOW we expand the Court, enact a code of ethics, and impeach corrupt judges.”
“We're going to cap the length of time officials can serve at eighteen years.”
“Implement term limits and a binding code of conduct for U.S. Supreme Court justices.”
“Aswar strongly supports 18-year term limits for Supreme Court Justices, a mandatory and enforceable Code of Ethics, and expanding lower federal courts to ensure timely justice for working families.”
“Pass term limits for Congress and introduce Rotate the Court legislation, reforming SCOTUS to make it larger, cases decided by rotating panels, and major precedent changing only with broad agreement.”
“I support a system in which each president is guaranteed two Supreme Court appointments per term one at the beginning and one at the end of their term.”
“For any judge who serves for their full term, pass away, is impeached, or resigns before their term is up, a lottery system would be used to appoint a replacement from a pool of qualified federal judges, ensuring that the Court remains fully staffed and functional at all times.”
“Establishing an enforceable ethics code for the Supreme Court”
“I'll continue advocating for bold proposals to reform the U.S. Supreme Court, changes to lifetime appointments, term limits, and accountability.”
“The judiciary should serve the Constitution, not a lifetime of politics. We must implement term limits for the federal judiciary to promote accountability, reduce partisanship, and ensure that our courts evolve with the values and realities of a changing nation.”
“Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”
Civil Service & Merit Protection
“Appointments to critical leadership roles such as CDC Director, FDA Commissioner, and NIH Director should be similar to those for the FBI Director and Federal Reserve: they should be fixed-term appointments that cannot be removed except under specific circumstances.”
“No one should lose Medicaid, food assistance, unemployment, or disability benefits, or be accused of fraud, on the say-so of an algorithm with no human review. I would require that a person can always get a clear reason for the decision, a human being who will look at their case, and a fast appeal.”
“By making large portions of the professional workforce subject to the whims of political leaders, the rule risks: increased turnover and loss of institutional knowledge; self-censorship and reduced willingness to raise legal or ethical concerns; politicization of everyday government work; weaker services for the public”
“OPM received more than 40,500 public comments on the proposal and acknowledged that roughly 94% opposed it.”
“countries that hire government employees based on political loyalty rather than non-partisan merit are more prone to corruption and favoritism.”
“This is one of the most significant changes to the civil service in generations. It threatens longstanding merit-based protections, increases political pressure on career staff, and risks weakening the government's ability to serve the public.”
“Civil servants are nonpartisan experts who pledge an oath to defend the Constitution, not a political party.”
“Strengthen safeguards for federal employees who expose waste, fraud, or abuse.”
Foreign Policy
Israel / Palestine / Gaza
“Aisha will not support sending offensive weapons to Israel, and she doesn't believe there is such a thing as "defensive" bombs.”
“Confirming the obvious, 500 Genocide Scholars published a report in Sep 2025 declaring that Israel was committing a genocide. It continues to this day.”
“When I spoke out against the genocide in Gaza, powerful people told me to stay silent or it would cost me my job.”
“Demand full enforcement and compliance with the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire agreement. Israel has committed over 2,000 documented violations since signing, killing more than 700 Palestinians, and the US must use its leverage to enforce the terms it helped negotiate rather than look away.”
“South Africa, a former apartheid state, has accused Israel of currently being an apartheid state. If, as a member of Congress, you correctly recognized that South Africa was an apartheid state, there is no excuse for not recognizing the current reality in Israel.”
“Diop supports: an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, passage of the Block the Bombs Act to ensure US tax dollars are spent on domestic priorities, and a viable two-state solution that guarantees security for Israelis and self-determination for Palestinians.”
“We must boycott, divest, and sanction to end the genocide in Palestine. Joshua will fight for an immediate and actualized ceasefire in Gaza, for the rights and safety of Israelis and Palestinians, and for Palestinian's right to self-determination.”
“Only the Palestinian and Israeli people have the right to choose their government, whether it is a single state with equal rights and freedoms for all, a two state solution, or something else entirely. ... The U.S. must end all support for the genocide that Israel’s government is carrying out. ... It is not enough to simply stop providing arms to Israel (though I certainly support the Block the Bombs Act).”
“Israel’s security matters, and so do Palestinian lives—there should be no blank checks for military actions that cause widespread civilian suffering. ... I will not take AIPAC money —or any special interest—having outsized influence over U.S. policy because taxpayer-funded foreign policy decisions must be accountable, lawful, and centered on human rights rather than political pressure.”
“Declaring a comprehensive arms embargo and the ending of all military aid to Israel, demonstrating the U.S. stands with our fellow democracies in enforcing international law. ... Through a multinational effort, ensure equal protections and Right of Return for Palestinians under international law.”
“I support conditioning any present or future U.S. military transfers – particularly the transfer of any offensive weaponry – on rigorous compliance with U.S. laws like the Leahy Act and human rights standards.”
“End Israel's genocide in Gaza and Trump's war in Iran; redirect $3.8B in military aid to housing, healthcare, and education”
“I have been a one state solution supporter since 2011. I was not surprised by how far Israel went after the Oct 7th terrorist attack. The attack on Israel and the warcrimes in Gaza are symptoms of the same underlying problem of an Apartheid system. The 2 state solution America has pursued my entire life led us here; it's time to change course and live up to our own values.”
“Uphold US law and enact a full arms embargo ending all military aid to Israel, as required by the Leahy law, which prohibits military or security assistance to any country credibly accused of gross human rights violations”
“Gaza and Palestine What is happening in Gaza is not consistent with our understanding of proportional warfare. ... When an entire population is deprived of necessities, we have crossed into a humanitarian crisis of the highest order.”
“Aswar strongly supports halting arms supplies to Israel, mandating war crimes investigations for the Netanyahu regime, and replacing the corrupt "Board of Peace" with a UN-led coalition to path the way for democratic elections and Palestinian statehood.”
“That starts with urgently enforcing conditions and standards for U.S. aid to Israel, including halting weapons sales, bringing an end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and ushering in humanitarian and economic development aid to Gaza immediately.”
“More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in any other conflict zone in modern history , with over 75% of all journalists killed in 2023 being Palestinian.”
“More than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023, with at least 20,000 children among the dead—1 child killed every hour for 24 months.”
“she will not accept money from AIPAC, an organization she traveled with, but now considers as part of the problem.”
“Protect innocent life by stopping offensive weapons sales to the Netanyahu government while supporting defensive systems like the Iron Dome alongside agreements that American funds will not be used to harm civilians.”
“Our campaign is not afraid to condemn the horrific actions of October 7th and also the subsequent genocide. We do not support killing civilians anywhere, by anyone, for any reason. An act of terrorism is not a pardon for future crimes against humanity.”
“The United States must immediately accredit an ambassador from the State of Palestine. The United States must insist that Israel fully withdraw from the Occupied Territories and remove all settlements – this includes East Jerusalem.”
“A ceasefire in Gaza is necessary but not sufficient. The occupation of the West Bank, the expansion of illegal settlements, and the systematic dispossession of Palestinian people must also end.”
“Call a Genocide a Genocide in ANY country it's happening: Ban arms sales to Israel & demand sanctions, recognize Palestine, support the ICC's arrest warrant of Netanyahu for war crimes, and ban foreign interests like AIPAC from operating and funding politicians in the US. Hold every country where genocide is occurring (such as Sudan) with equal accountability.”
“What is happening in Gaza is a genocide. I will say that clearly because it is true, and because the refusal of elected officials to name it has become part of the problem. The United States must end all weapons transfers to Israel. Not condition them. Not review them. End them.”
“Recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return, the right to resist military occupation, and the right to self determination in a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. End all military and economic aid to Israel. Prosecute U.S. and Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza.”
War Powers & Defense Spending
“The Pentagon commands the largest budget of any federal agency. Year after year, nearly $1 trillion of taxpayer money is spent enriching defense contractors and fueling wars overseas.”
“Requires a yearly 2% reduction in military spending to be transferred to fund public housing”
“The Department of Defense is the only federal agency that has never passed a clean financial audit.”
“Cut the military budget by 50% and reinvest in domestic needs. Close foreign military bases and bring troops home. End arms sales to human rights abusers.”
“Diop opposes unauthorized military action against Iran and believes Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority over matters of war and peace. Decisions that place American service members in harm's way should never be made without public debate, congressional approval, and a clear understanding of the consequences.”
“Under the Constitution, Congress — and only Congress — has the power to declare war. ... No more blank checks. No more blind eyes. If it’s worth American blood, it is worth a full, public, and rigorous debate in the halls of Congress.”
“repealing the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)”
“Congress hasn't formally declared war since World War II and yet we've sent generations of Americans into conflicts around the world. It's time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional authority by revising the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and reining in unchecked executive power.”
“the proposed Golden Dome missile-defense system, closing useless bases, ending useless upgrades to intercontinental ballistic missiles”
“Reclaim Congress' constitutional authority over war powers, Condition all foreign military assistance on strict adherence to international law and human rights standards, ensuring American dollars never fund war crimes, Rein in military spending, redirecting billions toward urgent domestic needs like housing, healthcare, and climate resiliency”
“Reduce the Pentagon budget by at least 10% to shift money to programs which make a good life affordable for working class Americans, continuing with further reductions as we build reliable collective security commitments and investments that prevent aggression and secure peace”
“We spent about a trillion dollars last year on the military, and the war in Iran has cost over a billion each day. There is always money for bombs, but never money for you. Rather than using such a ridiculously large portion of our tax dollars for violence and war, we should be investing in education, healthcare, the environment, and American families.”
“Rashida is one of the few Congresspeople who consistently votes NO on the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) , because she can't justify Congress continually rubber stamping annual increases to our bloated military budget (half of which goes to for-profit corporations).”
“By ending unconditional military aid and closing redundant overseas bases in non-combat zones, we can safely reduce the defense budget by $300–$500 billion annually .”
“She will fight to constrain any president's ability to drag the country into needless wars, champion back-from-the-brink legislation so no single person has unilateral authority to launch nuclear weapons, and demand that Congress meet its constitutional responsibility to authorize the use of military force.”
“I support repealing the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force, which have been used to justify military action far beyond their original scope.”
“U.S. taxpayers paid $4.4 trillion to military contractors between 2020 and 2024. An independent audit of military contractors will show which ones are overcharging the government. Examples of abuse include $640 toilet seats and $7,600 coffee pots.”
“Oppose defense budget increases not tied to specific, auditable programs. Require the Department of Defense to pass a full independent audit and condition future budget increases on audit compliance.”
“The DoD has been mismanaged for years, having failed 7 consecutive full-scale audits, and unable to account for 61% of its assets. Pass legislation requiring financial oversight and enforcement.”
“Trump and the majority of the GOP continue to side with dictators instead of the American people, while allowing the administration to conduct unauthorized military operations without congressional authority. Pass legislation to properly fund protection of our Ukrainian allies to fight Russia's illegal invasion, recommit to NATO, and require explicit congressional authorization before hostilities in Iran, Venezuela, the Caribbean, or elsewhere.”
“Reduce military budget, force DOD to pass their audit to limit military industrial complex”
“I will vote to repeal the War Powers Act of 2001. There is no such thing as a defensive first strike or a preemptive strike.”
“Stop illegal wars. Only Congress has the power to authorize war. End the use of vague, unending authorizations for military force.”
“We're currently at war with Iran; however, no one voted on it. Congress had three chances to vote to stop this, but instead, they handed over their constitutional authority to one person.”
“I will support limits on covert actions and reform the War Powers Act to end the President’s ability to launch attacks without Congressional authorization.”
“While defense contractors make billions in profits every year, veterans have some of the highest rates of homelessness, suicide, and mental health crises. At every step, these budgets happen at the expense of the American people – especially those who are shipped overseas to fight politicians’ wars for them.”
“In the richest country in the world, people can't afford rent and groceries but Congress always finds money to drop bombs on people - in "other" parts of the world.”
“the power to declare war belongs to Congress. This principle exists for a reason”
“Congress's constitutional war powers: no new wars without a congressional vote.”
“Instead of wasting billions on outdated weapons and corporate contracts, funds could be used to power homes with renewable energy, hire more teachers, reduce college costs, and ensure our veterans receive the healthcare and dignity they deserve.”
“Congress must reassert its constitutional authority over federal spending and war powers. We cannot allow any President, regardless of party, to bypass the people's representatives to fund pet projects or enter conflicts without a vote.”
“You know what doesn’t cost a trillion dollars? Leading with diplomacy, our nation’s greatest foreign policy asset — not bombs and weapons.”
“Pass a streamlined, de-bloated Defense Bill that results in incremental spending decreases per annum, refocusing funds to where they are most needed while decreasing DoD's carbon footprint.”
“According to the National Priorities Project, with a 10 percent reduction in the base Pentagon budget, we could put 1,590,000 million students through 4 years of college, or provide 22,290,000 children with healthcare for a year”
“PDA works tirelessly with progressive members of Congress to support legislation that divests from the war machine, reduces the Pentagon’s soaring military budgetary priorities, and redirects our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs, and other human needs.”
“Break the cycle of endless war through legislation that restricts executive abuse of war powers permanently.”
