ON THE ISSUES

HEALTHCARE

Minnesotans deserve affordable health care, but many are struggling to access the care they need, when they need it. Many in our community are suffering the consequences of an inadequate and costly health care system. Drug corporations, medical institutions, insurance companies, and Wall Street all extract unreasonably high profits, while our neighbors are forced into poverty and bankruptcy. 

We must stop prioritizing profit over people. I support the sustainable transition to a single-payer healthcare system. I am proud to be the Chief Author of the Minnesota Health Plan in the Minnesota House. To lay the infrastructure for single-payer, we should open MinnesotaCare to anyone who wants it and have the state directly contract with providers, moving insurance companies out of the equation and drastically reducing administrative costs. 

Finally, patients are put at risk when the labor of health care workers is not valued and they are subjected to inadequate pay and heavy workloads. We must invest in urban, suburban, and rural communities, in long-term care, and in ending the opioid crisis. Our work must include the protection of Native sovereignty and serve all people, regardless of age, race, class, gender identity, sexual identity, or disability. Minnesota essential and healthcare workers deserve the safeguarded right to organize without interference, to have high-quality jobs, good wages, strong benefits, and manageable workloads.

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

We have an economy that is growing on paper but no longer delivering better jobs for average workers. At the heart of the problem is our broken labor law system which oftentimes prevents workers from bargaining for a fair share of economic gains. With the decline of manufacturing and unionization, we have seen a decline in the number of workers who have access to high-quality, full-time jobs with benefits and protections.

Job growth has instead been concentrated in unprotected, low-wage industries, like retail and care work. Cuts to workplace regulations and the lack of enforcement for existing regulations have left fewer and fewer workers protected, while the minimum wage and other protections have stagnated for decades. The gap between corporate CEOs and their employees gets wider every day.

As a labor attorney, I’ve seen how corporations have benefitted when workers were productive. I have also seen that those benefits are not shared equally — or sometimes at all — resulting in stagnating wage rates. We need to raise the minimum wage in our state to at least $15 an hour, indexed to inflation.  We also need to expand collective bargaining opportunities, focusing on workers' rights including earned sick and safe time and access to affordable childcare. We need to create a new legal architecture that will empower workers, and enable them to play a more expansive role in our economy and democracy. Under a boldly re-envisioned labor law system, worker’s rights to bargain need expansion, encompassing sectoral and community-wide standards. When collective action gets stronger and better-protected, workers can stand up for their right to dignity at work, fair wages, and safe workplaces, and bargain without fear of losing their livelihood.

We should end the exclusion of many low-wage workers - including domestic workers, farmworkers, gig economy workers, many of whom are workers of color - from employment and labor rights and expand these rights for all workers. Working people should have the right to organize unions free from corporate interference and to build better lives for themselves and their families.

Public safety

I currently serve as the vice-chair of the House Public Safety committee. It is an honor to be trusted with advocacy, awareness, and direct legislative action around ensuring all Minnesotans feel safe in their communities. In 2021, our committee intentionally brought together all stakeholders to craft our bill which invested $2.6 billion in public safety and included several important policy reforms. We were also able to push for $15 million in COVID-19 relief money to go towards community violence prevention grants.

EDUCATION

Education is a cornerstone of our state, but long-standing patterns of racial and economic segregation have led to severe inequities in public education. Decades of funding cuts have eroded public education for all, and continue to drive inequality between our communities, especially due to education funding being based on property taxes. These challenges are intensified by the push to privatize our public education. Privatizers blame teachers for shortfalls in public education, but the real problem has been the widespread and intentional defunding of our public education system which has undermined our educational infrastructure.

I am committed to closing the opportunity and achievement gaps to ensure public education remains a breeding ground for future leaders, regardless of their economic and racial background. It is crucial that we fully fund our public schools so that our school districts do not have to return to voters every election to increase their operating levy, all in the name of simply trying to stay afloat. Additionally, we must pursue innovative solutions that are known to make a difference, including full-service community schools, expand early learning and pre-K, decrease the counselor-to-pupil ratio, improve on the quality of special education, ensure our teaching workforce reflects the diversity of our state, and make sure schools are teaching culturally relevant curriculums. My experience working with Education Minnesota has helped me build relationships with educators across our community and the broader state who work tirelessly to advocate on behalf of our students for a world-class education in the classroom.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

Our current system of mass incarceration was built on racism. Our prison pipeline disproportionately impacts Black, Brown, and Native communities. Mass incarceration is facilitated by the unchecked power of local prosecutors, and by a racially biased judicial system. Rather than treating poverty, mental illness, addiction, and homelessness as social problems to be addressed through social programs, these conditions have been criminalized and punished.

