Issues
You could call the following “issues” that need addressed, but at their core, they are all basic civil liberties that every human deserves. That is the message I want you to hear from me. That my North Star is pushing for civil rights and freedom for all, especially marginalized groups including trans folks, immigrants, incarcerated people, individuals living with disabilities, and the homeless.
All people need the same basic elements to live well, and the Trump administration is either taking those basic needs away or making them harder to access. You need strong leadership to be bold enough to fight back.
Racial Justice
We cannot talk about trans rights without talking about epidemic violence against black trans women. We cannot talk about reproductive access without talking about the healthcare inequities faced by communities of color. Racism is built into the very foundation of American culture and politics; everywhere we look we see its effect. Minnesota is no different.
We must embrace anti-racist values in every policy and plan we make for the future. No one can thrive, until everyone can thrive.
Reproductive Rights
A nationwide, constitutionally protected right to abortion is gone. We should not pretend otherwise. It ended with Texas, and the Supreme Court is not stepping in to right the ship. Lawmakers in Minnesota are preparing to take away reproductive freedom here.
Protecting access to legal, safe abortion is absolutely necessary. We need to protect the providers we have and increase the number for the future. Minnesota will be the abortion-providing state for the upper Midwest. It’s a privilege to uphold this right that so many women and queer people depend on.
Education
I have seen firsthand with my grade schoolers and their peers the challenges in our education system. Minnesota is dealing with a teacher shortage, which compounds the glaring achievement gaps in student success. Graduation rates have decreased, proficiency rates in math and reading are declining, and, of course, these rates are even lower for marginalized communities. We must do better for future Minnesotans.
Funding
Mental health specialists in every school
Nurses in every school
Social workers in every school
Feed every student at school and at home – extend the opt-in food delivery service started during the COVID-19 pandemic for families that need help
Find ways to streamline/better support families in the IEP and 504 processes
2SLGBTQIA+ Rights
Queer rights are central to my life, my family, my community, and my politics. Minnesota has a strong record of supporting queer residents. But we cannot rest on our history. 2SLGBTQ Minnesotans—especially trans kids and youth—face new and increasingly dangerous threats both locally and nationally. I support solidifying our LGBTQIA+ status, and dedicate myself to creating explicit protections that affirm and support trans and gender non-conforming Minnesotans of all ages. Protecting vulnerable children is not negotiable.
Housing and Work
No work for justice can succeed without essential human dignity: stable housing and meaningful work that pays enough not just to survive, but to thrive. I will fight for the dignity of all neighbors in work and housing.
Protect the right of labor organizing and collective bargaining and stand with workers who strike for better futures.
Oppose Right to Work efforts, and any other anti-union measure
Protect renter rights
Limit landlord ability to raise rents (rent control)
Add new housing
Reform zoning laws so more housing is legal everywhere
Significantly increase the build-out of public and affordable housing using state and local bonding authorities
Protect housing stock for first time buyers
Limit corporate housing purchases and buy-to-rent landlord purchases
Public Safety
Public safety means safety for all. We should reject any system that does not value our black and brown and indigenous and queer and trans and houseless neighbors.
Prioritize public safety for everyone over “traditional” law enforcement that has been ineffective in built atop racist and anti-queer values systems.
Create or expand departments of public safety - work with community-led organizations to make policing less racist and less focused on harming the poor.
Anti-racist trainings, de-escalation trainings, end militarization of police and “warrior trainings”
Fund community-led public safety systems that work with residents and organizers in determining specific needs for different areas that view police as an option rather than the answer.
Reduce our reliance on armed officers, send mental health or EMT responders when appropriate.
Holding cops accountable by ending qualified immunity and giving departments more power to fire repeat offenders.
Ban no-knock warrants and other ‘act-first’ policing tactics.
Direct priority for police away from making life harder for our neighbors in poverty, away from harassing black and queer people, and away from low level drug offense.
End pretextual stops
I recognize fully that the legislature must work with municipal and county governments, which are the heart of where police decisions are made.
Mental Health
Our kids are suffering epidemic levels of stress and anxiety. And so are their parents. Young people are panicking over a future of economic uncertainty, climate despair, anxiety and depression. Children are growing up running active-shooter drills in schools that have them waiting for inevitable violence. These levels of stress and overwhelm are unsustainable.
Civil Liberties
Our constitutional civil liberties must be protected from increasing risks being created by rightwing religious conservatism. Our rights to vote, to marry, to adopt are at risk. Our freedom of and from religion are teetering.
Protect and expand LGBTQ rights, special focus on protecting students from discrimination in school and sports
Ensure legal equality for women and queer people by passing the Equal Rights Act.
Protect the right to vote expand to those who’ve lost their voting rights due to arrest
End solitary confinement in prisons
Protect the separation of religion and state, hold ALL abusers and organizations that protect abusers accountable.
Further expunge marijuana convictions
Gun Violence
Gun violence in America is not inevitable. It is preventable if we find the political will to fix it.
Lift up, and fund organizations dedicated to ending partner violence, sex-trafficking, stalking, and more
Pass red flag laws with teeth, to ensure that those with violent domestic pasts are not able to purchase deadly weapons
Ban the sale of semi automatic rifles.
Ban the sale of high-capacity magazines, specialty bullets, and other mods that only serve to make deadly weapons more efficient.
Fight to keep guns out of public spaces
Healthcare
Without healthcare, access to safe and equitable medical care is impossible. Abortion is a matter of equal rights, and women and queer people must have access to safe and legal abortion if we are going to participate equally across society.
LGBTQ-specific medical care is necessary for queer people to live full and satisfying lives. Transition related healthcare for trans and nonbinary people of all ages must be protected.
Climate Change
Climate change is not a policy problem, it is a moral failing on a scale that we have only barely begun to understand. I will make decarbonization a framework for all of my work at the capitol.
Push strict climate regulations on existing fossil fuels generation.
Build lots of renewable energy
New transmission capacity to facilitate new renewable development (only renewable, no piggybacking)
Housing density, comprehensive communities, housing with energy efficiencies that are affordable for renters on working wages
Reduction of vmt – increased funding for, development of, and planning around public transit, bike/walk/roll
De-carbonization of vehicle fleets - electrification of any municipal fleets not yet transitioned
Bike lanes that go places people want to go!
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