“We fought hard to finally stop America's longest war with our End the Forever War Campaign in 2020 and we refuse to let Trump or any president drag us into new Forever Wars.”
Anti-Militarism / Ending Proxy Wars
“Ban military contractors in war zones. ... A first step in Ending Endless Wars ... Apply savings to salaries of enlistees – our soldiers are professionals”
“the United States is the only nation with over 750 military bases in 80 different countries”
“I endorse and support the creation of The Department of Peace (Peacebuilding).”
“No war with Iran - meaningful change must come from the Iranian people, you can't bomb a country into democracy.”
“That's why I vow to always stand for peace by fighting to restore Donald Trump's cuts of USAID, demanding we re-enter international treaties to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons, and introducing legislation to strip Donald Trump (or any US President) from sole authority to launch a nuclear strike.”
“Leads the fight to ban members of Congress from profiting off war, and to ensure that U.S. tax dollars are not used to fund the genocidal Israeli military’s human rights abuses .”
“When I am in Congress, I will cosponsor H.Res.317 and the HALT Act, and I will vote against funding new explosive nuclear tests and destabilizing new warheads.”
“Wasteful programs like the F-35 and outdated and dangerous weapons systems like ICBMs can safely be eliminated to free up billions of dollars per year for human needs. A global network of bases is unsustainable for us and the world. Instead of ruling with an iron fist, let’s bring our troops home to their families and focus on diplomacy.”
“Cut funding to imperialist military activities and focus on defensive purposes. Bring troops home from 750 military bases across the globe. Audit the Pentagon and stop funneling taxpayer money to military contractors. Fully fund Veteran Affairs with imperial war budget savings.”
“We are spending nearly a trillion in taxpayer dollars to pad the pockets of defense contractors. Additionally, the US Military is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases of any institution on Earth, which does not make us safer, support military families better, or improve veterans healthcare.”
“The bipartisan war machine has delivered immense suffering around the world while doing little to improve the lives of working people here or abroad.”
“She will push to de-prioritize the use of military force... strength being based not in bluster and bombs but in alliances and cooperation”
“It is essential that we immediately cease our involvement in these endless imperial wars and adopt non-interventionism as a general policy.”
“Ending U.S.-backed coups, regime change efforts”
“True strength isn't about the weapons you wield or how intimidating you appear. It's about the relationships you build, the promises you keep, how you treat the less fortunate, and your ability to negotiate fairly and calmly.”
“As a supporter of the People Over Pentagon movement, Lateefah believes it’s time to reinvest in the people's needs.”
“From the closure of U.S. military bases abroad to reparations to the global south to the reinstitution and revision of USAID so it can be an organization of public diplomacy and global cooperation rather than imperially-focused influence, it is our responsibility to use our immense wealth to make wrongs right”
“No more blank checks for state violence, no more endless wars, no more complicity in oppression.”
“War is not a foreign policy.”
“Champion targeted economic and political measures that discourage prolonged warfare and civilian harm Reevaluate military aid and partnerships to ensure alignment with human rights standards Support transparency in how U.S. resources are used in global conflicts”
“Defund the Department of War. End all foreign wars and close overseas military bases. Support and fully employ veterans. End immunity for U.S. war criminals and support the International Criminal Court's mandate to prosecute war crimes.”
“By mobilizing diverse constituencies through grassroots action, we work to: Achieve a world free of nuclear weapons in the future while stopping the development, testing, spread and use of those weapons today”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- competing with China without sliding into a new cold war
International Law & Accountability
“Protect the International Criminal Court from being ended, as the Trump administration has said it wants to do.”
“Join the International Criminal Court and commit to establish universal standards of accountability under international law to which we hold ourselves”
“The U.S. must finally join the International Criminal Court, not place sanctions on it as Trump has done. We must hold leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable. The U.S. must also abide by the International Court of Justice, which helps countries resolve disputes through diplomacy and litigation rather than violent conflict.”
“American weapons should never be used to commit war crimes or repress civilians. I support strict oversight and transparency for U.S. arms sales and military assistance, including enforceable human-rights conditions, meaningful congressional review, and automatic suspension when violations occur.”
“The United States government determined on January 7, 2025, that Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forces committed genocide in Darfur during the current conflict in Sudan. Our government must place sanctions on actors blocking aid or violating Darfur's arms embargo and pressure allies, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to stop weapons transfers to Sudan.”
“No country committing human rights violations should be receiving our aid—from Saudi Arabia to Israel”
“In fact, the United States has one of the worst records of any country in ratifying UN human rights treaties. The problem isn't just that we haven't ratified the treaties, it's that we violate them, in the U.S. and internationally.”
“He will push this administration and every one after it to apply the Leahy Law and the Foreign Assistance Act to Israel exactly as they are applied to everyone else, with transparent vetting and real consequences. Our human rights laws bind every recipient of American aid, or they are worth nothing.”
“the United States is not and should never be an exception to international law and cooperation. We must rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, be an active partner in the United Nations rather than a bully, and sign onto the Rome Statute, so we are beholden to the same laws as almost every other country in the world.”
“I will support legislation to join the International Criminal Court, because no President should be above the law. I will support rebuilding and reimagining USAID to invest in global health, flourishing, and peace. I will oppose aid to any country committing war crimes and fix the Leahy Law to make sure no President can ignore the law when he wants.”
“Support accountability for war crimes. Respect the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, including its warrants, regardless of which ally is implicated. Support the right of return for Palestinian refugees consistent with UN Resolution 194. Apply the same standard globally and oppose US military aid enabling atrocities in Yemen, Sudan, and anywhere US weapons are used in violation of international law.”
“Reject any peace deal that rewards illegal land grabs, forced annexation, or ethnic cleansing. Back international efforts to hold Russian war criminals accountable , including support for the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
“Publicly condemn actions that result in mass civilian death, forced displacement, famine, and the destruction of hospitals and infrastructure Oppose the use of starvation, siege tactics, and attacks on medical facilities as tools of war Support investigations into potential violations of international law”
“I also believe that the United Nations should be allowed to conduct an unrestricted investigation into all war crimes committed by anyone or any entity during the genocide, and that those responsible for atrocities be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court, as is consistent with international law.”
“Restoring U.S. participation and funding across UN agencies , including the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, and core humanitarian and public health programs that Americans and the rest of the world rely on.”
“The Leahy Law must be enforced consistently, with no exceptions for any country, and U.S. complicity in the genocide of Palestinians must end.”
Rejoining the World Community
Opportunities for candidates to address
- rejoining the international agreements and organizations the U.S. walked out of
- treaties the United States signed and never ratified — on the rights of disabled people, of women, of children, and on the law of the sea
- paying poorer countries for climate damage the wealthy ones caused
- nuclear arms control now that the last treaty with Russia has lapsed, and a promise never to strike first
- an international agreement on the next pandemic, and rejoining the World Health Organization
- the international agreement on a minimum corporate tax, and the United States as a hiding place for other countries’ money
- debt relief for poor countries, and reforming the global lenders that set their terms
- how many refugees the country takes, as a measure of its standing in the world
Sanctions, Embargoes & Blockades
“From Cuba to Venezuela, from Iran to North Korea, American embargoes have caused immense human suffering without achieving their stated goals... End the embargo on Cuba. Sixty years of failure is enough.”
“A smarter, more effective, ... target the regime, not the people! Focus sanctions on officials responsible for corruption and human rights abuses, instead of broad restrictions that impact an entire population. ... allow greater access to food, medicine, humanitarian aid, and civilian infrastructure, especially energy.”
“End US illegal economic and military aggression in Latin America, including extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, military invasion and intervention in Venezuela, and the cruel embargo on Cuba”
“Economic statecraft should target corruption, human-rights abuses, and aggression while minimizing harm to ordinary people. I support reforming U.S. sanctions policy to emphasize multilateral coordination, workable humanitarian exemptions, and regular review to ensure effective impact.”
“Elijah will work to bar American citizens and tax-exempt organizations from financing settlement growth and settler violence.”
“Maintain sanctions on Russia while offering a clear path to rollback if genuine withdrawal and accountability steps are taken.”
“Sanctions don't change governments. They starve children, deny medicine to the sick, and punish the innocent. Real solidarity with oppressed peoples means ending the policies that make their lives harder.”
“Address Root Causes: Migration is often the result of failed U.S. foreign policies. I will advocate for ending harmful sanctions in Latin America and investing in sustainable development abroad so people aren't forced to flee their homes.”
“The newest US sanctions of fuel procurement is creating a humanitarian crisis disproportionately affecting women, children, and the elderly. These sanctions are causing prolonged blackouts, disrupting health care services, critical shortages of medicines and cancer-treatment capacity, and food shortages.”
“You cannot support a people's right to democracy if you starve them.”
“I will support an end to our failed embargo of Cuba and end broad sanctions, because disagreements between governments should not impoverish any people.”
“People around the world deserve to live their lives without U.S. interference. End economic warfare against countries whose governments act independently of the United States, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.”
Technology
AI Safety & Accountability
“Protect people from algorithmic discrimination AI that makes decisions about housing, lending, healthcare, insurance, or incarceration must be auditable, challengeable, and subject to mandatory human review. Automated bias is still bias. It is still illegal. Enforce it.”
“Aswar supports prohibiting unauthorized AI replication of a person's likeness or intellectual work, mandating "human-in-the-loop" oversight for all federal AI decision-making, and establishing strong labor and copyright protections for workers, artists, and journalists whose livelihoods are threatened by automation.”
“As AI becomes part of hiring, promotion, and workplace decisions, high-impact employment outcomes should always include meaningful human review and responsibility, particularly around denials.”
“People deserve to know when they are interacting with AI. This includes: clear labeling of AI-generated content; authenticity standards for political media; protections against deceptive AI in elections.”
“Companies developing advanced AI should be required to evaluate the safety of their systems before deployment and take reasonable steps to identify and mitigate serious risks.”
“AI systems generally accessed by minors should have a duty of care. If designed for repeated interaction with minors, they should include safeguards to detect and respond appropriately to potential mental health risks, harmful engagement patterns.”
“AI is accelerating this problem: it is being used to deny people healthcare, replace workers, surveil communities, and make military decisions that should require human judgment. The Pentagon is integrating AI into operations faster than lawmakers can provide oversight, and the companies building these systems have amassed so much power that they can pay for whatever laws they want.”
“AI is moving faster than any law on the books can handle and carries real risks in both the immediate and longterm. Much of this development could be genuinely good. AI has the potential to be one of the most beneficial technologies in human history. But it's also having emotionally intimate conversations with children, generating synthetic child abuse material, its data centers are wreaking havoc on communities, and it's being deployed in elections and on battlefields without any federal rules providing guardrails. Pro-safety isn't anti-AI.”
“Support creation of a Federal AI Safety Administration to license and oversee the most powerful AI systems. Require frontier AI models to be licensed before deployment.”
“establish an Independent Federal AI Safety Authority to enforce binding standards”
“Real safety requirements for AI chatbots and companion apps, including mandatory protocols to detect suicidal ideation and connect users to real crisis resources.”
“Any AI used by the federal government to make consequential decisions about citizens should be auditable, documented in plain language, and reversible through real human review.”
“We should require transparency in AI systems, clear accountability when harm is caused, and ... ban the sale of sensitive personal information, and close backdoor data purchases by law enforcement.”
“No AI for military targeting or autonomous weapons Decisions to use lethal force must remain with human beings. Machines do not bear moral responsibility. We do.”
“Congress must also pass legislation limiting national security agencies from using AI technology to launch lethal strikes, and prohibit the Pentagon from any use of AI in its nuclear weapons program.”
“Disclosure required of AI usage. Character likeness require advance approval & share in profits.”
“This includes clear safety testing standards for frontier models; liability and incident reporting standards; compute controls, including "know your customer" requirements for compute providers; and the creation of an independent technical agency with real enforcement power, like to the Food & Drug Administration, for AI.”
“They should have to prove those systems are safe before the public gains access to them, the way a new airplane is certified before it carries passengers. These rules would cover only the biggest builders, the companies that earn more than $500 million a year from AI or spend more than a billion dollars a year training it.”
“each of these companies would also have to open its most capable models to at least one qualified independent evaluator with genuine access. The government would fund and set standards for those evaluators so they do not depend on the companies they review, and could rate and assign them so no company can shop for the friendliest reviewer.”
“People on the receiving end should have rights they can use: the right to be told when a machine made a decision about them, the right to a plain-language explanation of why, the right to have a human review it, and the right to take a company to court when an algorithm discriminates against them.”
“The federal law should set the minimum safety rules that every one of the biggest AI companies has to meet. States should stay free to go further and add protections of their own. If Washington ever does preempt a state law, it should be surgical, limited only to the specific safety functions the federal government takes on.”
“I will work to charter a single federal Artificial Intelligence Authority with the power to write rules, investigate, subpoena, audit, impose civil penalties, and block or withdraw any deployment. The Authority would adopt an improved version of the European Union’s tiered approach: a set of prohibited uses, a defined class of high-risk uses bound by mandatory obligations, and transparency requirements for everything else.”