I started my career as an attorney in the Hennepin County criminal court system. I believe we can build truly safe communities through restorative justice, harm reduction, treatment, and real investments in our communities. We will foster programs that can repair and restore the historic harms caused by genocide and enslavement that surface as modern-day inequities, particularly in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

HOUSING

Housing is a basic human right. Many poor and working families in Minnesota- whether in cities, suburbs, or small towns - simply don’t have a decent place to live. There are children in Minnesota sleeping without a roof over their heads. We need to build relationships and provide local governments with the resources and tools to eradicate unsheltered homelessness and bring an end to housing instability once and for all.

Minnesota urgently needs to expand programs that allow senior citizens to stay in their own homes. As development increases around the state, communities must have a more binding say on the types of housing that developers create. Working together, we can implement stronger eviction-prevention programs and increase legal representation to ensure more people can stay in their homes.

Finally, Minnesota must explore creating rent stabilization programs that prevent rapid rent increases from year to year. This pandemic, more than ever, showed us the importance of investment in programs that protect families from eviction and exploitation. We can not end homelessness if we don’t prevent it first.

GENDER EQUITY

We need to close the pay gap between men and women, as well as the significant intersectional pay gap between white women and women of color. The devaluation and invisibilization of women’s labor are not the only gender equity problem faced. Women endure persistent violence and control over their bodies and their relationships, through both systemic and interpersonal violence.

We must guarantee women and other marginalized identities access to reproductive rights, equal opportunity for economic success, and an end to gendered violence and harassment.

LGBTQ+

While Governor Walz’s ban on conversion therapy was an incredible step towards equality for our LGBTQ+ neighbors, there is more work to be done. Right now, the ability of transgender Minnesotans to access the care they need depends on what their insurance will cover. It is our job as lawmakers to continue to fight for coverage for all Minnesotans regardless of gender identity. I am committed to fighting for our transgender community members through new protective legislation and the opposition to any effort that discriminates against and dehumanizes LGBTQ+ Minnesotans, like the “bathroom bills” we have seen in states across the country dictating who can use public restrooms, or which one of our children can participate in school sports.

ENVIRONMENT

Climate change is a fundamental threat to our state and addressing it must be a top priority if we want our children and their children to have a liveable planet in the coming years. We must act as stewards of their future by safeguarding the health of our natural ecosystems. Acting on climate change means emphasizing the reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions, with attention focused on carbon dioxide that is produced when fossil fuels are burned. It is time to build a pathway to a 100% clean energy standard in Minnesota by the year 2040 at the latest. That pathway includes equitably expansion of mass transit, both in scope and in types of transit available (more bike lanes, promoting a transition to electric vehicles, etc). We must also ensure that transit is as safe as possible to reduce bike and automobile fatalities as we expand the transportation sector.

Our environment is our greatest resource. We must hold corporate polluters and heavy carbon emitters accountable and oppose all projects that are contrary to the preservation and protection of our valuable resources, such as air and water.

Finally, transitioning to a green energy economy will take close consultation between the state and organized labor to ensure that we do not pull the rug out from under those that are currently employed in the legacy power sector. A smooth and fair transition will require us to design and implement training programs to help these workers integrate into the green energy jobs sector.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Over the past 30 years, federal and state governments have slashed public education spending, and the cost of higher education has outpaced inflation by nearly 400 percent. Scholarships and financial aid have dwindled under austerity measures, while education profiteers - private loan providers, hedge funds, and a federal government increasingly controlled by the wealthy elite - exploit low-income students and students of color, who carry a disproportionately large amount of student loan debt.

I support free higher education at all Minnesota public colleges and universities as well as expanded access to career and technical education that will help people get into well-paying, in-demand career fields.

Voting rights

We need to strengthen our democratic institutions to ensure every citizen can exercise their right to vote and trust that it will be accurately counted. Mass incarceration makes democratic participation impossible for over 50,000 Minnesotans, particularly in communities of color, who are denied the right to vote even after serving their time. These are people who live with their families, work, pay taxes, contribute to our economy, and still are denied a fundamental aspect of being a proud American- their right to vote. To truly have a representative democracy, we need to restore the vote to folks who have had their voting rights stripped away as a result of their criminal record. My bill this past legislative session, House File 876, would restore the voting rights to Minnesotans once they have completed their term of incarceration.

REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM

I am pro-choice and will always work and fight to protect reproductive freedom and choice for all Minnesotans. The bodily autonomy of a person should never be up for negotiation. In my service to you, I will emphasize the pursuit of reproductive justice for women of color, trans folks, and women living in low-wealth communities, all disproportionately impacted and overlooked in the movement for just and accessible reproductive health care. Choice is not tangible if you do not have access. We need to ensure that where there is choice, there is also access to affordable contraception, women’s health clinics, and abortion services. 

I have three daughters. My message to them has always been that they should have the right to make decisions about their body and health. The job of the government is to protect that autonomy. As a lawmaker, I will ensure that my daughters and many other community members preserve their reproductive freedom. 

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Gun violence prevention is a personal issue to me. Growing up on the south side of Chicago, I lost an uncle and childhood friend to gun violence. Young people across the nation have demonstrated leadership and demand to tackle gun violence through legislative policy, which has led to incredible progress. In particular, I remember March 20, 2018, when 20,000 Minnesotans, most of them young, marched on the State Capitol in St. Paul and demanded common-sense solutions to end the high rate of mass shootings in our nation.

In 2005, Minnesota made headlines with a mass shooting that disproportionately impacted an Indigenous American community in Red Lake. This tragedy claimed the same amount of lives lost to the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting. It is unconscionable and disheartening that our legislature still hasn’t passed a meaningful gun violence prevention bill through both chambers. 

I am a strong supporter of extreme risk protection orders, universal background checks on firearms, a ban on assault weapons, and a longer mandatory waiting period for firearm purchases. We need to move the gun lobby - the NRA - out of our politics to make way for meaningful gun legislation that protects our children and families.

TRANSPORTATION

Equitable planning and expansion of mass transit will provide access to jobs and housing while significantly lowering carbon emissions. In the next legislative session, I plan to continue my work to get the Metro Blue Line LRT extension completed. It is long overdue and has faced unacceptable setbacks at each level of government. Having a direct line from our district to other communities allows residents of the northwest suburbs to reduce our carbon footprint, gain access to increased job opportunities, and lower the financial burden of transportation around the Twin Cities efficiently.

CANNABIS

The time has come to legalize adult-use cannabis. We need to properly regulate the industry and build a system to expunge the records of people incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses and help transition them back into our communities. Furthermore, the only way to ensure an equitable and just cannabis industry is to prioritize sale and permit access for communities victimized by the war on drugs. Taking an affirmative approach to the cannabis industry will ensure Minnesota does not breed more economic inequality. 

However, we need to also protect local control by ensuring that the legislature respects communities that want to opt out of adult-use cannabis sales. Finally, as with any labor sector, we must create an infrastructure where individuals working in the cannabis industry can unionize and collectively bargain with their employers. 

INFRASTRUCTURE

Minnesota’s crumbling infrastructure is putting our safety at risk. A recent report found that there are more than 1,000 Minnesota bridges and hundreds of miles of roads that are in poor condition. These conditions are costing the average Minnesotan more than $1,000 a year in gas, lost time, and car repairs. Worse, it could cost lives if we don’t make infrastructure a priority in the legislature. We can not afford another tragedy like the 35W bridge collapse. In Minnesota, we remember our history and need to do better to prevent the next one. 

Minnesotans expect our transportation system to be safe, modern, and efficient. Unless we make serious investments now, the increased risks of driving on the roads will only continue to get worse. Our state finances our highway system almost entirely by constitutionally dedicated user fees such as a gas tax, license tabs, and motor vehicle sales tax. The current gas tax sets a 28.5 cent tax on every gallon purchased, which raises $925.7 million a year. Although an incredibly small tax, it’s still not enough to sustain Minnesota’s vast transportation system. The state is struggling due to the growing cost of road repairs surpassing revenues from the current gas tax. Revenues have been stagnant because total gas consumption was flat over the past 12 years. We’re driving less and using more fuel-efficient cars. While these are positive trends, if drivers are not purchasing more gasoline, we must level gas tax rates to maintain current revenues.

I support Governor Walz’s Gas Tax proposal, which would raise the gas tax by a nickel per year for four years for a 70% total increase from the current tax rate. 

As a former city council member, I've seen firsthand how important state funding can be for local projects. I’ll work closely with our local governments to make sure we can get funding for the projects that our communities need to be safe on the roads.