“Frontier models above a set threshold of computing power or capability, and high-risk systems in regulated domains, would require approval before release. Developers would carry the burden of proof through safety cases. The Authority could approve a model, attach conditions, require a staged rollout, or deny approval outright. Approvals would remain revocable, so a system already in use could be suspended, restricted, or recalled.”
“A dedicated, ring-fenced tax on developers, on frontier computing power, and on the energy and water consumed by data centers would fund the Authority outside annual appropriations, with registration fees added. Any surplus would flow to a public return fund, such as for Universal Basic Income .”
“A bot should have to recognize when a user is in crisis and steer them to a person and to help. It should clearly and repeatedly tell the user it is not human. It should be barred from claiming to be a licensed therapist or doctor when it is not. And it should not be built to exploit loneliness with tricks designed to keep a vulnerable person hooked.”
“Clear disclosure that a user is talking to a machine, not a person — at the start of every conversation and repeated regularly, so no one, especially a child, is confused or manipulated into an unhealthy emotional dependency. Banning AI companies from letting chatbots impersonate licensed doctors, therapists, or attorneys Independent safety testing before AI products reach kids , not after the harm is already done.”
“The AI Transparency in Elections Act Would require clear disclaimers on political ads that use significant artificial intelligence-generated content.”
“Keep kids off addictive social media until 16”
“Include worker voices in government-funded AI research and development, and defend the right to transparency and human review for automated decisionmaking around promotions, discipline, and terminations.”
“I'll require companies to build guardrails, and I'll fight to create public-interest safety oversight agencies for these groups and to establish legal causes of action to hold corporations accountable.”
“Algorithmic Hygiene & Auditing: Requiring federal agencies to disclose the data inputs used in predictive modeling. By auditing these “black box” systems, we ensure that the government isn't making life-altering decisions based on corrupted or “zombie” information.”
“All published images and videos should include a disclaimer identifying if they were created by AI or altered with programs. There should be three distinct categories: Minor Alterations ... Major Alterations ... Generated Content”
“Elected Officials should be banned from sharing or propagating AI-generated content in any official capacity. Doing so should be grounds for fines or impeachment.”
“Anything made with AI must be labeled as such”
“I support the regulation of AI to protect our privacy, personal likeness, and intellectual property”
“Lateefah hopes to establish clear regulatory frameworks to create an environment fostering technological progress and consumer protection. This vision includes implementing strong safeguards to secure personal data, promoting equitable access to technology, and expanding affordable internet access.”
“Enacting rights-protecting AI governance legislation, like the Artificial Intelligence Civil Rights Act, that mandates pre- and post-deployment model testing, minimum transparency standards, and human alternatives to AI decision-making, as well as other rights-protecting provisions.”
— UnidosUS
Opportunities for candidates to address
- ransomware attacks on hospitals, water systems and schools
- computer-chip manufacturing policy beyond announcing subsidies
Data Center Moratorium
“That's why Carleigh supports a moratorium on data center construction until we have legislation that requires these companies to address and offset the impact of new data centers on public health, the environment, and energy prices and these corporations are subject to aggressive anti-trust enforcement and robust data privacy protections.”
“Slow down the process of planning and building hyperscale data centers with immediate 18 month moratoriums on all construction. Improved regulatory codes and processes for protecting the environment from data center construction and operation. Tax reform for data centers that ensures they pay their fair share of the cost in taking up so much land.”
“End special treatment for hyperscale data centers. Data centers are being forced on our communities without local consent. Our Senators have encouraged data center development. We will fight for a moratorium on data center development. We will support our communities to reclaim local control over standards, zoning and taxes.”
“In Congress, Micah will: Support a national moratorium on the construction of new data centers while lawmakers ensure they will not destroy our environment or spike costs”
“Fighting a Data Center in Your Town? A negotiation framework for municipalities, councils, and citizen coalitions. Grid, water, noise, lifecycle, and community benefit demands.”
“I'll fight for a national data center NDA ban, and moratoriums on building data centers to let local and state governments assess the real costs without getting rolled by mega-corporations bullying them.”
“Keep AI hyperscale data centers out of District 16 until they prove they won't drain our aquifers, raise utility costs, contaminate our air, or override local control.”
“Place a ban on construction of any new data centers until they can be completely renewable and we have online data protections”
“Aisha supports a national moratorium on new AI data center construction until strong national safeguards are in place to protect energy resources, water supply, and local communities.”
“Drew Cox will fight to implement a federal moratorium on AI data centers, as well as regulation requiring that all data centers use green energy to power their activities.”
“Moratorium on new AI data centers to prevent power cost increases for local communities and establish effective regulations to ensure the transformational technology benefits all of us not just the oligarchs”
“Co-sponsoring the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act”
“supporting residents and municipalities pushing back on data center development”
“Until that plan exists, new data center growth should be very slow. This is bigger than one company fighting one town over one site. It calls for a national answer. I am on the side of the families and communities who do not want to be stuck with the bill.”
Data Centers: Who Pays for the Power
“Stop data center tax breaks — Mike's specific commitment. ... FL data center tax exemptions: $140M+ given to industry with little community return.”
“These facilities offer almost zero long-term employment for local residents while having disastrous environmental effects.”
“Artificial intelligence will shape the future, but the race to build AI infrastructure should not come at the expense of local communities. Across the country, states and municipalities are competing to attract hyperscale AI data centers with tax incentives, expedited approvals, and promises of economic growth.”
“As a member of Congress, Diop would support stronger federal review requirements for hyperscale AI infrastructure projects that receive federal subsidies, tax incentives, permits, or other forms of public support. Taxpayers deserve independent analysis of the full costs and benefits of these developments... He also supports a temporary national moratorium on new federal incentives and expedited approvals for large-scale AI data centers until comprehensive studies can assess their effects on water resources, energy grids, housing markets, and community development.”
“Existing data center operators should be held financially responsible for the environmental, infrastructure, and public health impacts associated with their facilities. ... If a facility places additional strain on local utilities, energy systems, roads, or public resources, the company responsible should bear those costs, not taxpayers or ratepayers.”
“Data centers should pay the full cost of the energy, grid, and infrastructure they require. Families should not subsidize trillion-dollar industries through higher utility bills.”
“Build where infrastructure exists and ensure communities benefit when infrastructure is built (e.g. data centers double as hurricane shelters in FL)”
“When it comes to data centers, I will never let multi-billion (and trillion) dollar companies call the shots. That's why I'll stand up to corporate power by protecting our water, safeguarding the energy grid, and fighting so that no data center is built in the middle of our communities. I'll push for transparency by opposing NDAs that keep communities in the dark and fight for closed-loop water systems which will help reduce water usage.”
“Require AI companies to pay the full cost of energy infrastructure their data centers demand and prohibit utility companies from passing those costs to consumers. Mandate new data centers be paired with new clean energy generation.”
“In 2025 alone, utilities requested a record $31 billion in rate increases, more than double the previous year. 56 million Americans are seeing higher electric bills, with some states experiencing 20% increases.”
“One hyperscale facility could increase Minnesota's electricity demand by 4% – the equivalent of adding 285,000 homes. Data centers threaten to drive up energy bills for working families and businesses.”
“I support comprehensive federal zoning guidelines and legislation that protect communities from their unintended consequences. Toward that end, I created a leading edge policy proposal for "Terms of Engagement" for data centers that I intend to pass as federal law in the U.S. Senate.”
“What I would push for is a national plan for how this buildout happens, set by the government with the people who bear the costs at the table: workers, unions, the communities that host these centers, and the ratepayers who get the bills. The AI companies would come to that table too, to commit to what they will do to take care of the people their technology displaces and the towns that house their machines. They would not get to write the rules in private with a handful of officials.”
“Cost-Causation as the National Rule : Federal legislation should prevent utilities from socializing data center infrastructure expenses across residential ratepayers. When data centers require grid upgrades, transmission infrastructure, or generation capacity, those costs should be borne by facility operators through direct charges, long-term contracts, and posted collateral rather than embedded in general utility rates passed on to families.”
“No data center should go into a community that doesn't want it there. They must not drain, nor drive up the cost of electricity in the community.”
“Require large energy users like AI data centers to cover the cost of the energy infrastructure updates they need so those costs aren't passed onto consumers; crack down on energy price gouging during natural disasters and other emergencies.”
“Making tech companies pay for the energy and water they use , not passing those costs on to ratepayers. No new construction of data centers before there are real federal guardrails put in place , including environmental review and community input requirements.”
“Not every project that promises jobs is a good investment for our communities. AI data centers can consume enormous amounts of energy and water while creating relatively few long-term jobs. Michigan shouldn’t sacrifice its natural resources or raise utility costs simply to subsidize industries that offer limited public benefit.”
“Require facilities exceeding a defined energy threshold to generate their own power or financially support the additional energy infrastructure they require ... Prevent local communities from subsidizing massive corporate energy consumption”
“When Big Tech gets to skip the rules while your electric bill doubles, that's not a free market. That's corporate welfare.”
“Fair Cost Distribution: Ensure data centers and tech companies cover infrastructure costs rather than passing them to consumers through higher utility bills.”
“Environmental Standards: Require tech companies to meet sustainability standards addressing AI's resource consumption and environmental impact.”
“AI is sucking up our electricity, driving up our electricity rates, eating up our land, surveilling us AND taking away our jobs. No one is telling us how we will be able to earn a living once it settles into our everyday lives.”
“When data centers in some communities pollute the water and raise energy prices, everyone pays. Eventually people leave. Communities hollow out. Many of the issues that plague rural communities started at the federal level, and that's where they must be addressed.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- electronic waste, and whether manufacturers must take the hardware back
Data Centers: Water, Land & Emissions
“While 92 of our 100 counties face drought, a single data center can consume 5 million gallons of pristine water every day —the same as a town of 50,000 people.”
“A single hyperscale data center can consume as much water as 12,000 households. A proposed data center in Farmington alone is estimated to drain 900 million gallons from the community's aquifers – roughly double the water consumption of the entire city.”
“Water Consumption Reporting and Conservation Requirements : Federal legislation must require data centers to publicly disclose their water consumption, following the model established by the European Union’s Energy Efficiency Directive, which mandates that data centers over five hundred kilowatts report their water usage along with energy consumption and carbon footprint.”
“residents of South Memphis are being poisoned by emissions from a data center being held to no account.”
“The Clean Cloud Act, introduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Senator John Fetterman, establishes emissions performance standards for data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities”
“In July 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14318, "Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure," which creates categorical exclusions from NEPA environmental reviews for AI datacenters... Require datacenters to pay their fair share: Large energy consumers must contribute to grid upgrades, not pass costs to residential customers.”
“Congress must mandate AI efficiency Data centers are consuming land, water, and power at a scale that is not acceptable. Zero-latency server architectures already exist that reduce power and water consumption by over 90% compared to what is currently being deployed. Congress has the authority — and the obligation — to require AI companies to use them.”
“Energy Efficiency Mandates : Congress should require data centers to deploy best available technologies for reducing consumption. Research demonstrates that reducing GPU energy consumption to approximately thirty percent of typical levels “has minimal impacts on the performance of AI models” while improving cooling efficiency.”
“The development of AI data centers in neighboring communities like Lowell have already had a devastating impact on the environment by tainting our water and accelerating climate change at a rapid pace. ... In Congress, I will support a moratorium on AI data centers and will sign on to Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act.”
“New data centers must generate their own clean power and protect our water”
“I advocate for proper environmental protections regarding datacenters. We have successfully regulated factories for over 100 years, and there are proven ways to manage these facilities ethically and sustainably by preventing water pollution and avoiding excessive strain on the electrical grid.”
“Introduce limits on the use of public resources (water and electricity) for AI datacenters. Enact strict regulations on misinformation, deepfakes, and IP theft from AI and social media platforms. Cancel all federal contracts with Palantir and dismantle the surveillance state.”
“Big Tech is coming to Minnesota, and they want to drain our aquifers, gobble up our farmland, and hand the bill to taxpayers.”
“Hoosiers have made it clear: They do not want their rural lands ripped up to make room for data centers that will drain our aquifers, pollute our waterways, and increase air pollution through massive energy needs from coal-fired power plants.”
“Technology drives progress, but it must also serve sustainability. We need to hold large tech corporations accountable for their environmental footprint by requiring renewable energy for data centers, reducing water consumption and waste, and promoting responsible e-waste recycling and right-to-repair initiatives.”
AI, Work & Displacement
“Between 13% and 16% of entry-level workers aged 22 to 25 have already lost jobs to automated systems”
“Spearhead a national wage insurance program to ease tech-driven job displacement. Defend workers from automated surveillance through the Stop Spying Bosses Act, and protect against AI-related hiring discrimination with the No Robot Bosses Act.”
“As a tech worker versed in AI, I understand both its promise and its threats—job displacement, stolen creative work, and strain on water and energy resources. I'll build coalitions to regulate AI companies, protect artists' property, and ensure there's no federal bailout when this bubble bursts.”
“I would also advocate that data centers be union shops, and pledge to not use AI to replace any union jobs.”
“In just 2026 alone, over 123,000 jobs have been taken over by AI.”
“To address the risk of massive automation of our jobs, I support exploring income protection programs such as wage insurance and basic income, worker investment through unions, adjusting our tax system to stop penalizing human employment and rewarding automation, and investment in small business revolving loan funds.”
“Wage insurance is the core of it. When someone loses a job to automation and can only find work that pays less, the government should cover a large share of the lost pay for a set period, so a family stays afloat while the worker gets back on their feet. Alongside that, I would require large employers to give advance notice before automating jobs away”
“Coverage cannot turn on a worker’s classification. The independent contractor label, used to escape minimum-wage, overtime, and bargaining obligations, would not exempt an employer from these duties, because the duties attach to the act of algorithmic control, not to a contested employment status.”
“High-stakes systems must undergo independent, published bias audits before deployment and at regular intervals after it. No consequential decision, above all a termination, may be executed by algorithm.”
“I also support creating a safety net system if the impacts of AI drastically reduces the number of jobs needed in our country.”
“Jillian will regulate artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms which are increasingly being used in hiring practices and salary decisions.”
“Workers deserve to know when AI is being used to monitor, evaluate, or replace them. And no algorithm should stand between a patient and the care their doctor prescribed.”
“Workers should also get a say on the job, including the right to know when AI is being used to hire, score, monitor, or fire them, a ban on letting an algorithm be the only thing that ends someone's job, and protection for the right to organize.”
“Mandate oversight of high-risk AI decisions: healthcare, criminal justice, benefits determinations. Require transparency standards for AI systems used in hiring, lending, and housing. Protect workers from algorithmic discrimination and automated surveillance.”
“Confront the AI bubble head-on — ensuring we invest wisely and protect working families from the fallout of speculative hype”
“Prepare America for the AI economy by addressing job displacement and retraining workers for the industries of tomorrow”
“fight to prevent mass layoffs from automation, ensuring that whatever advancements are made in AI assist humans rather than replacing them.”
“New challenges to the working-class arise every day including the utilization of AI, the rapid onset of automation, and the misclassification of workers.”
“Fighting to ensure workers have a real voice as AI and automation reshape the economy.”
“Student debt continues to climb while the job market gives entry level jobs to ai”
Surveillance & Privacy
“Requiring warrants for Surveillance Data Access: law enforcement should not be able to search months of a person's movements without judicial oversight.”
“stop the government from selling our data to ICE and ban ... invasive surveillance tech”
“I will fight to fully repeal the USA PATRIOT Act and restore the constitutional protections our Founders intended.”
“I've proposed a comprehensive Internet Bill of Rights. The primary goals are to ensure net neutrality, protect citizens from warrantless government mass surveillance, and provide consumers with more control over their personal data.”
“Rewrite Section 230 so that social media companies can be held liable when algorithms spread misinformation and foment violence. If there is a cost for boosting blatant lies and misinformation, these companies will design their algorithms to prevent it from spreading.”
“Any federal system access containing PII requires confirmed security clearance, documented purpose, and 72-hour congressional notification.”
“Government agencies should not be able to casually mix and match personal data across departments, regardless of the purpose. I will fight to reinforce legal firewalls, require court oversight for sensitive cross-agency access, and ban backdoor searches.”
“The PATRIOT Act and FISA should be amended to require that interpretations used by the executive branch and FISC justify their operations by publicly disclosing them. While the actual opinions and operations should remain classified, it is essential that we have only one body of law instead of the current bifurcation.”
“Healthcare data must remain private, and state and federal government should have no right to access your data unless it's for the purposes of providing you healthcare.”
“The government should not be able to buy its way around the Fourth Amendment either. Right now agencies purchase Americans' location histories and personal records from data brokers without a warrant. I would require a warrant for that, register and regulate the data brokers themselves, and give people the right to force a broker to delete their information.”
“Monitoring must be limited to defined, legitimate purposes, barred where it captures protected concerted activity, and prohibited from reaching off-duty conduct. Federal labor law already supplies a foundation: pervasive monitoring that interferes with the right to organize is an unfair labor practice”
“When I am in Congress, I will: Vote for a warrant requirement on Section 702 queries of Americans’ communications. No backdoor searches. No “incidental collection” loopholes used to read the emails of journalists, organizers, political campaigns, or anyone else.”
“Protect immigrant communities from warrantless surveillance and data sharing between federal agencies and local law enforcement. ICE should not be able to access DMV records, school data, or healthcare information without a warrant.”
“Support the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act to ban law enforcement from purchasing data brokers' records they couldn't otherwise obtain without a warrant. Support comprehensive federal data privacy legislation with real enforcement — not voluntary industry guidelines. Oppose facial recognition technology in law enforcement without a warrant and independent oversight.”
“Restrictions on the use of data centers to surveille, as well as protections against the theft of a person's face, image, or voice for AI productions. Regulations to label all AI produced media as such so that no one can become convinced of false information as a result of AI.”
“The government should not detain or spy on Americans without a warrant.”
“Congress needs to act to curb the abilities of these programs that seek to turn our country into a digital police state.”
“I support restoring and strengthening the Fourth Amendment for the 21st century, ensuring that privacy, due process, and freedom from unreasonable search and surveillance are protected in an age of AI, facial recognition, data mining, and digital policing. Public safety built on constant monitoring does not make us safer -- it is control.”
“Dismantle the Surveillance State: I will fight to repeal the Patriot Act and end invasive surveillance that targets immigrant communities. True security comes from modernizing our ports of entry, not building walls or militarizing our borders.”
“Today, those freedoms are under attack. Peaceful protesters have been unconstitutionally surveilled and detained, simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. That is unacceptable”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- strong encryption, and refusing demands for a government back door into it
Your Data: Consent, Deletion & Sale
“Americans deserve clear, enforceable rights over their personal data, including the right to know what's collected, correct it, delete it, and opt out of profiling. We need a true Privacy Bill of Rights that forces companies to collect only what's necessary and face real consequences when they break the law.”
“compelling advertisers to pay us for using our personal consumer data to target us for advertising”
“There is no good reason for shadowy companies to buy and sell your precise location, health information, or your children's data. I will push to ban the sale of sensitive personal information, require broker transparency and easy opt-outs, and crack down on deceptive consent practices.”
“Children should not grow up in a world where their faces, locations, and digital histories are tracked and monetized. I support banning the sale of minors' data, prohibiting targeted ads to kids, and placing strict limits on biometric collection in schools.”
“Data ownership Your personal data belongs to you, not corporations. The Fourth Amendment protects you from unreasonable search and seizure of your effects — and that means your data. No terms of service can sign away a constitutional right. Congress must legislate accordingly.”
“Bans companies from using personal data and AI to set individualized prices that overcharge consumers.”
“The Right to be Forgotten (U.S. Context): Adapting “Right to be Forgotten” standards for the American legal landscape. This provides a mechanism for citizens to de-index non-pertinent, outdated digital records that hinder employment, housing, and social mobility, effectively allowing for a “Digital Reset.””
“Aswar strongly supports a Digital Bill of Rights to ban "surveillance pricing" and give every American the "Right to Delete" their data from corporate servers.”
“Pass a federal Digital Privacy Bill of Rights to protect personal data from being harvested without consent”
“In the digital age, information has become immortal, but not necessarily accurate. We are currently haunted by “Zombie Data”: outdated news archives, erroneous credit flags, and over-classified government records that follow individuals and the body politic indefinitely. This persistent digital shadow prevents true rehabilitation for citizens and shields federal institutions from necessary accountability.”
“Legislation requiring explicit permission to collect our data is long overdue.”
“Americans deserve clear national standards that protect personal data, provide transparency about how AI systems use information, and give people meaningful control over how their data is used.”
Facial Recognition & Predictive Policing
“No AI surveillance AI systems must not be used to monitor, profile, or control people. No facial recognition in public spaces. No predictive policing. No algorithmic threat scoring of civilians.”
“The No Biometric Barriers Act would prohibit dangerous and potentially unconstitutional biometric technology, such as facial recognition technology, from being used in federal public housing.”
“No one should be arrested or charged on a facial recognition match alone, the way Robert Williams was. When police do use the technology, they should have to disclose it to the person and to the court, so a defendant can challenge it. Person-based "predictive" systems that label someone a future criminal should not be used at all.”
“Tools like automated license plate readers can help solve crimes but without strict limits, they become dragnet systems. I support clear use restrictions, short data retention windows, audit logs, transparency requirements, and warrants for sensitive searches. Safety without guardrails becomes surveillance.”
“Large technology companies like Palantir are working with the federal government to implement the largest mass surveillance program in our country's history.”
“Oppose any federal digital ID system that enables mass surveillance. Protect immigrant communities from warrantless surveillance and data sharing between federal agencies and local law enforcement.”
“Address over-policing and surveillance overreach by requiring real transparency and independent oversight before any department deploys facial recognition, license plate readers, or predictive policing tools and ensure real consequences when they break their own rules.”
“Stop the implementation of domestic surveillance, and begin oversight & regulation of AI before it's too late.”
Platform Power & Antitrust
“Digital Markets Competition Act: ... anti-competitive practices by dominant digital platforms, including self-preferencing, data exploitation to suppress competition,”
“Expand national and university-based AI compute resources so researchers, startups, and public institutions can compete, not just the largest technology companies.”
“When an AI company uses a newsroom's reporting to train its models or to answer a user's question, it should have to pay for that work, the same way a radio station pays to play a song. On top of that, I would put a small levy on the largest AI companies, tied to the revenue they make from products built on other people's content, and route that money into a fund that pays for local and public-interest reporting.”
“Block Age Verification Mandates : Congress should oppose legislation requiring age verification for internet access. These systems are surveillance systems that eliminate online anonymity, expose users to data breaches, and give government unprecedented power to track citizens’ online activities.”
“Ensure Transparency Without Censorship : Where legitimate concerns exist about platform practices, Congress should pursue transparency requirements rather than content mandates. Requiring platforms to disclose their moderation policies and enforcement patterns empowers users to make informed choices without empowering government to dictate what speech is permissible.”
“Limit for-profit news market and make news a public utility to restore the integrity of the Fourth Estate. Strictly regulate what can be labeled as news , and enforce clear disclaimers on “opinion” or “entertainment” content/programming. Fund not-for-profit, independent media outlets at the local and national levels .”
“Support breaking up monopolistic platforms under existing antitrust law. Oppose self-preferencing by platforms that operate as both marketplace and competitor. Support interoperability requirements so users can leave platforms without losing their networks.”
“Break up Big Tech monopolies (Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple) that stifle innovation and control our digital lives.”
“Fighting to save local journalism and make tech platforms pay their fair share.”
“Strengthen and protect fact-based journalism while fighting politicized censorship: Reinstate and increase funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pass legislation to hold media outlets like Fox News and others who spread false information legally accountable, and break up major media conglomerates and monopolies.”
“Auto-play disabled by default to prevent endless video consumption ... Infinite scrolling turned off by default, with feeds limited to discrete pages of content ... Users should actively choose to load more content rather than being passively fed it”
“Platforms must provide a feed consisting of content the user has opted in to see by default (a user's connections, follows, and subscriptions)”
“They're just a public forum, they say. A gigantic, monopolistic, billion-dollar private corporate public square!?”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- protecting children online without requiring everyone to prove who they are
- software the government owns and can inspect, instead of contracts that leave an agency unable to switch suppliers or read its own code
Cryptocurrency Regulation
“Regulate Bitcoin and make them pay for impact to environment, drain on water and electricity.”
“Elijah also supports technology-neutral regulation focused on actual financial intermediaries — custodians, brokers, exchanges — not software developers building open-source tools. He supports clear SEC vs. CFTC jurisdictional lines so builders can innovate without legal uncertainty. Furthermore, writing code is not a crime. Elijah will co-sponsor legislation establishing clear safe harbors for software developers.”
“Support SEC and CFTC jurisdiction over crypto assets based on their function, not their label. Oppose stablecoin legislation that creates new systemic financial risk. Require crypto exchanges to meet the same anti-money-laundering standards as banks.”
“I support strong regulation of the crypto industry, including limiting their uses to actions that are transparent and traceable”
“Establish strong, commonsense standards for cryptocurrencies ... that protect consumers from scams”
“Laura supports the ethical and responsible advancement of blockchain technologies like cryptocurrencies, ensuring strong consumer protections through clear rules that create broad economic opportunity for everyday people.”
Right to Repair
“Aisha also supports right-to-repair legislation because people should be able to repair the products they own, whether it's a tractor, smartphone, or vehicle. It gives people more control while keeping money in local communities and reducing waste.”
“I also championed one of the nation's pioneering Right to Repair laws, empowering Oregonians to repair their devices, reducing waste, and ensuring companies are held accountable.”
“Guarantee farmers the Right to Repair their own equipment through the Freedom for Agricultural Repair and Maintenance Act (FARM Act). If you bought it, you own it.”
“Mary will work to pass “right to repair” laws requiring ... to provide affordable access to diagnostic tools, parts, and repair instructions for the machinery rural Alaskans depend on.”
“Right to Repair You own it; you should be able to fix it. Tractors. Appliances. Computers. Phones. ... End corporate capture of car repair. Ensure independent mechanics can service modern vehicles. End embedded tracking and kill switches. Strengthen the parts market for older vehicles so they stay on the road.”
“Farmers just forced John Deere to open its repair tools by suing - but a court settlement isn't a law, and it doesn't cover every manufacturer. Right-to-repair has support from both parties and the Farm Bureau is increasingly behind it.”
“I will advocate for legislation that adopts circular economy mandates such as extended producer responsibility, the “right to repair,” and zero waste targets for major sectors of our economy, including phasing out single-use plastics and requiring that federal contractors use recycled content.”
“Allow farmers to the "right to repair" their own equipment without voiding their warranties and letting corporations fatten their pockets.”
“We must update outdated laws that stifle innovation and individual rights. This includes shortening copyright and patent lengths so ideas return to the public domain faster, and establishing strong Right to Repair laws that allow Americans to fix their own devices and property without corporate obstruction.”
Broadband & Digital Access
“Fix the FCC broadband map — self-reported ISP data leaves 6.4M households invisible to $42.5B in federal funding.”
“Builds a federally owned National Broadband Backbone that no corporation can buy ... price cap of $65/month in rural counties, free for households below 200% of”
“Keep the internet equitable and open to all: Pass Net Neutrality legislation banning throttling, blocking, and paid fast lanes.”
“Access to high-speed Internet is no longer a luxury – it is crucially important”
“In an increasingly digital society, access to the internet is a civil right. OCA will continue to advocate for the community by expanding internet access for vulnerable populations, combating misinformation and disinformation, and ensuring that our elders are protected from emerging technological threats.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- towns that want to build their own internet service, and the state laws banning it
- the broadcast airwaves are public property licensed to companies for free — what the public should get back for them
Public Goods & Public Ownership
Transportation & Infrastructure
“Increasing taxes on private jet fuel and investing the revenue in clean air monitoring, public transit, and transportation in underserved communities”
“By concentrating housing and jobs near Caltrain stations and El Camino Real, we allow residents to live car-light”
“Secured nearly $40 million to construct underpasses in the East End and alleviate congestion from train traffic”
“Build more public transit. ... for every $1 invested in public transit, we get $5 back.”
“My legislation closes that gap by reclassifying any e-bike capable of exceeding 15 miles per hour under motor power alone as a motor vehicle”
“Diop supports expanding regional transit partnerships, strengthening passenger rail, improving county-to-county connections, and increasing evening and weekend service so residents can access opportunities regardless of where they live in the district.”
“Oliver will introduce legislation to purchase 500,000 electric buses nationwide”
“Reducing transportation costs by funding universal low-cost fare cards for students, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income workers.”
“Fast-track the full electrification of the Commuter Rail system to eliminate toxic diesel emissions in environmental justice communities and increase the frequency of regional service”
“Morocco's first high-speed rail line is just slightly longer than Boston-Springfield. At 200 mph, you can live in Springfield and work in Boston, or vice versa, and be home in 40 minutes.”
“she will push for federal transit grants to shrink driving lanes, lower curb radiuses, and protect bike lanes. She will work to end the 80-20 split that allocates 80% of funding to highways and only 20% to transit. To reduce our reliance on cars, Lateefah will increase funding levels for transit infrastructure and create incentives to reduce parking minimums in high transit areas.”
“Elijah also believes that public transportation should be free at the point of service. We already pay for these services through our tax dollars.”
“I will advocate for allowing federal transit funds to be used for operating expenses, giving agencies the flexibility to maintain and expand service.”
“Creates a permanent demand-responsive rural transit program for counties with no public transit — medical transport is a guaranteed priority trip type, not subject to availability”
“Legislation to require bike and pedestrian safety infrastructure improvements at scale on all state routes”
“high-speed rail, electrified commuter rail, and expanded MBTA bus service with fare relief for low-income and disabled riders”
“We can’t keep pretending one more highway lane will fix everything. ... Maryland’s 6th District deserves real investment in public and sustainable transportation”
“Extend the Second Avenue Subway Downtown: Due to a lack of federal support, Governor Hochul was forced to choose between expanding the Second Avenue Subway downtown or uptown. With how much New Yorkers pay in taxes, we shouldn't have to make choices like this.”
“Secure Federal Support to Make Subway Stations More Accessible: The Subways should be available and accessible to all New Yorkers, including those with disabilities. The federal government should be an active partner and provide funds to make necessary accessibility-related improvements.”
“Advocate for a high-speed train from Western MA to New York: Connect Western Mass to major economic hubs.”
“Reconnect our region to those hubs via passenger rail to Philadelphia.”
“Fully fund and break ground on Southern Maryland Rapid Transit along the MD 5 corridor.”
“Fund the Gateway Project: President Trump is playing political games and punishing New Yorkers by withholding essential federal funding for the Gateway Project. We must strongly speak out and pursue all legal challenges to unlock this funding – the region depends on it.”
“I support the Freedom to Move Act, the Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act, and efforts to end the 80-20 highway-transit funding disparity.”
“Empower Rural Transportation: Increase funding and subsidies for public transit, bike- and pedestrian-friendly projects in rural areas that have long been ignored.”
“Senator Mike Simmons has worked tirelessly to ensure transportation equity by authoring and securing passage of a package of bills.”
“I'll fight to restore funding for the Gateway Tunnel that Trump illegally froze.”
“Aswar strongly supports the rapid expansion of bus and rail networks in urban cores to ensure reliable, high-speed transit for daily commuters and local economies.”
Public Works & Infrastructure Investment
“I will work to move public works programs back into the realm of government agency through the reintroduction of the Public Works Administration”
“called for a $1 trillion investment to repair and rebuild our infrastructure and create 15 million good-paying jobs”
“For every $1 in wages lost when a factory closes or a mine shuts down, we will advocate to invest $2 back into that community.”
“Just as we don't build enough housing, we also don't build enough transit, modern infrastructure, or produce enough energy. And the result is higher rents and home prices, higher electricity prices, trains that go slower than they did a century ago, and slower economic growth.”
“We must fix what Elijah calls our “Underground Infrastructure”, which includes our lines of pipes, sewage systems, and water treatment facilities. Elijah will advocate for federal funding to assist local governments in their efforts to modernize our underground infrastructure. This will help alleviate flooding after extreme weather events and natural disasters.”
“Social Infrastructure Investments in Public Parks, Libraries, Community Centers, Urban Gardens, Third Spaces Participatory Democracy Establish Baby Bonds and Invest in Civic Engagement Union Board Representation National Projects and Jobs Social Housing Scaled Nationally Renovate and Retrofit Publicly Owned Buildings and Vacant Properties”
“We need to spend $700 million a year to keep up our roads and bridges”
“As a Democratic Socialist, I believe that revitalizing federal public works programs would reclaim pathways to long-term economic mobility and create a focus point for critical national efforts like infrastructure upgrades, green energy conversion, nature conservation, and more.”
“Increasing federal funding for infrastructure projects, including water, electricity, and public transportation”
“investing in American manufacturing — our vehicles, our green energy power grid, and infrastructure—right here at home, with union labor.”
“We have the power to create millions of well-paid jobs that also serve the needs of our community by building and repairing our crumbling infrastructure”
“Aisha supports investing in industries that serve public needs and create lasting value, including hospitals and healthcare infrastructure, public transportation, rail, clean water systems, and the equipment that supports them. With investments in training and workforce development, Michigan’s manufacturing workers can help build that future.”
Public Power & Utility Costs
“We will lower Americans' electric bills by 10% with public power.”
“Joshua will condition any debt ceiling increase on executive salary caps, mandatory public disclosure of all rate studies.”
“Use federal powers to break up PG&E's monopoly and allow municipal competition”
“I introduced the Utilities as a Human Right Resolution. This legislation positions water, electricity, heating, cooling, broadband, and transit as basic human rights that should be treated as such.”
“Modernize the LIHEAP disbursement formula to ensure that hot climate states — like Texas — receive equitable funds to help families with utility costs.”
“When a data center needs new power lines and plants, the cost of building them gets spread across everyone on the grid, so a family in this district can end up subsidizing the power bill of a trillion-dollar company. Lower-income households feel it most, because electricity is a bigger share of what they spend.”
“TVA was built because the private sector failed rural America. Selling it to private investors doesn't fix the accountability problem — it replaces an unaccountable public institution with an unaccountable private one that also has to generate returns for shareholders. Rates go up.”
“Enact a four year national freeze on electricity rate increases, using federal incentives to states that participate, a windfall profits tax on oil profits, re-purposed fossil fuel subsidies”
“Eric will end the PG&E monopoly that allows our utility bills to keep increasing.”
“Cracking down on utility monopolies and expanding Iowa's clean energy economy to lower energy bills”
“Industries that support basic human needs including agriculture and utilities must be supported at levels that ensure the independence of the American people. Privatization of utilities to accommodate donors jeopardizes the security of the American people, the environment, and our economy.”
“public ownership of fossil-fuel infrastructure, ... A for-the-public energy system”
“Cracks down on for-profit utilities overcharging consumers, saving the average family $500 a year.”
“Invest immediately in the development of “smart” transmission grids, especially in areas where renewable energy is being created to move green energy to places where it’s needed. Bury electrical lines wherever possible to prevent wildfires and power outages.”
“Clean Energy for the People: We must invest in publicly owned renewable energy —like solar, wind, and hydropower—to phase out fossil fuels and democratize our energy systems. No more giveaways to polluters. No more delay. We need a just transition that creates union jobs, lowers utility bills, and puts communities—not corporations—in control.”
“Pass legislation to hold BPA accountable for mismanagement and empower Pacific Northwest states to divert from BPA and create central, independent operators like most other states have.”
“Every household in TN-7 paid roughly $110 more per year in electricity bills.”
“Take Big Energy Corporations Into Public Ownership”
“Work to fund the modernization of our power grid by moving powerlines from above ground to underground cables. Water bills are too high. Water is a necessity for life. Elijah opposes “shutoffs” as a result of nonpayment.”
Rural Infrastructure & Utilities
“$23 billion to fully replace dangerous lead pipes, prioritizing communities facing environmental racism”
“Carbon penalty of $75/ton on fossil fuel utilities, escalating annually ... Mandates replacement of all 9.2 million lead service lines nationally”
“Restore and Modernize USDA Rural Development. The Trump administration has gutted the agency. Rural Development has lost 36 percent of its staff to DOGE-driven buyouts and forced resignations, and the FY26 budget proposes another $721 million in program cuts on top of that. We'll reverse the staff cuts, restore the program funding, and modernize the agency for the rural America that actually exists in 2026.”
“From Jackson's water crisis to rural broadband deserts across the Delta, MS-02 has been left behind for decades. Congressional seniority has not delivered clean water, reliable internet, or safe roads.”
“The interstate highway system was built with public money because private markets wouldn't build it. This bill applies the same logic to rail, broadband, and rural transit. If you don't have a car that runs and money to keep it running, you are effectively under house arrest.”
“I'll work to curb the growth of warehouses and support our local elected officials here who want to ensure these corporations give back to the communities they profit off”
“our primary focus is supporting residents in Keyport who are demanding answers and accountability surrounding the Aeromarine site”
“"Investing in rural hospitals, rural schools, and rural broadband is not charity. It is a national security investment in the communities that produce the soldiers who defend this country."”
“Champion Small Towns, Farmers and Island Residents: Increase funding for local & rural green infrastructure projects, agrivoltaics, and electric ferries.”
“Bringing tax dollars home to fix roads, expand broadband, and improve rail service without raising local taxes. Boosting small business growth with SBA micro-loans and Main Street accelerator funds. Standing with farmers through smarter farming technology and rural broadband.”
“Invest in our Communities: She'll push for funding that enables cities and towns to build necessary infrastructure like water and sewer systems and roads”
Education & STEM
“5363, the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act that permanently provides funding totaling $255 million a year for all Minority-Serving Institutions”
“Diop supports strengthening federal investments in the arts through programs administered by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other cultural grant programs.”
“I will join the Bipartisan HBCU Caucus, work to pass the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act, and support HBCU Capital Financing, including relieving the kind of federal construction debt that FAMU is carrying ... The Biden administration documented that Florida underfunded FAMU by nearly two billion dollars compared to the state’s other land-grant university over three decades.”
“Bring home federal funding to expand community schools that wrap academics, healthcare, mental health services, food assistance and more into hubs of well-being and support for children, families and communities”
“In order for schools to be genuinely public, they must be subject to the democratic control of their community. For the past several decades, there has been a concerted effort to undermine this democratic control and our public schools. We must ... recommit to investing in genuine public education so that we may fulfill our responsibility to provide all children regardless of race, socioeconomic background, and ability with a free and appropriate education.”
“Ninety percent of American students attend public school — but the federal government covers just 13% of the cost. We're going to double the federal share of school funding — from 13% to at least 30% — so that property taxes don't have to carry the system alone.”
“Identify and codify childcare centers, community-based childcare facilities, community centers that provide care to school age children to be healthcare access points, which would expand access to care and safety net services for children and their families.”
“I propose tying any percentage increase in our national education funding to any equivalent increase in the national defense budget.”
“Establish tuition-free public community colleges, leading to a publicly funded system, pre-K through grade 14.”
“Invest in trauma-informed schools and restorative justice programs, funding counselors rather than additional police presence in schools.”
“1. Increase NIH Budget by 25% 2. Increase NSF Budget by 25% 3. Restructure Peer Review process and grant process to increase transparency and access to all publicly funded data 4. Fees on private industry using federally funded university research data”
“Invest $1.3 billion every year in private, non-profit historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions”
“Improper funding of public education is a major factor in the school to prison pipeline. Education is a tool that when used improperly, perpetuates systemic oppression against targeted groups. Instead of banning books and classes that teach about culture, we should be focusing on the future while learning from the past.”
“That means funding universal pre-kindergarten and fully funding K-12 schools, with well-supported union educators, like my mom, whose MEA union membership ensured I had excellent health care growing up.”
“We cannot cut education budgets and expect teachers and students to perform better. Salaam supports fully funding the Department of Education. ... Additionally, a stronger, more resilient America relies on subsidizing both higher and vocational education. These two pathways must be presented on equal footing to children because we need both paths to build a strong nation.”
“He will cosponsor legislation to cancel existing student debt and end the politicization of higher education leadership, which has seen conservative Republicans installed at FIU, FAU, UF, New College, and FAMU in Florida alone.”
“Fund student support programs, from emergency aid and mental health services to broadband access and housing assistance, so students can focus on learning, not surviving.”
“We need investment in free school meals, and wrap around services - including disability services - so every student can come to school ready to learn. We need a deep commitment to supporting continuing education through our libraries to support a robust democracy.”
“Expand STEM and arts education, including grants targeting girls and underrepresented minorities, and increase support for career and technical education programs that include the arts. Support teacher diversity and accountability, including recruiting teachers of color and funding pilot programs that increase graduation rates for minority students.”
“I’m going to Washington to put federal dollars back in our public schools; to invest in paying our teachers higher wages, nationwide universal free school lunches, expanding early child care resources, providing universal free pre-kindergarten, and broadening the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to fully fund equitable education for all children.”
“For fifty years, Congress promised to cover 40% of the cost of educating students with disabilities. Today, the federal share is under 12 percent leaving states like Louisiana to make up the difference, or make cuts.”
“New Hampshire ranks dead last in state funding for public schools. When the federal government cuts funding, the costs don't disappear. They land on towns, and towns push them onto families.”
“The backbone of what actually makes America great has been shredded by Project 2025, DOGE, and the Trump Administration. We must protect American jobs, American health, and American core values: Reinstitute and increase funding for medical research, climate science and other institutional programs like NASA.”
“the American Federation of Teachers will advocate for the establishment of caseload caps by the U.S. Department of Education for every special education program and classification in all states and territories where the AFT has local affiliates”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- library funding, and the librarians facing threats over which books they shelve
- schools as segregated now as two generations ago, and what would change it
- school funding tied to local property wealth, and the gap it guarantees
- most college courses are now taught by part-time and graduate instructors hired by the term, without job security, benefits or an office
Teacher Pay & the Teaching Pipeline
“American Teacher Act, which would help support efforts to increase teacher salaries to a minimum of $60,000 per year.”
“Congress can help address these shortages by expanding teacher residency programs, Grow Your Own educator pipelines, TEACH Grants, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness while increasing support for rural educator recruitment and high-need subject areas.”
“I support the American Federation of Teachers in their demand that teachers receive $60,000 a year and support staff receive at least $45,000, with regular and significant pay raises. Teachers should also receive paid family and medical leave, childcare assistance, student loan forgiveness and support, and more generous retirement benefits.”
“Paraprofessionals — the people who support students with the greatest needs — are paid poverty wages. Jillian will introduce legislation to establish and fund a federal minimum wage for paraprofessionals that reflects the difficulty and importance of their work. You cannot build a world-class public education system on the backs of an exploited workforce.”
“Becoming a teacher requires a full semester or more of student teaching — unpaid, full-time work in a classroom — before receiving a paycheck. Jillian will require that all student teaching placements be paid, funded by the federal government. Removing this financial barrier is one of the most direct things we can do to expand the pipeline of qualified teachers.”
“Set the starting salary for Connecticut educators at $75,000/year , and adjust annually for inflation. Implement permanent federal income tax breaks for public school faculty and staff . Hire and retain teachers to keep classroom sizes below 20 students (below 11 for special education).”
“The right has been using teachers and schools as a culture war cudgel for years. From violent school board meetings to doxing teachers to bomb threats called into schools, teachers deserve more legal protections as they try to educate our children. Violence and threats against school employees should carry a higher penalty than our current federal laws dictate.”
“Teachers earn, on average, 19% less than other college graduates in comparable fields — often supplementing their income with second jobs just to stay afloat. She will work with colleagues in Congress to establish a federal minimum salary for public school teachers, backed by federal funding to make it real — because this obligation belongs to the nation, not just to local property taxpayers.”
“Provide teachers, educators, childcare workers and service providers tax credits for housing and transit.”
“I support Senator Bernie Sanders’ bill of the “ Pay Teachers Act ” which fought to raise the wages of all our public education teachers to at least 65K a year and work to continue past that goal to expand it to 70-75K a year.”
“Our teachers are paid starvation salaries. Elijah Manley supports increasing the starting salary for teachers and support staff, including paraprofessionals, and increasing pay and benefits for substitute teachers.”
“Teachers are criminally under-appreciated and, even worse, underpaid. We need a federal minimum yearly salary of $60,000 for every public school teacher.”
“Establish a national minimum teacher salary with annual cost-of-living adjustments. Oppose politically motivated cuts to federal research funding at universities. Support a modernized Fairness Doctrine for the 21st century to address media consolidation and disinformation. Invest in civic education and media literacy as essential democratic infrastructure.”
“a federal statute that would guarantee meaningful collective bargaining rights to the employees of public schools, colleges, universities, and other postsecondary institutions”
“improvement in the federal employment compensation law for public education and other public employees that ensures a living wage”
Trade Schools, Apprenticeships & Career Education
“Partner vocational-technical schools directly with local trade unions to guarantee graduates immediate, debt-free pathways into high-paying, unionized careers.”
“Maura will also work to expand Pell Grants to cover job training – from pipefitting apprenticeships to early childhood education. Maura will also support partnerships between trade schools and Granite State small businesses that provide both a pipeline for talent and a pathway for young people to stay, work, and live in New Hampshire.”
“We need reform the Smith Hughes Act and Vocational Education Act of 1963 to increase investment in trade schools, apprenticeships, and vocational programs that prepare people for good-paying, high-demand jobs.”
“Authorized funding: $10 billion annually for 10 years, indexed to inflation. ... Funds shall be distributed as follows: 60% through formula grants to states based on population and need; 40% through competitive grants for innovative, high-impact programs, particularly in underserved or rural areas.”
“Trade and CTE programs shall be fully integrated into high school schedules and not treated as electives of lesser value. ... States must ensure students can graduate with both a high school diploma and at least one industry-recognized credential, apprenticeship placement, or college credit in a trade-related field.”
“Require financial literacy classes in middle and high school so students graduate ready to manage real life. Expand vocational and technical high school programs so that students graduate ready for good-paying jobs, without needing a college degree. Make community college tuition-free nationwide.”
“Instead of treating trade schools and community colleges as individual financial burdens that bury young people in debt, I will treat them as vital investments in our nation’s infrastructure.”
“STEM & Career Readiness: Invest in publicly owned and democratically governed STEM and Career/Technical Education (CTE) programs in our public schools. Education must serve the people—not corporations. We support hands-on, debt-free pathways to union jobs in all areas.”
“Union-backed apprenticeship pipelines that take students from diploma to pre-apprenticeship to a good-paying union job ... Paid pre-apprenticeship programs for juniors and seniors”
“Eligible uses of funds include: Hiring qualified trade instructors and providing teacher training; Purchasing equipment, tools, and technology for trade instruction; Creating career exploration courses for 9th and 10th graders; Covering costs of industry-recognized certifications and exam fees for students; Funding transportation to job sites, apprenticeships, or training centers; Developing dual-enrollment programs with community colleges or trade schools.”
Vouchers, Charters & School Privatization
“Tennessee's voucher law didn't come out of nowhere. It's part of a coordinated national push - funded by a small group of donors, run off a template bill that's been dropped into about a dozen states in roughly the same form.”
“Introduced the Charter Oversight and Accountability (COAT) Act to hold private charter school management companies accountable . The act requires these companies to report how they spend federally allocated dollars, thus holding them accountable to students and taxpayers.”
“This scheme takes money from public schools and transfers it to wealthy families, the vast majority of whom already send their children to private and religious schools. The program has blown past its initial budget, leaving public schools with even less than expected.”
“In Congress, Carleigh will fight to roll back Trump's national voucher program, fully fund IDEA, and protect the constitutional rights of every student and teacher.”
“Cuts to schools, attacks on teachers, book bans, and privatization aren’t random. They are a deliberate project to keep knowledge and power out of the hands of the people.”
“Free Pre-K, public college & trade programs Fully fund public schools & support educators Repeal school voucher tax credits”
“Opposes the provision of federal funding assistance to private corporations and individuals for the establishment and operation of charter schools for profit”
“Opposes the use of vouchers or certificates in education”
Public Ownership of Essential Services
“There needs to be a government-funded not-for-profit news media agency and social media outlet(s) that are free from corporate ownership, government influence and bias-inducing algorithms.”
“Prisons, Schools, Social Security, Student Loans, TSA, Air Traffic Control, US Postal Service, Medicare, Public Broadcasting, Homeland Security, Private Armies, Federal Lands, and Veterans Affairs are just a few of the public's resources that have been mentioned as targets of privatization. Privatization, almost always, means privatizing the profits and subsidizing any losses that come from it!”
“Rather than gut critical research agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, I believe that our future requires us to invest more and faster. And I believe that the taxpayers who fund this research should earn back the returns on their investment.”
“I support public funding for AI research at universities and national laboratories, and government-provided access to the expensive computing power those researchers cannot otherwise afford. It works like federal medical research, where public dollars pay for the science at universities and the discoveries belong to everyone.”
“Public Dollars for Public Schools: Tax dollars should be reserved for public education. Conservatives like to tout “school choice” over public schools, but ignore the myriad problems associated with taxpayer-funded charter schools like their propensity for fraud and mismanagement, history of discrimination, and diversion of tax dollars from the public school system.”
“Universal basic income and a living wage for all will help tackle the affordability crisis, but we must also create direct public services, including national grocery stores, free high-speed public transit, and high-speed gigabit broadband for every household.”
“we can't control what we don't own”
“Public options for essential goods Healthcare, housing, utilities, internet, banking. Everything essential to dignified life.”
“Oppose voucher programs that drain money from public schools by partnering with organizations working across the state of Arizona to push a ballot measure to protect public funding for public schools with public accountability Protect public education from for-profit takeovers Ensure accountability and transparency for all charter schools receiving public dollars”
“Kshama's campaign is the only one calling for Big Tech and Big Energy corporations to be taken into democratic public ownership by workers.”
Public Banking
“Introduced the Public Banking Act to open doors for marginalized people who have been systematically shut out of our nation’s private banks.”
“I will support the establishment of a Green Infrastructure Bank to fund mass transit & renewables and a Climate Jobs Trust to finance green manufacturing products & services.”
“I support the American Opportunity Accounts Act, introduced by Senator Cory Booker and Representative Ayanna Pressley, which would establish federally-funded savings accounts for every child at birth.”
“Public banks don't replace local banks. They partner with community banks to fill the gaps in our financial infrastructure and make affordable loans available to governments and creditworthy homeowners, students, and entrepreneurs.”
“A key advantage over the "revolving funds" that most local governments use for these needs is that a "bank" can leverage its equity at 10 to 1, which means it can turn $100 million in equity into $1 billion in loans.”
“When communities are faced with a crisis, private banks typically reduce their lending or raise rates, profiteering from the crisis to make more money. A public bank, by contrast, jumps in with solutions, extending low-cost credit where needed.”
Public Ownership of Publicly-Funded Research
“Ensure that medications developed through taxpayer-funded research at universities and federal institutions ... remain publicly owned and are not sold to private companies.”
“We funded the research that discovered the drugs — negotiate the lowest federal price, and if the market won't deliver affordable generics, make them through the VA”
“Allow the government to manufacture generic drugs. I support efforts to create an Office of Drug Manufacturing within HHS that allows the government to manufacture generic drugs and sell them on the market, competing with pharmaceutical companies and driving down drug prices across the market.”
“all patents remain with the government and must be released to the American people without charge as the research is done with federal dollars.”
“I also support public manufacturing of essential medications, such as insulin. I'll take on the practice of excessive drug patents to stop Big Pharma from using legal tactics to extend their patents. And I will Ban the Middleman, ending pharmacy benefit managers who price-gouge us while offering no essential benefit.”
“Establishes a government program to sell generic drugs at a discount — cutting the price of a vial of insulin from $300 to $50.”
“Public Manufacturing of Essential Medications : Congress should authorize federal production of essential generic medications through a public pharmaceutical manufacturer or expanded Veterans Affairs capabilities.”
“I believe that the taxpayers who fund this research should earn back the returns on their investment.”
“Support creation of a public manufacturer of common generic drugs to eliminate price gouging. Oppose any privatization of Medicare or cuts to Medicaid. Oppose hospital mergers that reduce patient choice and worker power.”
Postal Service
“Introduce Postal Banking”
“enabling The Post Office to offer simple banking, people can safely deposit money without worrying about fees”
“abolishing the pre-funding mandate imposed on the Postal Service”
“Establish a National Postal Banking Program: This would allow post offices to offer affordable banking services, such as FedAccounts (no-fee, government-backed transaction accounts), to unbanked and underbanked individuals. Postal banking would ensure access to low-cost services in every zip code, reducing reliance on high-cost, sometimes predatory, financial products.”
— UnidosUS
Care & Service
Veterans
“The Mechanics Reverses the burden of proof on toxic exposure claims — if you served in a designated theater, your illness is presumed service-connected.”
“Veterans shouldn't have to fight through two separate disability systems because Social Security doesn't consider military or VA disability ratings. We need to remove that barrier so SSA can review and incorporate military records and ratings, creating one streamlined, consistent path to benefits.”
“Reverses the burden of proof on toxic exposure claims — if you served in ... designated theater, your illness is presumed service-connected. ... Benefits begin within 60 days”
“Professionalize the SHARP Career Field: Possible creation of a dedicated, competitive Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) for SHARP professionals, similar to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). This would ensure that Victim Advocates are highly trained, career-long experts, not junior personnel on a temporary duty rotation.”
“Decentralize and Specialize Investigative Authority: Possibly moving serious sexual assault investigations completely outside the immediate chain of command to a specialized, independent agency. This could be an expansion of the Army's CID or the creation of a DoD-wide agency. This removes the perception (and potential reality) of command influence and conflict of interest.”
“I support fully funding and staffing VA because VA works well, with years of research proving that it's better, faster, and less expensive than the private sector.”
“VA healthcare — privatized by redirect. 75% of all new VA medical funding is going to private corporations, not the VA itself. Community care budget jumped 67% in one year. The system built specifically for veterans is being hollowed out while corporate chains capture the revenue.”
“The VA runs its own hospitals, employs its own doctors, and buys drugs at government-negotiated prices. Salaried doctors. No billing department trying to deny a claim. The mission is care, not profit. It's the one large system I've seen that works the way healthcare should work.”
“On a single night in 2024, 32,882 veterans were experiencing homelessness in the U.S., including 13,851 living in unsheltered conditions”
“Veterans, who have bravely served and made immense sacrifices for our country, have been deported. The cruelest part about this betrayal is that they are still entitled to a military funeral, so the only way many of them can come back home is in a casket.”
“Some estimates show that up to one-third of active-duty service members experience hunger, with military families facing food insecurity at more than twice the national average. Oliver supports raising the military pay scale to ensure service members and their families can live with dignity and stability.”
“Oliver will lead efforts in Congress to repeal the failed Military Housing Privatization Initiative. Too many military families live in unsafe housing — infested with mold, pests, and vermin — and under gag orders from private contractors requiring NDAs before repairs are made.”
“John Paul will fight to appropriate proper funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and secure monies for reentry programs for returning soldiers and proper grant funding for Veterans Court programs.”
“Veterans also make up one of the largest demographics in our federal workforce, which means Trump’s cuts to the federal budget have disproportionately (and illegally!) put veterans out of a job. These positions need to be reinstated now , with any missed pay or benefits paid back in full.”
“Creates an automatic military-to-civilian credentialing pipeline — soldiers leave service with civilian certifications already in hand, included in their DD-214”
“Fully fund VA care, mental health, housing, and benefits. Stop making disabled veterans choose between disability compensation and their retirement.”
“Eliminate the VA benefits backlog , fully fund and resource the VA, and reverse the disastrous privatization of services for veterans . Expand VA , and filling the nearly 50,000 vacancies at the VA. Provide at least $62 billion in new funding to repair, modernize and rebuild VA infrastructure .”
“Reform harmful VA regulations that restrict access to care and benefits based on character of discharge.”
“Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) programs offer substantial support to veterans, but our byzantine systems often make those benefits almost impossible to access.”
“Prevent further privatization of VA services and guarantee adequate public funding towards healthcare, education, training, housing, social services, and community outreach.”
“Her work opened the doors for all veterans who suffer from service-connected traumatic brain injuries”
“These programs are neither handouts, nor benefits; they are a compact with the American People.”
“Eliminate federal taxes on military retirement pay and veterans' benefits so those who served.”
“Fully honor the PACT Act and ensure veterans exposed to toxic substances receive the care and benefits they have earned.”
“Address Veteran Homelessness: Support housing-first initiatives and wraparound services to ensure no veteran sleeps on the street.”
“In 2021, one military housing contractor paid $65 million in restitution for defrauding the government — just one of many settlements, whistleblower cases, and federal investigations into widespread neglect and abuse.”
“In 2024, 8,195 cases of sexual assault were reported to the DoD. Placing sexual assault secondary to force readiness must be confronted. Demand stronger protections for women in the military, with increased sentences for rape and sexual assault.”
“I oppose efforts to privatize the VA because they would weaken care and leave veterans behind.”
“protect veterans from fraud, ease student loan debt for caregivers, and ensure veterans can access care whether at VA centers or private facilities”
Elder Care, Nursing Homes & Family Caregivers
“In recent years, private equity firms and large corporate investors have increasingly acquired nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care providers. When profit becomes the primary focus, residents, families, and frontline caregivers often pay the price through understaffing, declining quality of care, and reduced accountability.”
“Keep Seniors in their Homes & Communities: We must invest in home- and community-based care, ensuring seniors can remain in their neighborhoods. It is critical that Medicaid cover these services to give seniors an option outside of residential, institutional facilities.”
“Make long-term care safe and affordable for Iowa families. I will fight to defend the federal nursing home staffing standards the industry is trying to kill, support the home- and community-based care alternatives that let Iowa seniors age in place with dignity, and crack down on the private equity firms that have been buying up Iowa nursing homes, slashing staffing, and pocketing the difference.”
“Childcare and eldercare costs are forcing families into impossible choices. These costs fall hardest on women and working families, and they hold back the entire economy by sidelining people who want to be working. Meanwhile, caregivers themselves are underpaid and undervalued. We need to treat care as essential and worthy of fair pay, especially as so many more Americans live longer into old age.”
“When asked about senior care preferences, an overwhelming majority of Americans, approximately 75%, prefer community-based or at-home care services. Jillian supports increased investment in home and community-based services by expanding waiver capacity, increasing reimbursement rates for home health workers, and supporting home modification grants for seniors.”
“She also supports initiatives such as the HCBS Access Act, which would provide additional federal funding to eliminate service caps and ultimately end waitlists.”
“Approximately 773,000 Connecticut residents provide unpaid care to a family member or loved one. Jillian supports expanding the caregiver tax credit to provide financial relief for family caregivers by increasing reimbursement for transportation costs, home modifications, medical supplies, respite care, and other expenses associated with caring for aging loved ones at home.”
“She also believes workers should have access to effective reporting mechanisms that allow them to safely report understaffing, unsafe working conditions, or concerns about resident care without fear of retaliation.”
“Implement a universal long-term care benefit as part of Medicare. Provide tax credits and subsidies for home modifications to enable older Americans to live independently longer. Expand programs like Meals on Wheels and other community support services to improve quality of life.”
“I’ll co-sponsor the Better Care Better Jobs Act , which expands funding for home- and community-based services (HCBS) so that older adults can receive care at home, caregivers can earn living wages, and families can breathe easier knowing their loved ones are supported.”
“She will work to lower the cost of prescription drugs, protect pensions, and expand support for family caregivers through federal programs, tax credits, and paid leave, so no one has to choose between their job and caring for a loved one.”
“She will build on the historic investments from the American Rescue Plan to strengthen home care systems by raising pay, improving benefits, and expanding opportunities for caregivers who serve more than 7 million Americans with disabilities and seniors in their homes or communities.”
“Invest in publicly-owned elder care facilities, including at-home services.”
“Establish housing developments that allow our medically complex, low-income seniors to age in place with the support of their community.”
“Support for caregivers: Advocate for the Alleviating Barriers to Caregiving Act (ABC Act) and legislation supporting caregivers.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- the aides who bathe, feed and lift people in their own homes, paid near minimum wage with turnover to match
Vision & Strategy
Class Representation in Government
“Half of the members of the House of Representative are millionaires---and that's a problem. We can never hope to expand quality medical access, ensure educational opportunities, or grow a fair and vibrant economy if we keep electing those who know nothing of the struggles of the average worker.”
“these billion- and trillion-dollar corporations pay off our politicians and fund their campaigns. Then, these politicians protect their power, protect their monopolies, and prioritize their profits over our well-being.”
“The data center and mass layoff onslaught is not a machines versus humans war — it is class war by the wealthy against billions of working and poor people.”
“Today, only 2% of Congress comes from the working class. The rest? Career politicians.”
“Housing, healthcare, food, clean water, and due process are freedom infrastructure .”
“To fight for working people, we have to send working people to Washington.”
“Allowing billionaires and corporate PACs to drown out the voices of regular people meant democracy itself was rigged.”
“The idea that rules kill progress is an old one. It was used against seat belts, against clean-water standards, and against the laws that ended child labor. Every one of those made the country safer, better, and industry more successful. We put rules on airplanes and they still fly.”
“The system has been designed this way by greedy, large corporations like PG&E and by the corrupt politicians who are funded by them.”
“working people deserve someone who can't be bought”
“Down with billionaires, down with warmongers, and down with the hatred peddled by those in power. Up with the working class, up with the everyday citizen, and up with our newfound solidarity.”
“Aisha believes economic success should be measured by whether it improves people’s lives, not simply by how many jobs it creates.”
“The political and economic system under which we live is built on private ownership and profit at all costs. As capitalism fails to solve problems of its own making, it turns to right-wing authoritarianism. Big business makes deals with the government to line their pockets, and politicians stoke hatred between working people.”
“Our Revolution will reclaim democracy for the working people of our country by harnessing the transformative energy of the “political revolution.””
“Every year, corporate profits hit new highs while our paychecks fall further behind. ... That’s no accident — it’s a deliberate choice made by billionaires, CEOs, and their bought-off politicians.”
“the Progressive Caucus, ... The challenges facing this nation are structural -- and Congress must be deliberate and explicit in dismantling these institutional barriers to prosperity, peace, and justice. ... rejecting incrementalist approaches that fail to deliver urgent transformative change.”
“For the working class to govern, we need a new political system.”
Organizing & Movement-Building as Strategy
“I believe this moment requires leadership with the courage to utilize every organizing tool to deliver our families, including a general strike!”
“Use the full powers of Congress and nonviolent civil resistance including general strikes and mass civil disobedience supported by the highest levels of the Democratic Party to prevent any further efforts by Trump to impose martial law, occupy American cities with military forces or federal agents, usurp Congress's powers, suspend or cancel elections, or refuse to leave office if defeated in 2028”
“we need to build a militant international labor movement to unite all workers”
“Working-class action has stopped wars in the past.”
“It’s not enough to express disapproval. We need Democratic leaders to call for a general strike if Social Security is cut — and I will be the first to do so.”
“These politicians have spent decades doing two things: playing an outdated game of politics that is no longer applicable, and trading our well-being for corporate donations.”
“no one is coming to fix these problems for us”
“We’re witnessing two major political parties that are too entangled in the web of big-money interests to focus on the needs of the poor and working people”
“Our approach Our organization supports locally led organizing because real change won’t come from politicians, but from organized people power.”
“Our nationalized winner-take-all election system collapses our big, diverse country into just two hyper-partisan political parties caught in a doom loop of hatred and gridlock.”
“It is not a given that the people will prevail against today's odds, but if we have a chance, the chance lives in the tenant union.”
“Our enemies are not just individual bosses, but the entire global system of capital; not just this or that cop, judge, or president, but the entire anti-democratic structure of our society.”
“move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights”
“We believe that CWB can democratize our economy from the ground up to build the equitable and sustainable political-economic system we all need.”
Defending Democracy from Authoritarianism
“I will not vote for authoritarian bills in the name of “compromise,” I will not abandon or demonize vulnerable groups to cater to the right, and I will not change my stances for fear of retaliation.”
“Historical antifascist movements all prove the same thing: The only way to properly fight fascism is loudly, proudly, and every single day. And that principle must be upheld by those in public office. This means actually fighting , not just writing letters or wearing matching outfits, like many Democrats did at Trump’s joint address to Congress.”
Opportunities for candidates to address
- what the party out of power can actually do when a president ignores the courts
- what civil servants and soldiers do when handed an unlawful order
- preparing now for an election result the losing side refuses to accept
- political violence, and armed groups turning up to intimidate
- press freedom when broadcasters and reporters face retaliation for coverage
- universities, law firms and nonprofits pressured into going quiet
- what to restore afterward, and what to build so it cannot happen again
Reproductive Justice as Class Politics
“Make no mistake: this is not just an assault on our bodily autonomy — this is class warfare.”
“the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.”
“About access, not choice. Mainstream movements have focused on keeping abortion legal as an individual choice. That is necessary, but not enough.”
“Not just about abortion. Abortion access is critical, and women of color and other marginalized women also often have difficulty accessing: contraception, comprehensive sex education, STI prevention and care, alternative birth options, adequate prenatal and pregnancy care, domestic violence assistance, adequate wages to support our families, safe homes, and so much more.”
“Reproductive Justice always considers the many ways institutions, cultural norms, and systems of oppression exert control over people and their reproductive choices.”
“Young people are at the forefront of transforming how we view Reproductive Justice: how we talk about the intersecting issues surrounding abortion, LGBTQIA+ rights, sexual identities, genders, abilities, and ethnicities.”
— URGE
Intersectionality
“Human sovereignty is the principle that every person has the fundamental right to control their own life, body, beliefs, and future without unnecessary government interference. It is rooted in dignity, personal freedom, and equal protection under the law.”
“Our analysis of Gender Justice focuses on issues that are often left on the sidelines of traditional LGBTQ activism, like looking at issues of incarceration and the prison industrial complex”
“LGBTQ+ people are a part of every community. Our people have distinct needs caused by intersecting manifestations of oppression. We need solutions that address these specific needs and experiences while centering the most marginalized among us... Whether it is immigration, healthcare, reproductive justice, criminal and economic justice, or disability justice, LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately impacted.”
“Center the most marginalized. Our society will not be free until the most vulnerable people are able to access the resources and full human rights to live self-determined lives without fear, discrimination, or retaliation.”
The Future We Want
Opportunities for candidates to address
- what an ordinary week looks like for a family once all of this has passed
- more for everyone and shorter working lives, not only a fairer split
- judging the country by health, time and security rather than by whether total economic output went up
- naming what should replace the current economic system, not only what is wrong with it
- bringing back what has been lost in nature, not just slowing the loss
- saying where the country should be in twenty years, not by the next election
Language & Persuasion
Opportunities for candidates to address
- patriotism and the flag as progressive ground, not the right’s alone
- freedom argued as a progressive idea rather than conceded to the other side
- faith and moral argument made in progressive terms
- persuading people who currently vote the other way
- joy and hope as political strategy rather than decoration
- naming what is happening plainly without sounding like the fight is already lost
Constitutional Reform
Opportunities for candidates to address
- whether the Constitution can still realistically be amended
- a new constitutional convention — who could call one, and who would control it
- putting rights to housing, health care and education in the Constitution, not just in law
- what the Second Amendment actually permits, argued on its own terms
- federal judges serve for life — whether the Constitution actually requires that, or whether fixed terms could be set by statute
- admitting new states, and who decides the shape of the union
Regional Issues
Places, rather than subjects. A quote lands here only when the place is the plank itself — a named shipping law, a named pipeline, a named rail project. Regional issues that argue national policy stay filed under the subject they belong to. The rest of each list is open ground: issues that shape a region's politics that none of the platforms we read takes up.
Territories: Daily Life Under Colonial Status
“Immediately exclude Puerto Rico and Hawaii from Jones Act or require competitive pricing on resident goods to stop crippling their economy and cost of living for residents.”
- Puerto Rico’s status, its debt, and the unelected federal board that controls its budget
- Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas
- territories left out of disability benefits, with Medicaid capped in a way no state’s is
- American Samoans, born on U.S. soil as nationals but not citizens
- territorial and DC delegates who sit in Congress but cannot vote on final passage
- a 1920 law requiring anything shipped between U.S. ports to travel on a U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed ship — which is why groceries cost more on an island
- the military buildup on Guam, and how much of the island it takes
Other Regions
- The South: states refusing Medicaid expansion, failing or absent septic systems in rural Alabama and Mississippi, organizing where workers need not pay dues, black lung and abandoned-mine cleanup, the petrochemical corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, homes no insurer will cover
- Rural & Small-Town America: farmworkers in extreme heat, guest-worker visas that tie a worker to one employer, disappearing rural bus routes, working waterfronts priced out by development
- Tribal Lands: the underfunded federal health system for tribes, water rights promised and still unsettled, reservations without reliable internet or electricity, who may prosecute a crime on tribal land, mining on ceded treaty land and sacred sites
- Cities & Metro Regions: state laws voiding a city’s own minimum wage or tenant protections, Congress overriding Washington DC’s budget, lead pipes still carrying drinking water, the repair backlog in big-city public housing
- Border Communities: the hundred-mile zone where agents may search with less cause, checkpoint deaths and use-of-force review, border settlements lacking water or paved roads, Rio Grande water owed between the U.S. and Mexico, border-wall construction exempted from environmental law and tribal consultation, port-of-entry staffing
Interior West & Great Plains
“Stand with rural communities that depend on public lands for jobs, tourism, and rebalance the PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) formula so that counties with large tracts of public lands are properly funded.”
“Safeguard our public lands and waters, including the more than 1.5 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, from oil and gas development”
- dividing a shrinking Colorado River among seven states, tribes and Mexico
- proposals to hand federal land to the states, and who grazes cattle on it
- wildfire smoke as a health emergency, and what federal firefighters are paid
- abandoned uranium mines, and compensation for people downwind of nuclear tests
- meatpacking towns built on immigrant labor, and the conditions on the line
Midwest & Rust Belt
“Protecting the Great Lakes is not optional. Nearly 40 million people rely on them for drinking water, recreation, tourism, agriculture, and commerce. Diop supports permanently decommissioning Line 5 before another catastrophic spill threatens the Great Lakes and the Straits of Mackinac. ... Diop supports accelerating the retirement of heavily polluting coal-fired power plants, including the Campbell Coal Plant, while ensuring workers and surrounding communities receive the investments needed for a just transition.”
“Indiana leads the nation with over 25,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams. The Grand Calumet River is one of the most contaminated in the entire Great Lakes region. In Kokomo, vinyl chloride in the groundwater has triggered Superfund status.”
- what a company owes when it closes a plant: notice, severance, and whether a buyer inherits the obligation
- what happens to a pension and retiree health coverage when the company goes bankrupt
- cleaning up contaminated industrial land, and who pays when the polluter is gone
- freight rail safety after the Ohio derailment — train length, crew size, inspections
- meatpacking towns in the industrial Midwest, and the conditions on the line
New England
“Build New England Crossrail: Every train from the north and east will flow straight through Boston to the south and west, so you can actually live and work in different parts of the state. You can live on the South Coast and work on the North Shore, or get from Salem to Foxboro or Plymouth to Lowell faster than driving.”
“Build More Housing Near Transit and Jobs: Reward cities and towns that aggressively comply with the MBTA Communities Act, and create tens of thousands of new apartments behind North and South Stations by building New England Crossrail. Legalize Housing by Right: Incentivize states and municipalities to allow new housing, including accessory dwelling units (ADUs).”
- homes heated by delivered oil, and weatherizing them so the bill drops
- building offshore wind without pushing out the fishing fleet
- lobster and cod fisheries moving north as the water warms
- small-town water systems that cannot afford the testing and treatment the law requires
- rail that crosses state lines, and who governs it
Alaska, Hawai‘i & the Pacific
“Mary will fight to invest in and restore funding for Bypass Mail to lower shipping costs for rural Alaska and work to create an Essential Freight Service to bring shipping rates and prices down across the state.”
“In some villages, Alaskans are forced to sleep ten people in a small house. Mary will fight to protect and expand Indian Housing Block Grants to get more homes built in communities that need them.”
- the cost of shipping food and fuel to remote communities
- Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native claims to land and water
- hunting and fishing rights for people who eat what they catch
- collapsing salmon runs, and who gets to fish what is left
- villages that must move as the frozen ground beneath them thaws and the coast erodes
- people from Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, who may live and work here under treaty in exchange for U.S. military use of their waters, yet are cut out of most benefits
Progressive Visionaries
A curated byline honoring the candidates whose platforms contributed the deepest, most distinctive, or most genuinely visionary ideas to this collection.
Some of the candidates we have been tracking did not win their primary. But we encourage you to follow and help the careers and trajectories of these extraordinary people, as they decide upon their next ventures.
Abughazaleh treated a congressional race as community infrastructure rather than a persuasion exercise, running her Rogers Park office as a working mutual aid hub where people could get food, clothing, baby formula, books, coats, and Narcan. Her platform holds up on its own, with a 2% wealth tax above $50 million, a $25 minimum wage indexed to inflation, guaranteed paid family leave and universal childcare, but she is here mainly for what the campaign demonstrated about method.
Since the primary: She kept the Rogers Park office open after the primary as a mutual aid and community events space, and founded Kapow to help candidates across the Midwest build direct community action into their own campaigns, making the organizing model portable to people who were never her constituents.
Bacon wrote one of the deepest platforms in this entire collection, and it reaches subjects most candidates never touch: a proposed Federal AI Safety Administration with licensing for frontier models, the Fair Representation Act's ranked-choice voting and multi-member districts, ICC and Rome Statute accountability, and reform of the Congressional Review Act. She also names the House's frozen 435-seat cap as a representation problem, an argument almost nobody else in the dataset makes.
Booker treats movement-building and organizing tactics, up to and including a general strike, as governing strategy rather than campaign atmosphere. He is here for supplying something the rest of this collection is thin on: an account of how change is forced to happen at all, which is a different question from what any individual policy plank should say.
Dyches writes the most statistic-dense platform in the collection, and he cites primary sources by name, including Executive Order 14318 and the specific NEPA categorical exclusions it creates for data centers. He is here because that habit runs throughout. His Ultra-Millionaire Tax carries real rates and thresholds, and his Cuba embargo plank argues from sixty years of outcomes rather than sentiment.
A former legal aid attorney, Farooqi writes a housing plank that reads like case law rather than campaign copy: breaking up corporate rental monopolies, reining in private equity, right-to-repair legislation. She is here for the rare discipline of tying a demand to a limiting principle. Her AI data center moratorium is scoped to water and energy scarcity, not declared in the abstract.
A citizen of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Harris frames federal policy through Seven Generations stewardship, an actual theory of change rooted in Indigenous political philosophy rather than a list of positions. He is here because that framework does real work: it produces his specifics on AI data centers, portable benefits for gig workers, and SCOTUS ethics, instead of sitting decoratively at the top of the page.
Joyce did not write a platform; she wrote a bill. The MAD Act runs past 650 pages of her own drafting, with real legislative machinery attached: a ban on the government buying personal data from brokers, an Insurrection Act narrowed to lapse after seven days without Attorney General certification, and an Epstein disclosure title naming 75 federal entities, a deadline, and cryptographic verification for every released record. Most candidates name a problem. She wrote the section that would fix it. She is not alone in writing detailed legislation as a candidate: Bernard Taylor, facing an August 18 primary in FL-21, has published five bills as full section-by-section text, and John Williams, the Democratic nominee in KY-01, builds his entire platform out of self-drafted named acts rather than position statements. Joyce is running an uphill challenge to Lateefah Simon, a well-known progressive incumbent, in November.
Kopp built a 76-item A-Z policy list with a real, named mechanism behind nearly every conceivable federal issue: SCOTUS ethics reform, DC statehood, AI data center regulation, limits on mass surveillance, and a disability-benefits fix most platforms never reach. She is here because she paired that much breadth with that much specificity, a combination almost no one else sustained across an entire platform.
Lee's platform is backed by named legislation she authored or championed: the OLIGARCH Act, the Housing FIRST Act, the People's Response Act. She is here as the proof case that visionary and legislatively concrete are not opposites. The same politics that reads as movement rhetoric on the stump exists in her record as bill text with numbers attached.
Rice is structurally ambitious in ways almost no one else attempted: an explicit Economic Bill of Rights, employee-owned cooperatives, a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay, and a dual overturn of both Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo. That last detail is why he is here. Nearly every other candidate stops at Citizens United, and going after Buckley too shows he understands where the doctrine actually originates.
Sanders has spent decades naming the mechanism rather than the goal: the Postal Service pre-funding mandate, the 3%-of-GDP threshold for breaking up banks, the $700M/year infrastructure backlog. He is here because the habit of writing platforms that specify how, and not merely what, is substantially his influence on the genre. A great many of the planks collected on this page are downstream of it.
Terwey makes a blunt class-representation argument, that half the members of the House are millionaires and that this is the problem, and he treats it as the precondition for everything else, reasoning that a body composed this way will not deliver medical access or educational opportunity no matter which policies get proposed. Diagnosing the structural rot behind policy failure, rather than listing more policies, is genuinely rare and is why he is here.
Since the primary: Terwey has kept writing and organizing since the June primary. He was still publishing to his campaign Substack in July 2026, most recently a conversation on resolve, unity, and compassion.
Wilt's distinction is analytical: she refuses to keep issues in separate boxes. She argues reproductive rights as economics outright, not just an assault on bodily autonomy but class warfare, and applies the same move to public safety, treating it as a public health emergency calling for care rather than criminalization. Alongside that sits concrete commitment: a pledge to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus on day one and co-sponsor all ten bills of the New Affordability Agenda, plus an arms embargo on the Israeli military and a defense of pro-Palestine speech against legislative and university crackdowns. She is here because that combination of a unifying class analysis that still lands on specific, nameable asks is uncommon.